EXCLUSIVE Interview with Lynette Chandler of BlogEnergizer

Lynette Chandler of BlogEnergizerToday’s post is the first interview ever at Blogging For dot Info. You see, I came across an e-mail recently, from Lynette Chandler, the team leader over at Blog Energizer.com, who offered to write any blog an interview and I accepted. So I sent in my questions and received them a few days ago.

There’s another thing, not only is this interview offered freely but it comes with a challenge for all bloggers who have taken the initiative to ask. So the blog whose interview get’s the most vote will win cool prizes. I ask that you, my dear readers, vote for me in this challenge. Just go on over to http://blogenergizer.com/teip-vote/ and vote!

What is BlogEnergizer?

BlogEnergizer

This program is a service that provides bloggers with the materials they need to keep readers engaged on their blog. Some of these cool features include:

  • quality freebies
  • people who will gladly blog for you as a guest
  • people who want to interview and feature you
  • coupons and discounts
  • contests and activities

This is great especially for bloggers who find they get stuck in the content creation process and with that may run into the trouble of letting their blog become inactive. Thus, by inputting in your name and e-mail address you can get FREE access to the resources for blogging that comes with a 2010 blogging calendar, 12 buzz topics you should be blogging about right now, blogging planner, 18 traffic generating activities and other ways to gain readers by thinking outside the box. Overall, Blog Energizer makes it a mission to help you with your blogging endeavor.

You’ll learn more about this great program today as I’m going to ask:

  • What is the purpose of Blog Energizer?
  • How has it helped bloggers?
  • What kind of topics do you provide members?
  • How often does your information go out?
  • What types of memberships do you have available?

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the interview.

BlogEnergizer logo

Thu: What is the purpose of Blog Energizer? Please explain how this service provides value to someone who have not heard of it before.

Lynette: Blog Energizer is a service to help bloggers find things to blog about and also get recommended to other bloggers. We do a lot of things but here’s an explanation of the key areas.

Basic members (and membership is free) will receive information about ebooks, reports, software, printables, checklists and more that they can freely put up on their blogs for their readers. This can be helpful especially when you are in a time crunch or when you really want to give something away without having to spend any money. Readers usually love freebies too.

Sometimes we also find information about who is looking out for guest bloggers, people to interview or who wants to guest blog for others and we share that so members get the opportunity to get guests, shake up their blog, get relief from coming up with more content and also to gain exposure.

Premium members also enjoy 90 blogging prompts every single month. Along with these topic ideas, we also provide information how to pair up the post with a product or service and thus monetizing the post. This is usually very helpful for new or even intermediate bloggers who are learning the ropes of blogging and selling with their content.

Thu: How has it helped bloggers? Case studies. If you can provide sites which have effectively used the information given or a community which has successfully implement the resources that would be great.

Lynette: You know what? You remind me we need to do a better job keeping track what our members get from us. We do know from what Premium members tell us, they have used the prompts to help their clients get into the habit of blogging and cultivate the skill of weaving products into their content.

We also received information from another Premium member who asked members who have a certain type of blog to send them their URLs because she was planning a commenting campaign. She received really good response to that. Saved her a bunch of time and gave her a good starting point to begin her campaign.

I am also planning some new things which is part of the reason for this Interview Project. While I can’t give out too much yet, I do want us to organize more things where we can all leverage our community, work together for each other’s benefit.

Thu: What kind of topics do you provide members? This will help explain to readers what they will receive.

Lynette: Premium members get 30 prompts in three major topics which are Health and fitness, Home and family and Business. For basic members, it seems we attract similar bloggers, those who write about family, home, health, food and of course business, solo entrepreneurship. So the resources we find and ideas we suggest tend to lean in that direction.

Thu: How often does your information go out? I want to know the frequency so that my readers will know when to expect news and updates, if it’s daily, weekly, monthly or random.

Lynette: All members get an email weekly and Premium members get their prompts every month in addition to that. If we find something really, really good and is time sensitive we may send them out in between, but we do not bombard our members with a lot of extra emails.

Thu: What types of membership do you have available? Any details about the levels and the incentives involve will help a lot! Thanks.

Lynette: We have two levels. Basic is free and Premium is a super affordable $10 a month. Basic members get information about blogging resources, who’s holding contests, who’s looking for guests and vice versa, who is having deals – many of whom have affiliate programs too so if members want to, they can join their affiliate program.

Premium members receive their monthly prompts with monetization suggestions. We also have a spot where they can quickly check up on what are the hot topics of the day so if they are looking for something ‘hot’ to write about they’ll be able to see what’s the buzz and ride that wave. Also, we like to highlight Premium members’ resources so if they come up with a free download, share-able item or are looking for guests or wanting to be guests we do our best to put their resource first.

This interview is part of a challenge so I hoped you enjoyed it as much as I had asking it. If you find my efforts worthwhile, why not go on over to http://blogenergizer.com/teip-vote/ and vote for me. Thank you so much for helping me find valuable information to share with you.

Filed Under: Relationships Tagged With: , , , ,

Keep Track of Your Brain Dumpings with the Evernote Program (REVIEW)

I’ve decided to join the crowd who organizes their workflow. Reason being I’m going to need my mind more than ever when I’m attempting the 1000 Articles For 100 Days Challenge. So recently with some time spent doing research around the net, I did a little digging around on what organizational software was out there that could help me brain dump my ongoing list of answered questions.

Some of the things I will be looking for is:

  • the program’s ability to organize my notes.
  • tracking of the articles, blog posts written.
  • usage across many platforms – browsers, phone and third party social networks.

So when I found Evernote, I was amaze at it’s features and best of all, the FREE version works just as good as the premium. The only difference is there is a monthly allowance of 40 megabytes for uploading your notes. Each month your quota then resets back to 40M.

Now that doesn’t mean you’ll lose everything. It just means you can only upload up to the maximum allowed space. Anymore that, it will have to wait until the next month. So if you’re going to work on a lot of text then this won’t be a problem but if you save a lot of pictures, it might be better to get a premium account.

As I’m planning to lean more towards the iPad movement, I needed something which will allow me to transition my notes for later. This program lets me do that and more. As a downloadable executable file, you can install the program on a Windows, Mac or Web clipper environment.

The file is about 40+M and the version which I acquired up to today’s post was 3.5.5.2672. During the time it was being downloaded, I thought it would be a good idea to glance over the User’s Guide which if you’re a Windows user can be downloaded here (right-click and save).

Some of the features which I found note-worthy:

  • capturing can be done through the browser, your handwriting, pictures and text.
  • tags can be inserted into your notes for searches when you need them.
  • notebooks can be made for each topic and synchronized with Evernote’s online network for access anywhere
  • exporting of notebooks is possible for shares or backup as an Evernote file or HTML
  • imports can be done from Evernote files or Microsoft OneNote 2007 files
  • saving of your notes are done automatically
  • deleted notes stay in the trash until you empty it permanently
  • if you’re sending notes from your iPhone, Android or cell which has the Evernote application, the latitude/longitude is recorded
  • notes can be written just like in Notepad from Windows
  • a to-do checklist or table can be made
  • ink notes are much more pretty but works just the same as regular notes, also with a writing pad if synchronized
  • multimedia notes can be made from JPG, PDF, WAV, PNG, GIF and AMR for free users through drag and drop or importing folders
  • merging of notes is possible
  • sharing can be done through e-mail, the program or online
  • mass synchronization across platforms – i.e. phones, network or computer

I decided to document the experience and share it with you below. The overall walk-through is from what happens after installation to how I’ve used the program to help me organized my research. I hope it will serve you well in deciding if this program might also be right for your needs.

After Installation

Evernote taskbar iconYou’ll notice that Evernote is positioned below in your taskbar when you need to create a new note, screen clip or clip a text selection via the green elephant logo. Thus, the first screen you’ll see is one with the quick introduction video and the sign-in form. At this point you need to register an account. Do this through clicking on Get a free Evernote account now.

Then here are things you need to input:

Evernote RegistrationSimple as that, your account is created and you’ll see the program load with the Welcome notes. This will be positioned to your right by default but you can adjust the way it looks from the list, mixed or thumbnail view buttons above. As you can see, I’ve already went ahead and clipped some notes online.

Evernote interior

Notebooks Keep You Organized

Evernote’s ability to help me organize my notes through notebooks are a godsend as I can create a new topic and then drop off my research in each. Through the program’s integration with my taskbar, I can use keyboard shortcuts to help me clip my next note through my browser. Then drop off the URL I want associated with it and continue on to my next note.

Evernote folders

The learning curve for using this program is so easy, you’ll find yourself thinking of creative ways to gather your next notes. As I’ve started to think about topics which I wanted more items to drop off in, it be quite addictive. Thus, the creative in you can spark.

Keep in mind, when you do go on a rampage with your bookmarks, saving a thumbnail of the logo, person’s image or product might help you remember more of what the item is about. You might also want to write a short description of what you saved. For myself personally, this software is a great bookmarking saver. I haven’t yet ventured into taking the notes for a spin yet as I’ve been utilizing Google Docs for that.

Overall, I can now see why legions of users are infatuated with this piece of software. Once you get it going, it can be addictive. It’s attractive design and easy usability makes for it a great tool for your organizing needs. Plus, this eliminates the division of bookmarks which our browsers are currently set to do. Not only that, Evernote helps us integrate everything together online, on our mobile phone and on our computer.

Download Evernote from the product developer’s website and try it today.

What do you think? Have your tried Evernote? Share your thoughts below.

Filed Under: Performance Tagged With: , , ,

Your Feedback is Needed For This New FREE Report

A friend called me a few days ago and asked for a write up on building a website. I then asked her ‘what will it be for?’ Depending on her answer I can then give her an honest feedback. However she said that it’s something she wants to go home and try learning herself.

So I continued and said that it’ll take more than signing up and writing a post. That’s because if she wants something that will be her flagship to express herself as well as monetize down the line, she’s going to have to know more than e-mail. It means learning a new way of working online as well.

With that, in under an hour I wrote up a 10 page report to give to her to go through. Afterward, more eyes were needed for feedback. So I asked my husband as well as my younger brother to critique it. They liked it and said it was short and sweet but still something is missing.

The Audience

I want you to keep in consideration of the audience here who knows nothing about CSS, HTML nor blogs, yet they’re eager to know what it takes to start a website and have their own content to put up. Also down the line, advertising might be something which can be added. Overall, they have no online experience in syndicating content through any system on the internet.

Now I need your help. I want to share this short document with you as it reads like a regular post in under 1500 words … minus the formatting. I ask that you my dear readers give me your honest opinion and feedback. This will help me with what I put out in the future.

If you have written your own report, please share that too!

If it’s possible, I’d like to compile all the minds which have thought about writing up their own report to give to someone close that has no idea what the psychology nor the commitment it takes to run a website. Thus, who knows. This could be part of a future mailing list of ebooks I’ll put out.

What do you think? We can both win.

Why I Didn’t Refer To Another Product

Contrary to what I normally do online, in the real world, asking someone you know to download a FREE report is tougher than you think. If they don’t run their own website nor read digital reports online, what makes you think they’ll download something you’ll recommend?

Trust me, I’ve tried this on Facebook until it seems like I’m advertising too much so I turned off the blog post updates and created a fan page which does it for this blog alone. Another thing is, printing it out and letting it be picked up is already a process which contributes to wasting paper. So even if someone does download your work, the digital copies may be sitting on the hard drive for who knows how long. Thus, have they ever read through your report?

I will follow-up with my friend soon and ask what she thought about the short report. I’d like to do the same with you by asking you to leave a comment and any link for a reference or your own of the same topic which is what to consider if you want to start your own website. Also if it’s opted-in specify so. The more information the better.

Think of this as FREE advertising for you. What report do you have which you have compiled on starting a website, blog or writing content? It can include the technical side, making money online as well as personal experiences. Keep in mind, the reader knows nothing of programming nor running a website so your report has got to be simple. That’s almost like saying to keep in mind that it’s written with a student who’s in elementary school.

Overall, this experiment will be a learning experience. Most importantly it will be one which will help me help you create more useful information in the future. Entitled 5 Things To Consider If You Want To Start Your Own Website, at under 10 pages and really simple to read, it doesn’t go too much into the technical processes behind website building or installation. I made it to be read by a relative or close friend.

5 Things to Consider FREE report

Download the FREE Report (right-click to save to your hard drive or read in your browser). There is no opt-in whatsoever. Yes, that’s how serious I am about your thoughts.

Let me know what you think! Share any suggestions you may have below. If you have a report on website building, you may also share you link below as well with information of the title and if it’s through opt-in.

Thanks so much for your help!

Thu Nguyen

Filed Under: Performance Tagged With: ,

How to Get Those First Stars For Your Profile in Helium

I’ve written several articles so far and the way it works on Helium is through a rating system of which you are subjected to after you write an article. If this is your first time reading this blog, I’m in the 1000 Articles in 100 Days Challenge and I’ve been documenting my progress as well as sharing tips, knowledge and personal thoughts on the service so far.

Consider looking through the other articles in this series:

So far, it began to occur to me, how I write is very similar to how I rate. So when I see the formatting of the article in a clear, concise manner which lets me read through the material and understand better what is within, it gets my vote.

I mentioned in the previous article how I’ve accomplished my first written piece towards the throngs of rating hell. It seems that helped me more than I thought. It brought to my attention a standard which I’ll adopt for the articles I will write later on. Thus, read about what NOT to do when writing your Helium articles.

On the other hand, here are some ways which you can do to format your articles better:

  • Break down your paragraphs into shorter sentences.
  • Make your first few sentence stand out by hooking them!
  • Break your thoughts into smaller sections.
  • Tell the story but get to the point, don’t give in to too much story telling.

This absolutely makes it easier for raters who will read your articles as the ratings will be fitted into a magazine style form along with another for you to compare. The process can go through more than a dozen so to get the best rate, impression means everything.

Helium Rating Articles
Tips to Find Great Writing Titles

For every title you may be interested in, there are related titles which may give you a similar choice in variation of the same topic. The good thing is there may be less competition here. So consider that when you’re exploring around for things to write about. You’ll find this section normally on the right side column. This makes Helium’s environment with writing more easier because you already got the title and finding more choices within the same page will help with future brainstorming. In the end, the only thing you need to do is write.

Helium related articles

Another way to find writing titles is during the rating process. As you rate, keep track of titles you want to write more about. You’ll be surprise how much they fair yet if you can provide better, do a search and take it away! I was able to find many using the related titles method. Thus, make it a habit to constantly add titles which you can write about. This is kind of like building your writing portfolio. The earlier you start, the better you will fair in the long run.

Next, join a contest! Most contests are loaded with title presets which will be judged by the number of points or ratings that have been voted through by the writers of Helium. I found myself tying 1st and 2nd place on certain parts of the day. I don’t know if the weekend brings in more votes but the more you’re able to contribute to the titles within the contest, the more points you’ll receive. Overall, there are usually 20 titles so writing about half or more of that will secure you a posititon until the deadline.

The prizes are normally:

  • $50 first place
  • $30 second place
  • $10 third place

It wouldn’t hurt to try your hand at competing with other writers in the Helium marketplace and get a badge for winning one too if you come out strong. The deadlines should be posted in the main writing contest page. From there you might want to glance at where you are on the leaderboard if you want to come out strong.

Helium contest leaderboard

As points are calculated daily from ratings, seeing if you need to write more or leapfrog, which means fix an article for better ratings, might help you track where you’re at in the contest. Just remain consistent, motivated and positive throughout the writings and you’ll come out well.

Last but not least, check your Earnings and Payments page to see what categories are performing well and how much more you’re getting paid for with your writing. You’ll be surprise to see what you should spend your time on and what not to. While it really depends on the competition and advertisers, keeping track of your efforts will help you with a better habit towards making money online for the future.

How Your First Star Can Be Achieved

Here are the criteria for gaining a your first writing star:

  • Write over 4 articles.
  • Come out either 1 of the 5 in rank.

Basically write 4 articles and try to get it ranked 1st or 2nd on your first day. Then there will be a yellow star next to your profile the next day. What you’ll also notice is you’ll received the Marketplace Approved Writer badge as well. This lets you take your writing further to explore more paid opportunities. As it takes over 24 hours to calculate the activity inside Helium’s system, giving it enough ample time to put it all in rating the points together will give you a percentage of your writing’s ranking.

Once those articles are published, make sure you spend some time rating other articles. This is crucial to the system as it shows if you’re participating online or are only there to make money. It will be pretty obvious what your motive is if you don’t even it out. Take a moment and rate the articles to help writers write their topic better. No doubt you’ll notice that they’ll be a blue star under your profile picture in the next calculated day.

Helium credentials

No matter how you fair, continue to write. While it seems that the penny which you get for each day your article is presented online, think of the compound effect rather than the labor which makes the work not worthy of your time. You want to think about passive income and that’s what Helium can provide if you work at it in terms of following the system’s earning criteria in giving it explosive amounts of material to rate.

    Have you heard of Helium? What are your thoughts on this article?

    Filed Under: Performance Tagged With: , , ,

    Nicholas Cardot’s Dagaloo Social Community REVIEW

    Dagaloo logo

    It seems getting yourself the tweets, diggs, stumbles and even likes is all the craze as of recent in the ongoing challenges which are coming this blog’s way. I can’t deny that social bookmarking is the key to getting yourself heard. TGIF Links definitely got me clued in on that. Now Nicholas Cardot over at Site Sketch 101 talks about Dagaloo.

    What is Dagaloo?

    Dagaloo banner 2

    As you’re building your presence online, one of the main streams of communication which continuously brings in traffic is your social networks. Dagaloo makes it possible through a community where the main platform which you’re sharing content with comes directly from Twitter. Not only that, Dagaloo allows you to pass along content which in turns help other Twitter users get themselves heard.

    Twitter and KloutThe model is as you share your tweets on someone else’s link, another will do the same for you. Overtime you’ll earn points which are 95% of the points you already got on Klout to greatly increase your influence. So the more influence you have, the more you will be able to assign them to links you want others to retweet on.

    How to Use Dagaloo

    Joining Dagaloo is easy. All you need to do is let the program sign in with your Twitter account. Then allow the Dagaloo social community to connect. This will then redirect you back to the main site where you’ll see at the top a few buttons:

    dagaloo login

    Below the same screen is the recent activity in the network:

    Dagaloo activity

    When you click on Browse and Share you’ll be redirected within the network to a framed page view. This is where you start browsing the pages which have been submitted in the network. The most prominent thing you’ll notice is, there’s a visible toolbar with some vital information on top of your browser displaying:

    • Dagaloo’s logo
    • Title of the shared page
    • Who the page was submitted by
    • How many pages viewed total
    • How many tweets this user has made
    • Your point balance

    Across from that same toolbar to the right, you’ll see:

    • Share & Earn
    • Next
    • Thumbs down icon
    • Logout

    dagaloo toolbar

    Here is a description of how each function works:

    • Share & Earn – clicking on this button will display a title for you to tweet. If you like it, go ahead and click on Tweet. You’ll earn 4 points and another page will load for you to review.
    • If you don’t want to tweet a page, all you have to do is click on Next and view another page.
    • For the extreme where you don’t want to view a certain page, click on the thumbs down icon. This will ensure you won’t see this page again. Cases like these might be when you don’t want to see a commercial site or sales page.
    • When you’re ready to leave the network, clicking on Logout will no longer let you go to the next page. You have to log back in order to Share & Earn.
    • At any time you want to return back to the main page, clicking on the Dagaloo logo to your far left will bring you back home.

    Submitting Your Site For Sharing

    If you have logged in already, clicking on My Profile will take you to your account settings where you’re shown a couple of things:

    • The top section where you can input in your:
      • Content Title
      • URL
      • Points assigned to share (you’re given 250 to start)
      • Category of share
    • The bottom section where you can purchase more points for sharing. Payments are accepted through Paypal and the prices are:
      • 100 Points for $3.50
      • 250 Points for $7.50
      • 500 Points for $14
      • 1000 Points for $25

    Dagaloo settings

    The Shares inside Dagaloo

    Most of the pages will be from the blogging niche as the network is still young, you’ll find ebooks, themes, products and personal sites to review. I haven’t yet found anything that is worth thumbs down so the more users try it, the more the pages will become diverse.

    It seems there are still glitches in the programming as I’ve encountered a few SQL errors and some frame breaks. Contact Dagaloo’s support or just leave a comment on Site Sketch 101 and Nicholas will get it fixed.

    Overall, I’m a big fan of Nicholas’ work from his site to his ebook which I have purchased. I hope to see more users contribute something in which we can share thoughts, retweets and gain points just for browsing through blog pages.

    Check out Dagaloo and see what creative spurts you can contribute to share with your Twitter community online. The service is FREE so the more you share, the more you earn but best of all you’re getting the traffic you need.

    What’s your thoughts on Dagaloo? Is it something you can dig? Share your thoughts.

    Filed Under: Relationships Tagged With: , , ,
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