Mike's Blog Adventure

How to make a great impression with your blog

mikeblogger — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:09:01 +0000

Ok, you’ve started your blog. You have the default theme, you are starting to post some content, but with the default theme, the blog looks like many others that are starting with WordPress. What are your options? There are a number of themes out there, some free and some premium. But if you want to have a quality looking blog, you need a quality looking theme. Enter Woo Themes. Woo Themes is a collection of premium WordPress themes. They are very easy to implement and have a wide variety of themes to choose from.

There are currently 95 themes as of the writing of this blog post, and they create two new high quality themes are created every month. There are themes for all different genres of blogs. From business, to personal, to news, to multimedia themes, there is one for any niche you happen to have for you blog.

The themes are all easy to install. Once you download the zip file from the site, simply go to the install themes window located at Appearance > Themes. Click on the Install Themes tab and upload the zip file. Once installed, simply activate and voila, you have a new high quality theme ready to go.

Now this is where the fun begins. There are many options that can be customized with every theme which is what makes it so versatile. From different background colors to custom logos and favicons, you can customize the look of your blog so that even with the popularity of certain themes, your blog will have its own unique look. For your banner ads, Woo Themes makes it easy to add in your own banners and even your AdSense codes. Adding in your keywords, blog description and any other underlying meta information has never been easier. It’s all done in the theme options.

Most themes come with its own widgets which, if you are already familiar with WordPress, are easy to install. You can also use the editor to edit the individual css files, but of course, those changes will be wiped out if you ever update the theme. So Woo Themes include a custom.css that you can make all of your custom changes to and not worry so much when you are updating the theme.

For those that either need help with the theme or want to get an in depth look at all of the features, there is a complete set of documentation for each theme. From detailed text to informational videos that have step by step guides on how to manipulate the theme to your needs.

They are premium themes, but at an affordable cost. But there are a number of different options. There is the regular theme price, but also a developers option which gives you access to blah blah. Finally, there is also the WooThemes Club. This gives access to every single theme in their library. I was so impressed by everything that Woo Themes has to offer that I use it for this site (the Busy Bee theme).

30 Richest Bloggers

mikeblogger — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:54:55 +0000

This is one of the reasons why I’m blogging today. With anything in life, there are those who are successful at things and those who aren’t. This is a list of those who are successful at blogging and my inspiration for this site. Michael Dunlop, owner of Income Diary, recently came up with a list of the 30 richest bloggers in the world (based on monthly earnings). Here is Michael’s list:

30 Blog’s that Make a lot of Money Online

Rank	Website	Owner	Monthly Earnings	Main Income
1	The Huffington Post	Ariana Huffington	$2,330,000	Pay Per Click
2	Mashable	Pete Cashmore	$560,000	Advertising Banners
3	Perez Hilton	Mario Lavandeira	$450,000	Advertising Banners
4	Techcrunch	Michael Arrington	$400,000	Advertising Banners
5	Smashing Magazine	Vitaly Friedman	$190,000	Advertising Banners
6	Timothy Sykes	Timothy Sykes	$150,000	Affiliate Sales
7	Gothamist	Jake Dobkin	$110,000	Pay Per Click
8	Tuts Plus	Collis Taeed	$110,000	Membership Area
9	Car Advice	Alborz Fallah	$70,000	Advertising Banners
10	Venture Beat	Matt Marshall	$62,000	Pay Per Click
11	Slash Gear	Ewdison Then	$60,000	Pay Per Click
12	Life Hacker	Nick Denton	$60,000	Advertising Banners
13	Dooce	Heather B. Armstrong	$50,000	Pay Per Click
14	Steve Pavlina	Steve Pavlina	$45,000	Pay Per Click
15	Talking Point Memo	Joshua Micah Marshall	$45,000	Advertising Banners
16	Problogger	Darren Rowse	$40,000	Advertising Banners
17	Kotaku	Nick Denton	$32,000	Advertising Banners
18	Shoemoney	Jeremy Schoemaker	$30,000	Private Advertising
19	Coolest Gadgets	Allan Carlton	$30,000	Advertising Banners
20	John Chow	John Chow	$29,000	Affiliate Sales
21	Smart Passive Income	Pat Flynn	$21,500	Affiliate Commissions
22	Joystiq	AOL	$18,000	CPM Advertising
23	PC Mech	David Risley	$16,000	Affiliate Sales
24	Freelance Switch	Collis Taeed	$15,000	Membership Area
25	Abduzeedo	Fabio Sasso	$12,000	Advertising Banners
26	Sizlopedia	Saad Hamid	$11,000	Pay Per Click
27	Overhead in New York	Michael Malice	9,000	Advertising Banners
28	Six Revisions	Jacob Gube	9,000	Advertising Banners
29	Noupe	Noupe	8,000	Advertising Banners
30	Retire at 21	Michael Dunlop	5,000	Affiliate Sales

Great Themes

mikeblogger — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:33:48 +0000

I will be implementing a new design shortly. It’s a great theme from Woo Themes. They have a great selection of quality themes and very easy to implement. It will give your blog the look of being professionally designed. There are a selection of free and premium designs. There is also the unique option of subscribing as well. If you can’t decide on which theme you want, you can subscribe and have access to them all. It’s well worth it. Check there out “>here.

Time Management

mikeblogger — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 12:11:11 +0000

I’m sitting in a seminar and decided to try WordPress for Blackberry. It works wonderfully, although typing is painfully slow. The seminar’s topic is time management. What better way to manage my time by being able to make blog posts from wherever I am.

Digesting new info

mikeblogger — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 01:34:48 +0000

I received a lot of new information over the past two days. I’m a little overwhelmed and just trying to digest it all and figure out how it all works and how it will help make this website grow. The tough part is trying to learn all of this in the wee hours of the evening, after a long days work at the office. At least it’s the weekend so I’ll have time to work on this site.

Evolving website

mikeblogger — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:38:41 +0000

One of the hardest things to do is to get traffic to your website. It’s like pushing a massive boulder. It takes a lot of time and energy to get the boulder moving, but once it does, hopefully momentum and keep it going. For those with established websites, what were your biggest challenges in terms of getting your websites off the ground and getting quality traffic? We all know that traffic is the key to start making money with any site since if no one is visiting your site, there isn’t going to be any money spent anywhere. My biggest problem is patience. I live in the “Now” generation, where I want it now, need it now, want to see results now. Waiting for traffic momentum is just agonizing. Thirteen years ago in my first foray in the online world was a lot easier. Build a page, submit it to a dozen major websites, and then let the fun begin. Fast forward and the game has certainly changed. Content seems to be key. Without good content, you won’t get listed anywhere. So if you happen to stumble upon this site, please feel free to share your secrets to traffic!!