Not the blog – me, as in I’m moving to a new home.  And I’m packing.  Do you know how much I hate packing?  I’ve got today and tomorrow left and the whole house needs to be packed up.  And then I have to unpack it all!  OMG – I really hate this!

So, I just wanted to let you know that for the next week my entries might be kind of sparse.

But I’ll be back in like a crazy woman once I am settled and have my Internet hooked up.  I’m still participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge so I’ll have to play a little catch up (I have one blog post pre-dated and I might get a few more in there).

But as much as I have to pack do you think I’m packing right now?  No.  I’m procrastinating!  LOL

So, while I’m getting my act together (because it is sure to happen any time now…) why don’t you check out some posts from the past that you might have missed?

I’ve only just started making a real effort to track the results that I’m getting from my social media efforts and while it is slow I am finding that it definitely does make a difference.  What have I noticed?

• Traffic on this blog has increased
• Comments on the blog have increased
• I’m developing relationships with people that I consider to be influential
• People are starting to know who I am

I found this nifty little video on YouTube.  Short but sweet:

The last thing he talks about is tools.  I’ve found one that I like called Kurrently and it tracks what people are saying on Twitter and Facebook.  I know there are other tools out there that track keywords but I like this one because I can simply go in there and check out what people are saying at any given time.

Of course, I also use Hootsuite, which allows you to track keywords, too – but it also allows you to see things like how often people are clicking on your links.  And if you click on someone’s name (including your own), it tells you how much “klout” they have.  This is kind of bugging me though.  I mean what exactly do you have to do to have klout?  Something I need to look into a little bit more…

So what are you doing to track your results in social media?  Or do you?  Does it really matter?  Hmmm – food for thought!

A few days ago I talked about putting together an e-book site that anyone can participate in and sell their e-books and we all can promote.  There has been quite a bit of interest from new and established writers alike and I’m working on putting the site together so we can all make it work.

One thing I’ve come across though is that the new ones don’t really know where to get started.  And I found this great e-book on putting together your first e-book in 14 days.  I think this would be a great basis for a project!  Click the link below to go and download it and see what you think:

http://probusinesswriter.com/freebies/how-to-write-an-e-book-in-just-14-days/

Now, here’s the thing.  As much as I would love to get this going asap I have already committed to doing TWO blog challenged over the course of August and into September.  So, what would you all think if we got a group of us together and did this in October?

This is just and idea so far so don’t get excited but I just want to see what kind of interest there is out there.  Leave a comment if you’d like to do something like this!

I’m sure you all know what spam is and it happens all over the place.  It’s in our inbox, our message boxes on Facebook sometimes, on Facebook groups and pages – but did you know that spammers are now taking advantage of tagging to spam people!  And this is something we really can’t protect ourselves from.  Check out this great video (it’s only about 6 minutes long) about how NOT to market yourself on Facebook:

I like how she stresses that you have to build trust in a website/Facebook Page/blog – whatever – before you will go on to actually do any reading there. Personally, if I smell even the slightest hint of spam, I’m out of there. If I feel the coldness of pyramids or MLM marketing, I run to warmer sites. And what this guy has done is all of the above.

Has this ever happened to you? If it has, what did you do about it?

I’m always up for new challenges so when I saw that Michele Scism and Michelle Schaeffer were collaborating on running a blog challenge together I signed up immediately.  I participated in the last part of the 30 day Blog Challenge but didn’t quite get into the groove and felt like I was missing something.  Maybe because I started more than half-way through.

But this time I am getting in right from the beginning!

One of the things that I’m going to do is utilize my WP Editorial Calendar.  I’ve actually got a pile of posts pre-planned so I’m hoping that will help.

This challenge will be particularly challenging in the first week for me because my family is moving.  Not just across the city but 6 hours away from where we are now.  We’re moving into a house so I know there will be lots to do to get settled.

And not only are we moving but I’ll be making the big transition from part-time writer to full-time writer.  There’s a lot to do there!

But, I’m still really excited about this.  I love challenges.  Why?

• They are motivating
• They introduce you to new people
• They introduce new people to your blog
• They bring forth new ideas
• They help you to develop the discipline of maintaining a blog
• They are just plain fun!

Do you need any more reasons to join me?  How about the big teleseminar launch with Michelle and Michele that is going to happen on July 26th?  I’ve been to one of Michele’s teleseminar’s about how she grew her Facebook Page so I can tell you that she’s a great speaker so I’m sure the launch will be awesome.  There’s another one in the middle and then one at the end as well.

Now, what are you waiting for?  Go and click on the picture and join me!