Google Trends update:
Yesterday I mentioned delving into google trends as a way to bring new traffic.

Yesterday I wrote a post about Mackenzie Phillips, Del  Martin Dieing, and Hurricane Gustav track. Each of these topics were at that point in the top 5 google trends.

I know I planned to write 25 posts on google trends topics, however I had some errands to run offline and was unable to get back on - don’t worry I’ll be doing a lot more of these.

I found out that it’s a very wise thing to do, in fact I’m thinking about instituting a trendy wednesday. Every wednesday I’ll focus my efforts on google trends topics.

The results have been astounding - I got 131 hits to one blog post on hurricane gustav. All these hits were either from google search or google blog search, which definitely proves that the point is valid, perhaps if I’d worked on a longer post with more mentions of hurricane gustav I would’ve ranked even higher.

At any case this does prove something pretty remarkable, and that I’m going to be delving a lot deeper into, over the coming weeks.

Stay tuned for further updates on google trends.
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Everyone is feeling the crunch with the rise in gas prices. Higher gas prices not only affect our pockets but that of companies. Higher gas prices leads to higher costs for all goods that you purchase. It leads to higher costs for air travel as well. It is just one factor in our great economic struggle that is building.

On top of the high gas prices is the mass exodus of American jobs. As many businesses close their doors and even Starbucks is closing 600 stores, we will see a yearly job loss perhaps as high 1 million jobs by the end of 2008.

That’s 1 million new people living on welfare, or food stamps, or collecting unemployment. That’s 1 million people potentially homeless if things don’t change…

But there is a shining sun behind every storm cloud, and here’s an opportunity that I’m taking to make some lemonade from the lemons, so to speak.

First off I’m going to give ways to save on gas, as I’m sure we all could benefit from these:

Take walks to save gas. Not only will you be burning less gas, but you will start burning more calories, and who can’t afford a little less gut these days?
Buy / Ride a bicycle instead. Heck even a horse and buggy would be better and more cost effective if you can afford one, and it’s of course legal in your area to ride one. Of course an added benefit of riding a bike is it helps the environment and helps your waistline.
Carpool if you can. This is an obvious way. If two people are going to the same place it just makes sense that they share the trip.
Plan each trip that you take. Knowing exactly where you’re going and having a plan, will help you to not get lost, or distracted. If you have a goal of where you’re going, you won’t spend extra gas / time driving around looking for what you need or want to do.
Learn fuel-efficient driving. Experts relate that it’s possible to save as much as 25-30% off your fuel if you make a few simple changes to your driving. These include:

Turning off the engine for stops over 10 seconds long - Idling is never good for your car or gas mileage - and idling to warm up your car is bad read more.
Keep a moderate speed. Don’t drive above 60mph, and be use your cruise control to maintain a consistent speed.
Make sure tires are properly inflated.
If driving a car with a manual transmission, be sure to drive in the correct gear for your situation.
Know when to use the A/C and when to turn it off and roll down the windows. A good rule of thumb is when it’s hot use your windows for city miles, and roll them up and turn on the A/C for highway miles. When driving higher speeds having the window down creates drag, but when driving slower having the A/C on can lower your gas mileage.
Drive smoothly, avoid rapid acceleration and hard braking. Try to maintain a steady speed. If you can coast down hills and try to keep your foot off the break as much as possible.

Buy tires with lower rolling resistence. Less friction means less wasted energy means more money saved.
Don’t buy premium gas unless you absolutely have to. If you’re car is designed to run on regular, premium won’t help it, and will just eat up your money.
Buy a fuel efficient car. Of course most of us can’t afford a new car right now with the economy the way it is - but buying a fuel efficient car or hybrid will save you gas in the long run. If you’re debating a vehicle purchase anyways, you might as well buy one that will save you hundred a year in gas. When gas hits $7 per gallon in 2010 (just 2 years), you will be glad you bought that hybrid.
Get cash-back on your gas purchases. Last but not least, try getting a credit card that pays cash-back on gas purchases, a good one to get is the Discover more card. You’ll receive around 5% back for gas purchases. Apply for the Discover® More Card

Alrighty I’ve talked long and hard now about how to save money on gas, now let me tell you why I believe that the hike in gas prices may be a blessing in disguise. Here are ___ reasons:

It gets gas guzzlers off the road. Due to the high gas prices many people are trading their SUVs and Hummers for smaller more efficient cars.
Of course with less traffic, means better environment. There’s less emissions, and so at least the environment may stand a chance of healing itself.
New green technologies are on the rise. With people struggling to pay for gas, green technology companies are growing in leaps and bounds. The technological advances that the higher gas prices have brought is extraordinary to say the least.
High gas will help stamp out Obesity. How? People who can’t afford to drive will walk more, take bikes, or take public transportation - but even with public transportation you still end up walking more than if you were driving yourself around.
People are now taking closer look at finances. People are in debt over their heads, they’re losing their cars and houses at record rates. With the rise in gas prices people are watching every little penny. Gas prices bring up the prices for just about everything that people buy, when everything costs more we’re each going to have to take a hard look and decide if we need a plasma tv or if we can make do with our 32 inch old style tube tv.
Higher gas prices will lead to better public transportation. Now that people can’t afford to drive themselves around, we need to relook at our methods of public transportation. In Europe you can travel to almost any big city by train, I think we need to look at our current rail systems and possibly expand them.
The rising fuel costs are leading to more gas friendly perks for their employees. Some employees are beginning to allow telecommuting, some are switching to a 4 day work week instead of the traditional 5 hour. Utah is implementing a plan to make all government jobs work four 10 hour work days instead of five. This not only saves the workers’ gas, but it also cuts back on the costs of energy to run their computers, and the lights in their offices. Of course important jobs like emergency personell will still work normal shifts, but this will be a huge experiment to see how much it will affect the environment.
Less travelling means better communities. As people are travelling less to see friends, and relatives they will need to reach out to each other for their socializing needs. People will stay closer to home, and the community will grow as a result.
Finally, the government may actually consider increasing fuel economy standards. In Europe - non-hybrid cars routinely get 50+ miles per gallon. In America we’re stuck with cars(non-hybrid) that get 30 mpg or less. Maybe we’ll get some of the European models.
High gas prices may help the internet. If you blog, or run an online business, high gas prices may actually help you out, if people can’t leave their homes they’ll stay home and surf the net, which could mean more advertising dollars for your blog or website.

Also - I’m going to take this moment to let you know about a contest running. You can win a free $25 gas card, and who couldn’t use this? Check out the contest here, or Read some tips from their site on  “Saving Money at the Gas Pump”

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It appears that our funding isn’t coming through for our roadtrip as planned.

The problem: I need $$ to buy equipment to make videos for roadtrip, and the company giving money needs / wants a video to show to the team. How can I make the video if I don’t have the equipment?

Obviously I Can’t….

But it’s ok… I have other plans…I’ll just have to put the roadtrip on hiatus. But be aware that I will complete the roadtrip.

Feel free to submit your blog to our American Blog Directory. Stay tuned though, I may do some interviews shortly via skype video conference.

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As many might be aware this blog was recently relaunched in March 2008, after about 8 months of silence.

Originally, I lost the blog posts that I’d had, and it appears google is still punishing me because they can’t find the links to those posts anymore. Using a bit of ingenuity(aka the waybackmachine at archive.org) I’ve found the old posts and have been adding them, post dating them of course for the original date they were posted.

Next I’m adding 301 redirects via htaccess to make sure that everything is pointing to the right spot.

Hopefully this is enough to get google to give me some PR love. At least Alexa still like’s me!

If you notice old blog posts going to your feeds you can ignore them or re-read them if you want to. Just don’t judge me on them as I think my blogging style has improved greatly since those early nights in 2007, when I started out blogging about the Law of Attraction.

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I’ve chosen the cities that we will be stopping in. We will take any blogger in the state as long as they are able to meet us at the chosen city.

I do apologize for any who would like to be interviewed but cannot meet us in these destinations, but we have picked them as they are logistically the best cities to visit in order to save as much gas as we can.

I’ve already calculated the trip being around 15,000 miles, and costing at least $3,500 just in gas alone.

As such  - Donations are GREATLY welcomed. Just send money via paypal to:
yourstruly AT patrickcurl DOT com

We are splitting the trip up into two blocks to take a small break /  breather.

Without further adieu here are the cities that we’ve picked:

First Leg:
Starting in Cleveland, OH.
1. Erie, PA
2. Buffalo, NY - We’d like to do the interview @ Niagra Falls if possible.
3. Toronto, ON
4. Montreal, QC
5. Montpelier, VT
6. Manchester, NH
7. Portland, ME
8. Boston, MA
9. Providence, RI
10. Hartford, CT
11. Trenton, NJ
12. Wilmington, DE
13. Baltimore, MD
14. Washington, DC
15. Richmond, VA
16. Raleigh, NC
17. Columbia, SC
18. Atlanta, GA
19. Tallahassee, Fl
20. Mobile, AL
21. New Orleans, LA
22. Jackson, MS
23. Little Rock, AR
24. Memphis, TN
25. Lexington, KY
26. Huntington, WV

Ending in Cleveland, OH

Second Leg:
Starting from Cleveland, OH.
1. Lansing, MI
2. Fort Wayne, IN
3. Chicago, IL
4. Milwaukee, WI
5. Minneapolis, MN
6. Sioux Falls, Sd
7. Omaha
8. Kansas City, MO
9. Wichita, KS
10. Oklahoma City, OK
11. Amarillo, Tx
12. Albuquerque, NM
13. Denver, CO
14. Cheyenne, Wy
15. Pocatello, ID
16. Salt Lake City
17. Cedar City - Camping w/ Relatives
18. Flagstaff, AZ
19. San Francisco, CA
20. Portland, OR
21. Seattle, WA
22. Vancouver, BC
23. Calgary, AB
24. Billings, MT
25. Bismark, ND
26. Winnipeg, MB

Ending in Cleveland, OH.

We are also selling small vinyl stickers on our car - they are going to be just a little bigger than a standard mouse, and will take up any free space on our car that isn’t covered by our sponsor(which we are announcing soon - this company is an awesome new company with great potential).

If interested send us a graphic / logo you would like to use - Each vinyl sticker will cost approximately $50 and will also include free 125×125 ads.

I’d also like to thank everyone who’s still following this trip - believe it or not - not only are we planning this cross country voyage but we’re moving cross country in the process - we just bought a house in Cleveland and are moving from Utah this coming week. So please bare with me if I’m not updating daily, as we will be unable to really update while on the road (getting our laptop soon).

We are totally excited to get this trip launched - if our sponsor agrees to the expenses I sent in - we will be on the road most likely June 2nd.

Best way to stay updated is of course to follow me on twitter: user = patrickcurl

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As I mentioned in my post earlier today about “16 Ways To bring your Blog Back To Life”, one of my tips was to comment as often as possible.

Commenting on other blogs needs to be a huge part of your daily blogging career. Here are some power tips to make the most of your commenting, in the least amount of time.

1. Download and install Comment Kahuna, this software is amazing. It lets you search for blog posts with certain keywords, you can choose which platform, and you can also search blogs that have ‘nofollow’ removed, which means that each comment you submit will carry some good SEO juice.

2. Make sure you have at least 5 pillar posts. Many people make the big mistake of linking to their main page when submitting comments, this does bring traffic and seo power, but there’s an even better way.

3. Create a profile for each pillar article in Comment Kahuna. For your blog link - link directly to that post. For your name - instead of using your name, use some keywords relating to the blog post.

4. Do a search for the major keywords relating to your blog, I usually like to find blogs with at least a pr2 or above, comment kahuna has the option to let you refine your search as such.

5. Read or scan each post that you submit comments on, find 1-2 things that you can: expand on, ask questions about, answer questions on etc.. In other words provide a unique comment that contributes to the bloggers community. Make sure it’s relevant, and pertinent to the topic at hand.

6. Schedule time daily to do your commenting, if you do it everyday for just least 20 minutes a day you will see a huge improvement in just a few months.  You will see more search engine traffic, and higher search engine rankings. 

Now, you might ask the question, is this spamming?

My answer is: No.

First off you’re providing a response / comment that relates to the blog post. Secondly, each comment is unique and not submitted automatically by a bot.

This is just smart marketing and to be successful online you need to work smarter, not harder!

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In Phase 1 of this project we had people submit their top 3 Pillar Articles. I’ve chosen my favorites out of what was submitted.

This is Phase 2. In Phase 2 we will create a blog post - linking to ALL of the top pillar articles.

Rules:

You must write a blog post that somehow uses all the keywords and makes sense - the most creative blog posts will be featured in phase 3. Be creative - and remember it can be a story, an anecdote, a true story, a false story, it can be a sci-fi story, a horror story, etc etc etc…
You MUST choose 2-3 keywords to link to that relate to each of the chosen pillar posts.
You MUST link EVERY pillar blog post on the list.
You MUST link back to this post, saying something similar to: “This post is part of Patrick’s April Blogging Project” - Please use your own wording for this link to really make an effect on SEO.
You must submit a link to your post in the comments section of this post.

The Most Creative and Interesting Posts will be part of phase 3.

If you can’t tell this is an experiment in DEEP Linking, for seo purposes.

ALL who participate will benefit with increased traffic, and search engine rankings - when I release Phase 3 of this experiment.

All Submissions must be submitted by May 1st.

Here are the Posts to link to:

http://www.fuelinteractive.com/blog/2008/04/11-coolest-googletwitter-combo.cfm
http://www.ultrarob.com/blog/2008/03/7-mountain-biking-confidence-killers.php
http://jobmob.co.il/blog/beautiful-resume-ideas-that-work/
http://jobmob.co.il/blog/funniest-short-job-descriptions-ever/
http://successfool.com/creating-multiple-streams-of-income/
http://successfool.com/what-is-twitter/
http://wingdom1.blogspot.com/2008/04/will-you-make-up-your-mind.html
http://homeofficewarrior.com/2008/04/04/if-a-blog-falls-in-the-forestwill-anyone-give-a-care/
http://truthintaylor.blogspot.com/2007/09/its-content-stupid.html
http://red66.com/2007/11/5-observations-on-the-state-of-digital-media/
http://ninjakai.com/generic/the-war-of-the-friend-counts
http://blog.uprinting.com/whats-new/the-happiest-brand-on-earth/
http://evantravers.com/2008/04/what-is-flickr.html

I’d like to take a moment and say thanks to all those who submitted their pillar articles, if I didn’t choose your article it isn’t personal, these are just the ones that stood out the most. I am greatful that you took the time to view this site and follow my meanderings.

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My wife and I are planning on going on a roadtrip - to visit the top Blogger(s) in ALL 50 states. This is going to be a HUGE Blog promotion.  

Our Goal: Find & Interview the most popular / successful bloggers from all 50 states. (We might even choose 2 for some states. We will be doing an interview via text, audio, and video. If you prefer not to do audio/video that’s fine as well.

Photo Coureoousy of Hometown Invasion.
If we choose your blog, you will receive:

Permanent Blogroll Link.
Your interview will be taken in video, audio, and text formats - in order to gain the highest exposure. They will be submitted to ALL video / ipod networks.
You will also receive exposure in many blog posts leading upto the roadtrip.

What we need to make this a success:

Currently, our resources are a bit limited, as we are a new and growing blog. Donations via paypal would be greatly appreciated - they can be sent to: yourstruly AT patrickcurl.com - or you can click the button on the sidebar(Note: Paypal just doesn’t play fair with wordpress posts / pages) .

All donations of $20 or more will receive a 100+ word review. All donations of $40 will receive a 300+ word review.  All donations of $60 or more will receive a 500 word review, and a 6 month link on a blogroll labeled “Roadtrip Sponsors”.

Before we go we’re trying to raise enough money to buy a laptop, and a new video camera. If you would like to sponsor or donate one of those to us - we would make sure you’re on the list of stops, as well as receive a 1000 word review, and a permanent link on our Blogroll.

We could also use help in promoting this - if you could write a blog post about it, we would really appreciate it. Who knows - we may choose to stop by and interview you!

We are going to be doing a blog post each day, seeking bloggers from each 50 states - so stay tuned if you’re interested in being a part of this!

Other ways you can help us out:

Follow us on Twitter.
Subscribe to this blog.
Add me to your facebook friends.
Blog about this Promotion.
Send a link to this post to all of your twitter friends.
Bookmark this post.
Digg this post.
Stumble this post.
Sphinn this post.
etc… Do anything possible to get the word out. The more people we have in on this, the more exciting this will be. We may also visit a few locations on our way, and do mini-interviews on a bunch of bloggers.

PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT on THIS PAGE - IF YOU’RE RECOMMENDING A BLOG TO VISIT. I will be putting up a page for each state by letter, please comment on that state, and I will choose the best blogs from each state. (1 letter per day, actually.) Please do feel free to comment on your thoughts of this program.

I’m also thinking of having EACH Blogger contribute a ‘Souvenire’(spell?) and having a big contest when we get back. Let me know your thoughts. Comments are greatly appreciated!

Official Pages to Join:

Bloggers in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas - Please Leave a Comment.
Bloggers in California, Canada, Colorado, Connecticut - Please Leave a Comment.

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NOW HIRING: GUEST BLOGGERS - DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOGS!
Here’s how this works.

I want everyone reading this to send me their very best blog posts. If the post is something I think I’d like to publish, I will send you an email, and let you know when I will be publishing it.

I will of course provide a byline for you to mention your blog. On top of that, I will add you to my blogroll. On top of that I will give you a full-fledged graphic intense Blog Review, worth at least $40.

If I decide NOT to use your blog - I will STILL write up a 1-paragraph review of your blog(and post it with 3-5 other mini-reviews).

This blog is about to break the 100 subscribers mark. I have 1400 followers on twitter, and 600 friends on friendfeed who will see each post. This blog gets 1000 hits per day(at least it has been for the past 2 weeks.) My alexa ranking hasn’t caught up since the traffic is new, but it will catch up, very quick.

Main Criteria of Blog Posts:

1. Must be along the theme of this blog, which is technology, blogging, making money online, gadgets, social networks, twitter, social media, etc…

2. The blog post must have never been posted else where.

This is a very good way to gain some added exposure, and begin building your brand.

Please send all entries to: patrickwcurl at gmail dot com.

Update & Clarification: I am looking for the best of the best posts - they need to never have been published elsewhere, and if I choose not to use your post - I will let you know, and you can post them on your blog, and I will link to all of the Honorable Mentions.

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Alright. Via my google feed-reader I discovered this new service called Zemanta. I must say, it is kick-ass! It’s actually an odd plugin.

When you install it into firefox(only available platform currently), and log into your blog(in my case a wordpress blog). It shows you a sidebar in your blog, right where you categories generally are.

It tells you that after you write 300 characters it will give you content that is relative to your blogs. The more you right the more pictures, articles, and even tags it gives you.

Zemanta is a very nifty program, I highly recommend you try it. Probably the best thing about zemanta is the fact that it can take your writing to the next level, by providing easily inserted pictures and content. The semantic layer that it provides is awesome.

Another nifty feature of Zemanta is that it actually scans the web for Creative Commons Licensed content. So blogs will be able to post related images without the fear of being sued by angry artists and photographers.

Of course almost everything, these days has the chance of being abused, and it’s a pretty safe bet that Zemanta may see the birth of many splogs, of course only time will tell.

If you couldn’t tell - this post was actually written with the aid of Zemanta.

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