iPhone Bad?

I've been checking out some reviews for the new 3G iPhone and was surprised to read that a lot of people think the new network isn't too great. In addition the issues seem to go beyond the network to customer support and even glitchy applications and functionality. Honestly, I don't know how much I believe when it come to these reviews. I know that the industry has loyalists on every side and are almost always attempting to sway opinion one way or the other. 

Having only played with the original iPhone and leered longingly at one of the new 3G's at the Apple Store in Austin, i would have to say that even with glitches and a questionable network I'd rather run an Apple than any other competitor (not to say I would shun the opportunity to have any one of the competitors gadgets). 

I was curious if anyone out there in the Blogosphere has the 3G or original iPhone and are or were having any of the aforementioned issues. Were you able to resolve the issues? Would you recommend the iPhone?

Red Ring of Death

I just read an article yesterday in a technology magazine while waiting at the eye doctors regarding the infamous X-Box 360's "Red Ring of Death" and how Microsoft was well aware of the issue prior to their masse release a few seasons ago. If we put the technical issues off all the next gen. consoles for perspective, the magazine suggested that both the PS3 and Wii suffered by tech difficulties at a 3% rate whereas the 360 suffered nearly 11 times the rate at 33%. 

Thin about that, 33% of the consoles they initially sold had technical issues. The article went on to say that Microsoft was aware of the issues but wanted to make a simultaneous splash in order to not only generate revenue, but get in on the ground floor of the next generation market. I mean lets face it, if they released their console months later they would have lost a lot of business to their competitors especially at that price level. How many people do you know who would wait a few months for a new console or buy one then turn around and buy another (at that price) a few months later. 

I can understand Microsoft's motive, but their brand might have been tarnished pretty bad at this point. I can tell you that is one of the reasons I've put off buying a 360. 

iKit Notebook With 2.8-Inch Screen

When I opened up my email this morning I noticed a picture of the smallest notebook I had ever seen, the iKit by IMOVIO. Apparently this notebook has a 2.8-Inch screen a full QWERTY keyboard as well as a webcam and mini-usb port. In addition to the aforementioned (meager) featured the device also maintains only one method of connectivity and that is Wi-Fi (Bluetooth). 

Apparently this system rung on Linux OS and is designed primarily to be utilized as a substitute to your cell hone in regards to email and messaging. Honestly, a cell phone is a pretty useful tool for those features and I wouldn't suggest purchasing a miniscule laptop to supplement a perfectly good system you already have. I have to say though, it is pretty cool to see such a tine laptop. It reminds me of that old Saturday Night Live skit where they all open up these timy cell phones that are the size of peanuts. Anyway, great stuff just wanted to toss it out there for my readers.

True Call; To Hell With Telemarketers

I was scanning through the topics over on Yahoo News today and came across this pretty cool gadget called True Call. Basically this gadget screens all your incoming calls and can verify their legitimacy. The system breaks down like this;

1.  A telemarketer calls your phone 
2. True Call asks them for their name and number as well as their general purpose for calling
   
3. Without Ringing, your phone displays the information and you can choose whether you want to answer the call or not.

If that isn't cool enough, you can set up True Call to actually zap any caller from any unrecognized number. Pretty cool, but if I was job hunting I wouldn't want to zap a potential employer. Anyway, the system was developed by a couple of ex-telemarketers. I think it is a pretty cool system, but I'm sure there are a lot of bugs to work out. In the meantime, I'm just going to stick with the do not call registry.

Gaming; Back To Basics

I briefly discussed some old school gift ideas for any of the gamers in your life and got so caught up in researching some of the old consoles and games that I actually ordered one online yesterday. I picked up the Sega Genesis 3 for about $25 and a handful of games including Streets of Rage, Sonic and Street Fighter 2. I expect to receive these in about a weeks time and am looking forward into tearing into them when they arrive. 

When visiting Amazon.com and Half.com and searching through all the old titles, it was difficult to only select a few games as I had such a "nostalgia moment" that I was placing damn near everything in my cart. If you are scratching for ideas for any gamers in your life, I strongly suggest going this route even if it is just to supplement the newer consoles. I mean, you can get quite a bit dirt cheap. 

Holiday Ideas For Gamers

Having focused on a lot of tech reviews and such over the last few weeks, I wanted to switch it up a bit and drop a few suggestions for any gamers in your life for the upcoming holiday season. We all know that come November and December it will be very difficult to find the latest consoles and games (even online), so I wanted to suggest you take a step back from the modern consoles and games and look to the past. 

Having been unable to locate a Wii the last couple of years around the holiday season (up in frigid New Hampshire), I decided to instead spend the cash I had reserved on just a console and game for a whole mess of old school games and consoles. In addition to getting a lot of cool stuff for my money, I rediscovered my love of gaming. I mean, things used to be so simple and enjoyable. Not to say todays games aren't awesome, they are just really involved. I found that I missed popping in an old game for 20-30 minutes before dinner, or after work to "decompress". 

Anyway, I just wanted to throw this idea out there for all the gamers in your life. Besides, I've never met a gamer who couldn't go into detail about how much they enjoyed a particular old school game or series on their favorite 8 or 16 bit console. If you're interested in some old school gaming ideas and reviews, check out my blog 8-Bit Memoirs where I post video of old games as well as quick synopsis' and purchase info.

Blackberry; Ready To Eat?

I've been watching the MLB playoffs on TBS and have been assaulted nonstop by Blackberry commercials and am wondering just what is the point? I mean, what makes Blackberry so special in comparison to the iPhone 3G and all the other phone gadgety things out on the market right now?

I have to admit, it has a lot of cool features, but I also like how the Blackberry site goes to great lengths to avoid telling you what their asking price is. I also like the same thing about the iPhone 3G. It took me about 15 minutes just to find out the price of these beasts. I mean seriously, I'm a price shopper. If it is too expensive, I don't want it. 

Does anyone out there have a Blackberry and would they recommend it?

Mac vs PC

I have to say that I really enjoy the Mac vs PC commercials as well at the pro PC "I am a PC" commercials. Oftentimes I wonder why the campaigns are designed to smear the other. I mean, they are both good in their own way and at this point have become mostly just a preference. Personally, I prefer the Mac when blogging or working with video, but prefer the PC when writing seriously and working from home. Due to cost of Mac's and their associated products, I don't foresee most businesses switching over to Mac due simply to cost. Then again teching people an entirely different O.S. can be an issue all on its own.

My question is simple, are you a Mac or a PC? I'm a Mac, but still enjoy using a PC for work and when sharing information because most people I know are still PC's. 

Either way, I still enjoy the commercials, great stuff!

iPhone 3G and AT&T

I finally got my hands on an iPhone 3G the other day at the Apple Store in Austin and I have to say I was impressed with all the features as well as the speed of their 3G network. I am still kind of up in the air about paying a few hundred bucks for a phone then getting hooked into a two year plan. Honestly, I don't want that kind of commitment to AT&T (the worst network in my opinion). I used AT&T back in the day and had nothing but issues with my old cell and would never go back to them.

That isn't to say that an iPhone 3G wouldn't be a great investment, but I wish there was more network options. I suspect that the 3G network would be much improved over the Frankensteinian networks of old, but I just can't see crawling back into bed with AT&T.

I am still shocked at just how heavy the iPhone 3G is even in comparison to last years iPhone. I honestly think that you could crack open nuts with this thing. Personally, I'd only tenderize meat with it, but I suppose you could do both. Anyway, it is pretty cool, so if you aren't afraid of AT&T go ahead and pick one up.

MacSpeech Dictate

I've been doing quite a bit of blogging and writing lately and have put some serious thought into picking up MacSpeech Dictate for my iMac. A friend of mine, Brett Bumeter had recently began utilizing Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 and has found his level of productivity skyrocket. DNS 10 is quite similar to MacSpeech, In fact I've been told that it was designed by the good folks at Nuance who designed DNS 10.

Currently I am working on over 10 different blogs, some ghost-writing projects as well as a series of horror novels, so I am looking forward to saving some time as well as my wrists while I'm working all these projects. If MacSpeech Dictate can streamline my efforts, I'll be more than happy to employ it in my repertoire. Currently, MacSpeech Dictate is only available for Intel powered Macs and goes for about $200. I've seen it cheaper used, but I've had some issues with used software i the past so I'm not going back there again. 

If you have experience with this software, I'd love to hear any tips or feedback you may have. Feel free to drop a comment or contact me via any one of my blogs or sites.

Alienware

I've been spending a lot of time the last few weeks trying to decide what new laptop I would go with, but neglected to share with you my interest with Alienware. This site is hardcore FullNerd! If you want to build a computer with balls, this is the site with you. If you so desire, you can build a cpu that could rival anything in your wildest dreams.

If you've got the cash and are looking for superior performance, they have got you covered. If I was nutty enough to go this route I would likely spend the $2,299 on the Area-51 m15x. This model has a lot of power in an ultra portable package.

Here are the Featured Options:

2.5GHz Intel® Core™ 2 Duo CPU
NVIDIA® GeForce® 8700M GT
2GB 667MHz DDR2 Memory
250GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
Extreme High Def Video and Audio
AlienFX® Illuminated Keyboard

Anyway, I expect to go with the newly designed MacBook, but I thought I'd share a glimpse into the Full Nerd that is Alienware. Thanks to Charles for his recommendation!

New MacBook Design

After posting yesterday and doing a bit more research, I was greeted on AppleStore.com by the newly designed MacBook. The newly designed laptop actually features the exact same specs I was looking for in my last post as well as a sleeker more streamlined design that compliments my iMac quite well. I'm glad I didn't put my order through yet. If I still go with the older model, maybe I can get a nice discounted price as they attempt to close out their older inventory. 

Why do I feel like every time I think I make up my mind this happens. Oh well, I welcome the updated design and am looking forward to heading up tot eh store in Austin to take it o a test-drive.

MacBook

Well, the decision has been made on a MacBook from Apple. Yesterday, I had mentioned how I would be running my new wireless network on Airport Extreme and that a MacBook was likely to be my new laptop of choice. Well, today I am custimizing it to fit my specifications and I am happy to say that I'll be coming in just under $1,300! I had debated between a Sony Vaio, MacBook Pro and MacBook and decided for the applications I was going to run a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, 160GB hard drive, Double-layer SuperDrive would suit me just fine. I am also excited that this model comes in a white polycarbonate shell, due to the fact I'll be working outdoors most of the year (got to love the Texas heat).

Thus ends the great laptop debate. I am looking forward to traveling up to Austin to pick up my MacBook either next week or the week after. Who knows, maybe they will even have a sale or something going on so I can save a few more dollars.

Apple Airport Extreme

I recently picked up an Apple Airport Extreme for my new wireless network and am really looking forward to setting this beast up. So far I've only encountered the dreaded flashing amber light briefly as Time Warner Cable was initiating contact. It appears as though my new network is functioning properly as well as my old Canon PixMa printer. 

I guess now all I need to do is decide what I am looking for in a laptop. I think I may go with just a regular MacBook as I will only be working on my blogs and other writing projects. I don't expect to run any FTP applications or run anything exotic via the MacBoook, so it looks like it will win out versus the Sony Vaio. Besides, I really like Leopard and I can always use Windows XP via Parallels anyway (thanks A Progressive Girl for the tips yesterday!).

iPod Shuffle

I've been thinking about picking up an iPod Shuffle from the Apple Store in Austin, TX sometime this week as a sticking stuffer for my wife and am wondering whether I should spend a little more cash and pick up the 2GB instead of the 1GB. The only reason I am considering the 1GB is due to the fact that I don't think both of us combined could possibly find 240 songs we care enough for to ever fully utilize the storage capacity. I mean, the difference is only a few bucks ($49 vs $69) so maybe I'll just grab the Shuffle with the extra storage.

Either way, the iPod Shuffle is a really cool gadget, I especially like its compact size and simplicity. I also like the interface at the iTunes store which will make it easy to find just about any music we could possibly want. I'm still pretty old school when it comes to music. In fact, I still buy CD's every now and again (probably one every two years).

Anyway, I really like the iPod shuffle and think my wife would enjoy one. They even have a cool engraving feature as well.

MacBook Pro vs Sony Vaio

I've been looking into purchasing a new laptop and have been considering a Sony Vaio, but am dreading moving back to Windows after such success with Leopard. Having switched to an iMac last year, I've enjoyed the freedom of not having to constantly update my anti-virus and firewall protection as well as those regular freezes and crashes I've always run into with Windows OS. On the plus side of Windows OS, I did run XP for a few years without a lot of issues and would likely run that OS instead of the dreaded Vista OS.

Then again, the MacBook Pro would flow seamlessly into my business as well as my ability to transfer data simply and efficiently. I'm not too sure which direction I will head into, but I expect the price tag may be one of the final deciding factors. A MacBook Pro to my specifications look like it is going to be quite expensive whereas a Vaio might save me a few hundred bucks. Who knows, just so long as I don't wind up with a Dell.

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

Site Update and Information

I've spent a lot of time lately putting together a comprehensive listing of some great tools and services for bloggers both new and old and decided that this site was becoming a bit too scatter-brained so I created a new one to cover all traffic and network related posts and topics.

The new blog titled "Increasing My Blogs Traffic" is dedicated to providing tips to increase traffic and visibility for your blogs and websites. This blog (Full Nerd) will return toward great free sites and tools to supplement your site as well as solidify existing contacts and networks. I also hope to move back toward tech review in addition to the aforementioned.

Feel free to bookmark or follow both of these sites as there is a lot of great information coming in the next couple of weeks. I hope to be able to share my knowledge on a number of fronts and provide great tips to new bloggers or those looking to expand their "blogging type activities". Also, feel free to leave comments and make suggestions on either sites in order to assist me in addressing topics that you may be seeking additional information on. 

I'd like to also thank everyone for their support and interest in this site and my newer site. There is lots to come, so please check back regularly or make use of the archives.

BlogExplosion Tips

Yesterday I spent a little time talking about some potential Noob concerns regarding BlogMad. Today I want to give a quick examination of potential Noob issues utilizing the website BlogExplosion.

BlogExplosion is a great site to generate traffic for your blog or website. The rules for the site are quite straightforward so we aren't going to get into that today. Here are a few tips for new BlogExplosion users.

• Blog Approval; Many people want instant results and benefits without putting i the time to earn them. First, BlogExplosion generally takes about a week to approve a new site. If you don't have a solid 5 or 6 quality blog posts it may take even longer. I've heard of people submitting tickets for assistance and being told their blog isn't "deep" enough to warrant acceptance. 
• Credits; Credits equal views, the more credits you have, the more views you will get. It is more difficult to earn credits via this site than others. By this I mean that there is a set rotation of sites unlike BlogMad where you could surf forever without being told to stop. Basically, if you search all the sites in rotation on BloExplosion you will likely earn between 60-100 credits. 
• How Do I Get More Traffic; The more you surf the more credits and the more views. I have a few sites that receive between 60-100 per day and I do my best to utilize the contests for credits and whatnot to score extra credits to support my blogs. Lets face ti though, if all your traffic is coming from BlogExplosion, BlogMad and Blog Soldiers then you're doing something wrong.

BlogExplosion is a great site to drive traffic for new blogs, but once you begin to break 50/50 between auto-surf traffic and organic traffic I would suggest weening off of these types of traffic generators and utilize more blog directories, carnivals and blogroll exchanges through comments and surfing in general. Honestly, if you are out to build your page rank or notoriety, I would suggest searching through directories for similar blogs, bookmarking and checking back regularly as well as commenting. Think about it, comment on 20 similar blogs with a responsive comment (NOT SPAM, most blogs will allow you to embed your link to your comment), that is 20 people who will likely click on your name and view your profile or blog. It's networking people!

Anyway, BlogExplosion is a great resource for new bloggers, just take your time, be patient. Remember, these are all free services that are giving you a great benefit for no cost, so hey might take a few days or a week to get back to you. While you wait take some time to develop new content and submit to directories and whatnot. 

If you decide to check out BlogExplosion or the others, look to the associated banners on the bottom of my page to sign up. I could use the credits!

BlogMad Tips

Having spent a while building up my ranking on BlogMad, I've learned a few tips in order to avoid frustration. Oftentimes when Noobs visit the site and create a profile they get frustrated at the time it takes to gain entry into the system as well as have their blog approved. 

I'd like to share a few tips that I've learned during my time with BlogMad.

• Creating a profile; It is quick and easy to create a profile, in fact you can be up and surfing in about 10-15 minutes depending on how quickly you receive the verification email. In addition to creating a profile, the more information and better quality of your profile the more likely you will be to have a blog approved quickly.
• Submitting a blog; Submitting a blog is oftentimes a source of frustration to Noobs on BlogMad. Contrary to popular belief, there are actual people who approve/deny blogs. There are a lot of people waiting to get into the blog rotation so one has to be patient. In fact, I've heard of it taking a week or so to be approved. Just be patient, a sentient being is working on the problem.
• Surfing for views (credits); Credits are a valued commodity at BlogMad. It is true that the more you surf, the more views your blogs (once approved) will receive. In fact, BlogMad has a simple ranking system. The more blogs you surf in the system the quicker you and your blogs rank increases thus increased member benefits. For instance, when you start out (even before you are approved) you should begin surfing to earn credits. 
• Varb Rank explained; Varb Rank determines how frequently your blog will appear to other surfers. The higher your rank the more visits you'll see. This rank and your overall rank are part of some formula (a formula I don't understand) that helps determine how often your site (s) will be viewed. Currently my blogs rank between 9-9.75 out of 10 and my profile status is "Mad" which is four or so ranks from the top. 
• Allocation Issues; The BlogMad credit allocation system is really cool! Some people don't care for it, but I really enjoy it. The allocation program allows you to determine which of your blogs you want to steer the most traffic toward. I have 5 blogs as of this post and rank them 10,9,8,7 and 6 in order to maximize their views. You can put them all at 10, but I haven't seen any statistical "jump" to verify that it will increase views. As for assigning credits, don't forget to do that! 
• How Come I only Get 5 Views A Day?; This is a common question with a simple answer. If you aren't putting in your time surfing others blogs, why should you reap benefits? Simply put, expect to receive hardly any views until you increase your profile and varb ranks and allocate priorities and credits accordingly. Oftentimes people ask me this question and I ask the following questions of them:

1. Have you surfed some blogs and assigned credits?

2. Have you allocated your credits and priorities?     

 3. Have you set up a varb rank button on your blog?  

If you answered yes to those last 3 questions, all I can say is keep surfing and increase your ranks and you'll see traffic skyrocket in a matter of time. I stress patience when joining up and gaining your first few ranks. Truth is, if you put a blog with very few posts or decent posts on the site people will lower your rank. I would suggest having a blog with at least 10 posts prior to joining (if you want to get decent views Quickly), although al the prior information still applies.

I hope this helps anyone out there with BlogMad issues and/or questions. If not, feel free to drop a comment on this post or contact me via the message board on the BlogMad site. I'll try to help you out to the best of my abilities. Remember I am just a BlogMad user like you, so I can only give you info based on my experience.

In conclusion, I think BlogMad is a great tool for bloggers looking to generate additional or supplemental traffic to their sites. Currently, I utilize BlogMad, BlogExplosion and BlogSoldiers to help drive traffic occasionally. If you are interested in joining any of these free services feel free to sign up via the button on the bottom of Full Nerd.

Feedburner Tips; When Subscribers Disappear

If you have recently opened a free account with FeedBurner, you have undoubtedly pulled off the shrink wrap and delighted in that new plastic smell of virgin feeds. Well, be prepared for the horror of all your subscriber and visitor counts to drop to zero randomly.

Before you panic and look for the "contact us" button or the technical assistance phone number, take a deep breath and exhale. All of your subscribers and visitors are still there, it is just an RSS glitch. Sometimes in the blogosphere when a website has a glitch (they all do) while they are updating your information they don't gather it and they move on to the next one. 

Basically, go on with your life and check back in 24 hours after the next update. Rest assured all of your subscribers are still being updated and all your visitors are still visiting. In fact, all your numbers should be back to normal the next day.

This actually has happened to me twice in the last three months and every time things are back to normal the next day. So relax, publish some new content and enjoy yourself, all is well in the blogosphere.

Image Hosting With Photobucket

Since we have been on the topic of archival hosting lately, I wanted to touch on a great image hosting resource for bloggers called Photobucket. Photobucket is a free image hosting service that offers bloggers the ability to upload images and receive a url, HTML or direct code in order to upload your images onto your blogs and websites. 

I've been using Photobucket on my Comedy Soapbox blog for some time and have been happy with the service and all the great free features. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up an account and begin uploading images. The best part (other than the cost; FREE) is the ability to upload hundreds of images and videos then apply various basic photoshop edits to them. 

I haven't used the service much since I've moved to the iMac, but strongly recommend the service to PC users who are new to the blogosphere. 

Online Archiving For Free With Webcite.org

If you are new to blogging you likely don't have your own domain or hosting service. You have likely also noticed that in order to join several directories and advertising services that you must have an archival backup in order to participate. Fortunately, there is a free online line archive page that can help.

Webcite, a free online archival database will happily record your data and provide you with a link to that data when needed. The site is incredibly quick and easy to work with. All you need to do is access the page, include your link and some general information then submit. After submitting you will receive a url that can be used in both directories and for advertisers in order to ensure that your blog is archived and can be accessed whenever called upon.

My Blog Log; A Great Networking Tool

My Blog Log is another great social networking tool to draw attention to your blogs from others who are interested in tags similar to your own. The setup is quite similar to Blog Catalog (which we discussed yesterday) and allows for not only multiple blogs, detailed profiles and many upgradeable features, it also offers a very useful widget that allows you to quickly and easily see who is viewing your blog and add them to your contacts. 

You can see an example of the widget on my blog 8-Bit Memoirs under "Join My Community". You don't have to add the widget to your blog, but it is customizable and isn't too spammy. My Blog Log also features a really helpful statistics tracker that allows you to view where your clicks are coming from, going to and clicking on when they view your site. There is also an upgradeable feature so that you can review more detailed statistics. Personally, I use Google Analytics because it is free and more detailed than I will never need. My Blog Log is free, but an upgraded service costs a few bucks. 

Anyway, check out My Blog Log, it is free and easy to set up. You will be able to network in minutes and develop some great contacts in just a few hours. Give it a look!

Social Networking Blog Directories; A New Blogs Best Friend

If you've been following along the last few days, we've been covering a lot of cool free services that can help develop a blogs standing in the blogosphere and potentially develop some revenue. Although blog directories aren't revenue generators, they are free advertising for your blog and ads you may be running. 

There are a lot of great directories and social networking sites like facebook, myspace, twitter etc, but there are also some less popular/less spam-ridden services that will generate traffic and clicks from people who are actually interested in your content. These blog-centric directories allow users to set up a profile, blog listing as well as friend lists and communities of like minded blog registrants. Not only will you raise awareness for your blogs, but you might be able to generate some backlinks and blogroll exchanges.

One of my favorite social networking sites is Blog Catalog. Blog Catalog offers all the great features mentioned above, but also offer very detailed search menus to find similar blogs to your own enabling you to network effectively instead of just stabbing in the dark.

There are a lot of other great sites that I'm going to post about this week, so keep an eye out and give them a look if you are serious about productive social networking for your blogs.

FeedBurner For Noobs

Having been blogging for not terribly long, I've gonna through a bit of a crash-course when it comes to various tools used to help promote my blog. One of the first tips I had received was to utilize RSS and Atom feeds via FeedBurner. FeedBurner is a great tool that anyone with a functioning blog can use. The service is free and will allow anyone interested in your content to subscribe to a feed and receive updates whenever you post.

In addition to offering free service to everyone and allowing your blog a widened audience, FeedBurner is a completely free service that was fairly recently taken over by Google. In fact, if you use Google's Webmaster Tools, you probably already are aware of FeedBurner's great services. 

Another great benefit associated with FeedBurner is the ability to submit your blog to a number of blog directories that require feeds and oftentimes yield great results for exposing  a blog to a widened audience. This is a great tool that everyone should use. It is easy and free.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great program for bloggers who are interested in learning what type of traffic they are generating and where that traffic is originating from, going. I recently set up an account with Google Analytics and am very impressed at the wealth of information one can obtain via their service.

The service is free and actually can increase your search engine optimization by sending little Google spiders out to troll your blogs. In addition, Google offers a wide array of webmaster tools such as sitemap generation, Adsense and page rank tips and tricks. There are some tricks in regards to sitemaps if you're running a blog on a free Blogger account that you cannot find via the Google webmaster tools service. 

It is actually quite simple to set up your sitemap via Google's webmaster services, I'll get into that in a later post. As for Google Analytics, it is a great free service that I highly recommend to any serious new bloggers out there.

BlogMad Builds Traffic

Having mentioned BlogExplosion yesterday, I thought it might be pertinent to mention BlogMad as another great tool to drive additional traffic to anyone's blogsite. I recently began earning credits on BlogMad and have seen a decent jump in traffic. The traffic definitely builds up slowly compared to BlogExplosion. In fact, when you sign on with BlogMad, you can expect to see about 2-3 views a day, but as you surf more and more blogs you can raise your rank and watch your traffic steadily increase.

Other than the basics, BlogMad works almost identically to BlogExplosion with a couple of exceptions. Firstly, you can sign a blog up to BlogMad that is a day old with one post. Secondly, you can only sign up 3 blogs at first, but as you build your rank you can add more. And lastly, it is free so sign up. It is easy to earn credits and if you're new to blogging, you just might get some great ideas from the other blogs listed on the site.

Oh yeah, if you want to sign up go ahead an check out the image on the top of this post and earn a few bonus credits for both of us!

BlogExplosion Builds Solid Traffic

Being relatively new to blogging and painstakingly developing new blogs, it has been a battle to drive traffic toward my work. Having networked with a lot of great people and hearing various recommendations toward Auto-surf programs, I checked out BlogExplosion. 

BlogExplosion is a simple concept. After you have created a new blog with 5-10 solid posts, you can submit that blog into the BlogExplosion database. After a few days, and if your blog is approved, you can surf their database of blogs earning credits. After you earn credits, you assign them to your blog(s) and put that blog into rotation where other surfers can view your blog through the network. 

Surfers are able to leave comments, rank and give feedback on your blog while they earn credits to prop theirs up. In addition to surfing for credits, you can purchase additional credits via Paypal or play games to earn additional credits etc. BlogExplosion is actually a pretty cool system to generate traffic for new sites that are just getting off their feet. 

If you're interested in signing up at BlogExplosion, click on the above link and sign up. Not only will you be on your way to generating traffic for your site, but you'll also be helping me earn more for mine!