Somehow I thought that a group writing project on social media would attract lots of attention and get many participants, but I was wrong. Even my part of the mega project, which was dedicated to Digg & Reddit, has managed to get less than ten submissions. I wonder what had happened?

Was it due to lack of promotion from my side? But then I haven’t really promoted much my two previous group writing projects, however they both did very well, getting 30+ entries.

Or was it due to lack of people’s experience with social media? But then I did specify in the project rules that one doesn’t need to be a guru with a particular social networking site, you could write what is it that confuses you, or what would you like to learn more about.

Or perhaps it was due to lack of time? I certainly had this problem, which prevented me from exploring other social networking sites and writing about them.

Any other reasons? What do you think?

Whichever reason prevented people from participating in this social media mega project, I hope you find the submitted entries useful. On Friday, I’ll publish the collaborative results from all other partnering blogs&hosts (Aaron, Ina, Brian, Isabella, Karen, Simonne, Dandellion, Pearl, JHS, Monica), today I’m featuring only the articles on Digg&Reddit.

• How To benefit from Digg by Tejvan Pettinger

  Broken up in 13 easy-to-follow steps, Tejvan shares his observations on how to prepare your site for Digg and how to focus on the content of your articles, the look of your blog and build a genuine interest in social networks.
  Afterwards he followed up this post with another article, which is questioning and reflecting on
  Is it worth Trying to Get On Digg?

• How To Get Onto Digg’s Front Page in 8 steps by Jacob Cass

  Ever wondered what are the sure-fire techniques on reaching that coveted #1 spot on Digg? Jacob will not only share the secrets he uncovered in his study of Digg, but also will make you laugh so hard you’ll never look at the Digg’s front page articles without finding them hilariously ridiculous ever again.

• Experience with Digg by Dexter

  This is one of those no-luck-with-Digg-whatsoever articles which actually tell the truth about this social networking site.

• I’m Really Not a Digg Fan by Karen Zara

  Now you too can join Digg’s NoFan Club, just head over to Karen’s post and share your reasons for not being Digg’s fan in the comments. You know how it is – it’s so much better to talk to a soul mate who can relate and understand what you’re going through.

• What is the best social media website and why? by Jacob Cass

  Now, who could know that only two weeks after writing his humorous and unflattering post about Digg, Jacob, who desperately wanted to experience the Digg effect at least once, would finally write an article that received staggering 2985 diggs and 365 “loving” comments on Digg? See? It could happen to you too. So to prepare yourselves for reaching Digg’s frontpage, be sure to read Jacob’s analysis of the Digg’s aftermath.
  And if you would like to read more comparative articles on various social media sites, you can also check out my own experience with reaching Digg’s and Reddit’s frontpages.

• Redditers – What They Tend to Do? by A u d e e

  If you’re like me and still didn’t quite figure out how Reddit works and how to tackle that site, be sure to check Audee’s article, you will definitely learn more than a thing or two from there.

• Can You Dig Digg? by Vivien

  This is where I contemplate about 8 things that I especially don’t understand about Digg and the obsession with it. If you have answers to my questions there, I would really appreciate to read them, otherwise please share what is it that you can’t quite get about Digg or what is it that annoys you about it, or on the contrary – makes your to be one of its loyal fans and power diggers?

Thanks to everyone who joined us in this small endeavour. Don’t miss my Friday post, where I’ll feature the submissions from my project colleagues, who received articles about 17 other social networking sites, as well as award the Top 5 bloggers-partners whose group writing projects were the most successful ones.

What happens when a renowned Graphic Designer asks a rhetoric question: What is Graphic Design, and then offers prizes to the most creative answers? An explosion with over five hundred different interpretations.

I don’t envy Veerle to pick her winners. In the last several days I’ve been getting immense doses of inspiration by browsing all the entries. The contest ends on February 15. I know it’s a rather short notice, but if you can spare a couple of hours to express your understanding of the graphic design and upload your design to the Flickr’s pool you could win some very cool prizes.

When I found out about this contest, I checked a few entries and decided to stay away and let the meaning of Graphic Design’s slowly formulate in my brain. Then yesterday I started a brainstorming session in my mind:

Graphic design inspires us, makes us smile or cry, forces us to buy, compels us to think… there are so many things that we will do just by looking at a powerful combination of type, colours, shapes, images. Then it all suddenly became clear in my mind: Graphic Design Controls Our Brain.
Afterwards the pieces of the poster’s puzzle came together pretty quickly. I drew an illustration of the human brain in Illustrator, pasted it into Photoshop and arranged all the verbs – forces of Graphic Design – fading in the darkness into our subconscious, and displaying the actual message below.

I wish I had more time to communicate this idea better, and to be honest with you after seeing some of the works submitted to this contest I’m very jealous of the skills and talent of those graphic designers.

I look forward to seeing whom Veerle will select as winners, but if I were to judge, these 14 entries would be my favourite due to various reasons – a clever message or a witty approach, a choice of type or colours, or the amazing textures and skillful execution. Each of the poster thumbnails below are linked to the original image on Flickr. I urge you to take a look and get inspired.

Graphic Design is…

So what is your understanding of Graphic Design?

Earlier in December I asked all of you Would You Participate In A Collaborative Social Media Project? Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. This group writing project (and please, if you can think of a better name for it, do let me know) will be different from all others because it will unite several bloggers who will host mini-projects on their own blogs and then all participants will join forces by putting together all the pieces to publish the Ultimate list of resources on Social Media sites.

The rules and conditions

Since this mega project is spread over several blogs, a strict organization is vital here. Hence, all hosting blogs will start and end their projects at the same time:

• Start Date: Monday, January 21^st
• End Date: Friday, February 22^nd
• Results Publication Date: Monday, February 25^th
• Final Collaborative Results will be published on Inspiration Bit on Friday, February 29^th

Each of the partnering bloggers will announce their projects for the chosen social media site(s) on January 21, and list the following rules for project participants:

1. Write a post on your blog and share with us how do you integrate this social media site (fill in with your selected site/service here) into your blogging, work, tell us about your good or bad experience, how would you compare this social networking site with others, what do you like or don’t like about it, how did you benefit from becoming a frequent user of this site, what secrets have you learned about it, what tips or warnings would you like to inform others about?
2. Contact me (the host of that particular project) with your name, email and a permalink to your post. If you don’t have your own blog, you can always write a guest post on my blog, or simply send me your thoughts by contacting me in person.
3. Once I collect the links from all participants and publish them on my blog, you can write another post and link to either all or only your favourite articles by other bloggers.
4. You are allowed to contribute only one article per project/site. You are more than welcome to visit other participating blogs that host projects dedicated to the different social media sites and take part in those projects by submitting your articles about other social networking sites.

Project Promotion

All hosting bloggers are encouraged to promote their projects as much as possible. Each of you will get a head start from Inspiration Bit and each other when we promote every blogger that hosts one of the participating projects. Every blogger must include to his/her group project(s) the links to other project participants. This cross-promotion would allow readers to be informed about other social networking projects that they can contribute to.

Prizes

This time it’s the project organizers, who’d be eligible for prizes for their hard work of hosting and promoting the projects on their blogs. As most of you remember, I promised to share the $100 prize I won over at DailyBlogTips. I’ll be also adding to that another $25 that my entry to AllTipsAndTricks project has won. I’ve decided to split it up evenly into five $25 prizes that I will award to the Top 5 bloggers whose projects were the most successful ones in terms of the number and the quality of entries.

If there is anyone interested in sponsoring this mega project, that would be awesome, I could award bigger prizes. Simply contact me to get the things rolling.

Who is hosting What?

Currently the following social media sites are reserved to be hosted by these amazing bloggers:

• del.icio.us. Host: Aaron Stroud from On Financial Success
• Facebook. Host: Ina from Inspiring Wear
• Flickr & Zooomr. Host: Brian Auer from Epic Edits
• Twitter, LinkedIn. Host: Isabella Mori from Change Therapy and Alphablogs
• StumbleUpon, YouTube, MySpace. Host: Karen Zara from a1-fan-fun
• Sphinn. Host Simonne from All Tips And Tricks
• Second Life. Host Dandellion from Living in the Metaverse
• Mixx, Netscape, Squidoo. Host: Pearl from Fresh Perspectives
• Sk*rt, Blogging Zoom, Bvibes. Host: JHS from Colloquium

There are still some other social media sites left waiting to be claimed and hosted:

• Digg
• Reddit
• Newsvine
• Technorati
• Ma.gnolia
• Furl
• any other site you can think of

You do not have to be an expert in any of those social networking sites. You’ll have almost a month to get acquainted with them and host a project, asking your readers to contribute articles with their experience about that particular social media site.

So, if you are interested in this collaboration, if you’re at least a bit tempted by my prizes, if you want to get some extra publicity for your blog, or if you were always thinking about enriching your social network but never had time for it nor motivation, now you at least will get the latter, as for the time – it’s a precious commodity for everyone nowadays, who doesn’t wish to squeeze in more hours in a day. What I found working for me is a paradox: the more things I’ve got on my plate, the more I manage to accomplish. Perhaps you could try the same, and add this project to your ever growing tasks list? ;-)
You can either contact me or post a comment here what social media site you’re interested in hosting on your blog before January 14, and I will add your name to the above list of hosts. I too will be hosting a mini project on my site, and will choose whatever social media site is left unclaimed. Don’t worry, I’ll exclude myself from the prize pool ;-)

Please, note, that by organizing these social media projects my goal is not to promote them for everyone to use, on the contrary, my intention is to uncover the benefits and drawbacks of using those sites and let the readers decide on which social media site is most suitable for their business or life style, and help them to get a head start on using those sites.

If you have any questions or suggestions about this mega project, please do not hesitate to ask. I look forward to collaborating with all of you, fine bloggers, in the new year. And those of you who will only participate in this mega project by contributing one-two articles to a particular site of interest, I would really appreciate if you too will spread the word about all the sub-projects of this mega blogging collaboration.

Wishing you a Wonderful, Successful, Healthy, Inspiring and Happy New Year!!!!

I’m not a fan of New Year resolutions as I don’t believe that they will help me follow the planned path, but it is worthwhile to have a list of goals in life to ensure I’m moving in the right direction. Some of those goals can get obstructed by roadblocks, but that shouldn’t discourage us from rescheduling them for the years to come.

By making my goals public I’m adding more responsibility and the feel of urgency in ensuring that I’m not putting them on the back burner for too long. At first I thought of sharing with you my blogging goals for the next year on December 25, to mark Inspiration Bit’s one year anniversary, but then Daniel from DailyBlogTips announced this group writing project inviting all bloggers to post their 2008 Blogging Goals. So I thought of “killing two birds with one stone” (hmm, does anyone know of a kinder alternative to that saying?) and by posting my goals earlier participate in his project as well – not so much for the prize but because, as you know, I like group writing projects and perhaps for some extra publicity.

One thing though: I don’t fully agree with Daniel on what he had to say about the blogging goals: “goals should be measurable (else you won’t be able to tell if you achieved them or not) and realistic (else you won’t be motivated to achieve them)”. Yes, the numbers are helping to draw a clear picture and it’s easy to see if you failed to achieve those numbers or not, but that doesn’t mean if your goals are not measurable with numbers you won’t be able to say whether you’ve reached your goals or not. Yes, realistic goals make the failure to reach them feel less miserable and the overachievement feel more sweet, but on the other hand what seems to be realistic now may be out of reach in the months or even days to come, yet what now feels to be something of a fantasy can suddenly become very reasonable.

A year ago when I started Inspiration Bit I had no particular goals for this blog, I just wanted to try what this blogging buzz is all about. Well, I have to say that the past year has brought me the most exciting and rewarding experience I’ve ever had online, and I eagerly look forward to another year of blogging. But this time I’m posting my 8 goals for Inspiration Bit in the Year of the Rat.

8. Start and stick to a regular posting schedule of at least 3 posts per week.

Initially I thought of listing here “Stop procrastinating” as my first goal, but then I don’t think “procrastination” is the right word for my behaviour of getting sidetracked by work, family, RSS feeds and comments. I just need to get better organized and be more efficient with whatever limited time I have. Realistically I’ll never have time and energy to post daily (unless I quit my job), and honestly I don’t think it would do good to anyone.

7. Create another weekly feature for the blog

Starting a weekly feature A Bit Of Literature a few months ago really helped me with not leaving my blog silent for long periods of time: not only do I usually always have something to write about every weekend, but I’m also forced to writing at least one regular post during the week as I don’t want my readers to see only literature posts from Inspiration Bit. Starting another weekly feature would encourage me to be more organized and efficient in achieving my goal #8.

6. Define a more clear focus for Inspiration Bit

From the very beginning I haven’t really had a clear vision of what kind of articles I’d like to be blogging about. All I knew is that I’d like to share with others what inspires me in the worlds of design, blogging, life. Thanks to my readers my topics were getting less blurry and more defined. However, I still feel that something is lacking in the direction this blog is taking and hopefully by achieving the goal #7 I would be able to steer Inspiration Bit more effectively.

5. Increase Guest Blogging

I’d like to be in a position to invite more bloggers to guest write for Inspiration Bit from time to time and promote my blog and my writing by guest blogging for others.

4. Interview more people who inspire us

In the past year I’ve interviewed three incredible bloggers: Daniel from DailyBlogTips, John from ILoveTypography and David Airey (whose domain has been hacked while David was on vacation, so please, update your bookmarks with his new blog’s address). I’d really like to interview more people, and hopefully Inspiration Bit would gain enough authority to ensure that I won’t be getting too many declines for my interview requests (as in the case with Matt Mullenweg – despite his initial agreement he never sent me his answers to my interview questions)

3. Launch and succeed in the Project of Projects

Two weeks ago I’ve asked all of you Would You Participate In A Collaborative Social Media Project that I plan on hosting in January. Several bloggers have already expressed their interest in partnering with me to organize all those projects. Thank you so very much. I’ll be posting the new and updated details about this project after Christmas and will launch it next month. Of course the success of this project depends on all participants, but I’ll do my best to organize it in an orderly fashion and work on promoting it.

2. Keep the existing number of RSS subscribers

Many bloggers are aiming for higher RSS numbers in the new year, but as for me I’m already grateful and feeling pretty humble that I managed to get over 500 loyal readers who find my writing and articles interesting enough to subscribe for the regular dose of Inspiration Bit. By keeping you all in the next year I’ll be getting a proof that I didn’t pollute this blog with useless writing, and that would hopefully lead to even more subscribers.

1. Give Inspiration Bit a major makeover

This is somethings that I’ve craved for a very long time – to design a custom unique theme for Inspiration Bit, yet I haven’t had a chance to do that. I can’t postpone it any longer (isn’t it ironic how designers often don’t get around to design their own sites?), it should happen sooner or later. I don’t know how realistic I am in wishing this to happen at least by January 1^st, 2008, but it is definitely my most urgent goal.

How reasonable and achievable all those goals are only time will tell, but one thing I know for sure – my most important goal is to keep enjoying blogging without turning it into a mundane job and continue delivering posts that YOU find enjoyable and interesting to read.

What about you, what are your blogging goals for 2008?

What’s your biggest accomplishment with your blog that makes you feel very proud? Simonne from AllTipsAndTricks is hosting a group writing project where she asks this very question: “What is your best blogging achievement?”

For some bloggers the answer may lay in the amount of money they managed to earn with their blog, or the number of RSS subscribers they scored in a short time, perhaps it’s the high page rank that makes their heart beat with excitement. Oh, and some bloggers may think that they got it all by reaching Technorati’s Top 100.

Perhaps if I happened to achieve any of the above mentioned accomplishments by other bloggers, my answer would be similar to those ones. But then, perhaps it wouldn’t.
As it stands today my answer is very simple: my best blogging achievement are all those friends I found in my loyal readers, in fellow bloggers, the conversations that some of my posts ignite on InspirationBit, and comments like the ones below that make my day.

When I told Simonne that I hope I’d have time to participate in her project, she kindly offered: “Hey Vivien, if you think you need some more time, I can push a little bit the deadline.”

It feels so encouraging when my blogging friends promote me and my blog with praise on their own blogs.
Like Brian did on his successful photography blog Epic Edits, by broadcasting to all his readers “I enjoy reading your thoughts and bits of inspiration on your blog, and I’ll continue to read for as long as you write.”

It meant a lot to me when David wrote these words in his reply to my comment on his blog: “if you were to write an article upon my return, it’d be an honour. I know how much effort you put into your blog posts.”

When Kristarella has mentioned Inspiration Bit among other several well-known and respectful blogs that she researched for her study of the blog architecture, I felt very honoured, of course, but when she responded to my gratitude: “You’re welcome inspirationbit. You can probably thank LaurenMarie – she speaks highly of you”, my heart melted. Thank you, Lauren.

Thanks to Aaron for thanking me and others in his centennial post: “Vivien – Thanks for continuing to write an excellent blog and, well, inspiring me”.

Thanks to John for his encouragement with my lit bits: “This is my calm place set away from the hordes of Web 2.0, Blogs about blogging, etc, etc. “

I don’t want this post to sound like a long list of Testimonials, so I will wrap up with the examples. My biggest blogging achievement is not getting comments like that, but making my readers and friends feel the way they do about my blog, my writing and well, me. Ronald from Ronalfy.com once told me that he would feel “heartbroken” if I disabled comments on my blog. I would never ever do that on InspirationBit, because the dialogue with my readers is the main reason I blog. It’s through the comments I discover new blogs and make new friends in the blogiverse. Take the comments away from this blog and InspirationBit would lose its inspiration.

So thanks to all of you, my loyal readers, who come here not only to read but also to talk to me. And here’s a bit of Link Love to you all, to show my appreciation. Thank you Joey, dandellion, Bes, Tara, Paul, Char, Isabella, Rory, pearl, Chris, Stephen, kriz cpec, Joseph, Shankar, Jacob, Madhur, Shelly, Natalie, ajay. I look forward to making more friends and discovering more new blogs through the comments on this blog.

Now head to Simonne’s blog, participate in her group writing project – my best blogging achievement and win some awesome prizes. The deadline is December 4th.

1. Warning: These 9 Photoshop Techniques May Result In Great Photos
   This is a great article from Brian showcasing the power of digital post-processing. There were no specific steps on how to achieve those results, but that only opened the doors to our imagination.
2. 10 Simple Ways to Show Reader Appreciation
   Despite having several similarities with my post Ronald and I did not collaborate on writing our project entries. I’ve read his entry only hours after publishing mine. They say “great minds think alike”. Well, looks like they’re right for a change :-)
3. 7 Tips to Overcoming Writer’s Block
   Even though I haven’t had a Writer’s block for sometime (I just don’t have much time to write as often as I like), I’ve bookmarked these excellent tips for future reference.
4. A Bloggers Tips On Keeping The Creativity Juices Flowing
   One particular tip from Ajay has caught my eye – Declutter. It’s so true. Whenever I have a clean desk and a clean house, I feel free like a bird, and nothing distracts and stops my creativity juices from flowing

To read other 118 articles with tips head over to DailyBlogTips final project list.

Some people seems to have it all – the looks, the luck, the recognition, the respect from their peers and admiration from their fans. But behind the mask of effortlessness hides a naked truth about the long hours of hard work and the tenacious perseverance in following their dreams and achieving the goals.

David Airey, an Irish born graphic designer from Edinburgh, Scotland, is one of such people. To celebrate a successful one year anniversary in blogging, David is throwing a big giveway party with $4000 in prizes sponsored by half of blogiverse, a very prominent half. There are prizes for everyone’s tastes and needs:
- Signed copy of Blogging Tips by Lorelle on Wordpress
- $60 of books from Amazon courtesy of Darren Rowse of ProBlogger
- One year’s hosting and blog setup from John Boardley of iLT
- One hour blog optimization consultation with Daniel from DBT.
- Personal marketing / advertising plan from Maki of Dosh Dosh
- Revolution Premium WordPress theme package from Brian Gardner
- Logo design from Tara Roskell of Graphic Design Blog
- Website critique from Randa Clay
- Blog writing consultation with Ben Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog
- Behringer Podcastudio USB Podcasting Kit, donated by Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog

There are only two days left to participate in his contest, so if you haven’t done that yet, head to David’s blog, check out the other prizes and enter the game. But before you leave this blog, make sure to find out the naked truth about an amazing blogger who likes to relax in nude by looking at the sunrise in Thailand (see the photo above).

1. Why and how did you chose to become a designer?

Why? I reckon I’d exhausted all other possibilities. First I wanted to be in the police force, then a firefighter, soldier, footballer, electrician, architect and so on, until, at the age of 15, my school wouldn’t let me back in due to poor results. So I started on an ‘art and design’ course in my local technical college, first for two years, then with a two year extension. Those four years opened my eyes to design, and how enjoyable it was working in the field.

It’s funny, looking back, I never really considered myself designing for a living. I suppose I thought it seemed too easy (sketching, sitting at a computer). I paid my way through education as a tire-fitter (fixing car punctures, changing exhausts, wheel alignments, and so on. the end of a busy day fitting tires, you know you’ve been working.

In saying that, I guess I didn’t realise the stress you can be put under, working to deadlines, dealing with clients, sorting out your own accounts, etc. Still, I know I’m very fortunate to be able to make a living doing what I enjoy. Not many people can say that, and I’m extremely grateful for the start in life that my parents gave me.

2. You’re a graphic designer, who specializes in a Logo design. What made you to narrow it down and actively promote this particular field of design?

It has only been recently, within the past couple of months, that I’ve focused on promoting my logo design skills. The reason for this change is because I enjoy creating logos more than any other aspect of graphic design. I love the sketching process, and how it allows me to step away from the computer. I can go anywhere and sketch, because all you need is a pencil / pen and some paper. Most of my working hours are spent in front of a computer / laptop, and the more time I can spend ‘unplugged’, the better.

3. How and why did you decide to get into blogging?

Oddly enough, I first heard about WordPress on the MySpace forum for graphic design. It’s quite an active forum, and despite the millions of idiots on MySpace, there are some very intelligent designers / programmers using it. I still stop by from time to time, and I’ve been helped out of quite a few fixes after posting my calls for help.

I didn’t really know the value of blogging, but heard great things about WordPress, and was curious. I wanted to develop my 5 page static portfolio site into something bigger, more useful, so headed to WordPress.com , and set-up one of their WP-hosted blogs.

4. Does blogging bring you more business? What advice would you give to other freelancers who want to build their clientèle with the help from their blogs?

Blogging brings me more business than I thought I’d be getting at this stage of self-employment. It was just two years back when I decided to ‘go it alone’, and I wasn’t sure if I’d make it past the first year. If you like the idea of working for yourself, you’ve just got to do it. All the planning in the world won’t educate you as fast as personal experience, and I’ve learnt a lot these past years.

As for any advice I’d give to freelancers who author blogs, hmmmm, first-off, I’d say to question why you call yourself a freelancer. I’ve stopped calling myself one, preferring to trade as a graphic designer / design consultant. I think that a lot of people out there have this idea that freelancers are hired to do what they’re told, and that’s not what I want. The impression I’m aiming to give, is that I work ‘ with’ my clients, and not ‘for’ them – that I’m knowledgeable about what I do. I know enough to tell my client what works, and what doesn’t.

If, whilst reading this, you think I sound big-headed, feel free to give me a cyber-slap. I still have tons to learn about graphic design, and never want to appear as if I know it all.

5. The blogger-reader interaction on your blog is awe-inspiring. How did you manage to build such a loyal readership?

You think so? Thanks! This is a question for you / my readers to answer, because you’re the ones that make my blog the enjoyable place it is to spend one or two of my hours every day.

One thing I do my best to keep up with, is responding to each commenter individually. Some times I’m just too swamped with client work to do so, and on those occasions I leave a comment, apologising for not responding. I just think to myself, that someone has taken the time out of their busy schedule to tell me what they’re thinking, in response to what I’ve published. Keeping that in mind, how can I just ignore them?

As I continue to become more busy, it’ll be harder to respond to everyone as I do. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

6. You’ve got a very impressive list of sponsors for your $4,000 anniversary giveaway. What did you do to get so many influential and prominent bloggers to not only be interested in your blog, but even sponsor it?

It took me by surprise how many people offered prizes! I think it’s important to mention that I’ve known everyone I contacted through their blogs. I’ve joined in the discussion they generate, leaving comments and giving my thoughts etc. There might’ve been one or two people offering prizes who I wasn’t familiar with, and they kindly responded to my call for sponsors (the blog post I published in the run-up to the prize draw launch).

7. How would you categorize blogging – is it your hobby, business or simply a time killer? What is your favourite pastime?

It’s certainly not a time-killer. Well, it does eat away at my time, but time-killer sounds negative, and I wouldn’t put blogging in that bracket. Blogging is now part of my business. It’s a marketing tool that shows what I’m capable of creating. More than that, though, it’s perhaps the best networking device I’ve ever come across. I’ve met so many fantastic people ‘online’ through my blog, and learned a lot from all of them.

I can say for sure, that if I was employed by someone, with a guaranteed pay cheque coming in each month, I’d still document my thoughts and interact with others through my blog. I’ve previously read that if you’re blogging for business, you should keep it business-like, and not add personal thoughts / comments. I don’t agree. People deal with people, not businesses, and it’s that personality that helps build lasting relationships, whether they’re related to work or not.

My favourite past-time? There are a few things, so I’ll touch on them briefly. I love playing football (soccer to the un-informed), and even though my shins take a battering, it’s great putting the ball in the back of the net. I love movies. Not your cheesy Hollywood blockbuster types, but films that make you think. Life stories, like Motorcycle Diaries, Dirty Pretty Things, or fantasy types like Spirited Away, LOTR and Big Fish. Lots of others, and I’ll not bore you with a list. Last, but most certainly not least, I love spending time with my girlfriend. We’ve been together for a couple of years (almost) – still short enough in duration to have conversations together, and for me to put ‘love’ in the same sentence when talking about her. ;)

8. What were some memorable moments from your one year of blogging?

The most memorable moment, without doubt, was when I stumbled upon InspirationBit. Vivien, you’re doing a great job with your blog, and it’s an honour to have you feature me (I just heard someone say, “Get a room”).

Seriously though, one moment would’ve been when someone popped my comment cherry. I can’t actually remember who it was, but I remember thinking, “Who’s this typing on my website?” and I became more and more curious about the interaction I could generate.

I’ve been celebrating my blog milestones, which I think is a good idea for everyone, and one memorable moment was reaching 1,000 RSS subscribers. Who’d have thought I’d pass 2,000 before the first year was out!

Picking up new clients, purely through my blog, has been fantastic, and I’ve spent a lot less on offline marketing than I’d ever have anticipated. That’s memorable!

And what are your thoughts on….

Before I could ask David another question, he was off to “cook up a storm in the kitchen”, getting ready to watch his favourite Ireland playing France in the rugby world cup.

I’m pretty sure there are many things that most of you don’t know about me. The hardest part here is to find the eight things that I don’t mind sharing with the rest of the blogiverse, plus to make sure that they’re interesting enough for others to read about. Hopefully these 8 bits about myself won’t bore you to death:

1. Early reader

I started reading books when I was three. At first my mother thought that I simply memorized all those children books she was reading me and just pretend reading them. But when I started reciting to her children poems that she never read to me before, she was very surprised to find out that I can actually read myself.
I’m very happy that my daughter has inherited this gene from me – she learned the entire alphabet by the time she turned 22 months old, and now, 4 months later, she names letters everywhere she sees them, can spell her own name and count to 20.

2. Polyglot

By the age of six, thanks to my father, I already knew 4 languages. Later on I learned two more languages. Unfortunately, right now I use only two of them (English and Russian) on a daily basis, but still remember – can understand, read and write in four other (Georgian, Armenian, French, a tiny bit of Arabic). I started the same thing with my daughter, she already understands and speaks in both English and Russian, and I really want to send her to a French school.

3. Classical musician

When I turned seven, my parents sent me to a music school, where I studied and played violin and piano for 7 years. Many were predicting that I’ll choose the profession of a classical violinist. I’ve surprised everyone by choosing a computer to be my instrument instead. I haven’t played violin since I graduated that music school. But I still occasionally play piano and sometimes guitar.

4. I don’t drive

Ok, enough bragging. Now let’s talk about the embarrassing things I don’t know.
I don’t have and never had a driver’s license. Ironically, when I was still at school, I couldn’t wait until I turn 18 to get my driver’s license and start driving. But somehow it never happened. I was always busy with something else – my studies or work and now family, so I could never find time to study for the driving tests and get my license. With a few exceptions of my husband letting me to practice driving a car, I don’t drive. I used to be an avid biker and was riding my bike to work and everywhere else, but now I either walk or use public transport. However I don’t lose hope of one day getting that coveted driver’s license and start driving.

5. Left or Right?

I used to drive my mother crazy with my complete inability to tell the left from right. Whenever she was asking me to bring something that’s in a cupboard behind the left door, I was questioning her, “Which door is the left one – the one on my left when I’m facing it, or the one on my left when I’m standing with my back to the cupboard?”.

When I was at school, during the marching practice at the gym, whenever we were told to turn right, I was turning left and bumping heads with the person behind me. I still often get confused with the left and right. I can tell my left hand from the right one, but somehow often get it wrong when asked to look to my right or my left. I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t drive. :-)

6. No to green beans

I’m not very picky when it comes to food as long as it’s tasty and not too spicy, but since I remember myself I hated green beans. My brothers used to tease me sometimes when I was coming home after school – “Today our mom cooked your most favourite dinner”. Needless to say that on those days I was staying hungry, because I was refusing to eat those disgusting green beans.

I guess you can imagine how happy I was to find out that my husband hated green beans all his life as well. Fortunately my daughter will never have to suffer being forced to eat them – there will be no green beans in our house.

7. Obsessions.

I’m obsessed with everything related to tigers and dolphins. When buying calendars, I buy only the ones with the dolphins or tigers. I made a blanket for my daughter from a faux tiger fur, sheets with the picture of dolphins for her bed. I’ve got quite a collection of various dolphin figures at home, and several soft toy tigers. I even used to always carry a little dolphin figure for a keychain on my finger. When I was forgetting it somewhere I was driving everyone crazy and making them to look for it. I once left it at an embassy while filling out an application form for a visa. I noticed my loss only when we drove quite a distance away from that embassy. It didn’t stop me from “crying” for my lost dolphin and forcing my colleagues to turn the car back to get my dolphin.

I only stopped carrying that dolphin keychain on my finger after my daughter was born – it was getting too tricky to keep track of carrying the both. I had to choose between carrying my daughter or that dolphin. Of course, it wasn’t the most difficult decision I had to make in my life. Now I’m wearing a pendant with two dolphins – mama& baby – present from my husband.

8. Turquoise, please.

Marylin Monroe was singing that the Diamonds Are the Girl’s Best Friend. In my case it’s Turquoise. You can blame my husband for this, he was the first one who got me hooked on it – I love jewelry with turquoise. I’ve already got quite a collection of earrings, necklaces, rings with turquoise. I’m short on bracelets though. So if any of you is thinking about what to present me with – any jewelry with turquoise will do, especially the bracelets :-)

I ended up creating 5 contests on my blog, outfitting each of them with five different rule sets and prizes. As it turned out I didn’t have to go through all those troubles and it would’ve been enough to set just one rule, for example – comment on my blog and each day of the week I’ll randomly pick a winner and award him/her with a different prize. This would’ve been the easiest way to go about running the contests and quite an efficient one, but being a rookie blogger I went down the thorny path and learned my lessons the hard way.

But this means that I can share with you some thoughts on how to run blog contests and perhaps you can ascertain a thing or two from my blogging experience.

1. Encourage visits to your blog

   It’s really gratifying to have a big number or RSS subscribers and know that people are reading your posts. But it’s even more reassuring to have readers visiting the actual blog – perhaps checking other posts or commenting. Personally, I prefer visiting some blogs live and reading the posts there rather than in my Google reader. So my First Contest’s goal was to see how many people actually visit my blog and explore it. But rather than asking my readers about the past changes on my blog, I should’ve set a specific timeline to pay a close attention to the blog’s interface and structure, and afterwards quiz them on that. This way I’d be encouraging the readers to visit my live blog at least within that timeframe, rather than having only a few people participating in the contest.

2. Stimulate visitors to brainstorm

   My Second Contest has received the biggest number of responses by asking readers to suggest some non-monetary prize ideas they’d like to receive from me. The only downside of this concept is that you might receive so many good prize suggestions, that you’d feel bad for rewarding only one or two of them and disdaining others.

3. Reward the comments

   One of the easiest way to encourage people to comment on your site is run a contest and reward the Top Commentators. However, make sure that you carefully consider various scenarios of people commenting on your blog and don’t make the same mistakes I did in my Third Contest. Some people are very eager to get the coveted prize, especially a monetary one, and will do everything to achieve the Top Commentator’s status. So rather than automatically rewarding the 1st place, make sure to

   • clearly state the rules for the quality of the comments
   • create some additional rules like
     • the winner will be randomly picked from the Top 5 (8, or 10)
     • the commentator should have had commented on the blog prior to the contest (this will work well for rewarding your loyal readers/commentators, but won’t encourage the new commentators on the blog)
     • the commentator with the highest average number of words in the comments wins

4. Set simple rules

   It’s always beneficial to get a blog review/critique from readers, however don’t assume that everyone has time or desire to spend extra hours researching and studying your blog’s content and the interface. Nevertheless my Fourth Contest rules have resulted in 710 visits to my blog on the first day, and in two really great blog critiques. Next time around, I will however make my feedback rules simpler motivating more people to give back a quick criticism.

5. Inspirit RSS subscribers

   Thanks to Ronald for planting the idea in my head for the Fifth Contest. The rules were very straightforward and simple to follow which resulted in many participants. It didn’t make my RSS feed count to go to the roof, but the response was great.

6. Set a reasonable timeframe and expectations.

   It is very important to give enough time for blog readers to participate in the contest. However the golden rule applies here as well: don’t make it too long so that people lose their interest, and not too short to get as much response as possible. Clearly state the deadline and follow it yourself as well. If you’re running several contests in a row, it’s easy to lose track of time, so make sure that you spread the events and deadlines evenly.

   Don’t build your hopes too high – running contests is not the best way to increase your blog’s readership and RSS feed count. Nonetheless, blog contests bring more fun and personality to your site and help build friendly relationships with your readers.

7. Collaborate with other bloggers.

   I cannot overemphasize the significance of the interaction with your fellow bloggers. There’s always something new to learn from each other. And don’t forget that some of your readers are bloggers too. Who’ll better understand and relate to what you’re going through than someone who’s in the same boat as you are.

8. It’s never too late to correct the mistakes.

   Despite of reading several articles on how to run blog contests, I still made a few mistakes. As it turned out, it’s never too late to adjust the contest rules if you realize that something went wrong in unanticipated way. Just make sure that you do get the approval from your audience.

Please, let me know if you have any questions about running the blog contests. I’ll be very grateful if you provide me with some feedback as well, and point out other mistakes in hosting the contests.

Thanks to Bes and Ronald for organizing Reader Appreciation Week. How about renaming it to RAD next year? :-)

I will pass your email addresses to Ronald Huereca and he will contact you with instructions on how to obtain your $25 Amazon Gift Certificates.

One more winner

As promised, I would also like to announce an honorary final prize from Inspiration Bit to LGR who wished to “make it a blog swap. You write a post for me and I write a post for you”. So here you go, Lee, just let me know what topic you’d like me to write about on your blog, and I’ll tell you my preference.

Thanks again everybody for reading my blog. Even if you didn’t win any of my prizes this week, I hope that you all feel appreciated and welcomed here. And stick around, please – once in a blue moon I might surprise you with an unexpected inspiration gem, and who knows you might be one of the winners of the next year’s RAW (although I do hope that Bes and Ronald will rename it to RAD).