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Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go :: February 2009

andrea — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:05:52 +0000

When I had told Derek that I wanted and was going to help him out, I had every intention of doing so. As my luck would have it, work and my personal life got extremely busy and I was left with little time for myself. Now things have smooth out (yay!) and life is back to normal.�

Last month on Derek Semmler dot com was pretty uneventful but that doesn’t mean that people didn’t stop taking an interest in what was going on over here!�

So here it is folks, The February 2009 edition of Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go?

Top 10 Referring Sites

Once again, Geekologie has taken the top spot for the month of February. Congrats! InlineSEO and Sparkplugging were neck and neck for 3 and 4th place. I would like to send a special shout-out to Nick from romandock dot com�for beating me this past month, WTG! LOL One major thing I noticed about this past month is the new faces to the top 10 list. Drew’s Marketing Minute, Molson in the Community, and Big Foot Web Marketing to name a few. I checked out Drew’s Marketing Minute and i enjoyed his site. I especially enjoyed his encounter with a dog/marketing whisperer.

Top Ten Visited Posts

No surprise in seeing the cellphone conversation being top dog. It is pretty much the same list as last month but a bit jumbled up.�

Digging in Google Analytics, I discovered the pageviews and visits were slightly down from the previous months but not by much! So, yay for that!�

So in closing, I hope to bring more interesting post here. Now that I am back from vacation, you shall see more of me! But I will say that if you have any suggestions for posts and if you want to run it by me, please email me. Thanks!

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Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go :: January 2009

andrea — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:26:13 +0000

Looking back on January, there was TONS of information to have read, “magic” being shared, and laughter at someone else’s expense – by a kid no less (c’mon, I know you laughed I sure did)!�

Up high reading about Derek share his Magic Formula to More Comments�,�Adding 440+ Readers to Your Blog in 4 Easy Steps�and who could forget about being at The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time.�Down to reading about Derek’s realization about Pursuing His Passion.�

By the way, my name is Andrea. I run the show over at According to Andrea. You may have seen me hanging out here�commenting and also my attempt to lighten the mood with nonsense in my guest post.

No, I am not taking over derek semmler dot com.

I know I am filling in some big shoes but I am simply helping Derek out until he makes it back. Rest assure that you are in good hands. I will try my best to keep the community interaction going.

I know it is a bit late but I am here to present to you the Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go?

Top 10 Referring Sites

Geekologie has taken the lead away from Blog Blazers last month. You know, if I didn’t know any better this list pretty much looks like last month’s top ten with the addition of Trade Show Guru and Dietriffic. Blog Blazers seems to have slipped off the list from last month but I am sure it will be back, it had a strong debut last month. Congratulations to all the Top 10 Referring Sites this month, great job!�

Keeping with last month’s visits and pageviews, this blog passed the 6000+ visits and 10,000+ pageviews! I am completely amazed how this blog keeps up with these figures. Derek couldn’t have done it without help from y’all, the community!
�
Moving on to the Top 10 Visited Posts, here they are from the past month (according to Google Analytics).

Top 10 Visited Posts�

3 of the Top 10 Visited Posts were from within the last month, several have been recently and few that have been well established such as the how to record a cellphone conversation and Ford Crown Victoria Interceptor.

I will be honest with you, I haven’t read the top 2 posts. I came across Derek’s blog in the middle of last year and never read them firsthand. Maybe I will add to the visited post count and go take a look at them.

Reflecting on this past month, I saw alot of posts being focus on information on being successful and alot about affiliate marketing. Do these possibly go hand in hand? Hmm, maybe. What do you think?

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Speedlinking – Be Successful

derek — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:11:44 +0000

Ask someone if they want to be successful.

No really, ask someone – I’ll wait.

If the person you ask is like most people, they will look at you funny and then answer that of course they want to be successful.

Now ask them what steps they are taking to be successful.

Chirp…chirp…chirp.

While just about everyone wants to be successful, not everyone understands the process to become successful. This is something that I have struggled with myself and need to continue to improve.

If you could use a few pointers on how to achieve the success you want, take a look at the following posts.

1. Melanie from Dietriffic.com explains that one of the things we need to do to be successful is to stop negative thinking. It might sound corny but when it comes to success, often times we are our own worst enemy. For whatever reason, many people don’t believe they deserve to be successful and their negative thoughts contribute to them not being successful.

2. Laura Roeder from Roeder Studios shared a guest post at ProBlogger that details how to make deals with big shots in less than 10 minutes. While not a deal in the sense that Laura explains, I used many of these tips to secure interviews with big shots such as Darren Rowse, Shoemoney, and Leo Babauta.

3. Over at Beyond the Rhetoric, Michael Kwan asks what might seem like a simple question: Do you want to be normal?. While the question appears to be simple, the answer is more complex than you might think. People take comfort in making the safe decisions, but how much is that impacting their ability to be truly successful?

4. Phil Van Treuren from Contest Blogger details how he went from being out of a job to landing an SEO dream job close to home. Phil did something that might be considered out of the norm when he accepted a position with a small, family-owned business in an industry that he knew nothing about. How has it turned out?

5. Gary Jones from BlueFur walks us through another Weekend Project that is focused on how to make money with twitter. How many times have you heard someone say (or said yourself) that they wish they could find work doing XYZ? Well, Gary provides a great tip on how you can proactively find that work and make your own success.

Take some time to digest all of these outstanding posts that will put you on the path to achieving the success that you want. Nothing would make me happier than for all of us to be doing the work we love and achieve whatever success it is that we desire.

What tips do you have to be successful?

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Speedlinking – Affiliate Marketing

derek — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:00:45 +0000

Affiliate marketing – two words that can make your heart race and your head hurt, all at the same time. As you strive to make money online, you will undoubtedly come to the realization – if you haven’t already – that you need to learn and experiment with affiliate marketing.

Not too long ago, we discussed what not to do with affiliate marketing – but what should you be doing? Sure, you can be – and should be – working to leverage the real power of the Amazon Affiliate Program, but there is more than that.

The world of landing pages, PPC campaigns, and split testing is enough to make your head spin. There is so much information available that you could easily spend all of your time reading and none of your time doing. Personally, I try to read a little and then jump in and experiment – which is why I stayed up late one night last week creating a site about Chicago Football Gifts.

You don’t know what is possible until you try.

With that said, there is certainly something to be said for working smarter as opposed to simply working harder. The sites featured in this edition of Speedlinking will help you find the path towards working smarter, with information and reviews on tools, such as Build A Niche Store (too bad I was denied for the eBay Partner Network), affiliate networks, landing page templates, and more.

1. Zac Johnson from Zac Johnson dot Com is a name many of you have seen on this blog before. After reading this blog for quite some time, and having had a chance to briefly meet Zac at BlogWorld, I cannot recommend his blog enough. A good place for you to start is Zac’s breakdown of 5 reasons you still aren’t making money online. How many of these excuses have you used? Stop with the excuses and start today. Nobody is telling you that it will be easy, but I can guarantee you will not have any success if you don’t take the first step.

2. Paul Piotrowski from InspiredMoneyMaker.com recently shared a guest post over at TylerCruz.com that provides an interesting explanation as to what separates you from the high-earning affiliates. Paul explains that we all have an affiliate thermostat, which is a mechanism that influences our behavior to create a match between our current earnings beliefs and our current actual earnings. Don’t be your own worst enemy – learn how to reset your thermostat and unlock your earnings potential.

3. Another person that I was fortunate enough to meet at BlogWorld was Ian Fernando – who I believe understands the idea of the affiliate thermostat as he was telling people that I was making crazy money with my sites. Ian recently shared his prediction that WordPress will be the next generation of landing pages as more people begin to understand how to leverage WordPress for more than just blogs. I’ve created a few sites (Pro Football Workout and now Chicago Football Gifts) that might be able to leverage this idea.

4. Another person that is doing great things to help more people learn about making money online is Garry Conn. As you read and learn more about affiliate marketing, you will quickly begin to realize the importance of selecting a niche topic. Often times people want to find a niche that has little competition, although that also might mean the payouts are not the best. Recently, Garry provided a few thoughts on how you could make money with a quit smoking blog. While this niche is quite competitive, Garry explains that the money PPC advertisers are bidding on these keywords could still make this quite profitable.

5. Paul Bourque from Uber Affiliate has a wealth of experience that he shares with his community of readers. While it almost seems routine to see affiliate marketers posting about how they earned a ridiculously large sum of money, you don’t find one that openly explains their mistakes as Paul did recently with his post detailing why he only made $182.64 profit in November. The important thing to take away from this is that the life of an affiliate marketer never stops – you cannot expect the things that work today to keep working tomorrow. You always have to be ready to adjust and learn from your setbacks, as Paul has done here.

As you continue to explore the possibilities of affiliate marketing, be sure to keep the fine people mentioned above on your radar. Not only are they each successful in what they do, they like to share information with their readers.

If you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you will know that I too like to share information with all of you. Therefore you’ll be sure to be updated on my initiatives to earn money with affiliate marketing and will hear the great news when I partner up with one of these super affiliates on a joint venture (hey, I am setting my thermostat).

Note: After publishing this post, I noticed an email from Steve (not the same Steve as mentioned above) that mentioned he is running a competition to win a free Sony PS3 and it is open to residents of the UK, USA, and Canada. Check it out!

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derek — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:00:22 +0000

There was a lot of great conversation during the month of December as we discussed a variety of topics, such as affiliate marketing (what not to do with affiliate marketing and the real power of the Amazon Affiliate Program), social media (10 people worth following on FriendFeed) and even blog tips (how to add a comments link at the top of your post).

There were laughs and tears. There were unveilings, predictions, and moments to help others.

Basically, there was a little bit of everything in December.

Therefore it should be no surprise to hear that there was a significant increase in the amount of conversation, increasing from 498 comments in November to 692 comments in December. That is an average of more than 30 comments per post!

For the month of December, the following posts had the most active discussion:

Win Canadian Club Whisky Schwag :: 128 comments
Two? Three? Try Seven Hours On The Road :: 44 comments
The Real Power Of The Amazon Affiliate Program :: 43 comments

Who was doing the most talking?

If I were being lazy, I could simply copy the post from last month as the top five commentators are exactly the same – although the order has been switched up a little bit.

1. For the fourth month in a row, Nick from romandock dot com secured the top spot with 47 comments. Recently, Nick examined a post that I wrote about how closely parents monitor the games and programs their children consume and concludes that violent video games and violent behavior has a correlation, but not a cause-and-effect relationship.

2. Jumping up two places with 32 comments is Neil from Goodies For Free. With all the discussion about affiliate programs and earnings, Neil announced that he is launching a new free PS3 news site and hopes to leverage a few affiliate programs. After taking a look, I already see that Neil has implemented ads from one of the affiliate programs we have discussed here. Good luck Neil!

3. Nicole from Great Prices Here should get an award for consistency, as she again grabbed the third spot with 25 comments. If you’re ready for a few laughs, take a look at Nicole’s post on the best commercials of 2008. With the Super Bowl (and the insanity surrounding Super Bowl commercials) quickly approaching, how many will top those from 2008?

4. Slipping down a few spots, Andrea from According to Andrea shared her thoughts 24 times. While I was tempted to share her post that was all about me, I have to give props to the awesome birthday present that she gave to her son a few weeks back. And yes…I used to be a huge fan of what they will be doing!

5. Rounding out the top five, Ling from Uptake had 21 comments. After having a lengthy vacation to Disney World just a few months ago, I’m already getting the itch to go somewhere again. However, it will most likely have to be a long weekend type of getaway. That is why this mention of the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan caught my eye, although it does seem a little pricey.

Normally, that would conclude our look back at the activity from the previous month. However, since we also concluded the calendar year, I thought it would be fun to take a quick look at a recap of the entire year as well.

As I mentioned earlier, December alone had nearly 700 comments and that was quite a bit above the monthly average. Over the entire year of 2008, there were 5,621 comments posted. Taking a quick look back to 2007, I see that there the number of comments has nearly doubled – that is great to see, thank you!

Who did the most talking?

The list of people above will give you a good clue as to who did the most talking throughout the year, as you need to be at or near the top month after month to make the annual list.

Top 5 Commentators of 2008

Nicole from Great Prices Here with 262 comments
Nick from romandock dot com with 235 comments
Ling from Uptake with 202 comments
Steve from Gadgets 4 Nowt with 199 comments
Andrea from According to Andrea with 171 comments

With more than 5,000 comments over the course of the year, obviously there has been a healthy amount of discussion on most of the posts.

Which posts had the most discussion?

In a sign that people really do love free schwag, many of the posts with the highest number of comments were contest posts although there were a couple of non-contest posts that cracked into the top five as well.

Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go :: December 2008

derek — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:00:25 +0000

The month, and year, are winding down and many of us are enjoying some time away from the normal routine and spending time with our loved ones. Before we all set our sights on what lies ahead in 2009, it is important to remember where we have been as well.

With the end of 2008 upon us, it is time once again to take a look at the ten blogs that referred the most traffic – where did you come from – and take a look at the top ten most visited posts – where did you go.

Top 10 Referring Sites

While there are a few new names on the list this month, I wanted to make special mention of Blog Blazers and GrowMap as it is not every month that you see a new site debut in the top five referring sites, let alone take home the top spot.

How did these new additions impact the overall traffic?

Well, as I pulled up the stats to prepare this post there was a pleasant surprise staring back at me in the Google Analytics dashboard – once again this blog has surpassed a blogging milestone with 6000+ visitors and 10,000+ page views for the month.

So what was the most popular content?

According to Google Analytics, here are the top 10 visited posts from the past month.

Speedlinking – 2009 Predictions

derek — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:00:07 +0000

It is hard to believe but 2008 is quickly winding down and people have already started to look forward to what the new year has in store. There is a saying that nothing in this world is certain except for death and taxes, although one could certainly make a case that unrealistic New Year’s Resolutions and predictions for the coming year should be added to that list.

As the year comes to a close, it can be fun to look into your crystal ball and try to predict how things will shake out. As a matter of fact, one of the links below includes one such prediction from yours truly.

1. Jim Kukral sent out a note to some friends asking them about their 2009 social media predictions and what the coming year will bring for blogging and social media. Hint: You will find my prediction here – let me know what you think.

2. Peter Kim brought together fourteen great minds (almost as great as those in Jim’s post, lol) to share their thoughts on social media in 2009. Be sure to check out the PDF with the more detailed thoughts and predictions.

3. Over at Junta42, you’ll find another collection of people that have polished up the crystal ball to share their social media and content marketing predictions. Check out how these predictions compare to those above.

4. Peter Young shared a guest post at Marketing Pilgrim that asks whether or not 2009 will be the year that mobile marketing goes mainstream. As someone that just picked up a new G1, I am quickly embracing (and enjoying) the more capable phone and can see the possibilities that lie ahead.

5. In my prediction, I noted 2008 was the year of the video post and 2009 would hold more community interaction. That ties in well with Chris Brogan and his thoughts on why you need to be thinking about YouTube in 2009.

Once you have had a chance to digest this collection of predictions, I’d love to hear your predictions in the comments. Share your predictions on what 2009 will bring in terms of blogging, social media, or whatever you want to discuss.

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Speedlinking – The Art Of Photography

derek — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:46:13 +0000

After spending the evening turning the spare bedroom into a make-shift photo studio as I attempted to capture a handful of images for a product review that I am writing, it is only fitting that this edition of Speedlinking be dedicated to the art of photography.

In an effort to share a few new discoveries with all of you, I turned to Zuula Blog Search – which is a site that I learned about through my friend over at GrowMap and I enjoy more and more every day.

1. Smashing Magazine celebrates a collection of photographers that capture the life and culture of city streets with a look at the beauty of street photography. Prepare to lose yourself for quite some time, as there are links to each photographers’ websites and a collection of tutorials shared at the end of the article.

2. digital Photography School has a nice collection of tips on how to make the most of the art of travel of photography. While I don’t travel often at all, and when I do it is usually within a few hours drive from home, I find photographs of new locations and new cultures to be captivating.

3. With a long-standing goal of improving my photography skills, I found a handful of quality tips on Lifehacker in their ten cheap or free DIY photography projects. The tips that caught my eye were numbers four, two, and one. Now I could tell you what each of those were, but I think you’d get much more out if it you check out the entire post.

4. Many of you will recall that I am a huge fan of macro photography – which is why I thought this post on extreme macro photography on a budget was really cool. Now I am not sure that I am handy enough to attempt this, but the results are amazing.

5. Speaking of amazing macro shots – maybe I am being influenced by the fact that I am hungry right now – you should check out these 11 tips for great food photography. The best part about taking great food photographs is that you get to eat the food after taking the picture (did I mention that I was hungry?).

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Speedlinking – Friends, Old And New

derek — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:05:55 +0000

In the time since “officially” becoming a blogger, one thing that has been a focal point for me is sharing the wealth. That has taken a variety of forms, including the ability to provide tips and tricks that I have learned over the years or being in a position to donate time and/or funds to a worthwhile cause.

As many of you know, another way that I like to share the wealth is by distributing a healthy dose of link love to people that stop by this blog, as well as people that I find interesting in some way.

For this edition of Speedlinking, I wanted to share a handful of links from a few friends – one I’ve known nearly my entire life while others I have known since I began blogging and a couple that I have yet to really “meet” but I hope to soon.

1. The person behind GrowMap is someone that I’ve known online for some time now and I have a feeling one of the reasons we have clicked is that we both believe in some of the same things. One of those things just happens to be that we both love sharing the link love on our blogs. Thanks for all of your generosity!

2. Over at nerdhook, you will find Ryan, one of my friends that I have known for much of my life. Knowing him like I do, I can understand why this happens to be the oddest item that the “Amazon Remembers” service remembers for him. Since Ryan is still relatively new to blogging, I’d love it if you can jump over and share a few thoughts with him as well (there, now you can stop begging Ryan, lol).

3. Two people that I have been seeing more and more of across the Interweb yet haven’t had the pleasure to chat with are Louis Gray and Mike Fruchter. As a sign of perfect timing, I came across 10 pointers to generating traffic to your blog, which happens to be a guest post from Mike on Louis’ blog. Give it a read to see which things you are doing well and where you can improve, and feel free to let me know where you think I can improve too.

4. One of the people that I have known since my early days with blogging is Stephen from Stephen Fung DOT NET. I’ve even had an opportunity to review a LowePro camera bag for his site FutureLooks.com, and have another bag in my possession now. But the post that recently caught my eye, considering I need to do the same for my MacBook, was his video on upgrading his MacBook Pro memory from 2GB to 4GB. Why did it take so long Stephen?

5. Another person that I have noticed around the Interweb recently but again have not had the chance to connect with yet is “Stupid Blogger” from Is This Stupid?. Having been frustrated myself recently with certain services, I appreciated this post on why Technorati sucks – and it might not be for the reasons you are thinking.

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Speedlinking – November’s Most Vocal

derek — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:42:07 +0000

The month of November brought us historic moments, crazy ‘stache moments, one critical blogging tip for beginners, and a look at who we are based on the books we read.

In addition, there has been an increase in dialog between community members of roughly 20% compared to the previous month. To get an idea of what was responsible for the increase in dialog, lets take a look at the posts that received the most comments.

For the month of November, the following posts had the most active discussion:

Blog Blazers :: 40 Top Bloggers Share Their Secrets :: 57 comments
Bug Out :: Playing With The Camera :: 32 comments
The Five Things Meme :: 30 comments
Election Night 2008 – History In The Making? :: 30 comments

As I mentioned, there was an increase in the quantity of comments during the month of November; moving from 414 comments the previous month up to 498 comments. On a per post basis, this represents an increase from 21 comments per post to 26 comments per post.

So, who had the most to say last month?

1. It should come as no surprise to anyone that Nick from romandock dot com is among the most active commentators; he secured the top spot with 36 comments. Awhile back, Nick questioned how much time is wasted online with a variety of non-productive sites. It is quite interesting to think about when many of the people frequenting these sites complain that they have no time.

2. Yet another regular contributor, Andrea from According to Andrea, locked up the spot as the second most vocal with 25 comments. For those that don’t know, Andrea is working on a secret new project that I think some of you will really enjoy (yeah, I already know the secret).

3. The third most vocal community member, with 22 comments, is Nicole from Great Prices Here. Not too long ago, Nicole shared some great advice on how to save money on medication; given the current economy every little bit helps. In addition to Nicole’s tips, look at mail-order programs for additional savings.

4. Neil from Goodies For Free is the lone newcomer to the list of top commentators with 22 comments. Unfortunately for Neil, as I am writing this post I visited his site to try and include an additional link and instead I am greeted with an “Under Maintenance” screen. Doh!

5. Wrapping up the list of most vocal community members is Ling from Uptake with 16 comments. As we plan our next family vacation, I will certainly be talking to Ling for advice on where to stay. Given how much our kids enjoyed the beach on our trip to Florida, the Dunes Village Resort in Myrtle Beach sounds like it might fit the bill.

Thank you to not only these five active commentators but each and every one of you for your contributions and participation. It is encouraging to see not only the quantity but also the quality of comments continue to increase.

It was a great month – here is to an even better month in December!

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Derek Semmler dot com - WordPress Ninja » Reviews & Links

Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go :: February 2009

Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go :: January 2009

Speedlinking – Be Successful

Speedlinking – Affiliate Marketing

Top 5 Commentators of 2008

Top 5 Commented Posts of 2008

Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go :: December 2008

Top 10 Referring Sites

Top 10 Visited Posts

Speedlinking – 2009 Predictions

Speedlinking – The Art Of Photography

Speedlinking – Friends, Old And New

Speedlinking – November’s Most Vocal