I have a smile on my face as I am writing this post because the “hostess of happiness” has agreed to be a featured writer and weekly contributor here on Tycoon Blogger.  I am sure some of you know who I am referring to, but for those that do not, I am alluding to El Edwards who runs an awesome happiness blog over at Heaven and El. 

 I urge you to head over and spend some time on her site, she has a beatifuly designed blog and a unique and refreshing writing style.  I guarantee that you will enjoy her content as it is a nice break from tech and blogging tips blogs,  El blogs from the heart and the passion she has for writing and entertaining her readers shines through on every post.  Aside from being a great blogger, El is also a great person.  She is the co-founder and writer on the Give a Brick charity website. 

I am super excited and eager to read El’s take on blogging for business (or charity, in her case), social networking and inspiration.  I think her posts will add another dimension to this blog and I see this as a major step forward for TycoonBlogger.com.  Please join me in welcoming El and stop by her blog and say hello to her at her “home” as well.

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business

Most blogging gurus will tell you that the only way to be a successful blogger and to make money blogging is to have a well defined niche.  They will suggest that you should really narrow in and get ultra- focused.  That may be a good strategy for some blogs like ProBlogger and DailyBlogTips but I have decided to buck the trend.  Over the past 18 months or so I have zeroed in on a pretty focused niche; finding myself in the Blogs about Blogging category.  I love the blogging tips niche and I love the bloggers that are a part of the blogging tips community but I have decided it is time to broaden my scope and expand the topics that I will focus on.

The mission of this blog is evolving from:

“Blogging Tips on How to Promote Your Blog and Make Money Blogging”

to:

“Helping Small Businesses leverage social media to grow their business and their brand.”

Of course, a major component of this includes blogging, so I will still be writing a lot on the topic.  In addition to blogging and social networking, I will focus in on entrepreneurialism, marketing and branding, and other methods of  increasing revenue. I am also devoting a category that will include business reviews (both sponsored and not sponsored).

Why I am expanding my blogging niche?

There is not one specific reason but more of a combination of reasons that have lead me to this decision, including:

• Expand Audience – One of the factors is that I feel I will be able to grow my audience and my brand if I am able to move beyond the blogging niche.
• Establish and Expand my Business- By catering to small business types, I will be able to directly target the end user that I am selling to.  I am working on a new sales page that will introduce my service offerings to small business owners.
• Keep things Exciting- This one is for me.  Sometimes the blogging tips niche seems like an echo chamber, everyone saying the same things over and over again. I really want the opportunity to explore other topics.
• Had success using this model in the past – I have actually done this before on my career blog.  When I started, I was focusing on a very narrow topic of resume writing.  I really saw my blog traffic and community take off when I broadened the focus to include general career advice and tips.

Let me close by reiterating that I am thankful for the awesome blogging friends that I have met in the blogging tips niche.  I will continue to be a part of this community, I will just be adding additional content to this blog along the way.

What do you think of this plan?  I am interested in hearing about your stories about either expanding or narrowing the focus of your blog..Please share in the comments section.

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business

Most bloggers and webmasters know that link building is a crucial element for SEO. A great way to build high quality links is through article marketing. Every time I start a new site or blog, I kick start my promotion and link building campaign by submitting targeted articles to high quality blog directories. I wanted to bring a relatively new article directory to your attention called Article Zoom. Article Zoom is a general article directory that has some unique factors that set it apart from other article directories out there. For one, the site is built on wordpress, whick makes it very easy to submit your article and navigate the site. The directory also has some unique features like a duplicate content checker, seo friendly images, and a ping optimizer. Article Zoom admits that they are not reinventing the wheel here, they are simply trying to make it easy for publishers, readers and moderators to get the most of their article directory.

Oh, I almost forgot, all article are promoted via twitter. If you are looking for an additional resource to help you promote your blog and build links, here are the submission guidelines for you to take a look at.

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business

Happy New Years to everyone around the world!

Some bloggers take time off from writing content and blog promotion on New Years Eve and some folks may have missed the fact that Google updated the page ranks today.  I almost missed it myself as I have not been online much promoting my blog today.

I have been very consistent in building backlinks and posting regular content but the big G was not feeling the Tycoon Blogger this time around as I got bumped from a pr3 to a pr 2.  I find this very strange as it is not like I have been slacking off over here.  This also comes at a time when my Google traffic has been growing steadily and I am ranking high for competitive keyword phrases like twitter follower tools and promote your blog.  Oh well, I will keep doing my thing and see what happens next time.  I know a lot of bloggers do not care about page rank, but I do still think it is important as advertisers still think it is important.

I wish I knew what Google formula was based on because I can not make any sense out of it.  For example, this blog has over 1,500 backlinks.  I have a static site called Your Sales Resume that I have never updated and it only has 37 backlinks and that just got a PR 4.  What the F is up with that logic?

Anyways, I am a little pissed but I am not going to let it ruin my night.

I hope you had better luck this update that I did.  Drop me a comment and let me know how Google treated you.

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business

If you stopped by for blogging tips on how to promote your blog and make money blogging, I am sorry to disappoint. Just wanted to put a quick post and wish all my blogging friends around the world a Merry Christmas. I hope you are having a great one…I know I am!

If you are really need a blogging tips fix today, I am sure you can find some good posts in my

Best of Blog Posts Series

if you want to read about what my son thought about christmas and the gifts that he received, he just finished his blog post…

My Christmas Day presents - Blogging Boy

Wishing you the best,

Dan

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business

Instead of blogging tips and twitter tips, I will be blogging about something much more important.  Today I am blogging for a cause, and the cause is SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) which is a serious neuromuscular disease.  Like most people, I never heard of this disease until it affected a very close lifelong friend of my wife.

Here’s her story :

Sweet Baby Zane from Clair Pruett on Vimeo.

Many people were moved by the story including Christoper Finlan.  Christopher has written a novel (his first) which sheds some light on this terrible an under reported disease.  I asked Christopher to write a post for me to publish and talk about how this book came to be.  Here are his words…

First off, I’d suggest you read about Zane, Hillary, Keith and Avery in Hillary’s foreword, since that’s the biggest reason any of this happened.  Spinal Muscular Atrophy is an incredibly underreported condition that children suffer with, and should be given the attention it deserves by the mainstream media.  Their story is one that everyone should read, regardless of what you think of the rest of the book.

I do want people to understand going in, the story itself is fiction.  It’s a mystery and a love story and a comedy, and just “happens” to have SMA as part of the plot.  It’s meant to be a fun read and something anyone can enjoy, so people who happen upon it for any other reason get to learn a little more about this terrible disease without even realizing it.  So how did this book come about?

In late May/early June, I was diagnosed with ADD.  In fact, the doctor’s exact words were, “You have one of the worst cases of ADD I’ve ever seen.  I’m surprised you’re not living under a bridge or something.”  Little did he know my wife and I had made an offer on a place under a bridge, but whatever.  So when I was I diagnosed with that, I was prescribed medication for it.  It was like I was a whole new person.  No, I didn’t get hair or chiseled abs, but the change was dramatic.  My wife was stunned at the difference, and still is.  A book I read described it as getting “glasses” for your brain, or like stumbling around in a semi-lit room your whole life and then someone clicks the light on for you.

Once that happened, a few other things came together.  I’d already had this idea for the book, and to be honest, the disease wasn’t SMA when I first had the idea (since I’d never heard of it until Zane).  However, as mentioned on the website, once Zane died, I was discussing her death with some friends, and we ended up discussing the book idea I had in the context of just being a parent and what you go through.  Well, since the reaction to the idea in the prologue was so positive, I started on it the next day.

The first person I actually told when I got started was Heather.  I’d never done this before, and I didn’t want it to be a trainwreck.  In fact, if at any point she’d told me “This is a trainwreck.”, I would have stopped and not published it.  It wouldn’t make sense to try and raise money for SMA with a bad book, since no one’s buying a bad book once my mom stops buying copies.  Anyway, Heather would send me e-mails of encouragement each day so I’d keep at it, and since I thought it was going well, I told Hillary about it.  My intention was not to tell Hillary about it until I was done, and then let her know, but having ADD, you’re impatient, and I told her about two weeks or so into it.

I went back and found the original e-mail I wrote to Hillary, in which I wrote the following – “If you are interested and only if you are interested, I would be honored if you would allow me to have a small dedication to Zane either you write or I do before the story begins, or if you’d like to write a preface to be included.  I would not only be happy to include it, but truly privileged to do so.  Now, you may not want Zane’s name anywhere near this after you read it, and that’s entirely up to you.”

Hillary was very gracious and very excited (and apparently still was after she read it), so I sent her and Heather the manuscript when I finished it in late July.  The other person I sent the manuscript to was Sarah McMaster.  Why Sarah?  Well, when you write a book, or at least when I did, you “cast” people in the various parts.  All along, the person I cast as “Sarah Knox” was Sarah McMaster.  Who did I cast as Jim in my head?  I’m not telling for now, but perhaps the fact a Sarah in the book is being played by a Sarah would give you a hint, and hopefully not scare you off at the frightening lack of creativity I showed in handing out names.  Regardless, I wanted to have her involved somehow and possibly do the audio version, since I thought it was important to have that as an option for people to buy to raise more money.  She was very gracious and agreed to help out however she could.

Now while Hillary’s foreword is much the same as what she first wrote, that can’t be said about the rest of the book, as it’s undergone six full reviews with the editor, and I’d guess around fifteen to twenty percent of what you’re reading is from that first draft.  The characters are still there, and certain scenes are from that first draft, but the vast majority of this came after what they all read.  That being said, Heather was so positive about the first draft for someone who hadn’t done this before, suddenly it didn’t seem crazy that this could really make a difference, and that’s what all of us are so grateful to you for.

I’m happy to announce we’ve already raised over $1000 for FSMA just in donations from pre-orders, and that’s for a book from an author who no one had ever heard of on Monday.  Thank you so much, and keep doing what you’re doing.  You’ve made a difference already, and I thank you, Hillary thanks you, the entire team thanks you.

Thanks Tycoon!

Christopher Finlan

Thank you Christopher, I am happy that I can help spread the word.  Please visit Christophers’ website , Not a Fire Exit to learn more about the book and SMA.  A portion of the proceeds will be going directly to help fight SMA.  You can also help the cause by joining the Facebook fan page, click here to join.  We are looking for 200 more fans before the end of today.

Please also consider sending out a tweet to your followers for this good cause.

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business

Happy Friday everyone!

I am preparing a new blog post and before I get that published I wanted to provide a couple of updates about things that are going on with my blogs.

Last week I posted about some blog related domain names that I have for sale.  I have been offered $250 for BlogFluence.com and $100 for DoFollowMovement, no offers for TweetMyPost.com or OpinionatedBlogger.

What do you guys think, should I take the money or hold out for better offers?

At the top of the month I wrote a post about the benefits of blog commenting on this blog and mentioned that I would be offering a free month of advertising to the top commentator.  So far Doug is running away with.  There are still 4 days left to get your comments in.

Yesterday, I wrote about some great blog contests going on at some other blogs but forgot to mention the blog contest going on at one of my other blogs ; Daily Blog Contest .  There are 4 days left to enter for your chance to win 37,000 Entrecard credits.  These credits are more valuable then ever now that Entrecard has cut the amount of credits you can earn in half.  Here is a direct link to enter the Entrecard Blog Contest

I need your help for this new post I am writing.  I have not written about Twitter in a while and I have found myself not as hooked as I once was and I am wondering why this is.  There are some things that I think Twitter should change to enhance the user experience.  I want your input…Please let me know what the number 1 thing you would change on Twitter.  I just sent out a tweet and asked my followers to chime in.  I am excited to see the responses and will compile them in the post along with my number 1 thing that I think Twitter should change.  So what do you think?  Hit me up on Twitter.com/TycoonBlogger

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business

I big thank you to all the visitors and people who take time to provide meaningful comments on my blog.  My traffic has been growing steadily as are the number and quality of comments.  I wanted to take some time out and recognize some of my “blogging buddies”  for their activity in the month of June.

Top Commenters for June

• Serradinho
• Extreme John
• MyBlog2Day
• Blog Godown
• Cho Toan

Top EntreCard Droppers for June

• Crimson Sparkle
• Blazing Minds
• Make Money Online with EJ Cooksey

Top Twitter Buddies for June (these are the people who retweeted my tweets most often)

• Follow @extremejohn
• Follow @gfserradinho

In case you were wondering how I knew who the top retweeters were, there is a cool new site that will tell you.  Check out Retweetist.com and just enter your username and it will give you retweet stats for the past 30 days.

Thanks again!!

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business

It is hard to believe that I am writing post # 99 and already 4 months into this blog.  I am in the middle of creating a special one hundredth post for tomorrow that will highlight the best blog posts so far.  I figured in this post, I would talk about the progress of this blog up until now.

• 99 posts and 697 comments.  I am so grateful to all the people who have visited so far and took the time to drop a comment.  I am averaging almost 7 comments her post and it is about 12 per post average over the last 50 posts.
• My Alexa ranking continues to soar and I am in the 60k neighborhood for the past month.  I have set a goal to crack the 50k mark within 6 months and I am well on my way to doing that.
• Achieved PR3 in first update and maintained on the last follow up.  I am pushing for pr4 on the next update but will not be upset if I stay the same.
• I am on my fourth theme change at this point.  I started with a free theme, then moved to a premium theme from Elegant themes.  Last week , I switched to the Flexis theme and yesterday I switched back to a new theme from Elegant themes.  I am really happy with this one and I think I will stick with it for a while.  I am working on getting a new logo for the blog.  I should have that up in about a week or so.
• I just checked my feedburner stats and I am very happy to announce that I have over 234 subscribers.   have 408 Twitter followers (all earned the hard way).

Over all, I am very pleased at how this blog is coming along and am motivated to keeping with it.  Don’t forget to check back in tomorrow to check out the 100th post.

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business

I attempted to contact the designer and other members in the support forum and was willing to pay someone to help adjust the width for me, but my messages in the forums went unanswered.  So, I decided to change the theme altogether and switch the header too.  I am now using the new premium them from themesphere.com called Flexis.  I looked at several premium themes and was vacillating between revolution and thesis and that is when I found Flexis.  I want go into all the features and benefits as this is not a sales pitch for them, but rather just keep you guys updated on what’s going on.  I will let you know that cost did play a factor, this them costs $30 (I found a $10 off coupon) and that is a fraction of the cost of the other two themes I was looking at.

What do you think? I am looking for a good plugin for digg and stumble buttons, any suggestions?

Tycoon Blogger - Promote your Blog - Promote Your Business