This post was inspired by Janette Toral of Influential Blogger Dot Net. Janette Toral is a writer, SEO consultant, trainer, blogger, policy lobbyist, and entrepreneur from the Philippines and has a myriad of sites ranging from personal thoughts to successful business models. You can find a full list of her sites here, on her blogger profile (if I have missed some, please comment Janette )

Janette is always finding ways to promote new and existing blogs so that they may find their way to you the reader and she has asked for help in that bloggers take part in this writing project and name some blogs which have gained readership and have a following. The blogs must also be no older than July 1st 2007, so look out bloggers that are not even one year old!

My list that I have come up with to date is as follows and please note that I can name up to ten blogs and edit this post as I add to it so here goes:

I know you have heard me mention Sean Rasmussen from Sean Rasmussen Dot Com a few times on this blog already and the reason why is because he truly writes a great blog! He’s motivating, inspiring, walks the talk and has gained a good readership since starting his personal blog in September last year.

Durano Lawayan aka Brad Spit, is another blogger who has a great following. The Spitting Vessel is a place where you can spit your mind out, in disgust or in jest, so long as you feel it is a wrong that must be corrected, as the tag line suggests. Great reading for anyone.

Carole Fogarty from the Healthy Living Lounge has many tips for exactly that – Healthy Living – and a must to see and read. Carole also runs women’s retreats in Bali and has extensive knowledge in Yoga and all things alternative to keep your body, mind and soul at peace. Well worth the read.

For now I will leave it at that and update as I come across more outstanding blogs. There are so many and I have to be wary of their start up dates as there is a restriction as to how old your blog can be. Janette will add these blogs to a list on her site as she updates on a weekly basis. If you would like to take part, please feel free to get the word around so that other great blogs may be discovered. Thank you Janette for running this project.

You may be aware that I also write posts over at GO! Smell the Flowers blog and right now, they are running the Blog Idol contest. Mike French (whom I am racing for comments to posts, LOL) has very cleverly put this visual together to get the ball rolling. Please fave this and leave a comment to get it out there to the world.

1) Describe yourself in less than 20 words.
2) Details of your blogs URL and why you bother.
3) Why GO! Smell the flowers appeals to you.
4) What you can bring to the community.
5) What you’d like from the community.

Whether you have a story to tell, or you want exposure to your business, or you have had a book published, or are travelling the world blogging as you go, or not and want to start blogging… whether you have something to teach or even having a voice wanting to be heard… whatever your circumstances and expertise, Flowers Wants YOU!!

The contest closes on the 18th of March so get on over there and leave your details. One thing before you do… there are thorns as well as flowers in the garden so make sure to have a good look around to see your way through them Most of all, have fun and tell all your friends!

Meg uses three variables which are the Alexa ranking for Australia, the Alexa ranking for the US, and the Technorati ranking of a blog to determine the numbers. To learn more of how she does this, read it here.

Aside from this successful blog, Meg also facilitates the BUMPzee Australian Blogs Community and owns and runs dlook which is an Australian Online Business Directory, and from what I saw, there is also a dlook dating site if anyone is interested! Kudos to Meg for running such successful businesses.

Blogging is quite a community affair. I remember when I first started Buzzing with Ange and I used to wonder how to get people to read it. Twelve months later, I have made it into a Top 100 list. Not bad for a stay at home mother of two who has had quite a varied number of roles in her lifetime to date.

The social media has been a worthwhile area to be involved in with building a blogging community and learning how to drive traffic to my site. I must say that it has all been a very fun way of getting to know people too and the reasons why they blog.

Now it is really getting late here.

I will go to sleep smiling and grateful.

Dedicated to Success

What I like about this particular one is that it’s All About Me which will give you some idea of my online habits and why I am here. Some of you may have read earlier posts where I refer to my presence on the web and for those that haven’t caught up with me yet, you will find the answers down below. So keep reading.

Here we go, questions and answers.

1. How long have you been blogging.

My blog is one year old and has come a long way since I first started it. It started as a wordpress blog and then I switched to my own domain just about 4 months back. It has had a few facelifts in that time, and will have another shortly, so look out!

2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors

I attended a seminar where I met a guy by the name of Jamie McIntyre. I have written about him before. It was an Internet and Business Mastery seminar and there were all sorts of Internet guru’s who were giving me plenty to think about. Ideas were flying around the room and when I got home, I immediately sat at my PC and I started surfing and typing and I have not looked back since.

Sean Rasmussen is my mentor. I met him through doing the seminars as well. Sean quickly got working on the Internet after attending the same seminar two years prior to me. He has taught me a lot about SEO and building sites, along with some great tips on how to live the life you love. Remember in school how we were told not to cheat, well now it’s called modeling. Jamie says to find someone who has already done what you want to do and model them. It works for me

3. Are you trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun

Yes I am making money working on the net, and I just love what I do. This blog gives me freedom of expression and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t have to leave home every morning to go to a job so I am very blessed to be doing this.

4. What 3 things do you love about being online

a) I love that I have built up such a great community of friends. I belong to a vast number of communities and I love the fact that I get to meet bloggers and some non-bloggers from many resources.

b) I love that I can keep up-to-date with all that is going on through the various communities. Athough, there are times when there is so much going on that I can arrive a little late for the party That could also be due to the fact that I have branched out quite a bit.

c) I love that this really is FUN.

5. What 3 things do you struggle with online

a) There is just so much information and lots of great blogs to read that sometimes my work suffers. I am very social and love to keep up with all my contacts. When they email or message me, I have to know what is going on and give a reply… LOL… sometimes, that can take up quite a bit of time. So sleep IS over-rated. I will just have to sleep when I am dead which I don’t intend to be for quite a long time yet.

b) I sometimes get overwhelmed and have to re-center myself to focus on the job at hand. There will be some changes other than a face-lift here at Buzzing with Ange. I will be giving it some structure with regular features so you will know what to expect from me in the future. This is one thing that I have dismissed in the past and now I believe it is time to smarten things up a bit.

c) I am still learning a lot of the technical side of things and how they work and sometimes, I don’t get it right and I have had instances of my blog disappearing from cyberspace. Yikes!! I am so grateful to have my tech guy, who is not always available, but really helpful when I do get hold of him. He does some really great work and has built some amazing sites.

Enough of the Q. & A. now I am going to introduce you to some of my community from BlogCatalog who have a variety of sites I know you will enjoy. This is how the meme works as it keeps going and going and going.

Diane from Dorset with her blog Much of a Muchness with some random thoughts and musings that turned into a blog, and she also has some lovely notebooks she has handmade herself on show.
Mike who is a book lover at The View from Here. Mike is also writing his own book and is looking for a publisher so if you can help, that would be great.

Megan from Imaginif Child Protection Became a Serious Business. Megan has devoted her life to the protection of children. A very worthy cause.

Derek from Derek Semmler Dot Com who I met through stumbling on StumbleUpon. Now Derek does talk about his online earnings and is a great blog to get some tips from if you are one of those bloggers who are keen on making money online.

Chessnoid from TotalNoid who also writes about the things he loves and is passionate about. It’s great to read what gets people moving forward in life.

Chris from Self Improvement Journal which is something I have a kindred spirit for. I get a lot of inspiration reading Chris’ blog and we have also both attended the Landmark Forum so we are on the same page when he writes about it.

Carole from The Healthy Living Lounge is very keen on yoga and has some great tips on living a healthy lifestyle.

MidgetManOfSteel from Mental Poo just for something completely different. I don’t know his real name. A word of warning though, this bog contains random thoughts and comments that tend to flow from his head with little advance warning which he calls…. mental poo… so be careful, it could get quite messy in there. Enter at your own risk.

Hmmmmm……. something to think about. Enjoy visiting these great bloggers who have made a difference in the blogosphere. Get connected with them if you are in the realm of blogging. Have fun and all that.

I have to tell you that I have many projects going on at the moment that sometimes, I forget to let you know what’s going on. My work has become quite varied and I am involved in some JV’s which are keeping me very occupied to say the least. Oh… and btw, with Google’s latest PageRank update, my site now has a PageRank 3 which is pretty cool I think… and not only that, but following on from the last article re TaggZilla and ranking #1 with Google, little did I know that when I started with this blog, my other sites, and profiles on many of the social network sites, that I had my own little Site Club going on. They all have Page Ranks now

What this means is that this blog has provided some strength in the importance of all my other sites. So if you are a webmaster and into blogging, having links to all your other sites can improve the chance of building their PageRank as well. I guess that’s what they mean by link building with relevancy to the site.

The Measure of a Man

So why did I quote Sidney Poitier at the beginning of this post you may ask if I am talking about PageRank. Well, I like the quote for a start and to tell you the truth, I am not 100% sure that the PageRank really does show the Measure of a Man or site in this case. I am not going to get into a big discussion about this as my strengths do not lie here, I am just telling you what I know and what I have learned over the past year as a webmaster and blogger.

My personal opinion is that if you love what you do and your readers keep coming back, then just keep on doing it. If you have a monetized site, keep that monetized site. Whatever makes you happy is great for you. I love writing here as I can blab about whatever I like and most of the time, I send you off with something to think about. Don’t I.

So right now, I am Being in the Moment and giving you what I know, my thoughts as they stand at this moment. Living consciously and being genuine. It’s not always the case with most of us as we are afraid of what others might think of us. Am I generalizing here, please let me know if I am. Shed some light on why there are times that we may not be genuine or maybe you are afraid to. Either way, go and build your own Site Club and watch your PageRank develop in the next update or two.

Dedicated to Success

Ange

About one month ago, I came across Marty Weintraub over at Aim Clear who recently wrote a very endearing post telling us how he had been diagnosed with stage 3b Lymphoma. As he said, even today, to hear those words is like an eerie insight as to what it’s like to receive the heartbreaking Lymphoma diagnosis. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what those words would sound like to me. Marty is now in recovery with “first partial remission” and a good prognosis for long term survival and wants his friends to highlight an upcoming event to help raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Internet Marketers of New York

I would like to bring to your attention this event which will be held in NY on Monday, 15th October 2007. It is being held the evening before the SMX Social Media which is a two-day show where marketers will learn to harness the power of consumer engagement. If you happen to be in the area, it would be great of you to support the event by attending. You can find all the details here at http://www.im-ny.org/events.html

If you are not in the vicinity, there are other ways to help if you feel a need to do so. One of those ways is to write about the event in you own blog and pass on the awareness so that the news reaches as many people as possible. For this purpose, I will be tagging Sandra, Chris, Jim and Emma, Yogi, and Karla.

Raise awareness anyway you can and let’s make a difference to the those who suffer with this kind of dis-ease.

May You Be Blessed

Ange