Many thanks to Grace of The Wild Pomegranate for kindly presenting me with this Blogging That Hits The Mark Award. This is my first ever blogging award so I shall treasure it always!

However much effort I put into a post, there is always the nagging suspicion when I finally hit the 'publish' button that I have just sent a load of total garbage out into the world. So it is nice to know that - at least occasionally - it goes 'Splat!' in the right place. Thanks again, Grace!
While I'm on about blogging, this seems like a good opportunity to mention Blogrush, which splashed onto the scene a few months ago to great excitement but has recently faded from favor. You may notice the little box titled 'From The Blogosphere' in my sidebar with links to headlines from other spirituality blogs. (It's just below the Personal Development List.) The idea of Blogrush was that widgets like this would increase traffic exponentially throughout the blogging world. But it didn't happen. 'Click-through' rates have been disappointingly low and it turns out that 'Blogtrickle' would have been a more appropriate name.
Even so, I kind of like Blogrush. Big name bloggers who post about making money online may only be interested in attracting vast floods of traffic, but those of us who blog about more, ahem, esoteric subjects appreciate a trickle or two - that's how we get our readers. On top of which, I enjoy clicking on Blogrush widgets myself - I've found them to be a gateway to some interesting blogs which I might not have otherwise seen.
If you have a blog and are interested in joining Blogrush so that you can have a widget of your very own, you can sign up here. Then you should get a few more visitors to your blog. And of course there's one of those complex systems where the more people who sign up from this link of mine, the more 'referral points' I get. This means that if you sign up, then sometime a fortnight on Thursday, someone may click on a Blogrush widget and discover The Secret Of Life for the very first time. So they may be happy, I will be happy, and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you made it all possible...
(The Heart Of The Secret part 2 will follow almost immediately, honest.)
While I'm on about blogging, this seems like a good opportunity to mention Blogrush, which splashed onto the scene a few months ago to great excitement but has recently faded from favor. You may notice the little box titled 'From The Blogosphere' in my sidebar with links to headlines from other spirituality blogs. (It's just below the Personal Development List.) The idea of Blogrush was that widgets like this would increase traffic exponentially throughout the blogging world. But it didn't happen. 'Click-through' rates have been disappointingly low and it turns out that 'Blogtrickle' would have been a more appropriate name.
Even so, I kind of like Blogrush. Big name bloggers who post about making money online may only be interested in attracting vast floods of traffic, but those of us who blog about more, ahem, esoteric subjects appreciate a trickle or two - that's how we get our readers. On top of which, I enjoy clicking on Blogrush widgets myself - I've found them to be a gateway to some interesting blogs which I might not have otherwise seen.
If you have a blog and are interested in joining Blogrush so that you can have a widget of your very own, you can sign up here. Then you should get a few more visitors to your blog. And of course there's one of those complex systems where the more people who sign up from this link of mine, the more 'referral points' I get. This means that if you sign up, then sometime a fortnight on Thursday, someone may click on a Blogrush widget and discover The Secret Of Life for the very first time. So they may be happy, I will be happy, and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you made it all possible...
(The Heart Of The Secret part 2 will follow almost immediately, honest.)
Hi,
It’s been quite a while since I stopped in to say hi.
I would like to extend a personal invitation for you to participate in a “Traveling Directory.” It will offer you a way to:
* Share your blog
* Explain why you blog
* Find new blogs to read
* Promote your blog
* Obtain instant links
* Increase readership
Follow this link; it will be self explanatory.
http://mondaymorningpower.blogspot.com/2007/11/spread-word-round-two.html
Posted by: Mel | November 06, 2007 at 06:54 PM
congratulations on your award, Simon! I like that From the Blogosphere sidebar...I may look into it.
Discovering the Secret of Life would be a great thing indeed...you have a wonderful blog.
Posted by: Marion | November 06, 2007 at 11:45 PM
:-) blogrush does give a lot of recognition but the conversion rate of the hits for blogs like ours is minimal.
the success of blogrush would be when they can promote personal blogs and increase readership. till then we have to rely on the good old technique of personal networking.
Posted by: vinni | November 07, 2007 at 06:04 AM
Mel - Thanks for letting me know about this - I'll get onto it shortly!
Marion - Thanks once again for your encouragement! Dear Readers - If you haven't seen Marion's blog, get over there, it's really, really good! And I'm not just saying that cos she's nice to me...
Vinni - As far as I can tell, the conversion rate for *all* blogs is minimal, even the one that Blogrush use as an example in their promotional video! (I kind of like that honesty.) All I can say is that do enjoy clicking on the Blogrush widget - it's a very convenient way to discover new blogs. But as you say, Vinni, nothing beats personal networking - and Blog Catalog is useful for that. The best alternative I've come across was the old Bestest Blog site, but that seems to have folded (for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me) and the replacement is nothing like as effective.
Posted by: Secret Simon | November 08, 2007 at 11:44 PM