I wanted to drop by and tell everyone about how the views on my blog is going.
I started the blog on blogger.com called
Missing Persons of America to run side by side with my
Missing Persons Examiner column. I picked this one because it was simple and it was very automatic for putting adsense and amazon ads on it. Since I don't have anymore time in the day to dedicate to one more thing, I knew it had to be simple and easy.
I started off with a eerie looking background and a very "bloggy" look to it. Then whenever I posted an article on Examiner, I just hit the "
Add This" button on my browser and clicked on the "Blogger" button and the headline was posted as a hyperlink. I noticed some traffic, at the most one day 20. I was getting hits, that I never really thought I would get. With blogger it was easy to see where the hits were coming from and the majority were coming from searches on google. I earned five cents. Not much, but that is the way all the earnings start, you get a penny, a nickel, and it just grows from there.
I get
Pat Flynn's newsletter and decided to read more for tips on growing your blog. I decided at the first of the year to see if I could grow my blog and possible get it to the front page of google, like Pat Flynn was doing. First I noticed that my website needed updating. Goodby, eerie background, hello white background. I rearranged things, still am, but not as much the last week. I also started putting more details in my columns. Instead of just pasting the headline, I decided to paste the first paragraph. What was cool about it was, when I did, the Examiner automatically added a link. Perfect.
I saw my hits start to grow substantially. I added a link to my Examiner articles back to my blog and saw through the stats on blogger that it was sending people to my blog.
Then I got an email from a woman connected to the Nancy Grace show. She asked if I would watch the show about Adji Desir (that's him in the picture) since she saw that I had just written about him, and then write about it in my blog. Notice she didn't say on my Examiner column but my blog.
I believe this was the turning point for my blog, as I realized that was what was missing. Posting the stories was good, but my own voice wasn't there. Writing as a journalist is different than writing as a person, and that was what I needed to add to my blog. I needed to switch from fact writing to emotional writing. Tell people what I'm really thinking.
Then the following week, I realized there are many times that I will read a update about a missing person, but it is not enough to write a whole column about. For example, last weekend they announced they were going to get a search party together to search for Brittanee Drexel. I posted that on the blog, and over the weekend other updates on other missing persons.
I saw my hits begin to grow more and all of the sudden last night I received 358 hits, the biggest night I have had on the blog, so far. So, when I started I was getting about 5 views a day and by the third week was averaging 175 and then last week I received several 200 days and then yesterday 358. 68 of the views came from the Examiner from the link I put in at the bottom of the article. Please note, at the Examiner I received 75,000 views in January for my national column. If you have a national Examiner column, too, you can get that many hits, too. If I get enough Email's wanting to know more, I will write about it here next month.
With blogs you need to get around 1000 a day to see any substantial money, but what is encouraging is when you see views going up, you begin to think that maybe there is a possibility you can get up to 1000 a day, and you begin to brain storm on ways to do it.
My next step is to buy an url and switch the blog to that URL. I think that if google see's me as a website instead of a blog (as what is in my current URL) that I will begin to see myself on the front page of google.
Thanks for reading! --
Jerrie
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Early Sunday morning, another "rat" has shown up in 
and the rumors are that it is the artistic work of 
, the international 
that has been nominated for an 
for best documentary "
, Under Video Surveillance" on 9th and Emory Streets in Imperial Beach.
. Did
decide to hang around 
for another night, before going up to LA for the Academy Awards this Sunday? Possibly, but there is speculation that he won't even show up for the award show, but if he does, he will he be in disguise, and many of his fans will be watching tonight to see if he does.
