Today I read an article from the New York Times about how blogging is causing a lot of stress and may have even lead to the deaths of bloggers Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant.

So what about blogging is stressful and can lead to sleep deprivation, weight gain/loss and even heart attacks? The root cause is creating new content in real time to match their readers’ needs.

The problem from the reader perspective is we sometimes feel it is necessary to know everything that is happening pertaining to our industry in real time. For example in my case I am involved in the internet startup scene so I read Techcrunch and Gigaom multiple times per day and I receive notifications come in as new posts are made.

But not anymore!

I realized after reading the New York Times article that I do not need to be hooked into those or any blogs 24/7 because I am only fueling the fire. Knowing that Facebook is now valued at $15 billion or the Wireless Spectrum was purchased by Verzion really does not affect me. If anything it just throws me off focus!

If you think my points above make sense try boycotting your favorite blogs for a day and see if you become more productive and are able to live without them.

If you are struggling to get more traffic to your website then check out these 21 ways to get free traffic.

1. Blog Comments
2. Blog Trackbacks
3. Blogroll
4. Blog Widgets: MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog
5. Guest Blogging
6. Forum Posts/Signature
7. Directories: DMoz
8. Viral Components: Tell a friend script
9. Review websites: KillerStartups.com
10. Interviews
11. Link Exchanges
12. Contests
13. Affiliate Program
14. Joint Ventures
15. SEO
16. Press
17. Article Marketing
18. Radio Shows
19. Podcasts
20. Magazines
21. Local Newspapers

Do you know any other ways to get free traffic if so leave a comment and I will add it with a link to your website.

If you like this post, Digg it up!

If you own a blog and are looking for a guest blogger look no further…

I am looking to write a series of guest blog posts, it would be entirely related to your content!

Please leave a comment if you are interested or contact me.

UPDATE: Sorry for not having any real informative blog posts lately. I do have some really interesting blog posts coming up so stay tuned!

Today is my birthday

I turn the big 20 today. I kind of do feel old as I’m the baby in my family and the youngest of all my cousins!

The last person to leave a comment on March 26th gets $10 worth of advertisements on this website.

I do not really have a lot to say tonight so I thought I would show you a picture of what a Rhinoseptoplasty does to your face

Hopefully it doesn’t scare you away!

To perform a rhinoseptoplasty they place you under a general anesthetic. While you are unconscious they break the septum (cartilage in the middle of the nose) and reposition it so it is straight. This helps correct a deviated septum, which is what I had, which made it hard for me to breath. This could have caused more problems like sleep apnea and deprivation of oxygen if it was not corrected.

Recovering has not been bad at all. I have no pain except on my front teeth and upper gums which still is not that painful. My biggest issue is I can’t taste food cause my nose is completely blocked at the moment.

Imagine over Easter weekend not being able to taste anything. That has been my only pain… not being able to enjoy food.

Yesterday was the day of my surgery and everything went smoothly!

I can’t say I am in any real pain but my entire face is swollen and I have pretty color bruises under each eye. I would post a picture but I might scare some of you away.

Anyway I have a question I would like my readers to answer in the comments. I have been thinking about raising the price to help speed things up. I am thinking of setting the minimum price to $5 to $10 per keyword.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments so I can make a decision in the next 24 to 48 hours.

From the beginning of this website I have been purchasing reviews from websites. To date they have been from Jonathan Volk, John Cow and John Chow.

Everyone of those websites has brought visitors, sales and left everyone  thinking - “I should buy a review from those websites”. I have never seen a blog post results from a review so I thought I would be a first.

Top Converting Reviews:
1. John Cow - 3.46%
2. John Chow - 3.06%
3. Jonathan Volk - 2.97%

But - what amazed me the most was when I included the viral effect. The viral effect is what I describe as other blogs picking up on the story and writing about it.

Top Converting Viral Effect Reviews:
1. Jonathan Volk
2. John Cow
3. John Chow

Interesting stuff!

These reviews are not even my top converting source but I thought I would share these results with you.

Ok - I have been reading a lot of comments on a lot of the blogs and even message boards about The Social Millionaire. I am seeing the same thing over and over again!

Google will block his website so fast.
It’s just another link directory which offers no value.

First off - I am not here to build my website to Google’s terms. They take people’s content without their permission, make it search friendly, monetize it and then tell me to change my website to make their searching easier? I do not think so Larry and Sergery.

Many of you do not know that I have actually been making money online as an internet marketer for a couple of years now. I have never relied on SEO. I realize the foundation and potential SEO provides but there are so many other ways I could be seeing a return on investment now rather than later.

These methods eventually will help your SEO over time. That is why I find it pointless to focus on SEO. Just get out there and do what ever it takes to get your name to the masses and eventually over time the SEO will build up. Some of the methods I use are: article marketing, guest blogging, social media and press.

Once you are out there hopefully some bloggers will pick up on your message and create a post around it linking to your website. Eventually you are letting other people do your SEO for you!

But this is not really why I wanted to write this post!

I want to explain the value of The Social Millionaire. When anyone visits this website for the first time they will see a huge list of keywords. Naturally you would think they would click on a random keyword and maybe visit the advertisers website resulting in some sort of conversion.

I am no psychology expert but already from my stats I can see something interesting. The term “affiliate marketing” has actualy had the most visits and delivered the most clicks. It makes sense - all of the blogs I have been mentioned in are all related to making money online. If my visitors have been thinking about Dog Training they will more likely see that keyword rather then all of the other keywords in the cloud and likely end up becoming a very good prospect for any dog training book or service.

Once this website becomes more mainstream more general keywords will start to have the most traffic. I imagine keywords like Facebook, Ringtones, Business, Celebrities, Gossip, News and other keywords will be the most popular.

These are all the reasons why I feel my website provides value! If you disagree or agree feel free to leave it the comments and I will reply.

Ok folks - it is time for my first contest! Up for grabs are the following wonderful prizes:

• $100 in keywords here on The Social Millionaire.
• 1,000 Credits at Entrecard

There are a few ways to participate in the contest:

1. Post comments on this blog (1 entry for each comment)
2. Subscribe to the RSS feed (5 entries)
3. Engage in the “Blog Link Exchange” (25 entries)

(more…)

That’s right Michael - move out the way! I hate to break it to you on your birthday but the rumors are true you are getting some stiff competition from me.

P.S.
Please don’t hurt me Micheal
A bad review from you could be devastating