Saturday, December 29, 2012

365 WAYS TO ENERGIZE YOUR BLOGGING

With the last regular working day gone for the year, it could be time to think how you could boost your energy for next year. Kelly McCause gave a great tip on +BizSugar (Blog Post Ideas – There’s An App For That). It is an application by Lynette Chandler called BlogEnergizer.



With 10+ blogs I need some energy from a bunny in order to keep going...


What are you "addicted" to? I have cravings for:




So, this weekend I have to munch on Pringles's Xtreme Sizzlin' Spicy Bacon potato crisps and have a licorice candy shot! Cheers to a prosperous New Year!

Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love

Related: My post, THREE GOOD THINGS ON TWITTER.

Monday, November 26, 2012

BUSINESS AT HEART AND IN MIND

It could be hard to concentrate on your daily business, thinking about the outcome of the election ("with four more years") in the United States of America, and watching an "elephant in the Middle East room."

I got a wake up call the other day when I did an oxidative stress test and an arterial pulse waveform analysis. The conclusion is that I need to take better care of my body, including my heart. I will increase my intake of antioxidants and a basic amino acid called arginine.

Have you calculated your ideal body weight? It looks like that my weight of 57 kg is the common average and the medical recommendation is between 47 - 62 kg. Do you have any tip on how to measure the calorie intake (1839 calories)?


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

TIPS ON AFFILIATE PROGRAMS AND SPONSORS

For your information: I have removed the 125x125 banner ad for Zeekler penny auction, after reading the news. I never came around to participate in an auction or buying something from the site, as I wrote that I would do in my post, BLOG BREAK (June 24, 2011). I will follow the development in social media and mainstream media.

I am interested in receiving tips on affiliate programs that could fit as a sponsor of this blog. If I don't find product or service that could fill the empty space at the sponsor section, I will probably add another banner for Text-Links-Ads [Editor's note: affiliate link], like the following:

Related: My post, SUCCESS IN 10 STEPS.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

THE FALL FORWARD OF EGO PODCAST

Please listen to my latest episode of EGO Podcast FTW. I have given it the title, Fall Forward as a play with words on the autumn season (fall) and my attempt to push my podcast forward into the future...

The weekly podcast will be around 15 minutes in length and have three sections (philosophy, social media, and the good life). The following is covered during this podcast:




Additional show notes:



EGO Podcast - stats (premium feature) on BlogTalkRadio.com

Related: David Siteman Garland's post, 3 Questions & an Opportunity for You to Shamelessly Promote Your Web Show/Podcast.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

SITEMETER AND BLOG STATS

It looks like SiteMeter is having some problems...



I hope it will be resolved in the near future. In the meantime, here is an overview of the blog stats on Blogger:


Related: My post, ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: SITE METER PROBLEM from 2004.

BLOG COMMENTS

EGO blog has received 300+ comments by readers since the comment feature powered by Blogger was implemented in 2007 with the new layout of the EGO template.

I am sorry that I missed to change the option to allow reader comments in some of the latest published posts. It is now fixed! Please keep 'em coming!


I have now enabled the threaded commenting feature on the blog.

Here are two great posts on comments on blogs:




What is your take on the following comment platforms: Disqus, IntenseDebate and Livefyre?

Comments by miss miah, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic License  by  miss miah 

Monday, August 6, 2012

INTERVIEW WITH ANITA CAMPBELL

I interviewed Anita Campbell on May 18. [Editor's note: I am sorry for the technical glitch around 51 min. Anita Campbell took over and ended the show in a great way! :) I have some "endnotes" for about 10 minutes at the end of the program.]

INTERVIEW WITH DAVID STIERNHOLM

I interviewed David Stiernholm on August 23, 2011. [Editor's note: I am sorry for the technical issues. Please fast forward circa 12 minutes and listen to my interview with David Stiernholm.]

I have written a guest post on David Stiernholm's blog, Strukturbloggen. Another post will be published this week.

TUNING IN

Here is a short "commercial break" from my summer break! ;) I will create a new EGO podcast during this week, announcing some news and plans for the future.

In the meantime, I will publish two posts, highlighting two interviews I have done.

Zenith 12-S-267 Radio Dial by Tropic~7, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License  by  Tropic~7 

Sunday, July 29, 2012

9 Lessons Learned from Using Reddit

Jim Woods gave me the permission to use this referenced blog post (Nine Lessons Learned from Using Reddit) as a guest post for EGO on Blogspot.

Starting a new blog focused on politics, I decided to try reddit as a source to kickstart some traffic. As reddit referrals are now 50% of my traffic, I think that the experiment has had a successful start, so let me share some of my lessons learned.
  1. Self-promoting blog content on reddit is easy and without significant friction.
  2. The reddit post title attracts the interest as that is what the users primarily will see, so experiment and test.
  3. Reddit’s system for voting and comments are used actively and provide insightful metrics when feedback is not being left on a new blog.
  4. Older evergreen blog posts that are not attracting traffic can be resurrected with a reddit post.
  5. Subreddits are great for doing segmentation testing as you can target specific communities and tailor titles to that community.
  6. Posting the same post to different subreddits on different days can keep posts active overtime and allow for easy differentiation of traffic from different subreddits for results tracking.
  7. Subreddits have their own personalities and can sometimes respond differently than their name would suggest.
  8. Controversy resulting from matching a post with a subreddit can help traffic to your site even if it is not helping your link karma. Highly recommended.
  9. Reddit offers a good opportunity to reach new potential readers from outside your usual circles of communication.
If you have not been using Reddit to promote your own blog content, using the above lessons learned, I have a suggestion for how to start with a test using the traffic stats already tracked for your blog.
  1. Start by picking seven of your posts that you think deserve more eyes. In doing so, do not ignore older posts that still have timely information.
  2. Brainstorm types of people that you think would be interested in each specific post.
  3. Use the search feature on reddit to find subreddits that are a community for those types of people.
  4. Throughout the week, submit links for your posts to various subreddits and track the results using your own blog’s traffic stats.
  5. At the end of the week, review your own lessons learned and plan how you could use reddit to promote your blog content.
You can check out reddit’s FAQ for how-to details. If you try this experiment, please share your own lessons learned.

Jim Woods blogs about politics at Selfish Citizenship (selfishcitizenship.wordpress.com).

JIM WOODS

Jim Woods is the second guest blogger this summer. Jim Woods blogs about politics at Selfish Citizenship (selfishcitizenship.wordpress.com).

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Must-Read Social Media Books

By the time I finish writing this guest post, there will be 100 new books published about social media. At least, that’s how it feels. It’s hard to keep up with books on the subject, simply because it’s hard to keep up with changes in social media period!
But at Martin’s request, I want to share some of the better books I’ve read about social media, blogging and internet marketing.

What I Look for 
I review business books, so for a book to stand out, I want it to:
  • Teach me something
  • Be easily digestible
  • Let me walk away ready to do something, not just give me theories
There are many books I won’t put on this list simply because they don’t meet my requirements. Likewise, there are many books I haven’t yet read that would likely provide you benefit, no matter what level of social media understanding you’re currently at. Let’s dive in.

World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories
Truly, I recommend any of David Meerman Scott’s book. This is one of his more recent books. World Wide Rave does a fantastic job of cutting through the BS when it comes to trying to get people to talk about your brand. If you’ve ever been told by a marketing agency that they could “create a viral video” for you, please read this book. You can’t plan to create something that is guaranteed to go viral, but Scott does provide tips to nudge it in that direction.

What’s Great About this Book: You can use Scott’s techniques, no matter the size of your company or your marketing budget.

Social Media Marketing eLearning Kit For Dummies 
Phyllis Khare is the author of this book, which is accompanied by a CD-ROM for extra learning. What I love about this book is that it’s got something for every level of learner, from those who haven’t yet created a Twitter account, to those like me, that have been using marketing for years, but who always like learning new tactics. Khare delves into LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and geolocation services, and provides tips for using all.

What’s Great About this Book: It’s an easy reference book. Focusing on YouTube today? Immerse yourself in that chapter and you’ll be an expert by the end.

Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs
This book may be an oldie (published in 2009), but it’s definitely a goodie. Inbound Marketing is written by the two founders of HubSpot, the very company that coined the term “inbound marketing.”
The book centers around the concept that customers are no longer willing to allow companies to cram their messaging down their throats. Smart brands now find ways to draw customers to them, through channels like social media and blogs.

What’s Great About this Book: This book is the perfect combination of theory and application. You learn the concept of what inbound marketing is all about, but you also get great tips for executing it for your brand.

Books on My List
I’ll never get around to reading all the great social media books, but these are on my list to read soon:

I like the idea of setting a goal to see results with social media within 30 days.
I think many businesses--small and large--could use a few ground rules for using social media.
Since the verdict is still out on how to measure the results of social media, I’d love to check this book out. Plus, my author crush David Meerman Scott is co-author!

What books have you read and recommend?

Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Communications, an internet marketing firm specializing in marketing communications, copywriting and blog posts. She’s written two books: 101 Entrepreneur Tips and Internet Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs, and has blogged for several sites, including The Marketing Eggspert Blog, as well as Mashable, Small Business Trends, FutureSimple, BizLaunch and Lead411. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.

SUSAN PAYTON

Susan Payton is the first guest blogger this summer. Last year, she wrote the post, Why Entrepreneurs Need Friends.

Monday, July 9, 2012

GUEST BLOGGERS

I am taking a blog break...

I will send an email to the contributors and invite them to write a guest post during the summer. I will highlight the contributors in separate posts in the near future.


  • Kenji Crosland 
  • Richard McLaughlin
  • Ann-Christin Lindstedt
  • Mary Grace Ignacio
  • Exalted Moments
  • Anita Campbell
  • Susan Payton
  • Elizabeth 
  • Sarah Beth 
  • Roland Horvath
  • Cindy 
  • Brett Owens 
  • Kathryn 
  • Palle Frid Svensson 
  • Forkum 
  • Gus Van Horn 
  • Jason Westland 
  • Michael Gold


If you want to become a new guest blogger, please send me an email or write a comment.

I will stop by now and then and be back on a regular blogging schedule in September.

Blogger by kuribo, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License  by  kuribo 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

INDEPENDENCE DAY

TeaParty.nu had an online house-warming party on July 4, 2011. This year, I created a "mental moodboard" for my next visit to the Land of Opportunity - the United States of America. Please check out my new Tumblr tumblelog, AtlasAnd, and the reblogged post, Happy Independence Day. Please list your favorites places in North America.

Recommended reading: Gus Van Horn's post, Happy Independence Day and my post, VISIT TO THE BIG APPLE NYC IN 2009.

Friday, June 22, 2012

STEPHEN COLBERT IS AN ARTIFICIAL SWEDENER

It is Midsummer and I am planning to take a blog break during July. I invite you to go to my site EGO Sole Trader and check out a daily cat cartoon by Mark Anderson. I will continue to submit cat entries to the Friday Ark.



By the way: I think Stephen Colbert should take over the Twitter account @Sweden. I am an American in spirit and he is an "artificial Swedener."

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Monday, May 7, 2012

ANNUAL BLOG REPORT X

I have now been blogging for 10 years and published 2675 posts. My intention is to continue to publish stuff on EGO blog for at least ten more years...

As I wrote in my post, ANNUAL BLOG REPORT IX, the main thing for the future will be my EGO podcast on BlogTalkRadio. The next EGO interview will be with Anita Campbell, CEO of BizSugar and Small Business Trends. If you want to support my podcasting work, please "like" my EGO podcast Facebook page. You could become a sponsor of the show by placing ads on my EGO blog and an audio spot during the commercial break.

Some stats:

  • Authority #81 on Technorati.
  • Reputation on Alexa: 278 sites linking to EGO blog.




Scroll down the page and check out the section, Popular Posts.

Here are shout out messages to my friends, fans, readers, supporters and fellow bloggers:




EGO - Annual Blog Report X

Related: My post, Blogger's Cycle.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN SMITH

Listen to my interview with Stephen Smith. You could subscribe to the RSS feed and download the audio file (MP3). You could find EGO podcasts on iTunes.


Listen to internet radio with Lyceum1776 on Blog Talk Radio

Show notes:

[Editor's note: I will update the timeline with more show notes in the near future. I will also write a new post with a podcast on Cinch.fm on why I want to continue as a premium BlogTalkRadio host / customer and how you could support my future shows.

I am sorry about the buzz / fan sound coming from my MacBook / laptop chill mat. I hope I can find a solution for the recording input in the near future.]

00 min - Bio. introduction.

08 min -

Reading material:




Writing material:




12 min - David Stiernholm's new book. Lessons on Structure.
...

Monday, April 9, 2012

GOOGLE PLUS ONE FEATURES

I have added two Google+ gadgets to the blog. Scroll down to the About section and you will see a gadget saying: "I'm on g+ - Add to circles". You could recommend my blog on Google if you scroll down to the bottom of the page and look under PayPayl's Tip Jar button and then click on the "g +1" button.

Are you on Google+? At the moment, I am reading Chris Brogan's book, Google+ for Business: How Google's Social Network Changes Everything, and I will download Guy Kawasaki's e-book, What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us.

Google+ Lean Startup Business Model Books
Google+ Lean Startup Business Model Books

Sunday, April 8, 2012

SPRING CLEANING

I have done spring cleaning at my EGO blog. I have removed some ads. I had to remove Jim Kukral's service called ScratchBack, because it had "closed its doors."


If you are a tea drinker and want to "scratch my back," you could scroll down the page and click on the "got tea?" image with my affiliate link and buy something at Libre Tea's retail shop. Please go to GOT-Tea-Party.com and read my review of Libre Tea's glass 'n poly (large, 420 ml) product.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

FUNCTIONAL BODY WITH PERSONAL TRAINER

On April 5, I had an intro. session with personal trainer, Terese K., of Functional Body. We met at Fitness 24 Seven in Gothenburg.



The first training session included:




I have booked the next training session for week 15. Terese will send me a document with training instructions and information.

After the session, I bought a bottle of Weider BodyShaper L-Carnitine Fitness Drink (Mexican Fruit flavor) from the vending machine at Fitness 24 Seven.



Related: My posts, PACE TRAINING and BOOK OF THE MOMENT: THE WISDOM OF MIKE MENTZER.

Monday, March 26, 2012

INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS REIMER

Listen to my interview with Chris Reimer. You could subscribe to the RSS feed and download the audio file (MP3). You could find EGO podcasts on iTunes.


Listen to internet radio with Lyceum1776 on Blog Talk Radio

Show notes:

00 min. - Bio. introduction.
02 min. - BaconSalt: My post, Bacon Flavored Salt. Chris Reimer's post, Bacon Salt Is In The Hizzy!
04 min. - Kevin Rose, Oink, Google, tea...
10 min. - T-shirt business, RizzoTees.
14 min. - Vice President of Social Media at Falk Harrison.
16 min. - Cold calling...
20 min. - John Jantsch's The Referral EngineCertified NetworkerV.C.P processBNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.
22 min. - Chris Reimer's bio. page. STL Index by Infuz.
27 min. - The Trader Principle.
30 min. - Tr@der Manife$to ("Trader Manifesto").
31 min. - John Morgan's Brand Against the Machine.
32 min. - Rework.
34 min. - Nonfiction and fiction books. Ayn Rand's fiction and nonfiction books.
35 min. - Movies, Star Trek, Scott Holleran.
36 min. - Tweet by Kelly @saucewear:



37 min. - Joe Sorge of AJ Bombers.
38 min. - Gary Vaynerchuk's The Thank You Economy.
41 min. - Chianti wine, Tuscany, Italy. Chris Reimer's tweet:



Enoteca Rinaldi, Lecchi in Chianti, Italy, 9am, on my 3rd cap... on Twitpic
Enoteca Rinaldi

42 min. - Bottle Shock movie.


Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman Argue in Bottle Shock

43 min. - Julio Ricardo Varela @julito77.
45 min. - Foursquare check-in, Orlando, Florida.
46 min. - Location Based Services, Social Media Club, Gothenburg, Sweden.
48 min. - Chris Reimer is working on writing a book...
57 min. - RizzoTees.com - Bacon - You Like This.


Bacon - You Like This - Rizzo Tees

Sunday, March 25, 2012

THE FUTURE OF PODCASTING

During the "potluck"(un)conference WebCoast, I listened to a fascinating session with Viktor Richardson (bio. on Soundic Radio) on the future of web radio.



It was an interesting discussion on how to come up with a new name for web radio 2.0, e.g., "telefoni" and how you should be able to create live web radio with people using their mobile phones, starting a conversation in real time that could facilitate an interactive conversation.

Viktor Richardson

Personally, I think that BlogTalkRadio has come a long way with features like a call-in number [for EGO podcast show: (347) 994-1906] for listeners, Facebook social plugin for comments, sharing function powered by AddThis, etc.

Downcast iPhone app

With Cinch.fm you could embed the audio file in your blog like this:



and the listener could comment on it by creating a cinch cast reply.

Talking about future podcasts, I will interview Chris Reimer today at 3 PM ET (New York time) / 9 PM European Standard Time and have a conversation with Anita Campbell on May 11 at 11 AM ET / 5 PM EST. Do you have a suggestion on a guest in April? I will do a follow up "note to self" podcast in the near future... ;)

EGO podcast - Downcast iPhone app.

I have some questions regarding radio and music on the web:


  • What kind of podcasting gear do you use?
  • How could you use SoundCloud? I have to ask Brent Leary for some tips.
  • Have you tested Rdio? Do you think it will be a big competitor to Spotify and Pandora?
  • Will we be able to subscribe to podcast RSS feeds via the above mentioned services, similar as we do on iTunes?
  • How do you listen to podcasts? On your MP3 player, iPod, iPhone, computer, etc.? Thanks to Stefan Waborg for introducing me to the great podcast application called Downcast.


Downcast app

On March 17, I had a session with the title, "Podcast - Din radiokanal på nätet" ("Podcast - Your radio channel on the Internet"). As an instance of irony, I didn't manage to record my talk in a proper way. It must be surfing around in cyberspace somehow... ;) At least, here are some photos from WebCoast:

WebCoast - the grid

Ego - Martin Lindeskog

Sunday, March 4, 2012

BACON FLAVORED SALT

Have you tasted Justin & Dave's BaconSalt with Jalapeno? I like the taste of bacon and I am a chile-head!

BaconSalt #fejk #fotosondag #fs120304
BaconSalt #fejk #fotosondag #fs120304

I have added this photo to Photo Sunday's theme, "fake" ("fejk" in Swedish).
Enhanced by Zemanta

Sunday, February 26, 2012

STABLE FOUNDATION

Read my interview with John Cox & Allen Forkum on how they created EGO logotype. This week's theme at Photo Sunday is the word "stabil" in Swedish (stable in English). EGO character has his feet on the ground in a stable manner.

EGO logotype #fotosondag #FS120226 #stabil
EGO logotype #fotosondag #FS120226 #stabil

Monday, January 30, 2012

PHOTO SUNDAY

I have added the following photo to the site called Photo Sunday ("Fotosöndag" in Swedish):

The School of Athens - #FS120129
The School of Athens - #FS120129

The theme of this edition of Photo Sunday is heaven - hell ("himmel - helvete" in Swedish). I took a picture of Raphael's painting, School of Athens, with the Instagram app on my iPhone 4S and then I used the Hefe filter and the radial (circle) focus feature, zooming in on Aristotle (representing the rational alternative to heaven and hell, i.e., reality) and Plato (symbolizing heaven and hell, i.e., religion).

Related: My post, PHOTOBLOGGING.

www.fotosondag.se