my journal has finally reached the milestone of 30,000 visitors !! yea yea i know .. kinda sappy i know, but still !!
thank you so much to ALL the readers who've visited my journal since July 20, 2003 !!
and especially, a huge thanks to my distinguished milestone visitor ..
Comment Added
A comment has been posted to the Journal:Just One Girls Head Noise
Monday Photo Shoot : Night Scenes
Comment from: plittle
Well, I had something very clever to say, until I found out that I had been beaten to it. Three or four times.
-Paulhttp://journals.aol.ca/plittle/AuroraWalkingVacation/
and
now for something even more sappy .. i'm saving this screen shot as
proof cause i plan on taking down my tracker/counter from sitemeter.com
.. even though i still don't trust the counter supplied by aol not to
reset to zero again, i really would like to put something more
interesting in my all about me section
by way of Mr Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot: Night Scenes Your Monday Photo Shoot: Night Scenes while
i wouldn't particularly call this photo a "striking scene at night" ..
(ok, i wouldn't call it anything remotely close to that) it just happens
to be the only night photo that i've ever taken that was in any way
worth keeping
as i
went out one evening to have a quick smoke, i decided to try to capture a
shot of the full moon with my digital camera .. what i ended up
capturing was instead my cigarette smoke .. turned out kinda of eerie eh
!!
my son just finished his "drive by"
ya know .. drive up to moms house, take a shower, get something to eat .. leave ..
least
he stopped long enough to find out if his grades had been posted from
his sophomore year at University of Hawaii .. yup .. they had .. he just
earned a 3.4 GPA !!! and not that animated gif this has anything to do with anything but its so cute i couldn't resist lol i must have watched this thing 10 times now and i'm still laughing !!!
this entry is my attempt to
answer some of the questions i've been receiving lately from new
journalers who are interested in increasing their readership
i have a few suggestions, please,
just keep in mind that these are MY personal opinion .. i am confident
that there is more than one way to skin a cat and not everyone will
agree with my suggestions, but here are a few things you might want to
consider ...
first, be aware of the simple
fact that not everyone appreciates or enjoys an identical type of
journal content or format, so the more people that read your journal,
the better chance you have of finding regular readers who are
considerate enough to leave encouraging comments
ADVERTISE YOUR JOURNAL
!! i would suggest that you pick a handful of journals you consider
enjoyable .. journals that have the same "audience" that you feel might
be interested in your journal
make it a point to
visit those journals on a regular basis and introduce yourself .. let
them know how you found their journal .. then keep going back and leave
comments along with the FULL url for your journal (http://journals.aol.com/yourscreenname/yourjournalname)
remember that the url for aol
journals IS case sensitive (there is nothing more frustrating than for
someone to leave a comment with a note to "visit my journal" yet they
don't take the time to let you know where their journal is .. or worse
yet, give the wrong url !!)
if someone is considerate enough
to leave well thought out and encouraging comments in MY journal, you
can bet that i'm going to be motivated to return the favor !!
put the links to those handful of
journals in your Other Journals section .. that section is one of the
deciding factors when i choose to visit another journal on a regular
basis .. if their other journal section is empty it is an indication to
me that they have no interest in other journals and i quickly lose
interest in their journal
TARGET YOUR READERS !!
is the font you use in your journal large enough for most readers to
see? are your selected journal colors inviting? while a size 10 purple
font on a burgundy background might look good to you, what you might be
doing is eliminating a large number of aol members that simply can't
see what you are attempting to share
CHOOSE YOUR CONTENT !!
be aware of who you envision is your "target audience" and when you
write, keep them in mind .. if it is your desire to attract people who
complain and moan .. then by all means, fill each journal entry with
complaining and negativity .. but remember that if you intend on
attracting humorous thoughtful readers then you need to post similar
content so that they want to come back for more
are you a collector of jokes,
memorable quotes or recipes? are you are family oriented? then visit
journals with similar content and target those readers !!
BECOME INVOLVED !!
there is a growing community of aol journalers who are connected by one
single commonality, we each have an AOL Journal .. become "involved" in
the community .. start by joining and becoming involved in the Born to Blog Community and the AOL Journal Message Board .. you might also want to check out the member guided message board J-land Bar and Grill
PARTICIPATE in one of the interactive journals mr scalzi's weekend assignment - check out an example here Weekend Assignment #58: Mothers and Children check his journal daily for the newest Assignment - By The Way... participate in patricks place "Saturday Six" - The Saturday Six - Episode 56
participate in the Journal Jar - The Journal Jar
MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO FIND YOUR JOURNAL .. add the link to your journal(s) on your message board signature and your AOL profile
to add a link to your journal in your message board signature:
click "setup" or "preferences" at the top of any message board
click "signature"
open your journal
click on the favorite place heart (the little red heart appearing in the right hand corner)
hold the button down and drag the heart over to the signature area
click "save"
now anytime you post to a message board, as long as the "use signature" box is checked, your link will appear
to add your link to your AOL profile:go to keyword: myprofile
click on "my profile" in the upper right corner
click on "links" from list in the left column
open your journal click and drag the favorite place heart from your journal into the text area
click "finish"
there
are 2 known publicly used and member created AOL Journal Directories
that are used by journalers to find other journals to read .. you can
leave the link to your journal in the comment section of either
directory to have your journal added
AOL Journal Directory (journals listed by screen name) created by myself : AOL Journal Directory
The Unofficial AOL Journal (journals listed by interest) created by lioneyes4you : The Unofficial AOL Journal Directory
there
are some of us that werelucky enough to have started a journal back
when it was first introduced in beta testing .. with only a handful of
journals to choose from, things were less complicated
!! but with the recent surge in aol journals, i have a hard time
deciding which journals i choose to visit and contribute to
MAKE AN EFFORT TO FIND READERS !! you need to go out and find your readers !!
USE YOUR JOURNAL to
share other journals that you find interesting .. both by using the
other journals section and perhaps highlighting selected journals in
entries
BE CONSISTENT .. be
patient .. be uplifting and encouraging .. if you are just now finding
your way to aol journals,be aware that most of us have already used up
the allotment of links in our other journals sections .. its just a tad
more competitive than it was when AOL Journals were initially
created for that limited and valuable space to add links to other
journals
even i was forced a few days ago
to sit down and take a serious look at the links in my other journals
section .. i was finding new and interesting journals to read but there
simply wasn't room to add them all .. i had to sit down and decide which
links to eliminate .. those that were filled with constant negativity
or had fonts that were too small to read or had backgrounds that were
too dark, or journals that were no longer posting daily updates were the
ones to be removed so that i could add new links to journals with more
appealing content
if its not your nature to compete with the established journals then go out and find other new journals and target them !!
show them how to entice readers
through adding comments to other journals .. put up a link in your
journal to the Born to Blog community
MAKE A COMMITMENT !! it
does take a lot of time and effort to get your journal established ..
if you are just starting out, plan on spending several hours a day to
compose your journal entries and make the rounds to leave comments ..
the established journalers can vouch for the fact that you can't expect
to take a few days off and retain your readership until well after you
are established
above all, try to have fun !!
although it has become more competitive .. the rewards of having
regular, considerate readers makes this all worthwhile
ok .. i know "officially" Mother's Day was sunday .. but i decided to take a rain check
i'm counting down till the days my 20 year old son arrives home from hawaii after completing his 2nd year of college
6 days and counting !!
i haven't seen my boy since Christmas .. 5 months .. 5 very long months
ask me if i'm just a little excited !!!
he's
hoping to stay for just a few weeks and then head back to hawaii .. a
few weeks .. a few days .. hell, i've got withdrawal and i'd settle for a
few glorious hours with my boy
since he went back to school
shortly after Christmas, he's celebrated his 20th birthday .. i've
celebrated my 48th birthday .. mothers day has come and gone .. nobody
asked, but it pretty much felt like every other day to me .. there was
still laundry to be done .. dishes to be washed .. cats to be fed ..
carpets to be vacuumed .. and so forth and so on
still i'm a
proud momma .. my baby boy is finishing up his 2nd year of college .. in
a few short months my baby girl will be heading off to high school
where i've decided to enroll her in "How not to lose your cellphone 101"
"mom
.. i pretty much plan on staying with you (instead of with dad) when i
come home this summer" my son told me this weekend, wanting to know if
that was ok ..
hmmmm .. let me think about it !!
;-)
first thing this morning i noticed
one of our cats, momma, scratching frantically trying to get something
out from under the stove .. great .. i haven't recovered from the last
creature and here we go with another one
except this was a little different .. obviously the creature was still alive or it wouldn't have taken refuge under the stove
i wondered if i had time to pack and move before it ventures out of its safe hiding space
eventually momma
cat gave up trying to retrieve her newest toy and went outside again to
play .. the creature decided it was time to make a break for it
to
give you some perspective as to its enormity, the glass is 6 1/2 inches
tall and the diameter of the rim of the glass is 3 INCHES and it barely
covered this killer moth .. and yes, its alive
this creature is
now on its way to my daughters science teacher .. there was NO way i was
terminating its life nor could i risk letting it free with the outside
chance that it might return when i least expect it
i guess its a step up from rats eh?
i love my kitties .. i really do .. but not when it rains it
seems that they've taken to bringing their newest victims into the
house when its raining .. its not bad enough that there IS a victim, but
to open my bedroom door at 5 am to a "present" from my kitties is
getting to be too much for me to take .. way too much .. we're going on 4
dead playthings posing as presents in the last week .. and my patience
has run out i
don't especially care for rats, mice and moles .. not at 5 am .. not at
5 PM .. not dead .. not alive .. not outside .. not inside .. not in
the kitchen .. not in the dining room .. not in either of the bedrooms
.. enough is enough guys .. i do not like them here or there, i do not
like them anywhere normally
i don't mention my latest findings to my daughter lest she be totally
creeped out .. but this morning i questioned her .. "guess what present the cats left for me outside my bedroom door this morning?!?"
she innocently replied .. "more mothers day flowers?" thats my girl
ever since i purchased my daughter a cell phone, she's developed a new game that we play on at least a weekly basis .. the game?
"find the cellphone"
i've
played it long enough to know the rules .. when the phone has gone MIA,
it was either stolen by a stranger or i moved it to a place she can't
find it
take last weekend .. we went shopping with and brought
along one of her friends .. after shopping we stopped for a quick bite
to eat .. after leaving the restaurant, now just a few blocks from
home, she begins looking for her phone .. then remembers her friend
borrowed it at dinner so its still sitting on the table .. thankfully it
was turned in safely to the manager
a few hours later she and
her friend decide to walk down to the local market .. within minutes of
her returning home, i get a call from the market manager .. he had found
her cell phone in the parking lot and decided to call "mom" on her
phone in an attempt to locate the rightful owner of the cellphone
she usually isn't that lucky with people turning in her phone .. the one she has now is probably #5 or even maybe #6
in
an act of unexpected maturity, the last time her phone was lost, she
confided in me .. "mom .. i don't think i should be getting another cell
phone until i learn not to lose it" .. i couldn't have said it better
myself
so earlier this week when she discovered her cell phone
was once again missing and deciding that someone must have stolen it
from her backpack at school, she didn't insist that we run out
immediately and purchase a replacement phone
which means she uses
MY cellphone .. i wandered around yesterday looking for my cellphone ..
unable to find it, i asked her where she put the phone .. of course she
gets that look on her face .. the one that says "why are you asking
ME?!?" .. a quick call to my cellphone and i trace the sound to
underneath her bed .. good place for my phone eh .. at least its better
than being in the parking lot of the grocery store
now mind you, i'm not complaining .. for several very good reasons:
#1 it doesn't do any good
#2
in a few short years she'll be heading off to college and i'm going to
long for the days my young daughter and i spent playing "find the cell
phone"
#3 it doesn't do any good
#4 she's slowly realizing on her own that she is ultimately responsible for the location of her cell phone
#5 it doesn't do any good
#6
her inability to learn the "cellphone responsibility" lesson is
overshadowed by her recent attempts to take care of her room and clothes
.. every sunday evening she washes her own laundry and leaves a note
for me asking me to be sure and dry her clothes when i wake up in the
morning
as it was this morning ..
after i loaded up her
laundry into the dryer, i heard an unmistakable "ka ka plunk .. ka ka
plunk" .. and i've done enough laundry to know that is NOT the sound of
wet laundry rolling around in the dryer
opening the dryer, i
retrieve her long lost cellphone .. wet but clean .. the same cellphone
that "MUST have been stolen from her backpack at school"
and apparently, its still in working condition
i win the latest round of "find the cellphone" .. do i get a prize?
