Fix It Or I'm Gone

Ok...well you may not care or not but let me tell you something Mr. Big Time Pastor Blogger. I don't like to subscribe to a blog via a feed reader and then have to click over to your site because you only allow a partial feed. That's why I use a feed reader. It doesn't matter how big time you are...how big your church is...nor how cool and relevant you might be.

I'm not sure why you do it. Maybe it's because your knowledge level in this area is limited. Maybe it feeds your ego to see more hits to your site. Maybe your trying to get a book deal and you need those hits. Not really sure...BUT...I've already unsubscribed...you won't get either of my hits.

Sorry...I know it probably won't bother you. You probably have plenty of people who follow you every day that you won't miss one. But I wonder if there are others like me. I wonder how many others you have lost.

Either way...I'm sure if you write something outstanding one of my other friends who I can read all of their post will probably put it on theirs and I'll be inspired. Until then...I'm out.

Ok...I'm off my soapbox.

BTW Mr. Big Time Pastor Blogger if your still reading this...you can fix this by going to your settings in feedburner or in your personal blog settings. How knows...one of these years I may check back and see if you did it.

Blog Update

For those new to my blog or who have even been around a while, I thought I might give you a little history on my blog.

I began blogging on March 22, 2006, you can read the why then on my first blog post. It was an interesting experiment that has grown into a love. I actually have become really passionate about blogging on a consistent basis.

Those first few months were sporadic until about October of 2006, when I realized there was a whole blog world out there and I learned a few things to track my blog and my blog entered a new phase.

I was a crazy blogger, blogging up to 3 times a day some months. My most posted month was a month where I posted 100 times.

My journey in blogging shifted somewhat going out of '07 and into '08 when, at that time, I wanted to create a new focus on this blog. It paid off with my subscriber base tripling in no time.

Now I'm in a season where I am doing some various posts updating our journey, leaving some encouragement, and helping other make a difference in their world.

Subscribe

Are you subscribed to this blog? Do you even know how? What about the reason you should be subscribed?

Why not bring all the content to you...This video by Commoncraft tells you all about RSS in Plain English.



Click [HERE] to begin to subcribe to my blog.

A Conversation

What I want most out of this blog is not just that I pass along information. It is my desire that I create a conversation. I know there may be posts that pass along information and don't require much input.

But when one catches your eye or it stirs you up or you just feel like adding your take...please...by all means leave a comment and lets create some dialogue.

I'll do my best even in this busy season to keep the conversation going. Let's create a community that drives discussions.

Publishing Blogs

So what you may not know is that the last four posts I put out, plus this one, I wrote Tuesday night and set them to publish throughout the week with Blogger's new publishing feature.

I've thought about switching to wordpress but I'm waiting. If I make any move it will be to my own self hosted site.

For now...with my schedule this is working for my needs.

New Publishing Option

For all you bloggers out there. Blogger has a new option - Scheduled Post Publishing.

If you are reading this it is because the scheduled post publishing feature now works with blogger. That means I can set the date I want the post to publish and it will happen then. I set this to post at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday May 7th.

What that means is now I can write a series on the weekend and set it to publish throughout the week.

All great things come to those who wait. I'm sure more features will open up in the future. Maybe I won't be making the switch to wordpress just yet....

Blogs With Benefits 2

In my first post about blogging I explained the benefits that I have enjoyed. For me it has been educational, therapeutic and I have built many relationships. In fact, it is one of the reasons we connected with John and are now beginning to lead a campus for Bay Area Fellowship.

So you can see some of the benefits, now what do you do?

Starting Your Blog
This is actually simpler than it sounds. My suggestion is start with one of the many free blogging platforms out there. I use Blogger. Two other ones I would recommend are Wordpress and Typepad.

Below I have attached a helpful video on how to start a blog with Blogger.



Tools
Two tools that you need to get going with your blog are Google Analytics and Feedburner. Google Analytics helps you track the statistics of your blog. Feedburner burns a RSS feed of your blog. If you burn your feed with Feedburner and decide to move your blog, those that subscribe through the feed will never notice the move.

Here is a video on creating a Google Analytics account:



Learn more about Feedburner and burning a feed [HERE]

If you are a pastor and would like to set up a blog Scott Magdalein recently offered help on his blog.

What advice do some of you others have on blogging?

If you have found this post helpful, please share it with a friend or on your blog.

Blogs With Benefits 1

When I began blogging, I really didn't know what I was getting in to. I had a friend who had moved off to pastor a church who had came back and showed me his blog and how I could keep up with him.

I thought it was perfect since I was in transition as well. It would be a great way for all the wonderful people at my previous church to be able to keep up with what I was doing.

Little did I know there were some positive benefits to blogging. It is probably one of the reasons I feel every pastor/ministry leader should blog.

• Relationships - Ministry can be very lonely if you are not careful. Not only that but in some churches networking with other pastors is not an easy thing to do. Through blogging I have developed friendships not only across the country but throughout the world.
• Therapeutic - Blogging for me is a way of centering my thoughts and filtering them on "paper". It allows me to write some of my frustrations as well as share many of my joys. Of course you have to be really careful what you write though, as once you hit that publish button it is out there for everyone to read.
• Educational - When I first began blogging, I didn't have a clue there were some great blogs where I could get instantaneous information. Many pastors post what their days and weeks are like. Churches post some of the creative elements they create. Pastors share their successes and failures. Imagine if we could have read what the Apostle Paul went through on a daily basis.

What are some of the benefits you have found in blogging?

[Photo Credit Flickr.com]

If you have found this post helpful, please share it with a friend.

Subscribe

It's possible that you're reading this in your web browser which is not a problem with me.

You can also have all of my posts delivered right to you when they hit the internet via my RSS feed. RSS will deliver each post, right away, for free, into your reader. If the reader you use isn't on the page, just copy and paste the next line into the "add feed" box in your reader:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MakingDifferenceMakers

Wait, that's not all! You can also subscribe by email. To do that, use the little box on the left column of my blog and have those same posts sent to you.

2007 Year End Wrap Up

Today is December 31st and it is the end of the year 2007. As we go out of this year I thought it would be great to give you a wrap up of this year on my blog. I track my blog stats with Google Analytics.

For the year of 2007:

7,995 Visits
11,948 Page Views
4,331 Visitors

Viewed in 72 Countries
Top three: 1) USA, 2) Canada, 3) United Kingdom

Viewed in 49 States plus DC (missing Alaska if you know anyone there)
Top three: 1) Texas, 2) California, 3) Nebraska

Top four posts:

1) Evolution For Dance
2) Drinking On Lifechurch.tv Stage
3) Message Prep System
4) Clothe The Naked

Top Three Blogger Sites That Sent Hits My Way: (there were others like google, blogger, technorati, etc...but these are sites of other bloggers)

1) Serial Youth Pastor
2) Flowerdust.net
3) Connecting For Eternity

Some of my favorite keyword searches that lead people here:

"win the lottery" pray numbers agreement bible (I wonder if they won)
austin churches hiring worship pastors in 2007 (I don't sing that good)
does mark driscoll rudely speak of women
i am looking for a tamale maker or sauage maker?
i live with my mom
making sleighs for santa (my bivocational ministry job...NOT)
prayer for my spirit guide (I hope they found the "right" one)
wifes clothed and naked (not at my site)
you know your ghetto when


So who are all of you???

62% use Internet Explorer, 33% use Firefox
83% use Windows, 9% use Macintosh
53% use 1024x768 as your screen resolution,

It is a google world...I don't know why you yahoo'ers don't wake up.
1478 hits came through google...yahoo 90

May all of you have a blessed and fruitful year.

Guest Bloggers

Will be coming at you next week...I wanted a little fresh perspective and introduce you to some friends I follow in the blog world.

I am pumped to hear what they are going to say. All next week the topic is on "Making Difference Makers." So honestly, I'm going to be reading and hearing what they are saying probably more than anyone who reads.

I hope you enjoy.

Save Those Seconds

There are 24 hours or 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds in one day.

If any of you out there are like me you spend time on the internet surfing and reading. One of the main things I use the internet for is as a research and growth building tool.

There are so many blogs out there from pastors and other industry leaders that you can almost instantaneously get access to the top minds in your field.

You can do this my clicking on each site individually or you can save time with the following tips.

Several of you are running around the Internet visiting this site and then that site and then that site and so on. That process takes time. Lots of your precious time. You deserve to have that time back to do more important things...

Right now, I'm tracking about 70+ different blogs, but it only takes me a handful of minutes each day. Rather than visiting each of those sites individually, I take advantage of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to let the fun come to me in one location where I can scan only the new posts and ignore the sites where I know nothing has been updated. You can do this as well. It's really simple.

With that in mind, here's how you can easily subscribe to my blog:

1. Sign up for a "newsreader." I use Google Reader which is a great place to start, not to mention being able to use all the other great tools google provides.

2. Once signed up for Google Reader you will then add my blog to your subscription by coping the link below into your newsreader using the Add Subscription Function to subscribe to my feed:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/MakingDifferenceMakers

If you want more options, just click the Feedburner icon on right column on my site, or you can go here.

If that sounds too complicated, you can also receive my posts directly in your email inbox. Just complete the email subscription form on the right sidebar of my blog.

There you have it. It's that simple.

Now, what are you going to do with all the extra seconds in your day?

One Year Of Stats

Today marks one year I feel I have been seriously blogging. It was when I decided to post more seriously and it is when I began tracking my blog stats with Google Analytics.

After one year I have to say that I am presently pleased. Here are a couple of stats from the year:

6,675 Visits
10,191 Page Views
3,484 Visitors

Viewed in 63 Countries
Top three: 1) USA, 2) Canada, 3) United Kingdom

Viewed in 49 States plus DC (missing Alaska if you know anyone there)
Top three: 1) Texas, 2) California, 3) Nebraska

Top four posts:

1) Evolution For Dance
2) Drinking On Lifechurch.tv Stage
3) Elevate Podcast 2 (sorry...the audio is no longer there)
4) Clothe The Naked

Top Three Blogger Sites That Sent Hits My Way: (there were others like goolgle, blogger, technorati, etc...but these are sites of other bloggers)

1) Serial Youth Pastor
2) Flowerdust.net
3) Everyone Else But Joel

Some of my favorite keyword searches that lead people here:

"my wife excites me"
5-2 blitz package
corpus christi cancer blog
seven reasons why jesus could not have been a pastor in many churches
salt flavor children's moment
pastor caught cheating
blogs bashing newspring (definitely not this one)
most pastors i know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties
how much do schwann drivers make


Who are you???

62% use Internet Explorer, 82% use Windows, 55% use 1024x768 as your screen resolution, around 30% of you use DSL

ALSO...most live within 15 minutes of your job, have a fence, and drive a _____ nah just kidding...I don't know that much info.

Thanks a lot to all you who read...and send traffic my way...much love.

New Blogs

I'm looking for some new blogs to read for a while. Seems like most of the people that I'm reading are all reading from the same group. I don't expressly want to get trapped into the same line of thinking with this inclusion so I am looking for some fresh blogs to read.

If you look at my links on the right of my page you will see some of the favorite blogs I follow. Feel free to send me in the direction of someone you like or if you have a blog yourself give me your link.

Relevant Christian Site

The other day I told everyone I would introduce you to a blog connection I made. Through blogging I met Jimmy Eldridge who has a site called Relevant Christian. The web address is relevantchristian.com.

Jimmy posted up an article I wrote and has added me as a contributor to the Relevant Christian site.

Make sure you check out the article called "Defining Moments". Click -->>HERE<<-- to read the article.

Also if you have a myspace make sure you check out the Relevant Christian Myspace and add them as a friend.

Thanks Jimmy...Keep up all that you do.

1,000 Milestone

Well it is 12:00 a.m. and I just checked...it looks like as of right now...I made it...a new milestone...a ceiling broken.

I'm no Chris Day...but I hit the 1,000 mark with an official tally of 1,003.

Checking my Google Analytics for the month of August 2007 and here is what I got:

1,003 Visits
1,496 Page Views
506 Unique Visitors

Majority of viewers use Internet Explorer and connect by DSL.

Besides coming straight into my site...the top content was Clothe The Naked, Church Behind The Scenes, and Skater Falls 50 Feet.

Shout-outs go to:

Flowerdust.net
Serialyouthpastor.com
Connecting For Eternity

For the blogs sending the most hits my way.

And you thought you guys lived in this secret world out there on the internet.

I even have a list of names of everyone that visited with your home address...nah just kidding.

Great Blogging Month

It's been a cool month on my blog...I am 67 hits away from hitting 1,000 hits this month. For me that's cool since I have been serious about this blogging thing only since October '07. I have had about a 37% increase in hits this month.

Don't know if I'll hit that 1,000 today...I haven't had that many hits in a day, but it's cool to be that close.

I know this because I use Google Analytics to track my website.

Somewhere In There Is Content

So far this week in all of the other things I have been posting I have talked about improving your blogging.

If you are a blogger out there and are trying to build up your "brand", there are a couple of things you could be doing.

Now I'm sure there are plenty others and that there are shortcuts to getting there faster, but these are from my experience and would play across the board no matter which way you look at it.

Third tip has to deal with content. Yeah, I know...you got to be kidding coming from you. I blog very A.D.D. It makes sense in my mind. I can blog about one thing...then kick off in three or four different directions and come back like I haven't missed a beat. I only hope you can read like that.

Now remember I blog for a couple of purposes. What that means is this blog may at times go all over the place.

But somewhere in there you have got to bring content. You have got to be consistent in bringing that content. Remember, being consistent with great content can help you as you continue to build your blogging base.

So my three tips in building your blogging base:

1. Be Consistent
2. Contribute To Other Bloggers
3. Bring Content

Contribute

Another tip I want to give bloggers out there as they are building their identity or blogging brand is contribute.

What do I mean by that?

I mean contribute to what others are writing. Read the blogs of others and contribute to the conversation.

I believe blogging is not just about write and the world will beat to my door. Blogging is about relationships. It is about contributing to what others are saying out there.

As you do this you will find that others will then come and read your own material.

So go ahead there all you bloggers out there....CONTRIBUTE!!!

Make sure you read Part 1 Be Consistent.

Be Consistent In Your Blog

For the next few days or posts I want to talk about blogging.

One tip I can give to bloggers in the blog world as they are building up their "brand" is to be consistent. Especially in the beginning.

In my earliest days in the blogosphere I was new and knew nothing. I just typed up a little info because I moved and wanted a way for friends to keep up.

About eight months into my adventure I realized I liked it and was going to get really serious. So I began posting consistently.

Many people are searching for blogs to read. We live in an information society. As people find you they are looking for consistency. If you only post once a week or longer, you may find that people drop you quickly. Unless you are some pretty famous personality. But if you are like the rest of the 95% of the world, "the not so famous", you will need to give some consistent content.

So go ahead. Set a goal. Post at least once a day. Maybe even more. I once posted ten times in one day. Of course post ten times ever day and it may backfire.

So go out there and be consistent. Look for some more blog tips coming soon...oops...I mean consistently.