The Lazy Sunday Stumble

Each Sunday, I do a lot of catching up on my blog reading. I like to read all of the posts collected in my Stumble group and share them with my followers. In the past, I've overwhelmed my Facebook and Twitter followers with a bunch of recommendations, so I have decided to gather all of the posts into one blog post for everyone to read!


Web Tools

• How To Use Storify from Kludgy Mom. Perhaps this is the next great tool for you. I've been toying with using Storify myself, so I am excited about this tutorial from Kludgy Mom (she's one of the best!).
• Great Internet Marketing by Thinking Like a Teacher from Creative Boomer. For my fellow bloggers, internet marketing is one of those skills you need to hone if you'd like to spread the word about your presence online.

Creative & Funny

• Where I'm From from Modern Gypsy. A beautifully written piece linked up to Mama Kat's Losing It! about where Modern Gypsy is from.
• What did he just say? Funny Kids Cartoon from Sason & Pobi. A cute cartoon where our blogger makes a first attempt at drawing with a mouse (that can't be easy!!).

Events

• Women of Faith IMAGINE Conference from Woven by Words. Mimi gives us an introduction to the Women of Faith Conferences by looking back at last year's event and showing us where to go this year!

Product Reviews & Giveaways

• Canadian Tire Kitchen Mission | Shark Portable Steam Cleaner vs. Stove & Oven by Simply Stacie. Stacie introduces me to a pretty intense-looking cleaner for the stove and oven. I had no idea they made these portable steam cleaners before reading this!
• The 5 Best Parenting Books from Eat. Live. Laugh. and sometimes shop. I wasn't sure if this should go in the family section or product reviews, but here it is. The five BEST parenting books according to Eat. Live. Laugh. and sometimes shop. They look pretty fantastic to me (I'm going to keep this list handy for my future self!)
• Looking for fair-trade energy? CocoaWell has it and more... plus a giveaway! from Almost All the Truth. A fair-trade product that gives you energy, helps your heart and circulation - why not try to win some, I'm going to. The giveaway entries end on October 6th.

Relationships & Family

• How to Turn Your Nags into Requests He'd Love to Honor from Before You Marry. 3 great ways to turn your nags into requests are hidden in this post - whether you are working toward getting married, or already there, who couldn't use these great tips?
• Winnie-the-Pooh, Complete Tales & Poems by Read Aloud Dad.A fabulous review of the classic A.A. Milne stories and poems illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard. Read Aloud Dad not only reviews the collections, but reminds us why these stories are so precious to share with the whole family.
• Do You Know What Your Pet Is Saying? from Daily Organized Choas. Bibi takes the time to describe the differences between various pet actions so her family can better understand what the furry family members need. A great read for pet-lovers.
• Naptime, Interrupted. Kind of. from Genie in a Blog. This is hilarious, embarrassing and an important read for anyone this hasn't happened to yet! What do you do when your kids are enjoying naptime? Think about it and read this!

Health & Diet

• From B12-D: A Better You from With a Side of Sneakers. B-12 helps Heather deal with her pain, which is fantastic news for those who feel better taking vitamins rather than drugs. She discusses all the ways vitamins and minerals have been helping her and her husband.
• How to Stop Stuffing Your Face At Parties by Alison Golden. Do you have issues with self-control when in social situations? Do you lurk around the snacks and find, at the end of the night, that you can't even keep count of how much you consumed? If so, check out Alison's post for some tips on how to survive your next social event!

Recipes

• Cheap Eats - Beer Bread from The Budget Diet. Homemade bread for less than a dollar and no bread maker needed - this sounds awesome!
• Rustic Peach Tart from Delishhh. If the recipe doesn't sound tempting, just click the link and take a look at the delicious picture!

Let Brenna Tell you Almost All The Truth

Sometimes when you read someone else's blog you are left saying, "Now there's someone who gets it." Such is the case for me when I read the blog of this week's Stumble Buddy, Brenna at Almost All The Truth.

If you just started following my writing since I've started the Rivera Runs Through It blog, then you may not be aware of my obsession with living a greener lifestyle, becoming a more conscious consumer, or, most notably, my obsession with good, natural foods.Brenna's blog, Almost All the Truth speaks to each one of these topics and more spreading an amazing amount of important information for all of us to stay attuned to every single day.

Most times when I write about a Stumble Buddy I say "You'll thank me," for this introduction once you start readng, while this remains to be true in the case of Almost All the Truth, it also goes one step further: I'll thank you for taking the time to think about those things that are truly important in our world. Brenna's got a lot to share with you: sje's going to make you think, she's going to make you question and, if we are all lucky, she'll get us to change for the better!

Here's a quick tour of Brenna's blog to give you a taste of what kinds of truth she has to offer: 

• Is electricity natural?
• Reduce waste through thoughtfulness 
• Top Ten Ways to Reduce Breast Cancer Risk
• Wordful Wednesday: vision, glasses and children
• Getting greens with organic and fresh green smoothies

 That's just a bit of a teaser for you. There is so, so much more. Please take some time this week to check out Almost All the Truth and truly think about the words she offers us. 

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This post was written as ta part of my continuing series on My Stumble Buddies. To be a part of our StumbleUpon party to read and stumble week by week, come visit the Kludgy Mom community in Blog Frog!

Other Stumble Buddy Posts:

• Are You Reading Read Aloud Dad?
• Get a Clue With Kludgy Mom
• The Perfect Formula for Learning at Old School with The Damsel   
• Find Out What You Should Know from the I Though I Knew Mama Blog 
• Shape Up AND Have Fun With The Budget Diet
• Ask Alison Golden About Her Secret Life as a Warrior Woman 

**Don't forget Rivera Runs Through It has a FaceBook Fan page waiting for YOU to LIKE it!!**

My Reddit Mistake

This past week, for the first time ever, I was called a spammer (cue dramatic music).

This made me sad, but it happened on Reddit, the social news website, which I had minimal experience with, so I instantly knew it was all my fault. Although I had no intentions of ever spamming anyone and I thought what I was doing was basic blogger practice, it was clear that I had made a mistake. This led to one big question:

What did I do wrong?

The short answer to this question is "Everything!!" but I can slim it down to two biggie mistakes that led me down this path. Here they are:

Mistake #1:
I Used Reddit As A Submitter Before A Reader 

Most of my social media use has started since I starting blogging, not before. I had never even heard of Reddit before I started blogging, and I didn't start using it until, one day it showed up in my traffic stats. Back in March 2011, I wrote a blog post about a non-profit grant opportunity here on Rivera Runs Through It. I was hoping to share the post with IHRF (the foundation for my rare disease) and other people who have IIH. Well, someone submitted it to Reddit. It remains, until this day, as the most popular post on this blog. I needed to know what Reddit was, so I followed the link in my traffic stats to find out.

The link took me to a page that asked me to sign up and asked me if I wanted to submit anything. I saw the power of this tool and I decided to save up only my best posts for this guy (to be honest with you, the speed with which that first post rocketed, scared the heck out of me!). A couple of times I went into the Reddit site directly to try to use it, but, with my inexperience, it overwhelmed me. 

Mistake #2:
I Used Reddit Just Like it Was StumbleUpon

All social media sites are not created equal. I know this. I swear I do... but the submission process felt  so similar! Those of you not new to Rivera Runs Through It, you know that I am a StumbleUpon gal - I know it, I love it, I use it regularly (maybe too regularly!), so, when I submitted my first link to Reddit, the process felt very similar and something I was quite comfortable with. Here is the StumbleUpon process:

1. When deciding I want SU to know I like something I found on the web, I click my thumbs up "I like it!" button
2. If no one else has ever done so (happens to me quite often), then I am asked to write a REVIEW for the site if I would like to, so other "stumblers" can see why they might like it.
3. I go on with the rest of my life. 

When I submitted a link to Reddit, I was asked first about the title and what part of Reddit I would like to submit it to, and then I was asked to write a comment if I would like to. I mistakenly interpreted this "comment" request to be the same as the "review" request and would often write it as a teaser or a "selling point" so people could see why they might want to read this post! Had I not made mistake #1 (above), this would have never ever happened.

 What have I learned?

You must know that the teacher's soul inside of me was, in fact, quite excited that I made a mistake, because without it I would not have been able to actually, finally learn about Reddit! I have decided in just the one weekend of playing since "the incident" that Reddit Rocks!!

Reddit is a community! The "comments" that I misinterpreted as reviews are actually (brace yourself people...) comments in order to engage in a discussion about the link with other "redditors." I love this! There is a main page of Reddit that has the top leading links from all of reddit, but there are also separate sections of Reddit for just plain old "funny" links or "food" links or "world news", or, honestly, almost anything you can imagine (I even found a MATH group of redditors!!!).

I am concerned I have created a whole new addiction for myself (the iPhone app has already been downloaded), but I think I have also found a fun new way to find out what's going on on the Internet. I think you should check it out to (if you haven't already), but you should do so in the right order! Go in and USE Reddit; become a redditor, join the conversations, begin some conversations and just have some fun! I highly recommend it.

Have you used Reddit before? 

Are you already a Redditor?

Have you ever misused a social media/media sharing site before?

Reddit alien image credits:
Reddit help
BloggingExperiment.com
~Lord-scarab
Reddit submission by danwin

The Stumble Buddies Blogroll

My Stumble Buddies Blogroll

Each week I engage in an interactive discussion with the Kludgy Mom community in Blog Frog! It is designed with bloggers in mind. We share our posts with each other and with the world of StumbleUpon. Throughout this process I have discovered a great number of excellent blogs and bloggers. I decided it was time to shine a spotlight on them. Here, on the Rivera Runs Through It blog, I have been introducing  my readers to some of these great blogs by writing an individual post on each one. 

If you missed each of the individual posts, or are just looking for a one stop shop for some great reading, this is it! This is the blogroll of those bloggers in the spotlight. It will continue to grow as the weeks pass on.

1. Read Aloud Dad 
2. Kludgy Mom
3. Old School - Self Reliance 101
4. I Thought I Knew Mama
5. Alison Golden - The Secret Life of a Warrior Woman
6. Almost All the Truth

If you are interested in becoming a Stumble Buddy, and sharing in all of the Blog Love, then feel free to join in our latest discussion over in the Kludgy Mom BlogFrog group!

Other places to share this blog love:
-The Rivera Runs Through It Facebook Fan Page
-follow me on twitter @Riverand

Ask Alison Golden About Her Secret Life as a Warrior Woman

At the beginning of this summer, I was catching up on my blog reading and my Stumble Buddies when I was struck silent by a post by Alison Golden. It was timely, it was relevant and it was one of those reads that you simply knew you had to share once reading - the post was 4 Heartstopping Myths On Drowning Every Responsible Parent Should Know. I read it, shared it and could not stop talking about it. Although I had been reading Alison's bog for a little while before this, it was with this post that I recognized the Warrior Woman Alison truly was!

 
I look forward to Alison's posts as I know I will be exposed to humor, inspiration and possibly even learn something new! This blog is written in such an authentic voice, you can't help but feel like you are getting to know Alison, the person, more and more as you read her blog. I invite you to do so and join me in reading Alison Golden The Secret Life of a Warrior Woman, and just to get you started here are some of my favorite posts:

• What A Male Escort Taught Me About Going All the Way...
  
• 19 Priceless Tips for Introvert Mothers
• 69 Quotations to Inspire Frazzled Mothers
  
• Pole Dancing, Boudoir Photos - What is Happening to Me?
• 11 Reasons Clearing Clutter Can Change Your Life

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This post was written as ta part of my continuing series on My Stumble Buddies. To be a part of our StumbleUpon party to read and stumble week by week, come visit the Kludgy Mom community in Blog Frog!

Other Stumble Buddy Posts:

• Are You Reading Read Aloud Dad?
• Get a Clue With Kludgy Mom
• The Perfect Formula for Learning at Old School with The Damsel   
• Find Out What You Should Know from the I Though I Knew Mama Blog 
• Shape Up AND Have Fun With The Budget Diet

**Don't forget Rivera Runs Through It now has a FaceBook Fan page waiting for YOU to LIKE it!!**

Shape Up AND Have Fun With The BUDGET Diet

As I started my stumbling for the week, and I was thinking to myself, "Who shall be my featured Stumble Buddy of the week?" I was struck by the timeliness and need to share the latest post by Kristl from The Budget Diet.

Of course, if I am being honest, that wasn't something that really surprised me - every time I tune into The Budget Diet I am reading a post that is fun, helpful and, often, exactly what I need at that moment!

Who couldn't use some really great tips on saving cash?

Who wouldn't love to have fun and enjoy life while doing it?  

This is what The Budget Diet has to offer you.

If we just take, as an example, the post written on the first day of summer called Summer Boredom Busters - 10 Summer Fun Ideas - here you'll find a fantastic list of ways to entertain the entire family throughout the long summer days. The ideas are not only cheap, they are legitimately fun ideas that kids will realistically fall in love with!

As you explore Kristl's blog, you'll be treated to weekly challenges, quick and easy recipes, cheap and fun party ideas and, of course, some great deals! Here are some of the posts that have causght my attention in the time that I have been a fan, just to get you started:

• Challenge: Don't Pat Full Price for Anything This Week
• 10 Ways to Perk Up Your Decor for $100 or Less
• Lemonade Pie
• Cheap and Cheerful - 20 Different Ways to Say Thank You

and for one of those real "A-Ha!" moments:

• Cut your Spending by $11 a Day and SAVE $4000 a Year!

So stop wasting your time and money and get on over to Kristl's blog. I know you'll thank me for it!

***

This post was written as ta part of my continuing series on My Stumble Buddies. To be a part of our StumbleUpon party to read and stumble week by week, come visit the Kludgy Mom community in Blog Frog!

Other Stumble Buddy Posts:

• Are You Reading Read Aloud Dad?
• Get a Clue With Kludgy Mom
• The Perfect Formula for Learning at Old School with The Damsel   
• Find Out What You Should Know from the I Though I Knew Mama Blog

**Don't forget Rivera Runs Through It now has a new FaceBook Fan page waiting for YOU to LIKE it!!**

Find Out What You Should Know from the I Thought I Knew Mama Blog

Most of us have some idea of what we want to do with ourselves - who we want to be, how we want to spend our time and what is important to us. However, life, with all of its twists and turns and new challenges, very often throws in some new factor that opens our eyes, our ears and all of our senses to a piece of life that trumps it all. So, it seems, was the case with Charise from the I Thought I Knew Mama blog.

As you read Charise's post answering the question Why are you called "I Thought I Knew Mama"? you get a real sense of this kind of enlightenment experienced by Charise and her husband with the dedication of their son Jac. It is beautiful post and a great story behind a blog's name.

I Thought I Knew Mama is another blog that I had pleasure of "discovering" through my StumbleUpon group. Charise's posts always catch my eye from her emotional writing (she is a fellow participant in The Red Dress Club prompts), to her healthy, green living and neat product reviews and giveaways in line with those ideals. Charise also has lots of information and inspiration for moms looking to raise their children in a more ecologically conscious, healthy and natural way.

Some of my personal favorite posts from I Thought I Knew Mama, so far, are:

• What is BPA? Why is it bad? What can I do?
• In Loving Memory
• Soundbites from a Miscarriage Journey
• Antibiotics: Are they overused in my food? What can I do?
• 5 Easy Steps for Creating a Healthier Home

I Thought I Knew Mama is a great blog to explore if you are a mom, if you are a writer, if you are interested in going green or, at least looking for healthier/more organic lifestyle choices for you and your family, or if you are looking to get some cool new stuff from one of the many giveaways Charise hosts!

***

This post was written as ta part of my continuing series on My Stumble Buddies. To be a part of our StumbleUpon party to read and stumble week by week, come visit the Kludgy Mom community in Blog Frog!

Other Stumble Buddy Posts:

• Are You Reading Read Aloud Dad?
• Get a Clue With Kludgy Mom
• The Perfect Formula for Learning at Old School with The Damsel  

**Don't forget Rivera Runs Through It now has a new FaceBook Fan page waiting for YOU to LIKE it!!**

The Perfect Formula for Learning at Old School with The Damsel

Do you like to learn things?

Do you like to laugh?

Do you wish you knew the simple ways to get things done like they used to get done - with stuff around the house, cheap to get, or at least with multiple uses?

Well then it is time that you join me in attendance in one of my favorite places on the Internet - Old School - Self Reliance 101, with one of the greatest teachers I know, The Damsel.

I was first introduced to The Damsel back in November when I first joined my StumbleUpon group. The first post I read was about fruit flies. I read the post and understood - I, too, hated fruit flies -  I was amused - Was this woman writing about herself in the third person?? - and I learned - the "Cup of Death" is simple to assemble and implement with the Damsel's clear instructions.

I thought it must be a fluke. A great, simple, short post highlighted among many others that could not have all possibly fit this beautiful formula: relevant, fun and educational - I was so wrong - this IS the Damsel's formula! This is what you will find each and every time you attend The Damsel's class. Now, not all of her posts contain recipes for death traps, but every single one will either teach you something or leave you in deep thought about something. As a teacher, myself, I could ask for nothing more from each of my lessons.

Enough. I am wasting your time. I'm making you late for class! Here are some of the posts on my must-share list:

• Spring Cleaning
• Caramel Popcorn, Lazyman Style
• Nostalgia as a Life Choice
• How to Make Your Own Jet-Dry - sort of
• Walking to School (or Biking)
• How to Wash Windows
• The Last Week of School - Old School Style

I had to stop myself. This list was a lot longer a minute ago, but I want you to go explore the school grounds for yourself. Get on over there! The Damsel is waiting and I'm sure she has something wonderful to share with you today!

***

This post was written as ta part of my continuing series on My Stumble Buddies. To be a part of our StumbleUpon party to read and stumble week by week, come visit the Kludgy Mom community in Blog Frog!

Other Stumble Buddy Posts:

• Are You Reading Read Aloud Dad?
• Get a Clue With Kludgy Mom

 


**Don't forget Rivera Runs Through It now has a brand-spankin' new FaceBook Fan page waiting for YOU to LIKE it!!**

Get a Clue with Kludgy Mom

I can't think about StumbleUpon without thinking of Kludgy Mom. It is not that this is, per se, her claim to fame, it just happens to be how our paths crossed in the winter of 2010. I was going through Darren Rowse's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog for the first time and became curious about using StumbleUpon as a promotion tool for my blog. I had no idea what it was, but I found Kludgy Mom's blog and was swept away by its design, its simplicity and her depth of knowledge of social media.

The first post I ever read from the Kludgy Mom blog is one I continue to recommend to new Stumblers to this day:

• How to Use StumbleUpon: Tutorial

What I learned in that post has been enough to turn me into a stumblin' junkie that has StumbleUpon as one of my leading traffic sources month after month.

Since that time, Kludgy Mom has continued to teach me about Social Media, introduce me to new ways of finding income on the Internet and make me laugh with her and at myself with her fabulous sense of humor. As you will see when you visit Kludgy Mom's blog, she is a woman of many talents. She claims in her tagline that Kludgy Mom is "the art of living haphazardly," and while the haphazard part of that statement may be what initially draws our attention, it is this Austin mom's art that wows us post after post.

Some of my favorite posts from Kludgy Mom are:

• What Twitter is Good For
• Finding Work From Home Opportunities
• App Girl to the Rescue
• How to Sell Groupons You Don't Want Anymore
• Why Blogging is Good for You

Take a moment now to head on over to the Kludgy Mom blog to see what her latest post is about - and be ready for anything: social media, product/app reviews, a recipe, a lesson for bloggers, or just a humorous post about a day in the life of Kludgy Mom. Whatever it is, I am sure you will be better off for having read it!

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This post was written as the first official post of my continuing series on My Stumble Buddies. To be a part of our StumbleUpon party to read and stumble week by week, come visit the Kludgy Mom community in Blog Frog!

Other Stumble Buddy Posts:

• Are You Reading Read Aloud Dad?

 


**Don't forget Rivera Runs Through It now has a brand-spankin' new FaceBook Fan page waiting for YOU to LIKE it!!**

My Stumble Buddies

Every single week I participate in a discussion in the Kludgy Mom BlogFrog community where bloggers get together, share posts they're proud of and help boost each other up using StumbleUpon. It has been an amazing experience. Since I started participating this past winter I have learned so much about blogging, social media, the Internet, myself, places around the world and my fellow Stumblers.

As each week passes, I keep thinking these bloggers are awesome - I want to share them with everyone! And, in little ways, I have - very often my Stumble Buddies are featured in the "Food Reads" or "Good Food (Recipes)" section of my Friday's Food Finds segment on my Searching for Sustenance blog, or I've linked to their blogs on a relevant post (like in How Darren Rowse Forever Changed my Life in 10 Days), but so far only one Stumble Buddy has received the type of spotlight treatment I would like to give to all those who have taught me so much, and that is Read Aloud Dad in a post I wrote entitled Are You Reading Read Aloud Dad?

It is time to spread the love. Each week another one of my Stumble Buddies will be featured here on Rivera Runs Through It. For now I will leave you with the links above to give you a taste of what's to come and an open invitation to our weekly StumbleUpon discussion that starts each Wednesday. It's open to all bloggers, it has a couple of rules, but if you are interested, come check it out at the Kludgy Mom BlogFrog Community this Wednesday, June 1, 2011 will mark the beginning of WEEK 37.

13 Ways I Deal With Insomnia

I waddle my way to my bedroom, lazily put on a pair of pajamas and shuffle into bed. I am exhausted. The day is done. I am ready for sleep.

On some nights, however, such as this one, sleep eludes me. Here are just some of the things I do when I can't sleep:

Things I Don't Recommend to Fellow Insomniacs

• I grab my iPhone.
• I check out the WebMD APP to try to figure out what is wrong with me. This never helps me sleep, it simply causes me to jump into the rabbit hole called "Google" on a quest to define the twenty or so ailments I have come up with based on the symptom checker.
• I jump into the rabbit hole called "Google" to search something that is on my mind. This leads to another thing, then another, and so on. Then the sun rises and I wonder what happened. I decide, of course, to google "What happened?" and then I am slammed with the most recent news stories which engulf me.
• I get out of bed and start blogging.
• I go on Twitter.
• I go on Facebook (discovery: all my Facebook friends go quiet from 4:30am to 5:00am, like clockwork, but my Twitter never sleeps).
• I think about all the spiders that just woke up and may be planning to build a web over my head in the darkness.
• I get a drink of water. This only leads to a need to go to the bathroom just when I am about to fall asleep again.

Things That Kind-of Work

• I read a book. I just remembered that I have one to read right now. (Wow, I might rest yet!)
• I go on StumbleUpon. While this probably does keep me up a bit later than it should, I tend to exhaust myself with SU.
• I watch an episode of something I never saw before on NetFlix. (I stick to half hour shows and watch no more than two per night.) I have now seen all of the Arrested Developments this way and I am working my way through Better Off Ted. Both shows are hilarious.
• I listen to a book. This is awesome because my eyes get to rest, however, I do tend to fall asleep and have no idea where to pick up the book the next time I am listening.
• I have a cup of Sleepytime tea or Calming tea. These both tend to knock me out.

 Well, so it goes, perhaps getting out of bed to start blogging is not such a bad idea after all - it seems I have lulled myself into quiet a sleepy state. I only hope I've done th same for you if you need to sleep as desperately as I do!

How do you deal with insomnia?

How Darren Rowse Has Forever Changed My Life in 10 Days

I am in my 10th Day of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog program by Problogger Darren Rowse along with a bunch of ladies over in the SITS community. I have been working on it through my food blog, Searching for Sustenance, but have aspirations of bringing everything I learn there to this blog as well. The hostess of our group, Shelley, of the I'm Still Standing blog has challenged us to put to use what we have learned in one little post. I know I can't capture it all, so I will limit myself to one lesson per day... !0 Days, 10 Lessons, 10 (Blogging) Life Changers...

1. I will never ride the elevator with a stranger the same way again. I will constantly be thinking of how I can pitch them my idea and whether or not I can sell them on coming to my blog. I think every time I am in the elevator for the rest of my life, I will be rewriting a pitch!

2. I now think of the line, "The list is life," from Schindler's List in a completely different way. The list post is the life-line of my blog!

3. I am horribly and irrevocably addicted to StumbleUpon. I got on SU to help promote my own blog, but I really spend every day promoting the heck out of everyone and everything else. It keeps me up late at night stifling giggles like I am in Church in order to keep me from waking my husband. (My SU profile is NRivera9 if you would like to see how much stumbling I have done in such a short amount of time!).

4. I understand that I have a niche. Every blog has a niche. Whether we want to think so or not, the outside world is putting us into little categories, so pick one already and hope you see what the world does. Once you find your right niche, you will find your people.

5. I have come to the final conclusion that e-mail is still king. As wide as this web is and although it may seem that everyone loves the anonymity afforded them by mere screen to screen contact everyone seems to like the extra personal connection of an e-mail.

6. THERE IS NO WAY TO READ EVERYTHING ON DAY 6 ON DAY 6. If you are planning on someday doing 31DBBB, start reading now. Don't skip Day 6 (I did that my first go around), there is some incredibly invaluable information in there. (I am pretty sure I "stumbled" every post I read!)

7. I don't remember what Whitney Houston was singing about in the "Greatest Love of All" song, but I'll tell you one thing - I now know that linky-love is the greatest love of all of the Internet. If you write the right link post, aimed at the right audience, promoted the right way, you will see a traffic spike like NO OTHER. My link post Changing the Way We Eat: 1 Link At A Time written for day 7 was (and continues to be) INSANE.

8. I try to remember everything, because I understand my readers won't. It's not their fault - they might have only showed up last Tuesday, so I have to link back to the stuff I wrote last month, last week, last year. I am an interlinking fool now and it has been working!

9. I am Forum friendly and find myself commenting on articles in really big publications now leaving my name and website. I am pretty shy in real life, but out in the Internet I'm all up in everyone's business all of the time - offering advice, giving my opinions, and asking big questions. Whoa. Who am I?

10. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are no longer the only alerts in my life. I have tons of columns opened up on my TweetDeck, I get daily e-mails on all types of subjects and I just keep geting inundated with more and more information. How did I ever struggle for a topic to write on?

That's it... for now. I've got 21 more days of this! I think my brain might implode!!