I have been dividing my attention on launching a few more projects but would like to report to you a unexpected experience gained from the last week. After reading CopyBlogger’s post about the two most important words in blogging, I took to heart the advice. It was decided that a goal for my project would be not to write “I” in the posts and include “you” as much as possible; throwing an occasional “because” in the mix.

Maybe there are other influencing factors, but this new blog has taken off in popularity very quickly. It has acquired a good readership number considering it hasn’t even been a week old yet. The blog is still in the google sandbox so it’s perplexing because there has been minimal promotion of the project thus far as the concentration has been on posting.

Using “I” liberally is often a trap / invitation for a blogger to ramble on their post - and that is not necessarily good. Blogs are about conversations, not monologues. Providing a value to your readers, and keeping them in mind (and in posts) will keep them coming back!

I’ve just realized that I forgot to summarize the results of last month’s poll. But I don’t have a new topic for April’s poll. I can certainly borrow from old polls from other bloggers but I’d like to steer away from copying people.

I’m not a huge fan of polls, and its partly why I’ve decided to host a monthly poll instead of more frequently. The other reason is the lack of traffic and participation for the polls. I’ll sleep on it and decide on the poll’s fate later. Though I have to say, I’ve always found the results insightful and was surprised that 5 people actually took the time to say advertising on blogs are tacky. (One of them was me!)

Now that all the April Fool’s silliness is past us, it’s back to normal AmBlogging! I am a fan of the Performancing Metrics package and am glad that Dave Reid has been successful in producing a plugin for WordPress bloggers

I joined the plugin’s mailing list and was invited to be a beta tester for the newest version to be released tomorrow. So I’m not sure if this qualifies as a scoop! Users of 0.2 can look forward to quite a few new features in 0.3. Let me review them!

• Bloggers can choose to not track visits by users over a specified user level
• The javascript code is now valid HTML/XHTML
• As with most WordPress 2.0 plugins, the plugin can let you know when a new version is available
• You can enable a PMetrics module to be used with the Wordpress widgets plugin
• For non widget users (like me), you can manually insert the sidebar code into your template with some limited customization. (I’ve done this on my sidebar here!)
• You can also make the sidebar module private, so that only you can see it when you visit the site.

This is a big improvement for people who don’t mind showing their statistics. Personally, I tend to be more reserved than transparent. I may turn off the sidebar to the public in the future, but for now I’ll let it show my paltry visit statistics.

I also want to commend Dave for his quick response. Being beta means exactly that! When I tried out the plugin, there was a debug feature that wasn’t turned off and all the plugin’s internal information, including my Performancing username and password were revealed for all to see! I quickly disabled the plugin and notified Dave. I also took the precaution to change my Performancing password. Dave was very quick to respond and fixed the critical issue. All’s well for now. I won’t link to the new version as yet, to let Dave perform the official launch. You should look forward to it too!

Now that I’m going PRO, I’m thinking of ways to make lots of money! Blogging is way too slow because you have to build up your content gateways, work on increasing readership, building your community and networking with Bloggers! With my skills, it’ll be 2024 before I gain any traction.

I could also do single page Adsense sites and the advantage here will be one-off efforts that do not require me to update! But what I’m really looking for is an explosion! Since bubble 2.0 is here, I had better not miss the Web 2.0 limbo line-up!

So, I announce my latest venture - Thingamajig, the newest Web 2.0 app that you’ve never heard of. I don’t know what it does yet, but it will be the best Web 2.0 app that nobody can live without! Once you sign up, you will renounce all the other W2 apps out there.

Why will it succeed? Because it’s got a catchy name! I’m already hearing people talk about it - “What’s this thingamajig?”. It resembles the advertising of “What is the matrix?” and we know how that fared out! Plus, Thingamajig will have all the Web 2.0 design goodies that will draw you in to spend lots of money! I can’t wait to swim in those dollar bills!

I mulled over my decision to quit blogging earlier today, but I read one final blog that changed my life - Scoble’s decision. I thought if a blogger like Robert Scoble can change his mind and switch from Microsoft to Google, there may be hope for bloggers yet! So I’m launching a comeback and going pro! I called my mom and told her that I know it’s early, but I have to put food on the table. She understood my decision and said that I should get an agent, some PR guy, and get hooked up with a team. Awesome, here we go!

P.S. Steve Rubel is also making some changes! And he’s analyzed today’s major Blogger trade deal!

Why? Why ask why? There isn’t a reason why. I’ve taken the red pill and discover the veil of deception that blogging was meant to distract us from the real world that we live in. All around you, you see people reading blogs, writing blogs. One by one, we’re becoming the blogging death - zombies!

Before I become a zombie, or date a zombie, I’m renouncing blogging forever to keep my sanity and non-zombieness! You know when LifeHacker becomes DeathHacker, the whole world has gone zombie-crazy and insane for a day! All you zombies can go back to your graves! P.S. Don’t bite my head off!

I’ve started a new Blog! I haven’t launched it yet, but I’ve starting to write posts about it. I thought about how I would bring some exposure to the new Blog. Then it dawned on me, how about if I let it remain a secret?

Perhaps I could make it into a scavenger hunt or a contest! I would drop clues, and allow readers to guess where is my new blog. What would the prizes include? This is where my idea begins to break down. A small fish like me could not possibly generate enough interest to make this really work, or could I? Are you a sponsor that can see the potential of this idea? Please contact me!

And should I only reward the first person who guessed correctly? I’m leaning towards putting all correct entries into a draw for the prize because honestly, it would not be hard for the technically resourceful people to find my new Blog.

Will this idea fly? I don’t really know, maybe I’m just ranting. Maybe I’m testing for interest. Your thoughts please!

Month #2 has come and gone for AmBlogger. The participation in February’s poll (19 votes) has been much less than January’s poll (60 votes). But it was a sweeter, more satisfying result!

Looking back at February’s poll. I made mistakes in putting up the choices on the poll. Nobody works a “5 to 9″! I was trying to set that choice for people who worked night shifts. I also should have known better to think people who read blogs don’t blog, it’s not the hottest fad going for no reason.

Here are the results:

The new poll of the month will have simple choices. March’s poll was inspired by my previous post - Bloggers, Journalists, Pros, Amateurs. I want to find out from you, money aside, whether you find advertising and advertisements on Blogs to be tacky and compromising the idea of blogging? Cast your votes!