Money and blogging, the opportunity and the dilemma
May 5, 2008
You may have noticed in my last post; Reason-4-Smile got its first sponsored review. That means a paid review, and that is the real first opportunity of monetization (besides earning from Adsense that I can’t even cashed it yet).
It was a surprise to me. Denise Adams contacted me in the middle of April. She prompted that she enjoyed my article and how I write. She commented on my About page, and she is interested in a paid review for her website. I hope you do not take it as if I’m boasting. The money is not much worth boasting for, but the lesson is much more worthy. It is what I wanted to share with you, the opportunity and the dilemma that comes with this offer.
Popularity: 29% [?]
Let’s have fun! The trivia facts about me
April 22, 2008
I guess I’ve been pretty serious with all my articles before. So let’s have some fun. I’ve been tagged by Cherryl from ButWhatNow.com and I’ll share more trivia facts about me.The rules of the meme project are following
- Link to the person that tagged you.
- Post the rules on your blog.
- Share 4 things in these themes.
- Tag 4 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
- Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
As it’s for fun, and fun does not follow all the rules (am I right?). I’ll skip the rules number 5. I guess the bloggers I tag will know with when they get my trackback =)
Popularity: 26% [?]
A blogger that helps bloggers
March 29, 2008
What is so special about bloggers?
First they are learners and second they are teachers. They do not want to keep the information by themselves, they want to share their knowledge to others. That is what very special about them. Don’t you think that each of us has a unique story? Unique knowledge and experience? No other person in this wiorld has exactly the same experience with us. And that means we have something interesting to share with others. And bloggers invest their time, money, and energy to provide that.
This post is dedicated to Mert Erkal from SearchForBlogging.com. He is the blogger that helps other bloggers. He initiated a project called Bloghology to help bloggers all around the world. I really admire his vision because I do believe that bloggers deserve some support. Many of them are great thinkers, they have great message and knowledge, but many have difficulty to gain readership and market themselves. And here comes a project he created, it is a regular e-book to be distributed across blogosphere, to help market bloggers all around the world. And this post I hope will be able to support him and his vision.
Popularity: 37% [?]
What is your motivation?
March 27, 2008
What is your motivation in life?
I read Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs on Wikipedia while preparing for my last message, “When it comes to relationship, limitation sells“. There is one statement that caught my attention there…
Once an individual has moved upwards to the next level, needs in the lower level will no longer be prioritized.
One day I was sharing my new hobby to one of my friend. I shared my enthusiasm on blogging to him. And then I shared how I got to know many people through my blog. His reply is not as what I expected, it was a critical statement. In summary, he said that I will not find satisfaction there, as I will not know the people who I am relating to with my blog.
I believe many people has negative impression on befriending a person over the web, first reason is the vulnerability for not knowing who is the other person, and the second one is the lack of return, it seems impossible for the other person in helping/loving you back. These reasons are valid reasons, and that made me wonder for quite a while, “what if he is right?”, “what if nobody will help me because I no longer have any friend that is next to me?”, “what if one time all I have is only friends contactable by emails?”
His statement bugged me for quite a while, until one day I came to realization on how selfish that motive is. If the thing that takes me away from my passion in blogging is the fear of not having friends, then that will be a very selfish ambition!
Reflecting on my life, I got more understanding on how my motivation has changed over the past two years. The path that leads me to blogging, how I take a step over another step following the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs…
Popularity: 59% [?]
First meme, first award, first review
March 15, 2008
This post is especially for the people that have tagged me and linked into my blog. Some have been there for quite awhile, leave off ago and I have not done any part to reply to them…
First is the first meme project with which I’m involved, “7 interesting things about you”. I am tagged by David and Amy. Thanks to them, I revealed so much of my “dirty laundry” =). Now I’d like to tag several other bloggers to share theirs…
Popularity: 52% [?]
The 7 interesting (and useful) facts about my flaws
March 14, 2008
Can you laugh over your flaws? How about considering them as your friend, interesting and helpful?
[This article is edited and republished for better clarity and structure, together with additional links and resources]
Two bloggers, David and Amy tagged me to share 7 strange/interesting facts about me. At first, I planned to put random facts, but eventually I wanted to write more, my story on turning limitation into advantages.
Mastery is attained by understanding our vulnerability and working with our situation.
Evan Hadkins (That Which Doesn’t Kill Us . . . Can Leave Us Maimed)
This is the second part of my series on turning limitation into advantages. The first part shared with you the five steps to win with your limitation, in short we have to acknowledge our limitations, own them, express them, turn them into advantages, and stretch them.
In this article, I will share my 7 flaws that many consider as limitations, but those are the ones that made our life interesting, not perfect but interesting.
"Limitation & Advantages" articles:
- The five steps to win with your limitation
- The 7 interesting (and useful) facts about my flaws
- Now you can consider your limitation as advantages
- When it comes to relationship, limitation “sells”
Popularity: 95% [?]
Site Update: Reason-4-Smile Library
February 17, 2008
Here is a new page that you can look forward to in my blog, the Library page. This will list out many sources of inspiration that makes-up this blog…
I love reading, and this blog has become the channel for me to share what I have read, hoping that the books that I have read can become insights and inspirations to you as well. Right now, the page will show you the list of the book in the category but in the future, I’m looking forward to put more personal development resources, such as podcasts, conferences, courses, seminars, blogs or others.
Through each entry in the library page, you will be able to link to the articles that I have shared on the book. Please click the 
button to do so. This will give you another way to browse my articles, checking those that are inspired by a particular book that you might be interested in. Hopefully this will give you greater interest to check out the book and read it for yourself.
Popularity: 29% [?]
Seven benefits of blogging to your personal growth
February 12, 2008
How do you consider blogging?
How do you consider blogging?Some people consider it as a waste of time, some people think that it’s a way to run from reality to cyberspace, but it’s not necessarily so. In fact, some people are serious about blogging and consider it as a hobby, channeling their passion and hobby on writing, or better still as a business they want to grow, business that they can run from home. Similarly, blogging is something that you can start as long as you like to learn and share information. You can even start without spending so much capital.
Particularly, personal development blogging has many benefits that I have enjoyed, it does come with a price, time and energy to do it, but you can gain much by doing it with passion and persistence. I have not tasted the returns in terms of money but I do have tasted the benefit in terms of personal development and growth.
In this post, I will distribute the seven benefits of blogging into two areas, blogging as a hobby, and blogging as a business. Both will help you to your personal growth.
Popularity: 99% [?]
What’s new with Reason-4-Smile Weblog?
January 31, 2008
Some updates in Reason-4-Smile Weblog…
The first update is the most obvious one, the theme. I’m using Wordpress Revolution theme right now, thanks to Chris and his link-up contest. The post that made me win the competition is the announcement of the new category I created few weeks ago, the News category, for the value I would like to give more to my reader and subscribers through short articles, comments on the recent news, in a form of quote or inspiration of the day.
Right now, this theme is still pretty raw, many features in my previous theme that I haven’t put in. More changes will be added in in the future, keep on updated!
The second update is the Insights category, this category is the companion of the News category, representing my pillar articles, longer articles that is summing up the insights and inspirations I have gained from various sources. Insights also represents the articles that I put in series, looking at the insights category will allow you to see the articles in the series clearly.
Popularity: 36% [?]
Attention: More value for my readers!
January 17, 2008
Do you notice the new category I made?
It’s called News category, I submitted one post recently under this category. And I would like to share more about this category…
It’s been a while that I blog, I started from the end of September until now, my style in blogging has evolved, in the month of October 2007, I posted a short article everyday, some with or without pictures, and some is just simply sharing a quote with short comments. November 2007 is my transition, and December 2007 my articles are longer, always comes with points to ponder, picture, and those are the types we bloggers called pillar articles.
So what’s the news?
I’m going to combine the two styles of blogging I have gone through, I will post newsy types of articles, that is simply sharing an inspiration of the day or a quote of the day. Simple comments and short post that I hope can give you some principle or encouragement to bring through the day.
Popularity: 21% [?]
