Erik’s Blog: Board Shorts and Business Suits

Much to my surprise I just received an email from Cesar telling me about getting honorable mention from Success Begins Today. This year they gave out Blog Success Awards and named erikvossman.com one of three Honorable Mentions for New Blog Interface in ‘05. Some of the top blogs were ones like Steve Pavlina’s, Yara Starak’s, and a fellow Aloha State resident Rosa Say. Those are some pretty heavy hitters and to be named with them is quite an honor.

I actually linked through to the article early last week from Yaro’s post about it. I got through the first four awards and was interrupted by the arrival of company we had invited for the holiday’s. I completely forgot to finish it and missed my name in there. (Thanks again Cesar for pointing that out.)

Acceptance Speech

I guess I have to give a short little thank you or shout out to those that helped me create my blog. Most of all thanks to Cesar for tipping me off to the next thank you of Steve Pavlina’s blog. His was the real inspiration behind starting a blog. From there it just snow-balled and I began reading success stories all of the internet, mainly through linking. Yaro Starak’s has also been a huge influence and help on my internet adventures. I have jumped into the online entrepreneurial world with both feet. I plan on 2006 being a huge year in terms of online audience growth; both for this blog and for my other sites I plan on launching.

A big thanks also goes out to my girlfriend who puts up with my nose being in a computer the second I return home from work. She keeps me well rounded gently coaxing me out into the beautiful place we call home, Hawaii. Without her help and support of crazy ideas I am sure I would be just spinning around crazy like.

Family of course, they think I’m nuts but have always thought that and keep saying it sounds like a good idea. Also a big thanks for Chris, you know who you are. He visits me daily and offers great feedback. I wouldn’t forget you Jeremy, bro, our quest to take over the world, well not really, maybe just pinky and the brain style.

The several people who visit my site either through Google, MSN, AOL, or Yahoo, and especially those who come back regularly.

And last but not least SuccessBeginsToday.org. I had came across the blog about a month ago through Yaro’s and really enjoyed reading all the archived articles. This was also the time I was exchanging links and kindly asked them if they would do so. 2 days later we linked exchanged and as they say the rest is history. Thanks for continuing to check my blog and my progress, as well as posting some very interesting and informative reads. Keep up the good work and best wishes in ‘06.

Aloha,
Erik Vossman

What a great Community

Now on to the goods. As you can see from my archive dates I am fairly new to the blogosphere. I jumped in when I began to get interested in earning an income online about 2 months ago. I had started a website the newly launched Aloha Update using dreamweaver when the next day coincidentally friend of mine had just read Steve Pavlina’s article about his million dollar experiment and forwarded the address on to me. By the end of the week I was up and running with a blog of my own. I have continued to work on both of them launching Aloha Update last week and building readership in erikvossman.com.

As I have been writing and promoting and searching through the volumes of work others have created I have began to see what a great community the blogosphere can be. A lot of people are out there ready to help you with whatever you are trying to accomplish. Be it, financial independence, kicking a habit, finding a great cell phone, or just learning about anything you can find it in a blog. The thing with blogs is that 99% of them are very personal. People relaying their personal experiences, not some other guys just to make a buck. That’s the greatest thing, you get to know someone and their ideas. More times than not, they’ll help you without even knowing it!

Take for instance my blog. In its early stages it has some direction but not a ton. It doesn’t have a huge number of daily visitors and it doesn’t have a really large repeat readership. Still, through link exchanges (not just a one-way street I will point out), mentions in blogs like Success Begins Today, Yaro’s, and a few others, people have visited. Those blogs didn’t have to write about me, but they did, and it helps. Every little bit helps, every link, every mention helps you build more traffic and then like a pyramid you build a “fan-base.”

Of course other blogs don’t have to link to your blog especially if you have no traffic and are just starting out. If that’s the case they’re helping you out and not the other way around. Most do, because most have been there before. They realize that if by chance you do build some traffic you’ll send it their way sooner or later. Just like jumping on the pyramid. As an example, both Entrepreneurs-Journey.com and SuccessBeginsToday.org took me in and linked to my site. The lader even quoted one of my write-ups. As I track my referrals and exit links through my stats company I have seen an increase in referrals through both of those blogs as well as exit links to them. We both win.

Another interesting thing that I just found today checking my referral links that Yaro posted about me in his forum as well. He just surpassed the 1000 mark on his feedburner RSS tracker and decided to bring the forum back. In one of his most recent threads Name 3 favorite blogs, what are your favorites I show up as one of his. That’s a big link since the post is on his blog in his forum. This has the potential to mean a lot of visitors and possible some more links from those visitors. The reason being is because they’ll see that a popular blog like Yaro’s is sending me some traffic and they’ll possibly want to exchange links with me because of it. Thanks Yaro.

Overall I have enjoyed my first month and a half as a blogger. It has taught me a lot about the world that exist online. A world that I have been a visitor and user of for some time but not a big contributor. My hope and goal over the next year is to help people accomplish goals and learn a thing or two in the process. From that I may find financial gains, new connections, or maybe even some new goals to accomplish myself. Whatever it may be I’m sure it’ll be new and exciting.

Aloha,

Erik