I just published a review of the new blog/social networking/review/forum GDGT. It is definitely a fun place to hang out and you can find out more about it here: GDGT: Social Networking for Gadget Geeks.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Also, if you like the new blog at Examiner.com, please subscribe to the Tacoma Gadget and Technology Blog. Enjoy.

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According to the new service, Jounce, online advertising will never be the same. Jounce recently opened up in beta to a small number of users and I was sent an invite. Jounce is a search engine for products to promote as an affiliate marketer.

The idea behind Jounce is that, as an affiliate marketer, it takes a long time to search through all the networks to find the best products and services to promote. With Jounce, you search across all affiliate networks for products and all information. You don’t need to be a member of all the affiliate networks in order to search for products, but, as always, you’ll need to join the affiliate netowrk in order to promote the product as an affiliate. We’ll get to how easy Jounce makes that in a minute.

To find a product, you simply type in keywords for products or services and Jounce returns a whole slew of options which may relate to your site. You can flag an offer while you’re searching and then check it later by accessing your account page. This truly is superfast and extremely user-friendly.

Here’s an example search. I typed “cat health” in to the Jounce search bar and received nearly 2,000 results. I have many choices on how I want the results organized, ranging from highest commission and product price to monthly EPC and relevance. Here’s what a single search result looks like:



As you can see, it looks much like the results you’re shown on individual affiliate marketing sites: name, link to product page, price, commission, etc. But you are also shown the network from which this product originated.

Here comes the best part of Jounce. When you click on the little arror after the network name, you can go join the network or, if you are already a member, you can sync your affiliate network account with Jounce. This option makes it uneccessary to ever visit individual affiliate network sites. Ever. Imagine what an amazing timesaver this could be. Currently there are only four networks (Pepperjam, Commission Junction, ClixGalore aand ClickBank) available for syncing, but Jounce plans to add hundreds of networks as it unfolds.

Aside from the obvious brilliance of this idea for all of us affiliate marketers, I think it will also give some of the little networks and individual sellers a better chance, perhaps sort of level the playing field. It will be very interesting to see where Jounce goes from here. When I received a beta invite I also received five beta invites I can send out. So if you are interested in checking out Jounce, just let me know and I’ll send one your way.

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I don’t usually recommend a ton of free reports here because most of them are just not that great and only add to the overwhelming problem of information overload. However, earlier today I was sent a link to a new free report: 201 Tips to Rock Your Blog. Created by Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch, this concise and easy-to-follow report is full of fresh as well as tried-and-true ideas to give your blog a kick in the butt or start it out with a bang.

Leo and Mary share a slew of short, hard-hitting tips that apply to bloggers at all levels. I’ve been blogging for over five years now and this report gave me some great new ideas as well as reminding me of very important fundamentals of a successful blog.

The report is organized into sections based on various aspects of blogs and blogging: headlines, design, images, monetization, etc. It’s an easy read, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it isn’t dense with important information. I highly recommend you check it out.

Also, if you refer at least three people to download the free report (when you sign up for the download you are given a referral link), you will gain access to a new video also created by Mary and Leo called “How to Write a Blog Post that Goes Viral.” This offer is a win-win, so make sure you head over to 201 Tips to Rock Your Blog and start reading.

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Last night I attempted to save a WordPress post as a draft and was taken to an error page that is received by visitors going to an unavailable page. Then I tried to schedule it, post it and everything else, but nothing seems to be working. I’m not sure what is causing this so I am going to post this message and see if it posts okay. If it does, then all should be well. If not, I’ll take a few steps back – or any helpful feedback you guys, my supersmart readers, can supply.

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If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: consistency, consistency, consistency. If you want to be a successful blogger, you must publish quality content on a regular basis. Apparently I’m not so good at taking my own advice because I stepped away from my blog for almost eight weeks and the results were just what I always say they would be: my readership dropped.

And I don’t just mean that I lost a few readers or visitors, my overall traffic was cut by two-thirds. This is a serious hit.

The other major noticable negative consequences have to do with Google. I don’t make much money on this site with Adsense ads. Honestly, this market is really flooded and I don’t write this particular blog for advertising revenue. So, although the dip in Adsense revenue wasn’t substantial, I did notice that my ad topics went all to hell. I’ve always gotten a few misdirected ads for actual sleepwear, but right now all of my Adsense ads are for pajamas. Ouch.

The other Google result is a bigger ouch. My page rank went from a nice, solid 3 to a 1. One. Seeing that was shocking and a huge motivator to get back here.

The point of this post is two-fold. First, I’m back and don’t plan on any more long-term hiatuses. Second, if you’re thinking about taking a break, keep in mind that you may be committing traffic suicide.

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