Right. This blog's reason for existence is the Frugal Gracious Living Challenge, in which I will demonstrate how well it's possible to live on US$1000 per month. All I need is the money, and then this can become a cheerful, inspiring blog...even though, so far, it seems to be being read only by other Blogjob writers.
(The Frugal Gracious Living Challenge is not, in and of itself, political, but I expect that it'll be funded by Republicans if it's funded at all...Democrats don't like to admit it, but their party's been harnessed to an agenda that's not about frugal, gracious, productive, independent, healthy lives for old ladies.)
By definition, Blogjob writers are people who are willing to write two full-length blog posts for approximately a dollar a day, which means that by U.S. standards they're unlikely to be rich. What some of them post about living on low to extremely low incomes is probably accurate.
Why is readership so low here, anyway? It always takes readers some time to find a blog. I'm still bemused by what the computer shows about my readership. It took about six months for my Blogspot to reach a steady following of about one-quarter the number of readers I had on Associated Content. There've been ups and downs, but generally that number has remained constant. Since joining Blogjob about six months ago, I've been generally trying (with lapses, like yesterday) to post richer, more sponsor-friendly content here. I've also been spending very little time posting on Blogspot. According to Google, blogs with ads get more traffic than blogs without ads. Nevertheless, the Blogspot is still attracting a daily readership 400 to 500 percent higher than the Blogjob, whose daily readership is still languishing in the double digits.
I have a theory...that's another post.
Anyway, given that fellow Blogjobbers seem to be the only people reading these Blogjob posts, is it useful to post anything about the Frugal Gracious Living Challenge on Blogjob? Well...I am proposing to do the Frugal Gracious Living Challenge on Blogjob. But what can fellow Blogjobbers do to help? When I said yesterday that, if that Indiegogo tracking system wasn't showing any traffic from you, you weren't a serious e-friend, was I just being grumpy and mean?
I was grumpy. People whose wonderful projects are endangered by threats to their physical survival tend to be grumpy; try it and find out some time. I don't apologize for that. I did not, however, intend to be mean. Possibly some of us are using computers that don't offer the publicity options mine does. (It's always a source of wonderment to me if anyone else's computer is clunkier than the ones I use.) More likely, some of us aren't getting the benefit of these publicity options.
As you scroll down into a Blogjob post, at the top of the screen you probably see a black bar pop up. It looks like one of those annoying pop-up ads, so you may be, from habit, ignoring it. If so you're not realizing that it's a Free Publicity Toolbar.
Scroll down now, if you're not seeing it yet, until this toolbar pops up. It has buttons for Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and "More." "More" opens a menu for all kinds of social sites from every country where Blogjob is read, which means some that don't even exist in your country. If you're not using it for your own posts, as well as your friends', you're either being terribly modest or cheating yourself of a way to save time and boost traffic for your writing.
Now, please scroll back up and right-click on one (or both) of my fundraising links to open that window in a new tab. This allows you to copy the exact URL for the fundraising page. To promote my project, you copy the URL for my fundraising page into a post on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, Live Journal, Linked In, or whichever other social sites you use. That's all. It takes about two seconds to boost the Frugal Gracious Living Challenge on Twitter, maybe ten seconds to type in something like "This e-friend's project sounds like fun" on Google +, and thereafter, the system will credit you for referrals.
(Paypal, on the Blogjob post, counts only actual contributions. Indiegogo, which handles non-Paypal payments, counts and credits page views as well; that's where I learn who's helping publicize the project.)
But you're not done yet, Gentle Readers. Because +Sandy KS , who referred me to Blogjob in the first place, works those other social sites well, I've been assuming that others here were getting the full benefit of that social media toolbar. Apparently you're not. You have to try it to believe it. That toolbar not only simplifies the URL's you paste in but also simplifies pages that may be difficult or impossible to use in their full-blown form. The computer I'm using now tends to run slowly and choke on Google + or Twitter, but Po.st opens a window that allows me to link things to either of those sites without actually opening it, then closes the window in a second.
I know Twitter is in a completely different dimension of cyberspace than Blogjob, and most Twits don't want to read full-length Blogjob posts. Nevertheless, almost every time I repost a Blogjob link onto Twitter, my readership on both sites grows.
(Word Press has supplied a graphic, but all Blogjob posts need a book link. Right. The Frugal Gracious Living Challenge occurred to me as I began reading The Conservative Heart
by Arthur Brooks.)
by Arthur Brooks.)
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