If you write a blog for a living, hopefully you are always watching for new buzz topics to write about. I’m sure you’ve noticed how some of your blog posts seem to spike your traffic while other barely create a blip in the radar. Blog Energizer is a blog written specifically for bloggers to do just what her name says: to energize your blog.

Lynette’s energetic style is truly a reflection of her name, and you will want to bookmark this one or sign up for the updates like I did to keep posted on all she has to offer. She offers a premium service, which I have not checked out yet so I can’t speak for it, but she offers enough for free I haven’t found the need for it. . .(sorry, Lynette).

Some of the free items you can pick up on Blog Energizer are:

-Downloads: The 12 Topics You Need To Blog About Now, A Blogging Planner, A Blog Calendar & Traffic Generating Ideas (All separate downloads, free-well, at least for the sacrifice of your email address!)

-A free recipe book you can offer your readers

-25 quick and easy crafts for the holidays

-Free Ebooks from Barnes & Noble

-2010 Cartoon Calendar to offer your readers

-Learning with Lego magazines to giveaway (or keep!)

You’ll also find occasional ads for guest blog posts. There’s much more, but I think that’s enough to motivate you check out Blog Energizer to get some ideas to spice up your blog.

Happy November!

The Young Entrepreneur Foundation awards  scholarships every year to promising entrepreneurial high school seniors. As of midnight, 10-31-09, applications opened up for the 2010 awards.

NFIB Young Entrepreneur Awards are open to any graduating high school senior entering their freshman year in the Fall of 2010 at an accredited (not for profit) two- or four-year university, college or vocational/technical institute. You can apply online for a chance to win a scholarship valued from $1,000-$10,000. Hurry, deadline is Dec 31, 2009

Apply online at https://www.applyists.net/IntroPage.asp (click on ‘Apply or update a new application’)

Learn more about the Young Entrepreneur Foundation and the EIC (Entrepreneurs In the Classroom) Be sure to check out the free curriculum they offer -http://eitccurriculum.com/

Wondering if your website or blog is going anywhere? Your traffic goes up and down, but do you ever check your Alexa rating? During our blog contest someone asked me how they could increase their traffic and exposure, and she was (pleasantly) surprised when I told her that her Alexa rating was fairly good. She had never checked it before and was judging her blog’s growth simply by her traffic.

I have this nifty little toolbar that I absolutely love because it tells me at any given time where my websites and blogs rank. The really neat part is that it also tells me everyone else’s ranking, too! Having a serious case of business geek in me, I love to watch how different websites grow. It also helps me to know who is doing what is right and who isn’t, my inbound links and keyword density. Does anyone else thinks that’s pretty cool?

Alexa.com

If you’ve never checked your Alexa rating, just go to http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo and type in your site’s domain (no need for http or www) and you should be able to see your results. If your site is brand new, then you can register it on Alexa and you’ll show up soon.The best part of watching your Alexa ranking is you can tell what is working on a daily basis. I’ve read that simply having the toolbar installed on your site can increase your Alexa rating…somehow that makes me question how they calculate their stats…

SeoQuake

However, the toolbar I recommend is a Firefox plug in called SeoQuake. It gives you much more than an Alexa rating, but it gives you several other nuggets of info – some of which will not make any sense to you at all, but some will be very helpful. You can get your keyword density (and those of similar sites) with can really help with your search engine ranking.

The Website Grader

Another excellent tool to find out what you need to do to fine tune your stats is Website Grader. This is another free service that will tell you what you are doing right and exactly what you can do to correct your shortcomings.

How Much Is Your Blog worth?

I’m not sure how accurate this tool really is, but it’s fun to see if you are really richer than you think you are. Again, I’m sure the factors that increase the dollar value are the same factors that will give you a good grade on the Website Grader. Actually, the data for this widget is primarily taken from Technorati, so if you don’t do much there, you’re worthless (as this widget goes, at least!)

So, traffic is what we all strive for, but isn’t always your best measure of your site’s status in the online world. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t like what you see, do some of the suggested improvements and you might see some dramatic results!

Here’s DoshDosh’s 20 Ways to Increase Your Alexa Rating if you’re desperate!

A website to explore and see where you might be able to plug in, Youth Venture.org  invests in and helps young people make their dreams of community improvement come true. Idealism is a gift of youth, often dismissed, but if there were adults that were willing to help mold those ideas, why not? Young people have an energy that seems to wane with age, but doesn’t need to go to waste.

Check out YouthVenture.org and read the amazing things some of these teams have accomplished! You can visit their blog at http://blog.youthventure.org/

Ashoka’s Youth Venture® and Staples Foundation for Learning® have been proud to sponsor the Staples Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition. The 2009 competition is closed, but watch the videos of those who won and get some ideas for next year!

We’ve been talking about different ways you can make money online, with affiliate marketing being the focus. One of the most common ways to promote affiliate products is to review products on your blog or website. Last week, some new guidelines were set down that if you are reviewing products on your website or plan to, you need to know. You can read it on the FTC site, or you can read a very well done summary by Augie Ray on The Customer Collective that explains the relevant points and how it affects you.

Remember, ignorance is NOT bliss.