Celebrating a Christian Halloween
October 31, 2008
WARNING: This post, like many others here at Blue Duck, contains materials that some may find offensive because it expresses my views about Christianity. If you can’t handle it, please click away now. Thanks.
Opening My Eyes
My son attends a Christian school. Last year on Halloween, we had a HUGE meltdown in our house because the teacher sent home a letter inviting all the kids to her house for trick-or-treat. Our ADHD son is terrified of Halloween decorations and would scream when we saw someone dressed up in a scary costume, so we learned quickly to stay indoors on Halloween. I was in the process of explaining to him why we would not be going to the teacher’s house, when my husband came home. Then it hit the fan.
Hubby looked through the bag of treats my son had brought home, decorated with skulls and witches. He read the note from the teacher and asked me to get my computer, he had something to say. (Now, keep in mind that my husband speaks very little, so we were all eagerly awaiting what would come next.)
In the following moments, he dictated an eloquent and moving letter about why Christians should not celebrate Halloween. (Because he is a very private person, and it was a private letter to the teacher, I will not be posting it here.) To back up his claims, we included excerpts from the Jeremiah Project website. If you are a Christian, or even curious about Halloween, I encourage you to visit and read. It was a real eye opener for me.
This year, as a Bible scholar, I have learned that many of the Old Testament laws given to the Jews were intended to protect them from mixing with the religions of the people living around them. That’s what Halloween has become for Christians today, a mixture of differing religions with a Hallmark measure of fun thrown in for seasoning.
What Will You Do?
I encourage you to read over the history of Halloween, and decide for yourself if there are spiritual razor blades hiding in those bags of treats your kids bring home tonight.
The Simmerman house will be roasting hot dogs, marshmallows, and making s’mores over an open fire. I even have a couple of bags of Snickers and Reeses’ cups hiding in the cupboard for later to meet their sugar buzz needs.
Have a safe and pleasant Halloween, everyone. And to my friend Harry, have great Halloween. I hope it’s a great night for you. 
3 Super Easy Steps to Attract More Readers
October 31, 2008
Everyone wants to know how to get more blog traffic. After all, what good is writing brilliant and articulate blog posts if no one is around to appreciate them? Well, here’s the solution:
1. Visit Chuck Westbrook’s blog.
2. Leave a comment.
3. Subscribe to his feed.
Sound too easy? It’s not. It’s the power of the Internet, baby! Bloggers are joining together to help spread the word about new blogs with quality content. Every two weeks, a new blog will be featured and everyone visits the site, reads the posts, and hopefully sticks around if they like what they see.
This is an opportunity to significantly increase your readership, so dust off the good china, make your favorite cookies, and put your best content forward. I’m pleased with my readership for such a relatively new blog, but there’s always room at the table for those who are hungry. I’m excited to discover some terrific bloggers, make new friends, and grow through the experience. See ‘ya in my feed reader. 
Missing Rita
October 30, 2008
Do they have Amber Alerts for bloggers? Because if they do, someone needs to issue a search for one of my favorite bloggers. I’ve been a little off kilter yet this week, and missed a few days of my regular blog reading. I sat down last night to catch up and found some boisterous man had taken over Rita’s Digest.
Missing in Action
I searched through the archives for my favorite posts, to no avail. He had pushed Rita’s knick knacks and treasures out the door and piled the house full to the ceiling with his brand of “wisdom”. Oh where oh where had my Rita gone?
She just recently wrote a guest post over at Writer Dad. Did her rant about commenting craziness drive her to give up blogging? In our zeal for community and popularity did we eat one of our own?
While I can certainly understand selling your domain name for cold hard cash, I can’t seem to find any trace of Rita or notice of her impending move.
My Worst Fear
I would encourage each writer to blog responsibly. Your words matter, both online and in person. You have the power to make someone’s day or destroy them. Please write responsibly, with friendship and love. As Rita pointed out we’re not in high school anymore (well, most of us aren’t). My worst fear is that my words would harm anyone. I blog to make friends and grow in my personal and professional life.
If anyone knows where Rita went, please drop me a line. If she has a new blog or is just taking siesta, I’d love to be relieved of the fear that she left Blogopolis discouraged and angry. I miss her wit and wisdom.
Thanks,
Jamie
The No Regrets Journey
October 30, 2008
As the end of my One Month to Live journey comes to a close, I look back on this unique experience with mixed emotions. I am partly glad to see the end, yet eager to internalize these concepts even deeper over time. Highlights of my journey include:
- Writing my own 5 Wishes and letters to my family
- Meeting 3 wonderful ladies at a new One Month to Live small group
- Watching dirt bikes ramp across the stage at church
One of the sticking points of this series was the observation that very few people know how to take a complement. According to the Learn Humbly stage of the journey, learning to accept and give compliments is essential to a no regrets life. (I will likely blog about this in the near future, so if this describes you, subscribe to the feed to catch this post when it goes live next week.)
My Take Away
This series has definitely changed the way I think about my life, and the lives of those around me. While I began this journey earlier this year, this six week series has really brought it home and highlighted key points for me. In reflection, I don’t believe this series has changed my daily behavior much. It has, however, changed my outlook on life and reinforced the lessons I have learned from recent life experiences.
If you participated in the One Month to Live Challenge, what did you take away from the experience? Has it changed your life for the better, spurred you to think differently?
Thanks for riding along on this journey with me. I’ll be posting my views on how these principals apply to blogging and online business. I hope you, too, have begun to live a no regrets life.
Blogging for Dollars: Tweak the Bottom Line
October 29, 2008
As our Blogging for Dollars series comes to an abrupt close, I hope you’ve found a nugget or two if information to help you along in your quest to rule Blogopolis. “Oh… you don’t want to be Blog King? You just want a few readers ad few cents to rub together? *grins* Me too!” Blogging for Dollars applies to those who blog for fun, too.
Tips for Increasing Your Blog’s ROI
While there are no shortcuts to lasting Internet success. There are a few tweaks that will help your blog achieve better ROI. Try out these basic SEO principals to help your blog succeed.
Keywords Count
Blogging without keywords is a lot like competing in a dart tournament blindfolded. You might end up with a few on the board, but you are more likely to hit some drunk in the bum with a stray dart. You have to know what keywords are appropriate for your website. Imagine your target customer sitting down at the computer to find information or services to help his business succeed. What will he type in that Google search box? If these terms are applicable to the goods or services you provide, these are your keywords. (You can also use a keyword tool to help identify keywords for your website.)
After you target your best keywords, you should use them regularly on your website for your customers to find you. Simply listing them as meta tags is not enough. They must appear in the natural text of the website to qualify for SERPS ranking. If your keyword is pumpkins, write about pumpkin pies, pumpkin recipes, growing pumpkins, prize winning pumpkins and gourds, gardening tips, love of all things orange, fall decorations, or any other related terms you can brainstorm. This saves you from stuffing your website with the word “pumpkin”.
Going, Going… Gone
The attention span of a Net searcher is only slightly more extended than a gnat with ADHD. Your title is the most important aspect of your post. The title is what draws readers to your front door. Write boring titles and your readers are gone in a matter of seconds~ right into the waiting cash register of your competition (who knows how to write a catchy title).
SEO content creation is not some mystical, magical formula for success. It is a tool to help you market your business effectively. If you treat SEO as a magic bullet, you may experience a temporary high, but the resulting crash may crush your online business for good. Quality counts. Relationships are important. Good SERPS will come naturally if you build your business on a solid foundation.
Blogging for Dollars: Cutting the Crap
October 28, 2008
If you missed yesterday’s post, no worries. Our Blogging for Dollars mini-series contains three stand alone yet related posts for the professional blogger looking to build a solid online business. Now, on to Part Two: Cutting the Crap
What Reputable SEO Execs Know
A good SEO company knows that quality counts. Building relationships with customers is important. And your business must be trustworthy to survive. (With the current economy concerns, many disreputable online companies will be closing their websites. Consumers want to hire a company they can trust. They are being more careful how they spend each dime.)
Busting Myths
“Outsmart the Search Engines with Keyword Saturation”
Many get rich quick bloggers claim to be able to outsmart search engines. While this may have been possible 6-12 months ago, search engines are getting smarter by the day. Google employs a whole team of geniuses who work night and day to improve algorithms and improve the validity of SERPS. If your website contains quality, relevant content search engines will value your website over keyword stuffed websites.
“Long Posts Increase Relevance”
When I first started writing SEO content creation projects, it was commonplace to write single articles of 1200-1600 words. Those articles were great for improving search engine ranking, but were awful for attracting regular traffic. No one reads a five page article online, no one. Web surfers are fickle with their time. They expect immediate gratification. They begin to skim the second a post loses their attention. Online content is more effective in bite-sized chunks of 200-400 words.
“Article Banks Draw Traffic”
Providing a smorgasbord of information for readers may seem like a good idea, and many bloggers claim to have made money using article banks and content carnivals. Consider this, the last time you needed quick information from the Net (good quality content and trusted facts) where did you point your Web browser? The number one answer is Wikipedia.
The chances are slim that you browsed through 800 pages of content topics on some website that ranked 150 on a SERPS. On-topic content is best. If your company sells pink flip flops, blog about flip flops, sandals, pedicures, and foot fetishes if you like, but don’t blog about snow shoes, hiking boots, or fan socks just because those keywords are ranking high this month.
Tomorrow’s post concludes this Blogging for Dollars mini-series. (Sorry, there’s no free iPod or tales of a sordid love triangle.) Read one, read two, or read them all~ Blogging for Dollars provides solid information for the serious professional blogger.
