Everyone likes free jewelry right? Girls, you’ll enjoy this. Guys, you can surprise your girl. [Please don’t wear] My mom originally told me about this whole deal. Silver jewelry club is giving away pieces for free. All you have to do is pay for the shipping costs. I know this is legit, my mom ordered her piece and it arrived just fine. This aired on the Today Show to help promote their cause.

You may ask..why give their stuff away? If you think about it, there is a great reason. Its all marketing. Period. People will be able to touch and feel the quality and hopefully visit the company’s actual store. Great idea if you ask me. Same reason bloggers run contests. Spread the love and maybe gain a few readers in the process.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starting and working with my very own blog network has been more fun than I can possibly explain. It has also been an amazing amount of work. I know I have been told before starting out that it would be quite the load, but there’s no way to get that through your head until you’ve actually attempted it.

How long?

It has taken me a half of a year to get the basic web/network infrastructure down. That’s the look, feel, usability, SEO, and functionality only. (Before a single piece of media is written)

Now I admit I have had my ups and downs. Its been hard to keep up with it and stay completely motivated to take on such a large, over bearing task. My life doubles as a student attending university so time is limited. Despite everything, I kept at it. Slowly but surely.

Current stats

-10 sites or blogs total
-Some fully operational, some limited
-Page views are irrelevant at this time. Just got things going, be nice!

In the works/ future goals

-Get every blog on a posting schedule. Encourage user/reader submissions.
-Up page views by 50%
-Keep expanding and create tech channel with 6 new blogs.

Keep those comments coming and subscribe to my feed! I will write another blog network reflection (part II) in about a month and see where we are. Explore the network, comment up, and link back to show some love.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ve decided that today I’m going to try out some new marketing techniques. I have always been curious about affiliate marketing and Pay Per Post. For new blogs and bloggers just starting out, it’s a great way to pay back your hosting fees. I have used Blogsvertise before and made a total of $6 in a given month. I know what you are going to say…”That’s hardly worth it”. It’s not much but it paid for my domain name for one year. Not bad, eh?

I wanted to try out other services and see what I can find. I’ll post back and give another update on this after some exploration. This is also a great way to get some preliminary funding for my network.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ve decided to dedicate this post to relieve some frustration. I believe there is proper email etiquette when operating a business or even personal email for that matter. There is one thing that really bugs me and that is not replying to back.

That should be the number one rule for any business or self promoting person. Always write back. Someone has taken their time to write you in the first place and most likely they are seeking advice or are interested in what you do. Not replying back really gets under my skin and there is no quicker way to send a bad impression. I can’t tell you how many times “professionals” fail to write me back when I ask them a question.

What impression does not replying give?

It’s bad for your personal reputation, it tells me you can care less about my inquiry, and it makes your whole organization look bad.

What to do if you don’t care to answer questions or disclose information?

Simply reply back. Be polite and tell them you cannot help them at this time.

Why is email etiquette (replying) so important?

In my opinion, emailing is just as important as returning a phone call. It may not be as personable, but its still a real question with a real person behind the message. What impression would it give if people in your company didn’t return phone calls? That same impression is just as important with email.

Make it a higher priority to return emails and do it in a timely manner. It just looks professional and makes the sender feel welcome and warm towards the individual or company.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I usually don’t get into politics on my blog, but I changed my mind when I watched this video of a speech Obama gave regarding the disarming of America.

A goal of a world without nuclear weapons is a great one to have, don’t get me wrong, but it seems naive to think any of the developed countries (friendly or not) will give up their nuclear arsenal. Power equals influence and peace. War comes when we are weak. The best opportunity to destroy America is when she is weak, not strong. Why in the world would we want to disarm, cut military funding, and halt the advancement of future weapons technologies? With the rising powers of China and Russia coming forth with mixed thoughts about America, disarming to create peace is not only naive but a threat to our national security. I’m not trying to be pessimistic, but there will never fully be peace on earth as long as humans inhabit. If history has taught us anything, we should have learned that by now.
One last thing; negotiating with our enemies who currently have other plans and hidden agendas towards the U.S could be the most naive idea of all. Enemies don’t tell the truth and would certainly love to make a deal with us- Only to have a “hidden” agenda to pounce on the lion when she is weak.

We need the means to protect what our country stands for, our morals, and everything we have built since our founding fathers set foot on this land. Stand up for the United States of America.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have been keeping up with the SizzlingSkillet blog network, you may have noticed several changes over the last few weeks. Not only have the blog templates changed again, but we are adding several new sites within the lifestyles niche. I’m really excited with the upcoming changes. Expanding and becoming more of a “network” lets me finally see tons of hard work paying off.

If you would like to blog on a few sites we have openings with [Below], email me or leave a comment.

Delicious Dating (All about romantic foods and dining)
Bad parents (About parents who end up in jail for their actions)
Bad teachers (All about teachers from hell)
Bad doctors (Blog about doctors that screw up)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you may have read in my previous post, I have signed up for the beta release of the new Skyfire Mobile web browser. As of this week, I have finally received my beta download. Testing it out for the first time was pretty cool. It definitely takes some practice and getting used to, but the way this new mobile browser displays pages is unlike anything seen before in the mobile world. It displays the real internet (no made for mobile phone pages) and practically lets you surf the web as if you were on a desktop.

Flaws to be worked out

There are a few issues to be worked out as there are with all new products. What I have come across so far have been minor. I was surfing the United States Postal Service website and filling out a form when it would no longer load the next page in line. It didn’t give me an error, but rather loaded the same page over again. Another difficulty I would like to see improved is the zooming in feature. It seems to zoom in too much and sometime I need to back outwards. As for now, that’s it. I will report back with more updates. If you have a question or website you would like me to test, send in a comment.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, I am implementing a new layout for all of the sites. This is taking longer than I had hoped, but so far all is going well. The sites that are finished with the makeover:

The Skillet (This site)

SL-Exposed

SizzlingSkillet.com

I will update my own blog much more often than I have been. Crazy busy! If you would like to help me out by submitting articles or writing for a blog send an email to justin@sizzlingskillet.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Image details: Two people watching sunset served by picapp.com

I haven’t posted to my blog lately, but now I’m finally free to get some web work done! Stay tuned for updates on new blogs we are adding and minor website changes here and there. As you can see from this post, I’m testing out a cool picture application “PicApp.com“. It allows users to display high resolution images for free. Also, they provide news, entertainment, and editorial images you would otherwise have to ask permission to use. Great tool!

Many updates on the way so stay tuned to SizzlingSkillet.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the worst qualities of the mobile internet is sadly, the browser. Internet Explorer mobile edition is in ancient times. Microsoft has truly dropped the ball at that. Opera mobile has its qualities, but contrary, its issues. Finally, the savior is here…

Skyfire mobile browser seems the be the light at the end of the tunnel. This browser claims it can run anything a PC browser can run and display it at full webpage view. Knowing this and from viewing the demo on their site, this product will revolutionize mobile internet. I have recently signed up to participate in beta 1 of the testing phase and I should be getting my download link shortly. I will be testing it on the Palm Treo 700wx (windows mobile). As soon as I get it, I’ll post my official review and how it performs on my phone. Check back for updates.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------