Prosper With Me is a blog not only about passive income, but about trying to find fun ways to build wealth. We can all think of ways to attempt to build an income source like real estate investments, stocks, or writing a book. I want to find creative and fun ways that we can generate passive income that could last more than my generation. More on that later. If you have any ideas of what is working for you or not working, let me know. I would love to hear what is helping you build wealth.

Now, my new fascination has been with Squidoo lenses. I would not classify this as a huge money making opportunity or wealth accumulator. What I do think, is that Squidoo can help me write better posts and have fun being creative. I really enjoy writing on this blog, but feel that I need to constrain myself to financial and investment topics. I have received some wonderful reviews on Link referral, and they mention the fact that this blog is not just about PTC sites or getting rich quick. That is not my intention at all. In fact, I would rather get rich slowly with passive income that can last for future generations than get rich quickly and have the investment fizzle out.

Squidoo has been another useful tool to help me refine my writing style and focus on a particular subject. If I’m writing about the Toyota Prius tires, I need to focus on tire specification and not on the entire car. This is a challenge for me as I need to work on refining my writing style and focus.

Another benefit of a Squidoo lens is the ability to integrate the same information into your blog. I wrote a fun lens titled: Help! Mom is going on a trip for a week? 5 ways to survive and have fun with your kids. I thought of this lens topic after my wife went on an extended trip and I wanted to have fun with my kids and get things accomplished around the house. Not the sort of post to put in a passive income or investment blog, but my example is still true. You can utilize Squidoo as a resource to work on your writing skills and as an opportunity to market your posts. If you have spent 8 or more hours on a detailed post about oil stocks, you could easily create a Squidoo lens. The Squidoo site says you can create a lens in 5 minutes, but I think you should take a least an hour to make it look decent. 5 minutes for a lens will look like you barely touched it. I would recommend that you copy your detailed blog post and then add pictures, youtube videos, or other media and make it pop. It will be well worth the effort. You can then add the Squidoo lens to Linkreferral or other sites to build some traffic. If you have a popular blog, you already have traffic. Squidoo also has a great community forum and lensmasters that would be happy to help critique your blog. Also, you have another source of blog traffic at Squidoo. If you lens is interesting, you will have people look at your profile and a link to your blog. More quality traffic!

Here is the intro to my Squidoo lens titled: Help! Mom is going on a trip for a week? 5 ways to survive and have fun with your kids.

My wife recently had to go out of town to help a family member and asked me to stay home with the kids. My initial reaction was…Ugh! But after some coaching and reassurance from my wife, I started putting together a plan of action. 5 ways to survive and have fun with your kids will give you some great ideas that you can use for one hour or one week with your children. I know some of you guys are thinking, I can do it, no problem. But, we are talking 7 days straight. Not one or two hours, while your wife goes to a store. Some people can feel overwhelmed, even with their own children, and this list will help give you some great ideas. If you have an idea or suggestion on how to have fun and survive while mom’s away for a week, let me know.

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I’m sure if you are reading this you might be thinking that this will just be a big advertisement for a new service. I want to be clear that I am not being compensated for this with cash, however they do have a contest going on to win credits. That is not my main objective as I’m looking for ways to build passive income and not short term gain. A lot of programs are about making $1-$10 filling out surveys or clicking on ads. The big difference here is, this could be a wonderful traffic builder for blogs. We can benefit from the exchange of cards and from advertising on each others blogs. Entrecard allows you to trade online business cards and use those cards to advertise on other sites. I didn’t really understand the concept until I went to the website and watched a few slides. Basically, if I go to your website and you have the html code for Entrecard, I can click on it. By clicking on the card, Entrecard will track that I visited your blog. You can then login to Entrecard and see who visited your site. I also have Sitemeter, so I can check visitors that way too. Entrecard allows you to customize your cards and you can load graphics, pictures, or even just plain text. I’m trying to find a picture to load and have text included. The big difference between Entrecard and a Linkrefferal site, is the ability to use the cards to advertise. Interesting concept! You can have people pay you to advertise on business cards on your blog. The best part is you can review the requests before and check the website content. I do not want someone selling adult material on their site and then have that appear on my blog. The last thing I want is objectionable material displayed while my kids are looking at my laptop or when kids may stumble upon my blog. Who knows, maybe a teenager is doing a report on passive income or online business opportunities. Maybe they have a blog too.

My first impression is 5 out of 5 stars for ease of use, navigation, quick loading pages, and coolness. Yes, this site has the cool factor as I enjoyed looking at all the unique Entrecard that bloggers have created. My first day using Entrecard, I received 9 unique visitors. It probably would have been more if I left more cards for others. If I find a unique blog, I leave a comment in addition to clicking on the Entrecard. I think this can build traffic two ways. One is the quick Entrecard visit, and the other can be lasting friendship. I have met some wonderful fellow bloggers through Squidoo, Linkreferral, and hopefully now Entrecard. Be sure to visit some of the new features on the site. If you have multiple blogs, you can now link your blogs to one account. The new “add a blog feature” is wonderful if you multiple blogs. I’m sure some of you might have two or three blogs but I have seen bloggers that have dozens if not a hundred. I don’t know how you can maintain fresh content on 100 blogs, that will be a post for another day.

Also available is an E-book that goes over all the details and uses for the Entrecard. I’m sure I barely scratched the surface for this new marketing tool for a blog. But, I’m sure I will follow up with more posts as to my second, third, and many more impressions. If you already use Entrecard, be sure to click on my card now and I will visit your site. See, we are building traffic right now!

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I’ve been reading blog posts about a site called Squidoo.com and how they benefit from both traffic and the lens community. Squidoo can allow you to write about anything and promote almost any product. If you sell dog toys, you could create a lense and write reviews and post pictures about your items. It seems similar to a blog but you have an instant community. You can even join the forum and ask for some lens feedback and lensmasters will critique your lens. You are able to get ideas about your lens from these lensmasters and people who have been building them for awhile. You can visit my lens and earn brownie points if you leave me a comment. If you hate it, don’t worry, I won’t take it personally. I’ve had a rush of ideas bouncing in my head recently and decided to do something about it. Help! Mom is going on a trip for a week? 5 ways to survive and have fun with your kids I thought it would be interesting to create a lens and see what happens. I’m expecting zero traffic and no money. How about that for optimism. If I earn a penny, I’ll be sure to add it to my passive income monthly summary. If you have a lens, please post your link and I would be happy to check it out.

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My wife received an email today from her Uncle Jerry titled “Sold Old Blue”. Old blue was his used 1968 pickup truck that was purchased for $500 in 1978. Uncle Jerry drove the truck for 25 years and finally decided to sell the truck this week. Old Blue is 40 years old, and to think of this truck as an investment would seem silly. But Old Blue was actually an asset, a huge asset. Uncle Jerry is a very frugal and wise man who enjoys saving money rather than spending it. Uncle Jerry is thankful to God for providing him the resources and blessings in his life and he has made sure to bless others. Old Blue is a perfect example of looking ahead and forgoing trends and wants. Uncle Jerry needed a reliable vehicle to get him to work. He didn’t need a sports car or even a new car. Old Blue would work just fine. But, why would Old Blue be considered an asset. A 40 year old used pickup truck couldn’t be worth more than a few hundred dollars. According to Uncle Jerry, Old Blue is worth $300,000. How? Well, Uncle Jerry purchased the used truck for $500 and would have spent $150 a month if he purchased a new vehicle in 1978. He took the $150 he would have spent, and put it in mutual funds. Then, when he received annual raises he would contribute the extra amount into his mutual funds. Uncle Jerry believes in saving but also frugal living. He didn’t need a new pickup truck or even a newer truck. Old blue would work just fine. How would you like to be paid $300,000 for your used car?

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I thought I would write a post that keeps me motivated and tracks my progress towards increasing traffic to my blog. I have really enjoyed sharing links and meeting some wonderful bloggers who have similar interests in personal finance and passive income. We all share the same goal of increased traffic and I thought it would be a good assignment to track my blog traffic. I track my passive income, so I should track traffic as well. I will be updating this list as I find out what is and isn’t working to increase traffic to my blog. I believe this will be a good analysis as my time should be spent efficiently while blogging, just as I would any other task at hand. If you have any suggestions for generating traffic, I would love your feedback and I would be interested in testing your methods. If it’s successful or not, I will include it in my list.

6 ways I have increased my blog traffic:

1. Google search blogs in your field of interest. My blog is about passive income and personal finance. Several blogs I reviewed were interesting and I left several comments. Most, not all, visited my blog and left a comment back. I really believe that the smaller blogs are interested in feedback and comments and will reciprocate. Some of the larger blogs that receive dozens or hundreds of comments, probably don’t have the time or need to visit my blog. When leaving comments on blogs, be sure to leave a detailed comment and write a little more than “Nice blog”. A good comment will show your intentions and interest in their blog.

2. Post daily. Short and sweet, but true. I have to remind myself at about 11pm some nights, that I forgot to post. Some days I have so many ideas floating in my head, I’ll write several posts. I just make sure I set the post to another day and I can take a breather. I like to visit several personal finance blogs and notice right away when the blog looks like a ghost town. If the last post was in 2007, I leave immediately. Even if the blog looks professional, I feel the blogger has moved on and lost interest.

3. Tell friends and family about your blog. Seems easy, but it works. My family loves to read my blog and give suggestions. Some days I don’t feel like talking, but the blog is always available to read 24/7. Since I’m a guy, this works great for my wife. She’ll also be able to read my mind now. The blog is a great way to get free traffic from family and friends. Your mom tells her sister, who tells your cousin, and bam. Now 20 people are reading your blog. Just think if your mom goes to the hair salon and to the dentist. More traffic!

4. Utilize social networks. I know you might think that your friends or online friends may not be interested in your blog about cupcakes or professional hopscotch. But you might be surprised. I have utilized facebook and Yuwie and both provide good traffic. I have also started my own social network for another niche passion of mine. That’s for another day and another post. If you are worried that creating another blog on a social network will be time consuming. Don’t! I just copy and paste my entries or provide a link to my blog in my profile. On facebook I have friends who are attorneys or own businesses. They provide links to their websites. They do it, so should you.

5. Utilize free traffic sites like Link Referral. Since I started my membership, my traffic has increased about 25%. You can also receive some great feedback on your blog or website from their review process. I have also been able to find fellow bloggers with similar interests in passive income and shared links. If you would like to share a link with me, subscribe to my RSS feed and leave me a comment that you have linked to my blog. I will link to yours. More traffic!

6. Have a free contest. I have one Spring Cleaning Contest #1. It’s a fun way to clean my closet and build traffic. You could have a contest for anything. Try it around the holiday’s or your birthday when you get that present without a gift receipt. I hope my aunt doesn’t read this. One Christmas she gave me a $2 dollar bill made into an origami sport coat. Very unique, and someone would want it. That might be my next contest. If you need ideas, send me a comment and I’ll visit your blog or website and help you think of a contest.

Let me know if you have other ideas for building traffic and we can prosper together.

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