Boggle Me Thursday

If you like to play Boggle, then you can join this meme.  It is fun and it improves word skills.  To participate, just click the Boggle Me Thursday button.

This one is tough.  I ticked the timer twice.  Anyway, I got 13 words and here is my list.

Playing with words - use in a sentence - silly or otherwise.
It's not a fad but its fun to play toss ball under the sun but it's very hot so I went in the hut to sit on the sofa, eat tofu and see the jots hubby made on his notes.

Live Big Passionate Dreams

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Katie Brazelton

and the book:

Live Big! 10 Life Coaching Tips for Living Large, Passionate Dreams

Howard Books; Original edition (February 2, 2010)

***Special thanks to Blythe Daniel of The Blythe Daniel Agency, Inc. for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Katie Brazelton, Ph.D., M.Div., M.A., is a life coach and bestselling author. She is the founder of Life Purpose Coaching Centers International, which trains Christians worldwide to become Life Purpose Coach professionals and assist others to discover and fulfill God’s plan for their lives. Dr. Brazelton was formerly a licensed minister and director of women’s Bible studies at Saddleback Church and now is a professor at Rockbridge Seminary. She lives in Southern California and has two children and two grandchildren. She is the author of the bestselling series Pathway to Purpose for Women and Character Makeover: 40 Days with a Life Coach to Create the Best You.

Visit the author's website.

Product Details:

List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Howard Books; Original edition (February 2, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439135606
ISBN-13: 978-1439135600

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

Introduction

Imagine that you and I are being pampered in first class, relaxing comfortably on an afternoon flight to your favorite world-class resort. As we gaze out the airplane window, it seems as though we're floating through an endless sea of marshmallow clouds, soaring together through the heavens. Up here, dreams somehow seem crystal clear. I think it's because we can pretend we've risen above the rough, mountainous terrain of life and can look down on our hills and valleys, seeing events from a fresh perspective.

From this bird's-eye view, glance down at what is below: your daily routine, closest relationships, untapped potential, and countless opportunities. Let this vantage point help you set your sights on a passionate megadream and an inspiring hope for the future!

I would not dare to author a book on such an important topic as Living Big without practicing what I preach. So, as I write this, I am on a flight to Hawaii (I wish it were first class) for an extended stay to consider living there indefinitely. I was raised in Hawaii and the Marshall Islands in a navy family, so the tropical breeze has always been alluring to me. Might this be where I will plant another Life Purpose Coaching Center...or find the time to launch my long-dreamed-of radio show...or finish this book? I don't know the answers to those questions, but I do know that I can't fail, because this is simply an experiment, with memories waiting to be made. I'm not going to rush the process or force a decision, only enjoy the journey to yea or nay. There is no right or wrong way to dream.

Well, actually, I do believe there's one wrong way, and that is to let the dream stagnate without taking any action!

I am embarking on this time of exploration because I am in a new season of my life, formally ending two decades of single parenting. My son recently accepted an out-of-state job promotion, taking his sweet wife and my two young grandsons with him. Shortly thereafter, my daughter announced her engagement, which means she, too, will be moving away from our home area. In the blink of an eye, without my permission, I have been thrust into a new chapter of my life. On one hand, I am sad and fearful. On the other hand, now I have no more excuses for not doing whatever I want, which is another way of saying "whatever I feel God is calling me to do next."

I am operating in a spirit of supersized living right now, and not just because I may soon be draped in large muumuus, walking barefoot to the local market to buy macadamia-nut chocolates, and blatantly enticing my family with extended holiday vacations in paradise.

Dreaming in high definition and surround sound -- and then taking appropriate steps to live those dreams -- is what this book is all about. You may not have a burning desire to move to a distant land, but what do you want out of life? Are you a student anxiously finishing college? A young mom who's busy raising twins? An overseas missionary on a brand-new assignment? A career woman vying for an enviable position? A widow with only a few pressing obligations? Regardless of your role in life, you and I have a few things in common:

- We love to dream.

- God designed us to dream.

- And there's no day like today to start discovering God's best!

I need you to know that I'm not so far up in the clouds that I am unaware of your everyday realities. Life has prepared me well to be your Life Coach. I have a testimony of brokenness, and I'm honored to help you dream. Check out what I call "My 7 Big D's" -- events that shaped me for nearly twenty years.

My 7 Big D's

1982 Barely survived a serious, four-month depression.

1986 Devastated by a totally unexpected divorce.

1988 Confused about having to rewrite my doctoral dissertation.

1990 Deeply saddened by the death of my exhusband.

1991 Angered by a corporate downsizing, which left me laid off just days after buying a home.

1993 Terrified by a dating incident.

2001 Shocked by the death of my dream when my first book contract was canceled due to budget cuts after 9/11.

What does this list tell you, other than that I must have built up a lot of stamina by now? It says that you can trust me to understand what you're going through and to tell it like it is when I coach you -- without skirting around the issues. I care deeply about making sure you don't get stuck in the quagmire of life, as I did too many times.

These chapters will take you on a journey to find what you're really jazzed about -- what makes you smile, laugh, play, sing, and dance. It's time to daydream about the adventure God has in store for you!

Amos 4:13 tells us that God reveals His thoughts to us: "He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mortals, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth -- the Lord God Almighty is his name." We want to do whatever it takes to be ready for that revelation.

As your Life Coach, I will come alongside you like a Barnabas (a name that Acts 4:36 tells us means "son of encouragement"). We will enjoy life-changing chats about you, stealing precious moments within your hectic schedule. I know how hard it is for you to find time for a conversation about your legacy, your destiny, your divine urge. As you are able to sneak away from your daily routine, it will be my job and my joy to sit with you and draw out of you the distinct calling God laid on your heart eons ago, before you were ever born. And then, equally important, we will put baby steps in place to help you live out your exciting, God-designed purpose, which has long been the desire in your soul even if it has lain dormant.

This book is loaded with modern, true stories of everyday saints, Bible character parallels, inspirational quotes, some of my favorite Scripture verses, heartfelt prayers, ten coaching tips, forty action steps, reflection questions, and practical exercises with sample answers from my own life to trigger your thinking. (Don't miss the Web downloads, too, which are my special gift to you!) You will hear from real women -- students, wives, mothers, a widow, career women, church staff members -- who all have tremendous testimonies to share. I urge you to break all of the normal book-reading rules and jump into the chapters in any sequence you please. Did you know that doing the unexpected can change your perspective, which will then cause you to see your world through new eyes?

I've chosen these particular topics for us to explore in detail as we discover what it takes to Live Big!

1. Face Your Fears

2. Learn to Exhale

3. Honor Your Deepest Longings

4. Don't Ever Give Up

5. Use Your Past for Good

6. Expect Miracles

7. Forgive Someone

8. Eat Dessert First

9. Ask Jesus for Vision

10. Capture Your Live Big! Dream

I can't help but think: If only someone had told me that! or Why didn't I learn that in school? Frankly, I feel there ought to be a law mandating that schools teach us to be tenacious, forgiving, and courageous. We need classes at church that help us reach for our dreams, expect miracles, focus forward, and breathe calmly through adversity. But most important, we must learn how to play and to stop taking ourselves so seriously and to start cherishing God's incredibly specific plan for our lives. In this way, we address the habits that help us attract or sabotage God's boldest wishes for us.

Each of the ten coaching tips will give you a broader, richer understanding of how to run and finish the race well.

You probably picked up this book because you want to travel boldly down the path to purpose and fulfillment, yet perhaps you've lost sight of your dreams, hopes, and longings -- possibly because of regrets, exhaustion, stubbornness, fears, sins, and so on. We're all burdened with something. You want to bring glory to God with your life, but you may be carrying such a heavy weight of boredom, loneliness, doubt, pride, and/or hopelessness that you've forgotten how to unleash your creativity. The biblical perspective in this book will help you hear God's promptings more clearly and act on them with pure joy.

I encourage you to dream big dreams during this eyeopening, heart-pounding quest. Let me share with you forty proven, incremental steps that I personally have used for years and have coached my clients through -- action steps that will help you to live a significance-filled life. God will be honored, and you will be blessed. You will find yourself empowered beyond your wildest imagination as you Live Big!

Will you take your first small step today?

Get to Know the BC Bloggers

A total of 45 BC Bloggers joined  the BC Bloggers' Party!  I know you're excited to get to know each one of them.  I am and I think it will take me a couple of days to go to their blog post and get to know all of them.  But I surely will visit them.  Here they are:


Paula - A certified BC blogger - wife, mother, employee, blogger all rolled into one.

AC - A proud work-at-home mom and wife.

Bambie --- Living a blissful and simple life in a fast paced city of tokyo with her Love and lil bundle of joy, Azumi. Loves anything kawaii and fabulous things.

Bambie/Sunshine - blogging to let you take a sneak peak into a world that is MINE. This is me, the real me. No hesitations, no presumptions, no holding back. I'm sharing my heart to you, no-holds barred.

Beng - A busy working mom of 2 handsome boys, Financial Analyst by profession.

Cacai M. - a Stay-At-Home-Wife and blogging is my passion. I am happy when people are happy. I view blogging as my open or public diary of random thoughts wherein I can express and share my views, reviews, thoughts, happiness, adventures, and experiences." ~hugs&kisses~

Carmz - Newest Blogger on the Blogosphere! Workaholic, Fun and Crazy Girl of Makati District

Chin chin - Christian stay at home mom blogger blessed with 5 children - Thanks be to God's grace and strength to live the everyday life.

Chris - A follower of Christ who loves being a wife and a stay at home mom.

debrajills diary - A Diary of a Mom and her Journal through Life as a wife, daughter and a mother.

eikcaj - God's extra-ordinary girl....

Fedhz - I have a Kris Aquino mouth and a Judy Ann heart. Yes, I’m very sentimental and talkative and I guess that’s the very reason why I found myself blogging for more than 7 years now.

ferr'zWILL - I am just a simple jolly girl, sweet and heedful lady I love to depict unto others how I feel towards them.

Jade - A certified BC Blogger. Blogaholic, Workaholic but will soon be taking it slow...

Kaye - Blog designer extraordinaire. Not. Just blog designer. And writer, if you could consider my inane blog entries as “writing”. A WAHM from the beautiful city of Baguio, Philippines.

Inigo - Probably the youngest blogger at 21 months old. Posts were as early as fetal age.

Irish - A Christian family woman who's trying to juggle her blogging duties, her full time work, taking care of a 2 year old daughter and being the best wife ever to her hubby.

Just Simple Thoughts - loving wife; loving daughter; loyal friend; wants everything to be fair and just...

Laane - Usually I describe myself as a mom of 6. The oldest 4 are boys, all with an autism spectrum disorder. The youngest is dealing with classic autism. The other 2 are girls. Twins. One is dyslectic, like one of the boys. I'm always busy arranging things for them, solving problems or guiding. Dealing with the problems other people caused is one of the main issues.

Liezl - the frustrated chemist but now a passionate blogger and an aspiring psychologist. Proud Batangeña living all alone in Manila, deeply in-love, spontaneous and witty. A good conversationalist, fearless enough to tackle love, sex and politics.

Lizeewong - I'm a girly girl, mommy and wife. My world is quite simple. It revolves around my babies who amuse me, my husband who completes me and my blog which pleasures me.

Mommy Bonz - Certified BC Blogger. A simple mom and wife with lots of hopes and dreams for her family. Finding time with everything, being a full time mom, wife and an employee and now a part-time blogger.

Mommy Rubz - a simple stay at home mom who takes care of three kids and 40 plus domains.

Nelson - A Surgical Nurse who blogs down his experiences, both clinical and personal. Happily married and now living in the UAE.

Niko - Happy Mom and Wife, Full time office slave and Part time BLOGGER :)

Nicquee - A corporate slave wanting to be WAHM for her kids and husband through blogging

Nuts - Blogging with my family as source of my inspiration..

Peachkins - babaeng bakla. foodie.mahilig magluto.coffee addict.froyo junkie. loves photos.dating call girl[call center agent].loves peanutbutter.NCIS LA & CSI fan. nanonood ng BITAG tuwing sabado ng gabi.....frustrated cop.

Pehpot - is a stay at home mom of four kids. A part time blogger of 8 blogs (and soon to be 10). A novice blogger who always share her new found tips and techniques (through NOOB) and your slave if the price is right.

Red is Marose - simple pero rock, a working mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend, hoping to be a work at home. A forum addict and now a trying hard blogger.

Ria - Wife, and a mother of one lovely daughter, likes to read books and collect just anything. A person of unpredictable characteristics, stubborn yet soft hearted, active yet demure.

Rossel - Maybe an addict blogger but very proud to say that she is a loving and caring queen of their home.

Rosette - Mysterious gal who finds happiness and contentment in her son and partner.

Sam - Adik na WAHMmy (Work At Home Mommy). Former call girl, este call center agent.

Sarah - A mother of two wonderful smart and active kids. A wife, enjoys singing, playing the piano, and a friend in need...

Shamrocks and Shenanigans - I'm a Wife, Mom, short order cook, driver, maid, gopher....My life is perfect. I am happily married...unless he takes the remote from me. I love food and I love to cook.

Sherry Rambling; Blogger: Live, Love, Laugh

Shydub - stay at home Mom, full time wife and started blogging since 2008 as pastime and moolah maker.

Tetcha – A WAHM chronicling her experience as a mother and wife and everything else in between.

Valerie/Surreal Princess - travel enthusiast, half –vampire, half-human, multi-tasking extraordinaire. Backpacker, Blogger, budding photographer, housewife and work at home
diva.

Verabear - I’ve been blogging here and there for about four or five years. I write for myself mainly, but I am happy whenever I get visits from both friends and strangers (*hint* I love getting comments!).

Vernz - A mother of three who loves free, budding potter, frustrated painter, trying hard blogger, dedicated teacher and a devoted mother.

Yami - Owns three blogs and work full time as work-at-home mom. I write just about anything that caught my interest and earn at the same time.

Yuuki - the drama queen, otaku, junkie collector, shopaholic, book worm, traveler, scientist, blogger, entrepreneur, lover, friend, fighter, survivor – complexity to the max!

Zoan - the single-mom blogger from Bukidnon.

Kerslyn - A work-at-home wife, hubby's cook, chef wannabe, and shutter button addict. Half Ilocana and half Bisaya with a Chinese taste buds.

Josie - Mother of three grown-ups, work at home mom, managing a home-based business,workaholic, busy as a bee but still trying my hand on blogging.

Gracia - A savvy chick with a big heart for fashion.

Kayce - I'm a stay at home mom, a businesswoman who manages our own business, an ebay seller, a singer-musician, a Christian and a servant of the Lord.

Charmie - I'm a frustrated career woman, a responsible, loving daughter and a sister.

ferry'zPROFESSION - A happy fulltime employee who loves to snip some of my time to blog, being a multi task is my game.

Mommy Liz - I am a wife and a mother to my 4 wonderful children and to 2 more, so we have 6 beautiful kids. I am a Stay at home mom and I am proud of it.

Maritz - A Civil Engineer by profession but work full time as a church admin officer. A fulfilled wife to a loving and God fearing husband and a mother of two wonderful children.

To all my fellow BC Bloggers, hope you like the link love.

Organized or Messy Desk - Which is Better?

To start with this blog post, I would like to invite everyone to join an ongoing contest for bloggers sponsored by Office1000.com where the prize to be given away is an MDV3BA computer vacuum worth $272.50 or US$125 cash.  To participate, one needs to write a blog post answering the question "Organized or Messy Desk - Which is Better?"  To see the full contest details, go to the Office1000.com contest announcement page.

Photo Credit:  Trine de Florie, Stock.xchng

Now, to share my answer to this debatable question, I'd say that an organized desk is better.  For me, when things are organized on my work desk, I'm able to think clearly and really focus on what I am doing.  That counts a lot toward my productivity and efficiency.

Are you familiar with Detective Adrian Monk in the TV series Monk?  I really laugh at how particular and "perfectly organized" he is, but I can somehow identify to him.  If I feel that my work place is messy or when something is not in its proper place or it does not belong, I get distracted and try to fix things.  Well, Mr. Monk is sometimes hilariously off to an extreme compared to myself.

An organized desk also contributes to an efficient use of time.  Imagine if you have stacks of paper scattered all over and you just want to find that one particular memo.  It would take time to sort through all those papers.  Unless of course you have a super reliable memory that you can picture exactly where the specific item you need is.

An organized desk also helps in situations where you would have to leave work and somebody needs to pitch in to do your work.  You can easily give the instructions where to find things, and the person who took your job temporarily will indeed find it where you said so.  You will spare him the stress and headache of trying to figure out what you are talking about when things are in its proper place and order.

By saying these things, I do not mean that you cannot do any work in spite of a messy desk.  If yours is the type of personality where you are more productive when working on a cluttered desk, by all means do it.  I just find working on a clean desk yields more productive and efficient results.

What do you think?  Are you for an organized desk or messy desk?

It's a BC Bloggers' Party

I'm joining the BC Bloggers' Party - a get-to-know party organized by Mommy Paula.  Bloggers who are joining are supposed to write a little something about themselves.  So let me share a few things about myself.

My friends call me Chin chin.  I'm a Christian stay at home mom with 5 wonderful kids - 2 boys (Emmuel and Yuan) then 3 girls (Kristel, Janel and Angel).  Ang dami no?  That's the usual comment I hear from friends.  I've been married for 10 years now, so if you do the calculations, I gave birth more or less every 2 years.  My family and friends are amazed at how I could take care all of 5 little children (ages between 1 and 9) all by myself.  You heard it right, without any yaya and no close relatives (we do not live in our home country).  I thank God for giving me a husband who is loving and supportive in taking care of the kids.  I also thank God for the strength and wisdom that He gives me everyday. 

This is our latest family picture - April 2010

I also homeschooled my first 3 children during their preschool years.  It was a very fulfilling experience being my children's first teacher literally.   However, the 2 boys had been going to private school for 2 years now, the next 2 girls will be joining them in school this June.  So, I'll be left with my bunso at home while the others are in school. 

I started my first blog Inspirational Life Quotes in July 2007.  That's when I was introduced to the concept of blogging.  I liked it and then started this blog by December of the same year.  However, my blogging activity dwindled when I found out I was pregnant with my 5th baby around May 2008.  I just became active in blogging again last year after giving birth to my bunso.  I have started 3 other blogs since then - Praise Memoirs, Sunday School Lessons for Kids and PeopleString 101.  Aside from blogging, I also joined HubPages 7 months ago and have already published 11 hubs.  Hope you can also visit my hubs. 

That's all for this post for the BC Blogger's Party.  Thanks for reading and may God bless you.

PS Watch out for the post about how the BC Blogger's Party went where you will meet the other BC Bloggers.

Boggle Me Thursday

If you like to play Boggle, then you can join this meme.  It is fun and it improves word skills.  To participate, just click the Boggle Me Thursday button.

I found 24 words within the 3 minute time and 10 more after that.  A total of 34 words in all.

dog      god     gods     goose     sod     sog

doe     does     see     seed     seen     sole

sogs     sled   slave     sale     den       deal

ale     last     log      leg        led     eel

lost      goes     salt      save   lose      loose

ego       egg         legs    saved            slaved

Playing with words - use in a silly sentence or story.
A goose slave lost its egg so it goes out of its den but did not see the loose dog, so it ran to save itself until at last, its legs led it to the yard sale where it got a deal of seed to peck and ale to drink.  "Thank God I'm saved not slaved!" 

Whew!  Isn't that silly?

A Blessed Birthday Mommy Paula

Just want to greet Mommy Paula, the founder of BC Bloggers' Secret, a Blessed Birthday today!  May you have another wonderful year of love, joy, peace and blessings.

Photo Credit:  Mommy Pehpot

She's having a party right now.  Why not head over to her Mommy Diary Blog, give her a birthday blessing and get to know this amazing mom blogger.

About Blogging: How to Get Traffic (Part 6)

After publishing your blog, you surely would like to get people to come and visit your blog, right?  This post now deals with the how to get traffic to your blog.  To get free traffic from the search engines, there are 2 important things that you need to do. 

First, post original quality content every two days.   You can also search forums with related content then quote and link to the pertinent information about your niche.  Insert links to other blogs, related news, etc. at the bottom of each post using your key phrase somewhere in the anchor text of the link.  This will help tell the search engines that your content is really about your particular niche / topic.

Second, start link-building.  Link-building will move you up in the search engine listings. Remember, one way linking is very important. Reciprocal linking has become less important so you need to maximize your one way links.  Get your blog listed on search engines and in top blog directories.  This will take many hours, but the effort is worth it.

• Go to http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/ and submit your blog to as many of these blog and rss feed directories as possible.  Use your key phrase in the title and at least once in the description if you are able to enter one.

• Go to http://yahoo.com and set up an account if you don’t already have one. Add your RSS feed to your "My Yahoo" account. 

• Go to MSN.com, create an account, and do the same.

• Submit your blog to:

          http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request 
          http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl  
          http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx 

• Go to http://pingomatic.com and submit your blog. Rememberto use your key phrase in the title and at least once in the description.  Repeat “the Ping” every time you post new content to your blog.

You can also use some free or paid services that submit links to search engines and directories.



Once you have been indexed by search engines, you need to monitor your search engine rankings.  Check up on your blog’s rankings within its niche. You can do this by searching on the key phrase you used for optimization.  If you picked a penetrable niche, you should be able to get onto the first page (at least on Yahoo) within a month, but if not, you will need to:  Search out link partners in your niche and setup reciprocal links. Simply find high-ranking websites in your niche on Google and Yahoo and offer to exchange links with them. 

Boggle Me Thursday

If you like to play Boggle, then you can join this meme.  It is fun and it improves word skills.  I play this with my kids and have a lot of fun.  To participate, just click the Boggle Me Thursday button.







I got 18 words in 3 minutes.
beet  been  tee  teen  tiny  exit  fit  tin  few  coy  yet  bet  bent  ten  net  fin  fine  fix

Playing with words - use in a sentence.
A fine coy tiny teen bent to fit through the net to fix the tee and exit again in ten seconds.

About Blogging: Blogger Gadgets (Part 5)

Blogger Gadgets are those additional information you can place on your blog sidebar or below your blog posts.  You can add these by going to the Layout in your Dashboard and on that page you can click on Add a Gadget.  A new window will open then you can click to choose the gadget you wish to add.  You can drag and drop the gadgets to rearrange them the way you want it to appear on your blog. 

In my humble opinion, these are just a few of the gadgets I believe are essential and have found helpful in my blogging.

Profile - This gadget functions in the same way as the About pages in other websites that we see.  It is where you can say things and information about yourself or your business or anything you would want your readers to know.  Here I also get to display links to my other blogger blogs. 


Labels - This is also like tagging or categorizing your blog posts.  It's another way of organizing the information from posts you have in your blog.  For example, if you a series of posts about Health, you can put Health on Labels and if you have Labels enabled in your sidebar, you will find a Health link there that leads to all your Health blog posts.  You can rename this as Post Topics, Categories, Tags or whatever is appropriate.

Subscription Link to Feeds / Email - If you are posting very good content, your readers may want to continue to read your future posts.  They can do so by subscribing to your blog feeds.  You can simply add the Subscription Links Gadget.  But if you want to add email subscription to your blog (a way by which readers can subscribe to your blog posts and receive it in their email), you can use the free services of Feedburner.  Just follow the steps there and you will have your Feedburner services set up in no time at all.  By the way, one added feature I like about Feedburner is that I can socialize my feed with Twitter.  This simply means Feedburner posts my blog updates to Twitter automatically every time I add a new post.

Link Within - If you've been posting for quite a while, you would wish that your blog visitors will not just read your most recent posts but also dig into your older quality posts.  One way to encourage this is to use LinkWithin.  Link Within shows related stories under each post by displaying a thumbnail or a link.  This is a good free tool that suggests other reading topics that your visitors may find interesting and click to read.  I have kept visitors staying longer in my blog with the help of Link Within.

Followers by Google Friend Connect - One of the good things about blogging is making friends who become followers of your blog.  So if you're not adding this gadget, you're missing a lot.  When visitors become followers of your blog, they are automatically informed of your new posts via feeds in their Google Feeds Reader or in their Blogger dashboard.  I, myself, check the new posts of the bloggers I follow and click to their post if it catches my interest.  Many repeat visitors to my blog also come by this way.


Blog List - This is my way of showing link love to my blogger friends.  I have renamed this as Blogs I Follow.  Every time the blogs I follow make a new post, their blog name with their recent post title shows up on my side bar.  Then, not only I can go check it out, but also my blog visitors can visit their blog if they find the post title interesting.

Traffic Stats - If you want to know how many visitors have been to your site, where they are coming from, what pages they're looking at and other traffic statistics, you can add these free tools like Feejit, Histats and Google Analytics to your blog.  With the statistics that these tools provide, you can study how to improve your blog in terms of keywords, traffic efforts and eventually the monetization of your blog (if you're planning to do that).

There are a lot more gadgets available which you can add to your blog, But unlike the Profile, Followers and Blog List which you can easily put by clicking Add a Gadget and click on their icons, these other Gadgets like the LinkWithin, Traffic Stats Widget, etc, you need to know a little about HTML.

Let me briefly explain how to add these.  When you go to LinkWithin, for example, you will input some information like your Blog URL and then they will give you an HTML code.  You need to copy this. Then go to your Blogger Layout, click Add a Gadget then choose HTML.  On the new window that will appear, paste the HTML code that you got from Link Within then click save (You can add a title if you want to).  You can just drag and drop that gadget where you want it to appear in your blog.  In case of Link Within, it should be below your blog post.

I think, this blog post has been long enough.  I hope you learned something from it.  Happy Blogging!

By the way, do add your favorite blog widget or gadget ideas in the comment section.  Thanks!