Hi, ladies. Just checking in. I hope you had a good hump day. This headache of mine pretty much put me out of commission this afternoon, but I’ll be back to my old self soon.

Have a good night.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Don’t let school or work get you down! Ease your way into each day with a little bit of makeup and beauty.

Each morning at around 11 o’clock my time (Pacific Standard), an email with my latest posts goes out to Makeup and Beauty Blog subscribers.

If you aren’t already subscribed, the emails can be a great way to start your day. I try to keep things interesting, alternating makeup and beauty news with giveaways, product reviews, photo posts, tutorials and tips. I’ll never share your address with anyone for anything. You’ll get just one email per day, delivered fresh and hot out the kitchen (not really, but you know what I mean).

Thanks for visiting.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. If you’re completely swamped with email, you can also subscribe by RSS feed or follow me on twitter or facebook.

Ladies, just wanted to quickly say thanks for your help making October 2009 a good month in the fight against breast cancer. With your help, our combined donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure was $500 this year ($250 more than last year).

Pat yourselves on the back.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Good morning, ladies. I hope you slept well.

Can you believe that today’s the last Sunday in October? November’s right around the corner. By this time next week, we’ll have said goodbye to yet another Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which means no more pink ribbons for a while (they’ll go back into storage).

Why it’s personal to me…

• Blogging for Breast Cancer

I’m kinda melancholy about it, but I feel like the world made good BCA progress this year. No cure yet, and much of the increased awareness comes via corporations commercializing the cause, but ultimately the how/why doesn’t matter, does it? More of us are aware of the disease than we were a month ago, and that’s a good thing no matter what.

Strike while the iron’s hot

There are still seven October days left for one final push to raise funds for research and support. That’s why I’m upping the ante in our MBB fundraiser for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. I pledge to match every $1 you donate through the widget here with $2 of my own (up to $500 total). If you can give $5, I’ll match you with $10 (for $15 total).

And if you make a donation to Komen through a different blog or through their site directly, just e-mail me a picture/scan of your receipt, and I’ll make the same 2-1 match (up to $500 total).

I feel like we should strike while the iron’s hot because soon we’ll move on to other causes, and the holidays will take center stage.

Please help make one final push before the end of October.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Even though Blog World wrapped up last weekend, I wanted to talk a little about traffic building because it was one of the most discussed topics at the event.

Assuming it’s one of your goals (it doesn’t have to be), the experts had a lot to say about building readership/viewership to websites and blogs. Today I’m going to gloss over the jargon and give you some tips you can implement on your own.

Previously in The Beauty of Blog World…

1. The Beauty of Blog World 2009
2. The Beauty of Blog World 2009: How to Earn More Money from Your Blog
3. The Beauty of Blog World 2009: How to Make Better Videos

Tip #1: Produce desirable content

This one’s the most important tip but also the hardest to define. “Content is King,” the traffic experts say, but what do they really mean? Answer: If you think about it, what draws you to your favorite makeup counters, stores, websites and blogs? In my case, I visit MAC counters because I’m *obsessed* with their makeup; I read Zen Habits because it helps me relax. Ultimately, we visit the places that give us what we want.

As a practical matter, I think it’s harder (although not impossible) to attract readers to personal journal blogs because, let’s face it, our lives usually aren’t as interesting as we think they are. But when we blog with passion about specific topics (keeping in mind that no one owes us their time), we tend to attract people with similar interests.

Tip #2: The power of key words

What words would someone use on Google to find your blog?

Whatever they are, those are some of your key words, and you want to use your key words in as many places as you can — in your domain name (i.e. lipstickeyeshadowandgloss.com, catsinuniform.com), in your URLs (i.e. catsinuniform.com/cat/uniforms/catuniforms.php — the parts between the / slashes), in your post titles (Cat Uniforms Under $10, My 5 Favorite Lipsticks of 2009, Don’t Gloss Over These Lipsticks, etc.), within the text of your posts and also within the text using HTML header tags (h1, h2, h3, h4). The more you use your key words, the more credit your blog will get from Google and the other search engines for searches using those terms.

Tip #3: Links

Not only do links translate into direct traffic to your blog, as they get clicked wherever they appear, but they also contribute to your placement in the search rankings on Google.

Continue Reading…