Kinda scary. Then again, kinda fun.

This is where I tell you I woke up.
~Starting sentence, "The Mirror That Shined".

Because I'm always trying to come up with new stuff to try, today I put up an idea that I've been toying with, designed around Web 2.0 media sites.

Oh, ok...understand this: I'm always looking for readers, but I can only hit up other people so much! That's why I built an interactive landing page, a reading circle per se, for my short story "The Mirror That Shined". The backdrop is simple; I want to see if it can be better. I'm also hoping that it can generate some interest from some of the people out there and basically get unique opinions and comments.

As I put up the site, I pulled out my crumpled checklist; this is a delicate operation. There's some caution needed. I'm not worried about plaigerism, but this is a new venture for me. (For example, at this point there's no need, to release the entire story.)

Approx. 3000 words, this piece has already been written. Actually, it's been resting on my hard drive for about a year. I figured this was the best work to test using this technique. And hey...who knows what'll happen.

My Coupon defeats You!! Ok. How about Now? Well, what about now?....now?

Alright. I admit I saw an episode of Extreme Couponing the other day. I don't like to watch much TV, but sometimes I let it run in the background while I'm jotting things down in my journal.

And this show caught my eye; I mean, how're these people buying $600 dollars worth of stuff for only $6 bucks? Heck, I'm in the wrong profession! Just donate me a few quarters and I'll have a huge garage sale!

So, um, yeah, I went and bought two Sunday papers when I got back into town. And I'm sitting here on the floor of my den, cutting away page after page, shredding paper here and there. And by the time it's all finished, the floor is covered in trash, and I have 2 sets of coupons.

But that's not all! Now I get organize them. And before it's all over, I'm starting to wonder; what do these people do for a living? Because it took me hours to get all this together, and I'm sitting here with a coupon for $1.00 off a Lady Shick Shaver! What's worse, I head over to Price Chopper, and they don't even sell this Lady Shick Shaver!

Well, I haven't given up yet. (I did get some milk for 15 cents, but I had to buy 12 dollars of soda pop, which I don't drink.)

I think I'm going to have a garage sale or something and sell off those cans...

Ho Ho Ho! Wait. It's not Christmas. Oh YES IT IS!

Woohoo! I won tickets to the Major League Baseball game in my area! Mine. Mine. Mine! Talk about lucky, I didn't even know they were part of the prize package. (I signed up at Sonic for their Sonic Slam Contest.) Who knows, maybe I'll even win $25000?

This week I've ventured into a new concept that I've been building -- well, mostly it's been on the back-burning while I've been developing some of the actual content.

1. One of my creations, Squidooman, is building a product line. Since I'm new to the concept, I'll just start it slowly and build it gradually, but it looks like he's going to do very well. You can view his product store here.

2. The Superheroes List, a niche blogsite I created, is taking shape and becoming nailed down well. It's technically in it's 4th month, and now I'm doing at least 2 updates per week. Later, I'll probably update it to 3/week, but with vacation around the corner, I'm cautious on taking too much.

Oh, before I forget; I hooked up with some of my old friends today (I have a bad problem, staying anonymous and in hiding). Daaave!

See y'all soon!

So what's the super-secret strategy?

I've been racking my brain over the last few months with a technique, a glean of incredible wisdom, trying to turn it into a unique blog idea.

Well, I think I've got. No, you can't steal it. (Well, you can, but I've done it first.) And you probably don't want to do what I'm doing.

I created this blog called The Superheroes List. My technique was to find a keyword that gets lots of hits, but has little competition. Well, this was it: "Superheroes" and "Superheroes List".

Anyhow, so I built the blogsite thinking, "Ok, Blake, now you've created something that will get you pagerank just by referring to yourself."

But that's not all. You see, in itself, The Superheroes List created intent, to make a blog focused on unique lists about superheroes!

Think I'm kidding? Check this out:

The Top 10 Villains of Spider-Man
Marvel's 10 Strangest Superheroes

See what they've got in common? Yep, that's right! Not only do I have millions of ideas for lenses and articles, but I've also got a tie-in to my very-specific blogsite. And now, all I have to do is build more lists!

And that, my friends, won't be very hard at all...