Lijit

Who knew March has so much to offer? (Of course, if you’re currently in Austin taking part in SXSW, then none of this applies to you.)

But for those of us not geeking out over music, films & the internet in Texas, you might be interested in knowing that in the course of one week, the following events all occur…

• Daylight Savings time. Spring forward by setting your clocks ahead one hour before you go to sleep on March 13th. Enjoy losing that hour of sleep.

• Pi Day. As your mathematical sensibilities should tell you, March 14th is when this one takes place. Be sure to bake your favorite pie or simply thank your favorite mathematician. Better yet…you should bake your favorite mathematician a pie and think back fondly on your favorite math teacher.
• Ides of March. This is March 15th and you should review your Shakespeare to fully understand this one. Let’s just say that you should be wary of close friends stabbing you in the back on this day. Literally. Perhaps we should all pay more attention to soothsayers?

• March Madness. If college basketball is your thing, then March Madness is probably your version of heaven. Or close to it. The opening round begins March 16th and you should most definitely have your teams picked by then.
• St. Patrick’s Day. On March 17th, have your green on and shamrocks ready for this special day. Even if you’re not Irish, this holiday is one that encourages celebration by all. Besides, how often do you get the chance to drink green beer?
• House vote on Senate healthcare bill. The White House’s goal is to have the vote done on March 18th and while this one may not seem like the traditional type of celebration, if the bill passes, then we’re one step closer to health care reform. And what’s not to like about that?

Hopefully, something on that list catches your eye and causes you to celebrate…even just a little. Let us know in the comments what other fantastic March occurrences we forgot and help your fellow man to see the goodness that is March.

There’s nothing we love more than local support. (Okay, maybe company happy hours…) And we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to be located in such a fantastic community with entrepreneurs and tech startups at every turn. For example, look at how happy we’ve made Megan with one of our comfy shirts and a few stickers…

In addition to being a new blogger using Lijit, Megan is also the co-founder of a Denver production company that helps clients tell their stories more effectively with video. If you’re looking for some help in the video arena, be sure to check out Alpine Light Pictures or follow Megan on Twitter.

And to see an example of her work, take a look at the following video she made for a series about TechStars founders. The video speaks for itself.

Many thanks to Megan for her support and fantastic evangelism! If you see her around Denver, be sure to give her a high-five for us.

I know, I know…some of you don’t recognize this as anything special. But for me, and all the women of Lijit, I thought it deserved a *small* mention. (And guys, don’t worry…International Men’s Day is in November and we’ve been celebrating your history for quite a while now.)

This month-long observance isn’t one of those made-up commemorations that simply exist to make people feel better about themselves, although some of you may argue otherwise. National Women’s History Month’s roots go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. Leave it to the textile workers to start a movement.

Some interesting facts, pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau about the state of womanhood…

155.8 million
The number of females in the United States as of Oct. 1, 2009. The number of males was 151.8 million.

82.8 million
Estimated number of mothers of all ages in the United States.

29.4 million
Number of women 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or more education in 2008, higher than the corresponding number for men (28.4 million).

Nearly 6.5 million
The number of women-owned businesses in 2002.

66%
Percentage of female citizens 18 and older who reported voting in the 2008 Presidential election.

59%
In 2008, the percentage of females 16 and older who participated in the labor force, representing about 72 million women.

64.5 million
Number of married women 18 and older (including those who were separated or had an absent spouse) in 2008.

3.1 million
Number of girls who participated in high school athletic programs in the 2007-08 school year. In the 1979-80 school year, only 1.75 million girls were members of a high school athletic team.

Many thanks to all of our female publishers, just a few of which are linked to in this post, for their support and for the bravery in telling their stories.

And, if you haven’t yet this month, be sure to think fondly about all the special women in your life and how they’re currently making history.

With spring right around the corner, who isn’t itching to get outside and enjoy some nice weather? (Okay, maybe not allergy-sufferers.) But if you are the type to take to the golf course as soon as it’s green out, then you should be excited for this Lijit publisher. Golf Tip Reviews is designed for the OG…meaning the Occasional Golfer…and if you can’t get a lower score from reading this site, you might want to start saving for some private lessons.

Fortunately, Golf Tip Reviews isn’t charging by the hour for the vast amount of golfing knowledge they provide–in fact, they’re just giving it away over on the blog! Also lucky for us, the Editor at GTR agreed to answer a few questions about how he got started creating one of the best golf blogs around. Tee up!

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?

I have been blogging for about one year. I started because I wanted to help the Occasional Golfer elevate their game. I love golf, but play only about ten times per year, as the opportunity arises. So I am an Occasional Golfer. Despite this, I have a 12 handicap and break 80 once in a while. I have a solid game, built on fundamentals, that I trust on the course.

Sadly, most of my playing partners cannot say the same. We would all have more fun on the course if they could. They need simple, straightforward, and sticky tips that actually work under pressure. But such things are hard to find.

Most golf tips that people see are published in popular magazines, often with a professional golfer or teaching pro demonstrating the fine points. These tips are certainly valid, and useful to some people, but they tend to be a bit too technical and esoteric for Occasional Golfers. Plus, they are written in a slightly pedantic or academic way, without much edge or passion. Finally, the tips are often offered in isolation, rather than in an interconnected or holistic way. These things prevent the relevant tips from “sticking” with you on the course, which is where you need them.

Golf Tip Reviews attempts to close those gaps and elevate the game of the Occasional Golfers everywhere.

What is something interesting that you’ve discovered through blogging?

That the technology and tools for blogging evolve very quickly. That a site with a lot of bells and whistles is no good if it can’t be read in all browsers, or loads too slowly. And that most other bloggers are very generous people, willing to help out a newcomer.

I know it’s a hard question, but what is your favorite golf course to play and why?

My favorite course is Willinger’s in Northfield, MN, about 30 miles south of downtown Minneapolis. The setting is pristine, the course layout is challenging, the greens are immaculate, and the price is right - under $50 for 18 holes with a cart. I have played there a couple of times on business and always look forward to getting back.

What are some of your golfing tips for those of us just getting started with the game?

Most Occasional Golfers have a tendency to slice on full shots. Here’s how to cure it: If you warm up properly, aim your club correctly, take an athletic stance, start your backswing correctly, begin your downswing smoothly, keep your lag on the downswing, hit the ball with a descending blow, and have a balanced finish, you will hit powerful, accurate shots and avoid the dreaded slice. Sound simple? It is, actually. But you still need to practice!

How has Lijit helped to make you a better blog publisher?

I have found Lijit to be a stable and reliable addition to Golf Tip Reviews, and it definitely has boosted my pageviews per visit. The Lijit widget combines a lot of very handy things into a stylish and small package. With Lijit, my visitors can do a complete site search, look at what others have searched for, see the most popular search terms in tag cloud format, search my network of linked sites, and follow me across my various social networks. I recommend Lijit to all site owners.

We appreciate the continued support of GTR and encourage all those Master’s champions in the making to follow GTR on Twitter for 140-character doses of golfing goodness. Now that you have no reason for those high scores, we’ll see you on the links! Fore!

(And if we missed out on any golf lingo, feel free to add your own in the comments…)

It’s something that I do for my job and something that I enjoy talking about with others. And apparently, after three years of doing it, it seems I am now in a position to share a little of what I’ve learned.

A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed on this topic by Vanessa, the community manager at Partnerpedia. You can find the podcast here, if you’re interested in hearing me spout off about blogging and what everyone should consider before jumping into the blogosphere waters.

Then, if that wasn’t enough, I wrote a guest post for the BlogWorld blog about…you guessed it…the importance of small businesses blogging. I respond to the most frequently asked questions and objections that I hear when it comes to the topic of getting a business blog started.

(Also? If you’re on the fence about attending the BlogWorld conference, our company has been there the past three years and consider it one of the most important things we do.)

So, if you’re still wondering why your business needs a blog, between these two pieces, I have plenty of reasons. And only one of them rhymes with ‘boogle’.

Yesterday marked the start of America Saves week. If you’re like most Americans, this is one observance that probably passed you by. It’s not that we, the people, don’t like to save money (we don’t) but it’s more about how much we like to spend money (A LOT). I’m not just talking personally here. According to research, less than half of all Americans (41%) save regularly and three-quarters of households carry debt.

So what can we do to ready ourselves, and our bank accounts, for the worst?

Simply put, start saving. Whether you’ve set up your online bank account to automatically take money out of checking and put it into savings or you’re putting cash away into a piggy bank, the most important step is the first.

Additionally, that first step can also be the most difficult. For some people, saving money is more about living a frugal lifestyle than putting away a set amount each month. If you can shave a couple of dollars here and there on grocery bills, paying off credit card debt suddenly seems like a much more possible goal to achieve.

Fortunately, we have quite a few Lijit publishers who are currently blogging about how they’re saving money.

Take advantage of the wisdom of this group (Saving with Shellie, The Deal Fanatic, Canada Mom Deals, Bargain Hunting Moms, My Frugal Lifestyle, Saving in Akron, In Good Cents, BargainBriana, and Frugal Femina) by checking out the thrifty advice they offer.

And feel free to take advantage of the fact that all of the above publishers are using Lijit search to find even more money-saving tips.

Happy saving and here’s to your retirement!

This is a special Valentine’s Day guest post from one of our most Lijit publishers, Kristen Chase. She blogs at both Motherhood Uncensored and Shredheads. We appreciate her support and her sense of humor.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by the sex-related Lijit searches on my blog, and not just because I’m a sex columnist who recently penned a book about sex.

It seems there’s no shortage of folks searching for sex on the Internet. I can only imagine the disappointment when they click on the link for “sexy boobs” and find themselves at my mom blog.

But with Valentine’s day this weekend, the search for sex is pretty timely. Whether you’re a mom, dad, or a parent of pets, the “sexy” can still be pretty elusive thanks to busy schedules, lack of sleep, and well, life in general.

So why not use February 14th as a catalyst for change? It doesn’t matter if your battery is dead and needs a jumpstart or you need to trade-in your old junker of a libido for a newer model. Instead of the overprices flower fest and cheesy card exchange, invest in something that will sustain you way after you’ve eaten that entire box of Whitman’s chocolates.

And then save your searches for something more important, like mysterious body ailments and politician sex tapes.

**GIVEAWAY RULES**

To win an autographed copy of Kristen’s book, just share your funniest (and/or sexiest) Lijit search term in the comments and Kristen will pick her favorite. We’ll be running this giveaway until February 18th, at which time a winner will be announced. Only Lijit users are welcome to enter. So if you’re not using Lijit, get on it.

For tips, tricks and a little libido butt-kicking, check out “The Mominatrix’s Guide to Sex”, Kristen Chase’s frank and funny new advice book. You can also read her bi-monthly sex column and listen to her weekly podcast “Morning Sex with the Mominatrix”. Or just search “Brad Pitt pubic hair”.

You’ve been told that it’s important to know about your audience. What audience? Oh, you know, just all those people that are visiting your site to read your fantastic content. With Lijit stats, you already have some of that information right at your fingertips. But let’s say you want to find out something specific about your readers or ask them a question…maybe you want to find out what they think you should be writing about or what color they think your theme should be.

Enter SurveyGizmo. And yes, they are another company here in Boulder that we love.

Founded in 2006, SurveyGizmo emerged to fill a gap in the survey software market between high-priced market research software and online tools that did not include the required flexibility or features to conduct complex surveys. They quickly found their niche and have been growing ever since.

But how can SurveyGizmo help you as a blogger? Simply put, you can use their software to understand your audience further by gathering data about your readers with surveys, polls and forms.

SurveyGizmo can act as a dynamic contact form for your site. For example, this embedded contact form on the SurveyGizmo site is an example of a super easy way to collect detailed contact information that you might be interested in. If you notice, as you click on each radio button, you can see how the contact form changes to accomodate each request type, and generally helps SurveyGizmo users gather more useful information about the people visiting your site.

Also, bloggers can choose to poll their readers about what content they’d like to see more of, such as this example…

The best part of all is that SurveyGizmo gives you a free trial so that you can test out their software on your own. With a variety of different plans available, from the most basic to the enterprise and dedicated levels, there’s sure to be something there to suit your surveying needs. And, should you run into trouble, SurveyGizmo’s customer service and support are top-notch.

Check out what our friends at SurveyGizmo have to offer and let them help you to understand your readers better!

When we saw an interesting blog called Crumple It Up create a Lijit account, we weren’t surprised. That kind of thing happens many times every single day around here. But when we looked closer and realized this interesting blog just happened to be representing a very large health insurance company, well, that was a surprise.

Crumple It Up has been creating amazing content designed to help motivate and encourage a healthy lifestyle. From their posts about corporate wellness to their suggestions of apps that can assist you in reaching your fitness goals, it’s obvious that Crumple It Up is on to something. We just wonder how a health insurance company went so long without having a blog.

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?

Crumple It Up was established in November of 2008 as a way to showcase the projects and people of Humana’s Innovation Center. We’re a small part of a large organization focused on finding ways to make fun things healthy, and we wanted to establish a presence on the social web to make it easier for like-minded folks to connect with us.

What is the mission of Crumple It Up?

Humana’s vision is to become the most trusted name in health. Crumple It Up’s mission is to help the larger organization achieve that vision, sooner rather than later. We think that there are a lot of exciting things going on in the world of health.

Innovation, technology, and well-being (both personal and community) are all converging, and we want to be the resource people turn to for those things.

Blogging for a large health insurance company sounds intriguing. What are some of the challenges and benefits that you’ve found?

This sounds trite, but one of the benefits of being there - out where conversations are happening - is being there. It’s impossible to engage in a conversation if you’re not in the places conversations happen. And while we do blog at Crumple It Up, the site is really a hub that spokes out to where our content really lives - all over the social web. Incidentally, that’s one of the reasons that we are so pleased with Lijit’s ability to pull all of that together for our readers.

In terms of challenges, I think that ours are probably the same as everyone else’s…being interesting every day, for one thing! But having a blog has helped the rest of our company to realize what’s possible. Since we joined the “social web” in 2008, nine other Humana departments have now started using social media to make their work more effective. That makes it all worthwhile.

What are your recommendations for “health creation” in 2010?

Health isn’t just the absence of illness. Your psychological and emotional health is just as important as your physical health. That’s what’s so exciting about where we’re going. We’re all about finding ways to make fun healthy, and that can be either an individual or a group solution. Whether it’s riding a bike, or challenging your friends and family in a game that gets you moving, or connecting with people around something that interests you, the bottom line is that activity creates health - and health enables broader well-being.

How has Lijit helped to make you a better blog publisher?

We’re just beginning to tap into the power of Lijit with all of our social outposts, and the early results have been great. The search and analytics capabilities of Lijit have been extremely valuable in the content creation process, and it’s been really helpful to our readers to be able to tie our growing number of social properties, from around the company, together into a single, searchable place.

We love knowing that our search is helping people to become more active, if only in a very small way. And if health care is on your radar this year (and when isn’t it?), you should dig into all of the resources available at Crumple It Up. You can find and follow them on Twitter. Here’s to the success of Crumple It Up and to health creation all around!

Lijit Ad Tags are an easy to install option for displaying targeted ads on your website or blog. In this video I’ll show you how to do it.