NLQ Blogathon Update ~ 2-8-10

by Vyckie

Oh yikes ~ last week is such a blur ~ I hardly remember it.  First, I caught a cold from the kids ~ and if that didn’t make me feel rotten enough, I also got a horrible migraine that had me in bed sleeping for most of two days.

Thus, the major blogathon neglect.

I am doing considerably better today, but I still feel a little weak and shaky.  So, between that and falling seriously behind on everything last week, I’m back to work on the blogathon ~ but it’ll be a slowish start and hopefully I’ll pick up steam as the week goes on.

Anyway ~ on with the NLQ Blogathon update:

1) To promote the Take Heart Project: 

We’re still working on this!  I am super pleased to report that last week, even though I didn’t get much blogging done, I was able to pair up an NLQ member who has recently left the QF beliefs and lifestyle, with a volunteer counselor for the Take Heart Project.  As we were “chatting” in the NLQ Chat Room, I was feeling rather overwhelmed as she told me of her current situation ~ and then it occurred to me that I have several qualified counselors who have emailed me to offer their services ~ what a relief to be able to provide real, practical help free of charge ~ to support this courageous mother of 8 in her journey to freedom and healthier relationships. 

So ~ I feel like the Take Heart Project is “official” now ~ Woo hoo!  We still have plenty of work to do ~ but this is a promising start.

2) To increase awareness of the No Longer Quivering website by utilizing the major social networking tools ~ Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, etc. and also encouraging readers to participate by introducing others to NLQ.  The goal is to generate enough traffic to put NLQ’s Alexa ranking in the Top 100,000 sites worldwide:

The report here is about the same as last time ~ there are only about a half a million websites receiving more traffic than No Longer Quivering ~ but after doing more research, I am realizing that’s actually not a bad ranking considering everything.  It’s not likely that NLQ will be one of the Top 100,000 sites worldwide partly because the comment section is on the forums rather than here on the blog.  If Alexa could track the NLQ forum traffic and count it towards No Longer Quivering’s total hit count and page views ~ that would make a tremendous difference. 

Currently, NLQ receives approx. 25,000 – 30,000 hits per month and at least 40,000 page views every week. But the majority of interaction occurs on the forums where we’re getting over 50,000 member page views every month ~ and that’s not counting the page views of lurkers or members who are reading without signing in ~ which I estimate is about 5 – 8 times more.   My best guess is that the NLQ blog and forums are currently generating close to half a million page views per month. That’s pretty impressive ~ but it doesn’t register on the Alexa ranking.  So ~ whatever.

At least the blogathon has succeeded in increasing the reader usage of the social networking buttons ~ you all are sharing the posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit ~ and that does make a difference in boosting awareness of NLQ.

3) The No-Longer-Eating-Crappy-Pizza Club is seeking new members. We have a special NLECP Club membership drive going on during the NLQ Blogathon:

We have one new NLECP Club member ~ bringing the number of monthly sponsors to a total of 7  :) ~ Hooray.  And we’ve also exceeded the $1,000 donation goal ~ awesome!  NLQ Readers ROCK ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪!!

This means that I will be posting a link to the old family blog ~ hopefully sometime today ~ I want to set up a link on the forums so you all can comment as you read because I think it will be interesting to hear the various reactions to the old blog.

So ~ the NLQ Blogathon is still going. I think we have another week or more before the book proposal is ready and I’ll need to take down “Vyckie’s Story.”  I am not going to get all the way through that story before the blogathon ends ~ sorry!  But ~ I do have another installment almost ready ~ this one is about Angel’s time at the Campbell’s from my perspective. I had it mostly finished before I got sick, but have wanted to add a few details which is why I’ve delayed posting it.  Hopefully, I’ll have that ready this evening or tomorrow at the latest.  I do plan to keep writing my story until the blogathon is officially over ~ so stay tuned.  LOL

General discussion regarding the NLQ Blogathon can be found here on the forum.