If you haven’t heard of Real Rank by IZEARanks yet, take note. It’s Blog Ranks without the bullshit. It’s a small snippet of javascript that bloggers add to their code that reports a rank based on actual traffic, pageviews, and visitors. Real Rank isn’t based on arbitrary logarithms, personal vendettas, or a whim. It takes into account real time traffic statistics and refreshes daily so that ranks aren’t misleading and outdated.

I’m pretty open about the money I make through my websites, and although I would love to blog full-time and charge exorbitant amounts of money to advertise on my blogs, I believe the advertisers need to get what they pay for, and Real Rank tells them what they are paying for.

Not only does the little badge reflect my current Real Rank, a quick visit to IZEARanks produces graphs that display trends in Real Rank, page views, and unique visitors over a one week, one month, three month, or six month time period. I’ve been working really hard on my blogs, and I think it’s easy for potential advertisers to see that my efforts are paying off and more and more people are visiting my site, commenting, and taking my reviews and recommendations to heart. I hope that my efforts continue to yield results that affect my Real Rank in a positive way, and that advertisers realize the value in my blog.

Tags: blog rank, IZEA, IZEARanks, PayPerPost, Real Rank

Today was an emotional day for me. I finished the final season of Gilmore Girls on DVD. I’ve been a fan from the beginning, but I never watch during the season. I wait until it is out on DVD so that I can watch the episodes back to back to back.

I was afraid Lorelai was going to eventually need a medicare supplement, but judging from the smooch at the end, Luke is going to take care of her. Rory left on the campaign trail, leaving Logan behind (which I think is a grave mistake), and Suki and Jackson are expecting their 3rd child after Jackson never got snipped like he said he did (the world will never know if Martha and Davey are getting a brother or a sister).

I was so sad that the series ended that I pulled out the other seasons to start reliving the magic all over again.

The BYU Honor Association is unknowingly amusing thousands of internet junkies with their modesty and grooming standards campaign.

When we are clean, well-groomed, and modestly dressed, we are inclined to feel more confident in ourselves. We are able to represent ourselves, the University, and the Church in a manner that is professional and welcoming to visitors. It is also respectful to others when we are dressed in a way that is not revealing and distracting to other students and teachers who are striving to focus on their studies as well as keeping the commandments.

I can’t say I was overly promiscuous in college, but comparing college students to monkeys that need to cover their bare asses is laughable. What’s disturbing is that there are college students out there that take these recommendations to heart!

One of my major responsibilities at work is spearheading email marketing campaigns. I work with our sales team to determine the message they want to send, tighten the verbage, and then work with our inhouse graphic designer to create the html and send the email to specific lists of potential clients.

I’m currently using a local company to send and track these email blasts, but am less than satisfied with their tracking ability. Their tools just don’t give me the information I’m looking for so I’m researching similar companies, like iContact.

iContact offers an unmatched ease of use, with multiple templates and tracking capabilities to get the most out of your company’s email marketing campaign, included in packages starting at only $9.95 a month with a 15 day free trial.

Email newsletters and bulk email marketing is a great tool to reach potential clients when the company you work with takes care of the technical aspects like managing bounces and unsubscribes, and those are just a few of hte services that iContact offers.

One of my projects at work this quarter was to initiate an email marketing program to promote the retail centers that my company owns. We are not on a schedule of sending out an email to brokers every two weeks highlighting one of our properties, and on the off weeks I run a detailed analysis of who opened the email, who viewed the attachments, and so on.

While the campaigns have been effective, the company that we use to send our email blasts is less than user friendly and they are pricey. I’ve been doing some research, and iContact offers all of the services I’m currently using, plus the ability to create newsletters, surveys, and a blogging tool. Their services start at only $9.95 per month and are based on list size.

I think there services are a really great alternative to the company we’re currently using, and I can’t wait to contact them for more information.