Even I was surprised.

Hello Everyone,

Today is Wednesday. I cannot believe how quickly this week is flying. I'm busy teaching, mentoring, building the new coaching site, and finishing up the articles that are due end of the month.

I LOVE IT!!

Also, I'm sliding toward my birthday this weekend so I'm trying to make sure I get everything done so I can spend a little extra time with the family.

Here is why I titled this blog "Even I was surprised."

I was spending some time last night researching in preparation for today's blog. Since Friday starts a new month already I thought I'd look over the January numbers for this blog.

I was STUNNED.

My daily readership has DOUBLED between January 1 and January 29 as compared to the period from Thanksgiving through Dec 31st. Now you could say holidays were down but during that time this blog was experiencing a surge in readership.

So we doubled our surge!

Not only that but I had set the goal to double our blog subscribers in the first 3 months of 2008. As of yesterday our membership is 110% what it was on December 31st.

Do you want to see that kind of increase in your traffic? Of course you do. And I want you to.

I first checked to see if this could be entirely attributed to James Brausch mentioning me on his blog. While that did give me a boost, when I looked at sources of traffic this was actually fairly small in the overall growth. People came, and some stayed, but the vast majority found me another way.

I have found that there are two major ways people are finding me: Blog Carnivals and Blog tours.

If you found me another way PLEASE post a comment. I want everyone to learn how to get traffic to their site.

I did see some traffic come through the Blogrush, and it was enough to keep the widget on my site, but it seems the vast number of people who are writing and linking are traced back to blog carnivals.

I have also found in the month of January there have been a consistently picked up on google. I'm trying a new way of locating where I appear online. As soon as I'm able to actually UNDERSTAND all it is telling me I will report back to all of you so that you can use it as well.

I have to tell you, I'm ending January very pleased with the growth we've experienced. I will continue to capitalize on what I've learned and focus my efforts on what is most effective. I'd suggest you do the same.

Oh, and if you'd like to know more about blog carnivals search my previous posts. Here is one I did back in November: http://writingcareercoach.blogspot.com/2007/11/reaching-more-people-with-your-blog.html

And again, if you found me another way let us know in the comments section. If you found me on someone else's blog post the link in the comments.

I hope you will all apply this to help growth on your own blogs. Now I'll share a bit on HIGH and then get this website finished up!!

HIGH 18

Wow, we're already to part 18 on this story. We're about to enter Feb. and we're still talking. :-)

When I left off I had told you about sending my story off to a second publishing house. Actually I sent the query, only a few weeks later I had the SECOND request for the manuscript. I revved up the suspense, packaged it up and shipped it off.

wow was I excited.

But I had another story beginning to brew inside me. The publishing house that had rejected my work said I was a little too intense for their line of cozy mysteries. I had never thought of myself as suspense but here I was, submitting a Romantic suspense.

The book that I saw, the voice in my head, was NOT a nice person at all. He was a killer. But I could hear him clearly.

Pause-for anyone who is NOT a writer reading this blog...we writers actually DO hear voices in our head. Our characters become a part of us, for a season, and we experience what they do. If you are not feeling the anger, joy, fear, love, hope, despair of your characters...odds are you're not quite ready to be published. Your readers won't feel it if you don't.

I had learned a great deal on my previous MS. I now knew that I needed to start typing and when the entire story was laid out in front of me I would sketch it out.

That happened around Father's Day 2006 when the A/C line went in my van. I had to spend an entire afternoon [about 5 hours] alone in a repair shop. I started by typing on my laptop [a refurbished one that had been a 30th b-day gift from my mentor]. But the battery was starting to die so I turned that off and pulled out my spiral notebook. By the time I left the AC was back in my car and my entire book was outlined.

I'd also made another great decision that would change the way I did my writing. I hired a freelance editor to read thorough my MS and make comments. Since I knew there was someone following behind to help me when I made a mess of my story, the creative juices flowed. I began typing in late June and by mid July I had a 50,000 first draft.

Things were good and they were about to start moving at light speed! Not only was my fiction going but the marketing ideas and time management strategies I'd shared with other writers were taking on a life of their own. The Writing Career Coach was forming. We'll talk more about that tomorrow.