Earlier today I wrote about the HubPages articles of mine that haven’t been getting much attention in the past 30 days. That’s not to say that people aren’t seeing what I write there, though. Several of my hubs did really well in terms of traffic.

Here’s a look at my top ten most popular HubPages articles for April:

1. How to Delete a Browser Cookie.
2. How to Build a Treehouse.
3. Calorie Burners – Swimming vs. Running.
4. Indoor Activities that Bring Couples Closer Together.
5. Tips for Getting Rid of a Caffeine Headache.
6. How to Tell When Mushrooms Go Bad.
7. Olive Oil vs. Canola Oil – Fat Profiles.
8. Where to Buy Alli Online at the Lowest Cost.
9. How to Open a RAR File.
10. Top 10 American Fashion Designers.

There are a few reasons why these hubs might have been popular. First of all, they’re on popular topics – technology, health, weight loss, relationships … Secondly, they mostly provide concise and clear tips for getting things done. And finally, these are articles I’ve worked hard to promote around the web in the past and I think that’s continuing to benefit them now.

Are there any other HubPages writers out there? Which articles did best for you in April? Do you know why?

Tags: articles, hubpages, hubs, kathryn vercillo, popular blogs, web traffic, writing

I write various articles over at HubPages on a regular basis. This allows me to write about many different topics and to stretch my writing beyond that which I’m assigned to write for different clients. But not all of my hubs get attention on the web.

Here’s a look at the ten hubs that did the worst in terms of traffic for the month of April and why I think that was the case:

1. Free Online Resources for Marketing your Business.
2. Choosing a Restaurant for Valentine’s Day.
3. 23 Simple Ways to Save Money During the Holidays.
4. 3 Important Ways to Deal with High Gas Prices.
5. 10 Celebrities Who Don’t Bother with Cell Phones.
6. The Daily Caffeine Fix on Limited Funds.
7. Benefits of Blogging with HubPages.
8. Evaluating Student Credit Card Offers.
9. Tips for Dealing with the Frightening Economy.
10. What we Learned from Low Fat and Low Carb Diet Crazes.

Some of these didn’t get traffic because they were time sensitive. Nobody is interested in Valentine’s Day or holiday savings right now. Students are getting ready to get out of school and don’t care about new credit cards. And the gas prices aren’t so high any more so that article isn’t currently relevant.

The others probably didn’t get traffic because they are older posts and I haven’t been working to promote them recently. I’m a little sad to see the lack of traffic to “tips for dealing with a frightening economy” since that still seems relevant but it’s been overshadowed by another post of mine on the positive things that have come out of the bad economy.

I’m also a little sad to see that no one’s been reading about the benefits of blogging with HubPages since it’s such a great site to write articles on!

Any other hubbers out there? What topics didn’t do so well for you this month? Do you know why?

Tags: articles, hubpages, hubs, kathryn vercillo, web traffic, writing

I just wanted to let you know that you can see more of my work now on the news site Elites TV. It’s an interesting site which has been around for awhile but which as recently relaunched and is not starting to gain attention as a great place to get current news. There is news here on all types of different topics and it should be interesting to see how this develops.

My first two articles on the site are about:

• How the Recession is Changing Productivity. As you know, this is a topic that I’m really interested in right now so it’s something that I keep trying to learn more about. As I learn, I’m trying to share what I learn with others.
• How Easy It Is To Stop Snoring. I recently wrote about this issue over at HubPages and was surprised about just how easy it can be to quit this problem. I think that’s newsworthy, don’t you?

I’d love to know your thoughts on the news site and on my participation there!

Tags: blogging, kathryn vercillo, news, work, writing

I’ve been writing a whole lot lately about how hard it is to work from home. I’ve been thinking about productivity and how to make it better in the home office. I’ve been wondering if multi-tasking helps or hinders these goals. And I’ve been putting together tips for increasing home office productivity. All of these things are based on my own experiences working from home for so many years.

But the truth is that I don’t always do what I recommend that others should do. And yes, my productivity probably falters because of it. Some of the things that I do wrong when it comes to working from home:

• I turn on the TV at lunchtime. It’s supposed to be a quick distraction but usually I get sucked in and leave it on for several hours in the background while I try to do my work which tends to mean that I’m only half paying attention to what I need to be working on.
• I check my social networking sites and IM throughout the day. This means that I’m regularly getting distracted by non-work conversations during my work hours.
• I often work from bed. I don’t have a good work space in my house and I frequently spend hours working from my bed even though I don’t think this is healthy for the mind or body.

However, there’s a lot I do right which is why I can make things work as a full-time freelancers. Things I’ve gotten down include:

• Scheduling. I’ve learned to create a schedule that works for me and I’ve learned how to adapt that schedule as needed when other things come up.
• Setting boundaries. When I don’t want to be bothered during working hours I have no problem letting people know that.
• Getting up and dressed. Even though I work from bed a lot, I always get up first and shower and put on clothes that are nice and make the bed before getting back into it.

Learning to work well from home takes time. I’m getting there.

Tags: advice, business, freelance, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, productivity, small business, work, work from home, working for yourself, writing

I have just finished reading an interesting book called Plain and Simple: A Woman’s Journey to the Amish. It’s one of those books that is really simple and quick to read but which takes a little bit of time to digest. I’m not even really sure that I liked the book exactly although I did think it was thought-provoking.

The story is a first-person tale of a female artist who fell in love with the “folk art” of the Amish community. She decided to pursue this interest by working her way into the hearts and homes of a small group of Amish people. The story is her story of the experience of living temporarily with this group of people and what she learned from doing so.

I’m not sure that I liked the book per se. I got the impression that either the facts of the story were exaggerated or the truth was played with a bit or maybe things just weren’t explained clearly enough to make them seem believable. I’m not saying that the author was lying but that a lack of direct truth was conveyed in the writing somehow.

Despite this, I do think that the concept of the book is interesting. It’s basically a look at how many of us in modern society idealize a simpler way of life and think that its what we want. Indeed, we do want parts of it – the sense of community and the appreciation of daily tasks – but we don’t truly want to give up our modern lives. The book looks at how to combine the best of both worlds if that’s possible. Interesting and worth a quick read to see what you think of it.

Tags: amish, amish books, book, memoir, plain and simple. sue bender, reading, writing

Every month I sit down and list twenty small creative goals that I’d like to complete in the month. I usually get at least half of them completed which makes me feel like I’m adding creativity to my life on a regular basis. I truly believe that almost anyone can do ten small things in a month that add up to big creative changes in their lives.

April is National Poetry Month so perhaps we should focus on what we can do that’s creative and related to poetry. Here’s a look at ten different small things that most of us could do to bring poetry to our lives this month:

1. Write out a quote about poetry. It doesn’t take long to find a quotation about poetry that we like and then to write it out on nice paper. Hang it somewhere that you can see it throughout the rest of the month to feel inspired to appreciate poetry.
2. Attend one poetry event. There must be a poetry reading or poetry slam somewhere in your area this month. If you’re free, take a few hours out of your day to go on a poetry date with yourself.
3. Check a book of poetry out of the local library. You don’t even have to read all of it. Just read one or two poems this month.
4. Write a poem. It doesn’t have to be perfect or even good. The idea is just to get your creative juices flowing.
5. Blog about poetry. If you don’t blog, write about poetry on your Facebook or Twitter account.
6. Watch poetry videos on YouTube. There are recordings of people reading their poetry, visual poetry pictures and footage of poetry competitions.
7. Buy those poetry magnets and play with them.
8. Go to a bookstore and read a children’s poetry book. You’ll be reminded of the fun of poetry!
9. Copy a favorite poem and send it to someone you love. Share poetry month with others!
10. Give poetry a chance this month. Most people ignore poetry a lot of them. Do anything at all that allows you to give it a chance.

What are you going to do to embrace National Poetry Month?

Tags: celebration, holiday, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, national poetry month, npm, poetry, writing

People who do a lot of social bookmarking to promote their own web writing will almost always focus their efforts on promotion through Digg. While it’s true that Digg is a great tool for driving web traffic to a site, I tend to prefer to focus my efforts on smaller niche social bookmarking sites. These sites are easier to gain a following through and that following tends to be more highly focused on the areas about which I’m writing which means that the traffic that is generated through the site is targeted and tends to create longer-lasting followers of my work.

Three of my favorite smaller social bookmarking sites are Mixx, StumbleUpon and Tip’d. Mixx and StumbleUpon are relatively large for social bookmarking sites. They allow for general posts on a diverse range of topics but they are still considerably smaller than Digg which makes it easier to use them to drive traffic to specific types of articles. Mixx has a really great setup for its groups which helps the community feel smaller than it is (in a positive way). Tip’d is a niche social bookmarking site specifically for finance topics which I find to be useful when promoting those types of articles.

I also used to really like Hugg when it was around – it was a great place for sharing articles on green topics – but apparently it couldn’t stand the test of time and ended up fading away. That’s one risk that you run when you use smaller social bookmarking sites. The same thing seems to have happen with Wordsy which was the only books and writing focused niche social bookmarking site I knew of. Which sites do you use?

Tags: blogs, business, digg, internet, kathryn vercillo, marketing, social bookmarking, websites, writing

As mentioned earlier today, I think that it’s useful for me as a HubPages writer to take a look at how my hubs fare traffic-wise each month.

Here’s a look at my lowest-traffic Hubs for March and why I think they didn’t get much attention online:

1. Choosing a Restaurant for Valentine’s Day. How to pick a romantic restaurant.
2. The Perfect Valentine’s Gifts. Which romantic gifts are best?
3. Everyone’s Favorite Holiday Gifts. What do you want at Christmas time?
4. Tips for a Healthier Super Bowl Party. Great low-fat snacks for sports parties.
5. Great Wine Without a Great Cost. Good wine doesn’t have to be pricey.
6. Evaluating Credit Card Offers for College Students. Which deals are best?
7. Why to Improve Your Credit Score. There’s a reason that you really want to.
8. Job Trends for Real Estate Agents. What was going on with real estate jobs when this was written?
9. Small Business Marketing Guide. How to network and market for your small business (and small budget!)
10. Tips for Dealing with Frightening Changes in the Economy. How to cope.

It totally makes sense that the first four articles here weren’t getting traffic in March since they are seasonal articles that aren’t so appropriate right now (although some of the tips really aren’t time-sensitive). Several of the other articles are just old (older than a year) so that’s probably why they aren’t getting attention although I’m sad to see that no one is reading about how to deal with the economy’s changes since that’s important right now.

Tags: articles, hub pages, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, tips, web traffic, worst hubs, writing

I occasionally get the opportunity to combine my interest in different topics through research and writing of one article. For example, I recently wrote about mobile coupons. This allowed me to research the topic of mobile phones as well as to write about the topic of personal finance, both of which are topics that I write on regularly and find myself interested by.

Mobile coupons are interested because they take something that’s been around for a really long time (coupons) and change it in order to adapt to modern technology. Mobile phones are now capable of advanced web searches and mutli-media message receipt which allows for coupons to be accessed and redeemed using only the phone.

Come to think of it, this allows me to touch on another topic that interests me which is green living. After all, if you’re not printing up a bunch of coupons then you are saving a lot of trees. Of course, there’s a balance to be struck because mobile phones do use energy which is a different type of waste but generally mobile coupons seem greener than traditional coupons as far as I can tell. Smart stuff!

Tags: discount, kathryn vercillo, mobile coupons, mobile phone, Personal Finance, save money, Wireless, writing

I write a lot about blog carnivals here because I participate in them regularly and also because I think that they are a great way to easily find links to new blogs on topics that are of interest to you. Usually I don’t write about my contributions to freelance writing blog carnivals on this blog because I post that information on my blog about writing, Real Words, instead.

However, I’m choosing to include one of those here because the blog carnival is a smart blog carnival called Cerebral Barbed Wire which covers a wide range of different topics like I do here on Diary of a Smart Chick. one of those topics is freelance writing which is where my post on 10 places to look for freelance writing jobs was included. The other post in this section was on Digg Tools.

The other topics covered in this blog carnival were:

• Business and Personal Finance (particularly on penny stocks and remarkability)
• The technology of solar power
• Food
• Health and wellness – including overcoming fear

Interesting range of topics here!

Tags: best blogs, blog carnival, blogs, business, freelance, freelance writing, kathryn vercillo, real words, writing