Hard day of work...glass of chard...Keith Jarrett's Koln concert playing on my iHome.  It must be time to blog....

For some reason, I was just thinking about going to hear one of my favorite authors speak at the National Cathedral in DC last spring.  Any of you women ever read Eat, Pray, Love?  Elizabeth Gilbert is the author.  I loved that book and went along with friends ranging from ages 70 to 30 to hear her speak.  My favorite moment was in the Q & A, when a member of the audience asked, "So is it difficult to share all of the highly personal things that you recount in your book?"

Somber pause, shuffling of notes.

"Well, I'd like to say yes, it's excruciating.  Unfortunately, though, you are asking this question of someone with...um, absolutely no personal boundaries."

Oh, Liz, I've never actually heard someone admit that before.  Beautiful.

I actually do have pretty entrenched personal boundaries--but for some reason, blogging pretty much does away with them.  Nah, don't worry, not going to make anyone queasy with stories of the ex (that's tomorrow's entry--ha ha)...I'm just thinking I'd like to describe what it's like trying to put some of my "action items" into motion.  

Okay, first to talk about keyword research.  I've begun to get this down.  It's helped that i got a new client that needed a fair amount done.  A contractor that has only a few months left to make the most of his appearance on Extreme Home Makeover before they stop letting him use their logo on his site.  Local SEO...challenging and new for me.

So, I'm developing an eye for the "goodies" as I plug stuff into my Market Samurai.  (Not crazy about the WA keyword search tool--sorry, but Market Samurai has it all over that one.)

I like using a notepad to keep track of stuff...and I've started jotting down the keyword phrases that satisfy the criteria.  Keyword/daily searches/SEO competition.  A nice way of keeping a "scoreboard," I am finding.  The winners jump right out at you.

Last week I found a niche that sort of bowled me over.  I'm sure part of the reason it bowled me over was that I'd been doing my searches within the dating realm.  (Can't call it a niche--it's a goshdarn REALM.)  And anything compared to dating terminology looks rich and ready to exploit.  But, ooooooh, this was a niche where I was seeing competition of 3,500 sites and daily searches of 40-60.  Veddy, veddy interesting.

(One little interruption here:  anyone else ever do a search and see one set of numbers--and then just a few days later see a very different set of numbers?)  One term went in a few days' time from 5700 SEOC to 40,000 SEOC.  Huh?

Anyway, I thought about it...how best to go about things.  Because I'm trying mightily to sell my Wordpress setup services, I decided I'd get this going with a WP site first.  Squidoo, et al...yup, all in the cards.  Not trying to jump ahead of myself, but I need to get a handle on some WP plugin yummies.  (Some of which I own because of clients asking me to "get the stuff and bill them."  Yippee!)

 So, that's what I've been doing--when I'm not busy writing for clients and Demand Studios.  

I've been working through a lot of the learning curve stuff for plugins like SlickSocial, PHPBay, and PHPZon.  The jury's still out on all of that stuff--I'll write more about it after I see it in action.  I've also been creating content using my primary keyword and four secondary keyword phrases.  Even if the WP site isn't what I hope it'll be--I can use those articles to make Squidoo lenses and Ezine articles later.  If I am pleased with it, though, I will certainly share with all of you next week. Nothing wasted--but I must admit, I am TIRED. 

Kids' activities, end-of-school-year stuff, soccer and swim team, unpacking and cleaning out old place, finalizing divorce, submitting bids for new work.  My elliptical is standing neglected in the corner of my basement--my friend, with whom I used to spend 45 heart-pumping minutes a day.  I must reacquaint myself soon--or I will turn to affiliate jelly.

Onward.  Time to put the computer away and re-enter the land of the living for a few hours.