In my last post, I talked about ways to grow your blog, but after I hit publish, I realized I left out those who don’t have a blog yet.

When I started blogging, I didn’t know the great benefits that would come out of it. I just knew I wanted to have a blog that mattered.

Today’s post, I’ll cover some of the rewards you can get from blogging. Some I’ve experienced already and others I’ve seen happen.

You might be interested in blogging, but need that last push to get started. You might see bloggers having fun and you want to experience it.

If you were on the fence about blogging, I hope I’ll have you convinced afterwards.

1. You will meet a variety of great people. 

Since I’ve started this blog, I’ve gotten to know some awesome people online. Not only do I love what they write and what they’re doing, but I love getting to know them.

When I went to Las Vegas to get married, a blogger I’ve gotten to know, Steve Roy from Ending the Grind was out there at the same time. We set up a time to meet and we literally just walked around the Wynn/Encore casino and talked.

Just last week in Taipei, I met Matthew Hooper, who I met through Twitter one day when I first started and got to know him throughout the year. We just happen to be back visiting Taipei at the same time. Matt, a Canadian, actually lived in Taipei for eight years and met his wife here. Plus he worked with Eleanor at a language school many years ago. Small world!!

I know I’ll meet more in person in the near future.

I’ve read stories of people who’ve attended Blog World or World Domination Summit and finally met long time blogging friends, and made new ones.

You know what I’ve found too? Bloggers are some of the nicest people out there.

If you want to know how to reach out to bloggers, read Adrienne Smith’s post about how to do it.

2. Blogging is a great creative outlet

A blog is like a blank canvas. It’s up to your imagination how you want it to look. It could look like a Jackson Pollack if you wanted it to (not recommended).

When customizing my Standard Theme, I spent countless hours on it. I probably could have spent more if I didn’t stop myself. I enjoyed every creative minute of it.

Writing is obviously a great creative outlet. You take a bunch of ideas and make it into something that evokes an emotion in readers.

People have different ways to unleash their creativity, and right now blogging is my favorite way.

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I’m in Taipei, Taiwan now still recovering from jet lag. How do I know I still have jet lag? Every day I wake up around 7:30am wide awake! Back at home, that never happens. I actually enjoy it though. More jet lag for me please.

Taipei is a place close to my heart. I was born in Florida, but shortly after we came back here to live for a couple years. Starting in 2007, I lived here for 1.5 years studying Chinese and just looking to get away from my boring life back at home. I left with here so many unforgettable memories.

I also met a girl, who ended up being my wife.

The last time I came was last year February – April, and this time coming back brought back lots of memories for this blog. Why?

I started this blog, Get Busy Living,  in Taipei.  

It all happened in the second tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, in the food court. Unusual I know.

I had the domain for years, but it wasn’t until my time in Taipei that I really got serious about blogging and knew what I wanted to write about.

I’ll explain why the food court played such an important role.

Later, I’ll share how I’ve grown this blog from nothing to how you see it today. I get asked all the time about it, though I still feel I have so much to learn. However, I know I’ve done something right if people are asking.

I hope my experience can help many of you are looking to start a blog, or grow you blog in 2012. At the end, there’s a great new course for those looking for further help.

Started in February 2011

Last year when I came for two months, Eleanor was working four days a week at a bookstore called Page One, in Taipei 101.

It’s the centerpiece of Taipei. It’s a must stop for any tourist visiting Taipei. It’s probably my favorite building in the whole world. Every year it has some pretty cool fireworks on New Year’s Eve (Youtube).

The building is mainly used for office space but there are five floor of shops.

When she came to work, I came with her. I wasn’t going to stay at home. That’s too boring!

So what did I do while she worked? I’d go down to the first floor where the massive food court is located.

I love the food courts in Taipei. They’re nicer and cleaner than your typical American mall food court. There is a huge selection of Asian food with some American imports such as Subway, McDonald’s, and Cold Stone.

It’s pretty comfortable down there with lots of lighting and tables. The food court became my office for those two months.

I’d bring my iPad and wireless keyboard. I’d start at 11am and it’d be quiet except for employees getting ready for the lunch rush.

By 12pm, the place would be buzzing with office workers, tourists, locals, and shoppers all eating. I’d stay there until about 12:30pm, then would go upstairs and read books waiting for Eleanor’s lunch break at 1pm.

Then afterwards, she’d go back to work and I’d stay there until 6pm when she got off of work.

That was my schedule four days a week for nearly two months.

I liked working down there. The noise didn’t bother me. It actually energized me. Every time I’d sit right by the Coldstone, which wasn’t smart cause I’d stare at it all the time, however I preferred the tables in that area.

That’s where I began to immerse myself learning everything I could about blogging and took action. 

Before I know it, it’s almost been a year and I’m writing a post sharing my tips. It didn’t happen overnight. I started in that food court and I continued that same commitment to learning and improving when I came back home.

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I get a lot of e-mails asking me about the plugins I use here. After trying many WordPress plugins, I have settled on a handful that I rely on.

I’d recommend these to any blogger, especially the beginners out there. If you start with these, it will help get more traffic, more comments, more retweets, and build your community.

Remember, you don’t want to have too many plugins running because it will slow down your site. So be picky about what you use.

Here are a list of my most asked about and favorite plugins.

WPSubscribers

This plugin has really helped me increase subscribers to my e-mail list. The reason is because it makes it easy to add sign up options almost anywhere on your blog.

One easy place is in the comments. After the reader has entered their name and email address for a comment, they can just click a box to get your ebook or sign up to your list. So they leave a comment and sign up to your list at the same time. Makes it easier.

Also if you see the end of my posts, there is an opt-in box was added with WpSubscribers. You can add an opt-in box within your posts, at the footer, as a pop-up, or in the sidebar,

That’s just a tip of the features it has. It’s too many to list. If you want to read more and purchase it, visit the website.

(This is an affiliate product, so I’ll make comission if you buy through this link. However, this is a product I use personally and would recommend.)

Tweet@ Anywhere Plus

This is the tweet box you see at the end of every post. If you want more people to share you post, you have to make it so simple for them. Don’t make them search for the retweet button. Show them how easy it is.

You can set up the wording of the tweet to whatever you want. Your readers can edit it as well before tweeting it.

It wasn’t easy to setup the box at first, but I had it setup up in minutes when I found a video made by my friend Adrienne Smith.

This is my most asked about plugin. Install it on your blog today and get more retweets.

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It’s the holiday season and it’s about buying gifts for friends, family, and the secret Santa gift for the co-worker that you don’t like. While it’s the season for giving, I’m giving you permission to be selfish for a moment.

I’m sure you’ve bought a lot of stuff this year for yourself. How much of it actually will benefit your personal growth in 2012 and beyond?

I’m going to guess many of you haven’t invested enough in yourself this year. You’ve bought things to enjoy and to be productive, but you haven’t educated yourself.

Why do you need to invest in yourself? The reason is YOU are the main factor whether you succeed the next 12 months or not.

It’s not a matter of luck. It’s not up to your boss. It’s not about others. It’s not waiting for miracles to happen.

It’s all up to you. 

When you take action and bust your butt, you’re blazing your own path. You’re creating your own luck. You’re making miracles happen.

I know many of you want to succeed in the area of business.

You want to start your own business whether it’s to make some extra money, or quit your dreadful job and live life on your own terms.

What have you done this year towards those goals?

Just having a blog isn’t enough. Hoping for lots of traffic and making pennies with each click on Adsense is a terrible business model. If you want to become an entrepreneur, you have to start thinking and acting like one.

An eagle who hangs out with chickens will always believe it’s a chicken. It won’t even realize it can fly. 

If you’re looking to launch a business, then the resources available for the Only 72 hour sale will benefit you. What exactly is Only72.com? It’s a package of guides put together and sold at one low price, for only 72 hours.

By the time you’re reading this, there will be less than 48 hours left.

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First I wanted to say thank you to everyone who read, retweeted, commented on my post last week, 40 Rising Bloggers Who are Heating it Up This Summer. The reaction to it was unbelievable! I’m ecstatic so many people enjoyed it. I’m so happy I made so many people’s day. 110% worth the time and effort!

 

Today I wanted to do something different and that’s do a video post to say thanks. I’ve never talked into a camera so this was actually harder to do than write a post! I wanted to show you a different side of me.

 

For those who record videos often, I have lots of respect for you. It’s harder than it looks, at least for me at first.

 

Take a few minutes to watch the video and let me know how I did! The constant rattling noise is my AC working hard. Sorry about that.

 

Any questions about the video or anything in my office?

 

I’ve been blogging seriously here for four months now. It’s not a huge accomplishment but it’s a good start.

 

While this isn’t going to be a long traditional recap post (typically after a year), I do want to say a quick sincere, heartfelt thanks.

 

At the beginning I didn’t know who would be reading my blog. Normally it’s family and a few friends but I’ve told none of them I have this blog.

 

I just wrote what I’ve wanted to write about for years. I started reading other blogs. I did the usual such as commenting but I also started learning Twitter.

 

Now I see my blog and myself growing every week and it’s truly amazing. It’s changing my life.

 

The best part is the people I have gotten to know in just four short months. People who have become friends, who inspire me, motivate me, and make me laugh. People I could truly see myself sharing a cup of coffee, a beer, or an awesome meal together.

Continue Reading…

Last month I was reading a blog post about getting traffic to your website by creating a tribe of Twitter users who tweet out your post once a week. You would do the same for everyone in your tribe. The benefit is that you would be able to reach your group member’s followers and in return driving more traffic to your blog. I thought that was brilliant but that group had closed a long time ago.

Then last week I’m reading another blog post about this website called Triberr. It’s started by Dino Dogan and Dan Cristo. This is how they sum up what they do.

Every time you publish a new post, Triberr sends it to everyone in your tribe and they automatically tweet it to their followers. You do the same for everyone in your tribe. They have it setup so the tweets by members in your tribe are spread out in case you have some of the same followers.

I thought this was something I wanted to join. However the only way to get in is to be invited. You can’t sign up.

The next day I get a message from Kevin at the Smart Income Blog, who’s blog I enjoy, who reached out to me on Twitter and asked if I wanted to join Triberr. What a coincidence! Of course I did. He sent me an invite and I joined his tribe aptly called “The League of Extraordinary Bloggers”. Kevin is a comic book fan, hence the cool name.

Once in his tribe, there were four other people besides him. All experienced bloggers and a couple I’ve come across while going from blog to blog. I felt honored to be in this group since I feel like the new blogger.

So Kevin is the leader of this tribe and gets to invite whomever he wants. You can have up to 7 people in your tribe. There are ways to increase that number too. So my posts get RT automatically by each of the people in the tribe. Currently the total reach for 5 total members is 5,837. Much better than my reach of 131 followers. There is the Jaffa tribe that has 11 members and a reach of 380,870 followers. Staggering numbers.

You invite who you want. So you’re getting real people. Not pictures of eggs or bots who spam sales links. You can leave the tribe if you want. As chief you can remove members from the tribe if warranted.

Now that I’m invited to Triberr I can create up to three of my own tribes. I can name them whatever I want and invite whoever.

The best part about it is it’s free.

I love the concept and really think it’ll become one of the next big web properties for social media. Everyone is trying to get more traffic and get their blog or brand seen by more people. This is one way to do it. It’s not spamming people. It’s doing it in a legitimate way.

Triberr is fairly new so they’re constantly improving the service. I believe it’s great now but I know it will only get better.

I’m working on building my tribes so if you’re interested in joining Triberr send me a message at bhsu21 (at) aol (dot) com.

Here is a video explaining how it works if you want to learn more.

About Triberr