The Article Writer

I mentioned previously how I registered each of my blogs with Technorati and then deleted the links thinking that much of the spam I have been receiving was because of this service. As it turns out, that couldn’t be further from the truth, so I went back and registered all seven blogs.

Six blogs “took” while my 7th — Article Nation — still isn’t claimable. Oh, well!

Anyway, if you like to track what is going on in the blogosphere, I recommend that you visit Technorati’s own blog to keep up with the changes. David Sifry recently reported that weblogs are being created at the rate of one per second!

In addition, Derek Powazek wrote about Technorati’s Top 100 blogs, while Derek Gordon mentions that Technorati has been nominated for the Webby Awards.

Other than not being able to claim one of my blogs, Technorati is a cool service and a great way to monitor your blog’s visibility.

I mentioned two months ago about a new service from Google called, the Google Page Creator. As with so many releases from Google, the hype generates a ton of responses so much so that Google typically pulls the offer, tweaks it, and releases it again.

Well, this morning I received notice from Google that the page creator is officially ready. If you have a GMail account you can create pages. The following is my brief, yet humble attempt to create my first page with this offer: Matt Keegan’s Site.

So much for the “wow” factor!

If you work for yourself, how diversified is your business? Do you rely on one customer for the bulk of your work or do you spread out accounts? In addition, is your business broad enough to survive downturns? Do you have several different areas of specialty upon which you can make money?

When I first started working for myself in November 2002, I marketed myself as a technical writer. I simply carried forward my previous job title and attempted to do the work on my own. It didn’t work.

Over time, I refined my work to where I started to build my own web sites, develop sites for others, write articles, post ads, etc.

Today, there are five areas from where I draw income: article writing, web design, resume design/posting, banner ads, and pay per click ad plans. If one area dries up, I can rely on the other areas. No depending on one customer or one source for all of you income. I can’t afford not to diversify. Can you?