Help Me Achieve My Dreams

If you've ever played The Sims 2 (I don't know about the others), you may recall that each individual Sim has a lifetime goal or want. Depending on which expansion packs you have installed, this can range from "Have six children" to "Breed ten puppies or kittens" to "Become a criminal mastermind." If you can help your Sim through life to where he or she achieves the lifetime goal, they will spend the rest of their life in platinum mode, meaning they're perpetually happy and healthy.

It's a sweet deal and I want in.

I have a handful of lifetime goals, most of which are not things you can help me accomplish. But there is at least one with which you could possibly assist me, if you're willing. I want to be an internet celebrity.

To quote Phineas and Ferb, "Fame is fleeting, but the internet is forever."

Will becoming famous on the internet help me to be perpetually happy and healthy? This is admittedly unlikely. However, I can't rule out the possibility that it might, so I think I should find out for certain one way or the other. If I succeed in this goal, I promise to use my newfound powers for good instead of evil.

Okay, facetiousness aside, what this page is really about is answering the people who have asked me "How can I help to promote your blog?" I know I've been asked this at least twice, and that's practically enough to make it a frequently asked question. So if you're inclined to help me become internet famous, or at least one of the top five Google responses to a search for the name of this blog, here are some ways to do it.

1. Got a Blogger account of your own? Or a Google account (e.g. Gmail)? Become my official follower! You can see little boxes at the right side of each page of this blog, depicting miniature representations of the people who follow it. Click the button to add yourself to the ranks. The chances are strong that I might follow you back, if you have a blog of your own.

2. Do you use Twitter? You can follow me there, too. I tweet every time I update the blog, and use the hashtag #itseemedlikeagoodideaatthetime. You can, if you are so inclined, retweet my little announcements to your own followers. I tweet about other stuff, usually of nonsensical value, but you can just ignore me if I get too silly. You can also tweet to me directly if you have a suggestion for a blog post or just want to say hello.

How about Facebook? Do you use that? The blog now has an official page there, which you can like. I hope you really do like it, but if you don't, you can just pretend. I imagine at least a few of you feel a bit more neutral toward it.

3. On the blog are some promotional buttons. As of this writing, there are permanent buttons for StumbleUpon and BlogSurfer, and a DiggIt button that's supposed to be permanent but seems to keep disappearing and reappearing. Don't ask me why. If you have accounts on Digg or StumbleUpon, you can use these convenient buttons to tell the rest of those communities that I wrote something you think is worth reading. (I'm assuming that happens at least once in a while.) And you don't need an account for BlogSurfer; just hover your mouse pointer over the bar, and click on the thing that pops up. This will move my blog to the top of their list. I'm still not exactly sure what this will achieve, but BlogSurfer is apparently responsible for a not-inconsiderable amount of my traffic, so I must be doing something right.

If you're so inclined, you can then click "BlogRoll" at the top of the page that will result from you clicking that aforementioned thing that popped up, and then search for my url in the list. If you find it, click on it, then click on the little four-star emblem at the top to give me a four-star rating. This will either tell other BlogSurfer visitors that my blog is awesome or it will trigger some kind of catastrophic event. Either possibility has the potential for interesting results.

4. Share the links to individual posts on this blog, or to the main page. I especially urge people to do this when I post about something socially relevant and comparitively important, like the one about sending holiday cards to soldiers. If it means something to you, or it made you laugh, or it made you think, please pass it on in whatever fashion you find most appropriate -- website links, Twitter or Facebook posts, viral emails, smoke signals, Power Ranger communicators, codec calls, telepathic messages...you get the idea.

5. And as long as you're here...leave me a comment! I read all the comments I receive, and sometimes even respond. I love to hear from people.

6. VOTE FOR ME. The blog is up for four possible Blogger's Choice Awards in 2011! I probably don't have a prayer of winning for Best Humor Blog (not while Hyperbole and a Half exists), but please vote for this blog in any or all of the categories in which it's been nominated. Use the handy-dandy buttons you see there, and while you're on the site, consider nominating any other blogs you think deserve some love. (You should also totally vote for my friend Kate's blog, which I nominated for Best Blog of All Time.)