Blogging

Image from sxc.hu user typofi

Although I wrote Is a Blog Right for Your Business? in 2007, people still mention the article or contact me with questions after reading it. Blogging has changed a lot since then, but one paragraph remains true.

Some people like to read blogs, others like to read newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and some read a few or all of them. No matter the method the information is distributed, each medium has one thing in common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter, your website and your business with all of these readers.

More people probably ask whether they should start a blog for their business today in a world where we have zillions of blogs and social networks vying for our tired, information-overloaded eyes. In my original post, I say the biggest factor in starting a blog is how often you can update it.

I don’t believe that anymore. I’ve been updating this blog once or twice a week for a long time as I’ve gotten busier with clients and volunteer commitments. I’m not going to throw up a blog entry just to keep up my “blog X times a week” quota. You don’t have time to waste and I’m not going to take advantage of your time by posting garbage.

If you can post a valuable post, do it. Even if it means you can only write a post once a month. It’s a way to give your website fresh content, something search engines love to gobble up. You may not have much traffic, but at least your site won’t look too static. If you’re active in Twitter, it may help to add a Twitter feed to your website. This adds more freshness to your website to keep it looking alive.

Part two of the blogging for business article discusses the use of blogs to manage a website. My my my. We’ve come a long way. When WordPress added “Pages,” it simplified using the blogging app as a website content management system. Many other blogging apps followed suit adding website features for easier management. Many of those blog apps don’t call themselves that anymore. They say they’re good for creating blogs and websites.

How has blogging changed? What do you think of blogging for business? How often should blogs be updated, or does it matter?

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OK, so you can barely see us... but gotta have the traditional photo with Big Tex

The State Fair of Texas organizers have announced the winner of Big Tex Choice Awards — aka fried food wars. (Yes, the one with fried bubble gum, fried Coke, fried butter, etc.) It’s not a fried food contest, but rather a new and unique food competition for the fair’s concessionaires. One of the finalists is the Walking Taco, not a fried food item. However, that’s the only one I can recall in the history of the awards.

The Fried Food Nugget

Fair organizers knew that food was one of the top reasons fairgoers came to the fair. According to the State Fair website, Fletcher Corny Dogs debuted at the State Fair of Texas. “1942: Neil and Carl Fletcher come up with a new fast food product – corny dogs – which they offer to the public for the first time during the summer midway operation.”

In 2005, the fair organizers came up with a brilliant marketing idea to take its food theme to another level when it started the Big Tex Choice Awards. Thus, the fried food games was born. Eventually, the organizers added the slogan of “Fried Food Capital of Texas” leading people to associate the fair with fried food. The website even includes a map showing the location of the concessions for each fried food finalist and winner. (Some past food winners like fried cookie dough are available at the fair.)

No focus on the giant Ferris wheel, auto show, animals, shows or other attractions. It’s all about the fried food. The smart marketers found something that intrigued people and exploited it. Fried food became the magic nugget.

Using Nuggets to Write Stories

I write about many brands and models of cars for one client. At last count, I’ve written over 70. How many ways can you describe how fast a car goes from 0 to 60? Besides, when will you ever need to hit 60 mph in an instant? (I’d like to think most of you wouldn’t have a need to run away from cops.) In reality, this kind of info grips some buyers.

Nonetheless, I need more than just the magic number for hitting 60. The trick to writing a story about a car comes in finding the little nugget and creating a story around it. I study the car’s marketing materials ignoring luxury, comfort, sporty, safety references. Eventually, I find one word or phrase that stands out and capitalize on it.

This works great for coming up with articles and blog posts. You can look at past articles and find an idea or nugget that deserves its own article. How many articles have you seen touting the benefits of Twitter? Yet, they continue to come out daily with a different focus. Just look at the previous posts on Twitter. (8 Steps to Start Strong in Twitter and 5 Clues Affecting Twitter Follow back.)

Have you made the most out of a little nugget? How did you turn the nugget into a pot of gold?

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It’s over. No more HP movies. No more HP books. (Supposedly.) Sure, Rowling created the Potterworld, but it’s not the same. Part of me has an inkling that Rowling won’t rest and she knows the marketing machine won’t roll forever without some fuel. The other part of me thinks all good things must come to an end. To continue something for too long will dilute it.

What do you think? Should Rowling start a new series with one of the characters? Should she create a new series revolving with the new students at Hogwarts? Or just forget it all?

Brain food…

• Blogging: Seth Godin and I are doing it wrong! Refreshing. I try not to let the blog stress me. Not worth it.
• The Brutally Honest Guide to Naming Circles in Google Plus. Now using Google Plus is stressful. I’m spending too much time trying to listen to conversations and engage. Now to add another?
• 41 Awesome Blog Post Ideas for Your Company Blog. Ideas work for all kinds of stuff, not just blog or companies.
• 40 Google Plus Tips for Newbies. I think we’re all new. Find my experiments and connect with me at gplus.to/meryl.
• 10 mistakes made in freelance writing career and 10 steps to setting your freelance writing fees. Two valuable articles from Anne Wayman.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• The Evolution of the Entrepreneur [Infographic]. Technically, this isn’t a true infographic because it has too much text. Nonetheless, it made me laugh.
• Retro Tattoos Dedicate Skin to Pac-Man. Wacka … wacka …
• 12 Awesome Hot Air Balloons. Don’t think I’ve ever met a balloon that didn’t make me smile.
• Lorem Ipsum Generators: 10 Ways To Make Your Dummy Text More Fun. “The Force is strong with this one. I have you now. She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod.” [Link: Yvette Chin]

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I’m sure you haven’t been keeping tabs on how often I blog or noticed fewer blog entries lately. Most people don’t for most blogs, email updates and websites. We get so much information that we don’t stand by wondering where the latest update is from so ‘n so.

It pangs me not to keep this blog updated much lately. But then I remind myself that I’d rather deliver nothing than something useless to you even if it affects search engines.

You don’t need a reminder of the advantages of consistent updates and blogging. What about making time for it? All the experienced bloggers tell us to make time for blogging and to stop making excuses that you don’t have time.

I do that for family.

I do that for volunteering and giving back.

I do that for clients.

I do that for exercise.

I do that for sleep.

If we “make time” for everything we want to accomplish, soon we’ll find ourselves losing sleep and overdoing it to the point that our brains feel overloaded. Speaker and author Jill Konrath wrote about this in The Year I Lost My Brain and How I Found It Again. Then today I read the top five regrets people made on their deathbed.

Multitasking is not always a good thing. It divides your attention, thereby sacrificing the quality of the two or three things you work on at the same time.

Oprah is right when she says, “Live your best life.” And that means sacrificing blog entries. If I work to accomplish all the things I’d like to do, it’d sacrifice at least one of the above and that would not be living my life. I’m not going to put off things just to make something happen.

I don’t want to regret not spending more time with my kids at every age. I already wish I had spent more time with my daughter who was growing up while I still had a corporate job and less flexibility. By the time my boys came along, I had the flexibility and fewer regrets.

In the past year, I’ve made time for things we hadn’t done together as a family. We saw the Harlem Globetrotters. We went to the State Fair. We went to the city’s International Festival. We went to the Texas Tornado hockey game. We went to LegoLand.

What will you make time for? What will you let go? How are you living your best life? How do you feel about blogging regularly or inconsistently?

If you do or plan to accept guest posts, it helps to have guidelines before you start reviewing requests. Too many folks have abused guest posting privileges. Besides that, guidelines help you ensure your blog retains its quality, integrity and relevancy also known as “keer” or QIR. OK, I made that up.

Photo by sxc.hu user linder6580

These guidelines will be updated as needed.

Posting Guidelines

• Read the blog before you contact me. The most unbelievable guest post request email came from someone who explained “guest post” to me. This happened within a week after I wrote the Dark Side of Guest Posts article.
• Will there be a similar post out there? I had one guest blogger who had a very similar post published the same day as it ran on my blog. My blog is not the place for rewritten articles. It’s not just about my credibility — but you and your site’s too. A guest blogger said she planned to publish the article on her site a few months later. I had no problem with that as long as it wasn’t word for word.
• The article must have substance. Not just be a list of the top X whatever. One list type post described each item, but used very generic terms. The article turned out 75 percent edited. It took very little to expand on each one, so obviously the guest didn’t invest more than a few minutes putting it together.
• Agree to let me edit as I see fit. Ensure silky smooth writing, fix typos, limit keyword links, verify substance, etc.
• Targets writers, freelancers and business owners. Not very narrow, is it? Really, this is the audience I tend to interact with the most.
• Teaches at least one new valuable thing. I’ve seen guest posts that fly at 30,000 feet sharing stuff everyone already knows like the sun is the closest star.
• 400 to 800 words. Any longer and most of us will tune out. It’d have to take something special to justify 800+ word posts. One guest submitted a 1300-word post. We turned it into a two-parter.
• Solid bio. Yes, we’ll include a link back to your site / blog, but it also must include sentences about the author. (Many of the spammy sites take the people out of the site and anything associated with it.)
• Discuss topics before writing. Why waste your time on topics that won’t fit the blog? The sooner we nail it, the fewer edits the article will need — saving time for everyone.

Feel free to steal them and modify them for your needs. Please don’t copy and paste them into your blog and turn it into a blog entry. It hurts both of our sites when people do this.

What other items would you add to the guidelines?

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My family doesn’t have ancestors from Ireland, yet Dad and I always wore green on March 17. Dad went to the extreme and wore a striped green suit to work. He also had a button that said, “Kiss me, I’m Irish” and a couple of others. (He wouldn’t get away with that kiss me button today with sexual harassment policies.)

My ancestry is tricky to trace as many of them came over from Europe and Russia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. However, Facebook connected me with some relatives on my mother’s father’s side. In ONE day, my family tree tripled. The top of this image shows the family tree before I found my cousins on Facebook and the bottom is what I added based on our conversations in Facebook.

Amazing, eh? Despite all of its flaws, Facebook is an incredible resource as so many friends and family members who aren’t social networkers actually use Facebook.

Brain food…

• Be Authentic: Why the World Needs You to Be You: I wish I could remember where I read a conversation between two people and one person convinced the other to stop ignoring a difficult part of her life. Face it head on. It made a difference in her writing.
• The Bare Bones Guide to Twitter: Get what you need to know and not a drop more. [Link: Lydia Ondrusek]
• Browser Evolution – The History of Web Browsers [Infographic]: Wow! I started using the Internet around 1993 with Internet in a Box and Mosaic. This chart begins in 1994.
• Prithee, Inform Me: The Rules of Writing: Kurt Vonnegut’s eight rules for fiction writing. A keeper.
• 100 Exquisite Adjectives: Need to study these. Not familiar with some, but I like ‘em! Can’t use words like these in writing because they’re not well known.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Another 12 Modern Bookcases: I love the US map bookcase. Don’t think I could handle such a bookcase as I like my books in a neat row. Here’s the original 15 coolest bookshelves.
• 12 Most Creative Objects Inspired by the Rubik’s Cube: That puzzling puzzle from the ’80s has a new lease on life… as a bunch of other things.
• Celebrate Pi at piZone: If you enter your email address, you’ll add another digit to Pi. I did this and my position is my birthday (month and day) with the #7.
• Stop-motion chess game: Builds up… give it time… [Link: Guy Kawasaki]

Where are you from?

I don’t update my blog as often as I’d like. So I happily accept guest posts when people offer, right? Eh.

Photo from sxc.hu user gwozdek

Almost daily, I receive an email asking if someone can write a guest post for this here blog. 95 percent of the time, I don’t bother responding to these messages just like they don’t bother reading the blog before emailing me.

Signs of an iffy guest post request email

1. Knows nothing about my blog other than the name “meryl.net” or “meryl’s notes blog.” One tries to fake it by saying, “I’ve been reading your blog and just love it.” A closer look at the email proved otherwise. Buttering up can have the opposite effect unless you’re genuine.
2. Mentions their keyword-oriented URL. Obviously, they’re trying to rack up links to improve search engine results. When I check out their websites, I discover a template-oriented site overflowing with keywords and no uniqueness. They also rarely show anyone behind the site. A guest post from these sites reflects poorly on mine.
3. Writes a generic email message.
4. Offers no article suggestions or a spammy one.
5. Fails to know what topic to cover. All you need to do is read the blog and website. Besides, why contact me without knowing this for your sake? You want to choose blogs that fit the audience you want. For example, if your website sells widgets, contact blogs that talk about widgets instead of blogs that talk about thingamajigs.
6. Asks for a topic.
7. Lists links to previous articles. All are spammy, keywordy sites. The article are also generic.

Yes, I’ve made the mistake of publishing a couple of these. I’m sorry for doing that to you. I’ve learned my lesson and have tightened the guest posting guidelines.

Once, a guest published a very similar post the SAME day I published the guest post. I’m still in shock that I found out about it. How? A Twitter tweet! What are the chances of my catching a tweet on the day of the post? This situation further turned me off to guest posts and added another requirement to the guidelines.

A guest post should be no different from entering a person’s home as a guest. Treat it with respect and leave the place better than when you entered it. Oh, it doesn’t mean you should clean it up. A simple sharing of a laugh will do it.

Not all guest posts stink. I’ve had some amazing guest postings here. Most were from folks I knew long before they wrote their guest posts. People like them are always welcome to “Be our guest.” You are, too.

What do you think of guest posts?

I thought about naming this the Aquarium edition in honor of the field trip I went on with my son’s second grade class this week where I loved seeing my son’s face as he was in awe of some of the discoveries. (Like in this photo.) However, Thanksgiving is a delightful holiday, perhaps my favorite because it contains no pressure and no stress. The only stress for some folks may be the cooking. There’s no shopping for gifts, sending holiday wishes and preparation outside of cooking like decorating the home.

My mom does all the cooking. And guess what? She says Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday. Her and Dad’s anniversary always falls around Thanksgiving. They married on Thanksgiving in 1955. Though Dad passed away in 2007, I sent her a note on her anniversary date. Mom appreciated the senitment. So if you know someone whose spouse has passed away, go ahead and drop ‘em a line on their anniversary date. Just because a mate is gone doesn’t mean you have to forget the date.

Just be with your fave people (OK, maybe Uncle youknow gets on your nerves — remember people don’t live forever and you don’t have to see them daily)  loved ones and relish the time together. For my family, add “watch the Dallas Cowboys.” Yeah, yeah… they lost in an exciting come from behind game. You gotta give ‘em credit for trying when their playoff hopes are long gone.

Brain food…

• How to Enchant Your Customer: I rarely link to popular sites and experts, but this one from Guy Kawasaki is a worthy read.
• How to Be an Original in a Blogosophere Polluted with Regurgitations: I’ve covered topics that many others have. One thing I try to do that no one else can… be me without focusing on me as my life is not that interesting.
• Six Dilemmas That Freelancers Face Over the Holidays: I take some time off. I hope you do, too. Gotta give that brain of yours a break and experience joy.
• achieving, without goals: Yes, it’s possible.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Pac-Man Cookie Cutters: Is it me or do these shapes make those cookies look more delish?
• 12 Funniest Misspelled Billboards: Oddee says it best, “Misspelling is not good, but to have it in a super size panel makes it much worse.”
• Butterbeer?! Oh Yes, Friends! Butterbeer!:  Sugarbear’s recipe looks simpler than some of the others posted. I must just try this. I wonder how using sugar free cream soda compares.

Tell us about your Thanksgiving.

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I’ve been watching CaptionFish for weeks eagerly waiting for a local theater to carry Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 with rear window captioning. I have been Harry Potter movies right when they came out and without captions, but I’d rather go once and get the full experience. Daughter did catch the midnight show and reported when she got home: “I’m home. It was amazing. Good night.”

First the Texas Rangers make it all the way to the World Series and wins one game. Now FC Dallas, a team in the original sport known as football (soccer in only the U.S.), heads to its first-ever Major League Soccer Cup final! I guess the other Dallas-area sports teams are trying to make up for the Dallas Cowboys’ embarrassing season. (Oh, and the Cowboys managed to pull out a win in the first game with Jason Garrett coaching.) Maybe Thanksgiving won’t be Cowboy-less after all.

Brain food…

• Mobile emulators: With more people accessing the Internet on mobile devices, you don’t want to lose opportunities with your website — so you want to test to see how it looks on different devices. Two resources: http://ready.mobi and 10 Excellent Tools for Testing Your Site on Mobile Devices.
• PC Magazine‘s Favorite Blogs 2010: Web Worker Daily made the list! I haven’t written for them in a while; great to have confirmation they’re an amazing resource for telecommuters.
• When it comes to writing, economize: Excellent advice for new and experienced writers.
• Book Blurbs and Interior Design: The Creative Penn shares tips for writing the back blurb and picking the right interior designer for your book.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 12 Coolest Doors: First I’ve seen such unusual doors like these.
• 10 Funniest Windows Errors: Ah, I remember my first computer error that drove me batty: “REENTER?” Now, that may look logical to “re-enter” something… but this was 1984. Without the dash, I read it as “r-ee-nter” (like “renter with a long e) as opposed to “re-enter.” And speaking of old computers and 8-bits…
• Pixel Star Wars: Welcome Back to the 8-Bit Days: Games on the Apple ][+ contained stick-figure style graphics, blocky graphics or text-only a la Zork.
• Joy of Tech on the Beatles: Apple’s website announced that “Tomorrow would be unforgettable.” All it did was announced Beatles available in iTunes. Sorry… that’s not unforgettable.  I guess company forgot we can put our CDs in our computers and transfer the songs to iTunes. (I’ve had Beatles on my MP3 for a long, long time.) C’mon. Aw, dang it. Now company has  me talking about it — bet that’s what it wanted.

Ah, I love Halloween. Costumes, pumpkins, candy corn, the annual neighborhood Halloween party. My youngest carved this pumpkin (of course, with Dad’s help) at his scout camp out. Goes to show you how he and my older son are different. The older son — camp out and all around the same age — did skull and crossbones.

The pumpkin I am most proud of is Snoopy. OK, I cheated and used a template. Still, I was amazed how well it worked and how accurate it looked. I do love Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. In fact, my lawn has the Great Pumpkin decoration along with two signs, one with Charlie Brown and the other with Snoopy. Got my Snoopy Halloween sweatshirt on and my Peanuts Halloween shirt underneath. (First chilly morning.)

Brain food…

• 10 Tips and Tricks for Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page: Excellent article that even shows you how to hide a page from non-fans to encourage them to “Like” to reveal what’s behind the curtain. [Link: Cathy Larkin]
• Facebook Marketing: The Busy Person’s Cheat Sheet: Demographics! How to reveal a tab AFTER people “Like” your page.
• The 1 Degree Difference: Powerful post that uses great examples to show how one little degree makes a difference. [Link: Joshua Johnson]
• Libel threat a good reason to moderate comments: It’s not that bloggers are afraid you’ll say something negative about their posts — they have to protect themselves especially when people say something about someone else.
• 15 Killer Google Chrome Features You Might Not Know About: I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t know about most of them.
• Why It’s Time to Say Good-Bye to Free Wi-Fi: Scary stuff. Scarier than the most haunted house on Halloween.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 26 Sexy Halloween Costumes That Shouldn’t Exist: Seriously right… (No nudity or anything, but probably best not to view in an office or around young’uns.) [Link: Diana Adams]
• Pumpkin Wrecks from Cake Wrecks: This is the kind of site I wish I had thought of. I love cakes, but I am not a baker. Best of both worlds.
• 200 Pumpkin Carvings:  Simpsons, video games, Star Wars and much more.
• The Many Variety of Beers: Not a fan of ale, lagers or any of that. But a fan of this chart.

Share a favorite Halloween or Jack O’Lantern memory.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans