For my favorite web searches that lead to my blog…
1. how to put on a protective cup for fencing
2. constantly irritated depressed bitchy
3. tired of feeling sad and unmotivated, just want to eat and sleep
4. massage sitz bones
5. coffee mugs with pile of poop in bottom of cup
6. children floating poop
7. groggy irritable tense impatient
8. funny commercial treadmill routine
I mean, what the – ?
Isn’t it funny how 68 degrees in July feels refreshing, while 68 degrees in September feels frigid? It’s cool and rainy today. My mom is visiting next week and if this cooler weather keeps up I may need to actually turn my furnace on to keep her tiny body from dropping into hypothermia.
It’s a perfect afternoon for snuggling up in my chair to read a book – though I should be picking up clutter in my living room (those damn ‘shoulds!’). I cracked open a book my friend recently gave me, Writers On Writing. In the introduction, John Darnton writes about the day he discovered a helpful technique for tackling a large writing project:
“One day I complained to a friend…that the work was going slowly, that I had been writing only a thousand words a day. He sat up like a bolt, downed his scotch and peered at me through a cloud of cigarette smoke. “One thousand words a day! That’s terrific! Don’t you realize? That’s thirty thousand words a month. Three, four months and you’ve got a book.’ I did the math; he was right. I set my computer so that I could knock off the moment I hit a thousand words. The device worked. A momentous task had been cut down to bite sizes. No longer was I laboring to climb a mountain while staring at the snow-covered peak far above; instead I was climbing a single slope day after day until one day I would arrive at the summit. And one day I did.â€
This is a concept I’m very familiar with in theory, but I often forget to execute. And not just with writing, either. It’s a Flylady thing to tackle household projects 15 minutes at a time, or an hour at a time, yet I still avoid starting something unless I have all day to devote it. And therefore nothing gets done.
I love to write. I love to practice writing. But sometimes I obsess over writing so much that I ignore my home and my family. Granted, we writers must write when the inspiration hits, but even in that I have set up tools to accommodate both my busy life AND my random idea spurts. I modified Anne Lamott’s tool of carrying index cards with her wherever she goes, and began to carry a small booklet that fits into even my smallest purse. I can collect my thoughts as they come (and they hit me in odd places, like in the bath tub, while driving the car, or sitting in a bar) and expand on them later at my computer. My Blogher friend, Amy, wrote about our books here.
But as much as I hear writers saying it’s important to write every day, I’ve never heard anyone define HOW MUCH they write each day. So I went back and did word counts for all my more significant, thoughtful posts, and found most of them to be right around 500 words. Do I have time to write 500 words a day? Maybe not as coherent blog posts, but I may certainly be able to free-write 500 words on a theme to flush out the structure for a book idea I have.
Hmmm… I’ll try it for a week and see how it goes. Though next week is network television’s premier week, so maybe the timing is bad….
Jen the Doula, one of the gals I had lunch with at Blogher, started blogging again. Her website is beautiful and her writing is amazing. You should check it out!
Pierce Pettis
Pierce has headlined the last couple of years at the music festival/camping trip we take annually in the San Juan Islands. If you feel like sipping a glass of wine on a cloudy day, check out some of his music. His voice is soothing, he’s a great storyteller, and his combination of interesting guitar chords is amazing. Every year at the festival he teaches a workshop on alternate guitar tunings. He’s also a hilarious rambler between songs, which I captured in this short video at the festival.
One Change
I met Mollie, the editor of One Change, at BlogHer. The tagline of her site is “Making One Change at a Time,” and I instantly knew I had to bookmark the site. It’s all about making changes to live a greener, more organic, more environmentally friendly life. I liked her One Change mentality because I was just recently having a discussion with a friend about how ridiculous I felt paying $5 for a gallon of organic milk when nothing else I bought was organic. In my mind I felt my commitment to organic living had to be all or nothing, or else I was a hypocrite. Even though she is totally hard core about her lifestyle, I don’t sense any judgement in the tone of her writing, even when it comes to the waste and excess of conferences. I especially liked her article on Mowing Your Lawn because Bryan and I get into at least one fight each summer over the reel mower we own (I love it, he hates it). She also has a great article on reducing waste by becoming more content – a thoughtful and convicting piece about what our stuff does to us, both personally and as a People.
Spell with Flickr
I don’t know what this is, exactly, or how it works, but it’s pretty fun to play around with! Just type in a word or phrase and it generates some pretty cool images. Here’s my name. Every time you refresh the screen the letters change.
Illustration Friday
I found this site through Secret Agent Josephine, and it’s really cool if you like to browse art, or if you’re an artist looking for somewhere to show your work. Each week a different theme is chosen, and artists then submit their works of art interpreting that theme. I had considered submitting a photo or two, but it looks like they limit submissions to illustrations. Hense the illustrationfriday title, I suppose. I’m slow to catch on, but I get there eventually.
Hey everybody! Today my stat counter tells me I’ve had over 10,000 visitors to this site in the last year! Can you say, “super DUPER cool”?
To honor the event I’ve added a search bar to the right, a little trick I learned in a workshop at BlogHer. Bryan was WAY turned on by my technical prowess, which may get me a little ‘link love’ tonight if you know what I mean….
There was much discussion at BlogHer around the community of the blogging world, built largely through commenting on other sites, responding to comments on your own sites, linking to one another, and so forth.
One question I forgot to ask in the many sessions I attended was regarding comment etiquette. When someone new (or regular, for that matter) comments, is it best to acknowledge or respond to that comment within the comments of that post? Or is it more appropriate to send that person an email response? Or both?
I guess the reason I’m asking is, when you comment on a post, do you typically go back to that post at a later time to see how the conversation has continued? Or do you comment and move on?
It’s a funny thing about me – you could have put me in front of a microphone on stage to address all 400 people at Blogher today and I would have stunned you with my articulate genius. I commented freely and confidently in all the sessions I attended. But I couldn’t even manage to introduce myself to the gal I sat next to at lunch today.
Strange, but true. I am an awkward social networker.
Sadly, after said lunch mate turned out to be the session leader for the Ten Types of Web Writing session I attended, I realized I missed out on conversation with a truly hilarious and witty woman.
Oh well, I DID talk to a stranger at the airport, so there is progress in my social networking awkwardness.
On another note, there are two things I would never want to be perceived as. One, is a tourist – I will go to great lengths to look like a local when traveling.
Two, is a fan-girl. I’m not really into celebrity. I’d much rather chase fire engines for excitement. But when I saw Heather Armstrong across the room – in real life – my reflexes kicked in and my arm shot out in front of me with camera in hand. The picture nearly snapped itself.
It was an exciting, information-filled day, and I’m very grateful to be here. I will get a decent night’s sleep and try to be less awkward tomorrow!
[live blogging – please excuse typos, grammar, and lack of links]
10 Types of Web Writing: And how to execute them professionally. Lisa Stone and Lynne D. Johnson walk you through everything from short-form sign post blogging to long-form essay blogging.
Lynn Johnson
Fastcompany.com editor
Lynndjohnson.com
Lisa Stone
Hard print writer & editor
– – –
Conversationswithdina.com – engaging readers in conversation, dialogue
“I write because I want to, I can, and I must†crossleft.org
Ten types of web writing
1. readers
2. presentation
3. word choice
4. conversations
5. headines
6. attribution
7. link blogging
8. essay blogging
9. question and answer
10. reviews and how-tos
First four most change in mindset from print – when a reader picks up a magazine, they know what to expect. When they find your blog, they don’t know who you are or what you’re about.
The words we write today have more impact than ever before because of internet media.
Is wrting for the web an art or a science? BOTH
Are… our words are our identity online
Science…
READER
How effective a writer are you? Ask someone in your audience.
PRESENTATION
How does it look on the page?
How connecting with the reader visually?
Down drown your blog in text!!!
WORD CHOICE – even in headlines
“funny ha-ha or funny peculiar?†–betsy devine
Clarity
Professionalism
Voice
Punctuation
Profanity – to swear or not to swear?
Buzz
CONVERSATIONS
Do you want to have one or not?
How important are the conversations to you?
Open comments or closed comments?
Verymom.com
Closed comments isn’t really a blog, it’s publishing, or content-provider
… or is it? Much discussion.
Exchange of ideas
HEADLINES
Clear
Interesting
ESSAY BLOGGING
Some do not have comments, use more as a publishing tool
Academic
Storytelling
Story arc
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Mommybloggers.com
REVIEWS AND HOW-TOs
Format
Lots of white space
BUZZ
Use of celebrity names, subtle, not contrived
[Live Blogging – please excuse typos, grammar, and lack of linking]
Audience Building
Elise Bauer talks traffic: how to build it, how to understand your site statistics, how to optimize your site to build search engine traffic, how to use syndication and subscriptions to build recurring traffic…the works!
– – –
These are the opinions of Elise Bauer, and things that have worked for her, not ‘shoulds.’
3 Major pillars for building traffic
– content
-community
-technology
CONTENT should be…
Useful (most important)
Entertaining
Timely
… or all three.
Usability gives your site legs – makes it an asset
Think about where your skills are, and how they can be used
Tips on content…
Focus on a topic so a community can develop around that shared interest
Post frequently, but not at the expense of quality. Must be compelling, interesting, well written.
Use images & photos – helps break up monotony of text on a page
Write well – concise. Long rambling posts hard to follow. Short paragraphs, short posts, etc.
Headlines – witty and entertaining, or use good google search terms
Be excellent at what you do/know.
Must be passionate about your topic, so that it compels you to do/be well
COMMUNITY
Link out to other bloggers – blog rolls, in posts. Connect with others who share your interests.
Leave comments on other blogs – participate in community. We all love comments!
Plan/join online events. (i.e. blog carnivals)
Contribute to the community
How to find your blog?
1. from someone else’s website
2. search engine
3. bookmarks from repeat visitors (update url changes or you’ll lose these)
4. newsfeeds (bloglines, etc)
5. del.icio.us, technorati, or other tagging tool
6. press
7. someone forwarded your url to someone else (can build that in to each post through wordpress)
PAGE RANK – what contributes
1. links from other sites
2. text based content (not flash or images)
3. links from high page ranked sites
4. use of keywords in title or text
5. good html structure (header tags, etc) – better to put something in a header tag than a bold tag
what detracts?
1. links to link-farms, spam sites, or pages with spam in it anywhere.
2. 404 errors – links that go to pages that don’t exist
SITE DESIGN
Image size (under 15.5k)
Page length and size (under 100k – including images)
Readable font size on many different platforms and browsers
Reduce clutter
Avoid colored backgrounds – black print on white ideal
Eye-tracking study (focus on upper left corner)
Search bars so people can find content – don’t assume people are only interested in the front page.
Categories – make content easy to find
Screen resolution – 800 x 600
Make it easy for dial-up users!
RSS
Google.com – personalized google
Adding tool for people to add your feed
Feed readers
**Feedburner – can publish your feed, offers statistics of what content people are clicking on
**Feedblitz – allow you to publish feed as an email, for less technical savvy people who would rather get an email.
PROMOTE YOUR FEED
Add buttons: google, yahoo, bloglines, etc
Tags: technorati, del.icio.us, flickr
**claim your blog in technorati and start using tags
MEASURING SITE TRAFFIC
Visitors
Page views
Referrals
Search engine bots represent 5-15% of your numbers
What stats to care about?
# subscribers
# visitors
Page views
Who is linking to you?
I had attempted to live blog by posting notes after each session, but my web site’s hosting company aparantly had a power outage that rendered my site down all afternoon.
Which is a bummer, since I’m all about instant gratification.
So if I can manage to keep an internet connection, I will now post some notes.
[Live Blogging – Please excuse type and grammar errors and lack of links!]
Day One: So, you have this crazy idea…
You want to start a community-based blog site, but aren’t sure where to start. Melanie Morgan, Nancy White, Susannah Gardner & Lauren Gelman are among those who will help you examine what’s out there, define what you can do differently, and create a plan to develop content, promote your efforts and watch your back.
—
Nancy the chocoholic: Brought chocolate to share – Community is giving to others without expecting anything in return!
Only one person in the room didn’t have a blog
How many people involved in community through blogs?
Laurn Gelmen – community blog re women’s issues within male-dominated law school
Starting a community blog: focus the site – i.e. is somebody else already doing it or are you providing a unique voice? For instance, many women’s issues blogs, but are there any community blogs for women in law school? This is more specific.
Discussed how they can leverage their blog to make a difference for women within the law profession.
Melanie Morgan – New Media Collective
Social network for people of color in digital media marketing – SPECIFIC ISSUE
Susannah Gardner
Constantly renewing community because people come in to connect, get what they need, then they move on.
Networking and facilitating connections.
Nancy White
March of Dimes – Share your story: families with babies in neonatal intensive care
Largely non-bloggers who started to blog through this community
Had to learn and become internet savvy – i.e. not a good idea to post cute pictures of your naked toddler
Patterns in blog communities
1. One blog/one blogger – through allowing comments, these bloggers often are the bridge for others to find their voice and begin their own blogs
2. Boundaried Community – inviting in other voices
3. Central Connecting topic/group – intersection of blogs
What is the social interaction? Who controls the tools? That person/group holds the power.
Topics – of small groups
1. Getting the crazy idea – how do I develop a community?
2. Tools, tracking, marketing, creating the platform
3. Feeding your community over time
4. keep yourself out of trouble – legal issues
Assignment: capture the best idea you hear to share
—
Small Group #1:
Community blog ideas:
People with illnesses to connect
WHAT’S THE PURPOSE OF THE COMMUNITY?
– for the individual
– for the community
“My blog is a way to get crap off my chest in a public way – I have to own it†– cathy
Blogging vs message board
– Forums, you can pop in and out with comments / less about the individual’s identity, more about the community
– Blogging needs to be sustained / more about identity
Talk to the potential community about what THEY want
Purpose may change over time
Being responsive to each other is the value that drives the community – comments important
Use of surveys – Masterful question writers can get good survey results – need to know how to ask the right questions
Ideas: Skype-casts first Friday of the month for community participants
Meme’s draw community in, like “day in the life†from papernapkin.com
– – –
[updated for second group]
Small Group #4
concerns for sites with other people publishing on it –
– copywrite – make someone on your site in charge of copywrite violation information (i.e. an email to send information re the infringement so it can be investigated)
– porn
– libel
What is your site? More like a newspaper (liable for content), or like Yahoo (not liable for content)
Key words for libel (when you write) /slander (when you speak)
-say something that can be proven factually inaccurate = libel (saying joe is gay (libel), vs joe is an asshole (not libel))
– must prove that what is said is false
– possible okay phrases “in my opinion†“I think†– but you can still get in trouble if you say, “I think joe is gay.â€
– different test for a public figure: not only prove it was a false statement, but that you KNEW it was a false statement and that it harmed them.
Regarding a grassroots rally for a cause to make change (i.e. pressuring insurance companies to change policy) – posting an email address or business address for sending correspondence is okay, as long as you are not encouraging assault or libel.
So I’m standing at the gate at the Seattle airport letting my kids run around a bit before strapping them in for a two hour flight, when a guy appears next to me and I INSTANTLY know who he is.
“Excuse me,†I say. “Are you married someone named Amanda?â€
I think he freaks out a little, though I didn’t actually see it because I had to chase after Thomas. I don’t blame him for freaking out, because he’s not even in his home town and who in the world would recognize him in Seattle, right?
I return from the chase. “I read your wife’s blog and recognized you from her pictures.â€
We were both totally floored by the chance meeting, and I’m glad we got to talk.
This year’s theme for Blogher is ‘How Has Your Blog Changed Your World,†and one way it has changed mine is to expand it. Here I was, talking to someone who was otherwise a total stranger, but sharing the blog-o-spere with his wife connected us.
And I don’t talk to strangers, so it was a big deal for me.
Day 1
I think I’ll attend this workshop on community-based blogs. I’m very invested in my offline community, and I’m interested in the discussion of creating online communities. Also, I follow Nancy White’s blog, and was even linked by her when I posted my Year of Melodic Shouting video. Her comments on that post really got me thinking about what effects the strength of my offline community has on my attachment to participating in online communities. Do they work together? Do they detract from one another?
For the second workshop I think I’ll attend this and this. I’m definitely interested in understanding my traffic statistics, especially since I get a lot of traffic from Google searches. I’m also interested in building a greater audience, but TRYING to build an audience seems so contrived, so I’m anxious to hear what Elise has to say. And the writing workshop is perfect because much of what I publish on my blog is essentially a way for me to practice the craft of writing.
For the third workshop I definitely want to attend this session on video blogging because, as you may have noticed, I’ve been doing it a lot lately. As for the other workshop, I can’t decide between this session on design customization, or this session on tagging tools. I’m leaning more toward the first – any suggestions?
Day 2
I was thinking about attending this session on identity obligations because, though I’m a Christian, I’m very intentional about keeping my writing personal rather than preachy. But then, I just don’t think I can miss this discussion on Mommy blogging. Am I a mommy blogger? Though I do write about my experiences as a parent, I feel I want to be known for much more than “just” a mommy blogger. But why? What’s wrong with being seen as a mommy blogger? And why do moms so often search for something “more” than being a mom?
Again, a tough choice for session 2. I’m intrigued by this session on sex because, for cryin’ out loud, I haven’t talked about EVERYTHING on my blog yet. But I may attend this session because I blab about ALL my issues quite frankly, AND I have co-dependent tendencies, and it just seems like a good idea to hear some of these stories. Any thoughts?
And finally, for session 3, I plan to attend this session on getting naked because, well, I’m pretty naked. Pros? Cons? Plus, my friend Maryam is on the panel!
If you have any input, I would appreciate it, particularly because I’m doing a rush job of researching all this and my brain hurts from thinking too much. I’m hoping I will have the energy to blog my thoughts about each session at some point during the weekend.
A couple months ago when registration opened for Blogher, I really wanted to go, but knowing it came the weekend following our camping trip, and because I was still feeling overwhelmed by the simple things at the time, I didn’t think I could handle back to back trips.
Enter my friend, Ponzi, who sent word out to our Divas book club last week that she had a couple extra passes for Blogher. I immediately jumped on the chance to attend because at present I am feeling much less overwhelmed (thank you, Ponzi!).
I’m flying down to San Jose with the kids on Thursday to meet Bryan, who works onsite at Stanford Hospital eight days out of the month, and he plans to entertain the boogers while I hang with the ladies!
After reading this article about how many are preparing for the trip, I started to feel a bit nervous that the only thing I’ve really done to prepare is pluck the black whiskers that grow in around my jaw line.
But then again, I did get a late start.
After watching Bryan come home from Gnomedex and Mindcamp with stacks of business cards from people he’d met, I asked if he had time to make me some simple cards with my blog address and cell number to exchange with ladies that I meet.
He said he’d try, but no promises. (Just between you and me, I knew he would do it because he believes in the power of networking. But I let him think he was dangling me in uncertainty).
I’m so excited at what he created! Here’s the front…
And here’s the back…
The cartoon design is by a guy named Hugh at gapingvoid.com. He creates these funny designs in his spare time, and funds the website by selling Stormhoek wine. So buy some wine!
After I peruse the schedule a bit, I’ll post which seminars I plan to attend.
I just took a break from cleaning to catch up on a few blog reads. The short break turned into a long break, and now I have many rabbit-trail links open that I really don’t have time to follow up on now.
Sigh.
It’s ironic to me that as much as I HATE reading stuff on the computer (I used to print out all my emails and documents to read them), I LOVE reading blogs and following links and finding new people and interesting resources. But after awhile I find myself going cross-eyed and skimming too quickly.
I’ve tried using a “readthis” tag in my del.isio.us account, but the problem there is I forget to open that website to read what I’ve tagged! Also, I have a lot of blogs and sites running through my Bloglines feed reader, but many of them are stacked to the max with entries waiting to be read. I just can’t keep up.
Do you read lots of blogs? Do you like to follow links? How do you filter through which blogs you continue to follow and which ones you just check out a couple times?
Linked below are some of the rabbit trail links I didn’t have time to read, but maybe posting them here will remind me to look into them later.