Archive for November, 2007
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Have you ever tasted your own foot? Doesn’t taste very good does it. No matter how much scrubbing, and exfoliating, and moisturizing, and soaking in bath salts you do it is still just a smelly foot. The same thing is true with what you write. The difference is that with writing you can turn it into a beautiful gem, an inspired piece of literature. A foot will always be a foot. Stinky, ugly, and foul.
- Write a letter
- If I had $1.00 each time I read something devoid of life and personality I’d be rich. Not technical manuals on how to set a VCR clock, or how to replace your brake pads. I’m talking about other blogs, even this blog!
Why does this happen? Because we write for our readers. We write in a way that forces them to take possession of our writing. We beat them over the head with it saying “You wanted it? Well you’ve got it!”.
Instead write a letter to your readers. You want your readers to feel cozy. Like a friend who just came in out of sub-freezing temperatures to sit down with us for while. Letters are cozy. You want your articles to be cozy.
- Write like a child
- The Bible says, But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Luke 18:16) Basically it is saying to come as a child. In wonder and awe. With a sense of amazement.
Write in the same way. Like a child. Why? Because, if people wanted to read a technical manual they’d buy a new computer. People read blogs because they are enjoyable, quick, and easy. I see blogs out there with awesome content, are right on the money about everything but the stuffy air of authority makes you not want to go back
How does one write like a child? Here are a few pointers:
- Limit your vocabulary - Search for and use the simplest words that get your meaning across
- Ask questions - Kids ask lots of questions because they don’t know everything. Copy them because you don’t either AND because it invites participation.
- Know when to shut up - All kids know when to shut their mouths. They don’t always do it but they know. You on the other hand should not only know when to cut the writing short, but also be merciless in doing so.
- Write everyday
- Name one person who is good at something without practice. Anyone? I’ll save you the trouble. It can’t be done. People get good at what they do because of practice. Natural talent helps, but only doing makes you better.
Writing is the same thing. To get good at writing, write! Everyday. Write on a variety of topics. Some you’ll use others you won’t. The exercise isn’t about pumping articles out it’s about writing for the sake of writing.
- Be brutal
- The fiercest critic of your writing should be you. In the old days, back when people used pens and pencils, writers (and teachers) were infamous for making their draft/students pages look like they were bleeding. Not really, but they relied so heavily on red ink pens for editing purposes that the paper would often be overrun with red lines. Prune it down to the bare minimum. Your best written articles will come when you take a minimalist approach.
Posted in Writing | 11 Comments »
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
I was reading the news this evening and came across
this article talking about Wael Abbas’s Youtube account being suspended. If you’ve watched his videos I doubt there will be any question that they violated
YouTube’s community guidelines with content that:
- Shows bad stuff like animal abuse, drug abuse, or bomb making
- Is graphic or depicts gratuitous violence
- Is meant to shock people
Should YouTube have disabled his account? Did they do morally right by protecting site viewers from his videos or did they simply advocate torture?
- Social responsibility
- I for one believe we, not as bloggers, or netizens, but simply as people have a responsibility to society. We’re supposed to work at making the world a better place. At least that’s my opinion. Needless to say it really makes no sense whatsoever when a company such as YouTube which has the infastructure to show these things for all the world to see refuses to do so because it might offend someone. Might be seen by a child. How easy it is to turn a blind eye to things when it doesn’t affect us. That reminds me of a poem. First they came: By Pastor Martin Niemöller
- What can we do?
- There are a few things we can do. For one we can petition against YouTube (though I doubt that would help due to the technicality of the policy violations), or we could offer Mr. Abbas guest posting chances on our various blogs a few times a month so his videos will keep being seen. Yes they could be seen if he just hosts them on his own blog, but this would make for a wider audience than he could get with just his blog.
Does anyone feel motivated to do anything to help him get his message out? I’m thinking some guest posts on various blogs around the world wouldn’t hurt… I’ll make the offer, Mr. Wael Abbas are you interested?
Posted in News and Politics | No Comments »
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
This is part one in a three part series that discusses community building. Part 2 and Part 3 will be posted over the course of the next 3 to 4 days.
What is a community? Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines a community as 1: a unified body of individuals…. There’s more to the definition but those five words sum it up very well. It’s great that we know what, but really what we all need to learn is how. How to build a community.
- Network
- Common sense? As the saying goes common sense isn’t always so common. You need to get out there and network.
- How:
- Show your ugly mug (or avatar) all over the place.
- A) Comment on blogs
- B) Post in forums
- C) Signatures in your emails
- D) Answer questions on Yahoo! Answers
- E) Create profiles on social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Squidoo, and others
- F) Join other communities
Wait! Before you go off joining communities you need to read this next part… Join communities you have something in common with! Why? Because in order for this to work you’ll need to actually participate in other communities. If you don’t why would anyone participate in yours?
- Where:
- Anywhere and everywhere you can manage. Sounds like great advice, right? Wrong! Be selective about the communities you join, and where you start plastering yourself all over. Frequent places that are in the same or similar niches you are. That doesn’t mean don’t go elsewhere at all, but spend 80% of your effort in places that will relate to your content.
- When:
- From the very beginning. Even better, before you ever get started. To get a headstart you should spend time at places where you’ve long been integrated into the overall community. Web forums are great for this! Certainly the longer you do it the more you’ll see your efforts paying off.
- Why:
- The short answer is you network because it gets you something in return. The long answer is similar except it explains why a little bit better. You network because it:
- A) Lays a foundation for your communities growth
- B) Provides a stream of future growth
- C) Gets you familiar with them and they with you
- D) Builds trust in your name
How important do you believe networking is in the effort to build a community?
Parts 2 (participation) and 3 (management) will be published soon. Instead of risking missing out on those posts why not subscribe to A Blog about Nothing’s Full RSS feed or the Email Feed and we’ll deliver the articles directly into your email inbox!
Posted in Blogging, Community Series | 6 Comments »
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
In recent days I’ve become a more
active member of Stumble Upon. Essentially what that seems to mean is that for some very strange reason people want to be “friends” with me and that I get a lot of stumbles “just because”. Mind you I’m in no way complaining about it I’m just a little surprised is all. Pleasantly surprised.
I wouldn’t say I’m a star stumbler, or even a 5th string farm league rookie stumbler by any means but I have learned a few tricks along the way. So before I go any further I’d like to acknowledge a few of the people who taught me so much about Stumble Upon via various articles.
No doubt I could continue on with several more articles but those are a few of the main ones that come to mind. I encourage everyone and anyone to read them at least once. Needless to say I read those and many other articles and began to slowly employ some of the principals taught in them. Which leads me up to my point. Why I stumble YOUR articles (or not).
- It interests me
- You’d think that this would go without saying, but I have a feeling it doesn’t. If your article doesn’t interest me at some level I’m not likely to stumble it just because I happen to read it. Something will need to compel me to stumble it.
- You’re one of my “friends”
- On a daily basis receive requests from my SU friends to stumble their content. Not everyone gets stumbled as I do actually read the article in question and I value my so-called reputation enough not just to whore it out anymore. Yes I used to participate in a lot of “stumble exchange” traffic scheme websites. That was before I knew that building a strong community of fans is really the only way to go.
- I learn something new from it
- For me this is a huge reason I stumble. Because it tells me about something I didn’t know about before. You’d think that I would do nothing but stumble my time away however if it doesn’t interest me while teaching me there’s no point in me stumbling it. Sadly this is the case with most articles I read. I learn something new, but it really wasn’t something I wanted to learn or enjoyed learning. It was boring.
- It’s in the “What’s New” section of Stumble Upon
- A few times a day I will stumble things in the “What’s new” section. Just the first 5 or 6, but these I don’t worry to much about if they interest me or not. I simply read the article, write a review and stumble it. No more, no less
There you have it. Four reasons I will stumble your articles. This isn’t an all inclusive list, but it is the four main reasons I stumble sites. Very quicly let’s break it down.
- Make it interesting
- Be my friend (please!)
- Teach me something
- Catch me at the “right time”
Why do YOU stumble articles?
Posted in Blogging | 18 Comments »
