Archive for » November, 2008 «

Nov

Have you ever noticed when you’re doing something you love, time flies? In one sense, it’s almost like time stands still. This analogy is often tied to living your passion.

Today’s Lesson

Blogging is that way for me. When I’m engrossed in blogging activities, time speeds by. On days when I think I’ll blog for an hour, before I know it, three or four hours have passed.

Late at night when the house is quiet, and I’m commenting or reading blog posts, my normal bedtime gets overlooked. The hour between midnight and one vanishes, and before I know it, it’s pushing 2 a.m. Morning comes too early.

On days when I’m working behind the scenes of my blog, learning how to do coding, adding or deleting plugins, and/or working on what will eventually become my new theme, time flies. Sometimes I get carried away and my paying job gets put on hold.

When I started blogging I had no idea how much I would enjoy it. I had no idea it would become another passion. Another favorite pastime.

I’m hesitant to call blogging a time suck as I believe it has the possibilities of leading to greater things in life. A business adventure. A stepping stone to bigger and better things. A great way to gain greater name recognition. A form of therapy. A social networking tool.

What do you think?

Today’s Assignment

Do you think blogging is just another time consuming hobby or do you see the possibilities of where it can lead?

Are you like me? When you blog, does time stand still?

How has the time you’ve invested in blogging helped you?

Feel free to share. I’d love to hear how blogging has affected your life.

Photo Credit: steepways’ photostream

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons 62 Comments

Nov

NBOTW – An Explorer Of Life

Barbara Swafford

She started her blog in July and has been busily adding posts on a regular basis. It’s not a blog I get to visit as often as I’d like, but since the first time I landed on it, I added it to my Google Reader, under my category “Blogs To Watch”; knowing it was a great contender for my New Blog Of The Week (NBOTW) series.

After reading the book “Healthy Pleasures” by Robert Ornstein and David Sobel, she summarized part of what she learned in her post titled, 3 Things That Will Make You Happier”. One point was

Little things make you happier than big things

…So enjoy the sunset, that game of tag with a youngster, the parking place right by the front door. These accumulated moments will keep you happier and more satisfied….

Have you ever heard of “making your blog posts sticky?” That’s when your visitors like what they’re reading and stick around to read more. It’s a great tool for blogging and also improves your bounce rate (the lower the number, the better). This author researched this subject and compiled a post of 25 Ways To Make Your Blog Post Sticky”. One item she lists is

Internet readers have the attention span of a kid in a candy store—about 15 seconds on one item before they shift to the next. You gotta grab them early or they’ve teleported over to the next candy counter. That first sentence or two is critical.

She also loves words and enjoys quotes. To share with others what she found, she lists the Best Quotation Sources On The Internet” (complete with links). The last quote she shares in this post is,

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.~~Isaac Asimov

I’m very happy I picked this blog this week as while I was looking for samples of her work, I was able to read a lot of her articles.

Without further ado, the New Blog Of The Week is “Face To The Sun”. The author is Grace, and her tag line reads, “Exploring our relationships with Earth, Life Business, People, Self, and Words”.

Please join me in re-welcoming Grace to the BWAB community.

Hello again, Grace

It’s great to know you.

Photo Credit: James Jordan’s photostream

Category: Archives, New Blog Of The Week 15 Comments

Nov

Twitter – Do You REALLY Care What I’m Doing

Barbara Swafford

A lot of good things have been written about Twitter. It helps to get your blog found, aids in social networking, expands your branding power, etc.

It’s also written that Twitter is another time consuming social networking tool.

Today’s Lesson

I haven’t joined Twitter yet. In fact, I’m rather hesitant about joining.

Here’s my thoughts. I join Twitter and start following a few bloggers and they follow me. Soon, my Twitter community starts to expand. My followers are going to be tweeting me (forgive me if I get the language wrong), maybe asking questions, etc.

If I didn’t answer a person’s question in a timely fashion, would they stop following me?

Would a lack of participation on Twitter affect my reputation in blogosphere?

Although my online presence might increase, would the time spent on Twitter be better spent on my blog, or visiting other blogs?

What if I were to get addicted to Twitter?

What do you think?

Today’s Assignment

If you’re on Twitter, what are its advantages and disadvantages?

When you sign onto to Twitter, it asks “What are you doing?” Do you really care what other bloggers are doing? Or is Twitter another numbers game?

Do you find you’re becoming addicted to Twitter?

If you haven’t joined Twitter yet, what’s stopping you?

I’m looking forward to your answers on this one. They’ll determine whether I join Twitter, or not.

Photo Credit: Geek&Poke’s photostream

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Branding, Networking Tags: Blogging, Branding, networking tool, online presence, Social Networking, Twitter 57 Comments

Nov

You Asked For It – What About My Avatar

Barbara Swafford

When we played the avatar game in the “Are Domain Names Over Rated” post, the consensus was our avatars are easily recognizable in blogosphere, and do become part of our online brand.

In the comment section, both Wendi of Life’s Little Inspirations and Jennifer of Down To Earth Girl had questions regarding avatars (also know as gravatars).

You Asked For It What About My Avatar
Wendi, who uses her photograph, asked:

…But as time goes by, we all change and age…do I keep that picture forever? Just because it is my Brand now?

I can just see me at age 65 with that same picture out there…lol…

” MY Wendi, you are looking GOOD!”

You Asked For It What About My Avatar

Jennifer (Danifer) who uses a graphic for her avatar, went on to add:

…To touch upon what Wendi Kelly said, do you think that if someone changed along the way, that it would throw people off? Or ruin their chances of being identified by those that knew them before? What would be the best way to let everyone know, “Hey, I have a new Avatar – check it out!”?

Having promised the girls we would discuss this further, I’m throwing it out to you.

Today’s Assignment

What do you think? Should we change our avatars as we change/age?

When we do, should be announce it?

Would changing an avatar reduce our online presence or affect our branding?

With this blog being about blogging and many of you asking questions in the comment section, I’ve decided to add this new series named “You Asked For It”. I’ll be taking random questions out of the comment section and throwing the questions out to you, the readers. By doing so, we can better help each other, and the blogger(s) asking the question will have more choices to choose from when determining what will best work for them.

I’m hoping this series becomes a great resource for you, the readers of BWAB.

P.S. If you do not have an avatar/gravatar yet, check out “How To Get and/or Add A Gravatar To Your Post Comments”and claim one for yourself. If you have any problems, please do not hesitate to ask.

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Branding, You Asked For It 40 Comments

Nov

Be Careful What You Wish For

Barbara Swafford

229743691 a54cb052a2 Be Careful What You Wish For

Have you ever said you would like to be a problogger? You know, quit that job for “the man”, blog for a living, only have yourself to answer to and watch the dollars roll in?

I have.

It sounds like a great job. You can pick your own hours. In fact, with a laptop and Wifi you can blog from almost anywhere in the world. You could even blog in your pajamas. Sweet!

I’m sure many of you know who Lorelle VanFossen is. She’s a problogger. She authors three blogs including “Lorelle on WordPress”, writes for other blogs, is on the Woopra team, teaches/speaks at WordPress WordCamp conferences, authored the book“Blogging Tips -What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging”, plus works with schools, businesses and non-profits as a consultant and teacher. She also travels a lot. Within a short period of time she was in Dallas, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Portland Oregon, and Hawaii.

Sounds glamorous, doesn’t it?

Today’s Lesson

The other day I visited Lorelles’ blog and read her post titled “Blog Struggles: I Just Need Two Seconds Of Your Time”.

In this post she describes a typical day in her life. In the second paragraph she says,

My day begins at five in the morning. I used to make time for exercise but more and more my work life creeps into those precious hours of the morning as email, Twitter, Facebook, and all my blog responsibilities demand more and more of my time.

She then goes on to say,

Even as I write this, the guilt of 150 emails still waiting in my inbox, 16 comments that still need an answer, and 6 messages on my voice mail nags me – not to mention the thirty-plus posts I have to publish every week that are slowly getting more and more behind as I feel like I’m chasing my tail.

When we think of blogging professionally it’s often common to only look at the good part. You know, the travels, the notoriety and the money. We don’t look and sometimes don’t know, or see, what goes on behind the scenes. We don’t realize just like other self employed people, the problogger job stays with them 24/7. We don’t see the demands on their time. Nor do we realize how accountable they must be to their audience. Much is expected of a problogger, and even though the fame, fortune and travels look glamorous, when we calculate their hourly wage, they may be making much less than if they worked for “the man”.

After reading Lorelle’s words, I began to wonder. If a person is a problogger, can there be a happy medium? Can you “have it all” and not have to sacrifice the important things in life? And if you do, can you really reach your full potential as a problogger?

Today’s Assignment

Would you like to be a problogger?

Have you thought of the responsibilities it entails?

Can you think of ways a problogger could find balance between work and their life?

Since I’m rethinking if I really want to go the problogger route, your answers are important to me. Please feel free to share.

P.S. When I interviewed Lorelle in July (2008) she shared tons of knowledge. The interview resulted in a nine part series which is recapped in the following post; Interview With Lorelle VanFossen, A Recap Plus A Bonus. Each part is well worth reading.

Photo Credit: Scott Ableman