BlogSpinner - A How-To Guide To Spinning Blogs

I Moved The URL

2006-09-16T10:29:00.000-04:00

I'm unfortunately forgetful, and it appears that it took me nearly a year to post this, but this URL moved twice since the last post. BlogSpinner V2.0, BlogSpinnerV3.0. The latter is the latest version and is a WordPress blog. The theme looks okay some computer screens and purple on others. I plan to change the theme when I have some time, so forgive me until then. Anyway, if you found articles

Keyword Relevance - Pt 6 of Avoiding a Downturn in Blog Traffic, Ad Clicks and Revenue

2005-11-22T18:32:00.000-05:00

(If you have not read the intro to this mini-series of entries, please do so.)Factor 6: Relevancy of keywords in a given blog entry compared to the rest of your blog entries.Your post topics have to be focused, as well as related to each other.[read full entry] Technorati : ad clicks, ad ctr, ad revenue, adsense, blog traffic, blogging, multi-blogs, pro blogging, writing

Controlling Your Individual Post Lengths - Pt 5 of Avoiding a Downturn in Blog Traffic, Ad Clicks and Revenue

2005-11-22T18:29:00.000-05:00

(If you have not read the intro to this mini-series of entries, please do so.)Factor 5: Length of posts.Should you be writing short summaries or lengthy, detailed entries in your blog?[read full entry] Technorati : ad clicks, ad ctr, ad revenue, adsense, blog traffic, blogging, multi-blogs, pro blogging, writing

Avoiding a Downturn in Blog Traffic, Ad Clicks and Revenue Pt 4 - Pinging Your Posts

2005-11-22T17:58:00.000-05:00

(If you have not read the intro to this mini-series of entries, please do so.)Factor 4: Number of blog search engines and directories pinged per post.There's more to acquiring regular traffic than just posting entries to your blog and hoping search spiders come calling.[read full entry] Technorati : ad clicks, ad ctr, ad revenue, adsense, blog traffic, blogging, multi-blogs, pro blogging,

Best Blog Entry Posting Times ?- Pt 3 of Avoiding a Downturn in Blog Traffic, Ad Clicks and Revenue

2005-11-22T17:57:00.000-05:00

(If you have not read the intro to this mini-series of entries, please do so.)Factor 3: Time of day that entries are posted.Time of day that you post seems to matter. Ever wonder why the Australians have more successful bloggers than anywhere else?[read full entry] Technorati : ad clicks, ad ctr,

Daily Post Frequency - Pt 2 of Avoiding a Downturn in Blog Traffic, Ad Clicks and Revenue

2005-11-22T17:54:00.000-05:00

(If you have not read the intro to this mini-series of entries, please do so.)Factor 2: Number of entries posted per day.[read full entry] Technorati : ad clicks, ad ctr, ad revenue, adsense, blog traffic, blogging, multi-blogs, pro blogging, writing

Weekly Posting Frequency - Pt 1 of Avoiding a Downturn in Blog Traffic, Ad Clicks and Revenue

2005-11-22T17:52:00.000-05:00

(If you have not read the intro to this mini-series of entries, please do so.)Factor 1: Number of days per week that entries are posted.[read full entry] Technorati : ad clicks, ad ctr, ad revenue, adsense, blog traffic, blogging, multi-blogs, pro blogging, writing

Avoiding a Downturn in Blog Traffic, Ad Clicks and Revenue Pt 0 - Introduction

2005-11-22T15:19:00.000-05:00

I've been "pro blogging" full-time now for about 5-6 months and have noticed a direct correlation between the amount of traffic, clicks, and ad revenue I get on a particular day and a number of causal factors.[read full entry] Technorati : ad clicks, ad ctr, ad revenue, adsense, blog traffic, blogging, multi-blogs, pro blogging, writing

Google Analytics Accounts Go Beyond Capacity of Servers

2005-11-21T16:04:00.000-05:00

Google probably never realized how in-demand web analytics services would be, especially a free one. For a week now, I've been frustratedly waiting for one of my two Google Analytics web profiles to show some stats, to no avail. One profile does show stats, but they take a few days to show. However, when Google is able to get the server horsepower they need to let people add more profiles (and

How To Re/Search For Your Blogs

2005-11-19T21:05:00.000-05:00

This post discusses some of the tools I use to aid my blogging - not so much in terms of management, but in actual writing and researching content, and creating links.[read full entry] Technorati : blogging, blogs, multi-blogs, pro blogging, rss, web feeds, writing

Converting Blogger.com Posts to Wordpress

2005-11-18T23:27:00.000-05:00

I apologize in advance for the title of this post, as it's a bit misleading. I try to track what my visitors are searching for and I noticed recently that a few have been using the search terms "converting blogger to wordpress. This is just a short post to let you know that it can be done. [read full entry] Technorati : blog management, blogging, cms, movable type,

Tracking Your Website and Blog Visitors Using Google Analytics - A Rundown of Features

2005-11-15T11:10:00.000-05:00

Google recently rolled out their Analytics service free of charge. If you've been hoping for a stats package to track your website or blog site statistics, this just may be what you're looking for. The service is free if you either have a Google AdWords account in good standing, or if your site(s) get less than 5 million pageviews per month. (Ah, that'd be something wouldn't it? In this case,

Correction to BlogFlux LinkLog Service Features - Tracking Outgoing Clicks

2005-11-14T23:39:00.000-05:00

In a recent post, I talked about BlogFlux's new free LinkLog service. Link logging refers to the tracking of the visitors and where the are going when they click on a link on your site, but where the link goes outside of your site. What I said in my last post was that this would be a way to track which ads your visitors are clicking on. Well, I was mistaken.[read full entry] Technorati : ajax, blogging, blogs, javascript, jst, managing blogs,

MultiBlogging Techniques Review Part IV - Is That On My To-Do List Yet? Or 5 Tips For Managing Multiple Blogs

2005-11-11T22:10:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest problems I'm finding is that, as a single-person blog "networker", it's impossible to do everything that needs to be done on a regular, daily basis. If you want to run custom templates and add non-blog web pages, guides, etc., it's nearly impossible to run it all by yourself. And that's just for a single, full-fledged hybrid blog-website. So what if you want to publish several

Moving Your Blogger.com Blog To A New Domain - Preliminary Notes

2005-11-10T15:10:00.000-05:00

The move of the BlogSpinner blog has been an utter pain in the bee-hind. For several weeks, I've been debating with myself what the impact of the move is going to be, and for the most part, there are a lot of negatives:[Read full entry] Technorati : blogger.com, blogging, blogspot, moving a blog,

BlogSpinner Moves to a New Multi-Blog Domain - CountWordula.com

2005-11-10T15:06:00.000-05:00

After much thought, frustration, and implementation, I've finally set up BlogSpinner V2.0 on a new domain. The new domain, CountWordula.com, will also host other blogs about writing, communication/semiotics, literature, and more. Despite the possible high-brow perception, I've selected a playful domain name, courtesy of Dubs and Dash Group, and award-winning "green" advertising and design

Increasing Blog Traffic - 10 Factors Affecting Your Search Engine Rankings

2005-11-07T19:19:00.000-05:00

Warning: This very long blog post is a summary of ongoing research and as such, may be incomplete.New blogs almost always suffer from the same problem: lack of traffic. Of course, traffic decides whether or not a blog succeeds, just like circulation determines the success of a print magazine.So how do you increase web traffic?Web and blog traffic comes from four primary sources:Search engine

8 Simple Reasons To Blog

2005-11-04T23:13:00.000-05:00

If you're reading this blog and wondering whether or not you should start your own blog, ask yourself one question: Why blog? Here are 8 reasons I've collected for why people - myself included - are blogging.Build credentials. Openly display your knowledge on a particular topic, in the hopes of impressing a future boss or a client.Educate people in a particular area of interest, just

MultiBlogging Techniques Review Part III - Using Your Own Blog Search Feature

2005-11-04T12:36:00.000-05:00

One of the things that you may find happening after you've written 40 or 50 posts to a single blog is that you lose track of what you have written. I have a number of blogs for which I'm having trouble remembering what I have or haven't written.I track my blogs in a number of ways, as a redundancy check, including a word processor file listing posted and not-posted entry titles, a spreadsheet

MultiBlogging Techniques Review Part II - Picking the Right Blogging Platform

2005-11-02T02:34:00.000-05:00

During my "vacation" a few weeks ago, I sat down and sketched out ideas and notes for nearly 200 posts for close to 20 blogs. I initially had intended to reduce the number of active blogs I was writing from about 16 down to 8-10. Instead, I realized that with the topics I wanted to cover, I actually had to expand out to close to 20 blogs. That's including the amalgamation of several blogs, and

Chitika and AdSense Tips - Sharing the Ad Revenue Wealth

2005-11-01T22:38:00.000-05:00

If you're running a web forum or any type of blog or website where more than one person is posting content, here's a handy piece of information. I checked with the AdSense team recently about the legitimacy of having more than one AdSense account's ads on the same website. I've been offered a chance to write three combined blogs about RSS + web content syndication, but no revenue. It's not for a

A Review of My MultiBlogging Techniques - The Pen Is Mightier Than the Computer Keyboard

2005-11-01T22:15:00.000-05:00

Recently, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net recently asked his readers what their daily blogging routines were. There are numerous interesting comments posted to the original entry (see link at the end of this post ). Personally, my techniques and rituals are constantly changing to match the fact that I am always trying to refine my blogs and related websites. My personality is also such that I

Professional Blogging - A Review Part II - Time Is One Your Side

2005-10-29T11:11:00.000-04:00

(This is part II. Here is part I.)Essentially, if you want to eventually succeed in blogging, you have to love writing, have to want to do it, regardless of how you feel about your current writing and incoming traffic. If you write often and regularly, preferably daily, your writing will improve - provided you follow the time-honoured processes of becoming a better writer. But without the passion

Professional Blogging - A Review Part I - Don't Give Up

2005-10-29T03:10:00.000-04:00

(Warning: This post contains alternate musings about topics I've very recently already discussed. There is some overlap. I'm presenting this post in two parts.)About a month ago, I read a blog in which the blogger decided to throw in the towel after only a few months. In fact, a few bloggers had given up and decided it wasn't worth the time. The unfortunate thing was that these bloggers were good

Ning.com - More Tools For Blog and Website Publishers: Building Social Networking Applications

2005-10-28T19:35:00.000-04:00

Genius Marc Andreesen, who was credited with the creation of the first Netscape browser, has launched his ning.com, which allows creative types to create social networking software by cloning and tweaking and small selection of "atomic" applications. You simply sign up at ning.com, then request a developer account. It took 3-4 days before I got my account, but I've already started sketching out

Google AdSense E-Book Review

2005-10-25T14:50:00.000-04:00

In my quest to be a knowledgeable and successful blogger and online publisher, I've been scouring websites, forums, and e-newsletters about earning advertising revenue - in particular, via Google AdSense. About a month ago, several of the e-newsletters I was subscribing to then strongly suggested Joel Comm's expanded second edition e-book, "What Google Never Told You About Making Money With

Increasing Your Search Engine Referrals Through Bad Spelling

2005-10-24T21:53:00.000-04:00

After writing several posts over the past few months screaming about bad spelling and bad grammar, I'm doing an about face. All evidence in my research to date suggests that enough search engine queries use mispelled words that it's actually worthwhile spelling your keywords incorrectly at least once early in your posts.Why? Many search engines only index a fragment of a web page. Some index the

Update on Qumana Blogging Client and AdGenta Ad Network

2005-10-22T15:01:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, I wrote a brief "first impressions" review (http://blogspinner.blogspot.com/2005/10/brief-review-of-qumana-blogging-client.html) of the new Qumana blogging client and the corresponding ad network. Since then, Arieanna Foley, Senior Blog Marketing Specialist at Qumana contacted me to let me know all the great things they have planned. She's given me permission to excerpt her email

Can You Earn An Honest Living on the Internet Part III - Information: Just the Facts, Please

2005-10-21T23:11:00.000-04:00

To answer the question in the post title, I say "yes".Bloggers like Darren Rowse (http://www.problogger.net/) have proven it, with solid content and a very generous, helpful spirit that results in high advertising revenue for him. Not to put him on a pedestal, because I doubt he'd like it, but he is living proof that earning a living on the Internet can be done honestly. Jason Calacanis, founder

Changing Blogging Platforms From Blogger.com To WordPress

2005-10-21T02:27:00.000-04:00

It's one thing to move your blog from one domain to another - a relatively easy process that I'll be covering soon in a mini-series of posts - and quite another to change blogging platforms altogether. In trying to merge my 4 cooking blogs into a single WordPress blog, I discovered that little tiny things can trip you up and cause you to waste a few days of frustration.Let me clarify. About a

Can You Earn An Honest Living on the Internet Pt II - Writing E-Books

2005-10-20T14:23:00.000-04:00

Note: I know I'm only glossing over the topics in this mini-series. Any new topics that I gloss over initially, in any of my posts, are likely to be covered in more detail in future posts.Blogging isn't the only way to make money writing on/for the Internet. If you can write intelligently and clearly about popular topics, you may be able to make more money offering an e-book on that topic than if

Page Rank Changes - Did Your Google Page Rank Change?

2005-10-20T02:28:00.000-04:00

For months, I've been researching madly and trying to improve my websites and blogs in the hopes that at least one of them would achieve some sort of Google page rank. Well, Google recently updated pagerank on their database of websites, and I guess I lucked out. Almost all of my blogs and websites (except the newest ones, which I'm still working on) received a PR of between 3 and 5 (compared to

Can You Earn An Honest Living on the Internet Pt I - A Fool And His Net Dollars Are Soon Parted

2005-10-19T17:04:00.000-04:00

For the past year, I've been steadily researching various opportunities for earning an income via the Internet, as well as studying how to increase web traffic. I am far from finished my research, but I have a few conclusions. One conclusion is that the old saying "a fool and his money are soon parted" must hold true on the Internet, or else there wouldn't be so many profitable scams.Scams aside,

Brief Review of Qumana Blogging Client and AdGenta Ad Network

2005-10-18T18:31:00.000-04:00

After reading Darren Rowse's post about the new Qumana blogging client and AdGenta ad network, I thought I'd give them a try. This is only a very brief review which expresses my initial impressions, and supplements what Darren's post says. (He's not using either Qumana or AdGenta, for his own reasons).Right off the bat, I found Qumana's tour clear and easy to navigate through. Sometimes, but not

More on Search Engine Optimization - 5 Steps to Optimizing Your Blog Posts For Higher Search Engine Rankings

2005-10-17T13:00:00.000-04:00

What I'm finding is that as my blog posts are rapidly accumulating, the chances of a new reader finding older articles is reduced, even with the available Google search feature in my blogs. Let's assume for a second that my belief that (most of) my posts are fantastically informative is true. So now I'm worried that new readers won't be able to experience the greatness of my old posts because

Occam's Razor Applied - Or Why Is My Blog Traffic and Ad Impression/Pageview Count Down?

2005-10-15T14:00:00.000-04:00

Occam's Razor is the concept that, often, the simplest answer for a situation is usually the correct one, and that complex reasons are usually unnecessary. I used to be the sort of personality that would constantly hunt for complex answers and reasons when things went awry. In fact, I spent many years intentionally trying to refute that Occam's Razor truly applied to real life. Eventually, after

Search Engine Referral Windfall or Natural Course of Events?

2005-10-14T15:30:00.000-04:00

I lost the original version of this post this morning, when I was about to run for the bus to get to work. This version is off the top of my head...A funny thing happened to me on the way to vacation. While I was spending 2 weeks redesigning and relaunching websites and trying to rethink the focus of my blogs, I didn't post a single entry to any of my blogs. And yet, I still managed to get a

Blogging As Therapy – When Panic Strikes

2005-10-13T23:38:00.000-04:00

Two days ago, just before my return to blogging, panic struck me. I'd taken two weeks "vacation" so that I could spend 16-20 hours a day working on re-launching and launching several websites, amalgamating blogs, creating new ones, and generally planning out my posts. But when it came time to stop drawing new web page designs and start writing, I couldn't do anything. I was frozen. It didn't

Back From Vacation

2005-10-13T13:14:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. I'm back from vacation. (Hey, I still worked 16-20 hours a day on my blogs and websites, so it wasn't really a vacation). I apologize for the batch posting of this message to all of my blogs, but I'm still madly reorganizing my blogs and this is the fastest way for me to communicate with readers... (The most current links to most of my blogs and website projects can always be

Give'em What They Want Pt II - And Now For Something Completely Different: What Are Your Readers Really Searching For? Some Thoughts On Search Terms

2005-09-28T17:42:00.000-04:00

One of things that I learned when I was a search engine webmaster was that people often use unsual search terms. Sometimes they find what they want, or something similar, or something completely different. For example, someone recently used the search term "pics of Elvis and Ginger". My Curry Elvis Cooks blog was mid-way down the first page of results. Despite that it was obvious that my result

BlogSpinner - Writer's Tools - The Writer's Block and The Observation Deck

2005-09-27T18:11:00.000-04:00

If you read this blog because you yourself blog, then no doubt you have your own reasons for blogging. If you're blogging because you love to write, then you're doing it for the right reasons. If you're blogging just to make money, then forget about it. Find some other profession. The truth is, readers will see through you, in your writing. At least, discerning readers will see through you. You

More on the Concept of the Long Tail Phenomenon - Harnessing Your Blog Archives For Revenue

2005-09-26T22:20:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note: I've decided to start posting the less-technical of my NetMetrics blog to BlogSpinner. If I start to get too technical, please feel free to comment or drop me an email.Tristan Louis over at TNL.net wrote a thorough article about how having a large archive of articles and posts on your website or blogsite can pay off in the long-run, particularly if you are running contextual

Kaizen - Bootstrapping Your Blog/Website Redesign One Step At A Time

2005-09-26T00:24:00.000-04:00

I've been taking a break from the blogosphere for the last couple of days because of several new website projects that I'm working on. My websites and blogsites disappoint me visually, but despite my creative abilities, I'm self-taught in the graphic arts. So designing, while I love it, isn't easy for me. For the past few months, I've been throwing out sketch after sketch until I've finally got a

The Best Laid (Blog) Plans Often Go Awry - Plan To Write But Write Your Plan

2005-09-25T01:26:00.000-04:00

Okay, I lied. Last Monday, I posted that I was no longer planning to blog on Sundays because I needed some down time and time to catch up on writing instead of chasing my tail. Well, I lied. Yesterday (Saturday) is usually a half-blogging day, in the evenings, because of my daytime work shift. But I ended up having to work 13 hrs straight without a break because someone was ill. And I had my

The 100th Monkey Syndrome or Why We All Blog About the Same Thing At About the Same Time

2005-09-23T12:29:00.000-04:00

Several years ago, I came across a very thin, small paperback titled "The Hundredth Monkey Syndrome". What I learned there surprised and charmed me enough that I've been writing about it in print for quite some time. This, however, is the first time I've written about it online. Apparently, in the 1950s and 1960s some Japanese scientists/researchers dropped sweet potatoes onto the sandy beaches

Making Your Blog or Website Sticky -- Bringing Back Visitors: Analyze Your Search Engine Queries and Give'em What They Want

2005-09-22T22:00:00.000-04:00

It probably goes without saying that if you are running any type of blog, be it business, personal, educational or what have you, you want readers, lots of readers. If you didn't, you wouldn't be on the Internet. Now I'll admit upfront that most of my current blogs are new, and so the what I'm telling you here comes not from popular blogs (yet :D) but from the experience of being both a former

Joining a Blog Network?: Protect Your Written Words

2005-09-21T11:33:00.000-04:00

With all the blog networks, big and small, popping up lately, I thought that this post would be relevant to would-be network-bloggers.Under the United Nations Copyright Convention (held in Berne, Switzerland in 1972), all UN member nations agreed to follow a certain code of conduct regarding media copyrighting. Back then, most of the rules applied to print media. One very important clause can be

Protecting Your Images, Photos and Graphics

2005-09-20T16:14:00.000-04:00

If you use a free photo/image hosting service such as flickr.com or photos.blogger.com (via Picasa and Hello), the presumption is that you are releasing the image for public use. However, you can still protect the image and release it under a Creative Commons license. Just use your favourite graphics editing package to add in a layer to your image that has your copyright information on it. And

Breaking Out The Riot Gear For A Fun Day of Blogging

2005-09-20T01:02:00.000-04:00

If you're finding yourself having a riot reading or writing blogs, or both, on a regular basis, you may want to break out the "riot" gear: Use a roller mouse to reduce hand strain. If use a computer more than two hours a day, especially while reading web pages in which you have to do a lot of scrolling in your browser, a mouse with a wheel is a very good idea.I also like using a small sketch

Blogging: Never On A Sunday?

2005-09-19T20:09:00.000-04:00

After long, hard thought, I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't blog on Sundays. It's a not a religious thing per se. And I'm not saying that I won't be writing my blogs on Sundays. In fact, that's exactly what I'll be doing. Traditionally, I've made Sundays "my day", where I give myself permission to slack off, to mentally recuperate if I want. And since I am now spending 12-20 hrs/day, 7

Hook Me Up - Linking To Your Old Posts - A Generosity Towards Newer Readers and Another Way to Generate AdSense Revenue

2005-09-18T15:13:00.000-04:00

If you blog regularly and choose appropriate titles for your posts, you'll find that with persistence, you'll start to build a collection of readers. If you write about a narrow range of topics, or even one topic, eventually you'll have posts that are similar to previous. Don't rewrite your old posts. Instead, expand upon them by first linking to them. It gives newer readers a chance to see some

Visibility in the Blogosphere Pt III - Words Are All I've Got

2005-09-17T12:40:00.000-04:00

Every writer should have a number of things on their reference shelf: a dictionary, a book of style, and a thesaurus, amongst other things. Now this was true for traditional print writers. With so much information available on the Internet, you can now find most of this online. The truth remains, however, that if your chosen profession is writing, then your main tool of the trade is the written

Are You Experienced Pt II - More on Combining Blog Posts With PDF Tutorials and Whitepapers - A Cautionary Tale

2005-09-17T01:01:00.000-04:00

In a previous post, I talked about combining your blog posts with PDF tutorials and whitepapers. This is a suggested way of offering your readers indepth information, but only if they want it. If you do combine posts, however, here is a caution that I've learned the hard way.My suggestion is that you write the entire article first, then decide how you want to slice it up. You may want to have one

Some Observations About Establishing Presence In The Blogosphere, SEO, Pinging, and Getting Indexed

2005-09-16T13:03:00.000-04:00

In the quest for getting more readership for my blogs as well as for the ones I'll be hosting for charitable organizations, I've been doing a lot of research into search engines and related topics, including SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Now, let me just mention that I was once a search engine website webmaster. About a decade ago, I was the first official webmaster of a (now-defunct) engine

Some Observations About AdSense Advertising Revenue and Blogging To Earn

2005-09-15T13:10:00.000-04:00

As a stats junkie, I've been tracking my visitors to my website in a limited fashion, as well watching my AdSense stats. I don't want to violate my AdSense terms of service, so I'm not going to get into specifics here. I'm still building up my blogsite(s) traffic, so I cannot come to any concrete conclusions, but I've noticed something interesting to date. It seems that of my three blogs with the

By The Rivers of Babble-On - Or Blogging In Verbose Mode: Blogging To Write, Teach or Earn?

2005-09-15T06:52:00.000-04:00

I know that I'm a talkative person. While I really prefer to listen to other people in a conversation, if you get me started, I'm hard to stop. Which may be the reason I love to write. I write and write. I write on paper. I "write" on my laptop. I even write in my mind, sometimes able to visualize complete short articles in my head. My dreams are full of talking characters. I wake up with words

Are You Experienced? - Using PDF Whitepapers To Supplement Your Blogs

2005-09-14T15:25:00.000-04:00

For those of you that blog about topics that earn you a living, your blog is a great opportunity to prove two things to potential employers (or clients, if you're a freelancer):(1) Your awareness about your field of interest, especially in current events, products, techniques and general industry news.(2) Your indepth knowledge of specific topics.Here's a suggestion: If you're writing a "tips" or

Blogging For Relief and an Update on Zoundry Blog Writer

2005-09-13T12:48:00.000-04:00

In a recent posting, I mentioned how I use Zoundry Blog Writer to manage my multiple blogs. Lawrence Lee, co-founder and President of Zoundry, has just let me know that Blog Writer is in fact free for lite and full versions. With the full version, you can manage multiple blogs, multiple accounts, and multiple blog platforms including Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, WordPress and more. I

To Spell-Check or Not Spell-Check Your Blogs – Or Keeping My Blogging Obsession In Check

2005-09-12T18:21:00.000-04:00

Lately, I’ve noticed that I’m spending longer than usual on editing my blog posts, for fear that I’ll post something that’s poorly written (which may happen anyways). I’m a bit obsessed and very opinionated about not having spelling and typos in published writing. There are many popular blogs that have great content but reek of typos and poor grammar. While a few typos are fine, what about those

Let Your Blogs Write Themselves

2005-09-11T12:55:00.000-04:00

In the last couple of years of writing full-time - unfortunately not always for profit - I've found that, sometimes, stories write themselves. Of course, I'm not saying that your blogs are magically posted to by some Internet leprechaun. Rather, when you have an overview of the blog(s) you're working on, it's easier to see your progress and to be able to review future blog plans. If you write

New Blog Pinger, Blog Directory, and Visitor Tracking Service - BlogFlux

2005-09-10T13:20:00.000-04:00

Since most readers of this blog aren't readers of my GeoPlotting blog, I'm sort of repeating something that I wrote over there yesterday about BlogFlux.BlogFlux is a multi-service site that has a pinging service, a blog directory, a button maker, and more. I haven't tried their pinger because Pingoat not only has more services to ping, but it's blindingly fast. The BlogFlux tool I like is their

Using a Spreadsheet to Plan Your Blogs - Part II

2005-09-09T20:33:00.000-04:00

I know I mentioned using spreadsheets to manage your blog(s) in a previous posting, but this is a supplement to that post.Lately, with the number of blogs I write, I'm finding that if I don't buckle down and extend my planning beyond a list of topics, I end up not doing anything. Even then, it's not always easy, no matter how hard you try, to get your half-written entries finished and posted.

Change Your Writing Perspective

2005-09-08T14:45:00.000-04:00

In yesterday's post, I went on about my fetish for bound sketchbooks and notebooks but didn't explain why I really use them. One writing trick I learned, although the source escapes me, is that when you have a writing block, change your perspective. This means that if you're working at home, go take a walk outside, watch TV, listen to the radio, change the music you're listening to, move

Tools of the Trade or Stationery Fetishists Anonymous

2005-09-07T18:17:00.000-04:00

Hi. My name is Raj, and I have a problem. I'm addicted to stationery: pens, pencils, plastic shape-drawing-thingees, paper, but most especially sketchbooks. The blank pages of a sketch just make me salivate with anticipation of what I can document there. Now, mind you, there's nothing wrong with buying sketchbooks. Except that I have a stack of bound sketchbooks and notebooks literally about 3 ft

The Writing School of Life

2005-09-06T14:29:00.000-04:00

It's an undeniable fact that the more experiences you've had in life, the more you can potentially write about. Actors talk about "method acting", which they do by immersing themselves in a character before filming begins. They literally do nearly everything their character would supposedly do: the food they eat, the way they walk, talk, and react to life. Writers like the recently-deceased (

On Writing Well - Or Strike That Comment

2005-09-05T12:17:00.000-04:00

American writer William Zinsser has written a number of several inspirational books that any ^every^ serious writer (and pro-blogger) should read. While I don't always do what I should, hHis advice has influenced both my fiction and non-fiction my writing more than that of any writer ^considerably^. The most important writing advice I've ever learned came from his book "On Writing Well". I'm

Talk, Talk, It's Only Talk - Or Why I Multi-Blog

2005-09-04T13:17:00.000-04:00

For me, writing has always come easy. Writing well, on the other hand, has been a much longer journey - a road I'm still travelling. Gone Away, a very eloquent blogger, suggested by way of a comment on one my posts, that some of my posts test the boundaries of his technical knowledge. While it's true that I've covered technical topics related to blogging, it was my intent to present such

Managing Your Image Files With Picasa

2005-09-03T01:54:00.000-04:00

If you're like most bloggers and blog readers, you'd probably like to add images and graphics to some or all of your blog posts. So far, the simplest tool I've come across is Picasa. If you have a computer with any of Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, this is a great image file manager. And it allows you to visually scan all of your images, across your entire hard drive, at blinding speeds. If you

Thought Management - Keeping Track of Your Unfinshed Posts

2005-09-02T16:03:00.000-04:00

I just spent the last hour backing up the blog entries from all my blogs. As a result, I discovered that I have approximately 30 incomplete posts for several blogs. Some have been lying dormant for as long as 3 weeks, some just a few days. It's not hard to forget about unfinished business when you write multiple blogs. So what do I do to keep track of which posts need editing? There are a

Mad Skills of An Addicted Blogger

2005-09-01T16:09:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine recently turned 54. E is the quietest person I have ever known. By his own admission, however, he's pretty caustic when it comes to pointing out bad working conditions to his boss. But nevertheless, E is otherwise quiet and likes his privacy. To this day, he doesn't have an answering machine and doesn't plan on getting one. Need I mention that he doesn't have a computer, let

You Say You Want A Revolution - Are Blogs the Evolution of Current Media?

2005-09-01T15:21:00.000-04:00

(Note: I actually wrote this entry before my previous one on CMSes but simply forgot to post it.)When Johannes Gutenberg (aka Johann Gensfleisch) invented his printing press circa 1455, he revolutionized the storage of information, of human history. Now while the Chinese already had a form of printing with blocks, Gutenberg improved upon it, allowing for bulk printing, thus the ability to reach

Oops! Didn't Do My Homework for BlogDay 2005

2005-08-31T17:53:00.000-04:00

I'm embarrassed, but I admit it: I didn't do my homework. Today, Aug 31, is BlogDay 2005, where every blogger is suppose to recommend 5 new blogs. Is that new to me, or just new? Well, I just added at least 60 blogs to my "DAILY READS" bookmarks folder. These blogs are mostly new to me. But I am a skimmer; I peer in on what people are writing, bookmark what interests me, then come back later to

To Manage Content Or Not Manage Content? A CMS Is The Question

2005-08-31T17:13:00.000-04:00

Lately there have been a number of discussions on CMSes (Content Management Systems) at several popular blogs that I read regularly. I would guess that most of these bloggers are saying that they either wouldn't use an OpenSource CMS or would write their own package. My take on software is usually "why waste time reinventing the wheel".As such,I have been evaluating about 10 CMS packages, some

Life Goes On/ Blogging About Disease

2005-08-31T16:31:00.000-04:00

Sorry. I just had to get writing about Hurricane Katrina out of my system. But life does go on, and as a full-time deluded writer, I write both because I want to and because I have to. The fact is, seeing the damage of Katrina made me think that New Orleans looked like a Third World country after a similar devastation. I have lost family members to various types of storms - two uncles in the past

Act of God?

2005-08-31T15:27:00.000-04:00

When I saw on TV the devastation of Katrina, especially in New Orleans, I didn't much feel like blogging yesterday. Yeah, I know that it's crucial for a new blog to stay as visible in the blogosphere as possible, but I was saddened by the loss of life and tried imagining how terrible it must be for so many people left with nothing. Up here in Canada, we recently had a Tornado that ripped through

Where Ya From? - Tracking Visitors

2005-08-29T15:48:00.000-04:00

In case you have no reason to have seen two of my newest blogs, Perl-Tips and GeoPlotting, go have a look if you have any interest in learning how to track where your websit and blogsite visitors are coming from. I'll be posting Perl scripts at Perl-Tips, PHP scripts at PHP-Tips (not available yet), database code at MySQL-Tips (n/a yet), and general geo-plotting and GIS (Geographical Information

Hark, Who Goes There: Determining Who's Visiting Your Website

2005-08-28T04:22:00.000-04:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my hypothesis is that bloggers are generally sociable people. So they probably want to know who is visiting their blogsite. There are a number of free tracking sites, including gVisit, which hacks Google Maps by plotting the (approximate) city that your visitors are coming from. gVisit displays one icon per unique visitor at approximately the city they are from. (I

15 Seconds Of Fame

2005-08-26T19:18:00.000-04:00

Late last week, for a brief, fleeting moment (okay, 3 days), my blogs, especially this one, actually got a few visitors. What the blog/rss search engines and directories haven't really done for me, a single link in Darren Rowse's ProBlogger.net blog did. As part of Darren's "31 Days to Building a Better Blog" project, I submitted a link to the blog you're reading, and Darren linked to me the next

Using a Spreadsheet to Plan Your Blogs

2005-08-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

In a recent entry, I talked about using a Gantt Chart to produce a timeline for multiple blogs. If you do not have MS-Project or do not want to download and install GanttProject, you can also use a spreadsheet, say MS-Excel or Lotus 1-2-3. [Explanations here are given for MS-Excel. 1-2-3 methods are very similar.] If you do not have either, consider the free, OpenSource OpenOffice. This latter

Multi-Blogging Techniques - How To Manage Several Blogs At Once

2005-08-21T03:41:00.000-04:00

You may have found that it's tough coming up with content for one blog on a regular basis. What if you're planning more than one? Currently, I'm actively writing 7 blogs, with 3 more about to launch. It's not easy juggling them. I'm forced to come up with techniques to manage them all. It's a learning process, of course. What works for me may not work for you. (Kudos to those of you that are

Turn Your Life Experiences Into Blogs

2005-08-20T02:11:00.000-04:00

This posting is much more philosophical than my previous postings. I think that there has to be some balance in your blogs...Someone recently asked me why it took me so long to get an official blog (seven, actually) up live. The truth is, I have been recording a digital journal since Jan 2002 - ever since my last full-time programming contract ended. I wrote about whatever topic struck my fancy.

Blogging The Write Way

2005-08-20T00:34:00.000-04:00

If you are a recent blogger and have never had anything else published before you started your blog, the following statement may come as a surprise to you. Writing a blog, or several, professionally is no different than being a professional writer. The only real difference is that you are working for a different medium, and you have to edit your own work.The truth is, blogging is probably better

Using Gantt Charts to Plan Your Blogs

2005-08-18T20:47:00.000-04:00

In a previous entry, I said that planning your blog is worthwile, especially if you plan to blog seriously and want to show your expertise in a certain field. If you do not plan, you will eventually find yourself plodding on, babbling about unrelated topics. As I've said, having a road plan, makes it easier to be motivated to write your blog entries. Instead of struggling trying to come up

HOW TO ROAD-PLAN YOUR BLOG

2005-08-05T12:48:00.000-04:00

Back when I used to be an assistant editor of a local free weekly newspaper, I always surprised my senior editor with how many months in advance I would plan my article series. This urge to plan helped me when I published my own free monthly magazine, Chaos Review (defunct since 1995). On the other hand, planning is something I was not doing for my 7 (and counting) blogs, and it shows in the

WE'RE ALL BLOGS

2005-08-05T12:45:00.000-04:00

Planning on setting up a blog? Why? What's it about? Where is it being hosted (on what web domain?). How frequently are you planning to post new entries? How do you plan to maintain it? Have you answered these questions?There are a growing number of blogs, newsletters, and e-books that would have you believe that anyone can blog. Pick a topic, start blogging. It's that easy. Well, the truth

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG

2005-07-29T13:11:00.000-04:00

In my intro post, I asked the question "what do you blog about?" There are an estimated 16 million blogs and that number is steadily growing. This is an educated guess, but there is no way that each and every blog discusses a unique topic. So let's face it, except with very rare topics, someone is probably already blogging about any topic you can think of. So should you forget about it? Of course

BLOG WHAT YOU KNOW

2005-07-29T12:34:00.000-04:00

Two of the hottest growing trends on the Internet right now are "blogging" and "RSS". If you are reading this, you already have an idea of what blogging is about. (Please see http://rssmarketer.blogspot.com for a blog about RSS.) The word "blog" is short for "weblog" and originally referred to the electronic diaries that some people posted on the Internet a few years back. Now, many businesses