Archive for October, 2008

Blogging During Recess

Published by Eric on October 23, 2008 in Blog Writing and General. 0 Comments

Hi folks, Eric here. I saw this great post on Wired a couple of days ago, and I have been thinking about it a lot. It’s a summary of an interview with Chris Alden, the CEO of Six Apart who make that awesome Movable Type platform, and host Typepad and Vox and are generally on the forefront of new technology. My first blogging platform was Movable Type, and after 6 years of hand-coding even the smallest of changes, I couldn’t believe how much better my relationship with the internet had suddenly become. But I digress…

I will start with my least favorite part of the interview. Kevin Maney claims to have met up with Chris “…over a Belgian Beer….” This made me thirsty and confused, as I had no idea which Belgian beer - they are all so different and I didn’t know which specific beer I should obsess over until the workday was done. Now I will have to sample many to make certain I have the mood just right. But again, I digress…

The general thrust of the interview is that the sputtering economy will lead to a surge in quality and quantity in the blogosphere. Bloggers will certainly start cranking up the quality scale in an effort to assert their personal brand - to show current employers what a smart person they are, and to help potential future employers become more comfortable with hiring them. Also, more undirected time will lead to more time spent creating blog posts (and tweets, and flicks, and bulletins, and shoutcasts, and what we like to call “interactions” etc.).

Seems like a pretty good bet, and after the recent uptick in the corporatization of blogs, I for one look forward to a new potential golden age of blogging (and interactioning).

Then, today, I saw this tremendously encouraging post by Steve Rubel on Micropersuasion (a BlogBurst member, btw). Steve is one of the true pioneers of blogging and was really instrumental (imho) in making sure the mainstream ‘got’ blogging and social media in general. Lately his posts have been a little bleak for me - RSS peaking, blogs may start restricting full feeds - but this post was a nice companion to the thoughts seeded by the other article. As you approach recreating your personal brand for a struggling economy, I think these tenets are non-assailable: Find your core genius, simplify, and be premium.

As for me, I am giving myself two additional pieces of advice. First I think I should focus on listening. My uncle Byron always used to say “you can learn more from listening than you can from talking” (also he said “before you write a book, you should erase one”)(also “it’s easier to apologize than to ask permission”). Second, I’m going to dust off that old homebrewing kit and make me some Belgian beers.

We see what you did there

Published by Dock on October 23, 2008 in Blog Writing and BlogBurst Nuts & Bolts. 4 Comments

Hello from (mostly) sunny Central Texas, where we appear to have broken the back of summer while still maintaining perfectly reasonable temperatures.

I got an email from a Blogburst member recently that took me a bit by surprise. The blogger indicated that he felt like his blog had been ignored by Blogburst and that we had forgotten all about him. When I pulled the blog up I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, in fact, it was a very well regarded blog with a commendable amount of publisher interest. It generated one of those “huh? Are you serious?” kinds of moments until I realized something.

You really have no idea how things are going in Blogburst if you don’t log in every once in a while to check your reporting.

Not to be hideously self-referential, but our Blogger Resource Center does have information on checking out your reports.  This alone will let you know what kind of publisher love you’re getting. Be sure to change the timescales on the right-hand side of the report to get the bigger picture - the “last 7 days” is the default setting but it isn’t the whole enchilada.

The other side of this coin is, well, “what if I’m not getting the publisher attention I used to get?” Yes, this does happen, but mainly it has to do with the news cycle, and your particular blogging topic area. It should be fairly predictable that the finance bloggers are having a field day right about now, as are the political bloggers. If you have a blog about (and I’m making this up, I don’t have anyone in mind) the wonderfulness of high-end SUVs, it is entirely possible that there is a decreased level of interest right now.

Keep in mind that the mainstream media in particular has a track record of focusing on one thing at a time, and you’ll see that they tend to switch to (and cycle through) topics based on the topical strength (or staleness) of a topic area. Chances are, you’ll get your turn in spades - and go through periods of decreased interest as well. Don’t let that change your commitment to topic areas that you find interesting though.

Finally, the best advice I can give regarding keeping publisher interest is this: blog regularly. The editors here really do know who they can count on when the publishers get hungry for a topic, and if you are a reliable source of information, you’ll be at the top of the heap when the news cycle casts its gaze into your area of expertise.

Blog Action Day 2008

Published by Tina on October 14, 2008 in General. 8 Comments

 On Wednesday, October 15th, the blogosphere takes on poverty.

Since 2007, coordinators for the non-profit event Blog Action Day choose a topic of global significance and challenged bloggers to dedicate one post to the subject on a particular day.

Blogburst network members participating in the 2008 Blog Action Day include Techcrunch, Mashable, Teeth Maestro, Dave Lucas’ Notes, White African, RotorBlog.com, Everything and Nothing, PROFY, Ari Herzog, Quick Online Times, Serge the Concierge, eHub, The Savvy Entrepreneur, Interactive Agency Malaysia, Gather Little By Little, Constitutionally Right and Urban Workbench. Did I leave you out? Let me know in the comments section below!

From the organizers:

In 2008, the Blog Action Day theme is Poverty. Bloggers are free to interpret this as they see fit. We invite bloggers to examine poverty from their own blog topics and perspectives, to look at it from the macro and micro, as a global condition and a local issue, and to bring their own ideas, views and opinions on the subject.

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Last year’s focus on the environment resulted in the creation of more than 23,327 articles authored by 20,603 blogs. Not only did the event attract support from organizations such as United Nations Environmental Programme, the European Union Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas,  but it also resulted in topic coverage on mainstream media sites like Reuters, Fox, BBC, and Star Tribune.

Interested in contributing? Visit www.BlogActionDay.org for more information.

So go on.  Blog about it!

Community Building Friday

Published by Tim on October 10, 2008 in Blog Writing. 2 Comments

Hat tip to Beth to sending us a link to Chris Brogan’s great post on 25 Ways to Build Your Community. Twenty-five is a lot of ways, but Chris is clearly passionate about the matter and the lessons in this list are ones we see paying off for people everyday here in BlogBurstLand.

While not everybody has the fortitude to read at least 100 blogs regularly (suggestion #1), one’s reach should exceed one’s grasp, and many of the suggestions here are very attainable.

I encourage you to read the original post, but if I had to boil down the principles espoused here I’d say they are:

  • care about what you write, take care to write well, don’t be snotty, and top it off with a good headline
  • link to other people and posts and promote other people’s work; trust the great karma boomerang
  • use the tools at your disposal: comments, Twitter, live meetups, whatever you got
  • think ahead, use strategy

Considering the fact that Chris has pages of comments on his post already, it seems to be working for him.

Gadgetopolis

Published by Eric on October 3, 2008 in General. 0 Comments

Hello friends, Eric here. I recently inherited the gadget beat here at BlogBurst. It’s a good fit for me — I had an iPhone on Day 2, I have Wiis and Zooms and Cameras, Bluetooth is my buddy, WiFi is my friend. I’ve gone to CES twice. I went to the Gadgetopia that is Japan this summer (with my band!). Heck, I even have (and love) a Kindle.

Ah, but the gadget beat is cruel. I have a perfectly wonderful bicycle - strong enough to hop a curb, light enough to get me all over town. Why oh why should i suddenly be coveting a Mountain Bike made of Bamboo? I have fought and clawed to erase the last decade of questionable fiscal policy from my monthly credit card statement, only to start filling my delicious account with links to USB hollywood film kits and Wii Light sabres? My crock pot works just fine thank you, but this one is so much cooler.

Alas alack, there is nothing for me to do but do my best to not fall in love and continue plugging away through all of the excellent gadget reviews BlogBurst members generate every day. Of course I’m not sure if I can afford to not buy my very own indepenedent power station. I will save so much money!!!

What about you guys — has anyone noticed any great gadgets that I can’t live without?