Art of Blogging

What lead to this particular babble is a series of comments on this blog and another that I was involved in.

Unfortunately, the comments I was a part of are mostly off topic, so I won’t link them here. (There really are times I am such a bad blogger.) The other blog, however is wordpress

If you are looking at this site anywhere near the time I published this article you are probably laughing at me.

It would seem I do not follow my own advice and I certainly do not have a viable marketing project going.

Am I a total idiot? Am I a poseur?

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I will speak regularly on the importance of comments to a blog, I am sure. Today, I am going to keep it basic.

Comments are part of what makes blogs such a successful method to convey ideas. They are also a major part in that new-fangled Web 2.0 stuff.

Since blog comments are important, the people making them are important too, right?

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Simply put, a Trackback is a way for sites to link to each other automatically.

For an example of a Trackback in action, take a look at what happens when I link to this inspirational article on how nothing is impossible.

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The other night I decided I needed to have some php run from my posts now and again. I started doing the “normal” WordPress thing and messing with plugins and seeing which worked on WPMU and which did not.

This went typically… find the plugin, install the plugin, watch it blow up, remove the plugin, find the next one, modify WPMU configuration so it works… hack hack hack…

I finally found a couple that worked and I will write them up soon.

Except…

When I put the php code in my post and hit save, it just vanished.

O_o

My first thought was, “gee, how STUPID!”

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Unless you are just making your blog to amuse yourself and friends with or otherwise for fun, the point is to market with it and make money. Right?

OK, other exceptions are like this blog right now where the purpose is to disseminate information, but even this will go to a more commercial stance soon. (Don’t worry, I mean I will add advertising to the sidebar and other tasteful ways for you to show me support for giving you great content… unlike this entry.)

Anyway, this is a rant, so expect it to dance around like it just did. I have a bad attitude and I am angry.

What made me angry? Specifically, Internet Marketers. No, I do not necessarily mean you or me, I mean the Marketers that keep trying to sell you and me information and tools so we can do our jobs better.

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I think this User Friendly Comic says it all. Think about it.

Happy New Year!

May it be good and profitable!

Make good art!

As I said yesterday on Search Engine Optimization, take a break!

I know it looks like I am not taking a break like I said, but that is today’s lesson.

Write your stuff in advance and your blog can run like clockwork even if you take a month off.

In the future, we will go into some real automation methods for blogging, but for now, start learning how to make a blog work properly and then you can get into all the cool things. If you have been paying attention to me so far, you already have several articles in some shape or form in your admin. Do yourself a favor and instead of publishing them in order, save a couple specifically for a rainy day. If your blog is a blog where you just write about what is in your head and sharing some of your prose, save some of your poems to publish on days when you don’t feel like writing or just can’t cause you couldn’t spend any time at a keyboard.

By the way, articles in my admin that are done i mark by putting “(d)” at the end of the title so I can see at a glance what is ready for days like today.

If you read this on December 25th, Bah Humbug! Aren’t you glad I gave you this drivel to read?

If you read this anytime after, I hope you and yours had a great holiday!

This is the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The Winter Equinox! Ok, some people say it is tomorrow, but they are obviously just wrong. It’s dark. And Cold.

Good thing I am in the lab where it is warm.

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I received an email the other day from one of the various marketing gurus I listen to that directly applied to Rule One.

This email started like this:

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