Everything I know is Wrong
I read Andrew Keen’s brilliant book The Cult of the Amateur over the weekend. I read it in one sitting.
I’m stunned. I’m shocked. I feel lost.
In short, with a mere 200 pages, Andrew convinced a hardnose like me that I’m wrong. About everything. About a great many things having to do with the internet.
I spent most of Monday in a fog. I felt like deleting my blog, shutting down my business, and going to work on a lawn crew for the next ten years. I’m not joking.
I think I’m starting to recover a bit. But who knows?
Can I Write a Book?
I’ve had many people suggest over the years that I write a book. It’s always been a goal of mine. I even recently had a published author suggest it, which although very complimentary, made me just more depressed.
Here’s why. I don’t have the time. I certainly have the ideas to communicate. I write well. I edit even better. But as life goes on, you get depressed when you don’t finish the things in life you hope to do. Especially the things that you know you can do. I might not be cycling across America anytime soon, but I can write. Now. Today. In fact, I’m doing it right this second.
Why I Blog
Darren Rowse recently wrote a piece called the 12 Traits of Successful Bloggers. I’m not successful, but I think it underscores a bit of why I blog, and more importantly, why you should consider it. Just try it. You might like it. Didn’t your parents used to say that to you while shoving a plate full of asparagus under your nose? Hey, just because they were wrong doesn’t mean I am. Besides, I like asparagus now, especially with salmon.
A Dozen Dirty Reasons to Get a Gravatar
You don’t know about Gravatar, do you? Of course not. That’s why you’re reading this. See? You’re still reading. Follow me, young padawan learner and let me teach you the ways of the Gravatar.
If you are an English major and hate creative explanations, or if you don’t like being told what is good for you, then you could just jump over to Gravatar.com and read the dry explanation there.
Okay, everyone else. We got rid of the stooges in the class. Let’s get back to the fun.
Blogroll Update
I’ve removed my blogroll from the site. And while I was at it, I removed dozens of blogs from my reading list at Google reader. Why?
I’ll be subscribing to some blogs that I don’t want everyone knowing I’m subscribing to. So, yeah, privacy. And all that jazz.
I could spend a lot of time managing a public list and a private list, but that won’t happen because I’m too busy and nobody cares: two events which guarantee stalls. If something is really good, I’ll share it in a post. If it’s pretty good, I’ll share it in the section to the right (New Posts I’ve Enjoyed). Else, you just won’t know what I’m reading.
No More Ads or Entrecard
The blog here is now ad-free. After hearing a few good responses to my recent change of adding ads and Entrecard, I decided to eliminate (once again) all advertising.
I particularly decided to eliminate Entrecard fairly early on as it was nothing but a time-consuming project that brought no benefits. Yes, I discovered a lot of blogs, but quite frankly, I’d rather do that on my own time without the pressure of trying to inflate an advertising rate.
Help me Stay Healthy by Boosting my Google PageRank
My Google pagerank is a 4. Respectable. But, it once was a 5 a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Then Google did some algorithm adjustment and mine fell. I have my sneaking suspicions why, but I agree when Google makes adjustments. Or corrections.
But, since that was well over a year ago, I’ve been doing some stewing and brewing and I’ve come to the conclusion that I sort of don’t like it. It’s like being a certain age and then having to go back a year. Can you imagine if your parents just said to you, “Well, you’ll just have to go back to the age of 11 instead of staying 12 any longer”. But, why? “Because we said so and we know what’s best for you!”
Subtle Blog Changes
I’ve made a few changes of which you need to be aware. Why? So you can become a better blogger. So you can enjoy my blog more. So you can tell me that I’m wrong to make these changes.
1. Blogroll centralized. The first subtle change is I’ve removed most of the external links from the sidebar that were, in essence, a blogroll. This will undoubtedly irritate those twenty or so folks who were getting some free inbound link love on hundreds of pages of Salberg.Org.
Technorati Top 100 shuffle still needs more work
Photo by The Wandering Angel. Much ado is being made over the Technorati “bug fix” two days ago. However, much more work by Technorati needs to be done.
The fix was to count sub-domains separately from their parent domain. No one but the losers of ranking on the Top 100 have really anything negative to say about that because, in most people’s minds, this is how the ranking should have been done all along.
However, Technorati claims that their blog ranking system is for the purpose of ranking authority of different blogs. Notice I didn’t say “websites”, but “blogs”. But, what constitutes a blog?
Small Business Blogging Won’t Grow in 2008
I’m a proponent of business blogging, and yet, in my experience as a web designer for small businesses, I continue to see major stumbling blocks that will prevent small businesses from creating and utilizing effective business blogs.
Liz Fuller of Business and Blogging recently pointed out that only five percent of small businesses (those with less than 100 employees) have any kind of business blog. That equates to about 1.25 million businesses.
The E-Book Experiment
I hinted yesterday’s post about Alan’s 30-Day Blogging Challenge that I was going to unveil another blog that I have been preparing to start. Except that it’s not a blog. Except that it is a blog, too.
In fact, it’s a book. Or more accurately, it will be a book. Most likely an e-book. But I’ll be writing it one chapter at a time. And not necessarily in order. In fact, most likely not in order at all.
New Year Resolution: Learn How to Subscribe to RSS Feeds
In the blogging world, we all subscribe and read feeds regularly. So, if that isn’t you, and you don’t “get it” or think it is some technical trick, I encourage you to pay attention for a minute.
The Old Way
If you don’t use a feedreader, you are missing out. You are forced to do one of two things to stay on top of things: subscribe to things via email, or remember to visit certain web pages with regularity. Both have intrinsic problems.
Email interrupts your day. Email should be reserved for business-like items, friendly quick exchanges, and the like. It should not be for news and updates. Not anymore.
Meet Jake McKee, the Community Guy
I met Jake McKee, a.ka. “The Community Guy” at BlogOrlando this past year and I’ve been meaning to cover his ideas and concepts in more depth since. Briefly, Jake made a splash onto the blogging scene by dragging Lego Corporation, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century, by getting them to open up and connect with their existing community, all the while building the base of the community to include more and more different types of people.
Alan’s 30-Day Blogging Challenge
My friend Alan has issued a challenge for bloggers to post at least once per day for the next 30 days. He’s hardly the first blogger I’ve read that has issued such a challenge, but he’s the first one I know personally. So, it would be kind of a shame to let him down.
Plus, although I sort of credit myself with getting him into blogging, he’s definitely learned a lot because he forces himself to try new things. He once had a blog just about American Idol - a show I’ve proudly never watched. But he learned a lot about blogging and traffic by doing it, and he made some bucks at the same time.
Best Buy will probably follow CompUSA into Outer Darkness
Much hullabaloo has been made of the supposed ’shocking’ news that CompUSA was closing all its stores and officially going out of business. To quote Jane’s Addiction, “Nothing’s Shocking”.
I wrote a complaint letter to CompUSA several years ago before they closed their Melbourne store (along with dozens of others) to let them know about the shenanigans going on at that store. In it, I discussed nearly every pitfall and problem that the store had, and what they needed to do to turn it around. I wish, for the life of me, I could find that letter, but I think it was on a laptop whose hard drive I since reformatted. I had virtually predicted its inevitable decline and, yes, I would like credit for that now that they have been crushed under the weight of their stupidity.
