04.01.07
Posted in Articles, News at 11:11 pm by admin
Well, this is kind of interesting. SonyBMG, home to artists such as Christina Aguilera, Pink, and Good Charlotte (who?) announced that they would require all unsigned band demos to be submitted via their the record label’s blog. No more sending your little taped demo to the studio and hoping to knock the socks off of an A&R person. Now it’s slap it on the blog, upload your photos and videos, and hope to hear a response. Or something like that.
Wait, this kind of sounds like MySpace — or what MySpace used to be — doesn’t it? Good luck aspiring musicians! You guys should have blogs anyway so posting your stuff to SonyBMG shouldn’t be too hard. And think of all the postage and handling you’ll save. Let’s hope other businesses will soon follow suit; incorporating digital formats and blogs into the old way of doing things.
Permalink
03.28.07
Posted in Articles, Book Related at 12:42 am by admin
Here’s a fun little article from Publisher’s Weekly about authors that blog. Actually, I barely know any authors who don’t blog. Most authors are trying to find a place to show their works to the public, and a blog is an easy and cost-effective way to do it. I guess, hypothetically, if you were too big for your britches, you wouldn’t need a blog; but for everyone else, I’d recommend it.
Blogs can provide insight to an author’s work or process. They can be used as mini-sites to complement a book (like this blog). The downside of having a blog? Losing thirty minutes a day posting an entry or two? It’s not a huge investment for something that allows you to build and maintain your fan base.
Heck, without blogging, I wouldn’t even be an author! So of course I encourage blogging for authors — and everyone — alike.
“But the big question, of course, is, do blogs sell books? On that, everyone agrees that the answer is yes, though no one can point to any numbers, at least not yet. ‘Saleswise, I’m not necessarily expecting to see a post-for-post, purchase-for-purchase correlation,’ said Julie Strauss-Gabel, who edits Green at Dutton. ‘Blogging is a long-term endeavor, one that builds and sustains a loyal fan base over a career.’
[Meg] Cabot says that after she started blogging, visits to her Web site soared. Dessen used her blog to count down the days to her pub date for Just Listen, and readers stormed bookstores looking for their copy. ‘I had a lot of girls go to stores on the first day and when the book wasn’t on display, they had someone go into the back and made them open a box,’ she recalled. ‘I really liked hearing that.’
Building excitement online about upcoming appearances definitely makes a difference, says Elizabeth Eulberg, publicity director at Little, Brown. Meyer cultivated fans of her vampire-themed novels with Web updates and with regular participation on fan-generated sites devoted to her books. Those readers turned out in droves for her appearances for New Moon. ‘A lot of them will greet her with their screen names’Hi, I’m edwardlover!’and what amazes me is that Stephenie remembers most of them!’ Eulberg said.”
-To Blog or Not to Blog?-
Permalink
03.21.07
Posted in Articles, News at 6:01 pm by admin
At this year’s SXSW conference, blogger and science fiction writer Bruce Sterling told a crowd that blogging would be dead within ten years. Blogging, dead? Just like Captain America?
Well, what Sterling was talking about was that blogging in its current iteration would no longer be around. Online journals would just be an integrated part of life, not really “gone.” Blogging is dead just sounds much more exciting but really, do you think that once everyone gets their hands on tools that help them post words, photos, audio, video online that it’ll go away? Nope. Blogging will just become part of the fabric of our culture and never go away, just like the Captain — even if he is momentarily knocked out of service.
Permalink
03.09.07
Posted in Articles, Blogs / Sites at 5:01 pm by admin
MSNBC has this article titled “Should You Start a Business Blog?” The article says that if you have a small business, starting a blog is not only a wise move, but perhaps, essential.
“In a recent survey of business technology marketing executives by research firm MarketingSherpa, blogs were voted the No. 4 tool for generating sales leads.”
Having a blog not only allows you to communicate with your customers, you can use it to increase your legitimacy as a company and to add a face to your business. Check out this quick Forbes Small Business blurb too. As for my word of advice on small-business blogging: “Blog often, don’t let it just sit there with no fresh content. Blog blog blog!”
Here’s a few good sites to use when marketing your blog:
(1) Instant Domain Search allows you to quickly get an idea of what domain names are available among the .com/.net/.org addresses. Once you find one you like, head over to GoDaddy to bu your new web address.
(2) 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog
(3) Creating Flagship Content
Permalink
02.20.07
Posted in Articles at 10:31 pm by admin
Most cellphones have a pretty decent camera nowadays and people are taking advantage of it for mobile blogging purposes. I carry my Sidekick II with me at all times but often, I don’t have my digital camera. The Sidekick has a small (endearingly crappy) camera but for my purposes it suffices.
For example, capturing my recent weekend in San Francisco, exploring Golden Gate Park and the The Palace of Fine Arts. It also allowed me to document just how up close and personal I got with the kites controlled by this Chinese man in the nearby park. He had a dozen small kites daisy chained together and could make the contraption dip, float, and come soaring to within inches of your face with just a few controlled flicks of his wrists. Amazing stuff.
The Sidekick also allows me to send all these pictures to my “Hiplog,” which is just blog that T-Mobile sets up for me, already pre-synced to my phone. It’s awesome and I use it to exchange little moments of my days with my other moblogging friends.
Permalink
01.24.07
Posted in Articles at 5:38 pm by admin
Need a mobile To-Do list but never carry sticky pads (or your brain) with you? Web Worker Daily has a suggestion to use your blog as a To-Do list! I’m personally in love with lists and also in love with blogs so this seems like the perfect way to stay faux-organized. You could even dig through the archives to figure out what you haven’t been doing each day and laugh, or cry, about it retroactively.
Sounds fun right?
Permalink
01.04.07
Posted in Articles, Tools & Resources at 12:18 pm by admin
I’ve noticed, as I read though my daily lineup of blogs, that many people had New Year’s resolutions related to their blogs. Of course, this may be a biased sample since these people are clearly blogging about their resolutions already, so clearly, they’ve got blogs on the mind. Most people are saying that they want to blog more. A few burnt out (fanatical) bloggers say that they want to blog less. It’s quite possible to spend three hours a day surfing from blog to blog. Trust me, it’s addicting. Maybe not quite as addicting as MySpace or Wikipedia, but the sheer number of blogs (all inter-linked in some way or another) makes it a virtual panacea for boredom.
Some other blog related New Year’s resolutions you could make:
(1) Re-design your blog. Nothing is more boring than staring at the same old thing day after day — but don’t tell your significant other that. Muddle around with some simple HTML, pop in a picture or two, switch up your sidebars and clean up and re-organize your blogroll. Change that template!
(2) Commit to putting up a picture per post. Words are nice and all, but sometimes the combination of a picture plus a written post can make your entry stand out. Even better if those photos are taken by you. All those megapixels on your new Christmas present has to be used somehow right?
(3) Make five new blog friends. Reach out to a blogger that you’ve always admired (stalked) and link to them or write an entire post dedicated to why you like their blog so much. Maybe say “Hi” and send them an email. You gotta be friendly to make friends; and blog life is nothing without friends. You can even nominate your favorite blogs for the 2007 Bloggies!
(4) Try out Google Adsense or some other revenue generator on your site. Why not? See if you can turn your hits into your daily cup of coffee. Become a “part-time professional blogger” and see how your social cachet rises. I’d bet you become a big hit at parties once people realize that you make “an undisclosed amount” from your “internet venture.”
(5) Blog more. A daily dose of blogging, eight cups of water, the proper diet, and returning your voice mails and emails in a timely manner (so you can have an offline life) will result in you becoming healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Permalink
12.17.06
Posted in Articles at 4:57 pm by admin
“Writer’s block” can happen to anybody. Sitting at home wondering what channel you should be watching? Can’t commit to just one show? Feeling uninspired? Writer’s block.
Sitting at the office wondering when to take that coveted 15-minute break? Pre or post-lunch? Writer’s block.
About to start that amazing Christmas card — with a snowman, a sleigh and a gnome on the front — that will absolve you of all friendship related guilt from 2006 but can’t find anything to say? Writer’s block.
Yeah, it’s a serious problem.
For me, the key is to just get started doing something; be it writing, watching, breaking, or um, friendship resolving. Once you take that plunge into doing, the creative juices start flowing and I find that I can’t stop the task at hand.
Of course, you could combat traditional writer’s block by starting a blog, like Ooi Yang-May did, but don’t be afraid to use a blog to leap over any “writer’s block” in your life. You can prove to your significant other that you really did think about taking out the trash and doing the dishes, even if you didn’t actually do it…yet. “Check the time stamp honey!”
Permalink
11.29.06
Posted in Articles, Topical at 2:56 pm by admin
This is going to sound obvious but at the base of it, blogging is writing, and writing often begets better writing. So what happens when you get kids to blog a lot? They improve their writing skills, their vocabulary skills, and their organizational skills. What about improving their nunchuk, bowhunting, and computer hacking skills you ask? Well, that’s a separate thing… One handful of skills at a time!
Permalink
11.24.06
Posted in Articles at 4:18 pm by admin
It’s the Holy Grail of blogging: making money and turning blogging into a profession. While millions of people start blogs without any intention of making money off of their “hobby,” I’m positive nobody would turn down the opportunity to make a few bucks. It’s like making music. You can do it for fun in your garage, but if the opportunity comes along and a neighbor just happens to know an A&R guy and he likes your stuff, suddenly you are starry-eyed and dreaming of cash.
When I was on television — I like to say that, just to add an extra oomph to what I have in life — one of the questions presented to me in the brief five minute interview was “Can people make money doing this?” I’m sure I gave an eloquent, well-composed, coolly delivered answer that compared the blogger-conomy with Princetonian principles of supply and demand. Or maybe I said, “Yes it is possible to make money blogging, but it’s certainly not easy.”
The truth is that there are a lot of people making money blogging (and the media is pushing that angle) — but you probably won’t be one of them. It takes a combination of hard work, a large audience, and maybe a pinch of luck to take your blog from the late night past time to back breaking day job.
Bloggers have quit their jobs, been fired, and started entire new companies just in the name of blogging. Some have succeeded, some haven’t. Check out some of their stories, and if you still want to have a go of it, then figure out some way to crack the barrier between amateur and professional blogging. The odds are pretty steep, but the rewards are getting increasingly large also.
Permalink
« Previous entries
Well, this is kind of interesting. SonyBMG, home to artists such as Christina Aguilera, Pink, and Good Charlotte (who?) announced that they would require all unsigned band demos to be submitted via their the record label’s blog. No more sending your little taped demo to the studio and hoping to knock the socks off of an A&R person. Now it’s slap it on the blog, upload your photos and videos, and hope to hear a response. Or something like that.
