I started writing email newsletters in 2002 and blogging in 2003 for a couple of marketing outlets. I was mowing the lawn on October 13, 2006, and had the bright idea to start a marketing blog called CostPerNews. It took off rather quickly and before I knew it, I was getting citations on Techmeme and … Continue reading Top Posts of the Teens
If you've met me IRL, you've probably noticed I have a notebook either in my shirt pocket or in my hand (or a stack of index cards tucked away somewhere). All of them make awkward appearances when I hear a good quote, someone has a question I need to look up, if I was trying … Continue reading Putting the Days to Bed (My Paper Notebooks)
Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified. — Read on www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/10/11/vannevar_bush_s_1945_essay_as_we_may_think_on_information_overload_curation.html
I've been using RSS as my primary way to read news, blogs, thoughts, and ideas since 2005 or so (I currently use a mix of Feedly and NewsBlur as my RSS readers, and both are excellent in their own ways). There's a growing rumbling going on in the tech-thinkers space I follow (mostly through my … Continue reading Go Start Your Blog and Find a Newsreader
I'm admittedly from a generation that grew up with a web that didn't include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even Google. I look back fondly on the early 2000's when we all had our own blogs and shared thoughts and pictures and quotes there. I was just reminiscing about blogrolls this week with a client as … Continue reading Bring Back RSS
Wow, this is quite something and a good example of why you should always run your own blog instead of relying on a blog network. Same with podcasting. What a strange turn of events. Patheos was at the center of the Mars Hill Church and Gospel for Asia stories and now they host Mark Driscoll … Continue reading Cautionary Tale of Patheos and Having Your Own Blog
There's some really helpful advice here for small businesses, nonprofits, and / or churches looking to get a start on SEO basics. You can take a course on Lynda.com or watch some YouTube videos to learn more about what SEO can mean for your group, but the fundamentals here are pretty spot on: SEO isn’t … Continue reading Ultimate guide to SEO for small businesses (and nonprofits)
I often get the question from clients of why I mostly recommend having your own website on WordPress or a self-hosted platform in the age of Facebook. As companies who built their businesses and traffic flow on the back of Facebook over the years have found out, that can be a very precarious decision. Audience … Continue reading Owning your own platform is important, and valuable
Fun post that highlights many of the concerns I hear from clients and friends when I encourage them to blog. Blogging and newsletters are still incredibly impactful for businesses, churches, nonprofits... or just sharing what's on your mind. Get out there. Be yourself. It'll be ok. You think that you are a terrible writer. No … Continue reading Why you should quit blogging
Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. We could say goodbye to the creepy targeted ads and the algorithms, to the Nazis and bots and propagandists, to the harassers and the people selling hate. We could stop being spied-on for profit... Or we can make the moral … Continue reading You should blog
There's so much wrong with this post, but I'll point out my biggest gripe here... RSS (like podcasting) doesn't need the metrics of behavior tracking for it to be a success. It's distributed. It's not commercialized. It's not tracked with clicks based on eCPM's or eCPC's or brand quality engagement views. And that's ok. It serves … Continue reading RSS in 2018
"I keep remembering that, between Google Reader and its limits (items must have titles), and Twitter with its limits (only 140 chars, no titles, one link, no styling), same with Facebook (no links or styling) that my online writing has diminished dramatically, conforming to the contradictory limits of each of these systems. I keep working … Continue reading Blogging
Important as the web continues to develop... don't put all of your content into a silo. If you arrived here via Facebook, you might see why. 2. You're probably posting your short items to Twitter and Facebook. That's wrong. Please, before you give your ideas to a silo, give them to the open web. Of course … Continue reading short blog posts
Good thoughts from Om here about the place of having your own website (whether it's at WordPress.com or a self hosted WordPress installation for more flexibility) and feeding the beast: Some Thoughts on the New WordPress.com and Mac App - Om Malik: "Most of those platforms are built to be silos, Facebook and Instagram being … Continue reading Why WordPress Still Matters
It's very easy to blog. You should do it on your own domain. You don't need a venture capital funded company to help you. If you need help, let me know. The future is independence from these sorts of silos. Medium is introducing a host of features aimed at encouraging users to post shorter, less … Continue reading You Don’t Need A Mediator to Blog
Great thoughts on blogging in 2014 from Gina Trapani... This is still a work-in-progress, notes-to-self kind of thing, but it’s been sitting in Draft for months now, so it’s time to get it out. With the obvious caveat that rules are made to be broken (with reason), my new rules for blogging are... via Scribbling.net … Continue reading Short-form blogging thoughts
Yep... Blogs are — or at least were — different. They are an individual’s place for speaking out loud, but the relationships that form around them were based on links among posts, not social networks that link among people. I’m all for social networks, but we also need networks of ideas. via Joho the Blog … Continue reading Why Blogs?
One of the main things I want to do more in 2014 is post on my blog. It's a daily fight with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. However, this has been my web home for over ten years now an I need to start treating it better. Great post by Matt... Blogging is harder than it … Continue reading Blogging Still Matters in a Social Media World
I'd have to disagree with this... Blogging is Dead – But Long Live the Blogosphere - exploreB2B: "While the thought process remains the same today (‘Here is what I think, read my blog’) - the effect is minimal, if anything at all. A viewer may read an article on your blog, maybe even find it … Continue reading Blogging Isn’t Dead
