Weekly Digest: Lorelle Back Home Finally, Conspiracy Theories Everywhere, Will You Go Naked, and More « Lorelle on WordPress

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Weekly Digest: Lorelle Back Home Finally, Conspiracy Theories Everywhere, Will You Go Naked, and More

After over six weeks on the road (Only six? Felt much longer.) I just arrived home to Oregon in time for the first snow of the year. It was beautiful, but unfortunately gone before I could dig the camera out of the motor home. The cats, horses, donkeys, dogs, land-mates, and husband were all glad to see me. And I them.

Unfortunately, the snow was followed by massive rain and wind which took out the satellite Internet for most of the past couple days. The joys of country living.

I’ve got a lot of planning for a busy schedule next year, speaking at a variety of blogging and WordPress conferences and meetings. I’m so excited about getting out and meeting the best of the best in blogging and WordPress.

This is the Weekly Digest from Lorelle on WordPress. To subscribe to the Weekly Digest category of Lorelle on WordPress, you can subscribe by the Weekly Digest feed or by email with the Weekly Digest Email Subscription to stay up to date on what is happening in Lorelle’s world of WordPress and blogging.

The last issue of my weekly digest was Weekly Digest: Lorelle Recovers on the Road, Reports on Conspiracy Theories, With More Challenges and Struggles.

What’s Happening with Lorelle on WordPress

Here’s the latest blog posts on Lorelle on WordPress.

Ask Yourself How You Should Get Me to Read Your Blog asks an important question. What would it take to get me to read your blog? It also offers tips for what it takes to have readable and interesting content.
Are You Willing To Go Naked For One Day For Akismet? covers the interesting proposal Akismet asked: “Would you be willing to turn off Akismet’s comment spam protection for a day?” The responses have been very interesting.
How Do You Become a Passionate Blogger? Blog Your Passion. - It’s a simple premise, but since when do we ever do anything simple? If you want something, you got to do it. It’s that simple.
Blogs and Conspiracy Theories covers the article series I wrote for the Blog Herald on conspiracy theories and blogs, answering the question of why cover such a topic so many see as an abomination on the web. Well, a lot of blogs make a lot of money and traffic blogging about conspiracy theories, even making some of their own up, so why not cover why we are so fascinated by conspiracies, and how to write your own?
How to Stop Content Theft: The Best Tips celebrates two fantastic articles by Jonathan Bailey on the Blog Herald: 5 Content Theft Myths and Why They Are False andThe 6 Steps to Stop Content Theft. The answer most of your questions and provide the tips you need to know to stop content theft on your blog.
Weekly Digest: Lorelle Recovers on the Road, Reports on Conspiracy Theories, With More Challenges and Struggles is my last weekly summary.
WordCamp Israel WordPress Tips Talk is the fleshed-out version of my presentation on WordPress Tips in Israel. It covers dozens of tips, tricks, techniques, features and power WordPress user tools for all versions of WordPress.
New Article Series - Blog Struggles: In this new ongoing series, I share with you some of the intimate thoughts, internal debates, conflicts, and challenges I have faced over the past 14+ years of blogging. So far, the series includes:
- Blog Struggles: The Search for Blog Content: We put so much energy into “finding” blog content that we often forget the best source for good blog content: from within us. I offer tips and techniques for pulling content from your head.
- Blog Struggles: Ideas and Drafts: We come up with such great ideas and then what? We jot them down, make lists, start post drafts, and they sit there staring at us, as we procrastinate over what to do with all these ideas and how to keep them in check. I offer tips on how to best keep track of your ideas and drafts.
- Blog Struggles: The Blog Focus: As part one in a sub-series of posts on Blog Struggles, I look at the issue of the blog focus, your blog’s ability to turn you from a blogger into an expert.
- Blog Struggles: Why Should Your Blog Have a Focus: Your blog doesn’t have to have a focus, but if it does, these are the reasons, and benefits, of why it should.
- Blog Struggles: Finding Your Blog Focus: Continues the Blog Focus theme and offers tips for finding your blog’s focus and direction.
- Blog Struggles: Changing Your Blog’s Focus: Once you find your blog focus, how do you change your blog? Or should you start a new blog? I cover the tips you need to know to redirect your blog.
- Blog Struggles: When Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation Interferes With Your Blogging looks at the issues around the impact of poor writing habits and skills and whether or not they impact the success and reading of your blog.
- In Blog Struggles: When Are Too Many Comments Too Many Comments?, I share a struggle I faced not long ago about an over-enthusiastic commenter who left a ton of comments on my blog within a few hours, making me very suspicious. We are often faced with suspicious comments, so what do we do? How should we handle them?
- Blog Struggles: Taking The Moral High Blogging Ground addresses the issue of deciding which ethical and moral road to take on your blog.
- Blog Struggles: Blogger’s Depression looks at the rarely discussed by normal aspect of blogging: depression. When the enthusiasm for the effort is lost and apathy sets in, and how to overcome it.

Lorelle’s News

Lorelle on ProBlogger: I recently published Readers Versus Visitors: Whose Needs Are You Meeting, an article that looks at how to not let your interpretation of your blog stats, or assumptions about your blog readers and visitors, get in the way of serving and meeting the needs of your visitors and readers.

I Need Your Blog Conference Expertise and Help: On the Blog Herald, in Which Blogging Conference Would You Go To?, I’m asking readers to help me create a big list of all the blog conferences around the world coming up next year, including why we must go and what benefit these conferences offer. Help add your favorite to the list.

Conspiracy Theories: The conspiracy theory series on the Blog Herald, summarized here in Blogs and Conspiracy Theories, was an exciting and difficult article series. Having run across a lot of blogs which specialize in conspiracy theories, as well as many bloggers who make leaping assumptions between bits and pieces of news items, I thought it would be an interesting topic to tackle. It also lead to researching blog hoaxes, another fascinating (and a little sick) aspect of what many think is the “dark side” of blogging. It’s actually a fun side, too, if you go into it with an open mind. I had a lot of fun digging into “who-done-its” on blogs and the different theories, theories I only snicker at as I check out at the grocery store.

Blog Herald Lovin’: Blogs We Luv recently cheered the Blog Herald and included kind words about my articles on the popular Blog Herald, a source for blogging news, trends, resources, and technical advice.

Blogger and Podcaster Magazine: This month’s issue is on creating a blogging editorial calendar to help you find, build, and plan your blog’s content. The last issue of Blogger and Podcaster Magazine featured an article I’ve written on the mistakes and overlooked tips that I’ve found some veteran and top notch bloggers overlook, helping you to learn how to do these invaluable things on your blog to help your SEO, accessibility and web standards, and increase your readership and traffic. December’s issue on blog writing tips and how to improve your blog writing skills. I’m working on January’s issue right now, but expect to see me as a regular on this hot new magazine next year!

Among the Must-Read Blogs: Damien Riley published a “Must-Read Blogs This Season” which included me, but also a lot of other interesting blogs worth checking into.

Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging

It appears my book, “Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging” is a hot item for giving to your favorite blogger during the holiday season. Sales have kicked up and I’m barely able to keep up. I’m still sending out autographed copies at the introductory price - while supplies last (sigh) - so get your order in soon before I run out before the holidays. You can order a copy from SplashPress or the new Blog Herald Bookstore. If you would like to order multiple copies, please email me first as that requires special handling.

For more information on the book, see the original announcement and a recent update with reviews and other information, as well as the Blogging Tips Book official page.

Most Popular Articles on Lorelle on WordPress

The most popular posts on Lorelle on WordPress these past few weeks were:

Blasts From the Past

Here are some blasts from the past I’ve written that still are interesting today:

Blog Herald Columns

Recent articles on the Blog Herald included:

When Your Blog Forces You To Keep Your Commitments got a lot of people thinking about how a personal commitment to a project can be enhanced by incorporating a blog. I heard an interview on NPR with a Seattle journalist who used a blog to keep his commitment to learn how to cook as he cooked a meal for each weekend’s football team, using a recipe and information about the Seattle Seahawk’s opponent’s city.
Which Blogging Conference Would You Go To? invites you to help me create a calendar list of the “must attend” blogging conferences next year.
What Makes Bloggers Want to Link to You? Do you think you know or do you really know? I list the tips you need to know that make bloggers really want to link to your blog content, and to your blog.
Is Your Blog a Resource? asks you if your blog provides a resource as a source for content and information.
Visiting the Web Past: Lillian Vernon, Catalog and Web Pioneer looks at an article written by Vernon on how she turned her highly successful mail order business into a multi-million dollar business online, and the lessons bloggers and online businesses can learn from her.
Three Lessons That Will Change Your Blog shares one of my favorite stories by our friend, John Doan, a classical guitarist and world renown harp guitarist. The three lessons will not only change your blog, they could change your life.
The series on conspiracy theories and blogs is finished and the articles included were:
- I Want To Start a Controversy is the introduction and a look at what makes a controversy a conspiracy.
- There is Nothing Like a Good Conspiracy explores some blogs which thrive on conspiracy theories and controversy.
- The Economics of Conspiracies takes a peak under the pay check to see how conspiracies work economically. Very well, in fact. A good conspiracy, especially an entertaining one, is the stuff of legends and income.
- Finding Conspiracy Blogs…and the Truth looks at how many blogs thrive on conspiracies, and how some conspiracies and hoaxes cast a bad light on blogging, and how to find the truth behind the blogs and online conspiracies and hoaxes.
- Three Steps to Building Your Own Conspiracy Theory is the last in the series, which features a guest post by my friend, Nancy Bixler, with tips on how to write your own conspiracy theory on your blog.

Some recent weekly WordPress Wednesday News reports included:

Lorelle’s Linkworthy Links

As I crawled through the web recently, I ran across some interesting posts and articles you should check out:

Detect This by Mezzoblue rants against the browser detection scripts that plague many blogs and websites. The detection scripts are often out of date and not necessary, cutting off Flash, graphics, forms, and other content from readers with “Browser version does not meet minimum requirements”, even though it does.
Alexa’s Make Believe Internet from TechCrunch slams Amazon’s Alexa traffic reporting service as a loss, unable to keep accurate track and stuffed with errors, yet people still rely upon it as the source for web traffic reports.
The Basics of Calendar Management (Part 1 of 2) is a great look at the reality of the business calendar and how to really take full advantage of connecting project and team members by calendars.
Late Night Comedy Writers Embrace Blogging from Writer’s Write discusses how many involved in the Writer’s Strike are turning to blogs to express their opinions.

This is the Weekly Digest of Lorelle on WordPress.

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Lorelle VanFossen is a member of WordPress, WordPress.com, the 9Rules Network, and author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging.

This entry was written by Lorelle VanFossen and posted on December 2, 2007 at 4:38 pm and filed under Weekly Digest. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

3 Comments

Brian

Posted December 2, 2007 at 4:51 pm | Permalink

Welcome home.
Lorelle VanFossen

Posted December 2, 2007 at 7:48 pm | Permalink

@Brian:

Thank you!
Damien

Posted December 4, 2007 at 7:29 pm | Permalink

Hi Lorelle! Congrats on the ProBlogger publishing! So much listed in this post of yours, including the link to my little post. You must be a bit busy these days! Thanks so much. Have a good one and take it easy! -d

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