All The News That Was from WordCamp 2006

Gonzo Musings has “The WordCamp 2006 Overview and Wrapup – from 7875 Miles Away!” Yup. WordCamp 2006 was held over the weekend in sunny San Francisco and from all accounts it was a raging success. Of course, me being down here in Melbourne, Australia I’m 7,875 long bloody miles away from the venue… Okay. WordCamp […]

2006 Bloggies Awards Announced

The results are in and the winners of the 2006 Bloggies have been announced. The Bloggies Award list is hard to read so here is a list of the award winners. Congrats to all. Best Web Application for Weblogs – Blogger Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog – Loobylu Best Asian Weblog – Tokyo Girl […]

The State of the Blogosphere 2006

Dave Sifry’s State of the Blogosphere for February 2006 is out, and making a cute pun, he says that the state of the blogosphere is “strong”. …but the truth is that the blogosphere continues to grow at a quickening pace. Technorati currently tracks 27.2 Million weblogs, and the blogosphere we track continues to double about […]

A Blogging Wish for Bloggers in 2006

Weblog Tools Collection posted a Blogging Wishlist for 2006 which lists wishes for the future of blogging universally, helping bloggers blog better. A lot of the things on his list I really liked, especially the future prospects for WordPress, which seemed to be more of recommendations than wishes, but we take them as we find […]

Are You Making Predictions for the Internet in 2006?

There have been a few predictions for what is going to happen with the Internet in 2006. My favorite is by Jason Calacanis: 1. Someone will do the Wikipedia version of Weblogs, Inc. and and it will fail because it never reaches critical mass. 2. 30 of the 50 blog networks will fizzle out and/or […]

Remember, It’s 2006 not 2005

Just a reminder that if you are posting future blog posts that cross from December 2005 into January – be sure and change the date in the year from 2005 to 2006. I was really puzzled when a bunch of posts for the first week of January failed to show up in my Manage Posts […]

Blog Exercises: Emergency Drafts

I write my blog posts as far in advance as possible, using the future posts/scheduling feature of WordPress to set my posts to release over time, automating the process of self-publishing on my site and giving me time to live my life rather than be tied to my site. I rely heavily on my Editorial […]

Blog Exercises: What Are You Missing?

Frogs redefine my thoughts about amphibians annually. As a child, spring was for tadpoles and summers were for frogs in the swamps, ponds, and ditches around my country ranch in the Pacific Northwest. Moving to Oregon’s Coastal Mountain range west of Portland, my winters are spent driving up the foothills like a crazy person, avoiding […]

Blog Exercise: Inspired by Photography

We are all inspired by photography, a picture that motivates and inspires, that moves us, sometimes to the point of changing our perspective on a subject or on our life. With all of the power found in photography, over the next few weeks I will be offering Blog Exercises with the emphasis on getting you […]

Blog Exercises: May Random Editing Day

May. It’s starting to warm up outside in the north, and growing a bit chilly down under, but it’s that time again. It’s the May Random Editing Day. In this Blog Exercise you will need to edit five random posts from among your thousands – okay, maybe dozens of published articles. What should you look […]

Blog Exercises: Backups and Alternatives

I didn’t expect to return home after a meeting this morning to find I have no telephone or Internet access on this bright sunshine, calm weather May day. I’ve got classes to prep for, sites to review for students and clients, article deadlines, these blog exercises to publish and keep to my year long commitment, […]

Blog Exercises: Prepare for Summer

It’s Editorial Calender check-in and check up time. May is the shift from spring to summer. From blossoming flowers to green leafed trees casting shade, the weather is changing, bringing warmer days to the northern hemisphere and colder temperatures down under. For those of us living in the Pacific Northwestern United States, we are experiencing […]

Blog Exercises: How to Write about Something Someone Else Wrote

In the early development of the web, blogs were classified as echo chambers, vessels of redundant content as every original idea was shared, reshared, quoted, and spread across the web at rapid speed. Some estimates state that less than 2% of all the content on the web is original. It’s mostly regurgitation of the same […]

Blog Exercises: Excerpts and Continue Reading

Encountered the front page of a blog where the posts ran on and on and on and on, stretching across the length of the page? Do you ever wish you had more control over the length of your posts on the front page of your site? This Blog Exercise explores the use of the “more” […]

Blog Exercises: How Long Are Your Paragraphs?

How long are your paragraphs? Have you measured them lately? One of the telling differences between traditional writing and writing for the web is the length of the paragraph. Look at the example below. Which is easier to read? On the left, the paragraphs are huge, long blocks of text. On the right, the paragraphs […]