Reader Appreciation Project: Putting Readers First

Ronald Huereca writes for the Reader Appreciation Project blog and recently caught my attention with My Thoughts on Being Paid to Post. When one starts blogging for money, there are new considerations. Who am I really writing for? Am I writing for my new boss that will pay me per post? Am I writing for […]

Blog Exercises: Dissecting Post Categories

In a recent article, Noah Weiss shared his struggle to figure out categories and tags on his personal site. I know many of you following these Blog Exercises have also struggled to figure out your categories, so I thought Noah’s site would be a perfect example, He has gratefully given me permission to rip his […]

Blog Exercises: Increase Your Thank You Ratio

As a teacher, trainer, social media expert, and advice giver on many blogs, I don’t want to hear your excuses in response to my advice. “Well, if I only had the money…” Really? Since WordPress, the tools I recommend, and the advice I offer is free. What does money have to do with anything I […]

WordPress Anniversary: WordPress and Evil

As I look back on the ten years of WordPress, there is a dark side to blogging. While many blamed WordPress for the evil, like guns, WordPress doesn’t cause evil, people cause evil. In fact, WordPress, Automattic, and the WordPress Community has fought longer and harder against the evil doers in the world than most […]

Blog Exercises: Backlinks

Known as incoming links or referrer links, backlinks are links pointing from an external site to your site, directing their readers to you as a resource. Timethief of “one cool site blogging tips” describes backlinks as: Backlinks to your content are like votes for your blog. The more backlinks your blog receives the higher it […]

How to Manage Multiple Bloggers on WordPress

I’m speaking at WebVisions on “Managing Multiple Bloggers in WordPress” on Thursday, May 26, 2011, at 11:30AM in Portland, Oregon. The following is part of a series of articles on the topic and notes from my presentation. Crap! When it comes to managing multiple bloggers, crap is a word – hell, a sentence – used […]

Blog Struggles: Trackbacks Count

At a blog conference recently, I overheard the following exchange over a laptop as part of a blog review exercise: “For your blog to be successful, you need more comments on your blog posts.” “I have plenty of comments on my blog. See, this one has 14 comments.” “That post has only one comment. The […]

Define Blog Success: A Better World Because You Blogged

With all the hoopla of lately to find a definition for blogging, a friend forwarded this as a possible description of a successful blog. Success: To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false […]

When a Comment Requires the Honest Truth

Maybe it was one of those days. Maybe it was something in the air. Today, I had six comments that required the honest truth as a response. Not the tempered, kinder and gentler response but the hard cold truth. The kind of truth you have to give knowing that some can’t take it. Not all […]

Learning from the Voices of WordCamp Dallas

Charles Stricklin, the host of WordCamp Dallas 2008 and The WordPress Podcast has released The Voices of WordCamp Dallas, a collection of quick interviews and questions I asked during the event. I was so amazed at how open everyone was, willing to share their thoughts on WordPress, WordCamp, blogging, and the magic of the web […]

Liz Strauss at WordCamp Dallas Transcript: 60,317 Comments

The Reader Appreciation Project has a transcript of Liz Strauss at WordCamp Dallas, along with the video. Her presentation was about the blog conversation and social networking, her claim to fame. She cemented that fame with the number 60,317. That’s the number of comments on her blog. One of the points she made resounded with […]

Strip Down Your Blog: CSS Naked Day

Get ready to go naked. On April 9th, 2008, hundreds, possibly thousands, of blogs and websites will go naked in honor of CSS Naked Day. Join fellow WordPress bloggers in honoring web designers and WordPress Theme builders by going naked. This is the third year of the annual CSS Naked Day which honors web design […]

Cancer Blogs and Bloggers

Over the past year, National Public Radio’s blog and radio series called “My Cancer” has been an amazing portraly of life living, and dying, with cancer. Called NPR: My Cancer, it is frank and open, discussing the daily aspect of life with cancer. A lot of times, I sit at my computer, trying to figure […]

Weekly Digest: Lorelle Recovers on the Road, Reports on Conspiracy Theories, With More Challenges and Struggles

I’m finally recovering from an ugly sick and catching up with my behind. SIGH. I’ve got to get healthy as plans are in the works for a very 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 […]

The Dos and Don’ts of Blogging

In Basic Blogging Etiquette, Do’s And Don’ts, Plagiarism, Deb shares some tips to help bloggers blog better: I’ve discovered since I started blogging that it’s not possible to be a lone ranger. If you had started your blog as a private diary and you’re satisfied with three visitors a day: your mother, your boyfriend and […]