How is Blogging Like Stand-up Comedy

Eddie Dickey at Lending a Voice brought up an interesting point that I just had to talk about. It struck me recently how blogging/podcasting seems at times to be like stand up comedy. Back in ‘92 I took a course at the New School in NYC in stand-up comedy. And the final was an appearance […]

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: Stand Up For Freedom of Speech

There are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven you can’t say on television. What a ratio that is! 399,993 to 7. They must really be baaaad. They must be OUTRAGEOUS to be separated from a group that large. “All of you words over here, you seven…baaaad words.” That’s what they told […]

WordPress Stats and Numbers: Breaking Their Own Records

Working on developing a core of WordPress classes for Clark College and preparing for the next “Introduction to WordPress” college course in a couple weeks, I’ve put together some statistics on WordPress you might find helpful – and stunning. WordPress continues to break records set by others, but more often lately, break records set by […]

Disclosure Now Required on Blogs, Twitter, and Other Social Media Sites

With the news that the UK is cracking down on those blogging and tweeting for pay without disclosure, and California law making online impersonation potentially illegal, social media and blogging are taking a hit. In summary, if you pretend to be someone you aren’t, famous or not, or blog about a product or service for […]

Saying Goodbye to Delicious, MyBlogLog, AltaVista, and Larry King

With the announcement that Yahoo! will retire Delicious, MyBlogLog, Altavista and other Yahoo! services, WordPress users around the world will have their blogging habits change. UPDATE: I’ve updated the news on WordCast with Delicious Lives – Yahoo! Might Not. Yahoo! and Delicious announced that Delicious will not close. They are looking at selling or spinning […]

Summer Blog-b-que for Bloggers

It’s time to celebrate blogging and summer in the Portland, Oregon, area. If you are a blogger, come join the summer Blog-b-que! We’re hosting the first ever Blog-b-que at the home of Lorelle and Brent VanFossen in North Plains, Oregon, on Sunday, August 30, 2009, and you are welcome to join us. We’re inviting WordPress, […]

The Art of the Fan-Based Blog: Continuing to Fight the Good Fight

By DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone Now, if you’ve been following my series on The Art of the Fan-Based Blog, you’ve got a blog, you’ve got readers, you’ve got content. Have I forgotten anything? Oh, yeah. Burnout and how to keep fighting the good fight for your celebrity, readers, and fellow fans. Here […]

The Art of the Fan-Based Blog: Connections Make the Blog and the Community

By DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone Another treasure trove of knowledge from my series on The Art of the Fan-Based Blog that can help you to be a successful fan blogger is to reach out to your peers, fandom webmasters. You’ve build the community, now it’s time to make those connections pay off. […]

The Art of the Fan-Based Blog: Community Wins

By DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone I can promise you, your site won’t be much fun at all unless you start building a community of loyal readers to interact through comments and help enrich the blogging experience for all of your readers, not just yourself. A huge part of the fandom site experience […]

The Art of the Fan-Based Blog: Copyrights for You and Your Content Sources

By DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone I know I just recommended aggregating news stories from sources outside of your blog in my series on The Art of the Fan-Based Blog, and that search engines were your friend. They are. However, I cannot stress this enough, be extremely mindful of every single word or […]

Duke DesRochers: Future Social Media Renaissance Man

In this modern world where entertainment has many fronts, movies, network television, cable television, and the web, The Food Network is among many entertainment companies trying to notch it up and take advantage of online social media to find The Next Food Network Star. My cousin, Duke DesRochers, has entered the contest, and as far […]

Taking Action on Blog Action Day October 15, 2008

Blog Action Day 2008 is October 15th this year and the topic up for bloggy discussion is poverty. The site offers a lot of suggestions on ways to blog about poverty including technology blogs exploring poverty fighting initiatives, a political blog comparing candidate positions on the issue, and a sports blog covering charity activities by […]

Don’t Write Away Your Rights

Jonathan Bailey has done it again with a superb guidelines article on the Blog Herald called Don’t Sign Away Your Rights, which bloggers need to read now. Many bloggers dream about getting a recurring guest blogging position. Whether paid or unpaid, many bloggers toil in relative obscurity for years before being offered a chance to […]

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 […]