Blog Exercises: Sex Changes and Age Matters

I often get comments that say “Thank you, sir” or emails through my contact forms addressed to Mr. Lorelle. In France, “Lorelle” is a last name as popular as Johnson in English countries. I understand that “Lorelle” is a tough name to identify with a sex. Not the point. I live online in a world […]

Blogging Challenge: Who Is Your Favorite Sexy Blogger?

Wired has released their “Favorite Sexy Geek” list, and I couldn’t find a blogger on the list. So it made me wonder. Think back across the past year and your blogging challenges is to tell us who you think would be on your favorite sexy blogger list this year? Now, there are some guidelines. A […]

Horse Sex and What is Dictating Your Blog’s Content?

In a wonderful column by Seattle Times’ Danny Westneat called “Horse Sex Story Was Online Hit”, Westneat examines the top online stories for 2005. And it isn’t your normal look at a top 10. The top stories were those that were posted online and got the highest traffic counts. In his words: Only this list […]

Designing a Rainbow – Sexy Hot Colors

When it comes to mixing up a rainbow of colors for your WordPress blog or website, one of my personal favorites is Color Schemer. You can pick a color and it will show colors related and in the color theme for that color, darken or lighten it, or mix up some other features to find […]

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Replaced by Sex, Drugs, and Mortgage Rates

“Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Replaced by Sex, Drugs and Mortgage Rates” That should be the newspaper headings across the planet. But it’s not. So I decided to make it one. “Bloggers Attacked by Sex, Drugs and Mortgage Rates” Is that a better attention getting headline? The reality is that bloggers and websites with […]

Sex Sells – How To Nail a Sexy Layout

Well, without a doubt, sex sells. One of the hottest tagged articles making the rounds of tagging directories is How To Nail a Sexy Layout by Addicted To New. The article is actually pretty good. It dissects the process of developing a new, hot and sexy layout for their client. What I don’t like is […]

Blog Exercise: When Was the Last Time You Got Personal

I walked into a friend’s home and found the fridge covered with refrigerator art from her seven year old. The traditional home often features such childhood artwork but this was extremely precious as the child has learning disabilities and drawing. The artwork was beautiful. I stood there transfixed at the crude scribbles, trying to find […]

Blog Exercises: Are You Setting an Example for Others?

A milestone in personal rights seemed to have been achieved recently when US basketball player, Jason Collins declared publicly he was gay, hopefully setting an example for others that it is now “safe” to come out of the closet. The news in and around his announcement has me thinking about heroes, mentors, and risk-takers, those […]

Blog Exercises: I Thought You Would Appreciate This Gratuitous Picture

For many years it was thought that every post published on a blog had to feature a gratuitous image, some photograph that would lure people to click through and read the article. The myth perpetuated itself, which myths tend to do, and many still publish content with gratuitous imagery. A gratuitous image is one that […]

WordPress Anniversary: Comment Spam Lessons

It’s hard to believe that I’ve learned much from comment spammers over the years. I’ve learned that they are among the most hated folks in the world, yet you have to respect them as well. As I look back on ten years of blogging with WordPress on this 10th Anniversary year, I realized that comment […]

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 […]

Blog Exercises: Site Policies and Bloggers Code of Ethics

It’s time to start working on all of your site policies, one by one. So far, we’ve touched on some of these in Blog Exercises: The Don’ts of Blogging, Blog Exercise: Taking a Risk With What You Blog About, Blog Exercises: Comments and The Blog Bullies, and Blog Exercises: Quoting and Blockquotes. The basic policies […]

Blog Exercises for March

March was a busy month in my Blog Exercises series. Wow, are we already done with the third month in this year long series? The participants explored a wide variety of blog exercises on editing, blogger identity, content organization, and web writing. There were exercises to motivate and inspire you, and help you inspire your […]

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: Make Post Titles Matter

Post titles are the titles of the articles you publish on your site. They represent the subject matter of the article. Newspapers and magazines are famous for their sensationalism when it comes to titles, lurking in readers with “Sexy Siren Stabs Six.” Or they include number counts to impress. “101 Best Ways to Cook a […]