Blog Exercises: Current Events January

Every month in this series of Blog Exercises I will ask you to check the news and report on something in the news that relates to you and/or your site’s purpose. It may directly relate or indirectly. Fascinated with the alignment of the planets, I wanted to share my enthusiasm with the ease of watching […]

Blog Exercises: Define Your Target Audience

The phrase “target audience” is an advertising and marketing phrase designed to help you aim your content at a specific group of people. Do you know your target audience? As a crafter, you may offer a wide range of craft ideas and projects, so your audience might be all crafters and do-it-yourself folks. If you […]

A Day of Healing and Suffering at the Clackamas Mall

“I feel greedy.” We stood in the cold outside the Clackamas Mall, arms wrapped around each other, watching the crowd expand to release individuals and couples to step forward and place their candles on the memorial stage. The faces of the two deceased smiled over the mournful group gathered before them. The photographs were snapshots […]

Exploring the Alignment of the Planets in the Night Sky

In anticipation of the planets alignment, I went digging for some cool Android apps to see the stars, and some awesome astronomy blogs to keep myself updated. Let’s start with the awesome astronomy bloggers. Blogging the Stars When I think about those blogging the stars, I don’t think Perez Hilton. I think about those truly […]

What My First WordPress College Class Taught Me

As the last day of class approaches for the world’s first WordPress College Course at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, and the next one begins in a couple weeks (filling fast), I’d like to share some lessons my students taught me about WordPress – and teaching. They taught me humility and pride. I stand truly […]

The Most Powerful Life Changing Conference Event, SOBCon, Comes to the Pacific Northwest

I’ve been tortured the past few weeks on how to convince you that attending SOBConNW 2011 on September 16-18, 2011, will change your life. As usual, when it comes to my favorite annual conference, I find myself wordless. It’s that profound. If the SOBConNW Program and descriptions at the SOBCon site doesn’t convince you, maybe […]

Taking Your Blog Off Topic

What happens when you take your blog off track and publish an off topic post? Do you ever take that risk? When you do, why do you do it and what’s the benefits or harm? In a two part series, Sam H, Editor of Football United, shared his insights on working with “hundreds of football […]

What’s Involved for a Speaker at a WordCamp Event

One of the greatest honors in my professional life is being asked to speak or keynote at a WordCamp or related event. I speak at professional conferences all the time, but there is something precious and wonderful about a WordPress Community event. I love attending them as well as actively participating in them. I’ve helped […]

SOBCon 2011: Successful Online Business Conference – The Must Be There Conference

I say this every year, and thank goodness a few people listen and change their lives. Here goes one more time: If you do anything this year to change your business, go to Successful Online Business Conference (SOBCon). This year we’re celebrating the fifth year of SOBCon, the life changing business event for bloggers, web […]

Stories of Our Journeys: The First Step Begins With You

One of the projects I am most proud of being a part of is the brand new Stories of Our Journeys produced by Bitwire Media as part of the Making My Life Network. Working with the incredible Kym Huynh, Stories of Our Journeys is a dream come true. Two years ago, Kym and I talked […]

WordCamp and WordPress Meetups – The Events Heard Round the World

This weekend is the granddaddy of WordCamps, WordCamp San Francisco 2009 on May 30, 2009. Registration is closed at over 700 attendees for this one day event packed with a ton of the top blogging, social media, search engine, business, and WordPress experts. I’ll be there, so be sure and find me for a hug. […]

Watching Launch of Kepler Space Mission Live

I love the Internet. As I write this, I am watching the launch live of the Kepler Mission on NASA TV from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Kepler satellite will be launched into an Earth-trailing solar orbit to get above the Earth’s atmosphere for a clearer view of outer space with its […]

WordCamp Las Vegas Began With Blogger and Social Parties

Last weekend, my world was rocked in so many ways at 2009 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and WordCamp Las Vegas. I have so much to tell you about my experience, but you’ll have to settle for pictures right now. The first set of photographs started with a blogging event at CES with Robert Scoble […]

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: 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 […]