Question: What Will You Not Blog About?

In What Will You Not Blog About? on the Blog Herald, I asked readers to tell me what line they will not cross when it comes to blog content. What will you NOT blog about. The responses have been very interesting. A few bloggers take a no-holds-barred approach, blogging on everything and anything they want. […]

Blog Exercises: Making Notifications and Alerts Work for You

In the blog exercise on eliminating noisy distractions from your computer, mobile phone, and other areas around your working environment, I wanted you to remove the things that interfere with your blogging time and space, with your creative energies. I wanted you to identify what is getting in your way that you might not be […]

Blog Exercises: Making Drafts Work For You Not Against

During a year of teaching WordPress in college and at workshops and training events, I may help a minimum of 300 people set up WordPress.com sites annually. As they add content to their site, filling in all the blanks, they often publish content not quite ready for prime time, capped with a note-to-self to “fix […]

Blog Exercises: What If You Knew You Could Not Fail

I helped a writer set up her first blog today, encouraging her to share her stories as part of the process moving towards becoming a published author. We talked about how a site will help her, not just with marketing, promotion, and community building, but also by rethinking how she writes, what she writes, and […]

Blog Exercises: When Will You Not Link?

There are few people I hate in this world. I think I can count them on one hand, mostly on two fingers. We all have them, people who did us wrong and taught us to disrespect, dread, dislike, and even hate them. As tolerant as we wish we all were, that’s just the way of […]

Blog Challenge: Blog About Something You Know Nothing About

While this might be easy for some, it will be a real challenge for others. Your blog challenge this week is: To blog about something you know nothing about. Not just anything, but something you really know nothing about. It doesn’t have to be interesting to you, since you know nothing about it or never […]

Writing with Single Lines Not Double in Your Blog Posts

If you are a poet, quoting poetry, write out an address, recipe, or need to create a block of text featuring single lines not double lines between each line, here’s how. By default, WordPress and most blogging programs turn every line into a paragraph. When you hit the ENTER or RETURN button on your keyboard, […]

Mainstream Corporations – You Do Not Get to Blog

Bob Cauthorn in Corante writes “Memo to mainstream media: You don’t get to blog” and it’s a brilliant poke at companies and ad agencies who think blogging is the latest, hottest, next best technique to capture an audience’s attention and sell them things. According to Cauthorn – You do not get to blog. “… I’m […]

Blog Exercise: New Years Reboot, Restart, Kick Ass

“It’s that time of year when the world falls in love…” The Christmas Waltz by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn I’d like to think that New Year’s thinking includes bringing back the love to your blog. You might not think that, but let’s go with that belief as we continue with this year’s Blog Exercises. […]

Blog Exercises: Which Stats Matter

In this ongoing series called Blog Exercises, let’s explore the stats that matter, the ones you should be paying attention to on your site and off. On your site, you should be paying attention to: Most Popular Posts: Are your most popular posts related by topic? If so, there is clearly a driving interest in […]

Blog Exercises: Blog a Conversation

In this ongoing series called Blog Exercises, today you will blog a conversation. “I don’t want to.” “Sure, you do.” “Nah. Don’t want to.” “This is a chance to improve your blogging.” “Uh-huh.” “This is a change to improve your writing skills.” “Nope.” “You will do it because I said so. Got it?” “Okay.” Writing […]

Blog Exercises: What Do You Mean By That?

Standing with a group of bloggers at a conference recently, someone said something and another blogger asked, “What do you mean by that?” I don’t remember the topic, but I loved the response. This was a person who wanted to know more. They didn’t want to just assume they knew what the other was talking […]

Blog Exercises: Are You Trending?

In social media, trending are topics attracting the attention of most of the people, thus popular. Unfortunately, trending topics are self-feeding, an accident along the highway where everyone wants to slow down and take a look. Then they want to tell others about it so they can look. Walking by a student glued to their […]

Blog Exercises: Ingredients of a Well-Designed Site

I was asked by a student in my WordPress class recently what defined a “professional blog,” one that met all the criteria for a well-designed, well-formed site that met web standards. What a marvelous question! We brainstormed all the elements that make up a web standard site, and mixed in personal preferences of the students […]

Blog Exercises: I Don’t Have Any Comments

I hear this complaint frequently from new and long time bloggers. “I don’t have any comments. How can I get more comments?” First of all, let me explain something. You don’t want comments. Yes, that’s right. You do not want comments. At least not comments from anyone. If you just want comments, be content with […]