Lorelle on WordPress has created images in her sidebar to link to favourite, popular posts and categories in her blog.

But, she has made the images look like more – I thought they were going to be ebooks she has written. Did you think the same (if you have seen them) too?

Could you do the same? Think about the posts which tend to get the most traffic from your older posts and rewrite the titles as an ebook title. Then create a little image file. Then pull up the posts you wrote and loved, the ones you thought would attract readers but just never took off. Dust off the dust bunnies and give them another chance. Do the same for your prime/ important category or categories.

Put a selection of the images in the sidebar, together. Keep them uniform in size and colour, etc. So they look like a set and will all seem to be something you did intentionally rather than random links to other sites or ads.

I bet you will get more clicks on them. I clicked on them in Lorelle’s blog sidebar because I thought they would be an interesting ebook to download and read.

Newsosaur on Twitter.

I don’t think news media will become extinct. We have the ability to evolve rather than become extinct. The communication will always be needed and wanted, but the media and the message need to be flexible. This isn’t easy because we tend to like our standards and resist change at the same time we are drawn to shiny and new things.

I should start collecting information on this, but for now I’m just posting this link. (See below).

I think there’s a chance cable TV service will become a dinosaur/ obsolete before the print newspapers even. People talk about the demise of publishing in print, but it costs less than a dollar to buy a whole newspaper and a whole lot more to keep your cable account paid each month. Which would you stick with longer?

Nielsen: 1.5M U.S. households cut the cord in 2011 — paidContent.

We’re a women-run not-for-profit group working to empower everyone to feel comfortable learning beginner-friendly technical skills in a social, collaborative way.

Ladies Learning Code started in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in June 2011 – with a tweet. It is through the hard work and dedication of many people (many, many more than are pictured here) that we bring to the Toronto community our take on monthly workshops and other events.

We are:

• marketers
• developers
• designers
• project managers
• business development managers
• research technicians
• marketing managers
• digital strategists
• community managers
• consultants

Ladies Learning Code (llcodedotcom) on Twitter.

Spread yourself out without spreading yourself thin.

This is my new motto. I think it can be done.

Time management and planning. Thinking of ways to combine tasks like promoting on social media that does some of the work itself, but not in a way that makes it too automatic so that it lacks any feeling of a human touch.

I’m working on it. One person can run a blog or a few of them, by herself. Without losing too much sanity or feeling overwhelmed.

It’s been awhile since I picked a Twitter profile as a best of for the month. I just haven’t come across a profile that especially made me laugh, think, or decide to follow someone based on just what he/ she had written in their Twitter profile. Today I found AnnaPuzzlemint. I like just being me. It’s so simple and yet so complicated at the same time.

I run one adult themed blog. It’s mainly for myself, a place to keep things that I wouldn’t post to other sites. Basically, it’s another niche site, but the content happens to be about sex and erotica. Today I moderated a spam comment which I feel is pretty gross. It gives a link to a site selling sex toys. I will cut and paste the comment in but I’m not linking to the site.

This made me realize I don’t have an adult content warning on my adult blog now. I had it up on Blogger where they automatically add the warning. So I began to look for adult content warning information online. I wanted to know what to write and then I was going to decide where to put it on the site. Instead I found a plugin which will work, bring up the warning as a pop up. This is perfect. It won’t be something else I need to fit into the sidebar. Plus, it will stand out and not be missed when someone enters my site.

What I do find interesting (and backwards) is how few adult content plugins there were (one). Also, when I began looking for information all the posts were about how to remove adult content warnings from sites. In most cases if an automatic adult content warning comes up there is a legitimate reason. Blogger wasn’t doing it just for kicks.

For Canadians I found a site, CyberTips, which asks people to report children being abused online. If you find a site trying to sell to minors, etc. It’s about protecting children and stopping child pornography. What it doesn’t seem to have is a way for those who run adult sites to know what they should or should not do. I guess we are left to our own judgement, which is why people are trying to remove adult content warnings rather than making sure they have them up.

Last point, the site which was linked to in the comment spam this morning has an adult content warning. Hidden at the bottom of the site and it doesn’t really say much. But, it does claim to be in compliance with the US laws. Is it really though? Or are the laws not tight enough in their protection of children? What do you think about adult content online?

See also:
Text Ed
Respect Yourself

I got the idea to make a post about WordPress plugins for writers. I use a few which help me and thought I’d share them. But, I found something interesting when I started looking around to see what other writers like to use. Almost every plugin written about as being “for writers” was for SEO in blogging. Almost none of the plugins reviewed as “for writers” were about writing. Does anyone else think that’s kind of a sad reflection on writing?

Here are the plugins I use which help me with actual writing online (not blog promoting – but blog writing).

• Custom About Author - Add your social media links and a blurb about yourself to the end of each of your posts.
• Dashboard: Scheduled Posts – This adds a feature to your WordPress desktop where you can store and view posts you have marked as scheduled/ saved as drafts to be finished later. I use this a lot!
• Sideblog WordPress Plugin – Run a side blog (in your sidebar) for short posts like quotes and notes.
• Drop Caps – I used this for awhile but didn’t stick with it. Fun for awhile, but not essential. It does work and was simple to set up.

The following are plugins I have not used myself but they sound interesting. Some of them I will download and try.

• NetBlog – Connect posts and external resources (websites, pdf, doc, data). Use Captions, Footnotes, Bibliography. Netblog is highly customizable.
• WP-Typography – Improve your web typography with: hyphenation, space control, intelligent character replacement, and CSS hooks.
• In-Series – I was thinking to use this to connect posts that I didn’t write as a series originally. I use related posts but this might be a way to hand-pick posts and turn them into a series.
• Graceful Pull-Quotes – Allows you to make pull-quotes without duplicating content. If the plugin is disabled the pull-quotes disappear seamlessly.
• Table of Contents Creator – Table of Contents Creator automatically generates a highly customizable dynamic site wide table of contents that is always up-to-date.
• WP Table of Contents – Add a table of contents to your post. This would be lovely for people who write long posts.
• Add to All – Add content to your header, footer, etc and keep it even if you change blog themes.
• Front-end Editor – Edit your typos without going back into the Admin screen.
• FD Word Statistics – Shows word and sentence counts plus a readability analysis of the post currently being edited using three different readability measurements.

Just for fun – not about writing.

• Quiz – An alternative to word verification, give commenters a question to answer instead.

Dynamic WP: 11 Useful WordPress Plugins for Wrtiers – These may be useful but they are not free. Some of them I didn’t think were useful when I read down the list but I’m adding the link here as a resource.

Don’t forget to check your sites for stupid mistakes that will annoy people trying to use your site. You WANT people to use your site, remember…

I found this while attempting to leave a comment on Pinterest. It’s annoying when a button blocks you from seeing what you are writing. I don’t think I had a typo. Of course, I couldn’t check until after I posted the comment. At least the button wasn’t quite fully blocking access to the ‘post’ button.

I’m tired of blogging advice, no matter how well meant it may be. It’s an endless, bottomless pit and most people think blogging for a few months makes them an expert. If you want to learn about blogging only listen to the people who really are successful at it. (However you measure success, not everyone thinks it involves money).

I listened to a webinar by Jon Morrow today. I didn’t hear anything new really. Nothing I hadn’t picked up from reading blogs online or listening to Jon Morrow’s other video posts about guest blogging. The almighty great secrets of great blogging are not so hard to find, if you listen and think for yourself.

I’ve been writing online and publishing my own blogs for more than ten years. I’m not a popular blogger, mostly because I’m just not that socially committed. I like being a hermit for 20 of the 24 hours. I like the quiet, I like having my own thoughts and not having to consider how other people will perceive my every hand gesture, facial expression or fashion sense. I’m an introvert and proud.

So, why do I still have some silly longing for fame and popularity? I think I just want some kind of recognition or approval. (I have Father issues which I won’t get into). I want people to know who I am and think I’m a somebody. Not for a long time. I want to crawl back under my rock when it suits me. Anyway… for those who want some quick insight here are my current thoughts abut blogging for fame and fortune.

First – Stop thinking so much about link building, SEO and viral marketing. None of that will work if nobody likes you. You have to start with a base of popularity before people will be interested in linking to you. You have to be recognized as worthy before the search engines will boost your site. You also have to be someone people think is important before they are going to pass around your post links.

So, you need to look at connecting with others, networking. Jon Morrow suggests you start at the top. I think you should start with yourself instead.

Look at the bloggers in your niche or related niches. There are always good blogs which aren’t getting much notice. Approach them, invite them to link build with you. You can build yourself into an authority, a popular blogger in your niche by becoming someone who other bloggers go to. Draw more bloggers to you. You get readers, you get links and you become the blogger everyone knows.

Then we come to the plan of action. Conversion is the term Jon Morrow gave it and he rates it as the last thing in his three step plan. I’d put it first. I think of it as incentive and bribery and giving people a reason to notice you once they get there. It’s also a chance for you to do some backwards promotion while gathering supporters and converting browsers into subscribers and fans of your site. You think that’s a lot to ask for?

Here is the scenario I dreamed up… Ask a print author for a review copy of their book. Review the book on your site. But, don’t stop there. Run an event around the author and his/ her book. Draw people in with a contest, winner gets the book. Your cost is mailing out the book and your own time. That’s all. But, you’ve got people interested in your site, you’ve given an author free promotion for their book, you’ve run a contest/ event AND you’ve given people a reason to come back to your blog for your next event.

It’s nice if other bloggers will link to you and promote your event. But, don’t make it a necessity. After all, you’re already holding out the carrot (the book to the contest winner). Let that lure them in. Also, let the author of the book get in on promoting the event and promoting their book through you. Run an interview with them at the very least. Quite likely they will also run a link to your event, it’s about them and their book after all.

I think you need to have your plan for this conversion in place before you begin focusing on networking with popular bloggers and getting them interested in you. You want the readers attracted this way to find something once they get to your site. It’s not enough to attract visitors and traffic – you want to keep them.

When you do approach popular bloggers think of something you can do for them. Check out their site, click on links and give it a general test drive. It’s not a big challenge to find an error, a broken link, a typo, etc. I send people notes about stuff like this on Twitter. I almost always get a thank you reply back. This is a decent opening you can use to start up a conversation. You’ve done something to help them, even something small like this is something real.

Read their posts and the comments they make. With your unique kills and knowledge and ingenuity… see if you can offer them a solution to a problem. Or, give them a fresh idea, fresh input. Someone who comes up with a solution to a problem is someone who will get noticed and be remembered.

Once you have your foot in the door, ask them a question. Ask something about a post they wrote. Ask them about an ebook they promote on their site. People like to talk about themselves. Just don’t ask a stupid question. There are stupid questions. Don’t ask where you can get their ebook if the link is on the front page of their site. Be real, sincere and interested in them.

When it comes to social media, go back to being social. Don’t try to force more keywords into your posts. Don’t try to come up with headlines that might go viral because they are dramatic or shocking or just plain rude and obnoxious. Talk to people, as if they are actually people you would talk to. Like me, people are getting tired of blogging advice, marketing advice and all the rest. Stop being a marketer for awhile and see how just being social, like someone part of a community, works for you.

Jon Morrow thinks guest posting is the way to go. I’m cynical on that. I’ve had too many awful requests from people who want to write guest posts. I don’t take any of them seriously now.

I do think you can still make your own fame and fortune without relying on just guest posting. But, I’ve been known to write a few and I still write for network sites – which is almost the same as guest posting, you just get paid for it.

Think about the blogs you read, the Twitter posts you are most likely to forward… then apply those feelings to yourself and the way you blog. Would you read your own content? Is it flat? Read about copy writing, find tips that make your blog posts more readable – easier on the eyes and memorable too.

So there’s my grand advice on the adventure of blogging. Subject to change without notice. The technology changes, the plans evolve but so far, there are always more people hoping to find fame and fortune writing at their keyboard.

Good luck… or best wishes, to us all.