blog(a)gory

xkcd: Starwatching

2008-05-29T07:24:00.003-05:00

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Guest Bloggers

2008-05-22T09:16:00.002-05:00

If you read my other blogs, you probably already know we have had some emergencies within the family that led to me putting blogging on the back burner. While I hope to be back soon, I am opening my blogs to guest bloggers.

Since blog(a)gory is about blogging, what better place to host guest bloggers. Guest posts can be about blogging, tools, blog promotion, social networking, web design, SEO, tools, conferences, or even an article about your own blog and why you write it. Your post will include your URL(s) and will bring blog(a)gory traffic back to your site.

If you are interested in writing a guest post please contact me directly at christa at linuxchic.net or leave a comment. Include your URL, your email address, and what you would like to write about and I will follow-up with you. I would like to host several guest posts per week over the next few weeks.

Thanks for your patience, understanding, and loyalty to blog(a)gory while I am on hiatus. I look forward to hearing from you.

Upgrade to WordPress 2.5 the Fast and Easy Way

2008-04-10T09:49:00.002-05:00

WordPress 2.5 is out and the new interface and features make it a slick version to upgrade to. You should upgrade self hosted WordPress blogs for security reasons if not just for the looks and functionality. Technorati has issued an ultimatum to those who do not upgrade to help keep the spam and splogs out of their directory.

There are several methods of upgrading your WP blog including downloading and copying over your old install, using SVN to check out the upgraded files, and one of the fanciest and slickest methods I have found is to use the WordPress Automated Upgrade plugin.

The WordPress Automated Upgrade plugin does exactly what it's title says. Once you install and activate the plugin you can go to Manage in your Dashboard to prepare the upgrade through the plugin control panel. It downloads the latest version of WordPress, backs up your DB and files (don't forget to download them), puts your blog in maintenance mode, disables your plugins, then upgrades your install. After it is complete it checks your plugins before activating them.

Once you have upgraded to 2.5 you can automagically upgrade plugins from within the WordPress Dashboard to make sure you have all the latest and greatest (and patched and compatible) plugins for your install. WordPress upgrades and administration has never been so easy.

I upgraded several of my blogs using this plugin from a patched 2.3.2 version to 2.5. It was seemless and my themes worked just fine afterwards.

If you are interested in more information about WordPress 2.5 check out the FAQ posted at Weblog Tools Collection. They have compiled a great list of questions and answers about the upgrade and added a second post for the FAQ to answer even more questions readers had.

Beautiful (FREE) WordPress Themes

2008-04-08T09:26:00.002-05:00

SmashingMagazine has a list of 20 free professional and truly first class themes guaranteed to make your WordPress blog a sight to behold. Now is definitely a good time to consider revamping the look of your blog.

Increase Your Exposure

2008-03-26T15:36:00.005-05:00

One of the quickest ways to increase your exposure is to guest blog on another blog. Not only does it bring traffic in from the visitors of the other site but it also allows you to post about topics that might be off topic or even more specific from the subject of your main blog.

Remember though, if you are blogging about a completely different topic than your main site, the visitors might not be interested in both subjects and it won't necessarily increase your traffic substantially. If will however give you more experience as well as a chance to write about other interests.

The biggest roadblock for most people though is finding a blog that will welcome your posts. For those just getting started or with limited options for guest blogging, there are several services which will happily take your blogging submissions.

HubPages: An online publishing ecosystem it calls posts "Hubs" and allows them to provide commentary or rich media utilizing images and videos. Since Hubs are free floating posts, you can write about any topic in any niche and are not tied to just one subject. Hubs can be organized into groups so that visitors can view Hubs from different authors on similar topics quickly and easily. Hubbers (HubPages authors) have a chance to share revenue from their posts as well by imputing their Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliates ID, or Commision Junction ID into the system. My favorite thing about HubPages is their Requests System. Through the Requests you can get great ideas for Hub topics by looking at what other people are hoping to read and not finding.

Squidoo - Squidoo is also a no long-term commitment service that allows you to publish individual posts on varied topics. Squidoo calls their version of the single post or page a Lens and also allows you to share the revenue or donate your portion to charity. Squidoo is very popular as a method of sending traffic to your blog.

Gather - Gather socializes the content it's members create allowing posts, images, and audio created by it's author community to come together for similar topics. Gather also shares the revenue from the ads that are displayed on your content that is published at their site.

Qassia - Qassia helps new bloggers promote their site by adding "intel" (their word for content) to the Qassia network. The more intel you contribute, the more "credits" you earn (backlinks) thereby the higher the rank for your site. Qassia also has a revenue sharing system promising 100% gross revenue to the authors of the intel. Unfortunately, Qassia is currently in a closed beta period so if you want to get started before it is opened to the public you will need a referal from someone who already has an account (you can click signup from a members' profile page).

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15 Stats Services to Track Your Site Visitors

2008-03-17T12:56:00.005-05:00

While there are more than 15 stats providers out there, I wanted to compile a list of those that I have found to be the best or the most used by the communities. If you have found one that I missed, please leave a comment and tell me about it.

SiteMeter - Easy to install javascript or html tracking code with detailed tracking for a free account and more robust reports for the premium accounts. Stats can be emailed weekly as well as being viewable on the SiteMeter website.
ClickyWeb Analytics 2.0 - Javascript tracking code with a 2.0 feel to the reporting dashboard and a high level of detail available on your visitors. Easy integration into your blog as well as your WordPress site. Up to three domains for free with other packages available for purchase.
GoogleAnalytics - Javascript tracking code for stats analytics to compliment website adwords campaigns. "Google Analytics helps you find out what keywords attract your most desirable prospects, what advertising copy pulled the most responses, and what landing pages and content make the most money for you."
StatsCounter - Simple and free stats recording for your website providing hit counting, tracking, and web stats.
WordPress.com Stats - Stats plugin from WordPress.com which enables you to track visitors and stats from WordPress.com dashboard even on blogs hosted elsewhere. While free, you will need a WordPress.com account to get the API code to enable the stats.
Feedburner Stats - The Google purchase of Feedburner flipped all the pro services to a free for all status. Feedburner stats, once enabled tracks your feed subscriptions and hits and with a code insertion on your site, can track your site statistics as well.
Mint - Mint is an extensible, self-hosted web site analytics program. Its interface is an exercise in simplicity. Visits, referrers, popular pages and searches can all be taken in at a glance on Mint's flexible dashboard. Mint is not a free services and prices start at $30 per domain.
AWStats - AWStats is a free powerful and featureful tool that generates advanced web, streaming, ftp or mail server statistics, graphically. This log analyzer works as a CGI or from command line and shows you all possible information your log contains, in few graphical web pages. It uses a partial information file to be able to process large log files, often and quickly. It can analyze log files from all major server tools like Apache log files (NCSA combined/XLF/ELF log format or common/CLF log format), WebStar, IIS (W3C log format) and a lot of other web, proxy, wap, streaming servers, mail servers and some ftp servers. AWStats must be installed locally on the webserver or where ever it can access the webserver log files. AWStats is a free product.
Webalizer - The Webalizer is a fast, free web server log file analysis program that produces summaries of traffic from webserver log files. Webalizer is free software.
103bees - It's an online service for webmasters, bloggers and internet marketers that is highly focused on natural search engine traffic analytics. 103bees provides real-time statistics and detailed information on search terms making it a great tool for search engine optimization (SEO) and internet marketing.
Firestats - A locally installed stats system supporting any PHP page (Standalone), Django Drupal, Gallery2, Gregarius, Joomla, MediaWiki, trac, WordPress, and WordPress MU. Firestats is free for non-commercial use.
GoStats - Packed with lots of great features, including information on page views, return visitors, and page popularity, this free hit counter is a quick and easy to use tool for determining how many people visit your website. A pro version is also available.
SlimStat - A free self hosted stats program originally part of ShortStat. A ready made WordPress plugin is available in WP-SlimStat.
Performancing Metrics - Is the exact same stats program as ClickyWeb Analytics 2.0 but running on the Performancing domain and on a different database for the backend. If you already use Performancing you can use your login here rather than create a new account at Clicky.
eXTReMe Tracking - Free tracking service showing numbers, percentages, stats, totals and averages from simple counting your visitors until tracking the keywords they use to find you.

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A Grain of Salt with Google Analytics

2008-03-17T11:13:00.010-05:00

While not a huge fan of Google Analytics I find it a necessary evil for compiling my stats from all my sites. Typically, Google Analytics only reports a small fraction of my actual site traffic for Alternageek.com. Being a podcast we have traffic to our RSS feeds and that traffic gets missed. Also, if a browser is blocking javascript, that visitor won't get counted either. If a browser is blocking Google from setting a cookie when visiting your site, your number of uniques will be off from the actual number of uniques vs. returning visitors.

Take Google Analytics stats with a grain of salt. If you are running a stats system on your webserver that greps your webserver logs (Apache access logs and such) then your webserver reported numbers are going to be the most accurate numbers out there. Your webserver logs will report how many times it is requested to serve up content from your site.

Many advertising companies require you to have a third party stats reporting system because they just don't trust you to give accurate measurement. The problem with Google Analytics is that is requires javascript to be executed to count visitors. For a lot of websites, that might not be a major issue, but if you are a tech related site, you might see a huge discrepancy in the reports when looking at Google Analytics especially if your audience is mainly tech savy power users.

Browsers have the capability of blocking cookies and javascript from executing which will cause the stats reported back to Google to be inaccurate and possibly considerably lower than your actual traffic. Firefox addons such as No Script block execution of malicious scripts to protect users but also end up blocking your tracking code which mucks up your numbers.

What is a lowly blogger to do? My suggestion is to use more than one statistics system and use the average of them. Don't just pick three javascript stats systems, pick different systems with different reporting methods.

If you are hosting your own website, check with your host to see if they offer AWStats. AWStats is an open source application that uses your website access logs to report traffic and stats in a human readable format. I run BetterAWStats in addition to AWStats to make the layout of the reports even easier to use. Another self-hosted stats program available is Mint. Costs for Mint start at $30 per domain tracked.

A great third party reporting system is SiteMeter. Sitemeter has a javascript tracker and an html tracker so you can pick either to grab stats. You will lose referring site information for visitors if you don't use the javascript code but you will catch visitor counts for those who block the code. A basic account is free and there are commercial packages available for a fee which provide more robust reporting.

Another option is using a reporting system that uses an image to track hits rather than a script (such as SiteMeter's non javascript tracking code). There are browser options and plugins to block images as well so this method will have it's own list of pros and cons.

Overall, Google Analytics has it's advantages when using Google Adsense because it's integration is unparralled. If you are looking to track the effectiveness of your advertising campains Google Analytics can't be beat but if you want reliable traffic reporting, you should use other stats apps in addition to Google's.

Thursday: 15 Stats Services to Track your Visitors

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Beautiful Blogger Templates

2008-03-17T10:22:00.004-05:00

While I use WordPress for most of my blogs, I decided to put blog(a)gory on Blogger to vary my experience a little bit. When it comes to themes and templates, I spend a lot of frustrating time trying to tweak Blogger to the look and feel that I get with WordPress themes. There are many reasons the Blogger fans love Blogger and there is no reason you shouldn't be able to get a wonderful design for your blog even if you aren't a XML or CSS wizard.

Here are two sites with beautiful Blogger templates to get you going on your way to a beautiful blog:

WordPress.com Howto Video Tutorial

2008-03-14T14:07:00.002-05:00

The following is a video on how to setup a WordPress.com account and start blogging with a free WordPress.com hosted blog. This is a long video (45 minutes) and is a great tutorial for getting started (even with some of the annoying little quips throughout the video).

Compelling Clicks with a Post Title

2008-02-21T12:49:00.005-06:00

That little one liner at the top of your post has a lot riding on it. Your audience and prospective audience decides in a quick second whether they are going to read your post or not based on the title and perhaps the first few lines of the post. There are several different ways your content is being delivered:

Website - Readers are coming straight into your blog to see what is new. The first post they see is the most recent. After they are done reading they might be looking to see what else you have published and descriptive and catchy titles in the list of previous posts can do a lot to keep them there.
RSS Feed - Readers have subscribed to your feed or are viewing other's shared items through Google Reader or the like. A well written title can mean the difference between reading/clicking and scrolling right on by.
Search Engine Results - Congrats! Your blog post was served up as a result to their search, is your title what they are looking for?

Even if your blog is a type of narrative journal, it would be much more interesting to a reader of your daily diary was titled "Near Miss Collision" rather than just "Another Exciting Day" about your daily commute in rush hour traffic and will most likely gather more clicks. If your post is about solving a problem give a summary of the solution in your title.

Want to know more about creating great titles? Check out 8 Ways of Creating Compelling Blog Post Titles for more wonderful suggestions on hooking your potential readers with your post titles.

Change is about Conversation

2008-02-04T10:44:00.001-06:00

The standard model of the decision making process involves management and upper management discussions with a verdict passed down through the ranks. Managers act as representatives of their people and like every political system they don't always bring their peoples' best interests to the table. It may be because they don't agree with the position of their subordinates, they don't understand the position they are trying to support, or there could be ulterior motives for their position.

To create a system with checks and balances committees are formed and the conversation is broadened. Higher-ed has understood the importance of a broad conversation for quite sometime and if you have ever been a part of the decision making process in a higher-ed institution you are aware of just how broad the attendance in meetings can get.

The downside to these committees is that the more people you engage in the conversation the longer the process becomes. With high tech, new media, and the internet decisions are being made at the speed of light and a longer process can seem unnecessary to those not accustomed to the process. An open conversational forum is needed to allow for debate and a richer experience within the organization and among it's participants.

Change is about conversation. No matter what the final outcome or the original purpose of the conversation the people involved in it are richer because of it. They have learned new things and seen things from a fresh perspective which will overflow to other projects and goals.

Listen, be heard, and change something.

Link: Top Best 50 Blogger & Wordpress Customizations Tips ( Hacks )

2008-01-24T18:42:00.000-06:00

Emma Alvarez has written a post listing some hacks for your WordPress blog (and a few work on any platform) to help you customize any theme and make it yours. Some of the cool ones include links for:

Adding a Favicon (you know those little images that show up next to the URL in your browser's address bar)
Adding a Digg button to your posts
Adding more page elements (widgets, sections and such)
Adding category images
Adding the ability to make posts sticky
Customizing the WordPress login screen
Redirecting a 404 to something worthwhile, you know, like content.

Just please for the sake of all that is good and wonderful in the world don't add background music to your website. I am trying to be all puppies and kittens here, but ack.

Link-o-the-day: 10 blogs every blogger should read

2008-01-24T17:49:00.000-06:00

This is a great post that lists the cream of the crop blogs you should read as a blogger and if you haven't started with these, then you should. The links include Problogger, Shoemoney and more. This isn't a list of the jive talkers, these are folks making money blogging, writing great content, offering realistic tips, and sharing their successes and failures with the world.

10 blogs every blogger should read

BlogHer '08 In San Francisco

2008-01-23T22:12:00.000-06:00

The BlogHer conferences site is live and full of information about upcoming conferences.

BlogHer Business ’08

April 3-4, 2008, New York, NY

BlogHer '08
July 18-20, 2008, San Francisco, CA

Reach Out Tour '08

October 2008

BlogHer's mission is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment. BlogHer isn't just for women, men are welcome to attend, volunteer, and participate. BlogHer invite everyone to attend and even offer financial assistance in exchange for volunteering. The program called Blogherships, help make the conference available to everyone. Visit the BlogHer Blogerships post for more information or to volunteer.

Illustrating Your Blog

2007-12-16T18:37:00.000-06:00

I love an entertaining blog! Not just one with great writing but one with an occasional illustration to break up the text. Sometimes the illustrations are professional photography but most of the time they aren't. Does the lack of a professional photo make the illustration any less appealing? I really don't think so. Every blog post doesn't need a fabulous graphic to go with it but there are times where I can't imagine reading the post without a visual aid.

Such is the case with a celebrity/gossip blog. Can you imaging reading a post about the outfit Lindsay Lohan dared to walk the red carpet in without a picture of it? A product review at a tech blog is enhanced by an image of the gadget, a foodie post is even more delectable when you can see the entrée about to be consumed, and the devastations of the last ice storm are brought to reality with images of damaged trees and property. Some blog posts don't even need actual photographs, a simple drawing created in MS Paint or Gimp can perfectly illustrate the point being made in the blog post.

BlogKC has an excellent example of a simple sketch really bringing out a post. In a post on December 13th by William Rockhill Nelson titled Grandview Triangle "finished", he describes the irony of how "new road capacity will soon generate more traffic until the congestion returns at a higher level."

This was a good post on it's own but the illustration on the post takes it to a whole different level. With his sketch even the unfamiliar will get the gist (including the humorous frustration) of the issue.

Be it a sketch, diagram, snapshot or what-have-you, illustrations within your blog posts can help add more detail and meaning to your writing. Just make sure when including images that you have the right to use them and that you follow the instructions for using them if they are not your own.

Who are you when you blog?

2007-11-20T13:06:00.000-06:00

Blogging names still appear to be a hot topic. In the earlier days of the net screen names that had nothing to do with your real name were common place. Unless someone was publishing for their company or in forums for technical support, hardly anyone used real names. Now that the internet population is varied more than it used to be (rather than just a majority of geeks) what name you go by seems to be a more important issue than it used to be.

I still use the name Linuxchic because it is one I have used since the 90's. I like it because it reflects my personality. I have associated my "real name" with my internet name in the last few years because I am not as worried as I used to be about who I am. Maybe I am just getting old or mainstream. Blogging under an assumed name or screen name is still very much an option and is especially attractive for women on the net. Unfortunately online and offline harassment, threats, and stalking (re: the Kathy Sierra case) are still a big concern for many.

I was recently reading an interesting post by Penelope Trunk on her blog Brazen Careerist. The post was dated July 19, 2007 and titled Blog under your real name and ignore the harassment. An excellent point she makes is that blogging can be good for your career. If you write a technology blog for example, it could be a very good addition to your resume or may even turn out to give you leads. This could be a problem if you aren't blogging under your real name. When employers look over your resume and your blog and see two different names you might never have the chance to explain it before your resume is set aside.

Another excellent point made is that women using an assumed name online, unless it is a name of the opposite sex, won't protect them from receiving harassing or insulting comments or emails. As Penelope Trunk points out:

Online men pick on women because they are women . For example, Mike Arrington, a highly influential technology journalist, inexplicably insulted, the topic (knitting) of a very successful web site aimed at women. And each week I receive many comments on Yahoo Finance rife with misogynist accusations about sex and intelligence that the male columnists at Yahoo Fiance do not endure nearly as often.

But is this a reason to hide? There is a 70% chance that a knowlege worker will be harassed on the job. Women are more likely to be harassed in their office than online. Does it mean women shouldn’t show up to the office? No. Women have gotten good at dealing with harassment. Probably because it’s a fact of life. It starts when we are twelve years old and a guy whistles from a car as he drives by. And it looks to me like it never ends. We cannot stop this. At lest not today.

I am going to continue to blog and social network under the name linuxchic and associate it with my real name. It is working for me and gives people a little insight to my interests just by seeing my screen name. What do you think? Are you using a screen name or throwing it all out there with your real name?

Why do you blog?

2007-11-09T16:14:00.000-06:00

Are you blogging? If so, why are you blogging? Are you looking for fame? Fortune? Notoriety?

Why do I blog? Because I enjoy writing. I recently was told that blogging is only 20% about writing. Says who? What is driving me absolutely nuts lately is all these "experts" that are coming at me to tell me how blogging is about marketing and advertising and brands. My blogs aren't. My blogs are about the information. The blog is the medium that I use to distribute my information. This isn't the internet reinvented, it is just another publishing medium. Blogs made publishing easy for non-technical people.

Now we have some of those non-technical people are running wild and ruining the freedom and information sharing that the internet should be by telling people what blogs should mean to them. Those are the people busy cashing in on everything they can. These are the majority of people in attendance at BlogWorld... what you use a blog for is as personal as how you wear your hair. There are personal blogs, there are professional blogs, there are corporate blogs... mine is personal and frankly I want to keep it that way. Don't tell me what to do, don't tell me how to do it, just help me do what I want to do better.

Why do you blog?

Blog for ZDNet

2007-11-03T22:13:00.000-05:00

ZDNet is looking for a few good bloggers, do you have what it takes? While several of their topics appear to be an experiment in user generated content, two of the topics (Web 2.0 Explorer, which examines Web 2.0 technologies, and Office Evolution, which is focused on next-generation productivity software) have blogger vacancies.

Whether you are looking for a permanent blogging gig at ZDNet or just looking to drive more traffic to your blog by writing a post or two for their topics, visit the Post your blog to ZDNet to find out how to get included.

Same old voices syndrome?

2007-11-03T12:59:00.001-05:00

Robert Scoble has stated that he isn't going to BlogWorld Expo because he hangs out with those speakers all the time anyway. You guessed it, I have several responses to that.

It's ugly.
What about all the new people coming up in blogging and new media? Sure, blogs have been around since the 90's but blogging is still moving mainstream. Growth isn't stagnant yet so why are we treating it as if it has jumped the shark? New media, like it's name, is still pretty new. Perhaps the technologies or ideas aren't new but it is only recently getting mainstream recognition. Blogging and new media hasn't peaked yet, and there are many voices yet to be heard. The ones that have been at the forefront and the spotlight thus far should recognize that they are both role models and resources that others can learn from. I would think that the speakers could use the fact that they all know each other already as an opportunity to mingle with all the newcomers and up and coming. Just because we aren't well known, doesn't mean we aren't worth spending time with. Snub your fans, lose your audience.

It's proof that we need new voices and new content.
The most frustrating thing I found when choosing my BlogWorld sessions was that I thought it was all too primary. There is an advanced track, but it really isn't so advanced in my opinion. The theme of the sessions seems to be either 1)you are brand spanking new to blogging 2)all you care about is making fat sacks of cash from a blog site and/or 3)you can't wait to be graced by the presence of the "a-list", no matter what they talk about. (I will add the disclaimer that I am making these judgments on session titles alone. I have not seen any session descriptions.)

Where is the content, the ethics, the community? I do see a few sessions that look like they might almost discuss one or two of these topics but overall all these topics that have been "in your face" as a blogger this year are mysteriously absent. So many blogs have the potential to be really great blogs if only the owner knew more about comments, dealing with trolls, design, and how to format a post. Blogging is about the content. Blogs brought the technology to those who had something to say and gave them a voice. Blogging is about the content + the mechanics + the technology. We need to address these most important things before we start dreaming about sleeping on a bed of money. Without content, an eye pleasing design, and engaging our audience there won't be any money to be had.

We need fresh content. Maybe it isn't the speakers or a-list bloggers that are stuck on repeat (or just regurgitating each other's main points), maybe it is the planners that are pushing the topics. Let's get some sysadmins, web developers, web designers, authors, professors and so on in there to talk about the full cycle of blogging. No matter whose fault it is the blogging community needs to step up, stop being awe inspired and nicey-nicey to the a-listers and give some feedback. Let's get back on track.

Kansas City Blogger Meetup

2007-11-03T11:23:00.000-05:00

What is this? Kansas City Area Blogger Meetup (if you aren't in the KC area you can still come)
Date: Saturday, November 17, 2007
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Where: Buffalo Wild Wings
1806 N.W. Chipman Road
Lee's Summit, MO 64081
816.246.WILD (9453)

RSVP: bloggermeetup@alternageek.com or use Eventful or Upcoming. Not required but it would be helpful to get a headcount.

Who is this for? Bloggers, blog readers, microbloggers (Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku...), Tumbleloggers, videobloggers, audiobloggers (podcasters welcome too), mobloggers (Flickr, SnapFoo, Radar), and any other type of blogger.

What is planned? Get to know others in your community; talk about what you are working on, what inspires you, what technology/equipment you use and prefer, tips and tricks, and just general blogger social time.

Use Eventful? Join the group on Eventful or check out the event.
Perfer Upcoming? The event is listed there too!

Inspiration

2007-11-02T10:58:00.000-05:00

I have owned this domain (blogagory.com) for over a year. I have had many thoughts about what it should be used for and built development sites around those. First I planned on turning it into a free blog hosting. You know like Blog a (cate)gory. Remember Geocities? Everything was organized with some type of neighborhood categorization. I liked that. I started building it with the first release of WordPress Mu and did lots of custom PHP. WordPress mu was still pretty rough back then and life got busy and I gave up. Next idea was to make it a blog site listing, once again organized by categories. That idea never got off the idea mat. I wasn't inspired enough to actually get it off the ground.

Last week I decided to do more with my namesake domain and rather just leaving it all about me I would post blog related topics to it. Then I ran into WordPress issues and lost some absolutely brilliant posts (don't argue with me, you will never see them so you don't know if they were brilliant or not :P). I already run two blogs; linuxchic.net and alternageek.com. Linuxchic.net is really supposed to be my linuxy girl blog and alternageek.com is my podcast. Oh wait, I also have my Vox blog which is my personal, this-doesn't-fit-into-the-other-two, blog.

Fast forward to this morning, sitting in a meeting I had an epiphany to use blogagory.com as a blog (no way! you are thinking) about blogging. I really have a lot to say about blogging so why not write it down somewhere. W00t! So here you are, my blog about blogs and blogging.

BlogWorld 2007: Thoughts before the conference

2007-10-22T19:19:00.000-05:00

First posted on Oct. 22, 2007 at linuxchic.net

UPDATE:

I have gotten emails from both Jeremy Write of b5media and Rick Calvert of BlogWorld regarding this blog post and the issues I encountered prior to the conference. Both were very helpful and generous. It's wonderful to know that people are listening and working to resolve the hiccups that occur when planning a conference. The conference is only four days away and I am still looking forward to it.

Now, if only my Moo stickers that I ordered over three weeks ago would arrive. ;)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I completed my registration a month ago for BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas and bought my non-refundable airline tickets to get me there but it seems as though the BlogWorld registration process never ends. Every week I have gotten at least one email telling me that either a session I registered for has been removed and I have been thoughtfully placed into a different session or a session I never reserved a spot in and never even saw in the session list has been removed but never-the-less I have been thoughtfully placed into a different session. Every time I get one of these emails I frantically login to my account at the BlogWorld registration site. Once I found I had been placed into a session I wasn't interested in and it was easy enough to change to a different one but that only happened once. Every other time I have logged in I am still in the sessions I started out in. Unfortunately this is leading me to think that I will be in for a huge surprise when I arrive and receive my schedule. I have also received very kind emails to the email address on my account that has offered assistance to finish my reservation because they state that they noticed I never completed it. I have emailed a response with my confirmation number requesting that they also confirm I am indeed registered. I am still waiting for the email I requested.

Friday we finally decided it was getting close enough to reserve our hotel and airline tickets. I paid for my nonrefundable tickets at approximately 1pm CDT and at around 8pm CDT I had seen a Scoble link blog tweet that b5media was sponsoring an additional day of education that I might get to attend (one or two of the afternoon sessions) if my plane is on time. Is this the new conference norm to add an additional day less than 30 days prior the actual conference? Hotel and travel discounts for the conference have already expired so I am assuming many people have already made arrangements. I am getting a little disappointed in BlogWorld and I haven't even gotten there. (In all fairness, I am left to assume that this isn't part of the official conference since there is no mention of it from the BlogWorld Expo website)

There are a few sessions I am really looking forward to not to mention all my online contacts I am hoping to meet in person. After a few Facebook wall posts and Twitter messages back and forth, Chris Brogan is definitely on my list even if I can't attend his session since it is on the Entrepreneur track (Entrepreneur track is about six times the cost of the full registration and includes an additional day of sessions). I was hoping to get into some really advanced topics that don't get mentioned all that often such as dealing with blog commenters (audience feedback vs. trolls). I am also surprised blogging ethics aren't mentioned as being covered especially as it has been a hot topic this year.

Regardless of the hiccups so far I am still hopeful and excited to at least do some mingling. I am also hoping to pick up some tips from the new media veterans on building/maintaining a community since we have lots of new shows and sites coming down the pipe at Alternageek. If you are planning to attend BlogWorld make sure you stop by and say hi. I will be loaded up with Moo cards and Alternageek Moo stickers to hand out too! ;)

Three Tips for Better Blogging

2007-05-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Originally posted May 24, 2007 on linuxchic.net

A few weeks ago Matt posted some tips for better blogging on his site. Since I have been tagged I have been wracking my brain for tips and finally I stopped thinking about it and the thoughts came naturally. So without further delay, here are a few of my thoughts…

Do what comes naturally. What makes your blog great is that it is your blog. It carries your signature in design, layout, and wording. It should also carry your interest. How can you follow through with blogging if you don’t like what you write about? Don’t force yourself to write what you think people will read - write about your passions and the readers will come.

Don’t follow the crowd. You can’t compete with the big guys and why should you. When have you ever heard someone say that they read Slashdot because it is like another site? There are a lot of news items I don’t post to Linuxchic.net even though they are relevant to this site because I don’t feel I have to if it is all over the net already. The items I post are the items I really don’t want to go unnoticed…the things I feel passionate about. I come back to this tip myself a lot lately. I am working on a site, alternageek.com and with it is a podcast. This is my first venture into podcasting and of course I want listeners! There are already so many great podcasts out there I don’t want to compete with all of them; I want to contribute to them. I want people to listen because my podcast is different than other podcasts and I hope it enhances their playlist.

Keep it simple and narrow your topic. One blogger cannot cover everything so keep your topic to a more narrow scope. You want a technology blog? How about whittling that down to gadgets, a specific operating system, or a web technology. You can cover multiple topics, but keep the meat in the thing you are passionate about the most. I cover quite a bit here at Linuxchic.net including gadgets and Internet technologies that I think are cool but my biggest focus here is Linux. Of course that means I have to keep a separate blog for my personal needs but that is ok…I don’t want to drown my readers with irrelevant information.