Blogging

Yes, that is correct - I’ve signed up for the blog marketing program PayPerPost. You have probably noticed many other blogs sign up for this as well.

So why are you signing up?

For the money, of course! To put it simply, I have less time than I once did to blog, and unless I’m getting some kind of return it’s hard to justify the time.

So what will happen now? Shall this blog become nothing but advertisements?

No! For starters, that is against PayPerPost’s rules, that effectively mean that at least 50% of a blog’s posts must be non-paid in order to remain in their program. (Although I intend to have significantly less than 50% of this blog’s posts as paid posts.)

But additionally, I actually like blogging. And I would much prefer to keep blog posts as high quality as I can manage. I want to keep this blog worth reading. To that end, I’ll keep posting lots of non-paid posts of the type that’s characterised this blog until now. Additionally, I want the paid posts to be as entertaining as possible.

PayPerPost seems to be the largest program of its kind on the Web. There are a large number of paid post opportunities available for bloggers. But I’ve only just started; we’ll see how things go.

My brother is behind such endeavours as Save The Mexican Wave (which earned a mention in Wikipedia), Newton Clothiers and Jonk’s Bargains. You’d think, with those projects behind him, blogging would be a cinch. Unfortunately not.

For starters, he is lazy. In a recent post (since updated), he didn’t even bother posting a link to what he was posting about, instead telling his readers to “Google it”. That is the peak of blogging laziness.

More recently, he stated he can’t figure out how to make archive pages work on his blog, which is a Wordpress blog. His problem? The theme his blog uses is not compatible with widgets. But that isn’t the half of it.

He told me, “I can’t figure out how to do an About page”. You already have an about page, I inform him. “What!? Where?” is his astonished response. So I showed him.

Exercise for the reader: go to the front page of his blog and see if you can find the About page. No, it’s still in the same place it was before.

“But how do I make a page?” Simple, dear boy. Hit the Write button and – “but I already know how to do that” (he says as Wordpress loads a blank post) – there’s a Write Page button right there!

“Oooooh.”

The silly sod can’t manage plugins, themes or anything else. I’ll be helping him out though. So far, I’ve upgraded him to Wordpress version 2.2 (with the Automatic Upgrade plugin), plus I’ve installed the One Click Installer (the plugin that installs plugins!) (Not a joke.) (Really.)

Good thing his content is often interesting. Check out the posts on the Christian candidate for the Greens party, Are we all just Sims characters in a giant simulation?, What are you number one for? and Internet marketing scams.

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You may have noticed I am not blogging quite so often as of late. The reason why is simple: my new job.

My new job is quite different to the old one. No waking up at 4am, no stinky co-workers, and the fact that I actually have to work at work. (As opposed to doing 10 minutes of work in a seven hour shift. I was well paid for it, too.)

I quite like my new job, but it means I can’t have a post up every day like I used to. Still, I should manage around three posts a week. That ain’t too bad.

I have a new job. Yay for that.

I lost my last job a couple of months ago, just a few days after writing What I Learned From Unemployment for one of Robert Hruzek’s group writing projects. What timing! I think I’ll title the next one What I Learned From Becoming Exceedingly Rich, Travelling The World, Drinking Coffee And Blogging About It.

If you wish to experience the same effects on your life, why not write something for the latest round, What I Learned From Vacation?

I’d write an entry myself, but I’m too scared.

The highly popular Freakonomics blog is now a New York Times blog. This means that registration is not required (hooray!), comments are now moderated (boo!) and the RSS feed is now only an excerpt feed rather than a full feed (boo!).

The reaction from Freakonomics readers can be briefly summarised as follows:

If you look at the comments on the latest post, three-quarters of them are complaining about the feed. Apparently I’m not the only one who dislikes crippled feeds.

With this in mind, I hereby promise that the feed for this blog shall be a full feed forever. Makes you want to subscribe, doesn’t it?

UPDATE: the authors respond.

I have compiled a list of five things I see on blogs that annoy me. (It’s always lists of 5 on blogs, isn’t it?) Anyways:

1. Blogs that have a crippled RSS feed

When I subscribe to a blog, it is because I want to read it using a feed reader. I only want to click through if I leave a comment.

The most annoying blogs in this category are the ones with two lines of text, followed by “Click through to read the site” or something. I subscribed so I could read the blog, not so I could read ads! Note to blogs that do this: your readers are not your pets.

I used to put up with excerpt feeds, but now I take a scorched earth approach. If it ain’t a full feed, I unsubscribe immediately.

One of the less obvious advantages of RSS feeds is that it allows people with crippled Internet connections to view your blog, even when your blog is blocked. If you offer a crippled RSS feed, they won’t be reading your blog, will they?

Two blogs that I do not read for this reason are Jesus & Mo and The Comics Curmudgeon.

2. Blogs that apparently don’t offer an RSS feed

Blogging platforms typically offer a feed by default, but many blogs do not have a link on the front page to it. I occasionally take a wild guess what the feed URL is in order to subscribe, but why should I have to do this? I mean, honestly.

I recently tried to subscribe to every blog that participated in the Middle Zone Musings group writing project, but out of 15 blogs, I only managed to subscribe to 10. This was one of the main reasons.

3. Blogs that require registration

This is done to prevent spam, but is totally unnecessary thanks to programs such as Akismet. It is unwise to put unnecessary barriers in your users’ way before they can comment.

4. Blogs that hold all comments for moderation

It is much more satisfying when commenting to see the comment appear as soon as you submit it. Again, this is not necessary to prevent spam. Most blogs do not have many nuisance comments and these can be deleted after the fact.

5. Commenting on Blogger blogs

Because if you’re logged in, the displayed link takes people to your profile rather than your blog, and the only way to get around it is to manually type in your URL - every time.

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I’m sure I could think of other things that annoy me, but I’ll leave it there for now. What do you see on blogs that annoys you – and is this blog guilty?

Thank Robert Hruzek for this. His group writing project asked participants to write an article on a life lesson they learned from an unusual source. All told, there were 16 entries.

Here is the complete list of entries, each one finishing the phrase “What I Learned From…”

“… Teen Girl Squad”, by Markk at My Opinions Are Important
WOW! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cheer. Top post. Top, top post.

“… the Mt. Pinatubo Eruption”, by Ronald Huerca at Ronalfy.com
Most of this has nothing to do with volcanic eruptions, but worth the read all the same.

“… Drugs”, by Sam Brougher at Forest Azuaran
Legal drugs. Strong legal drugs that do strange things to your emotions and memory. Reminds me of a friend’s experience with oxycodeine (”The walls are melting …”).

“… a Mesquite Tree”, by Mike DeWitt at Spooky Action
You are limited only by your willingness to be bold. That, and mesquite trees are weird.

“… Drinking Starbucks Coffee”, by George Manty at Can I Make Big Money Online
The main thing I learned from drinking Starbucks coffee is not to visit Starbucks. That’s not what this post is about though Useful for those of you who run a business.

“… My Wife!”, by Rajaram Sethuraman at Thoughts of a Rambler
One man learns that he is a fashion disaster, among other things.

“… Having a Daughter”, by Marco Richter at FitForFreedom
How to not worry about being in debt.

“… Norm”, by Joe Raasch at The Happy Burro
Getting the most out of each moment in life.

“… my mentors”, by Karin H. at The Kiss Business Too
Two mentors, and what Karin H. learned from them.

“… Procrastinating”, by Yvonne Russell at Grow Your Writing Business
This piece will inspire you to procrastinate more often, if you could be bothered. Perhaps later on.

“… a Squirrel”, by G.L. Hoffman at What Would Dad Say
A nice story, with a zinger at the end.

“… Blogging”, by Gayla McCord at Mom Gadget
Someone who makes money by writing 12 blogs talks about that, and why she doesn’t go insane writing so much. Very informative.

“… a Weight Problem”, by Monique Attinger at Insurance Guide 101
Learn about overcoming a weight problem, and also about insurance. What more could you want?

“… Taking Out the Garbage”, by Michael Chantrel at Mortgage Guide 101 Blog
Why taking out the garbage is just like paying off a mortgage.

“… RUMMAGING!” by William Tully at LOGICal eMOTIONs
Looking at a product at the end of its life cycle, and winding the clock back.

“… A Light Switch”, by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings
When Cooking Goes Bad, or why you learn most about someone by viewing them when things go wrong.

This cannot be real - a parrot that communicates in English. According to the BBC, N’kisi the parrot has a vocabulary of 950 words, uses grammar correctly and has a sense of humour.

From the article:

When he first met Dr Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N’kisi said: “Got a chimp?”

He appears to fancy himself as a humourist. When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: “You got to put this bird on the camera.”

This raises a lot of questions. How many parrots are there like N’kisi? Are they plotting against us? Do they have blogs? How would you tell if a blog was written by a parrot?

A couple of questions for those of you who have blogs:

1. Are you a parrot?
2. Are you in league with parrots?

Nominate blogs that are likely to be written by parrots by leaving a comment.

People who try to make money online by blogging about blogging or making money online.

There are too many of them. And they are all constantly linking to each other to boost their Technorati ranking. Not to mention the constant comment spam on more successful blogs. What a bunch of squawkers.

To this end, I have started a blog about blogging about blogging. Those who blog about blogging, my blog about blogging about blogging should give you a clue! Maybe. Perhaps.

I have no idea about how to blog about blogging in order to make money online. But since knowing nothing is not stopping anyone else, I don’t see why it should stop me either.

I already have several posts lined up, all of them unhinged rants.

I know that this will probably not last long before I run out of ideas, much like the Blogging Dog blog. Never mind. I’ll have some fun in the meantime.

Cognitive Daily has a funny and useful post entitled How NOT to write a science book. Recommended reading for anyone who plans on writing a science book or any other type of book, or an article, a blog or delivering a lecture or sermon.

The first point is as follows:

Use lots of anecdotes. A good writer should tell a story, right? Keeping a thread of a plot will help perk up a reader’s interest through dense scientific information. Even better, you might think: string together thirty or forty unrelated stories per chapter, each making the exact same point. Your readers are stupid, so you must repeatedly pummel them with the same information over and over again, in nonscientific anecdotal fashion. After all, who would read a science book to get scientific information? Not your readers, that’s for sure. This tactic also shows off the important scientific goal of demonstrating that you have lots of friends who are willing to tell you stories that you can then write about in your books.

In other words, keep it relevant and don’t repeat yourself.

There’s more where that came from, so go and read it now!

Would you be prepared to express an opinion that you don’t necessarily believe in, in order to gain brownie points from others?

If so, go here.