Explaining evolution to a six-year old is not the smartest thing I ever tried to do, but so you have it. I was reading this post at PR-Squared which had this picture:
My son, home from kindergarten on Good Friday, is looking over my shoulder and chuckling at the monkey who turns into a man at a computer. Fool that I am, I tried to explain.
He listened carefully and then asked: "Mom, did you used to be a monkey?"
Uncle.
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A while ago Tris Hussey sent me some info about the Qumana editor. And I had the best intentions, really….
But I never got around to it. A month or so ago, however, I reached my limit. The blog monster ate its final unsaved post in progress, and I realized I had better start using some sort of blog editor.
Lucky for me, unlike my fellow bloggers Neville Hobson and Lee Hopkins, the only one I had to hand was Qumana, so I missed out on their less than delightful experiences with some of the other options.
Turns out that Qumana was running a contest that coincided with my use of the tool. Totally coincidental, but who am I to pass up a contest.
We’re supposed to write "a creative post about your blogging landscape."
Hhmm. Just exactly what does that mean? I guess anything you want. So I am going to tell you about what makes my blogging easier. And fun. Which in the end is why I do it.
First, Bloglines. There is no way I could keep up with everything I am interested in without a feed reader. Bloglines works for me.
Second, TypePad. I chose TypePad over Blogger when I first started my blog, and for the most part, I am pretty happy with the decision. I wish using Advanced Templates didn’t rule out so many of the simple widget things that TypePad has, but so it goes. Turns out I didn’t need to use an Advanced Template to do what I wanted when I made the switch, but too late (and too lazy) to go back now.
Third, Qumana. Major plug here. This is an excellent editor. There are a couple of things that I had trouble with at first but it does everything I need an editor to do. Especially tags, which used to defeat me. Adding links to a post is dead easy, as is posting to multiple blogs from the single interface.
Last, but not least, everyone I have gotten to know through blogging. You make it easy. You make it fun. You know who you are. Because if I had to list you all, I would inevitably forget someone.
And my mum. My first and still most important reader. She laughs at my jokes, even if no one else does. I blog for my readers, and I blog for myself, but most of all, I blog for you, Mum.
Tags: blogging, Qumana, Bloglines, TypePad
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Our proposal for a Business Case Studies Room of Your Own at BlogHer 06 made the cut. Toby Bloomberg, Yvonne DiVita and I will be leading a "rap session" about business blogging on Saturday July 29 from 1:30-3:00pm.
As I’ve written here before, this is an "unpanel" (borrowing the un-nomenclature from Dave Winer’s unconference).
We’ll kick off the conversation, but the underlying concept is that everyone in the room is the panel. Our goal is both to learn from each other in the room and produce a business blogging tips set so that others can benefit from our collective wisdom (and mistakes!)
I’m really looking forward to the session. I already know that two of my favorite marketing bloggers will be in the room with me. There’s no artificial dividing line between the panel and the audience — no somebodies here, we’re all nobodies, and everybody has an equal voice. And we have the goal of a specific work product from the session, the tips. We won’t just be talking to hear our own voices, we’ll be focused, working toward delivering something of value.
On the subject of conferences, and the oft-heard complaint that it’s always the same speakers saying the same things, you won’t find that at BlogHer. BlogHer deliberately seeks out new voices. The sessions will definitely not be the same old same old.
And, oh yeah, you will find a higher percentage of women speakers than you’ve probably experienced since Girl Scouts 🙂
Hope to see you there.
Tags: blogher, blogher06, blogging, marketing, business blogging, nobodies, nobody
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I read a lot of feeds, on a variety of subjects, and take advantage of bloglines "keep new" to save things to look at/blog later. When I’m busy, the "blog closet" gets pretty full, and quite often, many of the things I’ve saved for later are over and done with.
But some things are timeless.
Others worthwhile.
And of course, some things, you just know I am going to comment on.
Like character blogs. At Beyond Madison Avenue today, Mack Collier writes that character blogs would be a good solution to carry on cancelled TV shows. You betcha. Just take a look at the sheer volume of fan fiction on the Internet. I would still pay for a Whedon-produced character blog featuring the characters from the Buffy/Angel-verses.
Great advice from the Copyblogger. Writing about this week’s NY Times article "This Boring Headline Is Written For Google," which discussed the ramifactions of search engine optimization on the news business, he reminds us: "Write for people, people." Amen. We don’t need fancy footwork (or cute headlines) as much as we need clear, concise writing. A little time spent there can save a boatload of hassle, not to mention cost.
Bonus links
Two from Neville Hobson: a European business blogging survey and some info on search behavior
Tags: monty python, character blog, seo, search engine optimization, MDA
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I’ve been beyond busy this week with my client Bid4Assets’ special auction next week, so this is the first time I’ve had to say for the record, I am more than happy to proclaim myself a nobody. As Ike Pigott said, the company is stellar.
Once again (as I often am, it’s amazing how many situations lend themselves to this), I am reminded of Alice’s Restaurant (Arlo Guthrie):
"You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. And friends, they may think it’s a movement."
And to some degree, that IS what blogging is. It is a movement, and it makes all of us nobodies, somebodies. I am both proud and humbled to be part of it.
Speaking of nobodies who are really somebodies, somebody I’m pleased to have gotten to know better in the past week is Robert French from the University of Auburn. Robert invited Andrea Weckerle, Kami Huyse and me to speak with two of his classes earlier this week. Conversation ranged from the unfortunate PR character blogs to what it is like being a professional businesswoman to the issues/ills of the PR business to career planning.
It was absolutely terrific to speak with the students. And we were all honored when Robert asked us to become contributors to Marcom Blog, a blog in which PR and MarCom professionals mentor his students. Robert, your students may have had momentary angst when you assigned their final projects, but I am sure they know how lucky they are to have you as a professor.
On a semi-serious note, to end this post:
When I phone my mum, I often self-identify as "just me." The other day, she called me on it and told me that "just me" was a pretty important person. Now, she’s my mum and she’s supposed to say things like that. But…. all joking about nobodies and somebodies and fake characters with delusions of grandeur (if you follow this blog you know who I mean), one of the things that I like most about blogging is that even a nobody is somebody to someone. All you need is one reader and you can make a difference.
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