…to say thanks for all the votes of support and confidence you have all sent me. I am fine, just working my tail off on quite a few projects. I have some big announcements coming up, so stay tuned.
See all ya’ll later in the week.
Several people have asked about how I got involved in blogging. I have been blogging several places for a while now and the question is a bit complex… basically, a great friend had a blog and I was fascinated. (For more of the gritty details about how I met Jen and all that, I refer you to my other blog) Even so, it was a good 2 years after I met Jen that I started blogging… and I was hooked!
People blog for different reasons… some blog to make money (easier said than done), some blog to build their profile, some blog to just get it out there and have fun, some blog to let their Mom know they are eating regularly… many different reasons.
I have a business oriented blog that I make some money off of, but I am not going to be able to retire anytime soon or anything. The main reason I blog in that category is to build my profile. I have several book ideas in that big old head of mine and I have a much better chance of selling them if I am a known quantity. Additionally, it gets my name out and has huge networking opportunities. For example, I have exchanged maybe half a dozen emails with Seth Godin over the last year or so, just because of blogging.
But blogging with a purpose is tiring. It is work, to tell the truth. As I talked about over here, I recently made some changes. I felt I had to for several reasons… I was getting burned out; I have some HUGE life changes coming up in the next few months and I need some space (more about this later. Seriously, I will tell you later. Nosey…) and just plain old life management.
It was why I started this blog: just to have a place to vent and unwind, a way to let Mom know I am alive even though I have not called, a way to connect with old friends. I needed a scratch pad where anything is fair game, where I had no agenda, where I could brain dump (sometimes, the brain dumps me…).
Anyway, If you want to know more about blogging: how to set up a blog, tools to use, what sites to go to for more information, etc. then fear not, because I intend to create a resource page on this site so all the blogging how-to info will be all in one place.
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Over the last two weeks I have taken a break from this blog to examine my options, to decide the direction I want to take, to see where I want to go with it. I was not happy with where I was and I did not know what to do about it.
In the past, I followed a textbook blog start; I linked to everybody, I worked trackbacks, I posted often, I commented like crazy on everyone else’s blog, I wrote posts on blogging, on Wordpress, I wrote numbered posts… everything they tell you to do. And you know what? It worked.
I had a blog that often had 5-10 comments or more a post, a blog that was linked to often, one that broke the Technoratti 100K in about 30 days, people emailed me with questions, they sought my advice… and I was miserable. I was having no fun, there was no joy in it.
So I took a few weeks off. For 2 weeks, I did not post much of anything here. Heck, I did not even look at the admin panel for a solid week.
I still blogged, just not here. For the last 2 weeks, I have blogged for fun. Remember that? Fun. Where you just wrote and put it out there, and it was not about page views, it was not about RSS readers or getting links… it was just about putting it out there and seeing what happens.
So for the last 2 weeks, I just blogged. I blogged about old friends, relationships that did not work out, memories circulating around my head, my faith and even mentioned genocide in Darfur. No common theme, no rhyme or reason, just having fun.
You know what?
It was a blast! I had so much fun… it was a joy to write each day, having no pressure on me, no worries about RSS subscribers, no agenda… just fun.
I decided I could not do this any more.
I had decided that today was going to be my last post here. I was going to announce that I was bowing out of “professional blogging” and was going to go back to having fun. My posting had been sporadic of late: Surely I had lost all my RSS readers and had no doubt killed any progress I had made. If the key to success is daily posting, then I had screwed the pooch big time. If the key is linking to everyone and his brother, then I was over. If the key is commenting on everyone else’s blogs, then I was toast.
Then a funny thing happened: I checked my stats.
Last night, I checked my stats and noticed I was still about where I was when I was posting regularly. Huh! Then I checked my Alexa rank and noticed it had improved dramatically over the last month. Hmmm. The I checked my feeds and I have to tell you, I cringed as I waited for the window to open, waiting to see how my inattention had destroyed my hard won readership. The page opened and… I had actually gained readers since the last time I checked 2 weeks ago. The kicker was when I checked Technoratti and saw that I was about to break the 50K mark, moving about 10K since I had quit careing. People were still out there linking to the content.
I had broken every rule in the book and had not hurt myself at all. If anything, I was probably better off than I had been.
This changed everything. I was up all night thinking about the implications for this blog, my business and me.
Here is the deal:
I am Politically Incorrect. I live life on my own terms and have taken great pains to structure my life to be a certain way because I like it that way. When I started blogging, I somehow forgot that. Instead, I did exactly what everyone else did, and so I got exactly what everyone else got. Well, no more.
Here is what you can expect from now on.
Fewer, better posts.
You are busy. You are running a small business or you wish you were. I could post a fluffy post here everyday (and have in the past) but honestly, does the web need more clutter? Do you need another post to read in your feed? Wouldn’t your time be better spent with your family, your employees or on deciding your goals?
I know mine would. So, effective now, no more short cute posts. No more memes. No link trains. Very little speed linking. (If I just cannot help myself, I may speed link in an aside).
I am 35 years old. Conventional wisdom says I have about 40 more summers, 40 more season opening games, 40 more Christmases. In view of that, I just do not have the time to crank out posts just to increase my post count.
More on topic posts
In the past, I have talked about everything from blogging to internet marketing to poetry… No more. This blog is about working for yourself and living life on your own terms. That is what I will write about. If you want to know what SEO plugin to use, there are any number of blogs that talk about that… this is no longer one of them.
Writing geared toward readers, not bloggers.
Sometimes I think we bloggers write for other bloggers. I admit, I have done it. After all, we want that link love, we need the validation, and we need to increase our page views… bullfish. I am done with it.
If you like what I write and want to link to it, I am glad and hope you will. But I will be damned if I am going to beg for links, write link bait or Digg bait. I just do not have that sort of time… I am here to help people realize they can change their lives, not to build content for social network sites.
More Resources
The site will be changing a bit over the next few weeks in order to provide you with more resources, more tools and more knowledge to use your business to take charge of your life and to help you live life on your own terms.
* * * * * * * *
The current plan calls for a post about every 4-6 days on average. If you are afraid you might miss something, you may want to subscribe to my full RSS feed to make sure you stay informed.
If you have suggestions as to how to make the site better, have ideas for topics, want to guest blog on the site or have just missed me and want to say hi, the comments are open.
Over on Matt’s Blog, he wrote an incredible response to a question about people removing attribution links. It is one of the most powerful explanations of the power of open source I have ever seen.
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The first person I ever knew with a blog was a travel writer named Jen Leo. She had just edited an award winning collection of short stories about women’s travel misadventures called Sand In My Bra
Have you ever felt an instant connection with someone?
That is the way Jen and I hit it off. We had heart felt conversations, stayed up late, won a middling amount at the craps tables, ate bar-b-que bologna (much, much better than it sounds) and sold a decent number of her books. As one aging genXer to another, we both identified with each other instantly, which is a bit weird when you think about it, as I grew up in rural Mississippi and she is Chinese-American from the West Coast.
Anyway, over the years we have kept up our friendship in the 21st century way… we read each other’s blogs, we skype each other fairly regularly, when she is in town we get together for bar-b-que and stay up late at bad diners.
Jen was my inspiration in blogging; it was always exciting to see her blog stories about where she had been published, where she was doing a book signing, what was going on in her life. It was because of her excitement and passion that I thought I might like this blogging thing and when I talked to her about wanting to do it, she was nothing but encouragement.
Perhaps you read in the paper about all the weddings happening on 7-7-07? Well, one of them was Jenn and her new husband John, who went from being the best-boyfriend-ever to being the best husband ever (or he better, anyway!). What makes the date even more appropriate is that John is a Poker playing pro and Jen writes for Poker websites and magazines. Oh, and they got married in Vegas. (Get it? Gambling, 7-7-7, Vegas…).
Over on her blog she has posted some pictures from the wedding, she is wondering how to handle the name change… all of the joys of matrimonial bliss. It could not have happened to a better person.
Jen, I wish for you and John every good thing. Congratulations, and the next time you come to town, the bar-b-que bologna is on me!
Ahhh, the pressure of blogging. It all starts innocently enough. You write a few posts, submit to a few blog carnivals, get picked up by a few mid list bloggers… the next thing you know, 4-500 people a day are stopping by to read your stuff, you have folks subscribing to your feeds, people emailing you with questions, wanting your advice. The blog success story. Or is it?
You are in a catch 22 position. You are not successful enough to make a go of full time blogging but you are successful enough to worry about the quality of your product, to want to turn out good articles, to want to be “on”, to want to please the readers. Blogging has now become work, and it is impossible (for me, anyway) for work to be fun: That is why they call it work and not dessert.
At the same time, I am a business owner, with all the stress and time commitments that involves. I just do not have the time to turn out brilliant posts 5 times a week. However, I realize that having started this thing, I have a commitment to you, the readers. Besides, I like it (most of the time).
My solution? Asides. I have instituted asides on this blog, which are simple, quick dirty posts, usually about 100 words or less, that I can crank out in about 10 minutes. Please note that I will still write long post information articles, they will just be supplemented by the aside posts.
It is my hope that this will make it fun again, that it will let me turn out good content and yet take some of the pressure off. We will see.
One of the problems with being a self-taught web geek is the gaps that exist in my knowledge. I can do major hacks and tweaks in css, I can hard code html from scratch in a text editor and I do NOT know how do do the nifty screen shots everyone else on the internet knows how to do. Well, I did not, that is, until Bloggrrl taught me how! (It is embarrassing, I know.)
Over on her very politically incorrect site, she gives a nifty little tutorial that shows exactly how to do it. Just for fun, I have been making screen shots all morning!
By the way, she is running a contest called “Cow Pattie Bingo“. Now, I grew up around cows, but we never played this game. Instead, we used the dry ones as frisbies, but that is a story for another day…
Anyway, if you mention this post on your blog, you are entered in the contest. If you mention another favorite article of hers (like the screenshot one above), you get a second entry. The prize? $50.00. I normally refuse to play in contests like this, but the picture of the girl in the cow costume caused me to spew coffee all over my computer screen.
(Thanks to Steve for bringing this blog to my attention).
I was tagged by Roger Anderson with a Thinking Blogger’s Award. The idea is to link to 5 blogs that make us think, and tell why we like them. The hard part is picking only 5, as I am pretty brutal on weeding my RSS feeds weekly, so I tend to only read the cream in my feed reader. Below are my picks.
Pick The Brain: John Wesley’s blog on analytical Self Improvement. John writes detailed posts, has a bright clean blog layout, and has a great writing style. I do not buy much into the self improvement genre, but John is one of the few I will listen to.
Dilbert Blog: Random brain dropping from the creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams. Scott has a unique sense of humor and his take on things is never quite how I would side on the issue, but he always makes me think.
Steve Olson: Steve is somewhat well known, but still a required read. He is blatantly honest and transparent about his fears, his life and his dreams. As I read about his choices, it makes me think more about my own. Recently, his posting frequency has dropped, but in typical Steve style, he blogged about it and let us into his life. All around great guy.
Wendy Piersall: I first read about Wendy from Steve (above), wondered why he would be recommending a site geared toward Moms, cruised on over to see for myself, then I was hooked! For a more detailed review of why I love Wendy, check out this review I did a while back.
Alister Cameron: He goes by the title of blogologist, whatever that means, but he is a blogging consultant from Australia (Oz has an inordinate amount of bloggers, for some reason). Not your usual John Chow rip off, he has a nice clean site, good advice, little fluff and a great writing voice. While not a frequent poster, one usually worth listening too.
Well, those are my picks. Thank you Roger, for tagging me and the nice words… anytime you need a guest blogger, just let me know! 
Here is the official stuff…
The Rules:
[tags]Dilbert, Scott Adams, Wendy Piersall, eMom, Steve Olson, Alister Cameron, Pick The Brain, John Wesley, thinking blogger[/tags]
1 comment » | @Links, Blogging, Internet Marketing, List of 5
It has been said that bad artists copy, but great artists steal. I leave it to you to decide if I am a copier or a thief, but I am a bit proud of the latest incarnation of my theme here at A Politically Incorrect Entrepreneur.
A bit of background
When I started this blog, I knew that wanted a 3 column theme, because one of my long term goals is to monetize via sponsorships, and I will need the sidebar real estate. Additionally, I am committed to the do-follow movement, so I want room to recognize all my commenters.
Initially, I started with the ModernPaper theme, by Brian Gardner. I liked everything about this theme except the color scheme. I liked how the page presented itself, how detailed the code was commented, everything. Brian has perhaps the most customizable (for us common folk) designs in the business. I was planning to do some mods on it, but never seemed to find the time.
Then, Brian released his Copyblogger theme to the public, and oscandy came up with a 3 column version. I moved over to that, because I dug the colors. (I am a visual adult with ADD. What can I say?) Unfortunately, one has to be a CSS freak to tweak it at all. Chris is a design maniac, but for those of us on the low end of the CSS learning curve, the code all looks like Greek.
The answer should be obvious…
Do a modification of ModernPaper with CopyBlogger colors. And that is what I did.
Go ahead, play around with it (Go hover over the links in the sidebars, I am kinda proud of that!). For the first time since I started this blog, I am truly pleased with the way it looks.
Of course, minor mods will happen with the placement of things in the sidebars and such, but overall, I am quite pleased.
Enough about me, let’s talk about you: How much do you like my new theme?
[tags] Brian Gardner, Chris Pearson, CopyBlogger, ModernPaper, 3 column themes, CSS, theme modification[/tags]
A dilemma for bloggers: Do you write for Google, and use lots of keywords to attract the attention of both Google and those who are browsing search results, or do you write for your regular readers, using conversational or intriguing titles, like “Dancing with the bears while camping“.
Many people write for the machines: ie. Google, Yahoo and others, phrasing their titles to have maximum keywords to better their chances of being picked up by search engines. These are the delightful people who use the word “cellphone” 7 times in each paragraph, or who use titles like “Camping in Yellowstone Park, feeding bears and watching Old Faithful while drinking Diet Coke in my Timberland Tent” for a post about their weekend camping trip.
I have always maintained that I write this blog for the readers. You are the reason I am here, and were you not reading this, I would have no reason to continue. That being said, I love my Google traffic, and especially my deep long tail keywords, which right now on this rather nascent blog account for half of all my search traffic.
Whenever possible, it is best to write for both, as this post on Brian’s site talks about. But sometimes, you know have the perfect title that your readers will love, but it is not very keyword rich.
Enter the All in One SEO pack. This is the latest addition to my site and has earned a place on my award winning WordPress plug-ins page. This little gem will optimize your titles, pull meta tags and descriptions for you and who knows what else. But, the thing I love is it lets you pick the title for your post.
The plugin in action:
In this post you are reading, the title up at the top of the page is Who Do You Blog For? Write For Both Machines and Readers. I feel this is a good, conversation oriented title for this post. In other words, I think someone reading through the site would find it of interest. BUT, if you look at the titlebar of your browser, you see that the real title of this entry is WordPress Plugin Lets You Write for Both Readers and Search Engines. Now, I think that is a boring title, but it is a bit more descriptive of the information is contained in this post. It is a good Social Media title, it is a good Google title.
Write for the audience you want
Now with this little plugin, I can write for both my Audience and Google and The Social Sites. A true win-win for everyone!
