Successful Blog

How to Age Ideas Like a Fine Cognac OR Making Compelling Writing the Center of Your Brand

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I Love My Pocket Journal

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box logo 2

Yesterday in the comments to Inside Out Thinking: Catching Ideas Coming In and Going Out, Hans at Blogosquare asked a question that was one I had when I first started writing. That made me think that others might have it as well. You see, Han’s problem is that he has too many ideas and his exuberance makes him anxious to use them all as soon as he gets them.

. . . I just don’t have to sit back and wait for thoughts, actually they are filling me. When I get a thought, . . . I just can’t wait for that thought to leave me. So I write it down quickly, quickly and post it and there when I see it I feel much relieved.
How in fact to you deal with thoughts when they come in? Should I set myself to some relaxation or things like this? All day long everything I see, read, and hear just give me thoughts and ideas. . . . Right now after reading the post above, I just got that thought and couldn’t wait to put it down, to get it off my mind. Am I not normal? [edited with Hans permission]

Hans, my friend, I value you and your passion for writing. Turn the page and I’ll answer your question with the seriousness it deserves.

[Read more…]

Net Neutrality 10-05-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

MORE FROM:
Neutrality’ Is New Challenge for Internet Pioneer
an Interview on Net Neutrality with Sir Tim Berners-Lee By JOHN MARKOFF Published: September 27, 2006

[ . . .]
Q. Do you have a view about the behavior of the telephone companies in this debate? Is this simply traditional monopolist behavior, or is it more subtle? Have you talked to them to understand their motivations?

A. I have tried, when I’ve had the opportunity to find out, to understand their motivations, but I can’t speak for them. So all I can do is guess. But my guess is that it’s not that this is a nefarious planned plot to take over the Internet by a bunch of people who hate it. What I imagine is that it is simply the culture of companies, which have been using a particular business model for a very long time. So I think there is a clash of corporate cultures.

Q. What do you make of justifications involving quality of service, which would give certain types of Internet data, like voice and video, right of way over other kinds of data?

A. They say, “It will cost us an awful lot of money for this quality of service, and therefore we will have to disband neutrality.” They’re not actually logical. Some people say perhaps we ought to be able to charge more for this very special high-bandwidth connectivity. Of course that’s fine, charge more. Nobody is suggesting that you shouldn’t be able to charge more for a video-capable Internet connection. That’s no reason not to make it anything but neutral.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

We Were Hot! Link Leak Virus Was Hotter!

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Imagine How Hot!

Open Comment Night started out very NOT HOT as we discussed the MS phishing bug that bj told us about. But Steve came back and brought Milton the Skinny Moose, who is definitely HOT.

The Link Leak Virus seeped into out hot not hot talk. — The Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes at Open Comment Night they become a link free-for-all.

Welcome to all of the new folks who came. It was great fun having you!

Cool and HOT links were shared.

So What WAS Hot?

HOT: Joe saying “Me first, me first…I think I beat Steve and Milton.” And he had by at least an hour or more.

not hot: BJ telling us all about IE7 and McAfee phishing issues that threaten eccommerce sites.

HOT: Ben with a great Basil update. He’s in beautiful Nova Scotia with Derek Andrews. You have to go read about his adventures in Halifax.

HOT: Sean said, “my friend Joe launching an automatic way to convert a static HTML site into a WordPress theme.”

HOT:Sasha told us, I’d like to say I am whenever I’m blogging but usually I’m in my PJs whenever I’m blogging/working. Hahaha. I guess I’m not cool enough yet, eh? I really should stick to naming the hot blogs and bloggers in my “little black blogroll”

HOT: Rick Thanks for the pizza, Seanrox. I haven’t eaten all night.

Then Steve Says:
Not hot – snow
hot – milton in a pink tu-tu

STEVE and MILTON ARE BACK!!

HOT: Dossy House MD is hot.

not not Ah Pek server down

HOT: Cat Liz is blogging over at Blogging Times.

HOT: Doug I think my mother may be blogging soon

HOT: Yvonne is hot and so is The Superficial, Prison Break, and Google IG.

Hendry Lee Full feeds + RSS ads

HOT: Katie jumping in without reading the comments before you.

HOT: Candice I found this gorgeous pair of cole haans — They’re superwoman shoes.

not hot: Trisha still not feeling so good.

HOT: Michael came to check it out.

We also talked about WordPress 2.0.5, Getting Dugg, Stalker phone calls, Dr. Demento, Weird Al, bad behavior

not hot: Paris Hilton, that cold that’s going round, Akismet eating people we like, cats on the keyboard, server outages, everyone’s feed that got stuck in feedburner at partial feed, bloggers who hijack,

Great Quote: Holy sweet Jesus, OMG. Sasha Manuel is *hot*. So, who’s going to put together the “Babes of b5media Calendar, 2007″ for next year?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
The Mic is On! What’s Hot and What’s Not?

Catching Ideas Coming In and Going Out

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Everyone Has Endless Ideas

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box logo 2

Ideas.

Can’t write without one. I’ve tried. It doesn’t work.

If you’re reading this, you probably know that. So let’s move around that dead, old horse.

What’s an idea anyway? A thought, a stimuli, a catalyst.

Everyone has endless ideas in our brains every minute that we’re alive.

We can get to them two ways — from the inside or from the out.

[Read more…]

Interview 10.2: Sebastian Blogs, Life, and Advice

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Seb Talks about Blogs and Life

Seb Prooth

When we left Seb Prooth of Seb’s Random Thoughts he told us about his current film work on YouTube at YouTube.com Melting Clock, http://www.youtube.com/meltingclock/ and the success he’d enjoyed being part of the www.globalgeekpodcast.com “>Global Geek Podcast.

Seb, How does blogging fit with your life?

This is a really interesting question. It just so happens that I have recently been making the conscious decision to blog more often. With the effect of quitting a weekly podcast and having no other connection with the fast moving world of digital media other than my blog, I decided it was time to take things more seriously.

Aside from that, I usually blog when I have something to say. For instance, last week when Richard Hammond of the BBC’s TopGear was severely injured in a crash, I covered the story on my blog. TopGear is one of my favourite shows and when I saw the headline I was compelled to write something.

Where has your blog taken you so far? Where do you see your blog taking you in the future?

My blog has made my writing better. I have written very formally on the blog at times such as when I talked about the effects of Digg and being Dugg when I openly opposed telemarketers making use of Skype to sell their goods. I see that my blog has made me a name on a couple of forums. On a Google search for “Sebastian Prooth” it pulls something in the region of 40 grand results. Although my efforts in podcasting contribute greatly to those numbers, many of the results are due to things I have said on my blog.

In the future I hope to see my blog progressing as it has been. I enjoy the casual nature of blogging. I have the motto on my site “writing not for hits, but to hit with what I write.” If my site gets Dugg and I get 20 thousand hits in 2 hours, I will be pleased, but If I continue getting 150-500 hits a day for what I write without the assistance of Digg or other mass media distribution service, I am happy with that.

What you tell a younger friend to do if he or she were just starting a blog?

If I was advising a younger friend about blogging I would probably tell him or her to go for it. Definitely. The Internet does not need blogs about what you had for breakfast (unless you are a gourmet chef,) or what you did when you had 20 shots of whatever on Saturday night. The Internet needs blogs where people talk with passion about what they know. I can’t stand it when I go to blogs that are there obviously to benefit a company or to push someone’s agenda. We all have agendas, your blog is not the best place to bare your agenda naked to the world.

The Internet is a cruel place at the same time as being the largest and most resourceful – resource on the planet. If you are going to start a blog, and you want readers the first thing you should consider is if what you are going to write about is of interest to anyone but yourself. I don’t really care if Joe Bloggs (pardon the pun) ate chilli for breakfast. It doesn’t have any bearing on my life. But if you are blogging about a feature on the latest beta release of Windows Vista, or reviewing a film that has just come out, or maybe one that came out before you were born, you have an audience there.

If you don’t care if anyone reads what you write, then I suggest you do whatever you like on your blog. Remember, even though now a tired cliché, do not release a great deal of personal information about yourself. And the last rule of blogging is – ENJOY IT!

Thanks Seb, can’t wait to see where you take your blog next.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Interview 10.1: Sebastian Prooth, Blogger, Podcaster, Film-maker
Interview 9.1: A Conversation with Dr. Tammy Lenski
Interview 8: Marti Lawrence, Blogger, Author, Publisher
Interview 7.1: Meet Cat Morley, World Designer