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Andrew Flusche Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Andrew there?

This happens to me often. One day I’ll see a new person at a blog and then . . . I see that person again, . . . and again, three or four times in the same week. Other folks seem to know him. They seem to know him well, in fact. I feel like the only on the planet who’s never met him. Then for some reason, our paths officially cross. Then I find out why the guy has so many friends.

Within minutes of when our conversation started, Andrew told me he was supposed to be studying for a law school final, but he was totally relaxed. That idea propelled our conversation into a dicussion of blogging, lawyering, and getting a job. We talked about his blog and how he might get folks to comment more on it. I told him how this blog broke the comment barrier. He was kind enough to listen as I rattled on and on.

Andrew mentioned a friend of his who blogs anonymously. As a reason, he said his friend, only offered the idea that a future employer might not approve. We discussed the thinking behind that. We didn’t land on much hard wisdom there.

Andrew mentioned how the non-profit, public interest organization where he’ll be working was quite impressed on his interview to find out that he blogged. He said they greeted the fact with excitement that he knew technology. I said that I bought my son the URL for his name so that he could control what came up first about him when someone Googled to find out who he is.

I asked Andrew what sort of blogs he reads. He said that he doesn’t have really one. I said that I don’t either. Andrew said that most that he got to weren’t legal blogs. He said he tried, but they just don’t have something. Then he found and shared some stunning examples with me — examples that looked insular and ivory tower of the “publish or perish” brand. We thought they had their place and wished them well, but they weren’t for bloggers like us.

In his undergratuate work, Andrew became a programmer, that was what led to his blogging bug and is part of why he blogs so well. Andrew wanted to know more about what was happening with this techology. He said he’d never want his blog to be pure legal in content. His interests are wider than that. I heard a guy who likes to use all of his skills in meeting challenges and who wants to see how blogs might be used in law work.

Then there’s Andrew the programmer who meets Andrew the blogger. He told me how he started checking how to drive traffic almost immediately. Then he was working with adsense to see whether he could pay for his hosting. Andrew said he was surprised to see was earning more than that.

In every conversation blogging, school, and topic the theme was the same: Andrew liked finding the challenge and answering it. I had to point that out to Andrew. He didn’t disagree. He’s going to make a great lawyer. He’s a great guy too.

I’d like to talk to him again — now I know he has so many friends. He’s just that easy to be with.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I’m impressed how fast my blog has grown, how many people read blogs . . . all of these random people reading, learning.”
. — Andrew Flusche

Stop by Andrew’s Blog, Legal Andrew, and say hi!

Thanks, Andrew, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar

Michelle Mitchell Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Michelle there?

The email started like this:
Anyone who wants to talk blogging is a welcome guest. My husband enjoys the medium and we talk frequently about it but most of my off-line friends are blank stares when I mention “blogs.”
And I thought
Oh, a writer, who wants to talk, how delicious!
That was my introduction to Michelle Mitchell.

Her introduction to me was a little less. A major brain glitch had me call her an hour later than I promised. I was embarrassed and goofy. She was gracious, wonderful, and forgiving.

I told she was the third person I knew from Alaska. Michelle told me about living in Anchorage. I got a picture of a place that was much more cosmopolitan than the average city of 300,000 people. She explained that planes brought people and packages from all over the world through Anchorage. I thought location, location, location.

Michelle talked with head and heart about the benefits that being six hours from the next big city can offer, how it gives a feeling of being set apart, how it takes longer for certain influences to get there. I said I understood a bit of what she meant, that my brothers live in Wyoming. She said she and her husband had lived in North Dakota for a while. We talked about the similarities and differences. It’s one time when talking about the weather made sense to me.

When I asked how she started blogging, Michelle told me her tech-savvy husband had suggested she start one, but what had turned the tide was a high profile murder trial. She explained how they searched the defendant’s blog for evidence — that led her to explore what blogs were about. We discussed our first encounters with blogs and how some blogs take on a “me too” commenting culture.

Blogging cultures became the conversational topic. We discussed hobby blogs, business blogs, mommy blogs, writing blogs — the people who write them, and the people who read them. Michelle said that she thought that lurkers aren’t rude, that people read newspapers without writing the editor. I said that Darren had reported that only 1 or 2% of all readers comment. Imagine if everyone did.

Michelle said that, when she first started blogging, she spent hours and hours preparing a piece for her blog — she posted about once a week. She explained that she couldn’t keep blogging that way, It took too much time and people wouldn’t know when to read. As a mom and a blogger, she wanted balance, yet do it well and right. She explained how she found her way to posting daily in shorter posts.

Recently, Michelle removed her stat counter. All of the reasons are in this post already.

This morning when I fired up my computer, I got this IM from a popular blogger:
I see you’re on scribbet.
That’s Michelle’s blog.

Once again, Michelle had gotten to the conversation before me.

I’m wondering how to fix that . . . I’m thinking another call to Anchorage.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

It’ll be curious to see what happens when the majority of people know what a blog is the way they know what a website is now.–Michelle Mitchell

Stop by Michelle’s Blog, Scribbit, and say hi!

Thanks, Michelle, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Jay Andrew Allen Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Jay there?

Chris and I were walking down lovely, historic Hawthorne St. We were talking and laughing as we headed to his car. It was parked in my building. He was heading back to his job. I was heading back to my home inside your computer when . . . my cell phone rang . . . that was the first I heard Jay Andrew Allen.

We talked for a minute. We talked later that night. We had tried to talk one time earlier, but wrist injury and an emergency room had gotten in the way. As I recall, we talked again, once more to set up this call. Then at last, a day or two ago, Jay Andrew Allen and I had a conversation . . . about almost everything.

When the conversation started, I actually thought we were going to talk about his newest project first — so I asked him to tell me a story and said then I’d behave. Of course, I didn’t communicate what I was thinking. The man must have thought I was just a bit forward or a whole lot crazy.

He fielded my request like the parent and the professional he is.

Jay told me about probloggers. He pointed out the trend for writers to get their incomes from several sources. We spent some time talking writing for print versus writing for blogs. We both have a definite preference for the timeline of the online world. Jay brought up so many thoughtful points on the subject, he could be teaching a class. He mentioned how blogging allows for asides and sharing, the phenomenon of MyBlogLog — actually seeing who’s reading — the voice and character of blogging compared to the blandness of most print writing.

I couldn’t help but tell The Zero Boss how much I like the “sugar rush” section of his blog and the reader pages under the cover. He told me the story of how they both got started. He’s a programmer guy, not just parenting guru with attitude.

Since he’s been blogging for what will be three years in no time, I asked him if he had experienced what I call “changing generations of readers” — audience shifts in groups. He knew what I meant. I explained how I took reader movements — who came and who didn’t — personally when I was a brand new blogger — well, er, after I started getting visitors. I got the feeling he understood, but didn’t have the same experience.

We talked about making changes and taking risks. I asked about mistakes he made. Jay laughed and mentioned some things he did. The Zero Boss gave examples of how the same words won him friends and lost them in one fell swoop. Then he said, “You’re going to lose people anyway, write what you’re passionate about.”

Talking to The Zero Boss is a plus sum conversation. I can’t wait until I get to do it again.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

It’s an exciting time to be a writer to be online, to move away from the traditional publishing model. This model is far more open to the writer’s voice . . . to have character and something to say.–Jay Andrew Allen

Stop by Jay’s Blog, The Zero Boss, and say hi!

Thanks, Jay, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Jonathan Bailey Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Jonathan there?

Jonathan Bailey and I met for the first time on the telephone this week, but we’ve been reading each other’s work for a while. We started right out talking about his blog, Plagiarism Today. I wasn’t going to miss a chance to discuss something that is, and has been, such a key part of my publishing life.

Jonathan said his approach to presenting the information on his blog — the practicality issues about plagiarism and copyright — is that it’s not enough to speak about a problem. He said he had to come up with an answer — some sort of solution that might be applied. That, he pointed out, was what takes most of his time. I just sighed in agreement. I was thinking about how that could be a lesson for anyone in any business.

During our conversation, Jonathan mentioned something I have little experience with — getting picked up by Digg or Slashdot and becoming the issue of blogsport. That day one of his posts had caused a conversation that had brought his server down. People have feelings about more than one side of plagiarism and copyright issues. Jonathan said that he was a niche blogger, but that sometimes he wished he could just write about baseball. I could see why he might say that.

We talked about problogging and how he’s decided that he’s going to give it a go. He’s got a background in programming that offers him a solid standing. We also talked about the opportunities that he was connecting to make a natural transition. Jonathan Bailey has a plan. We’d already discussed how he looks at a problem and finds a solution for it. So why wouldn’t he be able to turn an idea he’s got for his future into an actual opportunity?

I wonder if Jonathan knows that he is more knowledgeable, forward thinking, and engaging than anyone I’ve worked with at the United States Copyright Office in the past two decades?

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I make it my mission to learn something new every day. Blogging is a reason to do that. It helps me grow as a writer and as a journalist. —Jonathan Bailey

Stop by Jonathan’s Blog, Plagiarism Today, and say hi!

Thanks, Jonathan, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Steven Streight Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Steven there?

Steven Streight and I were looking forward to our call for special reasons. He lives in the city where I went to University — we’d already emailed about things we had in common. Yet when the appointed time came, the connection didn’t happen. . . . It happened that he was being bombarded with ringing from a crank during that exact time frame.

I tried the number, but I didn’t leave a message. I get self-conscious about such things — I don’t like to bother people. Steven called me later that night, and we made up for the delay with a heck of conversation. Thank you, Steven, for making that happen.

Steven and I started right off talking about how blogging raises the level of conversation. Steven wondered at the fact that the same sentence said in person in a bar has a more powerful meaning when written in a comment box. We discussed how the actuality of seeing the words right there might make them more powerful. The idea that people think harder before they write also came up. We speculated that maybe the expectation that the words had more meaning made it so.

We started with talk of my university. He went to another school, but he spent a whole lot of time at mine. Steven reported that my school was changing the name of the school mascot. The choices, he told me about were dismal — clock, squirrels, gargoyle. All I could say as a writer was YUK!!! It’s a technical term.

You can bet that Steven and I got to talking about Political Correctness. I mentioned that it was happening in school books for ten years before it was even called that. I told him how people actually count how many of every race is represented, that I learned always to show Mom with a hammer and Dad cooking dinner. He didn’t seem surprised. He didn’t seem to like it much either.

Steven said he was late to the Internet, but he’s been here longer than most bloggers I know. His archives go back to 2004. He says he’s about usability and that he’s a direct marketing copywriter. We talked in depth about one of his ideas. I thought it was WAY COOL and would love to be part of it. He thinks about ideas and wonders the way I do.

We talked about emoticons — with noses and curly hair and earings, people and nations, what we think of governments, music, pay per post, what will happen to the blogosphere, SEO attitudes, what Peoria, Illinois is like and places I used to go, including a restaurant with grandmas as waitstaff and a hotel with a grizzly bear in the lobby.

We remembered all of the ways our paths have crossed over the last year — the people we’ve watched, how we’ve changed, how our respect for each other has grown.

Then Steven asked where I grew up and I told him. I had to explain where it was. When I placed my hometown for him, Vaspers the Grate said the coolest thing to me.

“You really are the girl next door.”

Steven Steight made me feel exactly like I was that girl. That was a genuinely, wonderful feeling.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

We can almost transmit thoughts from one mind to another. Blogging is almost compu-telepathy. —Steven Streight

Stop by Steven’s Blog, Vaspers the Grate, and say hi!

Thanks, Terry, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Terry Starbucker Is a B.A.D. Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Terry there?

What threw me was that I had to ask Terry, if I might call him later than we planned. He said it was no problem — I was getting to talk to the glass half full guy, and I was making him wait. What was wrong with me? That was my thought at the time.

When I finally got connected to him, I jumped into a story about how I was only called predictable once in my life.

Starbucker’s such a gentleman. He acted as if every phone starts with a story about the FBI and guys in tuxedoes. When I was done, I asked him if the phone call was what he expected, and he implied that he knew not to come with expectations.

Starbucker knows people, especially this one. I suspect everyone says that.

Terry’s not Mr. Predictable himself. He’s Mr. Positively Alive and Aware of Everyone. He still remembers that we first met over a post that compared writing to driving through the mountains. He danced with all of the girls at Open Comment Night more than once. He has a fan club that knows the soundtrack to his life — it’s a life that’s lived with gusto and a glass that’s half-full.

Once I caught my breath again, the actual conversation got rolling. I asked Terry what his real job is. He told me that he is a Sr. VP of Operations. I said I never met one that traveled as much as he does. He said it was the only way to know the people who work with and for his company. Terry said that being there Is the only way to be fully part of the process. He said that way he can champion what works and stop ideas that surely won’t. We discussed the value of the intuitive detail that a person gets from experience. We both agree it can’t be replaced by a description on the telephone or the data on a spreadsheet.

Terry and I talked about consultants. We discussed how some are so good at what they do. He said they connected like-minded positives with like-minded people. We talked about how some are, well, not good. That led us to the subject of people who don’t know what business they are in — who their real customers are.

We ventured into a discussion of how VCs look at what they do, the dot.com bubble bust and how it hurt good companies who weren’t a part of it — his and mine — because the banks were so busy covering bad debts, they didn’t have time for us.

Then somehow we were back to talking about people and how important they are.

Starbucker knows people are at the center of everything. That’s why he has a fan club.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

If what’s on that computer screen is real, it does carry over and you know it, . . . forging relationships, great ones, meaningful ones, . . . astounding.–Starbucker

Stop by Terry Starbucker’s Blog, Ramblings from a Glass Half Full, and say hi!

Thanks, Terry, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.