Tag Archives: blogging

Early Bird Gets the Attention

Posted on by
If you are first in line, there will be more water in the pool to make a bigger splash. If you hit the market first, it will be much easier to make some noise. Get in people’s queues first, and you will be read before the next guy. I have seen a direct correlation to the number of people who read my blog per day and the time of day I post – the earlier, the better. The early bird gets the worm. Or in this case, the attention.

There is a flip side to being first: a responsibility to quality. While you may secure for yourself a smash hit opening weekend by launching first, sustaining that hit overtime is a completely different story. In journalism, it’s always a race to publish first. But if the accuracy of an article doesn’t check out, the premature launch could adversely effect the organization’s credibility. To build a sustainable hit, you must keep quality high and consistently beat everyone else to the punch.

While my blog has little at stake to post “first,” I doubt I could have earned your readership if I published daily nonsensical poop jokes. Without question, quality counts in the long term. But if all you want is attention and immediate gratification, you better cross the finish line in first place.

I’m Not Finished Yet

Posted on by
Happy New Year, everyone! I started blogging daily on February 26th. 274 days ago, I committed to blogging every day for the remainder of 2011. I didn’t miss a single post. This year, writing reconnected me with so many great people, introduced me to new ones, opened doors, landed me interviews, helped secured a job, and changed my life.

I’m not going to stop. I hope you can join me on the journey ahead. If you want to keep up, you can subscribe via email (on the right column), follow me on twitter, or tune in as often as you can. I encourage you to participate, challenge me in every way possible, and share with anyone you feel might connect to the material.

Thank you so much for your readership thus far. I look forward to 2012 and our collective adventures ahead!

Create Daily

Posted on by
I can think of nothing decidedly more human than creativity. The human value of creativity stems from our primordial experiences as a species when we discovered how to wield tools. Inventing and creating are spiritual endeavours. Like cleansing yourself of toxins, genuine creative output clears the heart and mind. The more often you create, the healthier and richer your humanity becomes. I blog daily and get a kick out of it. What can you do everyday to keep the juices flowing?

5 Reasons Why I Blog Daily (And You Should, Too)

Posted on by
The college essay ruined writing for me. Having only ever been asked to deliver the formal five-paragraph essay in school, I came to dread the written word. I procrastinated assignments to the bitter end. Determined to revisit writing and heal academic wounds, I committed to blogging daily in March. I could never have imagined how fruitful this journey would become. Today marks my 250th post and over 50,000 words since I started blogging eight months ago. Now, I am in love with writing. I encourage everyone to blog for the following five reasons:

  1. Output – Through a commitment to generating content daily, you condition yourself to build a large personal volume. Little by little, you end up with a novel’s worth in literature. Many authors, including Tim Ferris and Tucker Max, have expanded their blogs into best-selling books. With tact, you can leverage your authored library into strong returns. Output is more than half the battle; a daily commitment can bring it all home. Will I publish a book? Not planning on it, but maybe someday!
  1. Craft – By blogging every day, you hone your skills as a writer. You learn to develop ideas faster, structure arguments more strategically, and define your authorial voice. I lost practice writing after college and blogging brought most of it back.
  1. Experimentation – A blog and its community can be great places to test ideas, develop concepts, start conversations, and collect feedback. Theories can evolve over time through posts, comments, impressions, and personal conversations. If you want to test the validity or integrity of your ideas, throw them to the wolves online.
  1. Memorialization – I blog to preserve ideas, concepts, discoveries, and lessons. I found myself learning a lot, offering advice to friends, and teaching so many lessons that otherwise disappeared into the wind. It felt like a total waste to keep everything in the back of my mind. By publishing, I save thoughts and expand the public reach of potentially useful ideas.
  1. Connectivity – Blogging connects me to readers in ways I never thought possible. Through exchanges in comments, email, and conversation, I continue to develop intellectual relationships with professionals, estranged friendships, acquaintances, and people I’ve never met at all. I learn so much from you. Thank you all for reading! It has been an absolute pleasure. Cheers to many more!

Goodbye, Film Friday

Posted on by
For the last seven months, I have posted film-related topics every Friday. On the whole, the series has underperformed consistently across the board (an average 43% less than topics across the week). Film-related posts on days other than Friday have not performed as poorly, so I can only assume the Film Friday brand is to blame. For those who enjoyed my film commentary, do not fear – film will continue to be a large part of my life and will undoubtedly come up often in my writing. Stay tuned.

Blog Migration

Posted on by

Dear Readers:

I am in the process of migrating my blog from Tumblr to WordPress. This change may take several days. Please excuse any radical differences, lame style defaults, page bugs, or interruptions to usual programming.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

How to Conquer Writer’s Block

Posted on by

L.A. Times sportswriter Walter ‘Red’ Smith said, “There’s nothing more terrifying than a blank piece of paper.” If you set a goal to create, that blank piece of paper is your worst enemy. Starting is always the hardest part.

We stall ourselves with the question, “Where do I start?” It doesn’t matter. Just start. Put something on the page. Do not bother starting from the top, your introduction will come in time. Free yourself from linear thinking. Start at the core of what you want to say, the examples, the conclusion – whatever comes to you first. Free yourself from focused thinking – something irrelevant on the page is better than nothing at all. Who knows what arbitrary thoughts may inspire you?

I started this post with the words, “I don’t know what to write.” Thus, this post was born.

You have no excuses. Go write.

Tips for Blogging Daily

Posted on by
  • Never miss a day.
  • Keep it short. Easier to write, easier to read.
  • Identify problems and propose solutions.
  • Keep a Google Doc and/or mobile notepad full of ideas for posts.
  • Save emergency posts for days you don’t have time to write.
  • Make it easy for readers to find old posts. Archives, “Older Posts” link, etc.
  • Know your audience. Figure out who is reading your writing.
  • Track traffic. Google Analytics, baby.

More in the future as I learn more.

How Blogging Can Help Build Your Net Worth

Posted on by

31 posts, 7,104 words, 311 unique readers, 1,721 article views, 27 states and 11 countries later, I have completed my first objective:  blog every day in the month of March. It has been an extremely fulfilling experience, to say the least. Blogging has helped me:

  • Learn to overcome procrastination on a micro task level.
  • Develop the essential skill of writing.
  • Communicate concepts otherwise lost in my head.
  • Increase social media exposure.
  • Reconnect with old friends.
  • Introduce me to professionals in my industry and others.

It is amazing how much blogging can help you connect. My network is far more dynamic and rich than it was a month ago (and I do not think that has to do with the weather). I cannot say this enough, but a stronger network correlates with your personal net worth. You are more valuable if more people know you well.

I cannot recommend blogging enough.  I will write soon about blogging tactics that have helped me build a daily audience.

I am on a role, have formed the habit, and have no intention of slowing down.  I commit to blogging every single day through the remainder of 2011.  

For every day I fail to blog in 2011, I will donate to charity $1 per total unique reader visiting my site.

And for those fooled, I am NOT moving to Europe. America is ripe with opportunity and I have much left to do!

Can Newspapers Survive? Bring on Newsographics!

Posted on by

It is official: more people consume news online than from newspapers.  Print is failing to compete with the saturated blogosphere. While the value of digital media is evolving, the blog network is still disorganized and fragmented.  The need for staffed, credible and organized newsrooms has never been higher.

Print outlets have not sufficiently adapted to the Internet.  It should not be as simple as porting text to a webpage – your platform (the computer monitor, mobile device, etc.) is completely different than newsprint. Few people enjoy reading on their monitors, want to load full paragraphs of text on mobile, or feel sufficiently engaged by content on the ever-interactive tablet form factor. The format of digital news presentation needs to be completely re-imagined.

USA Today became popular because it had a higher volume of images than other newspapers. While a picture may be worth a thousand words, it lacks quantitative and qualitative information essential to quality news reporting. Incorporate graphical representations of story information and a healthy dose of interactivity into images and you could have something really special.  I call it the “Newsographic.”

I have been very impressed with the New York Times coverage of Japan’s tragedy. On top of diligent email updates and consistent reporting, they continue to introduce extremely informative interactive features and multimedia presentations that paint a more vivid picture of the event.  You can find some of their newsographics below:

Data visualization hit the Internet mainstream with a vengeance. Unlike text blocks, infographics are more inviting, quicker to consume, and can help make complex information easier to interpret. Bringing imagery to life with a layer of interactivity enhances the reader’s engagement with the material tenfold. Top a visualization off with live updating power and you have yourself a very powerful news medium. 

Newsographics are the future. Unlike most individual blog authors, larger news organizations have the talent and resources available to generate these presentations.  I am convinced rich multimedia will be the only way major outlets can stay competitive in this arena. The tablet is a perfect opportunity for newsographic-only sources to stake major claim in the news market. I still think major news companies have a place in the media landscape – but they cannot rely on the written word alone. They must evolve.