Baby Boomer Blogs That Motivate You to Blog-Baby Boomer Baloney

This entry is part [part not set] of 1 in the series Baby Boomer Blogs that Motivate You to Blog

Have you ever visited a blog that made you want to post to your own blog? Well, I have. And today I am encouraging you to visit a blog called Baby Boomer Baloney. Now, the main motivation for me is the fact that the author has a DAILY blog post.  His posts range from inspirational to insightful.

Do you know of other baby boomer blogs that motivate you to blog? Let me know.

Baby Boomers Blog Workout-Pump Up Your Posts With Controversy

This entry is part [part not set] of 1 in the series Blog Workout

Have you ever varied your blog workout? That’s right I said workout because blogging is a mental a physical exercise. But to build our blogging muscles in different places we sometimes must use different weights or types of exercise. So, since I have been trying to do more physical exercise with my body thought I would also apply it to my blogging. Does that make sense?

Here is the first of a series of post on blogging workouts. Today I want to share the value of adding controversial blog post. It is a post that can generate a lot of comments because the topic is something that most of your readers will have an opinion about.

To give you an example check out a post I read today about a pregnant woman who goes into a bar for a drink.  She is refused a drink by the bar attendant. Wow, the comments following the post are intense.

Clearly a baby boomer has something to say about this one. Try it, add some agree or disagree to your next blog post.

What do you think? Are you ready to workout?

Baby Boomer Blogging-Were You Born a Blogger?

This entry is part [part not set] of 2 in the series baby boomer blogging

If you are a baby boomer blogger reading this answer just one question. Were you born a blogger? I was not born a blogger. Sure if my mom had me tested back in the early fifties they may have detected a “blog” gene. But genetic research as not, to my knowledge, been able to find that DNA relationship. Yet, many of us are baby boomers and we blog? Why? How did it start?

Ok, here is my story. Once upon a time I had someone create a website for me. Why? Because as a speaker I went to enough workshops that said, “Create a website and put the url on your business card. Include articles, products and the kinds of topics you deal with and audiences you address. Oh, and don’t forget to put a current picture up and not one showing you 20 years ago.

Well, I did that, not once but twice. Both were wonderful sites done in Dreamweaver. That is one of the finest website development packages around but the learning curve is steep. So although I knew how to change pages, create pages there was so much more to learn. I could not fix my files and much more. I became increasingly frustrated.

Remember, I am a speaker, stand up, talk, engage, get creative tell jokes but not do blogging. That sounded lonely, tedious and too hard!

Then one day I attended an NSA, (National Speakers Asssociation) conference and was introduced to this thing called blogging. I purchased the CD and listened to it over and over again in my car.Although, I did not use the same blogging platform as the speaker, I decided to create my blog using Blogger.

How did I learn Blogger?
I took an online tutorial course with VTC. I would look at the video, stop and do they said, then start the vidoe again and continue. I had a blog up and running in no time! I still had my static site but I had a blog up on presentation skills. I taught my husband and he put one up on art. What was also cool was this same  video site had a lot of free  videos you could learn from before you started paying. They also had loads of videos we could not find in the stores. Video tutorials on just about anything so we signed up for a year so we could also dip our toes in stuff like Photoshop, etc.

I started looking at the tutorials on WordPress.But at that time the installing was oh so complex. I was not ready to deal with creating databases and other stuff you had to do if you did not have a host that made it simple.

Are you ready to share your story yet?

Next, How we traveled to WordPress.org during hot date nights.

10 Top Reasons to Blog on the 4th of July

I was always amazed at how much mail I get on the holidays from internet marketers. But it always seemed strange because most people should be busy entertaining, hanging out or watching a marathon on TV.

Then it hit me. Hey, how would I know about the online activity during a holiday unless I was online? That’s right I am one of those folks blogging and doing other stuff online, when I can, during the holidays.

So, although, I am supposed to be working on an  upcoming presentation for next week, I thought I would share this post I was writing in my mind while running my errands today.

10 Top Reasons to Blog on the 4th of July

1.  Everyone online does not celebrate the holiday so you can focus on your oversea readers

2. You just never liked hot dogs ,hamburgers and ribs. Plus everyone is not into vegi, vegan and tofu so you might as well stay home.

3. If you are blogging and remember an issue you wanted to ask your host about you can get almost instant access to 24 hour support because everyone else is busy having fun.

4. If you are have your laptop at the barbercue you can impress your friends and family

5. You can blog about holiday sales and specials.

6. You don’t have a life.

7. You might get more comments from other bloggers online who don’t have a life

8. If you blog for your job you will look like a go getter if folks see you posted on a holiday.

9. It is a good time to volunteer to be a guest blogger for someone who needs a break to get a life.

10. If you blog then Tweet someone may bring you a dinner or invite you over to their celebration.

It’s Shake and Bake Blogging and I Helped!

Remember that Kraft commercial “It’s Shake and Bake, and I helped?” Well, I thought about that today. As you may recall, Shake and Bake is an alternative preparation for chicken that allows you to produce a dish without frying. You prepare the chicken and bake it.  It is supposed to be healthier for you.

Now,it is my premise blogging can be a shake and bake occasion also when you are working with a blog team. How?

Well imagine this scenario:

You need to post about the steps for grading a vinyl LP before posting it on an auction site. You could do the research, post it and it is up.  Now that may take you a few hours and that includes quality control.That is the fried approach.

But if you are doing the shake and bake team approach it goes something like this:

Team blogger #1 does the research on grading vinyls using the Goldmine system and sends that information to Team blogger #2 who  writes the post and puts it in draft.

Team blogger #3 creates a title and inserts it into the post. Now, that may seem like a simple task but to make the title engaging can take a little trial and error.

Team blogger #4 reviews the post for any errors in grammar.

Team blogger #5 creates the tags and indicates the category. He or she may also indicate if it was part of a series using a plugin like Organize Series in WordPress.org. (Or any other method depending on the blogging platform)

Now Team blogger #6 will upload and size an appropriate picture(s) into the post. In this case it would be a pictures of a vinyl LP and cover at high magnification.

But alas, we are not finished yet. Team blogger#7 will now preview the post and add any appropriate monetization links like affiliates if they relate to the record collecting business.

Finally, Team blogger #8 will preview the post, check to make sure all the links work and publish it or schedule for publishing.

Now you may not have as many team members but even if there is only a few each one can play a role that will save time, insure a quality post and make your blogging efforts healthier both mentally and physically.

Each member of the team can then say, It’s shake and bake and I helped!”

Are You Blogging Your Hobby?

As I traveled from my moms after a day of work, hospital visit to a friend who had open heart surgery, several drug stores, and a modified zumba class because of my sore arm, I began to wonder what I would blog about tonight.

While I was at the drug store ,looking for an item for my mom, and while I was at the gift store at the hospital I talked to two different folks about coins.  I realized that I had not given any time for many days to the pile of coins waiting for me to investigate from my pocket change.

That’s when I decided to chat for a few minutes about hobby blogging.

For the first time in my baby boomer life I have a hobby. I don’t recall ever having a hobby unless you call talking with strangers in the elevator or diners about their passion a hobby. I don’t consider my blogging, speaking or hanging out at the senior center my mom lives  in a hobby.

http://www.babyboomerpocketchange.com

But last year I started reading and exploring coin collecting. While my husband decided to explore the guitar. And guess what we both decide to create blogs about out new found passions.

Why?

  • It helps us to remember where we store our new found information , videos and audios
  • It reinforces our learning.
  • It is very niched which is great for ads
  • Helps us to keep on top of the hobby
  • A great way to meet other people in the hobby
  • We can submit to Blog directories like blog catalog and join groups with folks of same interest.
  • I can post pictures of coins give a history then bring that picture with a link to the site on Ebay or other sites If I am selling that coin.
  • Plus more

Hubby’s hobby blog is Midlife Guitar and mine is Baby Boomer Pocket Change.

What’s yours?

Help, I’ve Forgotten My WordPress Blog Password and Can’t Get Up!

Have you fallen down from blogging because you lost or forgot your password?

Well this is a quick tutorial to get you back on your blogging feet!.

1.     Go to the dashboard of your blog. Now there are several ways to do this and I did a short video for those of you who need a reminder.

Please note that this video is referring to a WordPress.com hosted site. But the same applies to a WordPress.org self hosted site. I do not, however, recommend that you have Meta options on your site if you are on a self hosted WordPress.org site.


3 Ways to Sign into Your WordPress.com Site SHORT VIDEO

2.    Yes, you can skip the video and just type in the name of your blog site. But this time add a forward slash and wp-admin.
The wp stands for WordPress and the admin means you are going into the administrative area. I like to call it behind the scenes. OR You can add /wp-login.php Personally I always use wp-admin

So this is what the url structure will look like:

If you are on a WordPress.com site it would be  http://www.myblogsite.wordpress.com/wp-admin

If you are self-hosting your site it would be http://www.myblogsite.com/wp-admin

3.   Now, you will see the following login waiting for your User Name and Password. But remember you have misplaced or forgotten it. So observe the read arrow pointing to the phrase Lost your password? Go ahead click on it.

Login for WordPress blogs

Login for WordPress blogs

4.     After you click on that link it will ask you to enter the user name (if you recall it). If you don’t  try to recall the email address you used when you first signed up to blog. Hint: If one email does not work try another. The system will send you a new password. Just go to your email and grab it.

5.    But HALT WAIT, DO NOT PASS GO

You will actually receive two emails. The first will ask you to verify that you actually requested an email change. Why? Well anyone can use your user name or email, request a change and then go in and reset the password. YOUDON’T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN. So, if you get a message like that and you DID NOT request it. DO NOT VERIFY IT.

But since you have requested it right after reading this post VERIFY the first email. Then you will get an email with your new email.

Request for email or user name

Request for email or user name

6.   Now go in and key in your new password along with your user name.  If your browser is set to remember cookies(not the choc. Chip kind of cookies) you can select the option for the computer to remember your login details. However, there are times when you or someone else, may go into your browser options and choose to delete all cookies. Oops, your password is gone again. So I strongly suggest that you write it down in a special notebook just for your specific blog.

In the next post I will show you how to change your password inside your dashboard. Would that be helpful?

Meanwhile, get back on those blogging feet and start blogging!!!!