This entry is part 1 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.
First I want to thank each and every person who has put themselves in harms way to provide the many freedoms we have in this country. I also honor those who have lost their lives and hope and pray that their families find comfort.
This is a day that made me think of physical, mental and spiritual freedoms. I thought about my personal spiritual freedom during my personal quiet time this morning. I was thankful for the physical freedom from pain that my mom had. I pray for those who are in emotional and physical pain for them to have some freedom from it.
If you have never felt the pain of physical, emotional or spiritual bondage you will never, ever appreciate how it feels to feel free. Sometimes it is just the freedom a pain pill brings. Other times it is the freedom from crying out of grief or lost of a loved one because someone cared enough to call and talk to you.
As a baby boomers we have a lot more of a history to reflect upon. They range from personal freedoms to job related freedoms. That’s right many of you are free of your jobs but not by choice. Yet, you have created an opportunities out of the pain of job loss. Every successful baby boomer internet marketer has a story to tell you that would probably encourage you.
Well, I could go on and on but must make a trip to my moms. So, I leave
Are their some freedoms you have but have thought to give thanks for? If yes, take a few minutes to appreciate them between the fireworks and fun.
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!”
Tonight while preparing for tommorrow’s dinner I discovered five (5) ways blogging can be like peeling potatoes.
You seldom look forward to peeling potatoes. But you have a vision for the results.With blogging there are times that you really don’t feel like doing it. But you know that when you make that post the hoped for results can really happen!
You wash and scrub the potatoes. Then make sure your knife or peeler is sharp. With blogging you start with fresh content and a sharp mind.
Slowly peel using your own style. With blogging you want to blog with your own style that will get the job done.
Avoid cutting too much of the potato with the peel. With blogging you want to cut away all the stuff your readers may not want to hear. Note: If you are doing a rant you might leave the skin on and just slice and dice.
Get rid of the peels or find other uses. (For example, does anyone live on a farm?) With blogging you get rid of the content you did not use or find other places to use it.
Sure we could also look at cooking, and recipes that include the potatoes. Then there is the presentation, eating and digestiong of the potatoes. And did I hear anyone say leftovers? Well it is the same way with blogging. There are so many simple yet complex dimensions of blogging. That’s what keeps us serving and eating our blogs
But I am sure you can come up with many other aspects of blogging as it relates to the simplicity of peeling potatoes. Thanks for listening.
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.
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.
I am currently in a 30 Day blog challenge sponsored by Jeannette Cates. There are over 100 people participating. Now the cool thing about this is not only do you meet more people but you pump out blog content. This makes the search engines happy and may fulfill other goal s you personally have for blogging.
Those goals could include:
product sales,
product development,
affiliate sales,
clicks on other ads on your blog
hopefully increased blog RSS subscriptions
Personal therapy
Twitter followers
Facebook Page “Likes”
Plus more
One of the things I am so very impressed with is the vast variety of all the blog posts. Many of them have Facebook Pages that I want to showcase. I won’t get to all of them. But I want to start showcase some of them randomly. So, if you want to visit I am going to do short reviews on one of my sites called Rosies Boomer Review.
I am looking forward to learning, getting empowered and motivated by some of the, sometimes unknown, Facebook pages. So often we are on Facebook giving updates on our dinners etc, but there are some REAL GEMS ON FACEBOOK PAGES. Lets, start tapping into them and also PLEASE PARTICIPATE ON THEM AFTER YOU SAY YOU LIKE IT.
PS If you are a baby boomer and want to be challenged with great content, teleseminars, etcFacebook Page PLEASE visit visit Boomer Diva Nation’s Facebook Page moderated by the infamous and empowering Beverly Mahone.
Are you ready to move your to your new blog home? Did you read the other 6 posts prior to this? Has any of it made sense? If yes you are ready for the last few things I am going to share in this series.
PACK YOUR BOXES AND CLEAN UP WHERE YOU ARE LEAVING
Two years ago we moved my mom from her home of 57 years to a senior apartment complex. It took a lot of vacation days and solid planning to do this task. Because I am not the most savvy packer I hired two people to work with me. We packed and labeled the boxes.
We also cleaned the apartment completely and was ready for the moving. This is silmilar to what you need to do BEFORE you move your static site to your new blog home. You need to pack your files,label them correctly and clean up any left over hosting fees etc.
Now, if you DO NOT KNOW how to back up your files GET HELP! Hopefully you have your files in a folder on your hard drive which should be a MIRROR of what is on your host server. If you have labeled your files right it is going to be a lot easier to bring them to your new blog home.
For example, I had all my images , articles, and products, etc in separate folders inside a folder called rosiehorner.com on my hard drive. But I had someone help me insure that all the files matched what was on my server. We made not one, but two cd disks of the files. It is from these disks that I am systematically bringing files over to my new blog home.
Am I ready for prime time? Not quite. But because I have old traffic from articles I have written, clients visiting etc there is still a lot of traffic going to my site. Yet, I have not promoted it yet. So, I guess you know what my next series will be don’t you?
Stuff to do before your site is ready f or Prime Time!
For me the cable companies I am referring to are AWSTATS and Google Analytics. I call them the cable company because they SHOW YOU you know when, from where, how and how long folks are staying on your blog. I am not going into a discussion about the differences between the stats with AWSTATS vs Google Analytics. It is deep and different. I would suggest putting the phrase, What is the difference between AWSTATS and Google Analytics directly into Googles search.
But I will tell you quickly that AWSTATS are part of most hosting packages along with Webelizer. The latter is great for charts. But I prefer AWSTATS. Whereas, Google Analytics is part of the Google World. You can download a plugin to place it on your site or do it manually. They have excellent tutorials.
But bottom line is set your domain name to start getting this information before you bring your furniture into the house. Now, it is true that the host where your static website lived will keep generating stats for you. But when you disconnect from that host you don’t want to miss a beat. Remember the day you left so you can check the stats f rom that point.
Depending on how fast your moving company bring in your boxes and your family and friends arrange all your stuff your stats might be down for a short period of time.
For those of you are will be using Bluehost they have a video tutorial on their site telling you how to set up AWSTATS or Webelizer with your domain.
I am sure many of the other hosts also have some kind of instruction. Was this clearer than mud?
What Do You Think The Last Step IN This Series Will Be?
By now you have create a floor layout of your blog with the FREE BLOG Planning Form. You choose a host, have painted the walls by choosing a theme, and you hung up a sign letting folks know that an exciting thing is going to happen in this new home. You also called the Security Company and installed an alarm. The alarm for our Wordpress.org Blog is Askismet.
Now it is time to call the Phone Company
The phone company I called was Feedburner. I created an RSS feed there and also a way for folks to subscribe to my blog. All they have to do is key in their email address and a call is placed to their email letting them know I just posted something new on my blog. How cool is that!
I have located a easy to understand video on how to do the subscription. Once again, I could have done it but she did such a great job! Plus, now I have time to go out and hula hoop.
Email subscription using feedburner
Oh, I know I can also call other venders and if you know of any please share. But for now Feedburner, which is owned by Google should do just fine. While you are there browse and look at the other features because it is simply powerful.
By now you have create a floor layout of your blog with the FREE BLOG Planning Form. You choose a host, have painted the walls by choosing a theme, and you hung up a sign letting folks know that an exciting thing is going to happen in this new home.
Now it is time to call a security company to activate an alarm system. Why? Because your site is alive on the internet although you have not moved your furniture into it. You will have folks trying to break in with something call SPAM.
Activate Your Askismet Before You Move Into Your Blog Home
Here is a pretty clear video on how to activate your plugin. I was going to create one but I must admit it was faster going to YouTube.
Now time to work on the next part to this series. Did I leave anything out? Can anyone share what plugins fight spam on Typepad or other hosted blogging platforms?
