Monday, April 1, 2013

Good Rules for Blogging???

So now that I'm on Twitter, I see all these posts fly by like "7 Things to Never Do on Twitter" or "5 Things to Make Your Blog More blahblahblah", replacing blahblahblah with any number of things, from popular to professional, from appealing to successful.

One of the tips that really annoyed me at first, until I examined my own reading habits (for magazines at least), was to have pictures in the blog post.  My initial reaction was that this is supposed to be a blog about writing, not about photography, but then I thought about how when I buy or read a magazine the first thing I do is flip through and look at all the pictures.  BTW, the post with the picture of my cat quilt got quite a few hits.  So, good idea.  And I'll try to add more pictures. Maybe like this one...

Me in Portland on Stark Street


Now this picture has nothing to do with what I'm writing about in this post, other than it's a picture, but it is kind of cool since my maiden name is Stark and I'm using it as my pseudonym.

BTW, if you haven't been to Portland, Oregon, they have made an art of street vending.  The little trailers and trucks behind me are everywhere, hundreds of them.




There are several suggestions that I'm going to have to pass on, especially the start a controversy suggestion. People who know me may not believe this but I try to avoid confrontation.  That's not to say I won't get confrontational, but only over something I strongly believe in, and I am certainly not going to try to stir people up just to get their attention.  Besides, there's enough of that on Facebook already. You don't even have to try to start something on FB.  People are just pissed-off in general.

So at this point in my career, I don't think the old adage that any publicity is good publicity works.

Another crazy one is share some secrets.  Like government secrets?  Like high school crush secrets?  Like my super power is my blindingly white skin.  Whenever I put on a bathing suit and go out in the sun [living in Seattle hasn't help with the tanning], my skin blinds people. And hey, they can't see all my wrinkles and rolls.

Oh, time for another picture...

This is a picture of my friend Patti's two dogs, Honey Girl and Kemo.  Again, it has nothing to do with the blog post (other than it's a picture).

Sorry, when I get tired, I get a little snarky.

As you can see, they are extremely mistreated dogs. That might be a controversy, if it were true.


Next, suggestion is to post frequently and regularly.  I don't post frequently, as in four or five times a week, but I do try to post regularly.  So another good idea.

Finally, and I've attempted this, but right now, I believe most people are reading my blog posts either on a google/yahoo page or via email. The suggestion is to start a conversation, to encourage people to post comments. I think this is also a pretty good idea, and I'm going to try to start doing that.  So friends, who read my posts, don't email me directly, put it in a comment.  To which I'll reply.

So what do you think?  And what would you like to see me change/enhance on this blog site?

Post a comment!!!!


4 comments:

  1. My main blog is on my association website and I upload something about every 2 weeks. There is no option for photos at this time unless they are in a word-type format like the ergonomic photo I used on my blog of the same topic. My blog is only read by members of the association and besides some teaching, its main purpose is to have visibility on the site in relation to earning my Member of Excellence certification. I think open posts such as yours are much more valuable, interesting and useful - they are a great insight to ideas, persons, places, things! I read yours and, so far, not any others off the IAAP site right now; yours is much more entertaining! Love you!

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  2. Thank you for the lovely compliments. I would return the favor of going to your blog site, but it sounds like I probably wouldn't understand it even if I did get there. What is IAAP? And you used my typical note ending for friends [which disturbs a few of them]... love you too! And good luck with your blog.

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  3. Here's a comment: more pictures of dogs, please.

    And just keep writing about what you are thinking and feeling. I know I find it interesting and it is (hopefully) sort of therapeutic for you too.

    - Ken

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  4. What, Ken, you didn't like my picture?? :-) But I do have plenty of pictures of Patti's dogs. Will use another one next time.

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