websites

There are 42 posts tagged websites (this is page 6 of 7).

Blog for Fame

Want to be famous and trendy on the Internet? Join the personal publishing era – get blogging.

Weblogs are part scrapbook, part magazine, part journal, part soapbox, part obligation and part fantasy. Anything that can be typed on a computer keyboard or made into a digital file (images, sounds and scanned items) can be part of a weblog. People (bloggers) with a scanner or digital camera can include pictures of themselves and the objects they write about. Links to other websites are what really make a weblog a digital twist to the old fashioned scrapbook. The best weblogs are those with well-written journal content, interesting links and an eye catching design.

However, don’t get the idea that weblogs (blogs) are just another personal home page. News and commercial sites use them too. Blogging software makes updating simple and quick. Just open the program, add your content and click. Automatically the software puts your entry into HTML, sets up the navigation (layout, date, etc.), and publishes it to your website.

Some blog software will have more features. Movable Type is very popular but not simple to install. Blogger.com is simple but (has been) unreliable due to high use. As a new blogger, you need something easy to use with dependable technical support. Almost all blog software is free for personal use.

There is a group online called GTA Bloggers, for people with weblogs in the Toronto area. Join the email list or read the website if you need help, inspiration, ideas or just want to chat with other bloggers. I also found a webring for Ontario bloggers. Take a look online for blogging groups in your own area.

Site Promotion and Emotion

One thing anyone reading this has in common is that we are writing online. Its a different market/ medium from print, obviously. But not always in obvious ways. The language is different. The rate at which content needs to be refreshed is much different. The problems with having content stolen are also different and more challenging. But, there is a huge audience out there, if you can lure them in. You don’t have to be a big ticket item like Woman’s Day, Cosmo or National Geographic to pull in readers. But, you do have to find a way of pulling them in.

One other difference that not a lot of writers take advantage of is self promotion. You can set yourself up as the controller of your own little empire. Add all the clips you want, promote them everywhere possible and even break into new markets by offering free content to other sites.

But, you do have to take those first steps and get yourself out there, into the community. A big part of doing that is a personal/ professional website. You really do need a place to hang your hat online, an address to send people to when they want to know more about you, see what you know and how you think. Also, of course what you have that someone else doesn’t already have.

One important thing is balancing personal and professional. Unless you have a couple of separate websites You need to make sure your website isn’t saying too much about you. There are some hobbies, collectibles, activities, political leanings you might not want to offer up right away. For me its Wicca. My sister was looking over my resume and was astonished that I had left in a reference to my BackWash column, Bewitching Vagabond. She strongly suggested I take it out. I decided she was right and I have removed it.

What about your own site? Is there anything there you need to consider a problem area? Assuming you have a site, of course.

Add a resume to your site too. Just don’t be careless about leaving your street address and phone numbers on there. Blank them out or just delete them.

Ka BOOM!


The world is exciting and crazy. I wish you could all be inside my head to see it. 🙂

A lot happened today. I just wrote a long email and will put that in here (slightly edited) so you can hear about my good day. 🙂

Good Morning… or Afternoon now 🙂

I have been having a marvellous day!

I woke up feeling good, usually I do. I had an idea for an article right off the bat while I was thinking about making coffee. I wrote down a few lines cause I usually forget those great ideas. Then, I decided I wanted to get out for the morning. So I treated myself to breakfast at a little place on the other side of town, Sara’s. It’s a pretty good breakfast, comes with GOOD coffee too.

I mentioned to the server that all the papers I had spread over the table were for staring up a business of my own. She said something nice and disappeared. She came back and said that Sara (the owner of the catering company/ restaurant would talk with me about it if I liked). That was SO AWESOME! I can’t believe how nice some people are just out of the blue. Both the server and Sara.

So, after I had breakfast she came over and we talked about half an hour. She told me to go to Nottawasaga Futures in town. They will help me with all the business/ financial paperwork, for free even. I had heard of Futures but forgot with so much in my head these days. Anyway, I decided I would save all the paperwork on a disk today and take it over to Futures tomorrow. Friday I have to go into Barrie for the Orientation where they are going over the paperwork with us if we need extra help. It will all work out so perfectly. 🙂

So now I don’t even feel quite so intimidated by the financial business side of all of this. Today I am going to focus on the things I do know and polish those aspects of the application/ proposal. I need to find customer and competition analysis but I should be able to use contacts online and websites from the competition to get that done. I also want to write out all my promotion ideas in one place. Right now they are notes scribbled all over the place.

Then, when I left Sara’s it started snowing. That really nice sloppy, wet snow. I like it, not great for driving in but it’s happy looking and not cold and miserable. So, I went into Zellers, I wanted to find a watering can for my Mom’s plants. I never did find one of those but I did browse in the computer section (of course) and found a USB hub which was marked down. I opened the box for a look and it was fine inside, everything there. I kept my reciept in case there is something wrong, maybe it was dropped or whater. The box was tapped up a bit but not bashed around too badly. A USB is what you plug in your scanner, digital camera and etc into the computer to have them work together. It is a nuisance to unplug one to plug in the other. You have to let the computer know you are unplugging them and then I usually restart the computer with the new one plugged in. With a hub I can leave the scanner and camera connections there. Plus they won’t be stuck at the back of the computer. I never like moving the tower/ brain around more than I have to.

But, that’s not even all the good stuff that happened today. 🙂

I went to check the mail on the way back. When I was looking through it (in addition to bills and junk) there was a letter from my Mom. She wrote a nice letter and finally someone acknowledged that the dork staying in the basement and not paying his rent should get out. I’ve been asking them to tell him to leave since December. I don’t see why it’s up to me to be the bad guy about bitching at him to pay his agreed upon rent.

Anyway, Mom’s letter to me included another letter for Peter, telling him to get out. She said it nicely of course. But get out is still get out. She left it up to me about giving him the letter or waiting to see if he will pay something for January.