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10 Things About Having A Writing Blog

Posted by george on August 15, 2011
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , , , . 19 comments

Image from Studenthacks.org

As I (quickly) approach the beginning of my 4th year of owning a writing blog, it occured to me that there are a lot of things to know about owning a writing blog. Here are ten of those things.

  1. You’re not alone. Man, that’s an understatement. I sometimes wonder if there are more blogs about writing than there are any others. The only two that I can think of that rival writing blogs are blogs about personal development  and… porn.
  2. There’s no shortage of content. While I absolutely believe that every writing topic has been covered ad nauseum, I also believe that nearly every day a fresh voice emerges with their own take on the topic.
  3. Keeping a writing blog keeps your writing skills sharp. On top of the obvious effect of just plain writing on a regular basis, trust me when I say the readership will let you know when your writing is less than sharp. Usually done through a snarky comment about a grammatical error that snuck its way into one of your posts.
  4. Amazing community. When you think of it, most of us writers are in competition with each other. This could be competition as another freelancer, or perhaps as another novelist vying for the ever shrinking traditionally published slots out there. You would never know it, though. I’ve yet to find a writer who is not anxious to help another writer with support or information that will help move them forward. Trade secrets are non-existent. Pretty incredible if you consider most other industries out there.
  5. Longevity is the key to success. I’ve seen great writers and their blogs come and go and it never fails to amaze me. Someone with great promise appears to give up and drop by the wayside. I know that sometimes life gets in the way of our ambitions but frankly, I still don’t understand it.
  6. You get to stay on the pulse of writing and publishing. If I didn’t own a blog about writing, I would bet there are a lot of industry trends that would get past me. I think is is primarily because as a blogger, I subscribe to a lot of writing and publishing blogs. I comment there, they comment here and I get to see what is the latest and greatest.
  7. Instant venue. Whenever I write a short fiction piece, I’ve got an instant venue to publish the thing. Sure, it won’t be read by millions, but the readership that does comment gives me inspiration to keep going.
  8. I have a place to vent. When I decide that there is some kind of injustice in the writing world, I get to pull out my soap box, dust it off, get on it and let the words fly. Cleansing it is.
  9. I can go off in any ol’ direction I want. If I want to write book reviews, I can. Focus on children’s books? No problem. E-Books and electronic publishing? Sure.
  10. Platform. If I play my cards right, my writing blog can also serve as an author platform – a means for showcasing my talent to potential editors and agents.

If you have a writing blog, what would you add to the list?

Moosey Does BlogTalkRadio

Posted by george on January 14, 2011
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , , . 1 comment

Image from SocialBrite.org

Hi there, folks.  Well, I was lucky enough to have been approached by a scrumptiously wonderful person who asked if I would be willing to do an interview with her on BlogTalkRadio.  Some of you may recall that over the summer I was interviewed there with a different person.  When J Blair Brown (Judith) asked, I just had the sense that this would be something special.  Do you ever get that feeling about someone right off the bat?  That is what I’m talking about in this instance.

The interview ended up being more of a conversation in many respects and we figured out that we had a lot in common as writers. It was an absolute ton of fun and I would just completely dig it if you would go over to the link and listen in for a bit.

Here is where to go:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jblairbrown/2011/01/12/livin-the-dream-with-writerauthor-george-angus-of-tumblemoose

After you listen in I’d love to hear your comments (I’m sure Judith would too!

Top Ten Reasons to Blog Your Business Site

Posted by george on May 21, 2010
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , . 15 comments

Another vintage Tumblemoose post.  Two years old and still applies!

When I first heard the term “blog” I surmised that it had something to do with the internet and a log or journal.  It didn’t take but Google and a moment to discover Weblogs and what was to me, a whole new world.  I have to admit, I wasn’t taken with the idea too much.  It seemed to me that it was most likely a bunch of personal ranting and frivolity.

Fast forward a few years and ahhh, I’m so much older and wiser.  Well, older anyway.  I have discovered the blogosphere, and it is good.  Not all of it of course, but there are some golden needles in this haystack.

This morning I became inspired when I read a post on Hunter Nuttall that was full of great information about blog traffic.  I examined why it is that I have a blog on my business site and the post brought home why it is critically important to blog your business site.

So, here we go:

  1. It puts a warm face on a cold computer monitor.  Guess what?  There’s a human hiding back there!  So much content is designed to be professional and cool, working to the lowest denominator.  We can’t be friendly!  That’s not professional.  Hogwash.  For the struggling entrepreneur, putting some personailty on the business site may be the deciding factor for a prospective client.  For the mega-corporate site, a regular blog can show the consumer that yes, there are humans working within the corporate structure.
  2. A blog keeps the website fresh. If each time the consumer goes to a site there is a blog entry dated within the last day or so, they will be more likely to trust the content of the entire site as being updated and valid.  A trusting consumer is a purchasing consumer.
  3. Blogging brings a degree of interactivity to your site. Most people browse the web for information – a passive activity.  Having a blog with a “leave a comment” section prompts a viewer to take action.  If a blog post has inspired the visitor in some way, their ability to leave a comment on the blog may spur them into other action – say, making a purchase.
  4. A blog is a perfect means for delivering new information. Has something changed in your marketplace?  A blog can inform the consumer and makes an impression that this business is right on top of what is happening in their field.  This builds credibility.  Credibility builds loyalty and loyal viewers often turn into loyal buyers.
  5. A blog posting can solicit feedback.  Some folks just need the right permission to give their thoughts about your business, products or website.  Post a blog asking for ideas and watch the comments roll in.  Implement some of the suggested changes and folks will know and remember the website.  And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?  Standing above the fray.  Making your place special and memorable.
  6. Blog readers are often subscribers. Subscribers are folks telling you that they like what they see and they want more.  Give them more on a regular basis and they have a reason to come back, again and again.
  7. Blogs are expected. These days, a lot of folks searching the web expect to see a blog section on a website.  If there isn’t one there, landing times may be measured in nano-seconds.
  8. If a blog isn’t expected, give them one! Would you expect to see a blog at Wal-Mart?  Probably not.  If you went to the home page and saw a big ‘ol link to their blog would you check it out?  I probably would.  Geez, what would a major retailer have to blog about?  And in case any big-wig webmaster from Wal-Mart is paying attention, burying your blog link in the footer with a bunch of admin stuff is kinda ridiculous.  Put it right up front!  Put it on the top!
  9. A good post will highlight a service offered and why the viewer needs it – now! Use a blog on your business to highlight a top ten list or how-to that pertains to a service you offer.  Again, credibility is established and this may result in to an action by the viewer.  Make no mistake.  Action is the key.  You want action.  You need action.  Write a motivated post to help your viewer make the next step.
  10. A blog gets you on your website nearly every day. You need to know what is going on in your world.  Take a step back and look at your site how the world views it.  If you go through the trouble of building a website and then ignore it, you are setting you and your business down a path of destruction.  C’mon.  It’s your baby.  Feed it.  Love it.  Nurture it and it will grow up to be something to be proud of.

Also be sure to check out this great post at Blabweb: How Can a Blog Help Your Business?

I Told Myself I Wouldn’t Do this Anymore, But…

Posted by george on April 3, 2010
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , , . 12 comments

A lot of the readership here remembers that I took over the New Blog of the Week series from Barbara Swafford at Blogging Without A Blog.  If so, you may have noticed I haven’t done any of those posts in a while.  Heck I don’t know, maybe you haven’t noticed.  I stopped doing the posts because the comments dropped off, it took a lot of work to find worthy blogs and quite frankly, some of the blog owners failed to even acknowledge the recognition.  Sorry, but a good part of the reasoning for doing the series was to promote community.  It is too damned much work to not get any participation from the owners.

With that said (and I’m glad THAT’s off my chest), I recently discovered a blog that is so outstanding, so helpful, so wonderful, I just have to share it.

I found Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer website through a Twitter follow.  In the past few weeks he has had some posts that were so completely friggin’ awesome I was tempted to ask permission to repost the entire thing on Tumblemoose.

Don’t be fooled by the blog title.  Joel discusses so much more than just the design of books.  He did a great post on everything you could want to know about ISBNs.  Another was a post on the pros and cons of self publishing.  What put me over the edge was the post I read today on the Census.  Had me rolling on the floor laughing, that one did.

Here’s the particulars:

Follow Joel on Twitter @JFbookman

The Book Designer is at http://www.thebookdesigner.com/

You should most definitely subscribe at http://www.thebookdesigner.com/feed/

Go pay him a visit.  My highest recommendation.

The Sound of The New Blog of The Week

Posted by george on December 20, 2009
Posted in: New Blog of the Week. Tagged: , , . 8 comments

For this 200th post (yippee!!) here at Tumblemoose I am proud as can be to be highlighting this particular new blog of the week.  I discovered her a few weeks ago and since, I’ve just been waiting for the right time to spring her on you.  Sometimes it’s hard to find these blogs and sometimes they are right under your nose.  This one was right under my Twitter nose.

If you’re like me, you follow a lot of folks on Twitter.  You see them in your timeline and you rarely (if ever) interact.  Then one day you see a tweet from them and think, “Wow, that’s a beauty.  I better check them out a bit.”  Such was the case when I saw a tweet from @jdistraction and headed over to her site.  What a cornucopia of humor and sage.

This is from her “More About Me” page:

Often to avoid writing. Here’s a list of the other stuff I do – a list that doesn’t begin to get at the terrible neurotic ambivalence I feel toward my writing, the love-hate-euphoria-depression-delusional-paranoid-grandeur of it all.

  1. I do laundry.
  2. I grow tomatoes.
  3. I check email. A lot. And tweet. And Facebook. My distraction knows no bounds.
  4. I mess with my dog’s face so she looks like a pit bull or a hound dog. She is neither.
  5. I make lists. For everything.
  6. I edit things, sometimes for money and sometimes because I can’t stop myself.
  7. I listen to political pundits. Compulsively.
  8. I clean the refrigerator (the sure sign of a bad writing day).
  9. I brush my teeth. I have great teeth.
  10. I walk my dog (to make up for messing with her face).
  11. I Google EVERYTHING. If I can wonder it, I can Google it. That simple.
  12. I hike, bike, boat, wake board, workout, do yoga.
  13. I read. I often fall a little in love with the authors of the books I read.
  14. I daydream. (Michael Chabon is a favorite dream subject.)
  15. I go on larks and do inadvisable things. Like start a blog…

I mean seriously.  I fell a little in love that day.  What a hoot!

Recent post titles include:

My Warning Label

All Over But The Shouting

Twitter and Me… a romance

Okay, if the titles aren’t enough to grab ya, how about the categories?

posts my mom will like

j’epiphanies

stuff that makes me smile

Besides these wonderful things, there are images to caption, lists to share and some overall good-hearted goofiness.

I’d like to introduce the New Blog of The Week:

Zebra Sounds by Judy Clement Wall

Let’s all head over and sound off at her place!

Congrats, J-Dawg!