Need Your Help

Hi all,

I am reminded of the things I have learned so far about blogging and community. I have a bit of one here. I just started a Tumblr – and have none there. Like, literally none.

But what do I do? I go and ask a question. Which no one has answered. And which I actually kind of would like other peoples’ thoughts on.

I shared on Facebook, no answer. I shared on Twitter, no answer.

Maybe no one has an answer. That’s fair. Or really scary, actually.

But I thought I would ask here.

The short version of the question? What would science fiction written by the presidential candidates – or their parties – look like? In other worlds, what is the future world that they are hoping to build?

See the full version, and feel free to answer with your thoughts, here. Or leave a comment below.

Emerging Trends in Blogging

Blogging itself was a new form of communication not too long ago, although in many ways not that different from what came before, from news articles, to editorials, to LiveJournals, and message boards. What has been coming on the scene feels different, but is similar too. Microblogging, and blogging as social media, is where things seem to be going at the moment.

What can this blog, as a blog about writing and blogging, do to keep up with this? What does the future of this blog look like? Read more of this post

My Blogging Statistics

This week’s assignment brings us to something I have been thinking about and looking at already: Blog Statistics.

Every time I think about blog statistics, I go back to the layout for the site. For instance, I felt like I didn’t feel like the recent posts gave people a good explanation of what was going on, and so I made the “About” page into the home page of the site. Then I watched the stats, saw that the most viewed page was just the home page, and realized that it left very few options for exploring the site content. So I went back to the post layout.

Then, I kept trying to find a way to show more of the post content, and have finally, in thinking about stats now, changed my theme. Much more like I wanted it to work. Although still, not quite like some blogs I read, where there is a break, and people have to click through. This also allows them to take things like top tens and break them into ten or eleven individual pages, increasing page views, but also making each bit shorter and less likely to get the ol’ “tl;dr” response.

So what stats do I watch the most? And more importantly, which should I watch the most? That is the question. You know, for the week. If I knew how to make it break, this is where I would! Read on, loyal reader! Read more of this post

Monetizing a Blog

This week’s lesson is on monetizing a blog; that is, making money with the blog. Does not sound easy.

Before pretty much any means of making money makes sense, there must be a pretty significant reader base. Whether that is to see ads and click through them, or to buy merchandise, or what have you. Read more of this post

Why Mass Effect 3 Wrecked My Relationship With Video Games

First, I should mention the community stuff for blogging is making a lot of sense right now. I asked a question, gave my position, and got some feedback that helped me refine my thoughts – and answer my question. Read more of this post