Archived entries for Social Media

To Clear Out the Clutter, To Filter the Overload, The Internet Compiles Lists

As previously announced in my recent posts, this blog is serious about writers making money off of their writing.

So, what better way to learn the industry than to, well, learn the industry. I’m in a new world of “social media” – visiting sites whose names I can hardly pronounce (plurk, tumblr, seesmic, squidoo) and learning the difference between vimeo and youtube. (yeah, um, anyone wanna help me with that one?)

Through my exploration, I am constantly finding the top 10 sites for this esoteric niche or that unheard of hobby. (Surprisingly, through my research, I could not find the origin of the top ten list. Why ten? Why top ten? Must there be 10 Commandments dictating each facet of our lives?).

For instance, if you ever need one, two, or ten recommendations on what to read if you want to stalk socialites: your list is served. And, yes that is a different list than the one if you want to stalk fictional socialites of the CW type. But if you want that one? Here it is.

If you have a distaste for agnostic investing blogs or secular investing blogs, well, supposedly these top 10 Christian financial gurus can lead the way for you.

I’m literally overwhelmed. You can see the list yourself (not a top 10 but a whole library of top 10 lists) at blogs.com, if you haven’t been there already.

While I did find a few hidden treasures: Alan Wolk’s list on advertising blogs, the top Philadelphia food blogs, or this new resource for rehashing what’s going on in LOST. Nevertheless, the experience was more like going through a thrift store trying to find that comfy, perfectly worn-out tee-shirt that’s worth the struggle and worth the price.

That’s not to say that I didn’t learn a lot through this impromptu scavenger hunt of mine.

For example, I learned that this college 20 something happens to read a lot of blogs that have the color “pink” in their title.

More importantly, I learned that like in all writing – concise, descriptive, eye-catching, thought-provoking titles are key. Forget about SEO, blah, blah, blah.

Case #1: 10 Great Food Blogs OR Dietgirl’s 10 Blogs to Drool Over When You’re On Diet OR Top 10 Blogs to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

Case #2: Pete Brown’s Favourite Beer Culture Blogs OR 10 Great Beer Blogs

Which got me thinking…we nonpretentious contributors are smart, trend-setting people.

Do you think you come up with a top 10 list of useful blogs? if so, what would you call it? do you think people would read it?

The Importance of Being Followed

In my typical heel dragging fashion I’ve waited a week to jump into a debate that is by now probably completely out of the minds of most who were involved.  Although really, that isn’t quite fair to myself.  The subject of the value of followers and their role in my twitter experience as a whole has been on my mind since my entry into the twitterverse on September 26th 2008.  I touched on it a bit on Nonpretentious actually.  In this most recent debate I threw in my 2 cents but i’m sure my words were lost in a maelstrom of @replies.  I’m not writing this out of some sort of need to have my specific tweets acknowledged, but because I’ve had a new personal experience that has changed my attitude on the matter.   Continue reading…

What did you think of the Michael Scott roast on the office

IQ: What are your New Year's Resolutions?

In the spirit of UK of the Day (useless knowledge of the day)¹, we’ve created “Interactive Question” (of the day).

Contributors, post your own IQ under the IQ category (a subcategory of the features category).

Readers, post your responses if you’re bored at work, school, or play.

¹ We hope that UK of the Day will continue as soon as the school year resumes.