April 2006

I have a confession to make. It seems like no matter where I go or what I do these days, I always find myself thinking in blog. Do you know what I’m talking about? Does this plague you as well? Let me give you an example. Perhaps you’re outside cutting the grass, or maybe you’re in line at a restaurant. Instead of thinking about the task at hand, you’re off in your own parallel universe, constructing paragraphs in the running blog entry in your head.

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Question: Let’s say you order up a highly experimental nuclear test, and let’s take that one step further and assume that within minutes of starting the test, you’ve caused a disaster that could affect nearly a third of the world’s population. What do you do?

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In a recent advertising campaign, Cingular claims that they have the fewest dropped calls of any wireless network. What they don’t tell you is that dropped calls are not just a function of the network itself - other factors like the make and model of your phone play a huge role (which I’ll explain). Essentially, they’re masking other associated shortcomings by selling you a very compartmentalized view of their services. How does that sit with you?

From a marketing perspective, this could be considered savvy advertising, but I believe the nature of the beast is changing as blogs (and communications in general) grow and expand. In the land of Web 2.0, the mantra for Marketing 2.0 ought to go something like this: above all else, your claims and your words must be genuine.

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I was brutally nauseous all weekend, and no matter what I ate, drank, said, or did, the lingering feelings of “oh god, I’m gonna yack” simply would not go away. I figured things would be better this morning, but predictably, I was wrong. Fed up with it all, I decided to head to Walgreens for some OTC meds.

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If you’re serious about the scope and popularity of your blog, then you know that the old adage definitely holds true: it’s not just what you say; it’s how you say it. Whether your goal is to sell a product or simply to build an audience, the effectiveness of your copy could be the difference between success and failure. Learn to tweak your words for maximum impact, and start reaping the benefits right away!

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Does the idea of a corporate gig give you that warm, fuzzy feeling? Is a raise of 6% per year until you retire to a $20 storebought cake and a Rolex your idea of financial well-being? Did you know that health insurance really isn’t all that expensive? Hey, college boy, do you run around campus to hit up interviews each spring?

Stop already! There are tons of myths out there that protect the corporate lifestyle, but you need not be fooled. If you want to be continually robbed of your freedoms, be my guest, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. On the other hand, if you want to know how to avoid the corporate rut forever, read on!

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By now, you probably know that I’m a number junky, so it should come as no surprise that I normally spend part of my day picking apart this site’s metrics. Ever since mid March, I’ve had an inordinate amount of “referrals” from NewsGator, and although I’ve checked out the referral URL, I can’t figure out why I’m getting so much inbound traffic from them! Since I’m totally stumped, I’m now turning to you for the answer

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Is there or is there not an unwritten, unspoken code of conduct among mature adults? In my opinion, there are interpersonal boundaries that you simply do not cross, and last night, I witnessed an egregious, almost unbelievable breach of this “code.” Seeing how I’m so absolutely pissed off about what happened, I’m going to write an open letter to the guy who broke the rules.

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When viewed in total, your blog is essentially a production. It’s a mashup of words, topics, and perhaps pictures that tell a story about who you are and what you think about. Whether you write for yourself or for your audience, your blog is part of your life’s work. Let’s face it - your time here is finite, and since you’re choosing to spend some of it blogging, don’t you want that particular contribution to be as good as it can be?

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Yesterday, Patrick and the team at Text Link Ads quietly unveiled my newest creation. Given that I worked on the site for a solid month, it was extremely nice to finally see the work come together in a finished product. Without a doubt, this was the largest, most diverse site that I’ve worked on, and I’ve got a stylesheet 10 miles long to prove it!

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