Ugly designs abound on the web, and behind each and every one of them is a “designer”.
In many of these cases the designers behind the sites are simply incompetent.
They’re often amateur designers or those who have little or no design training or people who design their own sites based on a book from their local library that’s ten years out of date.
But there are other times when the designer was perfectly capable of creating a better site.
So why would a perfectly competent designer create a site that isn’t very good? The answer is simple: they settled. It happens all the time.
Maybe the designer has hit a slump and they’re looking for any paying work. Maybe it’s a site for a friend and they just don’t have the heart to tell them their design ideas are horrible. Maybe they were overwhelmed with work and just didn’t have the time the needed to devote to a project.
In any case, the end result isn’t up to par. It reflects poorly on the designer and oftentimes is left out of their portfolio entirely.
Of course, design isn’t the only place designers shouldn’t settle; it’s also important to maintain high quality standards in their business, their blogging, and other aspects of their professional life.
It’s long been said that work begets work. But it’s more complicated than that.
In reality, high quality work begets high quality work, and low quality work begets low quality work.
If you take on high quality design projects and product high quality results, you’re more likely to get similar projects in the future. If you take on projects with low design standards, you’re likely to get similar projects offered to you in the future.
Think about it for a minute. If someone sees a great website and they’re looking for a web designer, they may try to find out who designed that website. Of course, “great” is a subjective term.
So if someone likes site designs that look like they’re from the mid-90s, they’ll contact designers who are still designing like that. If they like designs that are up-to-date, unique, and professionally designed, then they’ll be looking for designers whose work is similar.
So again, if you settle for lower design standards, then you’re likely to get more work along the same lines. Hold your work to the highest standards you can and you’ll not only attract more high-quality work, but you’re also likely to improve your own skills in the process.
If you always settle for the easiest way to do something, you’ll never improve your own designs skills.
If you push yourself to always do things in the best way possible, you’ll constantly expand your skills and your knowledge. New and better techniques for doing things are coming out all the time, and if you expand your knowledge enough, you may be able to create your own techniques that do things better and easier than other methods available.
If you improve your skillset, you’ll be able to take on more complicated projects in the future. You’ll also improve your efficiency, as you won’t have to spend as much time figuring out how to do some things. Both of these can lead to higher income from your design work.
Good clients will respect a designer who holds fast to their own standards. If you’re willing to sacrifice quality for the whims of a client, you’ll almost surely create inferior work at least some of the time. But if you’re confident enough in your own skills and your own aesthetic ideals, stand up for them and good clients will respect you for it.
After all, a good client recognizes that you’re the designer, and that while it’s their business, you have more experience than they do when it comes to design particulars.
They’ll appreciate it when you say (tactfully) that the giant flashing banner on the home page and all that scrolling text just isn’t going to give the impression they’re after. While it’s important to listen to your clients, don’t be afraid to step up and tell them why something isn’t a good idea.
Sure, you might lose some clients if you refuse to bend to their every poorly-thought-out decision, but the clients you retain will be easier to work with and will likely give you more design freedom. These clients will also likely refer more work to you, both directly and indirectly.
If your portfolio is filled with projects that are high-quality and reflect both your aesthetic ideals and those of your clients, you’ll attract more business. And if your clients are happy with their websites and the results they’re getting, they’re more likely to refer others they know to you.
Designers tend to respect other designers who do excellent work and have a clear aesthetic and style.
While adapting to what your clients want is important, it’s still possible to maintain your own signature in your work. In some cases, this can be recognizable to others trained in design and can make your work stand out.
Respect from other designers isn’t important to everyone. But then again, it can lead to a lot of opportunities that you might not otherwise have. If a designer has too much work coming in, they may start looking to refer that work elsehwere rather than just telling prospects they can’t help. If you’re respected in the design community, some of that work is likely to come your way.
Low standards in your designs will bring you low-quality clients. And the thing about low-quality clients is that they are generally more of a hassle than they’re worth. These are the people who will request a million revisions, delay paying you for as long as possible, and wonder why you didn’t send them back the changes they requested within the hour.
Dealing with clients like these will drain your energy and enthusiasm for design, which will show through in your work. Eventually, you’ll likely give up on designing for other people all-together, or you’ll find that you just don’t have enough clients coming to you. In either case, your business will suffer and likely close.
The same is true for aspects of your business other than design. If you have low standards for your bookkeeping, for example, you’ll likely spend money where you don’t need to, or fail to pay certain bills (or your taxes, which can result in very high penalties).
If you don’t uphold high quality standards in blog posts you write, you can expect that you won’t be asked to guest blog for more popular blogs and your blog will likely stagnate and fail to gain many new readers.
Upholding high quality standards can improve every aspect of your business and make you more effective. You’ll also likely enjoy your work more if you’re challenging yourself on a regular basis and designing projects you can be passionate about.
If you’ve got a history of settling in your business, it may be hard to break out of the confines of that mindset. But in order to grow as a designer, freelancer, or blogger, you need to be mindful of what you’re capable of and what your personal expectations should be.
If your portfolio is currently filled with designs that aren’t as good as you could have made them, take on some projects that will really let your skills shine. These could be personal projects or even pro bono work, but it’s important to set a new level of quality for yourself.
Make sure you eliminate low-quality work from your portfolio. No one ever said you had to include every design you ever created in your portfolio. Only include the high-quality work that’s indicative of the kind of projects you want to work on in the future.
Once you establish the quality standards you want to uphold, it’s important not to settle again. Defend your position to clients who want you to settle. Explain to them why you’re not comfortable incorporating a design element or feature they’ve requested and then stick by your decision. As already mentioned, good clients will respect you more for this.
If it helps, keep a list of specific things you found yourself settling on so that you can avoid them in the future. Put them on a post-it note on your monitor or post them on the wall behind your desk. Think of it as a to-don’t list rather than a to-do list.
Don’t be afraid to cut some of your clients loose. If you have a client who always expects you to settle, tell them you feel like their needs would be better-served by another designer. If you eliminate some problem clients, you’ll have more time to devote to high-quality projects that come your way. Plus, your stress levels will be lower if you’re not dealing with difficult clients all the time.
In the end, what you consider “settling” is going to vary, based on both your own skill level and the project at hand. While doing your best for the project at hand is important, different projects require different quality levels. A four-page brochure-style site has different requirements than a full-fledged web app. Keep that in mind and don’t go overboard on projects that don’t require it.
Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.
Do you settle in your work? Why or why not? Please share your opinion below…
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Bloggers have a distinct disadvantage.
When someone hires an expert in — oh, let’s say marketing — that expert can dispense the same information she did for the last client.
And the client before that one. And the one before that.
Not bloggers. Blogging is about breaking down everything you know into bite-sized chunks so that people can learn it all over a period of time. If they look back through the archives, they can often see the entire breadth of your knowledge.
Then one day, your well runs dry.
This is a scary moment for any blogger. It’s not like running out of inspiration or having writer’s block. This is when you’ve said it all. Your blog contains absolutely everything you know.
And let’s be fair — it’s a lot of knowledge. But you simply don’t have anything new to say.
What do you do?
I’m always amazed by how few people continue to educate themselves on their topic after they’ve become an acknowledged expert in it.
Hey, everyone knows me as the number one guy on naked mole rats! Clearly, I know everything there is to know!
But as an old coach of mine used to say, you’ll never know everything there is to know in your field of expertise, and there’s always something new to learn. People make new discoveries and innovations every day. You have opinions about those innovations. You agree or disagree with them. You try them or manage to take them a step further.
Of course, if you don’t find out what those discoveries and innovations are, you don’t have anything to say about it. No wonder you’re stuck for posts.
Actively pursuing new knowledge about your area of expertise has a side benefit: it provides more value for your clients. You may find the inspiration for a new ebook or web course to help newcomers understand and benefit.
New knowledge could be the next big thing for your business — if you go out and find it.
Doctors are one of the few professions actually required to update their knowledge of their field of expertise continually. If a doctor doesn’t know the latest innovation in surgery, his next patient might die from the lack of that knowledge. That’s a huge incentive for the doctor to always be learning and for the patient — and the medical board — to insist on that continual education.
No one is going to force you to attend conferences or read books or take courses, but you’ll be much more respected as an expert if you continually update your knowledge. Your client’s life may not be on the line, but their business, their financial goals, and their happiness probably is — at least, their happiness with your products and services.
Well, you may not have heard about this gizmo called the internet, but it’s pretty handy for that sort of thing. It seems silly to mention using the internet to upgrade your knowledge on an online blog, but shocking numbers of people don’t use it for this particular purpose — even those who practically live online.
Libraries are an awesome (and free) resource for new knowledge too, and so is your local bookstore. Go pick up some new literature and get someone else’s perspective on what you do.
Magazines and trade journals, of course, are terrific for more recent innovations and information. Find ones that focus on your area of expertise and stay on the lookout for new ideas that sound interesting or innovative. Once an article grabs your attention, go do some independent research on that topic and find new resources to pursue.
Actively pursuing new knowledge won’t just make you a better businessperson — though that’s reason enough right there. It’ll also pretty much guarantee that you’ll never run out of blog topics ever again.
About the Author: For new knowledge that makes you a better businessperson — and that helps you hit the bullseye of success for your freelancing career, check out Men with Pens — or better yet, grab the RSS feed here.
RT @mktgtechblog: @spolsky fantastic post on corporate blogging, "How Hard Could It Be?" http://bit.ly/djYtGe a must read for corporate bloggers!
[Direct Link]
Tumblr, one of the simplest blogging platforms around, is doing really well. Situated between Wordpress, which requires a bit more effort to create and organize content, and Twitter, which requires almost no effort but also doesn’t offer many features, Tumblr is the perfect tool for users who want to have a blog with photos, videos, and other content embedded, but simply hasn’t got the time or the will to struggle with a complex blogging platform.
How is this working out for them? Well, according to the neat infographic which they’ve sent us (see below), their traffic and user base is growing fast, and they’ve recently hit some major milestones.
Compared to Twitter, Tumblr is still a small dot on the radar, but it’s definitely growing fast enough to make an impact. The Tumblr team isn’t slacking on the features, either; they recently added the option to add static pages to your blog, as well as dead simple, direct video uploads.
Last but not least, Tumblr plans to launch two revenue generating features next month. Details are scarce (all we know is they’ll be powered by the widget, pictured below, but with constant talk of Twitter’s revenue generating plans (which are still completely open to interpretation), it’ll be interesting to see how Tumblr plans to tackle the issue. Its success (or lack thereof) might pave the way for other microblogging networks, an area traditionally devoid of revenue.
Tumblr Hits Major Milestones, Plans to Start Generating Revenue
- LouCypherSocialMash:> Tumblr Hits Major Milestones, Plans to Start Generating Revenue http://ow.ly/16Khjo
- Jim WilkersonSocialMash:> Tumblr Hits Major Milestones, Plans to Start Generating Revenue http://ow.ly/16Khjp
- Jim WilkersonTumblr Hits Major Milestones, Plans to Start Generating Revenue
- (jeff)isageekBy John Battelle, Blogger, Searchblog
Way back in November of 2003, when I was a much younger man and the world had yet to fall head over heels in love with Google, I wrote a post called The Database of Intentions. It was an attempt to explain a one-off reference in an earlier post – but not much earlier, as the “DBoI” post, as I call it, was just the sixty-third post of my then-early blogging career.
In 2008, SXSW conference in August marked the coming out party for Twitter. It was then and there that the digital elite embraced Twitter and cool concept of micro-blogging with so much enthusiasm that it started to spill out into the mainstream.
With SXSW kicking off on Friday, the question is whether the major theme this year that location-based services capture the spotlight. Will SXSW be the moment in time that Foursquare goes from the digital elite’s newest shiny toy into a service that starts to resonate with a much larger audience?
At this point, I’m not convinced Foursquare has enough appeal to more than a niche player. For now, Foursquare is a fun novelty that lets you broadcast your location by checking in. Hey, I’m at Tim Horton’s! Hey’s I’m at Starbucks? Hey, I’m the mayor of the Sunset Grill.
The reality is the novelty starts to wear off because there’s not much value in telling the world where you’re located or whether you’re such a creature of habit that you get become the “mayor”.
While I’m sure the SXSW crowd will find ways to use Foursquare because, after all, it’s new bauble. But it’s going to take more than just the gang in Austin to make Foursquare become significantly more than what it is now.
For Foursquare to jump to the next level, it has to offer more value for users and non-users. The value of Foursquare isn’t the location broadcasting but the “tips” that people are leaving about these places, and the value-added information being provided on top of it.
I don’t care that you’re the mayor of the Monk’s Table but the comments left about the beer being first-rate and, perhaps, a Zagat review are far more valuable and useful.
Right now, Foursquare users are a super-structure that needs lots of other stuff to give it substance. Maybe in this way, it is like Twitter, which became more valuable as more people used it.
While I’m sure Foursquare will get a lot of buzz week as it introduces a new look and feel, don’t expect to see a Twitter-like performance.
Welcome to The Next Web’s Weekly Recap. If you love all things The Next Web make sure to grab your early bird tickets to The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam (April 27, 28 & 29).
This week saw a couple of big announcements relating to the real time web including WordPress’ support for the PubSubHubbub protocol as well as Twitter’s opening of the firehose to a new group of companies. The official iPad release date was also announced as well as rumors of an upcoming Google Tablet. Some big news also came out of the US this week relating to startups and keeping their founders in the US with the proposed Startup Visa.
Real Time Web
Blogging took a big step forwarding in becoming real time this week as Wordpress announced that all 10.5 million blogs have now gone real time by supporting the PubSubHubbub protocol. Twitter, the leader in the real time web discussion, also announced this week that they would be opening up their firehose to a variety of new companies (what this means). This announcement comes at a time when Twitter reached a key milestone of 10 billion tweets.
iPad
It became official this week that the iPad will be available on April 3rd with pre-orders starting on March 12th (get the official ‘I am buying the iPad’ countdown button). If you’re trying to figure out which iPad is right for you, check out our analysis here. This week also saw Apple go after HTC and Google with a patent infringement lawsuit surrounding multitouch, a key selling point of Apple’s iPad. Rumors also surfaced this week that Google as well as Sony are working on tablets to compete with the iPad.
US Startup Visa
A very important piece of legislation was recently introduced in the United States that aims to allow entrepreneurs who are not US citizens to stay in the country if they meet certain criteria. You can support this cause by installing this widget, calling your state’s representative or sharing this video.
Quick Hits
Are you being misunderstood ? http://goo.gl/fb/JKAX DO FOLLOW BLOG #america #bloggers #blogging #bloggingtips
[Direct Link]Are you being misunderstood ?
- John Sullivan@kbloemendaal http://potpolitics.com/2010/03/07/are-you-being-misunderstood/ pls let me know if you see any mistakes Thanks
- John Sullivan
Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own…
Can you relate to these situations? Please share your funny stories and comments below…
If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: h8KO7M
Posterous, the popular quick blogging platform, has raised $4.4 million in additional funding, CEO Sachin Agarwal tells us. Posterous—which lets users blog simply by e-mailing text, photos, or files to a default Posterous account—has grand ambitions for its service; it says it “wants to become synonymous with ‘posting,’ just like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is synonymous with ‘search.’”
The startup had previously raised two angel rounds, including $725,000 in December 2008, from investors including former Zimbra CEO Satish Dharmaraj and former Netscape CEO Eric Hahn. Last June, it purchased Slinkset, a startup which makes it easy for users to set up Digg-like social news sites.
The new cash comes from Redpoint Ventures, Trinity Ventures, SV Angel, Founder Collective, Lowercase Captal, among others.
More to come.
Related
Really, all I wanted to do yesterday morning was find a copy of the del.icio.us Chrome extension I was used to on my old machine. Paging through the Chrome extensions repository, however, all I turned up were a bunch of glorified bookmarklets. Eventually I turned up the “official” Chrome extensions Google Group. The last update for which was August 6th, 2009.
That moment is, more or less, why I’m leaving del.icio.us. The del.icio.us part of it, anyway.
My history with the del.icio.us service is long. I’ve been using the tool since 2004 or so, and in that time I put 7102 bookmarks up there. With notes and tabs included, the export came to 2.2 MB. Which doesn’t sound like much, until you consider that it’s just links. We used to test browsers, actually, by trying to load my del.icio.us bookmarks page: before they used to page things, it would crash pretty much all of them. Ah, the old days of the web.
On one occasion, at the kind invitation of its creator, Josh Schachter, I had the opportunity to visit the del.icio.us NYC HQ, prior to its acquisition by Yahoo and subsequent transition to California. Small office, small team, rag tag architecture – one box of which we helped acquire for them – and yet a product superior, I think, to what we have today.
To say that I have a personal affection for the service, then, is understating things.
But with Josh now departed, less than enthused about the direction Yahoo has pursued with del.icio.us, that attachment has waned. Like some other Yahoo properties like Flickr, the social bookmarking service has seemed to get but little attention from its Yahoo parent in recent years. Innovations have been few and far between, and where they have tried to update things – most notably with the UI – I haven’t appreciated those changes. Periodically, features like the blogging autoposting have broken, to be repaired eventually.
When I looked at that Chrome extension last updated in August, then, I had to ask myself whether I really had confidence that del.icio.us was the right tool for my needs going forward. The reluctant answer was that it was not.
Which left the obvious question: what would I replace it with, and how?
While I briefly considered more robust solutions like Evernote as well as radically simpler approaches like a dedicated Identi.ca, Posterous or Tumblr account, I’ve instead decided to proceed with Pinboard.in. Pinboard has its own views of why you might prefer Pinboard to del.icio.us, as well – interestingly – as why you might prefer del.icio.us to Pinboard.
But here’s why I switched.
The concept is simple: a single pointer to a new technology, service or whatever – even from a trusted source – is likely to have minimal impact, particularly if it requires effort to explore. But the second notice, from a trusted party, triggers a little click of recognition, and is far more likely to register. Further mentions only escalate this, until the interest to skepticism ratio tilts in favor of a trial.
Pinboard’s been on my radar for a while, but the more reviews I read like Nat’s, the better I felt about it as a potential replacement. Even one that I didn’t know I was looking for.
I originally discovered del.icio.us through alpha geek triangulation, so it seems only fitting that its replacement be discovered in similar fashion.
Pinboard, unlike del.icio.us, has a feature that monitors my Twitter feed and will automatically collect the links I post there. Problem solved.
Pinboard, meanwhile, provides me with a Posterous-like email address from which I can mail the story in to be automatically collected. Simple, but very nice feature.
What about the downsides? Well, there are two from what I can tell.
Users pay a one-time signup fee that goes up by a small amount with each new signup. In return, they get a fast, spam-free service and prompt support.
It’s about $6 at present, though I paid for the $25 service which fully archives all the pages I link to.
I certainly respect the rights of users to advantage free services over those that are paid. For my purposes, however, I am happy to pay individual developers to help fund services that are useful to me: I offered the same to Josh when he was launching del.icio.us.
I also find the pricing model interesting, in that it attempts to align user psychology with the costs of scaling. In the beginning, a low price acts to throttle drive by, low value users but keeps the barriers to purchase reasonable for legitimate early adopters. As the volume of users grows, however, and the costs of scaling increase, the pricing escalates both to offset the increased costs as well as keep adoption at manageable levels. It’s not clear how the model itself will scale over time, but it’s creative, and I give them credit for that.
Will I stick with Pinboard as long as I have with del.icio.us? Or will I revert to that service? Should you switch?
Who knows. Personally, I’m quite happy with Pinboard and recommend it if you’re in the market for a (new) bookmarking service. If you’re happy with del.icio.us, by all means stay.
In the meantime, if you’re interested in what I’m reading, check me out over at Pinboard.
RT @wchingya: Blogging Fears & How to Overcome Them~ http://is.gd/9KJOS --by @remarkablogger (face your fears,burry them 4ever)^^
[Direct Link]Science and Entertainment: Beyond BloggingRead the comments on this post...Saturday, January 16 at 2 - 3:05pm
D. Science and Entertainment: Beyond Blogging - Tamara Krinsky and Jennifer Ouellette
Description: Over the past several years, the Internet has tangibly changed the way that movies and TV shows are produced and marketed. Blogs will call out ridiculous scientific errors found in stories and the critique can go viral very quickly; therefore, science advising is on the rise in an attempt to add some semblance of plausibility to your favorite flicks. As tools on the web continue to evolve, filmmakers and television creators are finding new ways to connect with and market to their viewers. For some shows, this has meant tapping into the science featured in their content, ranging from an exploration of the roots of the science that has been fictionalized to the expansion of a scientific topic explored in a documentary. In this session, we'll look at how online video and social networking tools are playing a part in connecting science, Hollywood and its fans.
Twitter has sailed passed the 10 billion tweet mark, but who posted the 10 billionth tweet is still unknown.
This is something of a landmark for the micro-blogging site and one which shows just how popular Twitter has become – especially if you consider that the 1 billionth tweet was only sent in November 2008.
The site with the keys to the Twitter counter is Gigatweet, which keeps tracks of all the tweets sent to Twitter in real-time. Don't stare at the counter for too long, though, as it can get a bit mesmerising.
Businesses to busy to tweet?
We would love to reveal what the 10 billionth tweet said but the person's account has been protected.
We're hoping it was something witty, irreverent and nuanced. But we're expecting it's about what that person had for dinner.
As if by magic, Virgin Media Business has done some research to coincide with the landmark tweet, noting that – when it comes to businesses – despite 57 of the FTSE 100 signing up to Twitter, the study found that almost three-quarters (72 per cent) have not used their account to respond to customer enquiries or comments made about the company.
This is something that's surely going to rile those who use Twitter to get actual responses from companies without having to go through the rigmarole of call centres and the like.
We're expecting Twitter to hit landmark numbers again this year. Doing some rudimentary maths it seems that if the 1 billionth tweet was in November 2008, the 5 billionth in Ocotober 2009 and the 10 billionth tweet was in March, then this points to the 20 billionth to happen in around the four month mark.
We'll keep you posted in July.
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I recently wrote an article about how to share your own lifestream on your own blog called How To Create Your Own Lifestream On A Wordpress Blog In 3 Easy Steps. We saw how easy it really is to stream all of your online content into one place.
Bakari also recently wrote an article about Flavors.me which is a new lifestream service that helps you bring all of your online content together in one place, although not really in a lifestreaming format (I put one together for myself because I liked the style and ease of the site).
Well, Chris Pirillo has put together a new lifestream service that gives users a free blog AND the ability to stream their lifestream. It’s called Lockergnome. It is basically a Wordpress MU install with the BuddyPress plugins to make it into a community site. There are some benefits to having a presence in such a place. As we go through a review of Lockergnome, I will highlight some of the benefits.
The first point I would like to bring across is that signing up and using the Lockgnome lifestream service is free and easy. The basic membership offers some cool features such as your own Wordpress blog, the ability to archive your lifestream, the ability to import/export data, social networking features and even the possibility to have some of your good content promoted! Those are the features that are offered FREE OF CHARGE.
Secondly, running your presence there is just like using any Wordpress blog. If you are not that familiar with how a Wordpress blog works, I’d send you to Wordpress.tv for some good tutorials. The basic idea here is that if you are familiar with blogging on Wordpress, you won’t have any difficulties learning the ropes at Lockergnome. With the free blog, you only have one theme choice, but that’s OK because it’s their very popular P2 theme (mentioned in this article as a possible Twitter-like tool).
Thirdly, you can easily add streams of your content from many places online to create your own lifestream. Like I said before, I’ve written about lifestreaming on your own blog. Having your blog (and lifestream) on a site like Lockergnome has its own advantages. Upgrading plugins is done for you. It is really easy to do because everything’s put in place for you; all you need to do is add the feeds for your content, and viola!
It is also noted that everything streamed in your lifestream is YOUR content and can be exported for you. This is also good because even the content you update on the other services (such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook) is archived in your stream so if they ever lose your data, you still have it on Lockergnome.
There are also social networking features available! BuddyPress offers many unique abilities which help foster social interaction which Lockergnome takes advantage of. Why is this noteworthy? Because Chris has been social networking for quite some years and has had a blog network at Lockergnome for quite a while. He has a strong community of geeks. Lockergnome offers the ability to socialize and network with like-minded individuals (if you’re a geek!). Connect with others, make friends, and harness the power of being a member of a community.
If you become very involved in this community and you create good content on your blog there, there is a possibility your content will get noticed and featured across the site. This opens up opportunities for the blogger who wants an audience (who doesn’t?)!
NOTE: Chris made mention of this in the video introducing Lockergnome but I don’t currently see it on the home page. I am hoping it is just something in the works and not just forsaken. That’s why I use words like "potential" and "possibility."
There you have it! Lockergnome is a great place online to blog, lifestream, archive your content, and interact with a geeky community! Come, make friends, share your lifestream and geeky knowledge and do it all quite easily!
If you decide to try out Lockergnome, don’t forget to come back here to the comments to let us know your opinion of it.
Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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Google Buzz Blogging Is Real Real-Time: Great post. It's what I think about Buzz too.
I’ve been advocating Google Buzz as a blogging platform since its start early last month and posted a general example of a Buzz Blog about two weeks ago. After writing my first true Buzz Blog post yesterday, a review of the iPhone Buzz client Buzzie, I am even more convinced that Buzz is a powerful, real-time blogging platform.
For most people, I think the best way to get thoughts, shares and ideas noticed is to put them directly in front of the largest number of people in the places where they spend the most time. Today those places are the feeds at Facebook, Twitter and now Google Buzz — The Big Three. I should note that private posts in a Facebook feed are invisible to Google and don’t have as much value as public posts. I use a Facebook Page, which Pages are now indexed by Google in real-time.
I will not argue that the traditional blog or that RSS is dead, just that people should be exposed to your thoughts, shares and ideas where the people already congregate. The more influential folks can still elicit that crucial mouse-click to their respective blog sites, but for everyone else the best opportunity for exposure is in the feeds of The Big Three. I’ve previously laid out the reasons why I think Buzz is The Superior Sharing Network.
The ideal Buzz Blog should be less than about 800 characters — any more than that collapses the Buzz formatted text field into about four lines of plain text. Don’t expect folks to make that one extra click to expand and reveal your writing — format your Buzz Blog to appear in its entirety. See my quick primer on Buzz Blogging at Buzz. If you’ve spent the past few years distilling your thoughts into 140 characters tweets, don’t think of Buzz as a way to say the same thing in 800 characters. A Buzz Blog requires the same economy with words, you just have room to say more. A Buzz Blog can be spontaneous, but should still be edited as carefully as a traditional blog post.
When I read that the first iPhone Buzz app was released yesterday, Buzzie [iTunes link], I immediately saw the opportunity for a Buzz Blog. I bought the app, went through each page, grabbed screenshots, explored its functionality and compared Buzzie to the Mobile Safari interface for Buzz. I could have written a blog post here, but expecting folks to click through and read it was simply too much to ask. I figured that putting a quick review with pictures right in front of my Buzz friends was likely to get more attention.
I think it worked. I not only received Likes for the Buzzie Buzz Blog post, but a discussion emerged. I’ve only been blogging for about a year and have had very few discussion and comments here at starnes.com.
It’s great if your new blog post notifications are now broadcast in real-time across your social networks, but Google Buzz offers the opportunity to bring your thoughts, shares and ideas directly to the people. Such a strategy, in my opinion, is more effective than trying to bring the people to your blog.
Finally, as I was thinking about how I would express my own thoughts this morning regarding Buzz Blogging, I came across this Buzz Blog post from DeWitt Clinton, who has quickly become Google’s thoughtful, intelligent voice on Buzz:
Buzz has reminded me how much I enjoy blogging.
In the year since my last actual blog post, I’ve sent several hundred Twitter messages, posted over a thousand comments on FriendFeed, and left several dozen or so comments on Facebook, Disqus, Blogger, and elsewhere. But no blog posts.
Yet since Buzz launched less than a month ago I’ve written 47 updates here, each one of them essentially a blog post in itself, averaging 208 words per update. That’s more than one post a day, which is far more than I ever wrote on my blog.
I’m not exactly sure why I post so much long-form content on Buzz, especially after I effectively abandoned my old site.
But I am doing it, so Buzz is obviously doing something right
Google _is_ doing something right with *Buzz* and I like it.
Google Buzz Blogging Is Real Real-Time | starnes dot com
- Mark KrynskyI’ve been advocating Google Buzz as a blogging platform since its start early last month and posted a general example of a Buzz Blog about two weeks ago. After writing my first true Buzz Blog post yesterday, a review of the iPhone Buzz client Buzzie, I am even more convinced that Buzz is a powerful, real-time blogging platform.
- Mark KrynskyGoogle Buzz Blogging Is Real Real-Time
- Niklas SjostromGoogle Buzz Blogging Is Real Real-Time | starnes dot com
- Sarah Perezby Patrick Appel
The blogosphere remembers a brilliant blogging satirist, Jon Swift aka Al Weisel. Here are some of his greatest hits. RIP.
