Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

G’morning blogosphere! After a great party, minimal sleep, I’m here for another day.

Fantastic keynote from Technorati – watch for their State of the Blogosphere on Monday.

G’day from Vegas! We’ve had a great time, so far – more later. Today’s b5 Media sessions; I’ll share nuggets in point form. Please bear with me – typing on my laptop isn’t great.

Search Engine Optimization:

• keyword-rich titles w/o overdoing
• image descriptions
• subheadings w/ keywords
• categories
• tags – no more than 2 lines per post, more specific than categories

Tips on Interviews:

• Why?: free content, more credibility, become more of an expert, plug for subject, might get an exclusive
• How? PR agencies might approach you – more for celebs, good to be different/unique angle, be prepared w/ blog details, start locally/small
• Process? Do research, original/interesting questions/theme, tell a story, be professional, stay w/ your time limit, don’t show till final draft, act natural and have conversation
• Follow up? Keep contact, cultivate relationships, send links, keep any promises

Attracting Readers:

• Darren Rowse, ProBlogger – kicking myself for forgetting his book!
• what need is my blog fulfilling?
• content =unique + useful
• i00ndividual attention to readers you already have – feature readers
• create a sticky blogs – ‘sneeze’ them thru your blog
• identify your ”doorway" posts – optimize
• build anticipation – series, highlight past posts, competitions, newsletter about blog news/stats
• where are potential readers gathering? how can I participate?
• guest posts, feed into twitter, forums, pitch other bloggers – careful, leverage online presence, contests, awards, meet ups, submit to local media/newsletters, present at workshops, squidoo, free report, newsletter, preempt stories, interview, swap blogs, socnet, writing projects, promote posts v blogs, use names
• Muhammad – writing for social media
• know your audience
• create original and  evergreen content
• thank& linkers
• 10 second rule – diagonal readers
• prepopulate social media buttons – how?
• be the definitive resource

Lunch = cheese danish + mocha frappuccino from Starbucks. Just what this athetoid needs right now…sugar = even more shaky!

b5 Advisory Board Q&A:

• blogosphere is changing, more specific/niche-oriented; twitter more liberating
• links are a social gesture
• friendfeed =decentralized moderation

Demos by b5 partners:

• OutBrane – widget for readers to rate posts and to provide recommended posts – some external links, 2-way traffic op – your links on other blogs [question: if send readers away, how does that create stickiness?]
• Widgetbox – allows anyone to create widgets, very cool way to increase traffic [note to self: check pets channel]
• Lijit – search application, results appear in overlay window [how accessible are these things?]
• picapp – free access to visual content legally, eventually will include ads under  pics

Copyright & Image Use:

• images are copyrighted = can’t use, owned by photographer
• exceptions: public domain, creative commons license (i.e. flickr – read terms!) to enhance posts not for sole content
• ask for permission – keep a record
• fair use – no standard definition, only guidelines, not w/ images
• plagiarism rules still apply

Social Media Tools & Tips:

• 1/2hr per day, need to experiment
• not all content is submit worthy
• participate!
• each site has its own manners
• Redditt: submit to sub-redditt, low engagement
• StumbleUpon – great way to leverage to other media sites
• Digg – more effort/strategy
• socialmediaanswers.com launches next week
• [note to self: follow @pointlessbanter]

Staying Focused & Healthy as a Blogger:

• set goals to maintain clear vision
• why do you blog, what do you want from blogging, who are you blogging for, what do you bring to it, how do you measure success
• blog calendar to track multiple blogs
• take time off – yep, 4 days offline in Vegas, baby!
• celebrate milestones and achievement – create a work log, keep a kudos files [i.e. emails], start a rewards journal, make it public, celebrate others’ success

Seen: Suzie Cheel, Des Walsh, Jim Turner, Rick Calvert, Liz Strauss, Chris Brogan, Wendy Piersall

Party time! More tomorrow…

Hi everyone!

Faith here, Mommy’s Chief Feline Officer. Mommy is away at Las Vegas for a holiday and for BlogWorld.

After watching Mommy blog for a few years, I thought I’d try my paw at it. (Shh, don’t tell Mommy!) This blogging is pretty easy with Windows Live Writer. No more cursing HTML code, like Mommy used to do. In fact, this is the cat’s meow!

How am I doing?

I still miss Mommy though. Uncle Bob comes by every day to feed me and clean my litter box (hehe). But I always run and hide when he comes because I am scared of other people, except for Mommy and sometimes Daddy. But Uncle Bob doesn’t make me say PLEASE when he feeds me, like Mommy does. What’s up with humans saying please all of the time? But Mommy lets me lick peanut butter off of her left thumb in the mornings. She sure uses her left thumb a lot!

Oh, and she gives me treats. Sometimes she throws them for me. Other times she puts them on the corner of her desk for me to reach up and swat off. She is a good Mommy! I bring her toys, only when I want to, though.

Meow! Mommy and me will have a fun announcement in October, once she has recovered from her weekend in Castlegar. What’s a Castlegar? But I’m so excited, I’m purring just thinking about it! The thing is only Mommy’s email subscribers will hear about it first. Sooo, take your mouse (if only!) and go to the upper right corner of this page and subscribe to the emails. Hurry, do it before you forget! You know how you humans get sidetracked.

Sorry, I had to stop to wash my paw. It got dirty from typing.

Meow? Where was I?

Oh yes, the fun announcement! Did you sign up? And, if you’re on Twitter, would you do me a favour, <head bonk>? Would you tweet about this and ask your friends to sign up, <head bonk>? Whenever I try tweeting, I see the birdie and try catching it rather than tweeting. Thanks <head bonk>!

My paws are tired. Time for a nap. How many more naps until Mommy comes home? If I have them all today, will she be home sooner? Then I can cuddle with her and purr in her ear!

Thanks for reading, <head bonk>!

Make it a purrfect day!

Love,
Faith

Today’s guest post is courtesy of Judy Brown who is a black belt in the Shotokan style of karate. In her day job, she provides writing and home business consulting services through her business Creative Purrsuits.

Wheelchair Self-Defense Tips

Keep in mind that the main goal in any self-defense situation is to get away from your attacker as quickly as possible. Here are a few ideas for distracting or disabling your assailant:

1. Be aware of your surroundings. When sitting in your chair in public places like airports, or other large open areas, try to sit with your back to a wall. This will give you a clear view of anyone coming toward you and you won’t get attacked from behind.
2. Develop an aggressive attitude. Just because you are in a wheelchair criminals think you are an easy target. If you look alert and aware you may discourage an attacker. If not, be prepared to use reasonable force to defend yourself. Think about it beforehand, are you willing to physically injure someone to create an opening so you can get away?
3. Use the attackers own force against him/her. When you are seated in a wheelchair, any opponent will tower over you in their standing position. In order for them to attack you, they have to lean over. When the attacker is in a bent-over position, grabbing you or your clothing, he is off his center of gravity. It won’t take much for you to grab hold of your attacker’s hair or clothing and take a quick push backward. This will cause him to fall forward and while doing so, it is likely that he will let go of you to avoid falling. Get yourself out of there FAST!

Use Your Chair as a Weapon

1. The biggest weapon on the chair is the footrest. Raking this down the shins is very painful and should discourage most attackers.
2. Slam the footrest down on the instep; you can break bones if you do it hard and fast.
3. Pushing the chair back (hard and fast) is effective on attackers who come from behind you. The handles often are just about groin high, so make it count.

I don’t advise that you roll out there looking for trouble just to see if these techniques work, but do practise the techniques at home and give some thought as to how you can adjust your mindset. This sounds easy, but most people have an aversion to actually hurting someone. If you get yourself into thinking about all this BEFORE you have to deal with an attacker, you won’t have to think at all if it happens, you’ll just react instinctively.

Bags are packed. Kitty-sitter arranged (thanks Uncle Bob!). Three guest posts scheduled. And an appropriate panic level attained. Darrell and I are ready to leave bright and early Monday morning to begin our journey to Las Vegas for our belated summer vacation and for BlogWorld!

I am really looking forward to meeting many invisible friends in-person in Vegas. However, meeting face-to-face may induce some apprehension in how to deal with Glenda-ish, my unique speech pattern caused by my cerebral palsy. These tips may alleviate some of that apprehension:

• Relax!
• Like with learning any new language, Glenda-ish takes time and practicum to learn. No need to apologize if you don’t understand something I have said.
• I absolutely don’t mind repeating myself if you haven’t understood something. Please ask me to say it again. If your response to "You have a booger" is "Oh, that’s nice, dear," then I’ll know miscommunication has occurred!
• I will have my laptop with me and I can type out the word or two if we really get stuck.
• Once you have a few drinks, my speech becomes amazingly clear!
• If our conversation becomes lengthy, let’s take it to email or text chat, after BlogWorld, where I can communicate much more effectively.

See you in Vegas!