Tuesday, June 26, 2007
PC World's Top 100 Blogs
PC World published their top 100 blogs list yesterday. Officially, it's called "100 Blogs We Love." There are many of the usual suspects on the list - BoingBoing, Slashdot, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Wonkette, Seth Godin's blog, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, 43 Folders, etc. etc. I almost hate to list them because they get so much attention. For you early bloggers out there, the reality sets in quickly that blog ranking seems to be pretty fixed. Unless you do some serious marketing, your blog is not going to reach Technorati's top 100, or anyone else's, because people are creatures of habit. Most of them will go to the big blogs, the ones with millions or thousands of readers and they're going to stay there for quite some time. Those big blogs don't ever seem to lose rank, unless they're just jockeying around on the list a few spots. The earliest bloggers had an open field and thus could cement their rankings as long as their writing was decent. Well, there are quite a number of well-written lesser known blogs, and I'd like to see them get some recognition. I'm going to try to create my own top 100 list of blogs. I have a few already on my list, which I'll post later. In the meantime, feel free to suggest blogs that you read that don't get much airplay.
Labels: blog, boing boing, creatures of habit, irresponsible marketing, pc world, ranking, seth godin, technorati, top 100
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Favorite Nonfiction
Time for another book list. This time I'm covering nonfiction. I read waaaaay more nonfiction than fiction, and no matter what I read, a little of each book rubs off on me. These happened to rub off a lot. They are in no particular order.
Conversations with God, Book I - by Neale Donald Walsch - This book changed my worldview, especially the point God, speaking through Neale, makes about Hitler going to heaven.
Brand Hijack by Alex Wipperfurth - Consumers take over!
Spunk & Bite by Arthur Plotnick - Snappy little book about breaking writing rules.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser - Good, solid writing advice.
On Writing by Stephen King - Enjoyable, with excellent advice on how to deal with criticism.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell - I so want to prove the tipping point in some way.
Baby & Childcare by Dr. Benjamin Spock - Saved us from a screaming infant.
Yoga for Wimps by Miriam Austin - Easy yoga with a low time commitment. Made me limber.
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson - Liked the premise of this book, but now the term is used so much that I'm starting to get sick of it.
Beyond the Writers Workshop by Carol Bly - Made me not put as much stock in other people's opinions of my writing.
Anything by Brenda Ueland - She was a Minnesota writer who was full of moxie. One of the first women in her community to wear pants in public. She coined the term "moodling."
Anything by Seth Godin - Energetic, good ideas, tries to get businesses to be remarkable, instead of half-assed.
Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch & James F. Balch - The Bible of healthcare options in our house.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen - Along with being straight-out fascinating, this helped me see how history is told through the voice of the victors.
The Dictionary and the Thesaurus - any will do - they are indispensible.
Okay, your turn. What are your favorite nonfiction books?
Conversations with God, Book I - by Neale Donald Walsch - This book changed my worldview, especially the point God, speaking through Neale, makes about Hitler going to heaven.
Brand Hijack by Alex Wipperfurth - Consumers take over!
Spunk & Bite by Arthur Plotnick - Snappy little book about breaking writing rules.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser - Good, solid writing advice.
On Writing by Stephen King - Enjoyable, with excellent advice on how to deal with criticism.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell - I so want to prove the tipping point in some way.
Baby & Childcare by Dr. Benjamin Spock - Saved us from a screaming infant.
Yoga for Wimps by Miriam Austin - Easy yoga with a low time commitment. Made me limber.
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson - Liked the premise of this book, but now the term is used so much that I'm starting to get sick of it.
Beyond the Writers Workshop by Carol Bly - Made me not put as much stock in other people's opinions of my writing.
Anything by Brenda Ueland - She was a Minnesota writer who was full of moxie. One of the first women in her community to wear pants in public. She coined the term "moodling."
Anything by Seth Godin - Energetic, good ideas, tries to get businesses to be remarkable, instead of half-assed.
Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch & James F. Balch - The Bible of healthcare options in our house.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen - Along with being straight-out fascinating, this helped me see how history is told through the voice of the victors.
The Dictionary and the Thesaurus - any will do - they are indispensible.
Okay, your turn. What are your favorite nonfiction books?
Labels: books, chris anderson, dictionary, moodle, nonfiction, reading, seth godin, the long tail, the tipping point, writing
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Reestablishing Boundaries
Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users is down, but not out after receiving death threats on her blog. Now, she's soliciting advice about how to handle the situation. The matter seems to be one of reestablishing boundaries. Those on the path to fame have to take stock and figure this out at some point. It's the price that has to be paid for renown because the famous lose the boundary of anonymity. Think about the barriers celebrities place around themselves. Unlisted phone numbers; unlisted addresses; a big house, preferrably in a secluded location (space makes a good barrier); agents & managers; fan clubs; moving out of the country of fame. If they have websites, they either don't have email enabled (U2 and Moby are examples), or they don't answer it (DMB). If they have blogs, they do not enable comments (Seth Godin, Neil Gaiman). See? There are ways to draw lines in the sand and say, "You've got part of me, but you can't have all of me." And that's eggzactly as it should be.
Labels: advice, anonymity, blog, boundaries, death threats, dmb, fame, kathy sierra, moby, neil gaiman, seth godin, u2
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Miscreants
I was reading through my blog feeds last night and happened to find a post on Seth Godin's blog about Kathy Sierra, who has the Creating Passionate Users blog. His post linked to hers and gave readers fair warning that what they would find would not be pleasant. Not only was it not pleasant, it was downright scary. Kathy has been receiving death threats through her blog. Her post, which is not for the faint-hearted, makes me shudder at the thought that there are people out there who are so vile that they would do such things. Not only are these miscreants vile, they are cowardly too, as they do this under the veil of anonymity. The whole incident has been so upsetting to Kathy that she is hiding out at home and is not sure she will ever blog again.
Here's where I have to take a deep breath. You see, the handful of evil ones inhabiting the internet are mucking things up for the rest of us and it's making me afraid. As a writer, I want to take credit for my words, using my own name, not an avatar. I want to be able to write openly, without pussy-footing around things. Yet, if I do so, I may become a target for sickos. On some level I've always been conscious of this. I won't name my husband or children or pinpoint my exact location. I was thinking about posting a photo, but at this point, I'm not going to be using a head shot. (Most likely it'll be a shot of my feet.) The internet may feel like a vaporous world, but what happens here is as real as anything else.
For the above reasons, soon I'll be switching off the feature that allows readers to leave anonymous posts. I may also turn on comment moderation. Sorry about that for all of you faithful commenters. It very much feels like caving in, which I hate to do, but a girl's got to be careful.
As for Kathy Sierra, I very much hope the people who did this to her will be caught and that she'll get up the courage to blog again. I wonder if there are any support groups for those who've received death threats? How did Salman Rushdie and the Dixie Chicks get through this?
For my readers who have their own blogs, how do you decide how much personal information to reveal online?
Here's where I have to take a deep breath. You see, the handful of evil ones inhabiting the internet are mucking things up for the rest of us and it's making me afraid. As a writer, I want to take credit for my words, using my own name, not an avatar. I want to be able to write openly, without pussy-footing around things. Yet, if I do so, I may become a target for sickos. On some level I've always been conscious of this. I won't name my husband or children or pinpoint my exact location. I was thinking about posting a photo, but at this point, I'm not going to be using a head shot. (Most likely it'll be a shot of my feet.) The internet may feel like a vaporous world, but what happens here is as real as anything else.
For the above reasons, soon I'll be switching off the feature that allows readers to leave anonymous posts. I may also turn on comment moderation. Sorry about that for all of you faithful commenters. It very much feels like caving in, which I hate to do, but a girl's got to be careful.
As for Kathy Sierra, I very much hope the people who did this to her will be caught and that she'll get up the courage to blog again. I wonder if there are any support groups for those who've received death threats? How did Salman Rushdie and the Dixie Chicks get through this?
For my readers who have their own blogs, how do you decide how much personal information to reveal online?
Labels: blog, death threats, dixie chicks, evil, fear, internet, kathy sierra, salman rushdie, security, seth godin
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Status Upgrade from Interesting to Truly Interesting
I was reading Moby's blog the other day and wanted to comment on his posts. He seems like a pretty liberal and interesting guy, but there's no way to comment directly to him because he's famous and probably doesn't want to deal with a bunch of cuckoo-loos. (You can post to the message boards, which Moby says he reads, but they tend to degenerate into troll fights and wander off topic.) Then, I got to thinking about some of the other blogs I read, notably Seth Godin's and Neil Gaiman's, and how they don't have their comments enabled. It seems that when one reaches the status of Truly Interesting Human Being (as opposed to Interesting Human Being), one gets flooded with comments and no longer has time to read or respond to them. There goes the commenting feature. Neil and Seth both accept email, though. Neil is forthright in saying that he gets so much email that he can't answer it all and has a backlog of over 1,000. Seth, so far, has responded to every email I've sent (I don't send many - no need to inundate him), albeit his responses are very short. He's a busy guy, so this makes sense, and, frankly, I find it incredible that he has time to respond even this much. It just shows that he is as remarkable as his purple cow.
So, now I'm wondering: At what point does one upgrade from Interesting Human Being to Truly Interesting Human Being such that they have to turn off their commenting feature and can no longer respond personally to people?
So, now I'm wondering: At what point does one upgrade from Interesting Human Being to Truly Interesting Human Being such that they have to turn off their commenting feature and can no longer respond personally to people?
Labels: blog, comments, cuckoo-loos, email, human being, moby, neil gaiman, purple cow, seth godin, status, trolls
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Blogs I Like
I read a number of blogs, some enormously popular (like Boing Boing & Seth Godin's), but also several that have a small readership. While the popular blogs are all fine and good, I prefer those with a smaller readership because of the personal interaction I can have with the writers. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Poppy Seed Heart - This is written by a lady named Joanne, who lives in Seattle and has a bun in the oven. (She calls her bun "bun".) She is following the course of her pregnancy through her blog, which is simply fascinating. She also talks about her doggies and her significant other. Joanne has a very approachable writing style that keeps me engaged. She also has some great links on her sidebars (gotta love free knitting patterns!) I'm envious of her ability to put photos on her blog, something I haven't quite gotten around to yet. Probably because I don't have a digital camera or a scanner. (Those might help, don't you think?) Cute blog name, too.
Copyrightings - This is a blog by a student named Kevin. He is interested in intellectual property rights and in finding a balance between the rights of copyright holders and the public's right to fair use. He highlights some fascinating stuff in this volatile field.
Check out these blogs, if you've got a little time on your hands. And, don't be afraid to leave a comment.
Serendipity brought me to these blogs. Do you see that little "Next Blog" button at the top of this page? That is a random blog selector (a.k.a. "serendipity"). If you click it, Blogger will take you to another blog. Be forewarned, not every blog has this button at the top and some of the random blogs that pop up are sales blogs, so you might come to a dead end. Clicking the button will give you a view of the multicultural aspect of blogging, with blogs written in languages other than English regularly making an appearance. If you're adventurous and click "Next Blog," you may just find sites that connect with you.
Poppy Seed Heart - This is written by a lady named Joanne, who lives in Seattle and has a bun in the oven. (She calls her bun "bun".) She is following the course of her pregnancy through her blog, which is simply fascinating. She also talks about her doggies and her significant other. Joanne has a very approachable writing style that keeps me engaged. She also has some great links on her sidebars (gotta love free knitting patterns!) I'm envious of her ability to put photos on her blog, something I haven't quite gotten around to yet. Probably because I don't have a digital camera or a scanner. (Those might help, don't you think?) Cute blog name, too.
Copyrightings - This is a blog by a student named Kevin. He is interested in intellectual property rights and in finding a balance between the rights of copyright holders and the public's right to fair use. He highlights some fascinating stuff in this volatile field.
Check out these blogs, if you've got a little time on your hands. And, don't be afraid to leave a comment.
Serendipity brought me to these blogs. Do you see that little "Next Blog" button at the top of this page? That is a random blog selector (a.k.a. "serendipity"). If you click it, Blogger will take you to another blog. Be forewarned, not every blog has this button at the top and some of the random blogs that pop up are sales blogs, so you might come to a dead end. Clicking the button will give you a view of the multicultural aspect of blogging, with blogs written in languages other than English regularly making an appearance. If you're adventurous and click "Next Blog," you may just find sites that connect with you.
Labels: baby, blogger, blogging, boing boing, copyrightings, intellectual property, knitting, poppy seed heart, serendipity, seth godin
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Seth Revisited
I haven't commented on Seth Godin for a while, probably because I'm not reading any of his books at the moment (I've read most of them). I do keep up with his blog, though. He had a great post on creativity today - short, sweet and to the point. It is definitely much harder to physically realize the machinations of our minds than it is to slosh those synapses around in the first place.
Labels: blog, books, creativity, seth godin
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Stolen from Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman posted this in his online journal on December 15, 2006, and I'm totally stealing it. There's a website called LibraryThing that will tell you which books you are NOT likely to read based on the ones you've already read. I plugged in a few titles and found that, indeed, I had not read most of what LibraryThing listed. However, when I typed in Purple Cow by Seth Godin, I found that I had read several of the books listed. Not sure what that means, but the site is fun.
Labels: librarything, neil gaiman, purple cow, reading, seth godin
Friday, December 15, 2006
Of points & cows & tails
Have you noticed that trend-watching has become a trend in and of itself?
I'm not sure where this started (maybe Faith Popcorn was the culprit), but marketers who watch trends love to name those trends. So do business people. There's Chris Anderson's Long Tail, Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point, and Seth Godin's Purple Cow. What would happen if we mixed up a few of these trendy-trends? How would they interact with each other?
The thought comes . . . .
What is the tipping point of the purple cow with the long tail?
Whether this makes sense is anyone's guess.
I'm not sure where this started (maybe Faith Popcorn was the culprit), but marketers who watch trends love to name those trends. So do business people. There's Chris Anderson's Long Tail, Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point, and Seth Godin's Purple Cow. What would happen if we mixed up a few of these trendy-trends? How would they interact with each other?
The thought comes . . . .
What is the tipping point of the purple cow with the long tail?
Whether this makes sense is anyone's guess.
Labels: chris anderson, faith popcorn, malcolm gladwell, purple cow, seth godin, the long tail, the tipping point, trends
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Manifesto of Creativity
Hugh Macleod (MacLeod?) at gapingvoid has put a call out for mini manifestos (mini-festos), 500 words or fewer expounding on the topic of your choosing (although, he'd like them to change the world, please). I came to gapingvoid through Seth Godin's Unforgivable post.
I had this rather skewed view of manifestos, thinking they were primarily written by disgruntled people, like the Uni-bomber. The dictionary definition is this: "a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer." That doesn't sound so bad and I like a challenge, so I decided to write a Manifesto of Creativity. I followed it up with a Manifesto of Fame, which I will post tomorrow. Both of my manifestos ended up being 311 words. Strange.
Incidentally, Hugh posted a manifesto on creativity on gapingvoid, which I did not see until after mine was written. Quite a bit of overlap.
Here goes, my Manifesto of Creativity:
I had this rather skewed view of manifestos, thinking they were primarily written by disgruntled people, like the Uni-bomber. The dictionary definition is this: "a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer." That doesn't sound so bad and I like a challenge, so I decided to write a Manifesto of Creativity. I followed it up with a Manifesto of Fame, which I will post tomorrow. Both of my manifestos ended up being 311 words. Strange.
Incidentally, Hugh posted a manifesto on creativity on gapingvoid, which I did not see until after mine was written. Quite a bit of overlap.
Here goes, my Manifesto of Creativity:
- By virtue of being human, you are innately creative.
- Creativity is not solely the domain of the fine arts. Any activity, be it truck driving, child care, assembly line work, or floor sweeping, can be imbued with creativity, depending upon your approach to it.
- Practice creativity often and with regularity. The process gets easier.
- Fuel your creativity by studying subjects that have nothing to do with your normal creative practice.
- Creativity tests your mettle at some point in the process, whether at the beginning, middle or end. Sweating through the hard part is how you earn your creative chops.
- Fear is an integral part of creativity. Use it, work through it, but don’t allow it to sideline your creativity.
- When you think the muse has abandoned you, moodle. Moodling is a term coined by writer Brenda Ueland. It means to wander about aimlessly with no thought expended on your creative project. Your muse doesn’t like to be overworked. If you force her, she’ll run away as fast as she can. Give her regular coffee breaks and time to recharge.
- Don’t confuse originality with creativity. There are very few truly original ideas. Most creativity comes from filtering outside influences and splicing them together in new ways.
- If you think your creative work is perfection incarnate, it probably isn’t. If you think it is pure schlock, it’s probably pretty good. Put your work away for a while – a long while. When you rediscover it and say, “When did elves sneak in and deposit this jewel?” you can bask in the glow of your success.
- It’s guaranteed. Someone will reject your creative output. Grow rhino hide and keep at it. Your brilliance will eventually be recognized, even if you have to die first. If you want acceptance before that happens, learn to market yourself.
Labels: creativity, fear, gapingvoid, hugh macleod, manifesto, moodle, seth godin, writing
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Squidoo & Dave Matthews Band
He talked me into it, that Seth Godin. He recently posted about Squidoo and how the site had reached 50,000 lenses. Sounds like gibberish, I know, but I'll try to explain. Squidoo is a site on which "lensmasters" can build "lenses" around their favorite topics. You know how Google brings back a gazillion results, many of which have poor content or aren't quite what you're looking for? Squidoo is a response to that. In essence, anyone who signs up for Squidoo can be a lensmaster and build a webpage around any sort of topic they know something about. The closest I can come to describing this is that Squidoo pages, or lenses, are like annotated bibliographies - or webliographies, if you prefer. Because someone has taken the time to sift through all the dross, Squidoo's lenses are supposed to make finding relevant information easier.
After seeing Seth's post, in which he urged people to go to the site and build a lens, I surfed on over and looked around. Out of curiosity, I searched for lenses on a few topics - Duran Duran, tea, Neil Gaiman, writers - all had lenses (more than one). Then, I tried searching for Dave Matthews Band. There was no lens! For shame! How could this band have missed out? I decided to fix that, even though I'm no real expert on the band, and I built a Dave Matthews Band lens today. It's a lot longer than I expected and I'm not quite done with it, but at least the band is represented on Squidoo.
After seeing Seth's post, in which he urged people to go to the site and build a lens, I surfed on over and looked around. Out of curiosity, I searched for lenses on a few topics - Duran Duran, tea, Neil Gaiman, writers - all had lenses (more than one). Then, I tried searching for Dave Matthews Band. There was no lens! For shame! How could this band have missed out? I decided to fix that, even though I'm no real expert on the band, and I built a Dave Matthews Band lens today. It's a lot longer than I expected and I'm not quite done with it, but at least the band is represented on Squidoo.
Labels: dave matthews band, dmb, duran duran, neil gaiman, seth godin, squidoo
Monday, November 06, 2006
Hanging a Fixture
I just finished hanging a light fixture, with the help of my husband. It was supposed to be a surprise for my husband. I was going to try to have it done by the time he got home from deer hunting. It didn't work out that way. I went through all the instructions and had a good handle on the project from the beginning, but couldn't get started because I didn't have a stud finder. I needed the stud finder because the fixture is a track light and I wanted the track secured into studs, not drywall. I tried borrowing a stud finder, but the lender couldn't find his. One stinkin' little tool was all that was holding up this project. I believe that Seth Godin would refer to this as "yak shaving." Suffice it to say, I bought a stud finder this morning, my husband returned earlier than expected, and there was no surprise - except that the job went a whole lot easier with his help. Is there a moral to this story? Not really. It just helps to have the right tool for the job - be that a husband or a stud finder.
Labels: husband, light fixture, seth godin, stud finder, tools, yak shaving
Friday, November 03, 2006
I'd Rather Color Outside the Lines, TYVM
I skipped two days in a row on posting, so now I've got a backlog of thoughts to unleash. Just checked Seth Godin's blog and found a post called Coloring inside the lines. I remember the coloring books of my childhood. I could only go so long coloring inside the lines, making everything nice and neat. It was soooo tedious. I grew to dislike coloring books.
When you're a creative person, and those who are know they are, you want to draw your own lines to color inside.
I was having a conversation with a family member yesterday. We were bemoaning the lack of creativity we've seen in our community and wondering how to change it. I would like to get some non-creatives in a room with a group of creatives. The creatives would sit in a circle in the middle of the room and discuss their ideas. The non-creatives would have to sit around the outside of the circle and just listen to what the creatives discussed and how they discussed it. They wouldn't be allowed to comment - if only out of payback for the many times the non-creatives have shut down the creatives with comments about the bottom line and having to be practical and their notions of group consensus. How do you think the non-creatives would like this? If people were told the set-up ahead of time, do you think the non-creatives would suddenly become creative in hopes of not being shut out of the inner circle?
When you're a creative person, and those who are know they are, you want to draw your own lines to color inside.
I was having a conversation with a family member yesterday. We were bemoaning the lack of creativity we've seen in our community and wondering how to change it. I would like to get some non-creatives in a room with a group of creatives. The creatives would sit in a circle in the middle of the room and discuss their ideas. The non-creatives would have to sit around the outside of the circle and just listen to what the creatives discussed and how they discussed it. They wouldn't be allowed to comment - if only out of payback for the many times the non-creatives have shut down the creatives with comments about the bottom line and having to be practical and their notions of group consensus. How do you think the non-creatives would like this? If people were told the set-up ahead of time, do you think the non-creatives would suddenly become creative in hopes of not being shut out of the inner circle?
Labels: circle, coloring, creativity, seth godin
Friday, October 20, 2006
Playing Favorites
I feel compelled to explain the Seth Godin jag I've been on lately. Whenever I'm impressed with a writer, an artist, a band or musician, I tend to snarfle down whatever I can find by said creative person. I've not gone off my rocker or slipped into some obsessive ga-ga world that I can't get out of, although that's the way it might appear to those living outside my cranium. When my aesthetic has been tickled, I binge with delight until the intensity wears off. And, it WILL wear off. The length of the binge depends upon how much material the artiste has created and how varied that material is. In the past, I've binged on Duran Duran, Ultravox, Enya, Neil Gaiman, Carol Bly, Christopher Moore, U2, Peter Mayer, Queen, INXS, Matchbox 20, Conversations with God, self-help books, Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, unsolved mysteries, Alfred Hitchcock short stories, quilting, beading, ABBA, homeopathy, Depeche Mode, Dave Matthews Band, Moby, marketing, feng shui, astrology . . . the list goes on (and I see that I've also binged on topics, as well as artistes). Once the intensity of my interest subsides, I fast, sometimes deliberately avoiding said artiste or topic for a time. It's at this time that my brain seems to be deciding what I'm going to incorporate into my quirky worldview, and what I'm going to discard as pure bunk or clutter. However, the fondness for past favorites never goes away. When I return to one of them, my thrill returns, but not in its original technicolor splash. Instead, a soft pearlescent affection overcomes me.
Seth, too, shall pass.
Seth, too, shall pass.
Labels: astrology, creativity, dmb, duran duran, moby, music, seth godin, ultravox
Monday, October 16, 2006
Heaving Peevishness
Ever use an online service, have trouble with that service, write an email asking for help, and get no response?
I don't know about you, but this throws me into a state of heaving peevishness. I froth at the mouth, spit, swear, cry in frustration, and about go bald pulling tufts of hair out of my head. An aneurysm threatens to form and burst in my brain.
Why does this situation cause such a visceral reaction? Because it is a massive slap in the face - an outright refusal of assistance - the ultimate in disrespect.
I had an attack of heaving peevishness this past weekend. The culprit? Haloscan, my commenting and trackback service for the blog. For some odd reason, the comment and trackback links were not appearing with my blog entries. I went to Haloscan for answers. Before asking for help, Haloscan requires users to look through its Forum. I obliged and found that other users had the same problem, but no real solution was given. I wanted to post to the Forum so that Haloscan could see how wide-spread the problem was. I was already logged in to my Haloscan account, which should automatically give me access to comment on the Forum. The Forum, however, insisted that I was a guest and asked me to sign in. I tried signing in and got the following message:
Sorry, the password was wrong. All passwords are case sensitive
Understand that I entered the very same user name and password that had already logged me into Haloscan. Entering and re-entering this data got me the same response. Now I had two problems, so I decided to contact Haloscan via their email address, which is practically impossible to find on their website. Somehow I stumbled upon it, but it comes with a warning. No one is allowed to use it for commenting issues, which was exactly the trouble I was having. WHAT!?! You have a contact email address, but people aren't allowed to use it to get help? What kind of customer service is this? Instead, we are redirected to the Forum, where we are supposed to sift through about 473 posts and comments in order to find a solution.
Being persnickety, I used the email address anyway. I haven't gotten a response. More heaving peevishness.
Haloscan isn't the only culprit in the no response game. I've had the same trouble with Technorati and PubSub. (I wrote about PubSub in my Newbies post.)
Seth Godin is forever pushing companies to become remarkable. Well, not a single one of these online companies will be remarkable until they take customer service (including responding to individual emails) seriously. I don't care if they have a staff of two. I don't care how hard it is for them to get their work done. I don't care if the service is free to users and they think that non-paying users are less important than paying customers. Without making customer service an essential piece of their business model, they will never be great businesses. (Frankly, I'm not asking them to do anything I wouldn't do myself at my job.)
An online business that gets it right is Blogger. Every question I've ever had about the interface is built so intuitively into their Help pages that I have never had a need to contact Blogger. Then, to be sure each Help page is truly helpful, Blogger asks at the end of each topic if it was helpful to you. Bliss!
If you're trying to become a remarkable online business, here's my advice to you:
1. As you're designing your website, think about how you're going to handle customer service. Make it a priority.
2. Make it easy to contact you. Make your contact link or button obvious and put it on every page in the same location.
3. Respond to email queries. If you can't cope with bad feedback constructively, learn how to do it. It's inevitable. Deal with it gracefully, and your ticked off customer will start praising you.
4. If you have Help pages on your website, make them easy to use. Don't shunt us off to Forums, hunting and pecking for answers. Put your FAQs on a FAQs page and make the page easy to find.
5. Don't expect everyone to be web savvy. People don't always think to look at Help pages or FAQs, so don't get bent out of shape if they contact you via email when the answer is already on your website. When heaving peevishness hits, people are even less willing to hunt for answers. They want something done NOW and email is the quickest way they can think of to ask their question.
'nuf said.
I don't know about you, but this throws me into a state of heaving peevishness. I froth at the mouth, spit, swear, cry in frustration, and about go bald pulling tufts of hair out of my head. An aneurysm threatens to form and burst in my brain.
Why does this situation cause such a visceral reaction? Because it is a massive slap in the face - an outright refusal of assistance - the ultimate in disrespect.
I had an attack of heaving peevishness this past weekend. The culprit? Haloscan, my commenting and trackback service for the blog. For some odd reason, the comment and trackback links were not appearing with my blog entries. I went to Haloscan for answers. Before asking for help, Haloscan requires users to look through its Forum. I obliged and found that other users had the same problem, but no real solution was given. I wanted to post to the Forum so that Haloscan could see how wide-spread the problem was. I was already logged in to my Haloscan account, which should automatically give me access to comment on the Forum. The Forum, however, insisted that I was a guest and asked me to sign in. I tried signing in and got the following message:
Sorry, the password was wrong. All passwords are case sensitive
Understand that I entered the very same user name and password that had already logged me into Haloscan. Entering and re-entering this data got me the same response. Now I had two problems, so I decided to contact Haloscan via their email address, which is practically impossible to find on their website. Somehow I stumbled upon it, but it comes with a warning. No one is allowed to use it for commenting issues, which was exactly the trouble I was having. WHAT!?! You have a contact email address, but people aren't allowed to use it to get help? What kind of customer service is this? Instead, we are redirected to the Forum, where we are supposed to sift through about 473 posts and comments in order to find a solution.
Being persnickety, I used the email address anyway. I haven't gotten a response. More heaving peevishness.
Haloscan isn't the only culprit in the no response game. I've had the same trouble with Technorati and PubSub. (I wrote about PubSub in my Newbies post.)
Seth Godin is forever pushing companies to become remarkable. Well, not a single one of these online companies will be remarkable until they take customer service (including responding to individual emails) seriously. I don't care if they have a staff of two. I don't care how hard it is for them to get their work done. I don't care if the service is free to users and they think that non-paying users are less important than paying customers. Without making customer service an essential piece of their business model, they will never be great businesses. (Frankly, I'm not asking them to do anything I wouldn't do myself at my job.)
An online business that gets it right is Blogger. Every question I've ever had about the interface is built so intuitively into their Help pages that I have never had a need to contact Blogger. Then, to be sure each Help page is truly helpful, Blogger asks at the end of each topic if it was helpful to you. Bliss!
If you're trying to become a remarkable online business, here's my advice to you:
1. As you're designing your website, think about how you're going to handle customer service. Make it a priority.
2. Make it easy to contact you. Make your contact link or button obvious and put it on every page in the same location.
3. Respond to email queries. If you can't cope with bad feedback constructively, learn how to do it. It's inevitable. Deal with it gracefully, and your ticked off customer will start praising you.
4. If you have Help pages on your website, make them easy to use. Don't shunt us off to Forums, hunting and pecking for answers. Put your FAQs on a FAQs page and make the page easy to find.
5. Don't expect everyone to be web savvy. People don't always think to look at Help pages or FAQs, so don't get bent out of shape if they contact you via email when the answer is already on your website. When heaving peevishness hits, people are even less willing to hunt for answers. They want something done NOW and email is the quickest way they can think of to ask their question.
'nuf said.
Labels: advice, blog, blogger, customer service, email, peevish, problem, seth godin
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Whoppers
I have a weakness for marketing books. Right now, I have a stack of Seth Godin's books beside my bed. (Surely you've noticed that I've mentioned him before?) He's inspirational & motivational & cutting edge where there is no edge, yet he has a fairly simple message overall. His book, All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World, can be summed up with the following:
1. Be remarkable.
2. Be authentic.
3. Tell a good story.
4. Believe the story.
5. Live the story.
There are a couple of caveats.
1. Whatever you're selling, be it a product, a service, your fine personality, be sure that it will not cause long-term damage to your audience or the world. Of course, if the thing you're selling does cause damage, then it's not really remarkable or authentic, is it?
2. Pick an audience whose worldview meshes with your story, or adapt your story to fit a particular worldview. Audiences at the fringes of society (those without a homogenized worldview) are best.
Marketers are not the only ones telling whoppers. Fiction writers do the same, only we place more emphasis on creating a believable story, because that's what makes our stories authentic and remarkable.
I wonder if Seth has ever tried his hand at fiction . . . .
1. Be remarkable.
2. Be authentic.
3. Tell a good story.
4. Believe the story.
5. Live the story.
There are a couple of caveats.
1. Whatever you're selling, be it a product, a service, your fine personality, be sure that it will not cause long-term damage to your audience or the world. Of course, if the thing you're selling does cause damage, then it's not really remarkable or authentic, is it?
2. Pick an audience whose worldview meshes with your story, or adapt your story to fit a particular worldview. Audiences at the fringes of society (those without a homogenized worldview) are best.
Marketers are not the only ones telling whoppers. Fiction writers do the same, only we place more emphasis on creating a believable story, because that's what makes our stories authentic and remarkable.
I wonder if Seth has ever tried his hand at fiction . . . .
Labels: marketing, seth godin, story
Friday, October 06, 2006
Disabled
My husband called me at work today. He had a small problem. He was attempting to print a document from a website, but the printer function wasn't working - no matter what he tried. I pulled up the website at work and took a look. He was attempting to print Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail from The King Center website. Turns out that the print function is disabled on the site. If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say this is for copyright reasons. However, until my husband called me, he blamed himself for the print function not working.
I, too, had a problem with technology today. I couldn't figure out how to get the screen from a laptop to display through a PowerPoint projector. Did I blame the troubleshooting guide for not walking me through every single step? No. I blamed myself. Why do we do this? Why don't we immediately assume that there is something wrong with the design of whatever it is we are working with? But, no, self-recrimination is the order of the day - that and a few choice swear words.
Seth Godin recognizes that some technology is poorly designed in two recent posts: Where are the tweakers? and More on Tweaking. His posts aren't about huge design flaws, but little ones that may be pretty easy to fix. Once fixed, or tweaked, they will bring much greater satisfaction to the user.
Kathy Sierra, on her blog Creating Passionate Users, also touches on ideas that would keep tech users from feeling disabled, specifically in her post Featuritis vs. the Happy User Peak and Why they don't upgrade (and what to do about it). In the latter post, she says,
I, too, had a problem with technology today. I couldn't figure out how to get the screen from a laptop to display through a PowerPoint projector. Did I blame the troubleshooting guide for not walking me through every single step? No. I blamed myself. Why do we do this? Why don't we immediately assume that there is something wrong with the design of whatever it is we are working with? But, no, self-recrimination is the order of the day - that and a few choice swear words.
Seth Godin recognizes that some technology is poorly designed in two recent posts: Where are the tweakers? and More on Tweaking. His posts aren't about huge design flaws, but little ones that may be pretty easy to fix. Once fixed, or tweaked, they will bring much greater satisfaction to the user.
Kathy Sierra, on her blog Creating Passionate Users, also touches on ideas that would keep tech users from feeling disabled, specifically in her post Featuritis vs. the Happy User Peak and Why they don't upgrade (and what to do about it). In the latter post, she says,
People don't upgrade because they don't want to move back into the "Suck Zone."
They worked too damn hard to reach a level of competence and the thought of sinking back down--however briefly--into that awful state they clawed their way out of--is too unpleasant. We've trained users to fear upgrades. Raise your hand if you've ever installed an upgrade only to find yourself back in that confused I-have-no-frickin'-clue-where-they-put-that-dialog-box state? Raise your hand if you felt the upgrade just wasn't worth it, even though you knew that the way you did things in the current version was pretty much an inefficient hack. Raise your hand if you felt intimidated and maybe even a bit humiliated that after upgrading you could no longer do some of the simplest things.
Bingo! We've got a winner! I HATE feeling disabled by technology. I HATE blaming myself for technology's failings. My husband calls computer technology "the tool of the Devil." That's because, when it's not working, we become possessed. Exorcism, anyone?Labels: copyright, husband, kathy sierra, problem, seth godin, technology
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Personal
Have you ever noticed how famous people get better looking the more famous they become? When they're just starting out, their talent shines through, but they tend to look like average Janes and Joes. Once they've reached a certain level of popularity, they look spit-polished and haute. Amy Lee, from the band Evanescence, is a case in point. I just caught the band's new video on VH1 this morning and noticed that Amy has undergone THE SHIFT. Her makeup is perfect, her hair is perfect, her threads are perfect, and the special effects in the video are top-of-the-line, people-flying-around, Matrix effects. She's come a long way, baby.
According to the book "Get What You Deserve! How to Guerrilla Market Yourself" by Jay Levinson and Seth Godin, one thing that helps us to get what we deserve (job, spouse, whatever), is dressing the part. If we want to be taken seriously, we have to dress like we should be taken seriously. Nice looking duds, beautiful grooming, not smelling like a moldy piece of cheese, etc. etc.
Judging by all the makeover shows on TV, apparently this is a lot harder than it seems. While clothes shopping with my daughter, I saw scads of teenage girls take armloads of clothes into dressing rooms to try on. When they were finished, they had maybe one piece they liked. My daughter tried on 30 pairs of jeans during one shopping trip and found only one pair that fit correctly.
This is just the clothing aspect of being one's best. Then there are all the annoying habits we pick up that we have to cure, plus the interpersonal weirdness we engage in (like complaining about someone behind his/her back, but being unwilling to talk to that someone face-to-face). Most of us are out of shape. We don't know how to behave in front of a camera, or speak in front of a crowd. The great lot of us are FLAWED. How do we get out of bed every day?
Before you get too depressed, just think, we flawed folks make the celebs shine in sparkly, splendiferous wonder. Our schlumpy-ness allows them to serve as our guides in how not to be so schlumpy. What's their secret? Sssh! It's personal.
They have personal stylists . . . personal trainers . . . personal tailors . . . personal marketers . . . personal "how-to-look-natural-in-front-of-a-camera" instructors . . . personal speech coaches . . . personal life coaches . . . personal people that help make them look perfect, even if they don't always behave perfectly. (All that perfection takes its toll.)
How beautiful would we all be if we had a few personal coaches assigned to us? Would we be able to tolerate the glare?
According to the book "Get What You Deserve! How to Guerrilla Market Yourself" by Jay Levinson and Seth Godin, one thing that helps us to get what we deserve (job, spouse, whatever), is dressing the part. If we want to be taken seriously, we have to dress like we should be taken seriously. Nice looking duds, beautiful grooming, not smelling like a moldy piece of cheese, etc. etc.
Judging by all the makeover shows on TV, apparently this is a lot harder than it seems. While clothes shopping with my daughter, I saw scads of teenage girls take armloads of clothes into dressing rooms to try on. When they were finished, they had maybe one piece they liked. My daughter tried on 30 pairs of jeans during one shopping trip and found only one pair that fit correctly.
This is just the clothing aspect of being one's best. Then there are all the annoying habits we pick up that we have to cure, plus the interpersonal weirdness we engage in (like complaining about someone behind his/her back, but being unwilling to talk to that someone face-to-face). Most of us are out of shape. We don't know how to behave in front of a camera, or speak in front of a crowd. The great lot of us are FLAWED. How do we get out of bed every day?
Before you get too depressed, just think, we flawed folks make the celebs shine in sparkly, splendiferous wonder. Our schlumpy-ness allows them to serve as our guides in how not to be so schlumpy. What's their secret? Sssh! It's personal.
They have personal stylists . . . personal trainers . . . personal tailors . . . personal marketers . . . personal "how-to-look-natural-in-front-of-a-camera" instructors . . . personal speech coaches . . . personal life coaches . . . personal people that help make them look perfect, even if they don't always behave perfectly. (All that perfection takes its toll.)
How beautiful would we all be if we had a few personal coaches assigned to us? Would we be able to tolerate the glare?
Labels: clothing, daughter, fame, flaws, perfection, seth godin
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Inundated
Every have a situation in which you are inundated with reading material, all of which promises to be fascinating, and you don't know where to start? At this moment, that's me. Here's the blow-by-blow of what sits in a pile on the floor next to my side of the bed. Great tripping material, if nothing else.
I got the new Wired magazine in the mail two days ago. This is one of the few magazines I'll read cover-to-cover. (Discover is another one.) Wired helps me pretend to be at least a modicum up-to-date on digital technology. (A girl can dream, even though she knows she's woefully behind and always will be.) Wired uses a clever technique each month that encapsulates the major theme of its magazine. Next to the date, there's a little box with a snappy descriptive line. This month (the October 2006 issue), the line is "Take With Food." The cover story is called, "The Thin Pill: How Big Pharma turned fat into a disease - and then invented a drug to cure it."
On Monday, one of the books I had placed on hold came into the library and I was able to pick it up. This book is one I've been chomping to read. When I placed it on hold, it was still being barcoded and brought into the library's collection, so I believe I'm the first one to check it out. (God, that sounds like boasting! But, really, I'm just incredulous.) The book is called "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More." It's by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. I read one of Chris' articles in Wired and was really impressed. When I saw he had a book coming out on the same topic, I knew I had to read it. It's just pulsating with energy, begging me to pick it up. But, alas! There's that Wired mag to read, along with . . .
Two books by Seth Godin, marketer extraordinaire, and one book by Jay Levinson and Seth Godin. The book by Jay and Seth, which I'm almost through, is called "Get What You Deserve!" The books by Seth are "Free Prize Inside" and "All Marketers Are Liars." The latter shows Seth peeking up from the bottom of the book while wearing a Pinnochio nose. I can't wait to see what he has to say in this one.
And, finally, I was missing reading some fiction, so while I was at the library picking up "The Long Tail," I checked out a book called "The Syringa Tree" by Pamela Gien. The story, according to the dust jacket, is set in South Africa. When I was in college simply ages ago, I had a social studies class in which each student was assigned a country to follow in the pages of the Christian Science Monitor. I was assigned to South Africa. This was shortly before Apartheid was dismantled. I can't recall the details of what was going on. I just remember getting my Christian Science Monitor every day and pouring through it looking for articles on South Africa. My interest in the country went into dormancy until this past year, when I found myself writing a short story that featured the Boer War. (Specifically the second Boer War.) Now, here's where it gets a little weird. My grandpa died this past spring at the glorious old age of 95. He was an artist and I identified with him very strongly in this interest. It wasn't until he moved into a nursing home a couple years ago that I discovered he was a writer, too. After he passed away, my sister had me sort through some of his short stories and I found one he wrote about . . . drumroll, please! . . . the Boer War!
There you have it. I'm inundated. It's purely my fault and I thoroughly enjoy it. It's waaaaay better than having nothing to read.
I got the new Wired magazine in the mail two days ago. This is one of the few magazines I'll read cover-to-cover. (Discover is another one.) Wired helps me pretend to be at least a modicum up-to-date on digital technology. (A girl can dream, even though she knows she's woefully behind and always will be.) Wired uses a clever technique each month that encapsulates the major theme of its magazine. Next to the date, there's a little box with a snappy descriptive line. This month (the October 2006 issue), the line is "Take With Food." The cover story is called, "The Thin Pill: How Big Pharma turned fat into a disease - and then invented a drug to cure it."
On Monday, one of the books I had placed on hold came into the library and I was able to pick it up. This book is one I've been chomping to read. When I placed it on hold, it was still being barcoded and brought into the library's collection, so I believe I'm the first one to check it out. (God, that sounds like boasting! But, really, I'm just incredulous.) The book is called "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More." It's by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. I read one of Chris' articles in Wired and was really impressed. When I saw he had a book coming out on the same topic, I knew I had to read it. It's just pulsating with energy, begging me to pick it up. But, alas! There's that Wired mag to read, along with . . .
Two books by Seth Godin, marketer extraordinaire, and one book by Jay Levinson and Seth Godin. The book by Jay and Seth, which I'm almost through, is called "Get What You Deserve!" The books by Seth are "Free Prize Inside" and "All Marketers Are Liars." The latter shows Seth peeking up from the bottom of the book while wearing a Pinnochio nose. I can't wait to see what he has to say in this one.
And, finally, I was missing reading some fiction, so while I was at the library picking up "The Long Tail," I checked out a book called "The Syringa Tree" by Pamela Gien. The story, according to the dust jacket, is set in South Africa. When I was in college simply ages ago, I had a social studies class in which each student was assigned a country to follow in the pages of the Christian Science Monitor. I was assigned to South Africa. This was shortly before Apartheid was dismantled. I can't recall the details of what was going on. I just remember getting my Christian Science Monitor every day and pouring through it looking for articles on South Africa. My interest in the country went into dormancy until this past year, when I found myself writing a short story that featured the Boer War. (Specifically the second Boer War.) Now, here's where it gets a little weird. My grandpa died this past spring at the glorious old age of 95. He was an artist and I identified with him very strongly in this interest. It wasn't until he moved into a nursing home a couple years ago that I discovered he was a writer, too. After he passed away, my sister had me sort through some of his short stories and I found one he wrote about . . . drumroll, please! . . . the Boer War!
There you have it. I'm inundated. It's purely my fault and I thoroughly enjoy it. It's waaaaay better than having nothing to read.
Labels: africa, boer war, chris anderson, reading, seth godin, story, technology, the long tail, wired
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Rocket Science & Brain Surgeons
Okay, I simply can't pass this up. Ever since I mentioned rocket science in my post on How to Stop a Terrorist, and then again in my Rocket Science post about how the shuttle is stopped, I swear I've heard the term rocket science used at least a half-dozen times - all in the manner of how difficult something is to do in comparison to rocket science. The other term people use to indicate the difficulty of a job is to compare it to brain surgery.
I was on Seth Godin's blog (where else?) and he linked to The 8 Free Things Every Site Should Do. One of those things was to sign up with Digg, so I went over to Digg to see what the site does and found an article that has me in stitches. It's called Rocket Scientists Not As Smart As Originally Thought. Guess who did the research that came to this grand conclusion? The American Association of Brain Surgeons!
The article reads as though it was taken directly from the pages of The Onion. It was written by humorist Andy Borowitz, so it's obviously a spoof, but what a good one.
Frankly, instead of building up the egos of the rocket scientists and the brain surgeons, I think we should start comparing the difficulty of things to the Dirty Jobs Mike Rowe brings attention to on the Discovery Channel. How many brain surgeons and rocket scientists would be willing to do these essential dirty jobs?
I was on Seth Godin's blog (where else?) and he linked to The 8 Free Things Every Site Should Do. One of those things was to sign up with Digg, so I went over to Digg to see what the site does and found an article that has me in stitches. It's called Rocket Scientists Not As Smart As Originally Thought. Guess who did the research that came to this grand conclusion? The American Association of Brain Surgeons!
The article reads as though it was taken directly from the pages of The Onion. It was written by humorist Andy Borowitz, so it's obviously a spoof, but what a good one.
Frankly, instead of building up the egos of the rocket scientists and the brain surgeons, I think we should start comparing the difficulty of things to the Dirty Jobs Mike Rowe brings attention to on the Discovery Channel. How many brain surgeons and rocket scientists would be willing to do these essential dirty jobs?
Labels: brain surgeons, digg, dirty jobs, onion, rocket science, seth godin, terrorist
