Archive for the ‘Blogs and Blogging’ Category

Spam Bots Attacked My Blog … via Twitter

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Over the spring and summer, this blog was attacked viciously by spam bots that filled up the comments with a never-ending stream of links.

Akismet seems to have abetted much of it, but I imagine it will be a continuing problem. I do recommend Akismet.

Having worked in Search Engine Optimization I understand what spammers are doing and how they make a living doing it (still hate ‘em) but I really do wish they would leave my blog well enough alone!

Since practically the only place I advertise my blog is Twitter, I am driven to the conclusion that the spam attack on my pool originated from people following me, or people I follow. I use the term ‘people’ loosely.

No surprise. Twitter is a cesspool of spam agents. I haven’t tried to figure it out in any quantiative sense, but I would be unsurprised to learn that the majority of my ‘followers’ are spam bots. Lately, a fair number of them are sex bots.

That’s the problem with Twitter. Or, rather, it is one problem with Twitter.

There are also many marketer-types on Twitter. Some of them are cool. Others are essentially doing the same thing that spammers do: Following everybody in the hopes that a percentage of everybody will follow them. Afterall, number of followers = amount of awesome…. right?

Well, it works. Spammers apply this same logic . They try to put links/content everywhere with the expectation of pissing off the majority of people. However, a small percent will work for them, and that percent keep spamming profitable.

I don’t really have a point, except to say ’sorry about the spam’. Spamming is a reality of the internet. Spamming isn’t going to go away. But we can draw from the technique of spamming one conclusion: ‘quantity’ doesn’t equal ‘quality’. That goes for content, links, popularity, and everything else.

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Internet Drama: Why Writers Need to Be Aware of Social Media

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

I work in social media and online reputation management as a community intelligence analyst for Visible Technologies. Typically I work with internet data from blogs, forums, and social networking sites for Fortune 500 companies, but today I was reminded that social media affects everybody–especially writers.

I hang out on forums, blog, Tweet, participate in memberships, manage websites, moderate some newsgroups,write for Livejournal, etc. and so forth. I can tell you that social communities on the internet are as close-knit as social communities anywhere. They are just…better connected.

People know each other on forums, and despite what you may think, there is a culture on every website as well as rules for behavior (granted, these vary by community). A lot of folks forget this. It is easy to assume that having an internet username protects you with a shroud of anonymity. Furthermore, the physical distance makes people feel like they can say whatever they want without consequences. But this is an illusion. The people you speak to online are real people. If you are a professional, you shouldn’t say things to them on a blog or forum that you wouldn’t say to them in real life… in a public setting… where are all your friends are watching.

In fact, I would argue that behaving poorly online is worse than behaving poorly in ‘real life’. Why? Because written words are immortal. They cut deeper than spoken words because they can be read over and over. They can also be passed around. And trust me: they are.

As a writer (published or unpublished), there are some things you should never do:

1. Insult your readers, even if they gave a nasty review of your work.
2. Get in fights with other writers, editors, or readers, especially over petty issues.
3. Belittle editors, copyeditors, agents, or anyone else in the publishing industry (They know each other and they will share! Besides, shouldn’t you appreciate the people helping you to publish your work?)
4. Act like a child or a prima donna, especially about your work (a superiority complex is not attractive)

Blogs can be particularly dangerous for writers. They are very attractive because they incorporate what we love best: writing for an audience. But you have to be careful. It is a misconception that a blog is a “personal space.” It is not the ideal place to vent frustration. Blogs are public forums. When you write in a blog, you are publishing to a global audience. Forums also are public venues. Posting a rant, throwing a fit, or participating in a flame war is not advisable!

This isn’t to say that you can’t engage in reasoned arguments or can’t say how your feel. Just don’t say anything about anyone you wouldn’t say to their face…in front of a camera.

The reason for caution is that drama incites interest, and anyone who sees what you wrote can ‘move it’ with a simple copy and paste. You may not even know about it. The majority of people who read threads on forums and blogs don’t comment themselves. They may not have a membership, or prefer not to incite wrath by getting involved, but they might say something about it somewhere else!

There are in fact blogs, forums, and communities dedicated to harvesting dramatic spats and republishing them for the purpose of heckling (in fandom, a facet of social media that fiction writers should be familiar with, internet drama of ‘point-and-laugh’ entertainment value is called a wank.)

So if you value your online reputation (you should), don’t be douchebag. As a writer, your words represent you. Be careful with them. Control them. If you don’t, you may be exposing a poor side of yourself to the people you most want to impress, and you may not even realize it.

As your mother taught you, online or anywhere, always mind your Ps and Qs. When in doubt, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all!

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Post Length: Blog Above the Fold - Shorter is Better

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

I haven’t been blogging as much as I should. Worse, the blog entries I do make are too long. When I blog, I try to do a good job being clear, organized, researched, and thorough–it is just the way I write. But that doesn’t mean I can’t also be pithy.

Here’s the cardinal rule: Keep it short. The best blog posts are within 250-300 words.

If you can, write above the fold. Above the fold is what you can read on your screen without scrolling. SEOs use this to refer to the best SERP results, but it has other applications. (The term originates from newspapers. The idea is to place the most eye-catching story in the top half of the front page.)

Keeping blog posts “above the fold” means keeping it pithy. People online have the attention span of gnats. “Clicking” out from a post is easy, so help readers get to the end. Also, short posts allow for more posts, which is good for search engines. From a craft standpoint, learning how to condense your work will make you a better writer. Being brief while retaining quality takes real skill.

Also, shorter posts get more comments.

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Top Five Tips For Writers to Super Charge Their Productivity

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Last post I wrote about the one and only proven way to beat writer’s block. This time I will share some tips as to how writers can super charge their productivity.

There are writers out there whose productivity absolutely astonishes the writing world. I won’t hazard to guess the secret of these individuals as I am sure they vary to some degree, but I can offer writers some general tips that are sure to increase productivity no matter who you are!

Many writers feel satisfied about writing at a snail’s pace. Some writers call it a success if they sneak in an “occasional” writer’s day. Others tell themselves they “can’t” do more than they’re doing. Chances are, you can do better–a lot better–even if you don’t have much time. For writers who are struggling, here is advice from an aspiring author:

1. Write every day

Write everyday. Not every weekend. Not every Wednesday. Not every day you have nothing else to do. Write EVERY DAY. Writers get good at their craft by writing, and just like any skill, it grows sharper with use and rustier when you are out of practice. It’s almost like a muscle, so think of it like training. The more you write the easier you will find writing and the better your writing will be. Over time, you will realize that you are also writing more and doing it faster.

2. Schedule a time and place to write

Everyone has their own writing process, but I find that I write best when I have scheduled a time and place to write and I obey that schedule. My ideal location is among other writers in an occupied but not overcrowded public place. Barring that, I’ll write by myself in a coffee shop. Barring that, I will write at home, but I will still schedule time to do it.

I don’t need a lot of scheduled time to write. I used to think I needed large chunks of uninterrupted hours to get any writing done. This is because it takes a bit of time to a hit a place I like to call “groove” in which I start to write fluidly and well. I still believe uninterrupted chunks of time help, but I have found that if I use ALL the tips in this blog post, I can get a surprising amount of real work accomplished in 30 minutes and sometimes less.

3. Kill distractions

I like to write in a public place because I find public places to be LESS distracting than being at home. If I am with other writers–not friends necessarily, but other people who are working–I am even more motivated. When I’m at home, I am often sitting on my couch within easy reach of the refrigerator, the TV remote, my bed, my phone, the mail, and a dozen other distracting things. However, it is different for different people. If a public place has too much going on for you, find a place where you can focus and get rid of anything that interrupts that focus. Seriously throw those things out of the room. It’s just you and the page! Most importantly? Kill the internet connection. Turn off your BlackBerry, iPhone, or other hand held mobile device. Despite what you may think, you really don’t need it, not even to do “research”.

4. Count the words you write each day

To keep yourself honest, you have to have a goal FOR EVERY WORK SESSION. It’s all well and good to want to finish a book or a scene or a script by a certain date, but how are you going to keep yourself productive during that hour or so that you have scehduled for writing?

Assuming you are on a first draft (revisions are a different process) word count is not a bad way to go. Remember that you can always revise later. In the meantime, keeping track of your word count is like making a scratch in the wall. If you write 500 words your first day, you can go for 700 your second, and a 1000 after that, and 2000 after that, etc. Or, conversely, you can try to hit the same number each day and then stop. When I did NanoWrimo in November 2008, I wrote the required 1700 words each day and didn’t push beyond that unless I knew I had a special engagement or something the next day that would cut into my productivity.

Don’t get caught up in whether or not what you are writing is “good.” No first draft is ever as “good” as it can be. Finish first. Worry about prettiness later.

5. Keep a calendar

When you make your daily writing goals, reward yourself. You can reward yourself any way you like of course, but one stimulating way to do this is to keep a writing calendar. For each day you actually sit down and get writing done, reward yourself by marking the day. You can draw a big X through it, color it in, outline it, write your word count in the space (that one is really helpful) or anything else you like. As you get some momentum going, you will really look forward to filling in the day because your calendar will become a pretty line of Xs, colors, word counts, etc. If you are a decorative or artsy-type person, you can also buy stickers for the days you write, or color them according to some kind of pattern. This method can be fun because you’ll think things like “today is purple; I really want to fill in a purple square.” The longer your unbroken line gets, the prettier the pattern and the less you will want to break it.

Remember, a successful writer is a prolific writer. Nobody wants to publish a one-hit wonder, and a faster, more productive writer has more time to write!

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Twitter Popularity Surges as Microblogging Goes Global - What it Means for Writers

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

I first heard of Twitter through a colleague who proclaimed it to be the next big thing in Social Media almost a year ago. I took it with a grain of salt as this same colleague says something similar about every social media application that cries to be heard (happens frequently, as we both work in SEO and social media), many of which have since flared and died. But Twitter has surprised and surpassed expectations on many levels, and this (and applications like it) could be important to writers.

I decided to make a post on it after reading a Tweet from @aaronnewman linking me to an article on CNN (“Who will be masters of the ever-expanding ‘Twitterverse’?”) that praises Twitter’s expansion in popularity across the globe.

I got into Twitter because it is a hangout for journalists, SEOs and prominent bloggers, some of whom I work with and many of whom I wanted to get to know better for professional reasons (also, because you guys are cool–shout out to @chrisbrogan, @problogger, @copyblogger and the rest of the people I follow). SEOs and bloggers have particular reasons to love Twitter that have nothing to do with the application’s purported function: to microblog about “what you are doing”.

Twitter has the following unique features:

  1. It’s an authentic voice
  2. Great way to network
  3. It’s not that much to read
  4. Links links links links
  5. Conduct polls and surveys


I don’t know very many Twitter lovers who use Twitter to answer the question “what are you doing?” People do mention where they are (especially if they’re going on a trip or attending a conference) and occasionally use the service to muse aloud, ask rhetorical questions, or note surprising observations (e.g. I saw two homeless men arguing about who was first to beg on the same curb yesterday–very tweetable), but very few people use it to say “I am doing this…now I’m doing this…now I am doing this.”

Mostly, it is used for one of two things: promotion or spread of information.

Twitter’s success is a bit of surprise given that a lot of great social media ideas fail. Social media users are a bit like a swarm of locusts. The leaders find something juicy and introduce enough of their friends to make it fun, but when the party gets too big, resources become corrupt, “real” friends become scarce, and that feeling of being part of an “exclusive club” peters out, they scatter to new fields (social media competitors or the newest innovation creating a buzz), taking their followers with them and leaving the original application dry, empty, and bereft of life (and profit).

But who am I kidding? I work in social media, but I am not a social media leader. Being a social media butterfly is exhausting. Every time someone tells me to get on the latest social media bus, I have to give up something else to make time for it. There are just too many applications in social media. It can be a full time job, and I have to admit that I prefer RL friends and productivity. Social media applications I “stick with” are those where my friends hang out already or those that have something professional to offer as a resource. For me, Twitter provides both. It is an easy way to converse with and meet people in my field who live nowhere near me as well as yak with my friends and coworkers. And then there’s the links links links.

Why do I mention Twitter in a writing blog?

It should be obvious. Too many writers are not interested in marketing their work, but you HAVE to be. Don’t leave it to your publisher. After all that work to get published, don’t let your beautiful book go into the half-off pile because you didn’t TRY to promote it. Don’t assume the content will speak for itself! Don’t assume someone else will sell it for you! Of course the content is important (if you have a bad book or a bad blog no one can help you…) but that is only part of the process. The other part is GETTING THE WORD OUT.

With applications like Twitter, it’s not even a headache! If you have a blog, website, online magazine, published book, or are in some other way in need of LINKS and READERS, Twitter can be your best friend. That is, after all, how I found @grammargirl. So don’t be bashful. If you have something meaningful to share, SHARE IT. Remember: no one will love or care or work as hard for your success as you do. (However, don’t become a Twitter Zombie; unauthentic = bad–Thanks for the tweet, @Jillwhalen!)

In the CNN article that @aaronnewman linked me to (using Twitter), the CEO of OneHourTranslation, Yaron Kaufman, who developed Twitrans, which provides free translation of tweets, was quoted saying the following:

“We think that Twitter is much more than just a cool idea,” says CEO Yaron Kaufman. “We think it will influence the way people communicate with each other. It makes the world smaller and flatter, and we are sure Twitrans will contribute to this important change.”

The concept that a “smaller and flatter” world is somehow desirable makes me laugh a bit, as it comes off (unintentionally, we hope) as “enclosed and shallow” but it’s clear what was meant. Twitter is idyllic as an Internet application. It is the essence of what the Internet stands for because of its simple power to connect people. Yaron Kaufman might be exaggerating a bit with the implication that an application like Twitter can change the world (to be smaller and flatter?) but social media applications like Twitter are changing things. As communication expands, the world evolves at an increasingly rapid rate.

That includes writing and the publishing industry.

Don’t you think?

You can follow me @amymstewart.

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Posted in Blogs and Blogging, Publishing and Marketing, SEO & Writing for the Web, Social Media, Writing A First Novel | 7 Comments »

Why Should Writers Have a Blog?

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Previously, I wrote a post about a writer’s love-hate relationship with blogging.

Now I ask (and answer) the question: Should writers have a blog?

If you are serious about writing, it’s good to consider having a blog. There are pros and cons, of course.

Having a blog is like having a portfolio of your work that anyone can access at any time. If the work is good, you can look amazing. It can really boost your career. If your blog is successful, it can actually be a career. Super savvy bloggers can make a living by placing ads on their blogs the same way newspapers or magazines do. Some bloggers eventually publish their blogs as books (think “Stuff White People Like”). At any rate, having a blog can be a step to becoming “noticed”.

Being noticed is important, or should be important, to aspiring writers. Publishing houses are inundated with manuscripts by nobody wannabes. Serious writers have heard that it is difficult to get new work looked at, much less picked up, by an editor or agent. Especially in a poor economy, the manuscripts that are being published are coming from writers who have already been published and have an audience sure to buy what they write. If you have a blog, especially a popular blog, you already have an audience. See how that works?

Conversely, if you have a blog that does NOT have an audience, or has poor content, or spews too much information about your personal life, you are advertising yourself as THAT. Additionally, if the work displayed publicly on your blog is not engaging or not interesting, then you are LESS likely to be picked up by an editor or agent.

See how THAT works?

Think about it.

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A Writer’s Love-Hate Relationship with Blogging

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Blogs.

I have a love-hate relationship with blogging. The trouble one has with blogs is the same trouble one has with the internet in general. In blogging, anyone can say anything–and affect anyone– through a cheap medium to a global audience.

Let me break it down:

Bloggers Can Be Anyone:

Bloggers can be anyone. On one hand, this is good. People who wouldn’t ordinarily get noticed can build a respectable platform for themselves and be recognized for what they say or do.

On the other hand, bloggers can be anyone. Most bloggers are not authoritative sources. They often spread disinformation. They can also spread good information badly. Not all bloggers are even legitimate people. They can be anonymous. They can be fake. They can be a team of people, or an entire business, whose purpose in having a blog can be…sketchy. There are no background checks!

Bloggers Can Write Anything:

Bloggers can write about anything.

The best blogs are sources of information that are accurate and interesting to other people. Good blogs are written by people who write like journalists. Their blogs simulate news sites (some become books). Techcrunch.com is an example of an extremely successful blog.

Bad blogs are either not accurate or not interesting. Inaccurate blogs pretend to be news sources but are really full of lies. As there are no standards for blogging, and no quality assurance as a publication, there is no penalty for libel. Sometimes the bloggers who write lies believe what they are saying, but that doesn’t make it true…or researched.

Then there are blogs that are simply boring or not useful to anyone. This kind of blog is really only irritating for one of two reasons: it is inconceivably popular, or the blogger writing it feels entitled to more attention than their content deserves.

Blogs Can Affect Anyone:

The lack of standards for blogging can negatively and unfairly impact other people or businesses. Of course we do expect people to gossip in the publishing business, especially when some bit of news is juicy, but the difference with blogs as opposed to tabloids or other forms of yellow journalism is that they don’t focus only on celebrities and they don’t go away after awhile.

Bloggers can be ordinary people writing about ordinary people. They can spread information about anyone or anything and publish that information for the whole world to see–and it will stay there. Blog stories don’t “disappear” the way news stories and other publications do. Search Engines like Google or Yahoo remember entries forever, even after they are pulled from the Internet for a time. Disgruntled bloggers can write scathing articles about businesses, peers, neighbors, relatives, etc that will float in cyberspace potentially forever. And even if the blogger regrets having done this, if the news is juicy enough, it’s too late. Other bloggers will pick it up and spread it like a virus.

Bloggers Publish Through A Cheap, Uncritical Medium:

The reason all of this is possible is because blogging is so cheap. A domain name can cost $10 a year. Hosting can be $10 a month. Compared to the cost of running a magazine or a newspaper, blogs are a dirt cheap way to get published–or to publish dirt. This is fortunate for poor, but talented, writers just trying to get noticed. It’s unfortunate for good writers who now have to compete with poor, but untalented, or low-minded, people.

A lot of bloggers aren’t good writers…or writers at all. In fact, I would say the majority are not. Even those that ARE good writers don’t write as well on their blogs as they might be capable of doing in another medium. Blogs are profitable through quantity as much (if not more) than quality. The bigger blogs get, the more authoritative they seem, the larger their audience will grow, and the more lucrative they can potentially become.

And blogs must be continually updated. If they aren’t, they lose credibility. In this way, most bloggers (including me) don’t go through a quality-checking process when they’re writing. They may do drafts. They may edit. But just as likely, they may not. Post post post. Keep the blog going. That’s the biggest rule. And, of course, when quantity goes up, quality goes down.

Bloggers Publish To A Global Audience:

Unlike a magazine or newspaper, which starts local and grows as it becomes more popular and profitable, blogs have the potential to reach a global audience from the get-go. All you need is one great post to go viral. For the same reasons as listed above, this is both good and bad. It’s good because of the power it gives the blogger. It’s bad because of the power it gives the blogger.

Should writers have a blog?

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