Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Tag: Blogging (Page 3 of 4)

Relive the past or stick to the present?

Writer Wordart

Writer Wordart (Photo credit: MarkGregory007)

You ever have those times when you are looking at the calendar and say (*insert explicitive here*) I haven’t written anything  yet.

You ever look back at some half done posts or some titles that sounded interesting at the time but just don’t seem like they are worth finishing?  Yea it is like that today.

I have 3 half finished posts that are actually pretty good, I just don’t know if I should finish them or plug on with new stuff.  One is over a year old now and not really relevant, but had some good research and interesting facts.  maybe I should finish it for that, for the legacy of my Aunt who the post was about and is now ailing in an assisted living center.  Another was a great report on a camping trip with my kids…..last September.  I would like to finish that but, meh.

So, back into the swing, back into writing because I AM A WRITER dammit!  But, do I finish these or just go on?  Does anyone out there have posts that they would like to finish but just sit on the back burner for so long that it is  just not reasonable to finish them?  Or is it just time to move on and keep posting things that happen from day to day?  Is there anyone really out there reading this or are all of the hits on my site just robots and Google Nazi’s?

I should come up with a giveaway for real people reading this blog, especially now that it has been so long since regular postings.  What to do.  I think for now, I will write as it hits me and who knows, maybe one of those hits will be to finish those old posts.

We will have to see.

-Justin Continue reading

If Only My Blog Was A Fish.

I don’t know if I can even express just how much I want to get outside.  I have spring fever so bad it is not even funny.  I know there are some around the country that are just happy to have it stop snowing.  There hasn’t been snow in Salt Lake for over a month now, and the temps are near 50.

Perfect for fishing!  I have got to get out and catch something.  I wrote a couple of weeks ago about wanting to go fishing and how you can just have too much tackle to be effective.  I still believe that I don’t need much stuff to go, just the time to do it.  And my new pole.  I received a new rod and reel in the mail the other day.  The result of some contest I entered.  While not the most expensive rod you can get, it is pretty darn sweet.  I can’t wait to go try it out.  I am really leaning towards this week and one of the community ponds that we have here.

I had that rod in my living room for a few days telling my wife that I just needed to get some line on it and I would put it away.  I got a roll of brand new 8 lb test flourocarbon line, something I have never used before.  I spooled it onto my reel.  I resisted the temptation to tie on a lure and see if the fish in my aquarium would bite.  One time I taped a fly on the outside of the aquarium just to watch the fish go crazy.  It was great fun.

So now, my new rod lies dormant in the dark of my camping trailer.  I can hear it calling to me.  It is like Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart.  I can hear it.  I can feel it.  I am pathetic.  I need to go fishing.

What does this obsession have to do with blogging?  This is the passion that is needed to power your blog from “just another blog” to something with a known name that people want to read.  I keep referencing Ben at 6aliens.com and James at TheInfopreneur.net as well as Dave at website-in-a-weekend.net.  No I am not getting paid to pimp their sites, they are just my inspiration in this whole blog adventure that I am undertaking.  They are all great examples of tenacity and the passion that it takes to keep a site going and be successful.  Now, I am defining successful here as many pageviews and comments.

James is a madman and posts up to 3 times per day!  Ben is all over the net and besides content on his site he has regular guest posts on other sites.  Dave is a savant when it comes to WordPress and has valiantly recovered from a hackers attack in the last couple of weeks.  They are all still reading, posting and commenting all over the web.

That is what is worthy to emulate.  Drive, passion.  Making things happen.  Paring down the crap out there and focusing on what counts for your blog, and your writing.  It is about being like a kid before Christmas when a new plugin arrives that you just can’t wait to use.

It is about using new tools that you haven’t heard of before.  It is about continuously refining techniques and your site until it works.  Until people want to read what you write.  Can you do it??  I am.  I want to toss out a line to Blogistan and reel back in readers.

I can’t wait to write more and read everything in my RSS reader.  If you are reading this you rock!  Check out my Pre-Writing Challenge page to track progress on that.

Please feel free to comment if the mood strikes and that fly that I taped to your monitor is tempting!

Justin

Twitter and the Explosion I Didn’t Expect.

I have discovered something very strange.  In the past 2 days, my twitter followers have gone crazy.  I went from 15 or so to nearly 100, just for getting some free ebooks.

I figured I would get some spam that I could ignore or some spam that was worth reading but every few hours my email has several “&$%(” is now following you on Twitter.”  messages.  It is very interesting.  Some I follow.  Some I haven’t.  some I look and see what their last few tweets were without following.  I have found some very interesting people online.

I have read that Twitter is a great way to boost readership of your blog and such.  Are all of these people going to read MY blog just because of Twitter?  I hope so.  I want to get my readership out there.  It just blows me away how a few simple things will bring about more than I ever imagined.  Really.  It is kind of daunting and a wee bit scary to be out there in the world and not just one of the lurking wraiths.

Now we decide further where to go.  What to people really want to read?  Do I really care what people want to read and just continue to write what I want to write.  I did call my blog Catharsis of the Bogue not What do the Masses Want.  So if you are here and reading this, I will be writing about whatever fancy strikes me.

Quick side note, my 4 year old nephew has named their pony (a real live pony mind you) “Fancy Britches”.  Every time I hear the word fancy it reminds me of that.  I was reading a book about pirates called The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodward (Amazon Link) One of the early pirate ships they renamed “Fancy” and I chuckled almost every time.

But I digress.  Also one of my favorite phrases.  So here it is, My Blog, My Rules with lots of help from genius wordpress guys (Dr. WordPress, Dave Doolin) and great writers Kelly Diels, and Josh Hanagarne.  I am going to start posting stories, you know fiction stuff.  Be prepared, not just for Boy Scouts anymore….

More to come from my brain to yours,

Justin

Moving Forward In The Third Month

Today I did more than just talk.  I actually started putting together my first ebook that will be for sale!  It needs some major rewrite and some edit to avoid copyright infringement but it is not going to be bad.

Sneak, Sneak preview for loyal readers, It is a beginners guide to Fly Fishing.  I should write something about how to type on a keyboard that only half works.  I digress yet again, soon I will have an ebook for sale.

I have a good feeling about starting this part of the adventure.  I am also going to edit my Saturday fiction into saleable ebooks as well.  Now I have to keep pumping out content and getting people over here to read!

If anyone has any ideas or feedback I am listening.  I have been watching James get ready to monetize his blog and, since that is one of my goals as well, I figured I would start a product out and go from there.  Will it be successful?  I sure hope so.  Will it be worth it?  Definitley.  Will I get a keyboard that has a working shift, m, y, v and q key?  I hope so but it takes a while to get from Hong Kong.

This post is not very long, I am getting worn out redoing our basement.  At least it will look good when it is done.  I hope my blog can look good and just be “done” except for posts for a while at least.  In that vein, I am going to beg for feedback.  Is there anything on my site that is just annoying?  Is it hard to read?  How is navigation?  Too much stuff, not enough stuff?  Looks ok as 2 month old blogs go, it will grow out of the baby fat?

How is Saturday fiction?  Too long?  To short?  A waste of your time to read?  Can’t wait for the ebook to come out?  (tip anyone on my mailing list will get advance notice when I release the ebooks.  so far I only have 1 subscriber.  And it is me to keep track of how it works!  That sounds really pathetic.  It is times like this when I remind myself that my blog is only 2 months old.  And this rambling makes me realize that I need to go to bed.

Funny how a short post still managed to hit almost 400 words.  I am getting better.

Thanks for indulging me, Please leave your comments if the mood strikes!

Thanks, Justin

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