Archive: Posties
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I went to Chicago once! Well, twice if you count the 3 minutes I just spent daydreaming over this awesome postcard we just got from Postie Lisa. Navy Pier, Millennium Park, the Sears Tower, Wrigley Field and deep dish pizza....what's NOT to love!?
Oh, and let's not forget this Chicagoan, can you guess who it is!? (He's the tallest blur...) If you can guess, we'll send YOU a postcard!
Haven't sent us a PostieCard from your hometown? What are you waiting for? We have enough now to start displaying them in our office, but Ted challenged us to fill an entire wall. So we need your help. All you have to do is grab a postcard from a local store, and mail it to:
ATTN: Ash & V
150 North Orange Avenue
Suite 412
Orlando, FL 32801
Six months ago I was flattered, excited and more than a little overwhelmed when I learned I'd been invited to be a guest blogger for the Izea blog. As I said on my blog when the selections were announced :
"What does our fearless leader expect from yours truely? Apparently nothing much beyond a “unique perspective.” Perspectives are like backsides: everyone has one of their very own. Mahalo Ted. You’ve set the bar right there where I can almost envision myself reaching it. If I find myself lacking inspiration, though, could we go with the picture thing? I do pretty pictures."
Ted never defined exactly what he wanted from me, but posties had a lot to say. Within two weeks there was some not-so-pleasant feedback on the Izea Message Boards, in a Town Hall meeting and on an underground-but-everyone-knows-where-to-find-it renegade message board saying that the new guest bloggers weren't very helpful. It was only a small handful of comments, not terribly significant when you consider how many posties there are, but still, it pulled me up short. I was supposed to be helpful? Sheeesh! You guys sure do expect a lot! Still, I'm a people-pleaser, so I pulled up my big girl panties and I've tried my best to give the community what the community wants.
I've looked at some things I think I do right in blogging and some things I know I do wrong and I've shared those with you, along with my thoughts on how to address the problems. I've introduced you to some outstanding community members who make time in their busy lives to give back. I've applauded organizations that you might want to consider supporting in their efforts to give back. That got a little flack, too, but I stuck to my guns on that issue. I hope that you've found something interesting or helpful in the things I've had to say.
As Drew stated in his most recent post, "Guest blogging is a little like visiting a foreign country." At times it's felt like visiting another planet. First, there's the whole Type Pad thing. I'm finally getting used to the Type Pad way of doing things, but my time here is expiring so that knowledge won't be serving me much longer. Then there's the subjects I've blogged about. This isn't what I do, folks. I tell stories. I blog about odd street characters and dysfunctional Southern families. I sometimes share recipes and music that that I think might interest folks who didn't grow up around New Orleans and don't live in Hawaii. I create photo puzzles and play games. I've tried to keep my voice and my own unique viewpoint while guest blogging, but I've never gotten totally comfortable with it. The little green men are distracting in this alien environment.
I'm probably not the best person in the world to take advice from, but here are some tips I'd like to leave you with:
If you need advice about anything Izea, turn to the real experts who contribute regularly to The Izea Blog. If your problems aren't addressed here, contact the Customer Love folks in the Support Center. And don't forget that there are always Posties with Propellers hanging around on the message boards. Between those three sources you're sure to find someone who can help you out. For basic blogging tips and tutorials, I heartily recommend Katy in Las Vegas. I was a little late in discovering her, but I'm learning new things from her every day now. She'll help you make your blog the best that it can be.
On the other hand, if you want a place where you can kick your shoes off and let the rest of the world go by, wander on over to skeet's stuff and visit for a while. I've been dealing with - hm! let's call it personal issues - for a couple of months and I've kinda let the place go, but I'm on the upswing now and am committed, as always, to making each of my guests feel comfy when they come around. Stop in anytime. I'll do my best to make you feel welcome!
Mahalo to Ted and the whole Izea staff for allowing me the privilege of pouring out my drivel to you. Mahalo to each of you who has read what I've had to say, and especially to those of you who have taken the time to comment (yes, even the ones who didn't love me so much!) and to encourage me. I've enjoyed our time together, even when it's been a little awkward or uncomfortable. Little green men notwithstanding, it's a pretty cool place to hang one's hat.
I know that many of you Posties are also fans of Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog and so you will forgive my artistic license to use his line about metaphors. The title I was going to go with was How Guest Blogging is like visiting a Foreign country. As I came up with reasons why they were alike I realized that not only was it (the title) not a perfect metaphor but the title was a simile and too long anyway. But regardless of that I am visiting London for the week with my regular day job. I also tend to relate what is going on with me to blogging, especially when I'm working on my guest posts. So I started observing ways in which guest blogging was similar to visiting a foreign country. So here is my list of how guest blogging is like visiting a foreign country.
1.) Beware of Jet Lag. Just Do It.
When you visit a foreign country you most likely will be going across many timezones. If you don't hit the ground running when you arrive you will crash. If you don't try to get to bed at the normal time you do each day you're gonna get zonked with jet lag. If you arrive in the morning don't go right to sleep, go out and do something. In guest blogging you have to apply your routine for personal blogging to guest blogging and make it natural to the way you blog or you will get behind in your posts. Also you have to get out there and start posting and keep posting with vigor because if you don't you could fall asleep at the wheel. Or you could miss out doing something great.
2.) You gotta Adapt.
When you visit a foreign country the electric plugs will be different so you need an adapter or you will short out your equipment. In guest blogging if you do not adapt to the needs of your audience and the people that have commissioned you to guest blog you will short out your connection to your audience.
3.) You might make mistakes.
Arriving at my hotel after a long cramped cab ride I wanted to freshen up. I went into the room, flipped on the lights and went into the bathroom. About 30 seconds later I was in pitch darkness. The lights all went out. It wasn't until a little while later that I discovered the key card holder on the wall. So I put my key card in it and the lights came back on. I then took it out, 30 seconds later pitch black again. I finally learned. In guest blogging maybe you are blogging under a different platform, a different niche or a different style. If you get surprised or make a mistake, roll with it and you can be amused by it later, like when you blog about it in a later guest post.
4.) Sometimes smaller is just the right size.
Foreign countries have there own take on things that you are familiar with and sometimes they are in smaller sizes. The Pepsi cans that the hotel had in the concierge lounge were so tiny, as tall as a highball glass. They held the perfect amount of soda to hit the spot. In guest blogging don't try and give the audience everything you know in one shot. Smaller increments and shorter posts allow people to work up to enjoying your style. They also allow you to build credibility. For given enough rope (super long post) you can hang yourself.
5.) Be relevant and unexpected.
In my hotel room dresser there are a few drawers that are not drawers, there is a free electronic safe, a refrigerator and even a tea time set. Each of these items is quite useful and they were unexpected. As a guest blogger your posts should be relevant to the audience and the blog upon which you are posting. But that doesn't mean that you can't throw something a little unexpected and useful into each posts. Give your audiences something a bit more and they will appreciate that extra effort.
So you can see that my examples might not have been the perfect metaphor/simile but I did try to make them relevant and entertaining. Something I hope I achieved with each guest blog post that I did these past 6 months. Sadly I think this is the last guest post of my IZEA commitment unless I'm asked to stay on. I've really enjoyed being able to guest post on the IZEA blog and thank everyone who took the time to read my guest posts and especially those who posted comments on those past posts.
If you missed any or would like to reread them and comment here they are:
1. What advice can this guy offer you?
2. My Mini B.A.T. Part 1
3. My Mini B.A.T. Part 2
4. Mini B.A.T. Part 3
5. My Mini B.A.T. Ends at IZEA HQ
6. Digital Camera... An Essential Blogging Tool
7. Digital Camera... An Essential Blogging Tool #2
8. Phoning it in...
9. Take it if off Autopilot....
10. SocialSpark: A Postie Perspective
11. Step outside and offline
12. Like an Onion…
13. Better Blogger, Community Blogger
14. Help, I'm at my Flickr Limit...
15. What to do...
16. Drive traffic with Flickr
17. Delayed and Unwired...
18. How is your presentation?
19. Collaborate for fun and profit...
20. Where did June go?
21. IZEAFest 2008, are YOU going?
22. Seven Tactics to Manage Yourself
23. Oops, I've said too much....
If you liked these let me know, if you didn't let me know too. I appreciate the time I had to entertain you, occasionally inform you and best of all blog for you.
Drew writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1200+ consecutive photos in 1200+ days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, Google is not God.
Orlando's hot right now. Really, really hot. And I'm referring to the weather. It'd be wonderful to visit Cape Cod, where Postie Drew lives. It has to be refreshing there. He sent us this beautiful postcard of Falmouth Harbor. Can we trade places, Drew? If only for just a week!
Haven't sent us a PostieCard from your hometown? What are you waiting for? We have enough now to start displaying them in our office, but Ted challenged us to fill an entire wall. So we need your help. All you have to do is grab a postcard from a local store, and mail it to:
ATTN: Ash & V
150 North Orange Avenue
Suite 412
Orlando, FL 32801
If you are anything like me you occasionally run out of month before you can accomplish everything that you wanted to get done. Since I started writing these guest posts I kept telling myself I have plenty of time to write my posts each month and stay on track. I mean, there are 28-31 days in a month I should be able to write 4 posts of various topics quickly and easily. Heck, I should even be able to write many ahead of time and schedule them to post on specific days. Yeah, Right!
I think of myself as a pretty organized person. I think that you have to be in order to consistently produce quality content for your blog and still maintain a full time job, family and whatnot. Even though I am very organized I sometimes need a little help. I purchased and read the book Getting Things Done. Man, I was energized by the ideas put forth in that book. Many of them I had already been doing in my own life. So the book was so great that I had to share it with one of my friends. He is the least organized person that I've ever known. That is not a judgment call on his personality or anything, it is just a fact based on consistency. He's a great guy who would do anything for you to help you out. He is just disorganized.
He lost it...
Within a week...
He told me he would replace it....
That was two years ago...
Then one day during a meeting I saw his organizer program projected on a screen. This is what I saw.
That high priority item had been on the organizer for about a year. I also know that he's e-mailed himself reminders to get me a copy of the book. But this e-mail is trapped within a set of e-mails that he's sent himself to remind himself of things to do. At last count the number of reminder e-mails was 75. I just had to laugh because the situation has become incredibly funny to me. For one thing, I should have known that this would happen because of his track record and the other just for the sheer irony of the content of the book what happened to it.
Around the same time I bought a small Webber grill (it cost maybe $10 no big whoop, it was on sale) for a Jimmy Buffett Concert back in 2006. Once the concert was over the grill was still hot so I asked my friend (same guy) if he could bring it home in his roommate's truck. Now, I don't really care about getting it back or not, a $10 grill isn't something that I am going to lose sleep over. How many times do you suppose that I've heard "I'm bringing your grill in on Friday"? It is nearly time for another Buffett Concert (2nd one since the grill was bought) and guess what? The grill is still in his garage, probably on top of my copy of Getting Things Done.
What does this have to do with blogging? Nothing much except for this point. Procrastination can kill your blog. If you don't keep your blog updated people will expect it to be stagnant and will stop visiting it. What do you do when you first get online? If it is not directly related to your blog you might fall into the trap of procrastination or Internet ADHD. It is so easy to get distracted by what is being said online that you may forget to speak your own mind. If you go online and start by checking Facebook, MySpace, Dropping Entrecards, Reading RSS Feeds, reading e-mail, checking out your favorite blogs, participating in forums and on an on it is so easy to be caught in distractions. If you do that each day then you may never get around to working on your own blog because you've run out of time.
I've read many bloggers who have posted their methods illustrating how they budget their time to work on their blogs. Many are very good and many are crap. The crap ones are from those blogger who set up a junk blog with no real content but then proceed to tell you how you should run your own blog. If you want to blog better read better bloggers, consistent bloggers, bloggers with their own ideas and bloggers who don't follow the crowd. Are they blogging daily? Do they maintain multiple blogs and blog daily on each of them? Those are the people who most likely have something to tell you. But read them after you've taken care of your own blog and your own blog readers.
So, what do you do to make sure that you have enough time to blog each day?
Drew writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1170+ consecutive photos in 1170+ days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, Google is not God.
Okay, maybe not for profit, or at least that isn't the intent behind any collaborative efforts that I have done lately. I'm sure that you can make money collaborating with other bloggers, people do it all the time. I'll let some of the big money people talk about that. Me, I'm in it for the fun.
This past week one of my favorite bloggers Chica X put up a post asking for images that she could edit and post on her blog, giving credit back to the photographer and all. I submitted two of mine and told her to have at it. She rocked it of course. Then the wheels started turning in my head and I shot her an e-mail. "Why not a group on Flickr?" She agreed and we set up a group called Second Shotz on Flickr. The group is for photographers, bloggers, photoshop and picnik enthusiasts who want a shot at editing a straight out of the camera image and showing others their work.
So we set out to set up the group. I wrote up our mission: "This group has been created to let you take and edit a "Straight out of the Camera" image. Edit it as you see fit and upload it back to the group. Each week a new image will be posted by the moderators. You will have one week to do your best on the image and upload them to the group. The top three images each week will be featured in blog posts on Photo Projectz and The BenSpark. Only submit images that have been edited for Second Shots. Other images will be removed."
Once the mission was clearly defined we invited our Flickr friends. The response was very nice and we've already had the second week of images start. Week one we had nine participants and week two just started with six participants. In addition some of the participants have written blog posts about their image being picked by either myself or by Chica. Blog posts with links to our blogs.
Here are some examples of what we are seeing with this group.
 The Original Image | |||
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We didn't plan to get a bunch of links from other bloggers, we just worked together to set up something fun and that people would enjoy. The group is open to all so if you want to take a crack at this editing stuff please go right ahead and join Second Shotz.
What are you passionate about? Have you met another blogger online who shares that passion with you? Is there something that you can collaborate on for fun or... profit?
Drew writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1140+ consecutive photos in 1140+ days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, Google is not God.
I'm in the San Francisco airport right now and my flight was supposed to leave 2 minutes ago. Well, now it is not leaving for another two hours. That puts me in my own bed after a 5 hour flight sometime after 2:30am. I'm so not looking forward to getting home that early in the morning. I'm also not looking forward to 5 hours jammed in a middle seat in the back of the plane with people who have been delayed already for a couple of hours.
I travel a lot. I unfortunately do not travel on the same airline a lot. This means that my status is non existent on some airlines and I end up in the least appealing seats. Not that any seat outside 1st class is that appealing. Well, there is always "poor man's" 1st class which is the exit row. But that aside I'm stuck in the airport. So I thought of the things I do to kill time when this happens to me. It has happened often in 7 years of travel. And up until a couple of months ago I wasn't getting reimbursed for internet access so these are things to do when you are stranded at the airport and 'unwired'. I'm cheap, what can I say. Plus, I am not a Web 2.0 Entrepreneur and don't have those essentials.
1. Get some exercise.
You might be looking at me and thinking, he doesn't do that one too often. Well, you would be right. But if you have a long delay you have time to take a walk through the airport. This is great in airports like O'Hare because that place is huge. It is not so great in the Fresno airport as it is much too tiny. You can do wind sprints but I'm sure you'd get questioned by security.
2. Rank your iTunes music library.
I can't honestly think of wasting time doing this unless it is an absolute last resort. If you'd rather be a little more productive with iTunes you can create great playlists with that time you have now been "given" from the airlines.
3. Work on your blog.
But Drew, you said that we were unwired, how can we work on our blogs? Well, if you have your laptop but no internet access you can work on some custom graphics that you've been putting off. You can sketch out a new theme that you'd love to work on. Even if you don't know how to create themes you might have some ideas on how your blog should look and there are many bloggers who are very skilled with theme making. And many love to help.
4. Write some blog posts that you've been putting off.
I find that when I am unplugged I am more focused on the task at hand so I tend to write a more thorough blog post when I'm not checking twitterfox, gmail, feed readers and the like. I can hunker down and focus my energy on the task before me. Plus if I type it out on a word processor program I can cut and paste it to my blog very quickly when I am back online.
5. Read a book.
Every airport has a bookstore with the latest books and many have a previously read section. Pick up a cheap one from the bookstore and get lost in an adventure, a thriller or a love story. Reading helps with writing which in turn helps with blogging. If you can't afford a book, look for one lying around. No seriously, there is something called Book Crossing where people leave previously read books out and about for other people to find. And when you find one you can go to the website and input the book information and see where this book has been. When you are done with it release it back into the wild. I released Post Mortem by Patricia Cornwell into the wild on May 26, 2007. It hasn't been heard from since. On my next trip I plan to release a few more. Maybe those will get caught by someone.
6. People Watch.
Watching people scurry around the airport can be fun. Making up stories about were they are going can help expand your imagination and improve your writing style. I like to keep snippets of conversations I overhear to make into stories that someday I will blog. Because sometimes when you hear a snippet of a story your mind just begins to wander.
7. Make money.
Take a page out of Tom Hanks' book from The Terminal and return those Smarte Cartes to their corral. You get a quarter for each you return. Just grab them when no one is looking and put them back. Make sure you take people's stuff off them 1st. Bags tend to get jammed in the corral if you don't remove them. You won't make John Chow money but if you return a few you can go buy a book and do #5
8. Learn a new language.
If you get stranded as much as I do you can spend hours at the Rosetta Stone kiosk. Just keep asking questions of the person manning it. Ask to see the software and try some out. I'm nearly fluent in 14 languages now. Okay, maybe not fluent. I can understand the phrase "Get the heck out of here" in 14 languages.
9. Hit the bar.
You never know who you are going to meet there and you could network with some pretty interesting people. Just don't hit the bar too hard because if you meet someone who runs "drunkenairportbarflies.com" you are going to end up on the front page of that blog and you probably won't get any linky love.
10. Ride the train.
If a large airport has a train like the Dallas airport does you can ride that for hours and look out at all the flights that are getting out on time. If the airport does not have a train then rent a smarte carte. And then ask people to push you on it. Better yet, save the $3.00 and wait for someone else to rent one and ask for a ride. Or you can rent the carte yourself and charge people and push their bags for them.
As you can tell I'm getting a bit stir crazy in the airport and coming up with some wacky ideas. And I'm stuck on the smart carte because my home base is right by the machine. You'd be surprised, or maybe you wouldn't by how many people have no clue how to work that thing.
What do you do in the airport when you are stranded?
Drew writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1140+ consecutive photos in 1140+ days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, Google is not God.
"Another PostieCard to add to our soon-to-be "PostieCard" Wall."
I read Ashley's latest postcard entry and I like the way that started, so I copied it over. This one comes all the way from Malaysia! It's a very cool postcard that shows part of a city in the early 1900's and then in 2003- neat!
Check it out for yourself, many thanks to Postie Fiona:
The back reads "Hey Guys, Just wanted to drop you a line from Malaysia. You guys are doing a great job!" Why thank you, Fiona! I hope to visit Malaysia one day, but for now, I'll just keep staring at this post card.
Send us your PostieCard! 150 N. Orange Ave, Suite 412, Orlando, FL 32801.
It's estimated that about 4000 children are born with Down Syndrome in the U.S. each year. Down Syndrome is a condition defined by the presence of an extra chromosome. It can cause a number of physical and intellectual developmental problems. Hearing and visions deficits and heart and lung problems are common among people with Down Syndrome. One of their biggest problems, though, can be a lack of acceptance. They may need an extra measure of sensitivity and a few special accommodations, but people with Down Syndrome can and do function well in school and in society at large.
Postie Val has a young son with Down Syndrome. She's on a mission to increase awareness and encourage people to learn more about Down Syndrome and other specials needs. Y'all know Val, don't you? If you're a regular visitor to the Izea Message Boards you've met her. She's all over the place, helping newbies, sharing her vast wisdom and skewering us with her sharp wit. She has a stable of diverse blogs where she shares her passions, including cooking and computers. Her greatest passion, though is advocating for people with special needs. Check out the Life, People & News category on her main blog. You'll find out about corporations that are dedicated to providing employment for people with disabilities, about products and services that accommodate special needs and about some outstanding people who prove that determination and enthusiasm can take some folks well beyond stereotypical expectations.
We've all come to recognize the monetary value of our blogs. Val could increase her income by dedicating more space to sponsored posting and advertising. She's chosen instead to invest a substantial amount of time and blog real estate in an ongoing project to educate us about people with special needs. It's a feature I've come to look forward to and that I hope you'll check out.
Each of us has the ability to make the world a better place. We've been blessed with personal resources that equip us for the task: our time, money, intellect and physical abilities. We can make a difference when we make the choice to put them to work in ways that benefit others. Many posties have made that choice and are a great asset to our community. Have you caught a postie doing good? Drop me a line so I can help spread the word!
