What I Was Happy With, And What I Wanted to Say, At Northern Voice's Blogging 101 Session

There are a few things I would do very differently at Friday's Blogging 101 for Northern Voice:

  • define blogging better than just listing its features. That said, everybody has their own definition. I went witha features listing since they're fairly well agreed upon.
  • do not give legal advice! We'll have to go to the tape, but I might have told someone to sue someone else who was getting high rank for her name and saying nasty stuff. Not doing that next time.
  • do more run-throughs, with a small audience to feed back. Not a big deal in this case, but it'll be important to present well in my future, and I'd like to get into the habit of practicing in front of people instead of in front of my TV screen.

How to Get Comments On Your Blog

As for the content of the presentation, I flubbed an question that I had a good answer to. Someone asked about how to get comments, and my unsatisfactory-to-me answer was to "comment on your own post". I still think it's legitimate, since it's more elegant than typing "Update:" and gives you a timestamp in the database (and with some systems, you get an RSS feed for comments). My other reasoning for doing it is that I tend to click on a link that says "1 comment" more often than one that says "0 comments", so it's a sneaky way to get your view count up. The best way to get comments, though, is to write a full blog post, but afterwards cut out the last paragraph of your post, save it somewhere else for later, and let one of your readers say it. That lets people fill in the blank you left, and if they're mistaken or you need to add something, then you can paste back in your conclusion as a response in the comments. Blogging is not a monologue.

What I Was Happy About

During the run-throughs all by my lonesome at my apartment, it became clear that I needed something to do with my hands. Last year I stuck them in my pocket, but this year, with good presentation software, I realized I could use the cool little remote that came with my MacBook. Not just as something to push slides ahead—a little awkwardly, since my computer was beside me and not in front of me—but it would keep my hands occupied just enough not to distract from the overall performance.

My slides with only one or two words on each. I used them not because I knew it was a best-practice (I either didn't know it, forgot it, or internalized it: Jeffrey Keefer reminded me of Seth Godin's tips after having attended my presentation), but because after reading from the screen during last year's presentation, I wanted reminders to talk about what I knew really well already, not a script. Karen suggested I did it because I liked other, good presentations that did it, and she's absolutely right. I'm glad I didn't go with stunning photos. That would have been too much work.

I took off my sweater and felt okay about wearing a t-shirt from work. It turned into a short conversation piece when one of the audience members asked what was on it, I think believing I was supporting a certain American elected official.
If I hadn't taken my sweater off, I would have over-heated, contributing to a vicious cycle of nervousness. Instead I sacrificed a little class for a little calm, and I'd do the same thing over again.

Comments

I attended your Blogging 101 session on Friday and thought it was very good. You covered a lot of good stuff in the short time allotted and I particularly loved the various different ways to blog (the Nintendo DS bit is still one that fascinates me).

Thanks Marina! I showed DSblogging to highlight that you didn't necessarily need a computer to do it, or at least what we traditionally call a computer. I keep catching myself thinking of getting one. A DS, that is.

Hey Richard, I also think you did a pretty bang up job. You fielded a lot of difficult questions. Personally, I thought you answered the question about the person getting slimed online quite well, i think you also told her it might be a good idea to start her own blog.

Thanks Arjun. That was my second answer to her question. I still think I'm right that she has legal options (laws of libel and slander apply to the Internet too), except for the fact that IANAL. The easier, cheaper approach I suggested after that was to fight fire with fire by becoming highly-ranked for her name, which would push the slimer down. A friend of mine had someone sliming him who was at #6 or something for his name. All signs pointed to the slimer paying for the search engine ranking, and after a while it gets tiring to pay for slamming someone, and once you turn off the tap of dollars, you turn off your search engine ranking. It's a tough one: does she call him out publicly, thereby getting more attention? Only if it's widely known that he's slamming her. Otherwise, let him linger in obscurity.

You were a hit!

Jordan: seems that way eh?

I love my DS but I still haven't quite figured out the logistics of drawing and sending that drawing anywhere - not to mention the wireless range on the wireless card is pretty sad. And thanks for the link to the audio (yeah, that's me, themarina). I should have thought to include it the first time around.

Richard--I would hazard to say you're becoming quite a good public speaker, you didn't seem nervous at all! And I know me some nervous public speaking... ps. yay for real blog posts!

Wasn't too nervous this time, though I figure if I'm not a little nervous, then I'm not doing it right. This time was so much better than last year. Hooray for preparedness!

one word slides, cool. ultimate in presentation zen. Just from the slides it looked like you hit all the important points for an intro to the subject

interesting what you say about comments. do you have an example of it?

I suspect Darren Barefeoot does it. If not the conclusion, then at least part of the story. Does he do it intentionally? I don't know, but he gets a lot of comments, and his posts are often fragments. Which is not criticism, there's much value in posting what you're currently thinking even if it's not fully-formed.

I often post half-baked thoughts, but I am not sure if I like the idea of fragmented posts. Darren DOES get a lot of commentary. Rebecca once referred to him as the blog-father :) By the way, I have finally caved and switched to WordPress, so please adjust your bookmarks :) Have a nice weekend Richard!