Fishing Weekend

Let’s have a look at some blog posts that caught my eye in the last couple of weeks.

We start off by visiting Rob Starr at Blogging Tips, where he recently wrote about some tips to increase your blog’s exposure. He uses the analogy of going fishing. For example, he says that it is important to show interest in other blogs by leaving comments and such, but “fish for these links only in the relevant waters.” Syndication can also be useful, but don’t get penalized for “having an illegal line in the water.”

He may be a proud French-Canadian, but Buzz Bishop traces his family heritage to another country. While in Edinburgh with Team Diabetes, he went hunting for his Scottish past. He ate haggis, he visited a war memorial, explored an awesome castle, and visited the “cute, kitschy town” of Drymen. Personally, I’ve been back to my mom’s hometown, but I have not visited my dad’s home village in China.

We can all be better people. We may do some random acts of kindness out of convenience, but Shelly Kneupper Tucker has taken it upon herself to complete what she calls her mitzvah project. She has pledged to do 1,000 intentional mitzvahs (meritorious or charitable acts) by next December. It also helps that one of the best ways to do well is to do good. And the world would be a better place if we all did better.

Changing gears, we turn our attention to Tris Hussey who has a bit of a workflow issue. As good as WordPress and other blogging platforms have become, they’re still not great for reviewing and editing blog posts. This isn’t a problem for single author blogs, but it does become an issue when blog submissions nee to be reviewed and edited by someone in a managerial role. There is a revision history, but where is a “track changes” like utility?

And finally, Stacey Robinsmith has a fun observation for us to consider. As helpful as Yelp and Urbanspoon may be for deciding where to eat next, some of those customer reviews are useless. If you’re a vegan and you go into a steakhouse, you’re not exactly setting yourself up to have a wonderful evening. I remember reading TripAdvisor reviews of stand-up coffee bars in Italy and people complained about the lack of seating. That’s just how it is there!