February 16, 2010 • 7:31 pm
I’m not wild about list posts. Apparently I’m the only one, because I’ve never heard anybody else complain about them, and blogs great and small are overflowing with “ten ways to [whatever]” posts. They’re generally quite popular, too.
Frankly, I think they’re a symptom of laziness on the part of writers and readers alike. But I do have to admit that with all the info we have to process these days, they’re sometimes better than nothing. It’s true that, as Umberto Eco (who loves lists, BTW, and is no slouch) says, they “make infinity comprehensible.” I guess people can always dig deeper into a subject if they want something they can sink their teeth into. I wonder how many do.
Anyway, you gotta do what you gotta do, and I’ve been known to write a list post or two in my day. In fact, the last two I wrote for Web Worker Daily were just that: 5 Japanese words that start with S, and 3 words uttered by Mel Gibson that start with E (and might help you get a content strategy, which you should do).
Filed under: language, tech writing, web trends , blogging, content strategy, online identity, personal branding, tips, words
Every startup founder dreams of changing the world and/or striking it rich. And everything Internet-related seems to happen so fast that you can be easily fooled into believing that your startup has to be an overnight sensation in order to be considered worthwhile. It does work that way for some people. But most of us have to work really hard for a long time, during which we suffer deeply from user envy. I mean, Facebook gets over half a million new users a day! Nothing like somebody else’s huge stats to make you feel horribly inadequate…
We all have days when we get demoralized and depressed and consider giving it all up for a day job.
If you’re suffering from the startup blues, here’s some good medicine for you that’ll put an end to your user envy…
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: web life , startuppity, tips
Or when you’re a freelancer wearing lots of hats and you’re trying to launch a startup too, you get to be good at that 21st-century sport, extreme juggling.
This is a day in my life. Read about how I deal with it on Web Worker Daily and CNNMoney.com/Fortune.
Filed under: web life , tips
I would have thought it impossible to make an animated puppy dog that was not adorable if I weren’t a Windows user. I’m referring to the cartoon dog that’s supposed to keep you entertained while you search your hard drive using Windows Explorer… Anyway, I looked at that not-cute puppy, and suffered the agonizingly slow and inadequate Explorer search function for way too long. Don’t even get me started on searching in Outlook… If you’re still watching the puppy, I can help. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: apps , tips, tools
I was at the E-reputation barcamp held at La Cantine yesterday, where I attended a session on personal branding given by Fadhila Brahimi. In Fadhila’s session, I was primarily interested in the questions, hopes and fears of the other attendees, so that I could address them in future talks and posts about online identity and personal branding myself. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: tech events, web life, web trends , online identity, personal branding, tips
Filed under: apps, social media, tech events, web life, web trends , Francophilia, netiquette, online identity, personal branding, startuppity, tips
I like teaching and public speaking because I love opportunities to share things that I find exciting. I gave my latest talk, The Sum of Your Parts: The Importance of Online Identity, as a keynote address at the annual conference of the Society for Technical Communication – France. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: social media, tech events, tech writing, web life , online identity, personal branding, tips
February 22, 2009 • 5:27 pm
Web 2.0 was all about social and free, kind of like the Haight in the 60s. We tossed our inhibitions to the wind and let it all hang out. Alas, groovy people, the pendulum is swinging, as it inevitably must do. A sure sign: I had to pay WordPress money to change the CSS of this blog. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: social media, web trends , startuppity, tips
February 18, 2009 • 1:18 pm
Thinking of freelancing? You can read my post about the importance of having mentors before striking out on your own. On Web Worker Daily and Salon.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized , mentors, tips
February 6, 2009 • 1:41 pm
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, right? Maybe not so much on the Web, where our olfactory senses don’t do us much good. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: language, tech events , logos, startuppity, tips, words
January 1, 2009 • 3:05 pm
I went to LeWeb ’08 in Paris in December and spent most of my time talking to people about their startup projects, approaching clusters of (mostly) young (mostly) guys (tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it) who tended to be huddled in groups of three and four. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: tech events , blogging, grrls, startuppity, tips
