October 2006

As you can tell, I’ve redone the look of Self Help Daily.  The old theme served me well, but it was a headache when it came to adding pictures. 

When my husband pointed out this new theme (Cutline), by fellow-Kentuckian Chris Pearson - I knew I’d found my new theme.  It’s so clean and neat, beautiful in its simplicity.  It’s absolutely one of my favorite themes I’ve ever worked with - and, having built and customized over 50, I’m as familiar with themes as I am with coffee.  This one’s a winner.

It was really easy to change the colors around and a snap to change the great banners Chris had used to our own. I love that he has coded the theme so that the banners change on different pages. Brilliant.

I used pictures that my daughter Stephany has taken - they’re all scenes from our state of Kentucky. A few are from the Land Between the Lakes, a few are from around Owensboro and one is of our fat cat, Adam.  The one on the front page is a great pic she snapped of a rainbow stretched out over a cornfield.  When we’re riding down the road and she says, “Can we pull over a sec?” I know she and her digital camera see something.  (There was a Johnny Depp lookalike once, but I flat out refused….)

I have a feeling I’ll be using this theme on a few of my other blogs.  I’m feelin’ nothing but love for it.

Joi

“Every day I interact with people who are going to use our services or they’re not going to have food.  I see that we’re making their world a better place. I’m hooked on that.“

I was reading an article about “Service Learning” - Degrees that allow the graduate to really make a difference.  The author was quoting a recent young graduate of an online nonprofit-management program.

The young man, Aaron, was talking about how great it feels to help people.  The way he worded it and the passion in his words made it clear to me (even at 6:10 am!) that I’d found my quote of the day.

What would happen if we all got hooked on the feeling of improving the lives of others??? Just a thought.

Joi

If you’re in the habit of using your head for anything other than a hat rack, you know what it feels like to hit the occasional brick wall. Thud or WHACK - the sound all depends upon how fast you’re going.

I WHACKed about a week ago. It seemed like everything I mentally touched fried a few precious brain cells.  And take it from me, I’m not confident enough in the number of these guys to risk loss.

Come to find out, apparently my think tank was just running low on motivational fuel.  I wasn’t even clever enough to seek out fuel on my own - I had to come across it by accident.  I was looking around at different blogs that used a particular blog theme.  It’s the same theme we use on a few of our entertainment blogs (Our Keira Knightley one, for example).  Anyhoo, I was looking at different techniques and navigational matters.  I landed on one by a lovely lady named Trish Jones.  Even though I was on a mission and was supposed to just be “Window shopping,” her smiling face made me want to read what she had to say.

Glad I did!

Her words were spirited and motivational, and the time that I spent with them brought me back from the whack.  The post that had the most impact on me was the one titled “The Key to Success is Knowing What You Want” - I would quote her last sentence in the post, the quote that I promptly wrote on an index card for future motivation, but I’d rather you go on over to her blog and read it for yourself.

While there, be sure to read more of her posts.  You’ll find yourself refueled, refreshed, and quite ready to go out and make a little magic.

Joi

 I got an e-mail recently in response to the ABCs of Blogging posts.  The e-mailer is a new blogger and she wanted to know my opinion on something. 

After I moved past the, “Why would anyone ask my opinion on anything outside of cooking, cats, shopping, or coffee” phase, I thought about my reply, then I replied my thoughts.  She answered back and said that out of the 12 or so bloggers she had approached, she and I were the only ones with this particular opinion!

And now I’m worried.

The question:  Do you think a blogger HAS to blog every single day? 

The most common (Okay, every other) answer she got: 

1. You HAVE to blog daily for the search engines to find you.
2. You HAVE to blog daily for people to keep coming back.
3. You HAVE to blog daily or you’ll get out of practice.

I told her that, personally, I don’t think a blogger should ever blog just for the sake of blogging.  I think you should blog when you have something to say worth reading - and only when you have something to say worth reading.

My thinking is this:  If someone subscribes to your rss feed, or to your e-mail alerts - each time you post, it’s like you’re going up to their front door and saying, “Stop what you’re doing, Come out here, I’ve got something to tell you…”  If you pull them away from what they’re doing, even if it’s just for a minute, I think you should have something for them that was worth the inconvenience. Some news, information, motivation, inspiration, or at least a laugh.  Laughs are good.  If you’re really on your game, you’ll have something that makes them think.  That’s always worth answering the door for.

A Get me, I’m posting a little spider bait….watch me drop those keywords…. post, in my opinion, isn’t cool and isn’t worth darkening someone’s doorstep.

Having said all that, I admit - I don’t approach any of my blogs from a business stand-point.  Maybe if I did, I’d have an orange Hummer parked in the driveway of a  little  big gargantuan mountain cottage or lake house.  With a fireplace crackling and a big large  giant screened television to watch the Food Network on.

I approach my blogs like I approach everything, from a “Let’s save the world” standpoint, so my trips to the lake or mountains involve hotels and Alton Brown and Paula Deen aren’t life-sized in our living room.  I guess I’m cool with that.

My husband’s always telling me that I think from an emotional center, which I’m also cool with. That’s just how I’m wired - I feel…then I think. 

I’m just curious as to how everyone else thinks about this matter. 

Do you think a blogger should blog everyday, or only if they have something really worth reading, worth seeing, or worth thinking about? Does it depend upon the subject of the blog?  If you subscribe to rss feeds, do you get annoyed if there isn’t much there after you’ve gotten up and gone to the door?

What thinketh thou?

Joi

“Don’t find fault, find a remedy.” ~ Henry Ford