Poetry Saturday: Between the Lines

I actually remember the story behind this poem! This is the first poem I ever wrote, and interestingly enough, the first poem I ever had published! It was published in an issue of Teen Ink when I was 16 years old. I, or my parents, still have a copy of that issue somewhere. Now I just need to find the poem that took Top 10 in that competition my senior year of high school. I think I won, like, $50 for the honors.

Anyway, the inspiration for this poem was the instance where I looked at a friend and realized that she looked older even though she looked familiar to me. I'd only known her for a few years, and there wasn't any major gaps in those years where I would have an old memory of her appearance. She didn't look drastically different either. It was just that she really didn't look like a little kid anymore.

Between the Lines

As I gaze at my old friend,

I begin to wonder where

Yesterday had gone

Because I've noticed something there.

Her face held something different

Until now it stayed unchanged

Childhood had left

And adulthood set up stage.

No longer a child

As "thou unrelenting past"

Didn't drift away

Be engraved itself to last.

Her face is still the same

Yet etched between the lines

Are the events of yesterday

And the future keeping time.

Poetry Saturday: 7777777

If I remember correctly (which is about a 50/50 chance here), I wrote this in high school in the middle of class. I think it might have been my fiction writing class during my senior year. Unfortunately, I can't verify the timeline. All the Word documents are time stamped with the same date (July 25, 2011 - the date I purchased my new computer and transferred everything to it from my old Mac). I also didn't date a single poem in my notebooks. The best that I have is that I know the order in which I filled those notebooks. I still have notebooks that I have yet to fill.

7777777

The square root of 7 is 49,

again, again and again

doubled, repeated,

again, again and again.

The grand confusion of the 7

and its children

more and more sevens

again again and again.

Invisible is the cycle

and the rain

and the storms,

but their thunder ain’t excluded.

Feel the thunder

the strike of the lightning

both of them,

again again and again.

The mind’s eye sees the rumble,

the cycle,

the mean annual rainfall,

the children of the seven

again

again

and again.

This is the world I live in.

7 times 7 is 49

again again and again.

Poetry Saturday: Movement II

I also wrote this poem for my poetry class at SLU. This poem is much more reflective of my poetry writing style: short lines, short verses, nouns turned into verbs, cutoff words, obscure culture references. Don't remember the assignment or the story behind this poem. It's been so long that I probably won't remember the stories behind many of my poems.

Movement II

I hear a song,

a floutist serenade

the eyelids fall

and I drift deeper

to dream of better things

A soothing, softly wind

I float to clouds

with freshened wings.

I fly, blown over,

the beauty below

like the rich Italian field

flowing of reeds and flowers

to the wavy hills,

washing with the hues

of European spring

and the restaurant at the river,

a glistened shore by moonlight.

Couples warm the ambience

woven by Debussy’s

celloed yarn

and with me

are the birds,

they sail

in their brethren

to the ‘rizon

Then, the sunrise

the eyes of Ra upon the sands.

Wake, I must awaken,

land, release my wings,

emerge from slumber

All The Things I’ve Stopped (Part 3 of 9)

For the third part in this series, I'm going to evaluate my 50 blog post topics list. I wrote this list so I wouldn't get stuck with writer's block and stop blogging. I didn't like the blog post ideas that I was coming up with just so I could get a post up, so I decided to ensure I wasn't wasting time coming up with a good idea. The list of topics took me a few hours to put together, and in the end I only did 15 of those topics. I also ended up doing the 15 easiest topics first, leaving the tougher topics for, well, perhaps never.

The Tougher Topics Would Have Taken More Time than I Had

Many of the tougher topics (particularly the questions about current affairs) would have required a ton of preliminary research, and once I sat down to write the post, it would've taken me about two hours to write it. Add that to the research time, and tackling one of these tougher topics would've taken between four and six hours of my time. That's time that I could've made room for if I made the blog post a priority, but I couldn't make it that kind of a priority over paying clients.

I wasn't going to do a sloppy job of tackling these topics either. Here's a David Cameron article that I wrote in September 2013, an example of what I would like to do when answering one of these questions. Sure, I could answer a similar question with only two reasons instead of three, or I could include three reasons but cite fewer sources throughout the article, but the David Cameron article is a great article. Not to toot my own horn, but I did a great job in answering the question. If I'm not going to commit to that level of quality, then I'm not going to start the blog post or find an easier way to do the blog post. The David Cameron article is simply how those current affairs questions should be tackled.

Going Back to Making It a Priority

In the first two parts of this series, I've discussed stopping ventures because I lost interest or because I found a better option. This time, I stopped completing this list because I felt I had more important priorities besides taking the time to write on the tougher topics. This blog (for now) is simply for fun and I can't let it get in the way of paying work. Well, I could let it get in the way of paying work, but I wouldn't be earning enough to pay my bills. I also didn't want to spend so much time on just one blog post, because if I did commit four to six hours to write one post, then I would've had to reduce the number of times I published in a week. Back when I was doing those posts, I was publishing about every other day (and I'm currently working to come back to that frequency). Tackling these tougher topics would've meant publishing only about once or twice a week, perhaps even less frequently. That's just no good for blog. At least I don't think that's good for a blog.

Perhaps I'll be able to tackle some of the tougher topics in the future if I plan accordingly. I would probably need to give myself about a month's leeway, and if I do that, then I would need to choose topic that would still be timely in a month or two. That's not too hard, considering that some current issues can go on for months.

I Finally Have a File Cabinet!

It was almost a year ago that I set out to purchase a file cabinet for my home office. I have lamented many times about not having quite enough to buy my file cabinet, whether it's not having enough points, or not having enough money, or not having the time to pick one out. Well, no more worrying. No more lamenting. No more wishing and wanting. I finally have my file cabinet!

I've Been Needing One for Well Over a Year

Ever since I transitioned to a virtual office toward the end of 2012, I've needed a file cabinet. I didn't have one in my home office, so my files were in piles in a corner of my office, collecting dust. My cat even peed on the pile once and I had to throw a whole bunch of files away since there was no way I was going to get the pee out of the paper (and I didn't want to encourage him to pee outside the litter box). Not only did have to throw away a few files (fortunately, none of them were too important), but when they were in piles, the files and their contents were useless. It was too much trouble to dig through them to find what I needed, and since they weren't organized, there wasn't any point in creating new files or adding to them.

But, That is All Over

I only spent $90 on this file cabinet, which was at the top of my range but I think I got a good deal. I bought a wooden file cabinet just like I wanted. Even thought it only has two drawers, it functions like four-drawer file cabinet, as shown in the picture on the left. It even came with about 50 extra file folders that I wasn't expecting. The previous owner threw them in for free. I didn't need them, but I couldn't say no because the folders were in one of the drawers ready to go with me. I didn't want to tell the owner to take them out and waste more of their time.

Anyway, I organized my files and created several new ones to accommodate more important papers and articles that I've accumulated over the years (such as the lease on my apartment and the adoption papers for my cat). I accumulated so much that I've run out of manila folders. It's a good thing I found a file cabinet that's essentially four drawers instead of two. It looks like that I'll be needing the extra room, and I'm excited to fill it with all kinds of neat stuff. I pondered on whether or not to get a two-drawer file cabinet or a four-drawer file cabinet. I eventually settled on a two-drawer because I didn't think I would have enough room for four-drawer, so I was really happy to find this cabinet in such good condition.

Now I Have a Clean Desk

Since I went without a file cabinet for so long, papers started piling up on my desk. I had two big piles, one on each end of the desk (the clean "after" version is shown on the right. I didn't think to take any pictures until after I had cleaned it up, so I don't have a shot of the "before" version). I also had papers tucked into folders and piled up in other parts of the office. Once I started cleaning everything up, I found so many bank statements (both opened and unopened) it wasn't even funny.

But my desk is much cleaner, which should help me to get much more done. They say that a cluttered desk hinder productivity, so perhaps my uncluttered desk will mean an uncluttered mind and I will have an easier time getting work done. After all, I can now use more of my desk and use it better since the space isn't taken up by random papers anymore.

Poetry Saturday: Emulate This Then Top It

I have written hundreds of poems in my lifetime, although I haven't written a poem since 2007. I was really into the craft in high school, but once I got to college I didn't have the time for poetry anymore. I was distracted and intrigued by a variety of new things. These poems have been sitting on my hard drive for years, and are only there because I took the time transfer them from my notebooks to the computer screen. I posted most of them online many years ago, but I don't remember the site anymore.

Quite frankly, I don't remember writing this first poem I am sharing for Poetry Saturday. I wrote it when I took my poetry class during my freshman year of college, and since we reviewed each others poems in class, I didn't think I wrote it. I thought I had a copy of someone else's poem on my hard drive, which was weird but not inconceivable. Including years and dates isn't normally my style, and I didn't realize it was my poem until I found it in two places on my hard drive and continued to read further. There are references in there that can only come from me.

Emulate This Then Top It

Good, you left me

Good, you left me November 1^st 1999 and that’s when I screamed “Armegeddon” found that you weren’t there and overtime felt the fallout from your detonated disappearance

Go party like its 1999 in the World of Forms as you have no particulars in this world and that’s where the problem lies

Good, where were you?

Where were you when I was told to stop trying to fit in when I couldn’t fit in anymore and people told lies to deny me the chance to fit in

Where were you when they spread the rumors the love the hair the smell the mouse the room all the rumors in their clicked language that’s cliqued together by added syllables

Where were you when I was left in isolation told that I should sit in the corner told that I needed permission to speak told that I was ugly told that I was better off not there at all

Good, I’m ready to prove Plato wrong and pry you from the party

I’m defiled by your increasing absence

When will you restore the pure of heart?

When will you solidify the loyalty?

When will you fight for the right cause and not the popular one?

When will you kill the ignorance?

When will you trump working hard over working smart i.e laziness?

When will you face the truth of your nonexistence?

Cause you weren’t there as Backstreet NSYNC 98 the Spice Girls Britney Christina all sang and I could not enjoy as I was not a part and only those a part could enjoy and all others who tried to enjoy posed oh they posed OH THEY POSED all right

You weren’t there with every idea ventured and ignored cause I was me “That’s not a positive” blank stares don’t look keep going let’s move why is she here she’s only Student of the Week 3.6 GPA Honors diploma dork doesn’t think like us farther from the rock than us bearing a much more goddamn colder climate than us yet I remain below as you build yourself this mountain that I could not scale and I ask you and I ask you and I ask you to substantiate why with your West Coast universities

You weren’t there everyday in Pre-Algebra as I had to sit next to Stuart three trimesters in a row and Mrs. Rosehill didn’t see it she didn’t see it she didn’t see it and I still see it clear as coordinates

You weren’t there as I held my ears tight to not hear a thing and yet I heard everything even the subtle silent ways they went to seductively slaughter

You weren’t there as I went home night after night straight-faced fronting the façade of nothing wrong

You weren’t there as I Twisted Metal: Black and saw the darkness and wished insanity, better insanity then battling sane better insanity then battling sane

And that’s just in two years

It’s been a six-year absence Good, a six-year absence

and not only have you left me but left the world as well.  Do you have any of your particulars?

This scarcity of your current state, to say… unsatisfactory is an understatement

Because in the next four years I learned how to do it all according to Alanis’ “Eight Easy Steps”

Step 1: How to stay paralyzed by fear of abandonment

Good, I watched I your nonexistence

All The Things I’ve Stopped (Part 2 of 9)

I'm going to bet that a few people thought that I failed at finishing this blog series, much like the projects that are going to be mentioned in this blog series. But that is not the case! I did want to finish the Blogging Heroes blog post before continuing with the series, and I got that done last week. Then, I decided to keep my personal blogging to one to two times a week, unless things change in my life. The last thing I need is to pile on more responsibilities, and I'd like to ensure that this blog doesn't end up in "failed and forgotten" bin again. So, I'm keeping my blogging schedule to something manageable so it fits in with the rest of my life and I don't get burnt out from overextending myself.

What Is SuperBetter Again?

SuperBetter is an online game designed to help players get better at "something." Since the founder, Jane McGonigal, founded the game after suffering a severe concussion, many of the "somethings" are health-related. For example, there is a "Power Pack" in the game designed for eating healthier and losing weight (and a multitude of other health issues) called the Full Plate Diet.

With this pack, the player completes a series of quests to help them get better at eating healthier and losing weight. There are bad guys that need to be overcome, such as drinking liquid calories or having no fiber-strong foods for meal. To help you complete quests and conquer bad guys, you can enlist allies (such as your family and friends, or maybe a nutritionist) to help you. There are also power ups, which are actions that the player can take to get stronger and to do better against the quests and bad guys. Hopefully, the player completes all the quests, has lost some weight, and is much better at eating healthier than they were before.

Naturally, those same steps would happen with any Power Pack. The only differences are the types of quests, the types of bad guys, the types of power ups, and perhaps who you might choose as an ally (like switching out the nutritionist for a physical therapist or life coach). The idea is to turn healing and recovery into a game.

Why I Stopped Playing the SuperBetter Game

To be honest, I got bored with the game. After I completed the Full Plate Diet pack, I found little value in continuing the game with the other packs. The Full Plate Diet pack was a great pack and I don't regret doing it, even though I still have room for improvement. The main complaint I have about SuperBetter is that there's very little "re-playability" after you finish or take on your primary health problem. There aren't many people who want to eat healthier, but also need to recover from a sports injury and work on their migraines. Once that person starts eating healthier, the other two problems may become less of an issue.

It's possible to create your own pack, and customize the game toward something that you do want to improve, but that takes time and research that I didn't really want to put in. As much as I liked the thought of, say, creating a Power Pack to improve my poker game, I wasn't enthused enough about SuperBetter to start "modding" the game. It would have been nice if a modding community formed around the game, so that half the packs available weren't geared towards those recovering from a concussion, but I didn't have the time, enthusiasm, or skill set to start creating my own power ups, bad guys, and quests.

I stopped in the middle of a Power Pack called, "Better Than a Chill Pill," which is meant to lower stress, to combat anxiety. or to relax more easily so that you can sleep better. I think I originally chose this quest to lower my stress and to sleep a bit better. I don't think I have a problem with either now. I would say my new problem is that I sleep too much. I need a Power Pack to help me get out of bed, start the day, and to be excited about the day. I don't need a chill pill. I need an awakening pill.

I Might Restart with SuperBetter

They have added a few new Power Packs since I stopped, and one of them looks really interesting. It's called "Make It Epic", and it's designed to help you improve your motivation and persistence. There's another one called "Absurdly Grateful", which is to help you focus on gratitude, which also looks pretty neat. But, instead of starting a new pack, I should probably restart some of the old packs. I could certainly use a reboot on the Full Plate Diet to improve my eating habits and to lose a little more weight. Naturally, I could always do another run of "Being Awesome", even though I haven't been diagnosed with depression or psoriasis, and don't have too many problems with anxiety.

But, then again, maybe not. I don't need more things to do. Besides, I am working with my business coach, and she's giving me plenty to help me get super better at all sorts of things. I don't need two tools in my life accomplishing the same thing. That's why I got rid of the bullet journal. I also don't need more tasks to add onto my to-do lists. My life already provides me plenty of quests, bad guys, and power ups.

Differences Between Blogging in 2008 and Blogging in 2014

As Well as a Few Critiques

I admit I wasn't blogging in 2008. I considered the idea as a junior in college, and a friend even recommended that I call the blog, "Frog Blog." I didn't start blogging (for myself and for other sites) until 2010 and I've been blogging just about every day ever since.. Even with nearly four years of blogging experience, I learned a few great tips from "Blogging Heroes." But, there are a few changes between then and now, changes that weren't applicable even between 2008 and 2010. Here are X of the major differences between 2008 and 2014, as analyzed from "Blogging Heroes."

Monetization Through Advertising is On Its Way Out

Many of the blogs featured in the book made money through advertising, using programs such as Google Adsense. In 2008, advertising using Google Adsense was the primary and profitable way to make money with your blog. In 2014, it's simply not the case anymore. Adsense and other advertising networks pay by the click, and quite frankly, people don't click on advertising anymore. Readers find display advertising intrusive and distracting, and often don't find any benefit in the advertising. Today, to generate the number of clicks that you need to make your Adsense revenue worthwhile, you either have to publish tons and tons of posts each day (essentially becoming a slave to your blog) or write about things that salacious and juicy (or slap on such a headline for click bait). Neither tactic makes a blogger great or profitable in blogging.

Adsense and other advertising networks can still bring in some money, yes, but many bloggers today are monetizing their blogs by using a variety of methods. These methods include affiliate marketing programs like Amazon Associates, selling products directly on the site, creating a membership program, hosting paid online and in-person events, offering consulting services, and many more. Bloggers today often use more than one method since using only one method (like advertising} makes it incredibly difficult for a blogger to make enough money to live solely through blogging.

Networking Through the Blog Comments is Also Out

The spammers ruined this one. In 2008, the comment section was still a great place to start conversations, to add to conversations, and to share a link back to your blog. However, spammers have ruined the comment section by using it as a way to stuff keywords and to place links to sites that are irrelevant to the website. In 2014, major blogs and publications like Popular Science and Six Pixels of Separation are shutting down their comment sections because of the spam and the trolls. Also consider that when sites like Huffington Post and Salon post something controversial, it's nearly impossible to get your comment noticed because everyone has a comment to make. Besides, a comment section that's devolved into ad hominem and vitriolic nonsense isn't the place you want to be to network your blog.

Those blogging today shouldn't emphasize comments as a sign of popularity or as a way to build backlinks either. Only one percent of blog readers take the time to comment on posts, while many sites mark comment links as "no follow", so they don't add any SEO benefit.

Instead, bloggers today are networking through social media and in-person events. Conferences like New Media Expo and The Blog Workshop are two of the biggest national events, but smaller events such as local meetups or professional networking events can also be great ways to promote the blog. Only a few well established blogs such as Problogger and Inbound Hub manage to keep their comment sections accessible without getting overwhelmed by the spammers and trolls.

Is Technorati As Powerful as It Once Was?

I used to write for Technorati, and still can if I really want to. I started writing for Technorati in 2010, and back then writing for the site was a great thing to do. There were plenty of good writers contributing good content, and the section editors would work with you personally to ensure that you made edits to the articles when requested and to give you article ideas. Technorati's listings were used several times throughout the book as a way to demonstrate how popular or well-known a blog is, such as the Top 100 Favorited Blogs and the Top 100 Linked To Blogs (do either of those lists still exist, and if so, who is one them?)

Technorati may have been great several years ago, but is it still great now? I wonder if bloggers today care about their Technorati rankings or authority numbers. It could be that bloggers don't care anymore, as those listings have been saturated by the same 150 or 200 blogs that just switch spots among themselves. It's unlikely any of the blogs currently listed on the Top 100 are going to fall of the wagon so horribly that they won't be able to recover, making room for someone new to make the list.

Plenty of Emphasis on Tech Blogs

I understand that the 30 bloggers interviewed in the book weren't the author's first 30 choices, or were necessarily the bloggers that reflected the 30 most popular bloggers of the time. But, I would have liked to see a little more variety in the blogs that were featured. Over one-third of the blogs featured had something to do with business or tech. There weren't any political, fashion, green, celebrity, entertainment, sports, or current events blogs featured. Only one parenting blog (ParentDish) made the list and only one DIY blog (DIY Life) made the list. It would have been great to see one more blog from both of those categories since they are crowded categories like tech and business.

Granted, I don't know if there were many people blogging in those categories in 2008. Since blogging was still very new in 2008, it could easily have been that many bloggers were technology and business experts since they are the most likely people to be an early adopter of a new technology platform like blogging. It's possible that great bloggers in those other categories got a later start because they needed to get acclimated with the technology first before they would have felt comfortable in using it to communicate their hobby or passion.

LOVED Seeing the Pics of the Blogs in 2007

While reading the book, it was actually pretty awesome to go through each chapter and see a screenshot of the blog in 2007. It's baby Lifehacker and baby Gizmodo! How cute! It was also pretty swell to see what qualified as slick web design and cutting edge fonts back in 2007 too. If some of these designs and layouts existed as they were in 2014, then many of them would be too busy and not very user-friendly.

Does Anyone Else Follow 200+ Blogs?

Many of the bloggers featured in the book kept up with other blogs through RSS feed. Although Google Reader doesn't exist anymore, keeping up with other great blogs is an excellent thing to do as a blogger. But, to keep up with more than 200 blogs? How is that possible, whether or not you use an RSS feed? If you don't use an RSS feed, then what do you use to keep up without everything, since all those updates would clog your email or take too much time to do manually? I would be surprised if anyone follows this many blogs. I think most bloggers only follow fewer than 100 blogs, or only keep up with their subject areas through tools like Google Alerts.

Well, that's all I have to say about Blogging Heroes: Interview with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers. Overall, the book is an excellent read for any blogger, whether you do it professionally or as a hobby. I wouldn't classify it as a must-read since some of the information is outdated and that a few of the blogs featured don't even exist anymore. But, blogging has changed quite a bit since 2008 as well as the top players in the field. It would be neat to try to to find today's top 30 bloggers (or even the 30 bloggers in each category). It would be pretty cool to hear their stories.

All The Things I've Stopped (Part 1 of 9)

Ever since my blogging streak ended, I've thought about all the things that I said I was going to do on this blog. With the exception of one or two, I stopped doing all of them within a few months. Besides the blogging streak, there was only one other endeavor that ended in a matter of days. The others were either intentions that were never turned into action, or behaviors that I stopped doing after several months. I think it would be great if I went over each of these goals and endeavors, going into detail of why I wanted to do the project in the first place and why I ended up not finishing what I sent out to do. Not everyone enjoys going over their failures, or evaluating why they were unable (or chose not to) finish something, but I think the exercise will be valuable to me. I am in the middle of determining what I want out of life and how to get those things, so I think this exercise will show me why I wanted to do these projects at a certain point in time, only to decide later on that I wasn't interested in doing them anymore.

Bullet Journal vs Inferno of Productivity

For the first part of this many part series (the number of series parts has yet to be determined), I'm going to evaluate two similar projects where I've stopped doing one but I've continued to do the other.

The bullet journal and the inferno of productivity are two systems that organize your to-do lists and improve your productivity. The inferno of productivity is a system that I created about a year ago, while the bullet journal is a system that I found online and decided to try. I did both concurrently for about seven months, but I've stopped using the bullet journal system about two weeks ago and have continued to use the inferno of productivity system only.

The main reason why I stopped using the bullet journal is because the journal felt redundant. I thought the system, especially its inclusion of a monthly calendar, monthly task lists, and room for other necessary lists (like planning for a vacation or a separate to-do list for that trip), would augment my daily to-do list that the inferno of productivity specializes in. However, that didn't happen. Using both systems at the same time seemed like I was managing two to-do lists for each day with no added benefit in having both. If there was a discrepancy in the to-do lists, then it was weird and a hassle to remedy that discrepancy.

I found the inferno of productivity to be easier since I like the tangible aspect of using index cards (something that I'd like to make less disposable with reusable index cards. I just need to find something reusable that I can use.) I also found this system much more flexible with tasks that I wasn't able to get done and with organizing my day, since I can put the cards/ tasks in the order that I wanted to do them. In the end, I stopped doing the bullet journal because it wasn't adding any value, and I was crafting my daily task list from what was already set up in the inferno of productivity system.

I'm Starting with a Softball

The bullet journal and the inferno of productivity were easy ones to evaluate because:

• I'm still doing the inferno of productivity, which is awesome. It's also a system that I'd like to improve upon in several ways.
• Since I'm still doing the inferno, stopping the bullet journal was somewhat inconsequential.
• Seven months is a pretty good run, but since the main reason why I stopped was because it wasn't adding value to my life, the bullet journal wasn't tough to quit. The failure was in the system, no myself.
• Quitting the bullet journal is not the same as not following through in learning how to drive a stick shift or with anything on my five-year plan. I will cover both in future parts of this series. Both of those do reflect a failure on my part.

But, I gotta start somewhere. It was easiest to start with my productivity systems since they are/were a daily part of my life. The others involved more long-term work, dedication, and planning.

One thing that does need to happen: finishing this series.

3 Timeless Tips from 30 Blogging Heroes

Typically, I'm not interested in how-to books regarding blogging, social media, search engine optimization, and all the different Google tools. Those books become obsolete so quickly since those platforms and how to use them change so much. For example, there's a book about Google Buzz on the shelf at my local library, a Google service that only lasted about a year. I always chuckle when I see because I wonder who would borrow it. But, I did find a book about blogging on my local library shelf called, Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers. It was published in 2008, and the premise of interviewing the top 30 bloggers in 2008 and publishing the conversations sounded intriguing and evergreen. It seemed like Blogging Heroes would be one of those few how-to books that wouldn't be too outdated, and would still have a few awesome blogging tips to offer that would still apply in 2014.

I was right.

These Are Some Great Blogs

Of the 30 blogs/bloggers featured, 18 are still going in their current form. By "current form", I mean the same domain name and pretty much the same topic. Another seven still exist, but either have a new domain name, or the content is now found with another site (DIY Life is now part of Style Me Pretty, while Luxist is now part of Stylelist.com). The main reason why that number is high, in my opinion, is that the book featured Weblogs Inc. and several Weblogs properties. AOL acquired Weblogs Inc. in 2005, so some of their properties were added to the Huffington Post or to other AOL sites.

Only five of the 30 blogs featured have stopped entirely, where either the domain name listed doesn't lead to anything, or the blog hasn't posted anything new in several years. I mention this before sharing the tips because the sources of these tips come from the other 25 that are still going in some way, illustrating the timelessness of blogging as an art form and how to do it right.

Great Content Beats SEO

Robert Scoble of Scobleizer made this point best, and I was so glad to hear it because even in 2007/2008, when SEO was still new, the top bloggers of the time still understood the importance of great content. Others echoed the sentiment by emphasizing how quality content is what ultimately builds and keeps an audience, but I loved that the awareness existed back then that gaming the system was a short-term strategy at best.

Of course, many bloggers in the book acknowledged SEO's importance in getting found online, and paid attention to it to some extent. But, none of them obsessed over it to the point that is was more important than the content being written or offering value to the reader. No one even considered SEO more important than actively promoting the blog and its content on your own, either through networking or working with other great bloggers to highlight what they're doing.

Remember: Google doesn't buy from you! Google doesn't read your blog, subscribe to your blog, or comment on your posts. Therefore, worry more about offering something awesome and beneficial to customers, versus trying to please Google for higher search engine rankings.

Write about What You Are Interested In or Passionate About

"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman

"Finding your passion" is harder than it sounds, and Marie Forleo does a great explanation of how to find your passion and where you shouldn't look for it. But, a great point made by Scott McNulty from the Unofficial Apple Weblog, and many others in the book, is that successful blogs have a topic or several topics that they want to share with others and simply do that. Successful bloggers write about what they found interesting, or when they have something to add to the conversation. Many people may write about something because it's trending, or because they think people like X or Y so they ought to cover X or Y. But, McNulty and Howard Thurman point out that a blog really comes alive when the blogger is passionate about the subject and has his/her heart in it.

"I Don't Decide to Blog and then Look for Something. I Find Something, and Then I Blog It."

Rebecca Lieb of ClickZ gave life-changing (it changed my perspective on blogging for the rest of my life, that's for sure) advice on how to find blog post topics and how to remain relevant as a blog. I loved this quote because it takes the weight off about creating an editorial calendar and sticking to it. I've created a calendar and filled it in with blog post ideas many times, only to look at it a week later and not feel any excitement for these topics that I spent so much time to think about. I like Lieb's advice because it harnesses the initial creativity and spark of when you see something, and immediately come up with thoughts, ideas and responses to that something. From there, you can write a blog post. The energy is there when you write the blog post, versus scheduling to write about something in three weeks when you saw it and thought about it today.

Overall, Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers is an excellent book with plenty of relevance to blogging in today's world. I would highly recommend the book as it is a chance to learn from some of the original pioneers in the industry and practice. I do have a few criticisms and differences to point out, of which I will cover in a future post.