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The Value of A Comment

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Leaving a comment on a blog is an excellent way to say what you think about the content of the blog you have chosen to read. Commenting is becoming part of the conversation. People comment, or write a blog post about the topic themselves, because something they read interested, motivated, angered, intrigued or just plain made them happy. So why does there seem to be fewer and fewer comments on blogs these days?

Blogs with huge readerships, the “A-Listers “ have no problem getting comments. People comment there to be seen engaging in the conversation, challenging the ideas contained in the post and promoting their own sites. We don’t question that A- List bloggers input great value and knowledge into the blogosphere. I’ve gone to many other blogs that also provide great information and insight but have small readerships and very few comments. I wonder why?

There’s been some conversation lately around the issue of the value of comments. There seems to be a trend towards less commenting and more posting of links, for example, on Twitter. This isn’t new. I’ve seen the topic come and go. I keep wondering about this the longer I blog and the more I read.

I read a lot of blogs and comment on few. I’ve been thinking about that lately. At times I believe I don’t have anything of value to add to the conversation or I’m intimated by the other comments. Sometimes I have too many to read and not enough time so I just tweet the link. I know that when I receive comments on a post I wrote I feel like they add value and I truly appreciate hearing what others have to say. I enjoy and learn from the conversation.

What is the value of a comment to you?

from Kathryn Jennex @northernchick

photo credit: Linda Cronin

When Language Fails to Communicate

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A Guest Post by Christa Miller

I recently had a disturbing experience: a misunderstanding with a dear friend during which I began to wonder if language could be too communicative.

The cop and the writer

I’ve been a professional writer for almost eight years. My friend has been a professional cop for over 25 years. I tease him about his “trust issues.” He teases me about my “big words.” Our misunderstanding centered, of course, on both.

Some of his words had hurt my feelings. My response hurt his. His communication began to resemble police radio traffic: terse, brief. I went in the other direction, apologizing profusely, multiple times, as clearly and yet as eloquently as I could. I wanted to convince him how deeply I felt my regret, how much I wanted to put it behind us and move on.

Still he didn’t budge, and I finally gave up. He did not seem able to trust what I was telling him. So I agreed with him that professional communication was best for the time being, and I too backed off.

Is my word my bond?

Most of us who blog as part of our businesses have some facility for words. We may not write with Liz’ poetry or Chris Brogan’s sensibility or Amber Naslund’s passion, but we trust our own ability to use the written word to communicate most accurately what is on our minds.

So whether writing is one tool in an arsenal of many, or the form of communication we rely on most, the idea that someone can’t trust our words is a reason to stop and evaluate. Why did the words fail? What does it mean? Was there too much of “us” and not enough of “them”? Does a fundamental communication gulf exist that threatens the whole relationship?

In my case, my writing may have been too honest, too desperate in its quest to be taken at face value. It was based on what I have learned: to use words to clarify. I never stopped to think that in my friend’s world, words are used to conceal. In fact, veteran cops will tell you that the longer someone tries to convince you of something, the more likely it is that s/he is lying. Needless to say, this was not the message I wanted to send.

Doing it their way

Not everyone trusts strong written communication, forceful speeches, or social network websites. Marketers know that the key is to find what people do trust, then use the appropriate tool. So too with individuals and words. This is harder than it looks. Writing and analysis are my strengths, but to talk to my friend the cop, I now need to emphasize using the phone and humor—two of my worst weaknesses.

This is a strong friendship, and I’m willing to make room for an opposite style of communication. But where’s the line? How do you decide when to accommodate, and when to cut your losses?

Christa M. Miller writes content and talks about social media at Christa M. Miller. Her twitter name is @christammiller

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Invest, Learn, Grow!

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7 Ways to Check … Is Blogging Your Dream?

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A Guest Post by Lisa Newton

For me, the answer to this question is a total, unabashed YES. I live, sleep, and breathe my blog, Travelin’ Local.

1-3 Do You Live, Sleep, Breathe Your Blog?

Live. I live in California, and became a resident two years ago; but I’ve fallen in love with it, the people, its beaches, the cities, the mountains—and so much, much more. However, being in California is only part of what I live for. I also live for my other passion which is photography. Many years ago, I played with a 35mm camera, but four kids, a family, and work interrupted my love of photography. A few months ago, thanks to a Christmas gift, my passion for photography was reactivated.

So what better way to express my two passions than creating my own blog where I am able to feature my deeply personal interpretation of my local neighborhoods, with photos, prose and stories, and research about “all things” California? Thus, Travelin’ Local was born.

Sleep. How does one sleep with their blog? Because I’m thinking about it as soon as I wake up, and right before I go to bed, and even (although it’s only happened twice), when I wake up in the middle of the night—burning with an idea, or thought, which I quickly wrote down on my notebook next to the nightstand, before going back to sleep.

Breathe. I breathe life into my blog, and it gives life back to me. Like yesterday. After working for 10 hours at my “day” job, I arriving home, glanced at the sky, and knew right there right then, that I had to go right back out. I happened to see the one of the most beautiful and stunning sunsets I’ve seen in many, many years. So grabbed my camera and started shooting photo after photo, before the sun quickly set—with one of the pictures featured here. Like a bricklayer who uses bricks to build a wall, I choose words as a wordsmith, instead, to construct a story about the sights and sounds of what I see and experience. And because blogging is an instantaneous and spontaneous endeavor, I immediately wrote this to share my story.

4 – 7 Is Blogging Passion, Connections, Dedication and Goals?

Passion. Don’t confuse passion with unrealistic dreams of grandeur. With our newly wired world, it’s easy to get caught up with things that aren’t realistic. On the other hand from the gems of ideas, do spring captains of finance, information technology, publishing, arts, science, and writing. I have a great family, wonderful friends, and feel good about where I’m at. But my love of blogging has taken me to the next level, just as blogging itself fuels my passion.

Meaningful Connections. Another very important reason my blog is important to me is that it affords me with the ability to meet interesting and inspiring people every day. Lance is a tremendous talent and great person who writes about life with uncanny depth and persuasion of conviction. And with her divine photography; Diane C. takes me right into her “home” with her photo blog of the intricacies and fascinating Arizona desert and habitats; and Henie creates art every day, sharing it with her readers. These are just three examples of the wonderful and talented people that I’ve made friends with at my Travelin’ Local community.

Dedication. Even before I started my blog, I spent quite a bit of time doing my homework by reading other blogs, blogs about blogging, joining communities, fastidiously responding to other’s comments, and enjoying countless hours looking at the huge amount of photography on the Internet. I learned about writing, reading, design, and life.

Setting Goals. I created Travelin’ Local because it’s my passion and inspiration. I did so with a very specific creative and publishing model in mind—I wanted to show and share with the world California; but from my own perspective. But along the way, I literally stumbled upon a “name your dream” contest for photographers and photojournalists, to name their dream job—so for me the decision to participate in it was instantaneous. My dream job is to keep doing what I was already doing—which was Travelin’ Local–but taking it to the next level with more and more content and photojournalistic stories. The chance to win $50,000 didn’t hurt my want for the assignment, either.

I looked at it, and of course — California Dreamin’ was my submission. I entered the contest, aware that I don’t yet know as many people online as I want to, but both in degree and kind requesting votes isn’t considered spam. (Yes, I do read Chris Brogan ……………………….:)

Is Blogging Your Dream? I’ve told you all a lot about myself, along with the where’s, why’s, and when’s of what drives me. So back to the original question posed in the title. My blog is my dream which I made a reality, because I live for it, and it in turn inspires me and others, which, in turn, inspires others and others, creating something that will hopefully be passed on to future generations. If you’re so inclined, please take a look at my contest entry, California Dreamin’. It only takes a few minutes to register. To be considered for the next stage of judging, California Dreamin’ needs to be in the top 20 of all entries. I’d love to get a little blogger help, and I know that Liz’s community would totally understand how to help my dream turn into a reality.

What about you? Do you dream your blog? Is your blog a dream? Do you Dream Big?

Lisa Newton writes content and talks about social media at Travelin’ Local . Her twitter name is @LisaNewton

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A Goal with Action Is a Wish!

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Beach Notes: Blue Ocean Strategy

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by Guest Writer Suzie Cheel

Des emerged yesterday morning only just awake saying “I have a great idea- I’ll tell you at the beach!”

As we walked down to the water’s edge, Des began to talk about his idea and related it to

the book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and make the Competition Irrelevant by W. C. Chan and Renee Mauborgne

He then decided to illustrate this by drawing how he sees red ocean / blue ocean in the sand.

The beach is such a great place for seminars!

Des was saying at this time of global economic anxiety, instead of trying to compete harder in the Red Oceans of existing market focus we should look for or create Blue Oceans of new opportunity.

An example from the Blue ocean strategy book is how Yellow Tail wines, from an until then little-known company Casella Wines, took the American alcoholic beverages market by storm.They did this precisely, not by competing with powerful, entrenched wine companies, but by way of a market strategy which targeted people the US wine companies had ignored or neglected.

His example of a Red Ocean (red because of blood in the water) was where so many many people selling services in the social media field target younger audiences, the growing market of baby boomers using social media is not being similarly targeted.

What is your blue ocean strategy?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

The "ART" of Being Genuine

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Definition of Genuine :

1 a: actually having the reputed or apparent qualities or character (genuine vintage wines) b: actually produced by or proceeding from the alleged source or author (the signature is genuine) c: sincerely and honestly felt or experienced (a deep and genuine love) d: actual , true (a genuine improvement) 2: free from hypocrisy or pretense : sincere

– from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary

But being genuine isn’t something you should try to emulate, or work at or simulate. Being genuine is being yourself. Sometimes we take on different roles in different situations for various reasons. When you meet me at a conference I may be different that you perceive me to be on twitter. If we meet later that evening at a social situation I may be different again. If we ever happen to be discussing a project, contract or another work-related item I will, again, be different. These are all different roles for different situations, but they’re all still me.

There’s a lot of talk in the blogosphere, on twitter, in the press, actually everywhere I look lately, about being genuine. It goes hand in hand with the conversation about authenticity. I realize that this isn’t a new conversation, and that its relevance as a topic will come and go.

But for me it became very relevant just yesterday. Yesterday, someone questioned whether or not I was being genuine. First I was shocked. I realized they had a totally different idea of what being genuine meant. I was being honest, respectful and sincere but they thought that this wasn’t enough.

Being genuine is important – it leads to respect. My genuine self isn’t your genuine self. We are all different. We all strive to meet the definition but we all come at it in different ways. There is no one way – we’re all individuals here from different backgrounds. If you are your actual, genuine self – then that is enough.

from Kathryn Jennex aka Nothernchick

photo credit: Andy Glogower

Beach Notes: Advantage of a Bird's Eye View

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by Guest Writer Suzie Cheel

In any business there is an advantage to be gained in every now and again stepping away from the details of what we are doing and all our tasks, however essential and urgent, so that we can look at our challenges and the business itself from a more “elevated” perspective – a bird’s eye view.

Not an original thought, but how many of us do it? And if we do it, do we do so often enough?

The thoughts and the questions were prompted by seeing a new structure – a kind of observation platform made of scaffolding materials and a sheet of corrugated roofing – at our local beach, Rainbow Bay.

Every year about this time we have the week-long spectacle of the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro surfing championships at Rainbow Bay , or as surfers probably think of it, the famous Snapper Rocks break. The whole end of the beach, in the area surrounding the Rainbow Bay Surf Lifesaving club building, becomes a kind of instant tent city, with temporary shops, cafe, exhibition space, media center, and what appears to be a large chillout area for competitors. The event brings champion surfers, men and women, from around the world, and pumps large sums of money into the local hospitality industry.

We love it!

It also brings hordes of photographers, who set their tripods or other camera props up on the beach or on the rocks, to capture the performances of the competitors.

The observation tower at the other end of the beach is a new development this year. We spoke the other day to the guy in it, who was set up with still and video cameras, in a position commanding a totally uninterrupted view of the whole beach and looking straight down to the area where the surfers are doing their stuff over the coming days.

There is no question that he will have a better overall picture of what is happening than will his colleagues/competitors on the beach. Some of their photos and videos might be more striking than his, but he will be able to take pictures that they can’t take from the level of the beach or the rocks.

He has a bird’s eye view.

Have you been able to get a better picture of your business by stepping back and getting a bird’s eye view?

Any tips you would like to share, about how to do that most effectively?
Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh