Many of us would like to create a website with good content, a faithful following, and who knows, maybe make some money. Yet in the face of millions of blogs, how can we ever hope to attract and keep loyal listeners?

Excellent and frequently updated posts are probably the most important ingredients. But it’s not a case of “if you build it, they will come”. No way. What makes your site noteworthy? Why would anyone want to see what you have to say more than once?

I’ve already mentioned content. Write as well and as interestingly as possible then advertise what you’ve said and where you said it.

To do this, I propose that you create a web presence. What is a web presence?

Let me set the stage. Here’s what I did. Details of many of the tasks are somewhat ‘techie’ so I’ve purposely been a bit vague.  I’ll be glad to provide more details via email or future articles.

The first thing I did was register a domain name – synonymous with URL or web address. You can do this at GoDaddy.com or at NameCheap.com. A ‘dot com’ domain name will cost you about $10 per year. Try to choose a name that is indicative of what you are writing about. For instance, I chose the name ‘exploringnewmedia’ as the name of a project that I am currently working on to promote and present information on blogging, podcasting, videocasts, and social media. The domain name is ‘exploringnewmedia.com’.  You are there.

Concurrent with registering the name, at my hosting company (HostDime) I created a WordPress site whose address was to become http://exploringnewmedia.com. I then configured my registered domain account at the GoDaddy site  to point to the location on my host where I had placed the WordPress site. At this point, before I got serious about blogging, a user could have typed the http://exploringnewmedia.com address into his/her favorite browser and seen…nothing but the boring  blue default screen that is the basic WordPress theme. (I think it is necessary to create your notification system before you are ready to crow to the world, “Look what I did!”)

Before I began blogging, I created a Facebook account at http://facebook.com/exploringnewmedia.  Actually, I had done some homework to see if that account name was available and acceptable. It was. Great. Move on.

Next, I created a Twitter account but was faked out. I requested http://twitter.com/exploringnewmedia and did not realize that Twitter was only allowing the first 15 characters instead of all 17 characters of the name so I ended up with ‘exploringnewmed’ which some might confuse with drug experimentation.  Once I saw what had happened, I changed the name to ‘xplorenewmedia’ to more closely approximate my domain name. In hind sight, I should have changed it to ‘explorenewmedia’ to give a closer approximation. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. It’s all good. Mistakes are for learning. So, http://twitter.com/xplorenewmedia it is.

Now I was ready to begin. I created a post at http://exploringnewmedia.com/but-what-can-i-blog-about/ listing 50 things that I could blog about. Then I ‘tweeted’ about it. And added it to my Facebook. By doing this, I was/am building a brand name – Exploring New Media.

But just to be safe, I wanted to give my viewers one more way of following me. Using my existing Google account, I created a feedburner account to create an RSS feed that will also notify my followers when I’ve posted some new pearls of wisdom.

So, for me, a web presence equates to a blog, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feed, and soon, podcasts for Exploring New Media.

Oh, by the way, somewhere in there I changed from the default Wordpress them and began “rolling my own” with the Thesis Theme.

Comment on this article or send email to lindsey@exploringnewmedia.com

The meeting was conducted from 2-4PM on Friday at the Business Success Center (the BSC in the group name) with attendees representing many parts of the business world – finance, art, consulting, training, etc.

Nine people showed up and discussed their blogs, blogging efforts, and asked very interesting questions. This not be an attempt at answering those questions but will be a teaser to those of you who did not attend which will perhaps bring you out to the next meeting.

Jan Triplett, COO of Business Success Center talked about her blog as well as moderating the meeting and trying valiantly to keep us all on topic.  She revealed that as a new blogger she has had to learn a new way of written communication which is less formal than what she was taught in school and early business life.

Howie Richey,  tour guide extraordinaire and owner of TexPert Tours discussed his efforts to impart his love of Texas history to various audiences.

Sam Thacker at Allbusiness.com aired concerns regarding article lengths, ways of promoting a larger following.

Jeff Mitzel is just startiing to consider blogging and had many interesting observationss about the evolution of social media.

Gail Touschak writes about local business at her site. Her blog was set up for her by a professional firm and she would like to understand it better and how to use it more effectively.

Laura Faulkner’s presentations reflect her interest in open source software while Jamie Rood displays and discusses his art at http:jamierood.com

Julie Gomoll, not only discussed many interesting topics such as using an editorial calendar to help schedule and control blog creation efforts but introduced us to her use of an  interesting site where she shows her best  Flavor.me/juliegomoll

EXPLORINGNEWMEDIA.COM

PODCASTING MEETUP

EXPLORING NEW MEDIA – THESIS THEME

Interested in attending either of these meetings? Give me a comment below or an email at lindsey@exploringnewmedia.com

On February 18th, at 2pm, I will be talking about my experiences with Thesis Theme. If you would like to attend this meeting, leave your contact information as a comment to this post and I will contact you.

I am creating the Pro Comedy Training web site now for Dr. Dan French using Thesis Theme.  It is very easy to configure and changing the design is a snap. Dr. Dan, the funny man, gives me a phone call or an email requesting a change and generally within 5 minutes or so, depending on the complexity of the change, it is done. A task such as moving the sidebars to the left or to the right may be done quickly and flawlessly.

I make the comparison that Thesis Theme is to WordPress as Dreamweaver is to Web Sites. Come visit with us and see for yourself.  Remember to leave a comment ot this post with your contact information if you would like to attend OR if this is not a good time, suggest a time.

I had the good fortune today to be interviewed by Fred Castaneda, podcaster extraordinaire for his website/blog The Struggling Entrepreneur.  Fred has been interviewing entrepreneurs for a number of years and I feel honored to be included in this group of highly successful, highly motivated  people.

Of course, my interview may have been caused by my upcoming assumption of the coordinator’s role for the Podcasting Meetup which Fred has been doing for a couple of years. Come visit with us on Feb 3 for the transition. See the meetup details. On March 3rd, I will host my first podcasting meetup and will be discussing Audacity, the free audio editor used by many podcasters.

When great customer service happens, I’m always surprised … and delighted.

Several days ago, I purchased a WordPress theme from Gabfire Themes  to help me create an online newsletter. The demo looked good, the price was right, reviews were good.

But…it didn’t work for me. No matter how I tried to get it to serve my purpose, it.just.wouldn’t.work. I needed more capability.

A couple of emails to the entrepreneurial Estonian programmer/owner, Mehmet Ozekinci,  resulted in him allowing me to download an advanced version of the theme at no charge with no questions asked.

When was the last time you experienced something like that? My hat is off to Mehmet.

Now, let me at that theme. Gotta get the Seguin Reporter functional and online quickly. Link will be available as soon as I do.

Today, I am meeting for the first time with my secret cabal. Can’t tell you who they are or where we meet. After all, it is a SECRET.CABAL.

We are discussing what might be construed as spam when notifying people about our new posts. Some people ascribe to the practice of using a “blast” method of placing posts on two or more services while others choose to manually notify one or more services of new posts.

How do YOU promote your posts? Do you blast out to Twitter, Facebook, and all the  more popular social media site using a plugin that handles all posts the same way. Or, on the other hand, are you the recipient of a landslide of information of dubious quality?

Just some food for thought.

I needed to update my home security service and decided to continue with ADT. Jesse Keenan arrived at my home, on time, well-dressed, polite, and genuinely friendly.

I set the stage by telling him what I wanted done and asking for price and update details.  He complied nicely with my requests, surveyed what needed to be done, gave me prices, filled out the paperwork during which we discussed some mutually interesting topics not related to the business at hand.

BTW. he saved  me some dollars when he pointed out that USAA, my insurance company had a business relationship with ADT and that my requested work would be discounted based on that. I love it when things like that happen.

Within 20 minutes of leaving my home, Jesse was back on the phone with suggested dates and times for my work to be done.

Why can’t all salespeople be like this? No pressure. Friendly and genuine. Timely. Kudoes to Jesse and to ADT for their wisdom in employing him.

PS I do NOT get a kickback from ADT. Nor from Jesse.Nor from USAA.  Nada from nobody.  Dang! I’m going to have to work on that.

BTW, the ADT website offered a $99 special.  I did better than that. Hooray.

The January monthly meeting of Exploring New Media started off 2010 with a … tweet!  We discussed Twitter in terms of its beginning, how it is used (and misused), how to get and set up an account, how to delete tweets, and just hinted at 3rd party Twitter apps and marketing uses.

BTW, some excellent Twitter sites include:
Funny one liners at twitter.com/talkingmoose
Notes about your favorite OS if your favorite OS is Macintosh
Austin twits, er, ah, tweeters. Yeah, that’s it. Austin tweeters

Originally published on 11/07/09

Someone asked me this question the other day. She said she wanted to blog but didn’t have anything interesting to say. I suggested that she make a list of 50 things about herself, pick the 3 most interesting and take a whirl at them.

We parted ways and that night I started thinking that perhaps a list of 50 possibly interesting topics might be too difficult to come up with. So, I did what any good teacher does. Don’t ask your students to do something that you can’t or are not willing to do. <Deep breath> Here goes.

1. I am an only child. Before you say it, that explains nothing.
2. I was born in Hazard, Kentucky. Nothing to do with the Dukes.
3. I joined the Air Force in 1959 as an enlisted man. Slightly more polished than Gomer Pyle.
4. I ‘retired’ from the Air Force in 1981 as an officer. But not a gentleman.
5. I am a recovering alcoholic since 1980. I’m a true friend of Bill’s.
6. I quit smoking in 1983. But I’m still warm. And this was much tougher than number 5.
7. I like to cook and have had many lessons at Central Market. I’m still strongest at ‘take-out’ and ‘dine-out’.
8. I have 3 children. My wife helped some.
9. I have 2 grandchildren – one named Lindsay. Note the ‘a’. That’s the way it’s ’sposed to be spelled for a girl.
10. I play World of Warcraft (WoW) excessively. That’s one woman’s opinion.
11. I have conducted meetups for the Internet, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Digital Photography, Web Site Creation, ASP,PHP and MySQL.
12. I earned a BS degree from the University of Tennessee in 1971. That’s Bachelor of Science. Not what you just said.
13. I was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1971. Can you imagine that?
14. No one in my immediate family was born in the same state but all 3 of my kids graduated from the same high school.Think about it.
15. I have taught at Austin Community College and at the University of Texas. Standards were lower then.
16. I have been out of the Air Force longer than I was in it. I could tell you the years of both but I’d have to violently silence your laughter.
17. I can say bad words in 6 languages. I could do it in 9 languages when I still drank.
18. I was the lowest ranking commander in the Strategic Air Command in 1972. Say thanks that we had no significant foreign threats in that year.
19. My wife and I have been married to each other for 48 consecutive years. She’s to blame.
20. I was a DJ on the island of Okinawa for 3 years. Broadcasting from coast-to-coast.Literally. Okinawa is about a mile wide where I was.
21. I was 7 years old before I could spell my name even though I spelled apple when I was 3. Now I can spell antidisestablishmentarianism but no one thinks it’s cute anymore.
22. I graduated from high school on Friday night and left home the following Monday morning. After all, I was still in Hazard, Ky.
23. I have attended 8 colleges and universities and have passed all courses taken. I have enough credits for at least 3 more degrees but see number 5.
24. I love books and own way too many. Wait. Can that be true? Can you own too many book?.
25. I eat popcorn nearly every night of my life and have since about age 14. Mmmm, fiber.
26. I have visited 25 of the United States and lived in 8.
27. I have only lived in one foreign country but have visited 4.
28. My wife and I attended a PC User Group Meeting on our 32nd wedding anniversary.
29. I have read the science fiction book “Stranger in a Strange Land” 9 times.
30. I have never made it through the Bible.
31. Every night, I read at least one chapter of fiction. Unless I fall asleep. In which case, I read it the next night.
32. Sometimes during the night when I get up for a bathroom trip, I check my email or the Auction House in WoW.
33. My best friends don’t understand me but they accept me. Or I fire them.
34. I enjoy being before a crowd talking about something I am passionate about.
35. I can be passionate without being sexually excited…usually
36. I have a sense of humor and above all, I can laugh at myself…usually.
37. I read about 6 fiction books a month. Not classics but I do like me a good mystery.
38. I love cartooning but am not very good at it because I don’t practice.
39. Ditto for the guitar.
40. I love to write and have enjoyed a certain amount of success because of it. I once wrote a hillbilly version of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Got an A+. What the hell has happened since?
41. I would like to be a professional writer but see numbers 38 & 39.
42. I am an excellent speller and I like to use words above my grade level.
43. My hair was long, blond, and curly until I got to be about 5. By age 7, it was black. Now it is blond again. And sparse.
44. I can do 4 pushups. Hush!! I don’t have to excel in EVERYTHING.
45. I quit my well paying job as a Systems Administrator of Sun computers at AMD when I was 58 to start a new career as a contract webmaster at IBM with pretty good success.
46. I quit my very well paying job as contractor at IBM to become a full time teacher with a lot less success. Can you say DOT COM bust? Can you say waaaaaah?
47. I owned a 2000 bright red Mustang convertible. I was much too old to be having a midlife crisis.
48. I own 2 dogs – Lucy a lovable faithful overweight Corgi, aka Chunky Butt and Susie of indeterminate origins, aka The Wild Thang
49. I feed the squirrels in my backyard, not intentionally, but they think the growing tomatoes are for them.
50. The first time I had pizza was in Dayton,Ohio. The second, and best time was in Syracuse, NY. Thank God, for persistence.