I’ve been posting to one or more blogs regularly since 2005. That followed three years of running an online forum and several more years of belonging to one or more groups or forums. I became active online in 1995, but had at least a passing fancy with computers for years before.

Blogging Adventure

A latecomer to blogging, I still have managed to see the blogosphere change dramatically. Technorati was the driving force for many bloggers, a platform by which they got noticed, connected with other bloggers and, hopefully, monetized their sites. Technorati’s influence has gone the way of MySpace and Digg, virtual afterthoughts in all things Internet.

Blogging’s strength can be credited largely to WordPress which took the blogging model and ran with it. Early on, WordPress experienced the usual growing pains, but by the time Word Press 3.0 rolled out, those problems largely disappeared. Today, WP is a stable and broad platform, an excellent content management system whether you use it for blogging or other purposes.

Gone Dark

Lately, I’ve been visiting the blogging sites of some of my colleague writers and have found two that haven’t been kept up in at least six months. Both sites offered engaging and sometimes instructive content, but each appears to have ceased being updated. No word from the blogger that the work had stopped, just an aged post occupying the home page. They’ve gone dark, but nobody has turned out the light.

I understand what may be driving some bloggers to quit, especially writers who have a lot of other projects and perhaps personal websites to manage. Matt’s Musings faded in 2011 as I allowed a steady stream of contributors to fill in. I stopped accepting guest posts last May, realizing that this blog belongs to me and it is my voice I want out there. Besides, I have an ulterior motive for continuing this site. Read on and I’ll explain why giving up blogging may be your worst decision:

It is your site and your voice — How do people find you other than you making regular queries? Querying for work is great and needful, but I must admit that most of my current crop of clients found me. Matt’s Musings was one of several platforms where my writings brought me work. Without it, I would lose an important marketing tool.

You can express yourself — You can’t possibly express yourself to the degree that you want anywhere else including on Facebook, the site that seems to have the most impact on pulling people away from blogging. Sure, longer form writing is possible, but it just isn’t the same. Facebook may also delete your content if Mark Zuckerberg changes the rules again.

You own it — Unless your blog is hosted Blogspot or WordPress.com, you probably own the site and have arranged your own hosting. You dress up your site the way you want it to look and you backup your files automatically. Why contribute content to a site that you don’t own when you can connect with your readers at the home base you do own?

Your expertise can shine forth — People who are experts in anything always have a home site where their thoughts can be shared. Unless you have a redirect to a new website, people may assume you have quit writing. Why degrade your expert status by gradually disappearing or getting lost in a sea of Facebook users?

No blog, no income — It is no secret that bloggers make money off of their sites. Yes, paid links and paid content are no longer part of the mix, but a display ad can certainly be a money generator. Matt’s Musings is not a direct money maker, but I’ve garnered work through this site that pays for my web hosting and my time writing articles many times over.

Having Fun

My points here aren’t meant to dispense guilt on anyone. Your reasons for not blogging may have everything to do with your schedule, your interest and your workload. Still, I would venture to say that you have blogged for the fun of it, not worrying about grammar, syntax and a host of other rules we must follow when writing for our clients.

How do you find inspiration?

I used to argue against the notion that writer’s block exists. Though I believe that this term is factually incorrect because you can always come up with something, your writing may end up lacking clarity and style, two elements essential to a good read.

Perhaps a more unambiguous explanation is to try to find the right words to build something you’ll be proud of–a masterpiece reflecting your knowledge, even passion for a particular subject. In that case I am right with you as I sometimes find myself needing inspiration.

When help is needed, I like to look at some of my favorites sources of writing inspiration a veritable bottomless well of resources to tap. Here are seven of my favorite methods:

1. Periodicals — Sure, much of what we read today can be found online, but there is something about newspaper print and the four-color look and feel of a print magazine that, well, inspires.  Apple’s iPad may work in short order to make hard copies a thing of the past, so I’ll enjoy flipping and folding my newspapers until then or dog earring a favorite magazine article for future reference. Besides, sand and electronic devices do not mix!

2. Weblogs — Blogs have come of age with some operating as the definitive source for a particular subject matter. Easily, for articles about writing I can turn to Copyblogger and Freelance Folder, but some of my most enlightened times have come by reading the writings of an obscure blogger. Naturally, I cite as necessary.

3. Traveling — My family and I just returned from Wilmington, NC where we toured the Battleship North Carolina memorial, stayed at a new hotel, ate out at a different type of restaurant and went to church services Easter Sunday morning. New places, different faces can go far in helping breath fresh life into any writing project.

4. Coffee Houses — One of my favorite places to visit is a local Panera Bread shop. I love the coffee, but I also regularly run into people I know. Those conversations with friends can stimulate me to begin writing as soon as I return home as does “over heard” coffee shop chatter when familiar faces are absent.

5. Outdoors — Call it nature or name it exercise, in any case those times you take strolling around the neighborhood, walking through a park, climbing a hill or running, jogging, biking your way full speed ahead can inspire. When the weather is good I find that breaking up my day by taking a walk after lunch gets my mind in gear.

6. Sensory Stimulus — Some people find inspiration in the arts, others in music while still others in food. A vibrant painting, rousing anthem or the smell of freshly bakes chocolate fudge brownies wafting through the ventilation system can kick start the senses. Or at least remind me that I’m hungry!

7. Dreaming — Have you ever had a vivid dream and just knew that it offered to you inspiration? I have. I’m not the type of person who keeps a pad by his bed, because if the dream is that meaningful, then I know I’ll remember what matters. I’m a daydreamer too and have found that pushing away from the computer and allowing my mind to wander can soon bring me to a restful place, one where my mind isn’t weary from overwork.

How about you? Are there methods you use to stoke the fires of inspiration? Please share!

Photo Credit: Leonardini

See Also — Should You Schedule Your Blog Posts?

Work Aplenty

Don't cry; it will all work out.

The website issue has to wait because my efforts to move one blog from URL A to URL B is taking me days, not hours to complete. I have discovered that larger blogs with many posts, categories, photos, tags, and what not can be more difficult to move even if you manipulate the .htaccess or php.ini files to import a large WordPress xml file.

Yes, I turned off the plugins first but even then the shrunken file is still quirky. So what I did was to break 47 months of blogging into pieces, sending bits over here and there. Even then, I discovered that some of the coding contained in various posts was presenting a problem which served to remind me to “go light” on the scripting on the new site.

A few of you have wished me well in the transition with one remarking that this sort of move can “cause more problems than what it’s worth.”

I agree!

But sometimes there are good reasons to make a move including several that I am up against:

Old theme – WordPress offers thousands of free themes, but as you might guess many of these do not age particularly well over time unless the designer keeps up with them. Few do, but who can blame them?

I am considering buying my next bunch of themes and using them instead, especially if they are being supported. I do not mind paying for something that is being looked after; Open Source has its benefits but you cannot expect people to do everything for free.

Wacky plugins – Just like themes, plugins do not always make the transition from blog update to blog update. Even when a newer version is released, I have found that they do not always work as well as they once did.

I have had the occasional plugin mess up a blog, only being able to discover which one it was by deactivating all of them en masse and then activating them one by one.

Lousy URL – When I initially started blogging in 2004, I did not have nearly the understanding I have now regarding search engine optimization and related matters. The blog I am moving sits on a site it once shared with another blog. That other blog is the one you are reading now, itself moved here two years ago.

The other blog making the transition will have its own URL which has been around for some time and was pointing to the blog until I started to make the transition last week.

Such Madness!

Confused yet? Welcome to my delirium! At some point everything will work out. Once the blog has been moved, then I will refocus my attention on the website issue and then maybe, just maybe, I will replace a few blog themes elsewhere.

One commodity we all have and that is quickly disappearing is time. The smart freelancer plans his or her own schedule well in advance, including marketing today for next season's jobs.

Several different blog articles I’ve read recently have proven to be excellent food for thought as I plan my work schedule for the next few months. Although the calendar says July 21st, my mind is already on the fall months as I lay out what I’ll be doing from September through November. As a freelance writer whose income is solely dependent on work that I get from others, I need to plan well in advance to ensure jobs keep flowing. And, in this challenging economy, I can’t afford to lose valuable time!

Reaching Customers Online For Less

Even as companies weigh their options during difficult times I know that many are taking a closer look at their online options in order to keep their businesses competitive and to save money. Since the mid-1990s, the internet has played an increasingly important role to help companies connect with their customers, but these days it could end up being the most cost effective move that they make. This means that for the freelancer who is well versed in blogging, writing web content (copywriting), and/or making good use of social media (such as Twitter), then they have positioned themselves to pick up important new work.

After all, if a company can pay you a thousand dollars or so every month to reach their customers, they’ll save many thousands of dollars over previously used, but costly advertising methods including print ads, radio air time, perhaps even television commercials. Or, the company may still use these options but cut back enough to increase their exposure online, which is where you can step in.

Blogging Evangelist, Lorelle VanFossen

If you are a blogger and aren’t familiar with Lorelle VanFossen, then you’re missing out on one of the most important weblog minds of our day. A self described “blogging evangelist” Lorelle offers tips to help bloggers, particularly WordPress users, get the most out of what they do. Lorelle offers tricks of the trade and often shares information that is critical to the success of professional bloggers. Last week, on The Blog Herald, I came across her article titled – Blogging Jobs How Much Are Bloggers Paid to Blog? – which offers comprehensive guidelines to help bloggers set their prices.

Indeed, Lorelle noted the “sweat shop mentality” of this business which suggests that many bloggers aren’t getting paid what their worth or at least aren’t taking into consideration what it takes to write an article. Though on some subjects I can crank out a compelling and interesting 400-500 word article in as few as 20 minutes, there is a lot of other stuff that goes along with writing including research, editing, obtaining a photo, publishing, responding to comments, and promotion. Personally, Lorelle’s article served as a reminder that I need to make sure that I’m charging what I’m worth otherwise the project just may not be worth it to me.

Catalyst Blogger, Jennifer Williamson

I first came across Jennifer in 2007 when she launched Catalyst Blogger. Jennifer is a copywriter who has been working over the past six or seven years as a freelancer, which is the same length of time for me. I believe that we share a similar outlook on work including methods to bring in new clients.

One marketing method that Jennifer recently used is worth exploring – 10-Minute Marketing Tip. Like so many freelancers, Jennifer is sick of the job boards which often have us compete for jobs at wages that are plain awful. Instead of relying on these sites Jennifer has taken to creating an email campaign where she contacts web designers, offering her skills as a copywriter to them. Jennifer is also looking at developing a post card campaign which she admittedly is pressed to develop from a timing perspective. But, that reason won’t hold her back because Jennifer is also looking ahead and knows that today’s busyness can only be extended if she takes action now.

Freelance Folder, Laura Spencer

Soon after I launched The Article Writer Blog (the forerunner to this blog) in December 2005, Laura Spencer began to show up, contributing comments and exchanging links with me. Though she still manages her “WritingThoughts” blog, she is more active as a contributor to Freelance Folder, one of the hottest sites for freelance writers.

Not directly related to the train of thought I’m on with this article, but important nonetheless, is Laura’s article titled – Working For Friend And Family: Can It Ever Work? – which is a must read for self employed people. Though I haven’t had much of a problem in this area, on occasion a request from a friend or family member does come up.

Now don’t get me wrong – I love to help people out. I just don’t have time to take on many projects from people I’m close to as these requests invariably come with a lot of other stuff too including emotional baggage, a desire on their part to get something for free or at a ridiculously low rate, or needing some other hand holding too.

FYI, I also am considering what Laura and some of her commentators shared to consider how I manage social media – if someone constantly comes to me for a stumble, wanting to write a blog comment or to take up my time in other ways that detracts from my work, I draw the line there as well.

Enriching The Experience Of Bloggers

I’m often the richer for it when I peruse other people’s writings, something that these three bloggers offer on a regular basis. I can’t depend on the economy improving to ease my work, but I can plan with care now in order to ensure that my position is strong in the months ahead. How far in advance do you plan your work? Do you have other tips you would like to share?

Soon after changing the theme to his site, Matt Keegan has renamed this blog and has plans to take it in a fresh direction.

Welcome to Matthew Keegan | Musings, the newly renamed blog that is housed on my www.matthewkeegan.com domain.

I launched this site back in November 2007, deciding at the time to capitalize on my name especially since that is exactly how I wanted to market my company, Matthew C Keegan, LLC.  Initially, I posted some of my older articles here which were rehashed works covering business, personal finance, and the like.

Not satisfied with operating what I found to be an unfocused blog, a few months later I decided to redirect my attention to writing exclusively about SEO matters, a subject that I have covered fairly extensively ever since.

A New Focus For This Blog

Alas, I’ve run through most of the SEO topics that are of interest to me, therefore I have decided to turn the focus of this blog into a (roughly) weekly column to include a wide variety of additional subjects.

I’ll still be writing the occasional SEO piece, but I plan to also cover topics which are passionate to me including politics, living, family, work issues, business development, you name it. Likely, much of my writing will be the same topics that are of interest to you, matters which impact the way you live and what shapes your life.

In addition, I plan to do something I haven’t done here yet and that is to run the occasional interview, conversations with people big and small who are making a difference in our world today. Some you will recognize as newsmakers while others are making a difference quietly behind the scenes.

Finally, I could have launched a new blog, but seeing that I’m already tapped out in the blogging arena, taking this site and reshaping it into something new, interesting, and invigorating seems like the most sensible way to proceed. I hope you will agree and I look forward to your visits and comments — please grab a feed to keep tabs on this blog too.

WordPress users jump for joy upon learning about all of the action packed features in recently released v. 2.6.

One thing that users of this free weblog software tool know is that WordPress is updated on a regular basis, usually several times each year. If you manage one blog, that isn’t a problem, but if you manage a bunch of blogs, you can spend plenty of time backing up files, updating to the latest version and making sure that all of your plug-ins are working correctly. I currently manage nine WP blogs, so my work is cut out for me every time a revision is rolled out!

WordPress 2.6 was released yesterday and I’m in the process of making my updates. I’ve completed four blogs today (including this one) and will get to the remaining five over the next two days.

This latest version has some very useful features added, options which can help make blogging easier and your work more professional. As always, before doing any WP update, backup your files first.

What’s Notable:

Theme Previewer — Now an integrated part of WordPress, the new theme previewer allows you to look at your blog before you switch themes. This is tremendously useful for someone like me who has downloaded a theme, switched over to the new one, only to not like how it looked when in use. Undoing what I did doesn’t take long, but those are extra steps I certainly can do without.

Google Gears — Pre-caching pages and speeding up your site is now possible thanks to Google Gears a nifty program that make your WP blog snap into place faster. I have one blog with about one thousand articles on it and an older theme that has been dragging of late. With Google Gears pages load faster — just what your readers want and deserve!

Press This! — I’ll have to take a look at this function closely as it is something that could be used for good or for evil. Specifically, if you are visiting a website and you want to copy the text, a photograph, or something else found on that site, Press This! will let you do that with ease. I just hope that it doesn’t make lifting material off of my sites too much of a temptation for dishonest people.

Compare Post Versions — Have you ever wished you could compare various versions of a post that you wrote? Now you can, with WP’s wiki-style post versioning tool. This is particularly helpful if you collaborate on posts and need to compare revisions. If you decide to go with an earlier copy, you can click on the appropriate link and select that one. It might also be useful if you are running a contest and want to turn that post from an announcement of the contest to announcing the winner of that contest.

Avatar Choices — You get to select different avatar options with WP 2.6 by choosing Gravatars, MonsterID, Identicons, Wavatars, etc.

Improved Plug-In Management — Up until now, I wasn’t too happy with WP’s plug-in management panel. Now, plugins can be activated in one batch, deactivated at the same time, or even deleted en masse. I also like the little number flag that pops up by the Plugins tab alerting me to when an updated copy is ready to download.

Image Captions — I’ve been waiting for this tool to be integrated into WP for some time. I just could never find a plugin that I liked, so being able to put a brief note below a photograph is very helpful. I will say that this feature doesn’t always work well with every theme; one site that I manage forces the text to the left, but I’m sure that this is something that can be remedied with some minor coding work.

Lots of other smaller changes are included with WP 2.6 including full SSL support in the core, reordering of galleries through a drag and drop feature, security updates, and the fixing of almost 200 bugs.

Nope, WordPress isn’t perfect, but as a content management system it is packed with many good functions and can be extended much further with various plugins. Happy updating!

Photo Credit: Sanja Gjenero

Lately, I’ve taken the time to visit a number of these sites and am happy to see that mostly everyone is plugging away in the blogosphere while pursuing a freelance writing career. It isn’t an easy balancing act and I did learn on Lori Widmer’s Words on the Page that one of our colleagues quit blogging when her honesty was met by wrath by some of her readers. Tess Gerritsen decided to stop blogging instead of battling with her readership, not a decision that I would make, but I wish her the best.

Who wants to fight?!

The following are some of my most recent reads, duly noted:

• All right, I haven’t read all of Lillie Ammann’s ongoing Building Long-Term Client Relationships series, but I am a frequent visitor to her blog and will certainly see what she has to say. If you’re new to freelance writing, Lillie generously dispenses advice from her blog on a regular basis, in a mentoring sort of way, something that benefits me as well. Go to her blog and bookmark it — you’ll be a frequent return visitor as am I.

• If you have young children, then you understand the importance of reading to them. But, if you want your children to learn some very good habits — let them observe you reading too. Georganna Hancock passes on some sound advice shared by Laura and Jenna Bush — I like it!

• When I could use a chuckle or if I feel a bit impish, I visit Screw You! to see what Kathy Kehrli has to say. Never a loss for words (gotcha, Kathy) I can find out which bad client is being skewered and what Craigslist job posting is being hammered. I am sure Kathy is an excellent writer, but I am just as certain that if you get on her bad side you’ll be outed on her blog. Way to go, Madelyn Wattigney!

• You know that you are an “old person” when you tell a younger colleague or protege to “pay their dues” first before pursuing their dreams. Jennifer Williamson believes otherwise and shares her experience in this area. Kudos to Jennifer — there are many negative voices out there who do not want you to succeed or are jealous because you have the moxie to pursue something on your own terms.

• Are you a sheep or are you the shepherd? I’m not talking about a Christian analogy as I know my place — baaaaa! But, when it comes to your writing, do you lead or follow? I hate to say this but plenty of what I read online is rehashed material, a variation on what has already been said. I’m not against covering a subject ad nauseum, but my stomach churns when a fresh perspective isn’t offered. The guys over at Men with Pens articulate this point well, so check out what they have to say.

Now that I am inspired, it is back to the keyboard for me!

I deleted a bunch of comments recently on this blog plus on several other blogs that I manage. It seems that some people are under the impression that whatever they write will automatically be approved by me.

Oh, they were wrong — so very wrong!

Without going through all of the guidelines for leaving a comment that will get approved, let me assure you that the following types of comments are always summarily rejected:

• You thought that my readers would be interested in Percocet, Xanax, Vicodin, and a host of other drugs. Maybe so, but please take your spamfest elsewhere.

• Your comment was actually spot on, but you got greedy and left two links — one link was in the body of your response, while the other was found in your screen name. All right, I’m very generous with link love, but my limit is one per comment. No adult sites!

• You left the usual –I didn’t understand everything you had to say, but thanks for sharing — non-comment, therefore I deleted what you had to say and urge you to come up with an original line next time.

• The third, seventh, eleventh and seventeenth comments were left by you, but you changed your name and links just to get some juicy back links. Sorry, but your I.P. address was the same each time, an easy tactic to uncover. Besides, real responses rule!

• You managed to find comments open on an older article that recently achieved a ranking of PR3. Trouble is, you changed the subject of the conversation to suit your own purposes. Otherwise, I would have approved what you wrote…doh!

• The conversation was going fine until you decided to hijack the thread. Where are your manners? Stay focused and remember that the internet isn’t about me, me, me! Or should I have said, “You, you, you!?”

Over 90% of the comments left on my blogs are approved and I even go through my Akismet list and pull out those comments which shouldn’t have been flagged.

Am I a comment control freak? You betcha! But, if you use your smarts then you’ll find that I will approve what you have to say, allowing you to get some ranked or unranked link love in the process.

Just don’t tick off the clown — he ain’t wearing no smiley face!

Instead, what I do is bookmark those pages for later reference. Weekends are the perfect time to catch up on reading and this weekend will be no exception. I’ve found some good articles about blogging, some of which were published months ago:

How to Get Back Into Your Blogging Grove @ On the Horizon — Okay, I already this article and picked numbers 3 and 4 as my answers. I’ll being reading it again for additional inspiration.

What You Need to Know Before Taking A Blogging Job @ Randa Clay Design — For everyone who is considering a paid blogging position.

13 Ways to Create Unique, Original Blog Content @ Vandelay Web Design — I’ll be remembering this post the next time that I get stuck!

Finding Your Blogging Niche @ I’m Blogging That — Looks like good advice on how to find your place in the blogosphere.

Should You Be Worried When Your Competition Starts Blogging? @ SuccessCREEations, Inc. — This is timely for me as I’m putting the finishing touches on a client who is launching his blog in response to what a competitor is doing.

A Few Words On Corporate Blogging @ How to Split An Atom — Okay, I cheated and peeked at this article. Simple, but powerful advice.

The Top 77  Mistakes New Bloggers Make @ TimeForBlogging — I skimmed this list and will take a closer look to see how I am measuring up.

Now that you are sufficiently overwhelmed, I challenge you to catch up on your reading too. Have a great weekend!

I am not going to mention the blog by name, but it does deal with the automotive industry. Usually, ten articles per day are posted, pithy pieces that are packed with interesting news.

Wanted: Fresh Talent

I knew that something was amiss a few weeks back when I read on this blog that they were openly looking for fresh automotive writing talent. This blog doesn’t use bylines, so I never know who writes what article and whether that person  is new, what their experience is, etc.

However, there have been a few signs of change, which underscores my alarm when a blog that uses multiple bloggers begins to unravel.  Rather than pick apart this one site, the following are my suggestions for all blogs that use multiple authors:

Use bylines. I want to know who wrote the article and what their experience is with that particular subject matter. Include a byline and a link to your About page which offers blogger biographies. Keep the “bios” short, but do offer a link to that blogger’s personal blog.

Don’t fill space. When one or more bloggers leave, please don’t keep things “business as usual” unless you have the talent in place to fill the gap. In this blog’s case, the ten article per day threshold was maintained. Unfortunately, the quality of the articles noticeably diminished. I would prefer to read 3-5 quality articles instead of an additional 3-5 puff pieces.

Someone must take the reigns. One blogger should be the “lead blogger” and be responsible for the content on the site. Not only has the content gone downhill, but typos are on the rise. Worse, one glaring error has remained in an article’s title even though your readers have pointed the mistake out when commenting.

Getting Group Blogging Right 

TechCrunch, Boing Boing, and EnGadget are a handful of blogs using multiple bloggers and are doing this quite well. In my humble opinion any blog employing multiple bloggers needs to consistently provide well written, accurate, and interesting news or risk losing their readership.

We expect newspapers to provide solid, factual information in a timely manner, so why not blogs, particularly those blogs with multiple bloggers?