Category Archives: Blog Stuff

The Life of a CopyCat

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It pained me to look to the right and see that from 2006 to 2011 I lived here. Part time, but a lot of the time. I had a passion for sharing my words. For fun, I enjoyed it. It gave me joy.

My 2013 summary was a minute long. Four posts. Blogging about skiing even slowed. That was my JAM. And I blew it. No wonder mommy blogs are better, I got a job and had no more time for my PASSION.

yes this

 

I went skiing yesterday and my joy was back. I got through the hard stuff in my life and my joy was back. I was honest and hard on someone that disappointed me and my joy was back. I wrote. And wow was my joy back.

I’m really a copyCat. It’s funny, being a Cat and all. It fits me so well.

I read things like this.

I read and read and read and present and past tense read/read like mad, voraciously. Then I adapt and copy. I try to tell everyone on social that you can be as good as who you like. Is that copying? To emulate?

I have gotten ahead of anything I imagined and fast, because I have answers. Because I read them.

Back to the reading and the writing. And the joy.

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How To Succeed On Twitter

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…without really trying.

I’m not patient. I have a killer eyeroll some people hate. I’m snarky about those that don’t use common sense. So it pains me to have a new job where I’m given money to create content on the internet. Well, no, I like the creating part. The curating and reading and sharing gets to me. I sift through internet noise all day looking for quality to share. Hopefully soon I’ll weed out the junk. There’s so much junk.

If you are new to social media…you are so late to the party you are on clean up crew and the cool kids are smirking at you – so you better at least be wearing something blingy. But, you’ll find so many lists telling you that you need an app, or their help, or 34838677087346 best practices they’ve outlined in an infographic that they’ll send to your email.

Don’t listen.

I mean, if you suck, you suck. No app can help. So DON’T SUCK.

  •  Spell shit right.
    • Your grammar and spelling will be judged. Cut and paste in to something that has spell check. Reread. Take a breath. Social media flies by and gives you the impression people are out there WONDERING WHY YOU HAVEN’T POSTED YET. They’re not. It’s ok. Take the time to get it right.
  • Swear if you want.
    • The real point is be yourself. If I can’t get a sense of YOUness, I’m not interested. The most successful people online – you feel like you KNOW them. Whether that’s swearing or running around in short shorts taking booty pics, or talking about church, just DO you. Be authentic, not what you think people want to see. That never works.
  • Ignore all those ‘best practice’ ideas.
    • No one knows your business or goals like you. I see the irony of making a list telling you to ignore lists, but the real takeaway should be that a process of elimination will tell you what works for your audience. Maybe some nerds talking about gardening really want a pic of your flowers. Every. Single. Day.
  • Thank people.
    • Being nice and noticing other people will get you farther than cramming your crap down their throats and wondering why they don’t respond. A little effort goes a long way. My favorite group of people online are massage therapist friends of a girl I went to school with. Because they support each other and make the effort to share successes. It’s kinda the point.
How to respond to social media tips.

How to respond to social media tips.

Well, other than mine of course.

 

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? What else would you add that you are sick of seeing/hearing/being told?

Shorter And Sweeter?

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I loved this copyblogger article that reminds you how much you need to pay attention to detail and make a dramatic statement to make someone care about you.

How about instead of blogging every day – which used to be a litmus test for success – if you can’t do that, you just do something great once in a while? No one really sticks to the daily method if they are awesome – there is just too much going on in life to find the time, if this isn’t your full-time thing. Right?

I tried Friday Fives for two years, Whatever Wednesday ONCE, and tried all this other garbage to reignite the flames here – a new hobby (the cooking crap), teaching about what I know (the yoga crap), the laziest method ever (camera phone photo crap). It’s not working. I just have to do what I best. Stop by when I need to share!

Last weekend in Vegas, in fact, it was SO awesome I couldn’t even concentrate on looking at my phone to tweet something about how awesome it was. I was too busy loving the moment to get away from it to get online. And it felt good. I felt that way at SXSW too. I wanted to be the guy NOT needing to look at his phone. And I felt like I kept it check. And all my friends did too.

Oh, here’s the article for you to check out.

http://www.copyblogger.com/impress-instantly/

This leads me to wonder if I should try Tumblr – any thoughts? Lately I’m thinking more along the lines of in response to other sites and articles, so it’d be great to just put up a link and my quick thoughts on it.

This space shouldn’t be a burden to bear, so maybe I need to down size. Is that what a move from this blog to Tumblr would be?

And in closing, a picture of all my friends in moustaches:

When You Put It Like That…

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Here’s the article that you must read, today.

Write Epic Sh*t.

Three little words. It makes it sound so easy right? You came to the internet, bought a domain, got a little space, and it was the same as a blank piece of paper and a pen in front of you.

With 1,000 people/day looking over your shoulder.

No pressure!

You’re a writer. So write. And write with an impact that will blow minds, save worlds, free countries, change lives.

Or post pictures of food you’re cooking and yoga you’re doing.

Not everyone can spend the time it takes to learn about and provide SEO tips (or explain to little people like me that SEO doesn’t even matter on a wordpress hosted blog).

But man is there a market. There are so many bloggers out there if you are looking for them, telling you tips, tricks, and ideas to grow your Twitter followers, your Facebook brand, and your website. It’s easy to get too caught up in it all.

For the most part, they have it all wrong. This article tells you to stop trying those little “tips”. No amount of strangers on Twitter are going to click a link they don’t care about. I’ve met some neat internet buddies, for example thank goodness for Gina Begin and Stephen Weiss (and HOW I MOUNTAIN!). People, internet people, who take action on your message. I just need to take that message from mediocre to epic. Got it. Working on it.

My tip would be don’t forget to return the favor! That interaction, with others who are writing and trying to make a site work, that matters! If someone reaches out to you, take the time to say thanks in the best way you can. Comment on my blog, and I’ll try to comment on yours. I’m not always coming up with something relevant, but it’s always at the back of my mind. I’ll hit refresh on your photos. I’ll forward something cute to my mom.

And you’d do the same for me. That’s a good way to grow!

UPDATED to add How I Mountain. Too funny to read her post today! 🙂

The Daily Post

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WordPress put together a blog for bloggers, to help us write. I’m a fan. And I’m only 11 days late…  I’m going to pull topics from time to time from there- hope you enjoy! I think it’ll be a great way to reconnect and make better use of this space.

I think the new year is a good time to remind you that you can favorite me in your browser, subscribe for an email that will let you know when I post (look in the column to the right right there), follow me on Twitter (or even just look at that page if you aren’t on Twitter), and see my ski blogging on skiutah.com.

Happy New Year!

Spelling And Typos

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We all, from time to time, make mistakes. I have a sweet Momm and Dadd that will read my writing and let me know if I make a mistake. And husband. And brother. And Snippy. And anyone else I might ask for feedback. Here, Facebook, Twitter, Ski Utah. Doesn’t matter. It’s important to me that I express myself clearly and part of that is not being ignorant of something I may have overlooked.

You wouldn’t hire someone who couldn’t be counted on to be consistent and professional, and writing well is part of that, even if it’s not the main focus of that person’s job. As an advertiser you’d quit giving a site money if it made mistakes too often.

Maybe not everyone has time for someone to help proofread their work. But it is starting to drive me totally crazy that so many people who have an online presence are simply terrible at spelling. Grammar and writing style are one thing. Sometimes I’m trying to convey something funny or snarky and write it a certain way that may not work for you. That’s allowed. I won’t pick on you for that. But if your ‘career’, no matter how serious, has you posting online, I think you should spell or have someone proofread your work.

Does it matter to you if you get a work email that is barely legible? Not a quick text from a friend written more to convey an idea than tell a story, but something that is supposed to be professional. I’ve been seeing some blogs, Facebook business pages, and Twitter accounts lately that have typos that hurt my brain. What would you do? I’m tempted to find the equivalent of the online ‘red pen’ and go around correcting people. But I’m betting it won’t make me many friends…

I’m Allowed

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At best,  I get to say hi five times a week. At worst, you wonder if I’m under 100 feet of snow. Blogging was always my favorite, and I always aspired to greatness and recognition in the world of social media.

So today, I’m linking you to my first blog post for Ski Utah. Be impressed with me over there. Unless you don’t think I’m impressive. But in that case, what are you doing here? Silly reader.

HERE IT IS. I think it’s funny. I hope you do too.

To The Masses

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Sitting around here is a bunch of my thoughts and life stories I’d chosen to share with my family and friends. If you google “pumpkin” you might find my Halloween post and glance at it, but I never worried whether or not you’d come back.

This new ‘job’ of mine will only be a success if you find me and are struck by my wit and banter so much so that you come back over and over, increasing the traffic to the site. At least, that’s how I’d measure my success. Not sure if the metrics over there will even tell them it’s my hard work increasing site traffic. I have a few skit and post ideas I’m really excited about executing over the winter, and hope humor and my concept of ‘skiing for the average masses’ connects with readers and helps promote skiing in Utah.

I’m supposed to start with an about me, where I plan to stress that this skiing thing seemed totally inaccessible to me not all that long ago, and then BAM!, here I am now, writing to others to tell them how to break the wall of ‘brosef’ and let skiing come to them in a whole new way.

What I’m wondering is if I’ll see just how effective a blog can be to media and marketing. Why would anyone go to that site? Well, the weather reporting is the bomb. To me, if you live here or have internet access while you’re here skiing, the site tells you where you should be that morning. And that’s valuable. I hope to produce content that makes you just want to hear from me, I think that’s all I can do. Any one else think there’s more to it? Let me know…