Blogging can cause a heart attack?

A story in the New York Times (Jan. 7) reveals the founder of GigaOm, a hot blog in the tech industry, recently had a heart attack. And although associates of Om Malik say the 41-year-old writer also smoked cigars and cigarettes, a friend of his notes the stress created by Malik's successful blog. I have to admit, blogging can be stressful. The Florida blog I write really creates headaches at times because the readership grew so rapidly and this increased not only my email but also many interesting calls about possible stories. (Note: I definitely prefer email). There are also advertising inquiries to keep up with. And if a Florida story breaks, I try to be one of the first to talk about it.

I also do a freelance blog, and it’s a little stressful too. Writing good posts requires quotes, research and locating images. You can’t do it in a flash. And you’re right there in front of the reader multiple times a week. You have to be interesting. Blogging, however, is also wild fun.

It’s exhilarating when you break a big story. One of the most unexpected exhilarating moments for me happened when I broke a story about a federal prosecution of people (one man is from Orlando) using Bit Torrents technology to copy and then sell movies and music. That story has drawn thousands of readers from around the world. I got a release from the FBI, but I had to do research in order to understand what Bit Torrents was. Live and learn because blogging can be a challenge.

Recently, The Wall Street Journal linked to a story about the alternative minimum tax I posted at Covering Florida. I liked the fact they found it useful.

When the writing business can really eat you alive is when you experience success like that achieved by Mr. Malik. His blog grew to a company employing 12 others, including a chief financial officer. A number of Web sites operate under his guidance. Malik was a successful writer, providing content to national and international publications, before he started his blog. His plight reminds me of what my Grandmother used to say, "Be careful what you wish for..."

Blogs move beyond original concept, some carry liability for authors

Of late, I’ve discussed blogging with many different writers. Looking to the not so distant past, I remember when people first began to dash off Weblog confessionals. Most, but not all, early blogs tended to repeat the word “I” ad nauseam, were inclined to offer lots of personal information we don’t really want or need (who cares if you smoke two cigarettes after sex?), and came wrapped in writing that demonstrated less not more when it came to skill. Then mainstream media began to take note. Blogs were drawing readers and more importantly, some were being sold for large sums of money. Now just about every major media outlet has a blog section, and many newspapers offer readers free blogs.

With the blog going mainstream, I think a lot about content and liability. I’ve often mentioned the Orlando mom who was sued for criticizing her child’s school, and I heard a snippet yesterday on the radio that made me curious. There’s at least one major lawsuit in a New York court right now involving defamation. I didn’t catch the whole commentary because the host of the show (I don’t even know his name) cut to a commercial just as I was arriving at my destination.

I’ve come to the conclusion that blogs will ultimately end up being held to the standard established publications apply to professionally written content. The format is already changing—blogs hosted by Google and other services have gradually increased opportunities for design.

What we accepted in the early Weblog days is changing, with mainstream media increasingly featuring blog owners on talk-news shows and even in print features. I hold to my prediction lawsuits will increase. Once someone is defamed in a story on the Web, there’s a wildfire effect, with bloggers seizing the story with a simple goal of increasing traffic. Problem is many don’t do their homework, relying on a single source for information rather than doing the dull tedious research that any story deserves. Web stories hang around, unlike print stories that go into the recycle bin after a day or two.

I did a Web Savvy column at The Writer, interviewing an attorney about liability and copyright issues. Part I is up and Part II will publish after the first of the year.

I’d urge anyone who writes a personal blog to tread carefully with accusatory stories. Quote carefully and correctly, if for no other reason than fairness, and to avoid spending time and money with an attorney.

Exploiting the news for pay

A writer’s best friend is the news. Whether you’re a journalist, poet or novelist, you can always find something to inspire you. You then simply translate your epiphany to a published work.

Many of my poems have been written as a result of something that happened, something that inspired me to speak. I recall seeing the story of a river that flooded a community. Ironically, this was the second time the river did this. I found myself wondering why these people would rebuild without resolving the issue in the first place. I wrote the poem, “Monologue by a River,” and it was published by an educational publisher then included in my collection A Poetry Break. I guess because the poem is a sonnet, people latch onto it.

I just finished an article for a new client I provide content to, Beyond Madison Avenue. This is a really fun account for me; blogging for a client is definitely a plus since I seem addicted to this form. I’d seen a PBS clip about Dr. Ron Paul’s remarkable fundraising via the Internet. I found it fascinating that a candidate could raise the kind of money he did without his official organizers doing a thing to orchestrate it. To read the story, visit Beyond Madison Avenue.

After Ken Burns’ movie The War aired, he came to the University of North Florida to do a lecture. I cover news here in Jax, so I went to the lecture and then arranged a followup interview. Burns and his script writer Geoffrey C. Ward will be the cover feature for The Writer in March, 2008. Chuck Leddy did the article about Ward; I wrote about Burns.

I learned about an Orlando mom who got sued for writing a blog. That spurred me to look into liability issues for writers, a topic I believe will increase in importance because, let’s face it, everybody wants to write these days. With lots of help from fellow members in the American Society of Journalists and Authors, I interviewed a leading intellectual property rights attorney. I cover the topics of liability and copyright issues in my column Web Savvy at the online site for The Writer—part I published yesterday and part II will go live around the end of the year.

I admit I’m an avid (even rabid) consumer of news. I’ll read anything if it’s topical. It brings me pleasure to know what’s happening in the world. And it also helps me to publish freelance work. Win-Win.

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Poets who read Creative Writer US may want to read the interview I did with Donald Hall in the December issue of The Writer. And watch for a story I did about Hanukkah for The Florida Times Union.

Who loves ya, blogger? Here are my top referrers.

It can be so frustrating, this blogging habit. You pour your words onto the screen, diligently post, and sit there wondering who will read it. If readers loved me like my hound dog, I'd be writing on easy street.

My Creative Writer US blog seems to be at a plateau—maybe because there are so many writing blogs. I get thousands of unique visitors at Covering Florida each month. At Creative Writer US, I get 25 percent of the traffic I get at CF.

Covering Florida continues to grow in an amazing way, with increasing traffic in uniques and in page views each week. I post there daily, sometimes two or three times if there's breaking news, as I used to do here. But because I have to place my time where it counts, I dropped posting here to 3 times a week.

I do know who sends me readers—I have basic statistics on those. So here are my top 5 referrers for both blogs:

1. Google®—runaway tops, no contest (I still love Google, I admit it.)
2. Blog Catalog
3. BlogHer
4. Technorati
5. Various message boards, where people talk about what I write and post a link—these are diverse and no one stands above the other. Note: I don’t post on these boards.

I write the Creative Writer US blog because I love to write about my profession and it’s a means of sometimes writing about an author I wouldn’t get to write about otherwise. Book reviews and book publications are a very small market, one I can’t really afford to chase.

Here’s a “perplexion” (I know I made that word up)—both blogs have the same Google page rank, but CW US is ranked higher at Technorati. Go figure.

I’ve written about it before, but I’ll point it out again. The single most useful book I’ve found about blogging is J. S. McDougall’s ‘Start Your Own Blogging Business.’ What I learned from reading the book really helped boost my numbers at Covering Florida.

I will say blogging really lets me write what I want to instead of what I contract to write. That's a nice creative release in itself. And I know, from email and comments, that sometimes what I write helps others. That's always a good thing.

(©KayBDay/2007; all rights reserved)

A writer who really doesn’t aim to be one

When my younger daughter was enrolled in the creative writing program at a public arts school, she frequently told me she liked to write but she had no intentions of becoming a writer. I told her, “Too late.” I told her a writer writes because she does it, not because she really intends to do it. My daughter really wants to be a musician. She writes songs and lyrics. She’s won awards, not just for writing but for a song she wrote. She's performed in front of audiences. What astounded her father and me was her calm approach. She seemed perfectly at ease on stage. So I am indeed a proud mom, because she did those things on her own. I found out about her first award when I read her name in the newspaper.

That isn’t to say we didn’t nurture her. I read to her from the moment she opened her eyes. Her dad plays the guitar every day, often sitting in front of the TV, an in-home studio musician for whoever’s playing. Becky wanted to take guitar, so we bought her a guitar and paid for the lessons. “The first time I have to ask you to practice,” I said, “we don’t pay for lessons anymore.” She’d go to her room and close the door each day to practice. Sometimes, we’d have to remind her to come eat dinner. That’s how I knew she took her work seriously. Her desk is filled with notebooks containing music scores and lyrics. She’s a walking encyclopedia, just like her dad, on music past and present.

We’ve had many conversations about her music goals. She worries about making money. I told her not to worry about the money. “Worry about the art—work on that part.” I told her she could worry about the money when she graduates from college and looks for a job. She’ll enter college in a couple weeks, where she'll major in digital-multimedia. We figure she can find a good job that way, but she can also use those skills in her music career. With the opportunities offered by technology, we figure that's a good major for any budding artist.

A few days ago she told me she was starting a blog. In no time, with very little assistance, she had it up and rolling. Then she told me, “Now I don’t know what to write. I don’t have any ideas.”

“So start with that,” I told her. “You get writer’s block, write about that, and once the pen gets going you’ll find yourself writing something.”

It worked, even for a writer who doesn’t intend to be one, even for a writer who's a determined and talented musician.

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Visit Becky’s blog, A Musician's Notes.

Blog Catalog Mass Buzz: cyber-experiment for bloggers

Conceived by “Monawea,” founder of iwebis.com, the Blog Catalog Mass Buzz experiment gets underway today.

Basically, participating bloggers post a story about our experience with Blog Catalog.

I listed Creative Writer US and my other two blogs at BC a few weeks ago. Since then I’ve met a number of bloggers and visited their sites. The “Recent Viewers” box in my sidebar on this page shows members who’ve dropped by this blog. Members have also visited Covering Florida and Media Fizz.

Anyone can submit a blog to the BC network, with approval usually coming 24-48 hours for blogs that fit the guidelines. There’s an extremely useful discussion group at the site, with lots of information about blogging in general, including ways to promote and/or make money with your site. There’s a definite camaraderie at BC, the personable sort that you don’t find at most directories.

Once accepted, you have a page of your own where you can track your blog’s ranking, see who’s listed you as a friend, and decide which neighborhoods you’d like to join. You may list your profile with a photo, and tinker with other options.

It’s too early for me to tell if listing here will have a broad impact, but I’ve learned a lot and do enjoy getting to know others who like to speak their minds on sites they control.

My blogs are also listed at Technorati, and it’s a very useful site that has definitely sent traffic my way. Other sites where I’ve listed haven’t yet returned the results I’ve seen so far with these two directories.

I’ll post about the results of our “experiment” once we have an idea of the impact. Stay tuned.

Super resource for bloggers

For bloggers hoping to increase readership and income, iwebis.com is a great resource. Mona Weathers, who writes under the pen name monawea, offers information about earning opportunities, social networking, communicating with readers and other topics of interest to those of us bitten by the blog bug.

Monawea says she blogs as a personal “outlet,” and for the extra family income. She tells her readers they’ll learn about the changing Web. She discloses the fact sometimes the reader will find sponsored reviews. And with humor, she promises, “You will not find out what I had for breakfast, lunch, dinner or any other meal in between.” She even notes there'll be occasional grammar and spelling errors.

She’s organized a “Mass Buzz” promotion for Blog Catalog members (blogcatlog.com). That event launches May 14.

I highly recommend a visit to Monawea’s blog—I’ve learned a lot during my own visits.

Meanwhile, if you have a blog tip or favorite site, feel free to post it in the comments section.