Judy Lee Dunn | Writer | Blogger
Judy Dunn- for bloggers who write and writers who blog
I threw out a question on Facebook this week that brought some very interesting responses. I asked, “ Do your values come into play as a blogger? As an entrepreneur, biz owner or author?”
What I really wanted to know was whether their values have ever played into a decision, either on what to post about on their blog, what partnerships to form or which clients to take on.
My friend, social media star and transplanted Scot Danny Brown said:
In my 25+ years of self-improvement ventures, I can count on one hand the memorable conferences I have attended. They were the ones that actually made me better at what I do and challenged me to try some new things.
And the older I get, the ones that impress me are becoming even rarer.
I have heard speakers who have very little of a concrete nature to share. They are usually the ones with a lengthy bio, but whose main (and rather obvious) purpose is to sell their latest book.
At one writing conference, the organizers closed (and locked) the auditorium exits and proceeded to hard sell an add-on program: an inner circle “club” with a hefty price tag. Being a little claustrophobic anyway, I experienced the sheer panic of knowing I couldn’t escape if I wanted to.
At another, we were presented with Native American Dreamcatchers, wands we were encouraged to wave around with our eyes closed, as we whispered our deepest and biggest wishes. (Okay teachers’ conferences can be a little woo-woo.)
But somewhere around cruising altitude on the way home, passing over the Rocky Mountains, the magical fairy dust would begin to melt and I wondered what I really got for all that money.
I am not a a data cop. In other areas of my life, I have tendencies toward OCD—lining up the pens on my desk with equal spaces in between, positioning the cat food cans on the shelf with the Friskies cats all facing forward, counting my M&M’s, and sorting them in two’s, things like that.
But I have never become paranoid about the number of blog subscribers I have. I have even written about how losing blog subscribers can be a good thing.
The dawning of Monday, September 17, 2012 changed all that.
We tell stories to process a devastating event. So we can feel what people inside the event must have felt. To hold tight to a little piece of what makes us connected as humans.
We tell stories so we never forget.
Sometimes we tell stories in what feels like a vacuum. With a blog, we don’t always know who is reading our posts. Who we will connect with.
Until it happens. That the daughter of the fallen firefighter I profiled in my 2010 9/11 post found the story on my blog and took the time to leave a comment is astounding—and something I never would have predicted:
Do people remember your blog posts? Does your content have staying power? If you evoke emotions in your readers, I can guarantee that your ideas will remain firmly planted in their brain.
How do you do that as a blogger? With the right photo, of course.
I’ll be writing a post soon to help you figure out exactly where to get good photos that won’t break the bank, but for now, just know that posts with engaging photos get read more and shared more—even on sites that you aren’t necessarily active on.
Why You Should Touch the Heart and the Head in Your Posts
One of the biggest factors in remembering something—an image, an experience— is how much emotion is attached to it. For all you science lovers, here is the reason: The amygdala, the center of emotion in the brain’s temporal lobe, lights up when emotional content is shown, which in turn boosts the activity in areas of the brain that form memory.
I love sports analogies. Once I even compared blogging to baseball. If blogging is a game, I think of my readers as fitting into one of two buckets: players or spectators.
As in any game, the players are more visible. Noticed more.
We remember them more. Why? Because the players on your blog are the readers who join in the conversation. The ones who talk to you—and the rest of the community. The ones you know by name.
But just as important are the spectators. They are the ones Havi Brooks of The Fluent Self blog calls “comment mice.” They read. They may hang around and consume lots of content. Sometimes they become your biggest fans. But they are your silent supporters.
And yet spectators are a crucial part of your blog. Because without them, the stadium would be empty. Without them, you wouldn’t be pleasantly surprised at the moment you least expect it.
Last weekend I hit the road—and the water—for the Whidbey Island Writer’s Conference. I have been to a bazillion conferences in my day: they were events for teachers, or direct mail copywriters, or bloggers or marketers, depending on what field I was in at the moment.
They all blur together in my mind. The thought leaders, the consultant/speakers, the trade shows, the sturdy little conference bags with the cool gifts inside. The tickets for free drinks at the end-of-day happy hours.
But, somehow, this event had a totally different feel.
When I was a teacher, one of the worst things a kid could have, the thing that would hold her back throughout life and beyond, was low self-concept.
It was whispered about children, as though they would never get any farther than flipping hamburgers at McDonald’s because they had, you know:
a low self-concept
Of course, as teachers, we did everything we could—praise, special recognition, a paper crown on their birthday, stapling their paintings front and center on the bulletin board—in a valiant effort to make them feel better about themselves.
So they would have improved self-esteem.
There was nothing wrong with that, of course. Kids need to grow up feeling good about themselves.
But in the adult world of the creative arts, I find that the best writers, bloggers, and plain old communicators, the ones whose stuff I can’t wait to read, have a certain vulnerability. They let me in close, tell me what they’re really feeling. They examine themselves, bare their hearts and souls.
Admit their humanness.
I love Mitch Joel’s quote in his post, The Power of Vulnerability:
The heart and soul of great art is the ability for the artist to be vulnerable.
If being vulnerable means taking off the armor and allowing yourself to be hurt, it also means being open enough to connect with people on deeper levels—to touch the heart and not just the head.
Last year, around Thanksgiving, I got a wild notion that maybe, just maybe, I could enter the Write to Done Top 10 Blogs for Writers contest. Just contemplating some of the past winners, like Men with Pens and Copyblogger, made me a little weak in the knees.
But I thought, “Why not?”
Like running for Robert Gray Elementary School student body treasurer in the 6th grade, if anything, it would be good experience, right?
I was out of town teaching a blogging workshop when I got an email from a reader congratulating me. I practically fell off my chair.
I had won! And I was in shock for three days.
I love blogging
None of us put hundreds of hours a year into blogging in the hopes of winning an award. We just don’t.
I do it because, being a teacher at heart, I adore seeing the lights go on when someone learns something new. I do it because my goals in life are to help people and make them laugh. If I can do both at once, all the better.
I do it because I learn from my readers every day. And because I love to jump into this community we have here and wallow in the true spirit of giving that you all bring to this blog.
You are the reason for this blog. You keep me going, you add fuel to the community bonfire, and sometimes you even come back for more.
Thank you for that.
Nominations for the 2012 Write to Done Top 10 Blogs for Writers are now open
Yes, I am in the running for this award again this year. And though it isn’t why I blog, I would be very grateful for your vote.
But more important, whether you vote for me or you have another writing blog in mind, it’s your chance to support a blogger who has helped you in the last year.
If you are so inclined, here is how it works:
1. No registration required, but you can only nominate one blog.
2. You must leave the blog’s URL (this one is http://judyleedunn.com) and, for it to count, your reason for voting for it.
3. Just go to this page and leave your vote (and reason) in the comments section below the blog post.
That’s all there is to it. When all the nominations are in (voting closes December 10, 2011), a panel of judges will select 20 finalists and then narrow that list down to the winning ten.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for visiting and contributing to our community here. It’s been an incredible year. Stay tuned to hear what’s in store for 2012!
When I think about my vision for the Cat’s Eye blog, I usually think of two words: community and inclusive.
I care about and appreciate my lurkers just as much as my active commenters.
Some people just want to get the information and run. Others like the back and forth and new friendships made with other readers, which, of course, happen in the comments.
A couple of months ago, in the grand tradition of blog-as-laboratory, I decided to try out a new commenting system. I was especially interested in Livefyre because I had experienced its community-building power on other blogs, including dannybrown.me and the Spin Sucks blog. Livefyre is a real-time conversation platform that changes the way people interact on a site.
I polled you—once informally and once in a survey— to find out how you feel about Livefyre: how easy or hard it is to sign in and navigate, what you like about it and what’s missing. You were generous in taking the time to fill out this most recent survey and offering your feedback. Thank you for that.
Here is what you told me:
The number one reason I switched to the livefyre commenting system was to enable deeper conversations and make the Cat’s Eye community stronger and healthier.
I’ve been hearing from a few of you lately and I think it’s time for another check of the heartbeat.
Some of you do not have a blog yet—or are just learning—and the new technology creates barriers.
Others of you are worried about privacy issues when you have to connect through twitter or Facebook.
And some of you greatly miss that link back to your most recent post when you leave a comment.
Want to Pull In More Comments on Your Blog?: Livefyre 3 Is Here
Still, most of us want more comments. We crave the learning and interactions that happen in the conversations. And we want the kind of feedback that will make our content sharper, richer, more useful.
Livefyre, the most social commenting system I know, has just made all of that easier.
Why I returned to Livefyre
I removed Livefyre last December, after surveying you, my readers. But with their new version, the folks at Livefyre have made changes to address many of your biggest concerns with the system. Among other things, you can now sign in as a guest so you don’t have to link to your social media accounts or even register with Livefyre if you don’t want to.
(But if you do the one-time registration or social platform linking thing, you will have more options—to share comments with other people, to pull more people into the conversation, to stay signed in so you don’t have to do that each time you leave a new comment.) Read on to learn more about Livefyre’s cool new features.
Get your Livefyre walk-through here
Jeremy Hicks, Livefyre’s smart, friendly Head of Community consented to an interview and walk-through to help you sort it all out. In the video below, my very own @bobwp talks to Jeremy about the new Livefyre features, so you can learn the ins and outs of commenting on a Livefyre blog—and even decide if it’s the right choice for your own blog:
What about you?
How do you use blog comments to build community and improve your content?
Are you a Livefyre user?
Considering switching?