On Blogging, Tribes, and Time

Or: With a tribe behind her, eight lenses to create, and three blogs to write, will she now make time for what she wants to do (which is to write)?


I've just been accepted into RocketMoms, a group of awesome women who make excellent Squidoo lenses, and who help each other to make even better ones. Hey-- I'm suddenly one of the smartest women on the web! Going through RocketMoms over the next eight weeks, my task will be to create at least eight new Squidoo lenses. I'm thrilled about htat, but the thing is, I also just became the blogmaster for my company's blog last month, and I just started a new blog with my kids!

Anyone who's reading this blog (all one or two of you-- hi Mom!) will know how I struggle to find time to write for it. It's not lack of ideas, or ambition, just a lack of time and energy. In April I started Darren Rowse's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog (31DBBB), and I didn't even make it past day five. And that was something I really and truly wanted to do. (Thank God he's got a workbook out now, and I can go through it at my own pace-- excellent!)

The idea behind RocketMoms is that it's a very involved support and learning group of lensmasters-- a real tribe, as Seth would say. The 31DBBB in April was a kind of a tribe, too-- and it certainly had a great leader in Darren-- but RocketMoms is smaller, more intimate, and I already know many of the lensmasters in the group. I'm hoping that will make me be more accountable, and motivate me to make the time to write.

Among several other books, I'm reading one right now that my mom bought for me: The Woman's Book of Courage: Meditations for Empowerment & Peace of Mind. It's not normally my kind of book, but it does give me things to think about. It talks, for instance, about your life as if it were a bank account, and how you have to make as many or more deposits (doing things for yourself) as you do withdrawals (doing things for others). Well, blogging and writing and Squidooing count as doing things for me, so I just need to make it a priority to set aside time for them.

But truth be told, maybe it's not only lack of time, but lack of confidence in the work I'm turning out. I guess if you're going to sit around waiting to hatch a post that is pithy, profound and perfect, your blog will look a lot like mine-- pretty empty. And I'm also guessing that the way to get closer to consistent pithiness, profundity, and perfection in posts is to practice! (Good Godfrey, it must be National Alliteration Day!)

I read a blurb on Lauren Elkin's blog 'Maitresse' last week about Virginia Woolf's work ethic, and the amount of writing the woman cranked out every year. Lauren's response to that will have to be my new mantra:
"Well, back to work then!"

My Five New Favorite Techie-Geek Websites

Back to blogging! And let's start out with my five most recently fave'd websites. Being a Techie-Geek Girl extraordinaire, who as of about six months ago makes her living in Internet Marketing, these all fall into the Tech/Geek/Social Media category:

5. Butterscotch.com
Tasty tech, and delicious downloads!
This little site is filled with info and tutorials about all the things you want to do online! I am currently having my mom watch their Facebook for Grownups series of ten quick tutorial videos. It's perfect for noobs, but there's lots of good stuff on the site for those in the know as well.

4. SmashingMagazine.com
A weblog dedicated to web-developers and designers.
Helpful downloads, tantalizing templates, beautiful fonts... it's like a candy store for web designers. I find resources-- often free-- that I'd never find anywhere else.

4. Problogger
Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging
I have to say I really don't read Darren Rowse's site to help me make money, which is not the main goal of my blog. I read it because it's full of information on how to make my blog a better blog. He's bright, to the point, on right on top of all the latest. He's my blogging mentor (even though he doesn't know me!)

2. Mashable
The Social Media Guide
Mashable knows everything there is to know about all the social media sites, and they are there to get that info to you. From Facebook resources and insights, to what's up with Google this week, to the latest in Twitter apps, to what works with new WordPress themes, it's the cutting edge of social media news. An indispensible resource for the Social Media Queen.

1. Twitter!
What are you doing right now?
I've been tweeting the answer to that question since last summer, but just over the last few months Twitter has become increasingly important to me as I've seen the power of what it can do. I use it to communicate-- mostly with colleagues, online acquaintances, and customers-- but more and more lately I use it to get my news. If I hear something's going on, I get on Twitter Search immediately. And almost as immediately, I get the scoop. Often before the news channels have it. The power of the tweeps. I'm loving it.

If you haven't checked out some of these sites yet, take a look, and let me know what you think in the comments here. I'd love to hear your opinions of some of my new favorites. Maybe you'll find a new favorite too!

The Blog that almost isn't, and what she's going to do about it

When is a blog not a blog? When you never have time to post, even though you have a lot to say! That has been the case so far with The View from White Pine Lane. I was actually mortified when I submitted my blog to the BlogHer network a few weeks ago, and was turned down, for posting too infrequently. I'm glad they turned me down-- you have to have some standards! I only posted once in December, and on this last day of the month, this is only my second January post.

I think part of my problem, and one I've fussed about here before, is that The View from White Pine Lane is too unfocused. So my thought is to start a second blog, to be more about family and parenting and tweeners (their likes and dislikes, tweener pop culture, etc.) This blog would be more focused on my online activities: Squidoo, eBay and social media.

So, if I don't have time to keep one blog up, how will I ever manage two? I'm not sure that it will work, but I'm going to give it a go! So watch this spot for the new blog's url. If you haven't subscribed to the feed from this blog yet, try it! I promise to be more entertaining in the future. If you are a subscriber, well... at least you can't accuse me of spamming your Reader account!

Mini Web Tangents for today:

http://twitter.com/Genny_Spencer
A Twitter account that posts a line-a-day journal kept by an Iowa farm girl in 1937. Mundane, and yet fascinating at the same time.

The Social Path
The blog of the David Griner, who's tweeting the Genny Spencer account. Genny is his great-aunt, and he explains how the twitter account came to be.

I'm following David Griner on Twitter now, with my Twitter account. Moments later: And now he's following me. See how that works?

Another of those fascinating-ly random things found on Twitter:
Twitpic of Jerry Trainer's Dog at a dog park this morning.

And from Jerry Trainer's dog, to my iCarly Squidoo lens. You work out all the connections there.

Web Tangents for January 2, 2009

Happy New Year, bloggy peeps! A new year, a new Web Tangents post. Started off at my Google Reader... with 1000+ unread items. Not a good way to start the year! Did you know that Google has implemented a new feature that turns off the "# of unread items" figures (in case they're stressing you out)? And also-- if you're not using Google Reader to keep up on things yet, why in the world not?? I don't know what I'd do without it!)


One fun blog that I like to keep up with via Reader is called Maitresse. It's written by a literary americaine ex-pat a Paris, and it's an entertaining way to keep me somewhat connected to the city. Plus she does this little thing called "around the internet on a tuesday" that may or may not have inspired Web Tangents... but I digress. Two things on Maitresse caught my eye today: first, a Monet that I had never seen before, La femme a la cape rouge, that author Lauren Elkin used for her Christmas post (enchanting!), and then a link to an article on the U.S.'s most literate cities (she lamenting that her native New York was not even near the top ten..!)

What is the number one most literate city in the U.S. for 2008, you may ask? Why, it's Minneapolis! (OK, so Mpls is tied with Seattle-- but that's not the point here....) I have to say I'm not surprised. In fact, since part of the judging is based on book sales, I may have carried the city myself! Oh! and do we notice something? City # 3 is St. Paul! Seems Minnesota isn't some hick backwater after all.... (Plus, it gets damned cold in the winter and there's not much else to do but read!) :-)

Skipping over to my other favorite American/Parisian blog, O Chateau: Stuff Parisians Like. I liked this post on Jeans, even though that's certainly not the way it was when I lived there (we won't say how many years ago...), and also an earlier post on Berthillon. And I adore how author Oliver Magny ends each post with useful tips, and "Sound like a Parisian"! « Faut qu’j’m’achète un jean…» Read quite a few more posts at O Chateau, LOL'd, spoke French to the air, then moved on to Twitter. Where I've been a lot today. 'Cuz it's my JOB now! (OK, a little, teeny part of my job, but still-- MY JOB! W00t!)

Most interesting tweets today: Twitter flash mob helps homeless, and Pete Brown(MVP)
Got this shirt for Christmas :) The shirt: Pluto gets demoted, ThinkGeek makes a shirt. ThinkGeek. Now there's a website with my name all over it.

And that's where I have to end my tangent for tonight, because I have a bad head cold, and when you have a bad head cold you can't make good segues, write clear conclusions, or be pithy. At all. See you next time.