Taking care of our baby
May 21st, 2008 by Allen VoivodHow do you like our new blog?
What? You say it looks the same as it did before?
Well, that’s great news, considering that it’s been on the equivalent of the operating table for the past week. We were running what I’m told is a ridiculously old version of the Wordpress software that runs our blog.
And we’d been hearing of other folks recently, with the same version, who’d had their blogs hacked because of security vulnerabilities. We’re collectively breathing a sigh of relief that it never came to that for us.
So the nuts at Acorn Creative told us to lay off the blog for a while, and they worked us into their schedule for the update. And a fine job they did! Kudos to Renee Capen and Dan Kleiner for taking such good care of our baby for us. 
In the meantime, I hooked up with Bisson Barcelona for a blogging clinic, focused on the topic of making money with one’s blog. Our instructor for the evening was Ben Adams, owner of Spiral Media, a company which “specializes in online marketing and promotion through a combination of search engine optimization, sponsored listing services and Web 2.0 technologies.”
Traci Bisson asked me via email this morning for some feedback on the clinic (great to see you again, too!) - here’s a link so you can see the topics covered for yourself.
I hadn’t met Ben before, and for me, the best thing about it was the fact that Ben proved himself to be an avid researcher and very generous with his knowledge. I came away with a notebook full of websites and monetization opportunities, many of which I didn’t know existed (or think were possible) until Ben’s clinic. And he also referred me to some folks that, from a networking perspective, would be very good for us to know.
Ben had all his ducks in a row for the two sessions, and I’d definitely say I got my money’s worth out of the clinic.
As far as anything that could be improved, I only have a piece of advice to throw out, which applies to anyone who’s considering taking any sort of blogging class. Bisson Barcelona put up a “Must Haves” qualifier for people signing up - that they must have a “blog, have burned a feed for their blog, and have publicized to get blog readers and feed subscribers.”
I’m perhaps slightly embarrassed to say that I hadn’t burned a feed (or really knew what that meant) until the day of the workshop - our brand-spankin’ new Feedburner feed is here. And as a result, I haven’t publicized to get subscribers to our Feedburner feed. (We’ll have to get Acorn to get that onto our sidebar, I guess!)
That said, it worked out okay for me, because I know just enough about blogging to be dangerous, and I didn’t get questioned about my Feedburner status. To make a long story short, with any tech-related class, my own personal advice is to be more aggressive about the requirements - as in stating blatantly and more prominently that if you don’t meet the must haves, then don’t sign up for the class.
Why, you ask? We’ve all been in clinics where some people weren’t as far along as the rest - and yes, I’ve been on both sides of that divide. And it slows everyone else up, which makes half of your audience frustrated. I feel sorry and embarrassed when I know I’m slowing a class up, but I can’t help it. If I don’t get it, then I’m going to be frustrated. And so is the other half of the audience that’s too shy to speak up.
The session I attended was part two of a two-week clinic, and though we didn’t have this problem, Ben did say that the divide was present in part one. So if you’re thinking of taking a class, please, for your own sake and the sake of your classmates, be as careful as you can about what you sign up for.
And by the way, since I haven’t said it yet…
Ahhh. It’s so GOOD to be blogging again!
