Put Your Pity Party Week in Review

(Reading time: 7 – 11 minutes)

It’s Friday. Almost Halloween. Are you dressing up? I’m not. Not this year. Next year for sure. I said that last year. And the year before.

This week’s blah blah blah

Lessee, what went down this past week…

My next step in blogging evolution: I’m attracting link exchange requests now. Here’s my policy:

You write cool stuff and I like it, I might link to you.

Basically, if you have to ask, you haven’t been reading along, which means your probably not going to be interesting to my readers. On the other hand, I don’t expect anyone to link back to Website In A Weekend unless they find real value here. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. A few very good links spread out over time are better – to me – than a bunch of worthless links all bunched up.

More super secret stealth stuff. No, really, I’m working on something I think is really cool, and I hope everyone else does too. If not, I’ll be back at the drawing board. Newsletter subscribers get first look of course (email to wp-weekend.wwsecret@aweber.com, remember to opt-in).

Dangerous Curve has finished the next round of typesetting for “How to Really Publish a Blog Post.” More on that after I merge changes.

The weather is superb! Fall in the San Francisco Bay Area is truly beautiful. Sunny, warm and still. No fire danger from the Diablo Wind this year thanks to the Pineapple Express that came through a couple of weeks ago.

I’m doing some typesetting experiments in this article. HTML/CSS is miserably awful at real typesetting. I’ll do the best I can this week, and work out the kinks in the week ahead.

The Echo Chamber…

Here’s some news from around the web. Nothing new, just new to me. And maybe new to you too.

Have ever heard of a blind person who could navigate using echo location like a dolphin? This was a first for me. If you haven’t seen this, you should. Johnny B. Truant really lays it out here: if you even read a computer screen, you’re in better shape than you feel. No excuse for pity parties! Once you finish reading Johnny, jump over to No Pity City. Read. Buy stuff. Above all, remember that if you’re reading this, you could be doing a lot worse!

~

Ok, I don’t really think that list posts suck, at least, not in general. But I might go so far as to say it’s way too easy to write a really bad list post. In any case, it’s a great article and food for thought.

~

I think every WordPress blogger should write one of these: How to Start a WordPress blog. I’ve written 2 or 3 myself, buried way back in the archives now. This one by Gabe Young is pretty good. Have you written yours? Get after it!

~

You shouldn’t read these 50 tips on gaining RSS subscribers. It might make you cry. So much to do! And so little time… should we just commit mass suicide now? Nah… there’s always time for that later.

~

Have you watched the Internet Marketing for Smart People seminar yet? I have to admit, I just read Blake’s transcript so far… but will probably have watched it by the time you read this. (Watching it now. Just getting the notion of the “3rd Tribe” is worth your time watching.)

~

Aw man… another 50 lessons from yet another list post. Makes my eyes cross just thinking about all that work. We should have a contest here on Website In A Weekend: who here has done all 50 of those items listed in this article? What could possibly be a prize for such a contest? Tell me… seriously… we might be on to something.

~

If the truth were to be told (always a risky business), it might be found I wasn’t big fan of Mr Godin. I always have the experience of reading his little snackable blog posts and feeling “Like, Wow!” followed by “Wait… what the hell is he talking about?” But… the theme of overnight success is making it’s rounds, and Godin exposes several traps for the impatient and unwary. Good read. Snackable, as usual.

New posts

• Frank Kern Demonstrates Disclosure (hilarious!): The inimitable Frank Kern comes totally clean, his way to make a complete disclosure fulfilling the upcoming FTC guidelines for bloggers and online marketers.
• WordPress Plugins, Google Wave — There’s a busy month ahead!: Website In A Weekend is about to get really busy… an article for long time readers… nothing much to see, but stop by and check it out anyway.
• WordPress Architecture – The Building Blocks of Web Publishing: If you have ever wondered how WordPress does it’s magic, it’s all right here in this short article. Deacon breaks it down in simple, easy to understand words.
• Value Versus Effort: How Much Time to Write a Blog Post?: How long should it take you to write a blog post? Do you know? Do you think you’re spending too much time or not enough? Check out a few simple rules to know.
• Learning to Blog: Finding the forest one tree at a time: Blogging as a business is competitive, complicated and time consuming. It’s easy to get lost in the woods. Here’s a few pointers to help you find your way.
• DIY Wordpress: Debugging Plugins Using FirePHP: Debugging networked web application is complicated by limited access to server-side technology. Learn FirePHP; reduce your learning curve, speed up debugging.

From the Archives!

Each week, we’ll showcase a great post buried down in the archives, useful material you can use right away.

Last week we had factors for blogging success, this week, Factors Contributing to Blog Failure: 3 big factors control whether your blog succeeds or fails, and you have almost complete control over these factors. Handle these, find the road to success.

Upcoming

Let’s poke around in the Drafts queue… what do we see…

One mongo polemic on internet marketing pyramid schemes.

Gabe Young lays the smack down on Make Money Fast!!!

POSH… It’s not what you think it is, but you need to know.

You Are Not An Idiot.

Maybe some stuff about Twitter, another Gotcha! possibly some ridiculous stereotypes. We’ll see what I feel like writing come next week.

Insiders: watch the list for something pre-Alpha.

The Week In Review Series

Last Week in Review

How a Houston Homemaker is Like a Portuguese Programmer – the WIAW Week in Review: You’ll have to read all the way down to find what these two have in common… be careful, you might learn something along the way!

Next Week in Review

Stay tuned…

---

Would you like more? Send me a letter...

Tagged as: Blake Waddill, Blogging, Dangerous Curve, Echo location, FTP. Localhost, Gabe Young, Johnny B. Truant