Tag Archives: children

VideoChatting Is The New Intercom In My House

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If you haven’t tried gmail’s video chat feature you ought to! I have a pretty large house and recently discovered its much easier to reach and speak with my children via chat either text or video because they are often online too. Video Chatting If you have a Mac,  its real easy to set up and start video chatting. Gmail automatically grabs your camera and feeds the video into your gmail account. Give Gmail Video Chatting a try. Postscript: This post was originally written on May 19, 2010 yet inadvertently went unpublished. I have posted every single day since September 1, 2009 on this blog and I’m somewhat miffed my preoccupation with other matters caused me not get this piece posted on time…

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VideoChatting Is The New Intercom In My House

The Two Vital Attributes of Quality Content

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“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” ~William Morris, poet and designer Imagine the household you would have if you got rid of every item that was neither useful or beautiful. Gone would be the plastic doodad with no known purpose, the ugly frame your great-aunt gave you, the Special Free Offer© you never opened, the collection of someday-useful peanut butter jars . . . Every room would be so much more pleasant to be in, and every tool so much easier to find. What if you applied the same rule to the content you wrote? Every email, sales letter, blog post, and comment you wrote would have to be useful or beautiful. Or both. Does that sound a little . . . scary? Most copywriters are fine with this, in principle. (Remember the first law of content marketing ? Every piece of cookie content should reward the audience for reading: by solving a problem they have, or by entertaining them. Sounds pretty similar, doesn’t it?) The main problem people have with this advice is they don’t trust their own judgment. They’re unsure if what they’re writing is useful or beautiful. And of course, some people are certain their writing would make James Joyce weep and Dale Carnegie gnash his teeth, while their readers are wondering what this pretentious and useless fluff piece is all about. Are you unsure? Never fear! Here are some guidelines to help. How do I know if my content is useful? 1. Write content that suits your audience Your content must match your audience’s level of understanding . Experts won’t consider entry-level content useful and beginners won’t get much use out of advanced discussions. Your audience must have the required resources — time, energy, money, potato chips — to use the content. Telling new parents about a relaxation technique that requires eight hours a night of uninterrupted sleep? Not useful. Your content must relate to something your audience cares about . I’ll never find content on how to dress in corporate style useful, because I don’t care about dressing in that way. 2. Write specific content Generalisations aren’t useful. Vague: Scooters need oil on a regular basis. Specific and useful: Refill your scooter’s oil tank to the indicator line with two-stroke motorcycle oil every third time you refill the petrol tank. 3. Write actionable content Useful content creates action . If your readers don’t do something as a result of reading your content (change their mind, buy something, tear up their desk calendar, dance a boogaloo, write a better headline , pick a fight, talk to their children, set a goal, start a collaborative experience ), then the content wasn’t useful. Your content must encourage, advise, mentor, support, bully, or dare your audience into acting. And you must, must, must include a call to action in every piece of content you write. How do I know if my content is beautiful? This is the point where people get uncomfortable. Don’t worry! You don’t have to produce sonnets to write beautifully. Experiences that provide pleasure or meaning are beautiful. Johnny B. Truant writes posts that are beautiful, although he’ll likely laugh in your face and pour jam down your pants if you say so. They’re beautiful because they’re funny and vigorous and meaningful. If you’re not Johnny, here are some tips. (If you are Johnny, hi Johnny!) 1. Write meaningful content If you write your content with emotion , it’s more meaningful. Ever read a “Thank you for subscribing” email with sincere gratitude in it? (I read one that was so beautiful I saved it. Really.) If your feelings don’t match the anticipated emotion it’s even more effective: an angry product review, an excited tax letter, a sympathetic auto-responder . . . Be vulnerable . Instead of writing about the mistakes some people have made, write about the mistakes you made. And what they meant to you. Write about the bigger implications . Fixing a dripping tap is ordinary. Learning to perform house maintenance as a sign of your new independence is meaningful. Real benefits are meaningful. Creating more wealth, more connection, more options, and more purpose are some of our most meaningful activities. 2. Write pleasurable content Write to inspire emotion in your readers: make them smile. Make them cry. Make them wistful. And make sure they know they’re not alone in feeling that way. If you know your audience well, you can write mass communication that feels personal , where every reader thinks you’re psychic because you’re writing Just For Them. Everyone enjoys the pleasure of feeling understood. Use the tools in your linguistic toolbox to make the writing entertaining : play with alliteration, hyperbole, rhythm, flights of fancy, metaphor, perspective, storytelling . . . whatever feels natural and unforced to you. It’s hard to beat the pleasure of seeing your name in print. Praise your readers in public, hold them up as an example, thank them, or mention them as an inspiration . . . and do it by name. Do you want to take it even further? Think of a piece of content that’s critical to your success, like your sales letter. What if you applied the same rules to every paragraph of that content? What if you judged every word ? If you wrote your sales letter and removed every word that wasn’t useful or beautiful: You couldn’t use weasel words like “actually” or “amazingly” or “absolutely.” You’d have to use evocative, beautiful words and images. The writing would be muscular, short and punchy (Like Hemingway would write it). You’d become a thoughtful student of copywriting , so you knew how to make each word as useful as possible to create the result you want. It would kick ass! Do you think you could improve the usefulness and beauty of your content? Tell us how you plan to do it in the comments! About the Author: Catherine is wicked passionate about helping people to start and grow an awesome website: she’s even published a manifesto about it. When she’s not adding five-minute missions to BeAwesomeOnline.com , she can invariably be found on Twitter .

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The Two Vital Attributes of Quality Content

The Mr. Rogers Guide to Blogging from the Heart

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As bloggers, we put a lot of effort into telling our readers how to do things. We believe that if we can just give them enough informative content that they’ll subscribe to our blog and never leave. We try to become the best teacher we possibly can, instilling wisdom down into short, usable posts that our readers can put into action right away. But what if that’s not what they really want? What if they don’t want a teacher to tell them what to do? What if all they’re looking for is a warm and understanding person who understands what they’re going through and is willing to love them, no matter what? Someone like (you guessed it) Mr. Rogers. Do you care how they feel? Being a kid can be tough. Everyone is always telling you to be quiet. No one wants to listen to what you think. Your parents make you go to bed, just when all of the fun is starting. But not Mr. Rogers. Fred Rogers made you feel like it was just you and him hanging out. He respected what you thought. He loved you, not because he had to (like your parents), but because he genuinely believed you were special. After a while, you believed him. You felt special. You came back to the TV, day after day, just so you could feel that way again. The best bloggers do that too. I read Copyblogger everyday for years before submitting this guest post, and it wasn’t just the information that kept me coming back. It was because, when I was done reading, it made me feel smarter, like I was one of the few people on the web who was truly in the know. The more I think about it, the more I believe that’s a part of our job. Our job as bloggers isn’t just to inform our readers, but to make them feel special. And yes, I realize it’s a little hokey, but I think Mr. Rogers can show us how. Listen to some of these quotes: Lesson: For your audience to love you, first you have to love them. And they have to know it. You know, I think everybody longs to be loved, and longs to know that he or she is lovable. And, consequently, the greatest thing that we can do is to help somebody know that they’re loved and capable of loving. How much do you care about your readers? I mean, really care? Mr. Rogers didn’t just talk to children on television. He also visited them in person. On a regular basis, he would go out into public and ask kids about themselves. He would bend down and look little boys and girls straight in the eyes, so they knew he was fully focused on them. Then they poured their hearts out to him right on the spot. No, he wasn’t compensated for that time, and neither are we. Most popular bloggers spend inordinate amounts of time reading every comment, responding to every email, and watching what people say on Twitter. None of this has any direct effect on traffic, but what it does is build goodwill. One at a time, your subscribers find out that you really care, and it transforms them from readers into raving fans. Lesson: Before you can be a leader, first you have to be a neighbor. Our world hangs like a magnificent jewel in the vastness of space. Every one of us is a part of that jewel. A facet of that jewel. And in the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal. Mr. Rogers didn’t pretend to be better than the children who watched his show. He didn’t point out how young and ignorant they were. He didn’t appoint himself as an expert and command them to listen. Instead, he decided to be their neighbor: someone just like them, who knew what they were going through, and was ready to help in any way he could, not because they were defenseless children, but because that’s what good neighbors do. The same is true for bloggers. If you really want your audience to listen to you, you need to take the time to tell them your story , pointing out the ways you’re similar to them and inspiring them through your example. Lesson: Create an environment where it’s okay to be imperfect. I like you just the way you are. Most kids are terrified, not just of getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar or their parents finding a bad grade on their report card, but of the possibility that they’ll do something so bad that their family will stop loving them. They believe that love is only for “good” children, and they worry that they don’t deserve it. This quote was Mr. Rogers’ gentle way of correcting (and comforting) them. Over and over again, he would tell them that, “I like you just the way you are,” not just because it sounded good, but because it was what they needed to hear. They needed to know that love wasn’t conditional, and that they were safe enough around him to make mistakes and learn how to improve. I believe it’s important for us to create the same environment for our readers. You may not realize it, but lots of your readers are probably intimidated by you, believing that they can never be as good as you are, and they’re afraid to reach out to you for help. It’s important to remind them that you like them just the way they are. Maybe you don’t have to tell them as often as Mr. Rogers, but take a moment every few weeks to mention how impressed you are with the creative ways they’ve implemented your suggestions and how are honored you are to have them as readers. It’s a small thing, but it matters. Lesson: Keep what works, throw out what doesn’t, but always know what and why. Propel, propel, propel your craft softly down liquid solution. Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, existence is simply illusion. Every day, Mr. Rogers honed his craft, paying attention to even the smallest of details. One time, he asked a fellow actor to say “the dog is going back home” instead of “the dog is going back to his owner.” He didn’t like the word owner because it was too possessive for the children viewers. He also stuck with what worked. “Won’t you be my neighbor?” wasn’t just the theme song for the show; it was a way to set the tone at the beginning of every episode, getting children ready to listen. And so he repeated it, show after show for years. It’s our responsibility as bloggers to hone our craft in the same way. You should experiment, not just with headlines or post ideas, but with new openings, new closes, new pictures, and even new words. It’s how you improve. And at the same time, take a lesson from Fred Rogers and don’t be afraid to repeat what works . Lesson: Seize your opportunity When will your opportunity be? Every day that you communicate from the heart, you have a chance to change the world. Back in 1969, Nixon proposed cuts to PBS, leading the Senate to hold a hearing that would decide the future of the station. And who do you think appeared before them and melted their hearts with words? Mr. Rogers. He wasn’t the CEO. He wasn’t a Washington insider. He wasn’t even well-known to the committee. Yet he showed up, spoke from the heart, and transformed some of the toughest, most hardened politicians in the country into raving fans. It was the opportunity to create change that many of us dream of, and he seized it. But here’s the real question: When will your opportunity be? Watch this video , and think about it. Because when it comes, we’ll be counting on you. About the Author: Karl Staib writes about building stronger relationships and being happy at work: Work Happy Now! If you enjoyed this article, you may like to subscribe to his feed , follow him on Twitter , or read one of his most popular articles: How to Write a Career List .

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The Mr. Rogers Guide to Blogging from the Heart