Mitchell’s Top Ten Recommended Blogs
Posted by Mitch on Sep 2, 2010
One could ask “what makes you think anyone cares about what you think are blogs people should read.” The response would be “my blog, my opinion, case closed.” In actuality, I think that it’s a nice thing to recognize people when you enjoy things they do. And people like being mentioned, even if they may miss it. I’m going to say that I doubt everyone I name will notice that their blog has been mentioned here, and that’s okay. It’s just another list post; studies show that people love list posts. And if you’d like, copy the little badge I created and add it to your website, then wait for people to ask you if you’ve lost your mind. 
Actually, August 31st was Blog Day, where bloggers are supposed to name 5 blogs they recommend for others to read. But I had something else on my mind for that day, so I decided to go my own way and do it today.
 |
First, did I have any real criteria for what I was going to look for? Absolutely not! In this list are some friends of mine, some big time names, and some folks whose blogs I just have to make sure I check out as often as I can. I don’t always comment on all of these blogs, but I do from time to time. But I always make sure I read them, and I think that’s what makes them important to me. And two of the blogs on this list were on last year’s Blog Day list as well.
I put them in alphabetical order so I didn’t have to rank them. They are what they are; here we go:
Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online – As you probably know, I really respect Marelisa’s blog, and the interview I did with her should prove that. It’s just a quality blog, very deep, and one of the few blogs that I actually have to slow down to read. This blog was on last year’s Blog Day post.
Beautiful Summer Morning – Nick Grimshawe has a beautiful blog, very calming and motivational, and I actually have to give him credit for introducing me to Josh Groban, who I’d never heard of until Nick posted one of his videos on his blog. Nick also has the distinction of being on my 2008 and 2007 Blog Day list.
Click Newz – It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about Lynn Terry, but I still make sure I read her blog all the time. I ever wrote a post about her and how she makes money, as she’s one of the top internet marketers in the country. Lynn’s blog was also on my 2008 Blog Day list.
Kikolani.com – How could anyone not list Kristi’s blog as one of their favorites? I always make sure to go through her Fetching Friday blog, as she puts up a lot of blog posts she’s read through the week and is recommending others view. At one point I thought of stealing that idea, but man, that’s a lot of work! So young and so accomplished; great work!
Mostly Bright Ideas – This is actually a very new blog written by Charles Gulotta, and if y’all haven’t visited it by looking at some of his blog titles then you don’t know what you’re missing. He’s very funny and insightful, and his images are funny as well. To think, I convinced him to think about writing a blog, and look what he’s done with it; great job!
Problogger – Okay, a top guru who was also on my 2008 Blog Day list, but who can truthfully deny that Darren Rowse isn’t on his game? I like it best when he’s writing instead of the guest posts, but I sometimes learn from those as well. This is one of those blogs where if you’re looking to learn a lot more about blogging I suggest you go through his archives.
Solo Business Marketing – Shirley George Frazier’s blog on marketing is a great one, so much so that her blog was one of only two that made my 2006 Blog Day list. I must have been mad not to mention her again before today. I learn a lot by reading her blog, and I think it deserves a heck of a lot more attention that it gets.
Twist Image – Mitch Joel recently wrote Six Pixels of Separation, and it was through a conversation he was having with a friend of mine that I discovered his blog. He talks about marketing and communications in the social media age, and something interesting that he has are podcast interviews, which are pretty fascinating. I guess you could call him a guru.
View Infinitum – This is my friend Scott’s blog, and I have to say that he’s found quite the following over the past year. It’s a photography blog, and though I’m not anywhere close to a photographer, I will say that he gives a lot of great information on the craft, and I think I’ve even seen Sire popping in there from time to time.
Wassupblog – Speaking of Sire, his blog took a major jump over the past year, getting an Alexa rank as high as 65,000 at one point and still sitting in a pretty nice place. He covers internet marketing, blogging, and a host of irreverent issues that are funny from that quirky Australian point of view. I think if he were British his blog would probably be an even bigger deal; yeah, I said it! lol His blog was also on my 2009 Blog Day list, and I keep telling him that when I grow up I want my blog to be as big as his. Then again, it means I have to grow up.
There you go, my top ten list of blogs I hope you check out. Congrats winners!
Are You Sometimes Feeling Ignored?
Posted by Mitch on Sep 1, 2010
I tend to visit a lot of blogs. I’ve talked about it before on this blog, how I used to subscribe to nearly 250 other blogs, but at some point I got it down to around 104. Of course me being me I have added some more blogs to my reader since that time, and I’m given some of those an opportunity to show that they at least have something interesting to say on a consistent basis before I start whittling my list down again.
 by Beverly & Pack |
One thing that helps me determine I’m going to eliminate a blog from my reader is whether or not I ever get any responses from those blogs that I tend to leave comments on. Those of you who have seen me leave a comment on your blog know that I’m not one of those people who often leaves just one line responses. Sure, sometimes it may only be two lines, but you know those two lines are going to mean something and have something to do with the topic, and sometimes those lines are kind of long.
Sometimes you get the feeling you’re being ignored, and nobody likes that. I certainly don’t, especially if I’ve taken time to make a comment on your post. After all, as I’ve written many times on this blog, and many of you have written on your blogs, what’s the point in accepting comments if you’re never going to respond to anybody? If you’re going to do that you might as well just turn off comments, become Seth Godin, and move on with your life.
It’s not just blogging that sometimes leaves me feeling ignored. There many times on Twitter where I reach out to both people I know and people I don’t know and comment on some of the things they share. Most of the time you never hear anything back from those people, which once again leaves me wondering why I’m even bothering to try. At this point I pretty much know that almost nobody who’s using Twitter on a consistent basis is going to the website to post their comments or to read posts from other people. Everybody is using some kind of platform to check out their Twitter messages, which means pretty much everyone has created some kind of filter so that they see messages from people who write comments to them. If they haven’t done that then they’re idiots, and I doubt that people who are participating a lot on Twitter are idiots.
In my mind, people who do the two things I mentioned above are missing the point of social media networking. They don’t call it social “seminaring” or social “sharing whatever I have to say because I’m important and you’re not”. If they did then the word “social” wouldn’t be a part of it at all. I don’t like it when it’s people I don’t know, and I certainly don’t like it when it’s people I do know. There are a few people I have eliminated from my Twitter stream because I felt ignored, even if I’ve talked to them in the past. I don’t expect people to respond to everything I say to them, because sometimes there’s just nothing to say in response to a previous message. But I do expect some give and take every once in a while, and if I’m the only one giving then I’m getting out.
The one thing almost everyone knows if they visit this blog is that I’m going to respond to their comments as long as they’re more than one line. Of course, if we’re doing a back and forth at some point one of us has to end, and it could be me. Beyond that, I get to everybody at some point, and even if I don’t always respond to your comments, I always respond to a comment made by a new visitor, in hopes that they will return again and again. If anybody ever feels ignored by comments they leave on this blog, just let me know; but I don’t see it happening.
Are you feeling ignored by some of the blogs you visit? Are you taking care not to ignore people who visit your blog?
10 Posts That Deserve More Attention
Posted by Mitch on Aug 23, 2010
Something that’s hard for a lot of people is self critique. We’re either too easy on ourselves or too hard on ourselves.
 |
I’m no different, although my parameters change depending on what it is. When it comes to this blog, I know that there are a few throwaway posts, where the post isn’t necessarily important to anyone but was entertaining to write. That’s part of my quest to give visitors something different to look at.
However, there are times when I write something that, in my mind, didn’t get enough attention or enough visitors for whatever reason. Every once in awhile, I like to go back to some of those posts and share them in one specific post, hoping that maybe newer visitors will see those titles and say “hey, I must have missed that one”. At least that’s what I hope. So, here are 10 posts of mine over the last 2 months of 2009 and first 6 months of 2010 that didn’t get many visitors that I feel deserve more attention.
5 Ways Poker Is Like Blogging – This was my attempt at being creative by comparing two of the things I love doing most, one of which is playing poker.
An Interview With Marelisa Fabrega – Marelisa is one of the top bloggers in the world, and I was able to secure an interview with her. This needs to be read by everyone.
Twitter Marketing – Do You Have A Plan? – I found myself again some days ago explaining to someone what Twitter was about and how it could be used for business, and this wasn’t at my workshop either.
How Can You Prosper Through Publicity? – Everyone who has a blog needs to understand just how much more prosperous they could be, either monetarily or personally, by figuring out how to handle their publicity better.
What Do We Expect For Free? – We all like free stuff, but are we taking it to the extreme for some things?
Are Writers Taken For Granted? – As someone who’s been writing to make a living for the last year, it seems that people devalue just how much of a commitment it is, even when they can’t do it themselves.
Content Is An Electronic Emperor – This was my response to a comment made by Rupert Murdoch, partially one of the most hated men in the world.
Web Courtesy – Don’t We Deserve That Much? – With so much hate that people spew in blogs and especially when responding to news stories, I question whether there is any courtesy anymore.
Are You Using Social Media For Promotion? – I wrote this last year, way before I ever started thinking about doing workshops on the subject.
My 10 Favorite Blog Posts Of 2009 – Okay, this isn’t quite fair, but at the end of the year I posted 10 blogs posts I liked that I wrote in 2009; so now you have 10 more to check out if you’re interested. 
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mitch Mitchell
Images Used By Permission & Copyright Laws – Guest Post
Posted by Mitch on Aug 12, 2010
Following up on my post yesterday titled The Quest For Legitimate Images, I was able to convince my friend Scott Thomas to write this post explaining his position on the topic as well as giving us some insight into the issue.
 Scott Thomas Photography |
Mitch and I were discussing the use of photos on this blog a couple of weeks ago. I told him he should find the person who took any photo he uses on his blogs to ask permission to use it. What he said disturbed me and I find it is a prevalent attitude found around blogs, websites and even in advertising and other media. He said if he can not find the person who created the photo and sees it in other locations, he saw no reason not to use it.
As an amateur photographer with aspirations to sell my work on a regular basis, I find such statements very upsetting. I countered saying if someone took one of his articles or published works and posted it or republished it under their name without asking permission, giving credit or payment, what would be his reaction? What would be yours?
Copyright infringement is rampant on the Internet. People feel if it is found on the Internet, it must be free to use. It hurts established professional artists, photographers, writers, musicians and other creative artists who are trying or are making a living from their hard work, investment in education and equipment and talent. Yes, things are changing. Are they changing for the good?
The Copyright Law of the United States protects a creator from others using his creations without his permission. It goes on to say, at the time of creation, the creator copyrights his creations. Be it a shutter click on a camera or keystrokes on to a screen, the photograph or text is copyrighted and given all the protection of the Copyright Law, whether it is published publicly or not. If people are to use something created by another, they must ask and receive permission before doing so. Permission may be just a simple verbal agreement or a written contact which may or may not include the exchange of funds. For photographs, people agree to a use of a photo and scope of that use. Usually it is for a one-time use. If its for advertising, the money can be substantial and the rights to the photo may be purchased outright. In essence, the photographer gives up his copyright “rights” to the buyer. However, he still owns the copyright to the photo.
How does this work in real life? The photo used to illustrate this article is a prime example. At the time I took the photograph and the image was saved to my camera’s memory card, I owned the copyright. My camera even embeds the copyright notice into the photo’s metadata as part of the file. The photo is a creation of mine and is a whole work of art. If someone was to use it without my permission in any way, I could go to court. Would I? That depends on how it was used. Usually, when this happens, I simply inform the person and they either stop using it or we negotiate fair use of the photo.
There are the buzz words you probably have had in the back of your mind while reading thus far. Fair Use is a part of the Copyright Law. It is there not to hinder but to help people wishing to use other’s creative work in exhibiting their own work. A prime example is reviews of books, movies, concerts, and art exhibitions. The reviewer will quote or show examples of the work being reviewed. This is allowed under Fair Use. When I review books on my blog, I will quote the author and use a photo of the book’s cover. I do not replicate word for word long passages of the book and call them my own. That would be against the law. Another part of Fair Use is to give credit to the person or persons who created the work. Again, for my book reviews, I find the author’s blog or website to link to. Fair Use is a win-win if used under the spirit in which the law was written.
If you are familiar with Flickr, the popular Internet photo sharing community website, you will see the term Creative Common license. In short, the photographer who puts a Creative Commons license on a photo is allowing its use under certain conditions without having to directly ask for permission. Those conditions are spelled out in icons under the photo. They range from unconditional use to restrictive use of a photo for only personal use, derivative uses or not and commercial use or not. All Creative Common licenses require a link back to the location of the photo being used. Make sure you understand what you can and can not do under a Creative Commons license. The photographer is being nice enough to allow use of the photo without negotiation or payment, please, don’t abuse it so, like Fair Use, Creative Commons licensing stays a win-win.
Getting back to my photo. What would constitute Fair Use of it? If someone asked me if they could use it on their blog about ice hockey, I would ask for a credit and a link back to my blog or website. My “payment” if you will. That is a common practice among bloggers, photographers and other media outlets. If the photo was part of a book I produced or in my Flickr photostream, someone may use the photo as an example of my work in a review of my photography. Fair Use has been taken many ways in the U. S. courts over the years. For a layman’s explanation, visit Tim Wu’s excellent article on what constitutes Fair Use.
I know it is easy to Google photos and download them for your use. Someone created the photo; it is their photo. Not yours to use, duplicate, render it in another form (crop, print, change, etc.), publish and certainly nothing you can use to sell without permission of the person who created it whether or not you know who that is. You’ll find reports of people finding others using their photos or other artwork and suing them for monetary damages. The law gives fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or more to people who are found to have infringed on another’s copyright. Sounds silly for a personal blog I know but is no reason to simply ignore it. Just because something is on the Internet, does not mean it is free to use.
I hope this sheds some light on why people should seek out and ask permission to use someone else’s photograph or images on your blogs, websites and other electronic media outlets.
I thank Scott for his article here, and I know it’s an interesting and controversial topic across the board. We’d both welcome hearing from you and your thoughts on the issue. If you’re interested in learning more about photography and seeing some great shots check out Scott’s blog Views Infinitum.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mitch Mitchell
The Quest For Legitimate Images
Posted by Mitch on Aug 11, 2010
You know, there are times when you battle with ethical issues, and you’re either ready to give up on them or just move on. I don’t struggle with that issue often, but once I think about something that involves an ethical decision, I just have to work my way through it.
 |
This time, the ethical thing concerns images that I’ve been putting into this blog. Truth be told, for me there were two issues out there. One, those images that you knew belonged to someone else, and two, those that you couldn’t confirm.
Of course, there’s been the debates and the discussions I’ve seen online. My friend Scott, who has a photography blog, got me into a discussion one day on the topic. My point to him is that I have papers filed with the government proving my copyright, that I can put a symbol on any of my work (I’ve got music and my first book copywritten), and that by adding that copyright symbol at the end of my stuff (and, these days, that copyright thing you see at the end of most of my posts), show that I own the copyright. However, with images, if there’s no watermark, or no copyright symbol on a website, or no attribution anywhere, that it becomes very difficult to figure out whether an image has a copyright or not. His belief is that one can always find it; mine is that at times it’s literally impossible.
Regardless, the issue is still out there. Now, I’m not saying that I’m going to do this for every image, because I sometimes get an image from Imagekind, which I’m an affiliate for, and of course there are times when you know someone put together a mashup of sorts that, if there’s a copyright that’s been violated, so be it, but there is a way to help get around this type of thing.
If you notice, today’s image and yesterday’s image has attribution. It turns out that you can get images from Flickr, a site I’d never gone to unless someone sent me a picture they wanted me to send and it was there, and find images you can use. Seems there’s this search function you can select that will find photos based on a description you put in and, most of the time, they allow you to use the image if you give them attribution and link back to their Flickr page with the image.
I’m not going to portray myself as any kind of genius for figuring this out, however. I got the information from Hubspot’s story titled How To Use Creative Commons To Add Images To Your Blog. There’s a video there, and I’m really glad because I wouldn’t have figured it out without that. And there’s one other thing. Something they tell you that you can do in the video is actually something you can only do if you have a Flickr account, which I won’t because I don’t have any photos that I’m ever going to pop up on any site like that. So, I have to do it the long way, write my code and add the image in a much different way. But no matter; at least I’ve found a place where, if I use those images, I know I’m in the clear.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mitch Mitchell
Formatting Your Images On Your WordPress Blog
Posted by Mitch on Aug 7, 2010
I’ve seen this often enough, and I decided it was time to say something about it.
When you add images to your WordPress blog, do they show up like this:
Notice, it’s sitting out there in its own netherland, not quite falling into place with the rest of my text? That has to be somewhat irritating, because it takes up space and, well, it just doesn’t look all that good. No matter the size of the image, having it pop out like this makes it seem like it’s not a part of the post. WordPress seems to do this as a default for many blogs. There are certain themes that will render the images properly, but for the most part I don’t see that happening with a lot of people.
|
You’ll notice that when I post images, they’re part of my content. it wraps around the image, and is under some kind of control. It’s integrated into things, and I can move it left, right, or in the center if I so chose, although I’ve never wanted to have an image in the middle as far as I can remember.
How do I do it? I add a little bit of HTML code to my posts, and whether or not you like doing it or understand it, I think by showing you what I do that you might like how it looks in your blog posts. And then if you can’t remember it, or even if you do, all you have to do is remember to go back to posts where you’ve used the code, copy and paste it into your new post, and then just change the image link. Having said that, I decided it was easier to show it to you as an image, and this time it’s intentionally in the middle so you can see the code without it disappearing:
As you can see, at least I hope as you can see, it’s not difficult code, but it’ll wrap your text around your image and thus blend things in better; at least that’s how I see it. I hope it’s a helpful tip; any questions, just ask.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mitch Mitchell
Facebook Like Button For WordPress
Posted by Mitch on Aug 6, 2010
In my continuing quest to work on spreading my influence, I figured I may as well add another thing to help figure out just what kind of influence I have, at least through this blog.
 |
Back in June, before really thinking much about this project, I added Topsy, which allows people to retweet my blog posts if they like them without having to sign up for a service like TweetMeMe. This time I’ve installed the plugin called fbLikeButton. You have to put it in just like that, because there are a lot of plugins for the like button for Facebook. However, this one was the highest rated by people who have tried others, and I know why. It was the only one that didn’t require me to go to Facebook and set up a script to use it.
You’ll notice at the end of the post that the “like” button shows up just under my copyright notice. You have the choice of having it at the top or bottom or in both places, but I chose the bottom because it interfered with my “listen” button, and I figured having it at the end of the post make it easier for anyone who liked it and didn’t want to go back to the top. Of course, it would be nice if my Topsy allowed me to do that as well, but I think I like it just the same. You can also make it wider or thicker, so to speak, and you can select “recommend” instead of “like”; I stuck with the regular one. And if people click on it, their names and image will show at the end of your post as well; you get to determine if you want faces to show, and I decided to go that route for now.
What the like button does… heck, let’s just show what Facebook says it does:
“When the user clicks the Like button on your site, a story appears in the user’s friends’ News Feed with a link back to your website.”
And there you are. I hope you “like” this post.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mitch Mitchell
I'm Just Sharing is where I share my thoughts on internet marketing, writing, blogging and many other things. You never know what I'll be posting on. So keep coming back, read, enjoy, and buy! ;)
