Posted in the Daily Photo series
In honour of the month of December
Poetry & Photography
If you see the sunset, does it have to mean something? If you hear the birds singing does it have to have a message?” Robert Wilson
Saturday Sunset, Part Two
An ordinary Saturday
On a December’s eve
Stepping into a sleigh
For a ride to leave
On a track
To watch the sunset
The colours a reminder
Of the season’s binder
Posted in the Daily Photo series
In honour of the month of December
Poetry & Photography
“I envy people who can just look at a sunset. I wonder how you can shoot it. There is nothing more grotesque to me than a vacation” Dustin Hoffman
Saturday Sunset, Part One
“The sky is on fire, the sky is on fire!”
The peasant from the ancient times shouted
As the red clouds into the skies sprouted
Running as fast as he could
Before the skies on him fall would
Simply out of fear
Not knowing of the beauty so near
Shivering in his cellar
Like an old yellar
Some hundreds years later
Not a sunset hater
Eagerly awaiting
A sunset most breathtaking
Posted in the Daily Photo series
In honour of the month of December
Poetry & Photography
“We live in a strange bubble” Brian Molko
Life in Bubble
Living in a bubble
Peeking through Hubble
Getting into trouble
Always on the double
Trying to snuggle
Always a struggle
For the couple
After all,
Living in a bubble
Usually decouples
Blogging 201, Branding and Growth: Day Five: Make the Most of Your Archives
“I think I am about 5 for 500 when it comes to successful ideas vs flops” Jeremy Schoemaker
Blogging 201, Branding and Growth: Day Five: Make the Most of Your Archives, Part One
The internet is ephemeral — you publish a post, and it sinks to the bottom of your blog before you know it. You’re competing with breaking news and dealing with short attention spans.
Readers and search engines love seeing new content on your homepage, but you can keep things even fresher by highlighting your archives: your best posts, hidden gems, and timeless content. After all: if a reader just found you, it’s all new to them!
Today’s assignment: integrate a feature to draw traffic to your older content like a widget, related posts, or a “Best of” page.
Why do this?
* Because a go-to page compiling your best posts is the simplest way to get readers to your content — you never know which post will pique someone’s interest, so make the good ones easy to find.
* Because while your About page does a great job introducing you, a curated selection of posts further illustrates your perspectives.
* Customizer to promote older work in your sidebar and footer, including the Top Posts and Page Widget, Archives Widget, and Categories Widget. These widgets automatically pull in archival and popular content — they’re quick, easy additions to drive traffic to older work. Each widget has configuration options, so you can control how much real estate they take up.
* Activate the Related Posts feature, which analyzes the words in each post, searches your site for similar posts, and displays related content at the bottom of every post.
GO TO: Previously on Rantings Of A Third Kind…
Blogging 201, Branding and Growth: Day Three: Get Read All Over
“In many parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water” Nancy Gibbs
Blogging 201, Branding and Growth: Day Three: Get Read All Over, Part One
Over the past few days, you’ve been brainstorming about your brand and thinking about the elements of a well-designed site. None of that matters if readers can’t view your site properly across various devices.
Today’s assignment: make sure your site is mobile-friendly, and familiarize yourself with the features of responsive design.
Why?
Because a responsive website looks great on all screen sizes, from computer to tablet to phone.
Because there are mobile tools built in to WordPress.com — there’s no need to know web development to have a mobile-friendly site.
We’re a culture on the go, no longer just reading on desktop computers, but consuming information on the phones in our pockets, and sharing thoughts from iPads at 35,000 feet. People read blogs on phones — on the subway, in line, in the bathroom, just before they go to sleep at night.
In the Theme Showcase, you can choose from lots of “responsive” themes: they’re built to look great across all devices, and “respond” to different screen sizes by adjusting themselves. (While some older themes aren’t responsive, these days all new themes are.) If you’re not sure if your theme is responsive, check its description page; you can also search specifically for responsive themes.
You can use the Customizer to “test” your site on different devices — this allows you to see how responsive design works, and you can also play with options to find the perfect mix that makes you happy on the big screen and the small.
To launch the Customizer, head to your blog, click on “My Sites” in the top-left corner of the screen, and click on Customize. You’ll see these symbols near the bottom of the customizing tools:
From left to right, these symbols represent desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Clicking between them emulates the look of your content on different screens. Go ahead, click on one and watch your blog shift.
If you have a responsive theme…
… you may find that you want to make some changes — that font you loved might be too cramped on an iPhone, or you might not love the way your header changes on your Nexus. Sometimes, responsive themes move and condense different elements of your blog to create a better experience, so you’ll want to make sure you’re happy with how your widgets and menus work.
Make tweaks in the Customizer, and preview them on different screen sizes to make sure you’re satisfied with your blog’s look across all kinds of devices.
If you don’t have a responsive theme…
…ensure your site looks good on phones and tablets by enabling Minileven, a mobile-specific theme based on the Twenty Eleven theme. Any WordPress.com blogger can use Minileven for their mobile site without affecting their standard theme; your blog will automatically detect when someone’s using a phone or tablet.
Note: you don’t have to activate Minileven if your current theme is already responsive — you’ll see a note in the “Mobile” section of your Dashboard if your theme is already mobile-friendly.
Minileven has a clean design and pulls in your custom header (along with other tweaks, like custom colors or CSS), to give your mobile blog a personalized feel that’s simple and readable. To make sure it’s enabled, go to the Appearance → Mobile tab in the WP-Admin part of your dashboard and select “Yes” next to “Enable mobile theme.”
For more convo, head to The Commons, where your co-bloggers can check out your blog on their own phones and tablets, and give you a heads-up if your mobile experience could use an adjustment.
Blogging 201, Branding and Growth, Day One: Set Three Goals
“Don’t procrastinate. If you want to blog, then blog.” Fritz Chery
Blogging 201, Branding and Growth, Day One: Set Three Goals
Day One: Set Three Goals:
Welcome to Blogging 201: Branding and Growth! We’re excited about what we’re going to cover over the next two weeks, and we’re glad you’re joining us for the ride.
Today we want you to do a bit of thinking about your blog, so you can focus the next two weeks effectively.
Today’s assignment: consider what you want to accomplish with your blog. Write down three concrete goals.
Why are we doing this?
* Because writing down goals forces you to think carefully about what success means to you — “success” is different for everyone.
* Because having goals helps you focus. If something you’re doing isn’t helping you achieve your goals, ditch it.
Here are some questions to mull over to help you uncover/refine what’s most important to you about your blog:
Why do you blog? For notoriety? To get a book contract? To self-publish? To establish yourself as a leader in your field? To gain followers? To connect with others? To clarify your own thoughts?
If your blog exceeded your wildest dreams, what would that look like? Would you have a different design? How many followers would you have? How much traffic? What sort of community would participate? How often would you post?
Answering these questions helps you create a vision for your blog. Next, translate that vision into three specific goals. You can articulate your goals however you’re most comfortable, but we recommend making them simple, concrete, and time-based to create laser-like focus, like:
* Gain 20% more followers by January 15st.
* Increase average daily hits 30% by the middle of 2016.
* Publish three times each week during December and January.
* Spend one hour each week visiting my followers’ blogs, reading, and commenting from now until February 1st.
* Establish a new weekly feature on my blog by January 1st. (Throwback Thursdays, Wordless Wednesdays, Soup Sundays), and publish that feature each week through 2016.
* Create an editorial calendar for the next 90 days by December 31st.
* Gain 100 new Twitter followers by February 15th.
* Publish posts from three guests over the next three months.
* For bonus points, write a post detailing your blog’s goals and publish it. Making your goals public ups your accountability. Your readers will cheer you on, and might even find ways to help you achieve your goals.
Create a private page on your blog to keep track of your goals, or just write them on a post-it note — whatever works for you.
Stuck on what to pick for your goals? Not sure what’s actually reasonable? Head to The Commons to bounce ideas around with fellow challenge participants. You know the old saying: 1000 heads are better than one!
Poetry and Photography
Photo challenge for PhoTrabloggers Mundane Monday
“This is a challenge created to find beauty in almost everything. The challenge is simple : find beauty in everyday mundane things, capture the beauty and upload the photographs.”
MUNDANE MONDAY CHALLENGE #36
“I have always tried to live by the ‘awe principle.’ That is: Can I find awe, wonder and enchantment in the most mundane things conceivable?” Craig Hatkoff
Mundane Monday, 2015-12-07, Part One
Looking out the window
Cannot find a rainbow
Closing all the curtains
Feelings of uncertain
The weather I cannot bend
But at least I can pretend
Turning on all
The colourful lights
In my mind
It is white and bright
At least before it’s time
To make my way outside
Posted in the Daily Photo series
Poetry & Photography
“You can be the moon and still be jealous of the stars” Gary Allan
Early Morning Sunrise with Crescent Moon, Daily Photo 2015-12-07, Part One
The storms have finally passed
The moon its light trying to cast
The sun pushing its way with a blast
Daylight waving its flag in the mast
Oh how I wish this forever could last
But only for a passing moment
Then it’s all over way too fast
Darkness has covered the skies alas
Posted in the Daily Photo series
Poetry & Photography
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky” Rabindranath Tagore
Calm Before the Storm, Daily Photo 2015-12-05, Part One
Painted red is the evening sky
Clouds gathering before the eye
Time standing almost still
Feeling anxious from the thrill
It is the moment of calm
Before the coming of the storm
Posted in the Daily Photo series
Poetry & Photography
“The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to” Carl Sandburg
December Moon, Part One
Partly hidden
Behind the soft clouds
Playing chicken?
Or just a misty shroud?
Rantings Of A Third Kind 