Blogging 201, Branding and Growth: Day Four: Give ‘Em What They Want

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Blogging 201, Branding and Growth: Day Four: Give ‘Em What They Want

Time to take a step back. Live with the design you have for the day while we switch gears and start focusing on your content. We’re diving into stats to learn more about what your readers love.

Today’s assignment: do a basic stats analysis to help you create an editorial calendar for the next 30 days.

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“There are lies, damned lies and statistics” Mark Twain

Blogging 201, Branding and Growth: Day Four: Give ‘Em What They Want

I have been following the statistics of my blog since day one, six months ago. Call it anal, call it interested, call it day job orientated motivation 😉 Keeping track on who, when, why is interesting. I quickly started utilizing the categories and tags for the posts. This helps on many levels; search, number or posts, statistics.

Due to working in full time employment in a completely different area means, that when I arrive back home, I start my second (albeit unpaid) job. This means all the brainstorming, writing and photographing happen between the hours of 5pm and usually 2 am, sometimes I am up until the sunrise next morning if I really have my inspiration on.

Since I am posting on daily basis now, with current setup of at least one poem and some photographs, there is no time to accumulate a backlog and vary the posting times. Luckily for me, this posting time (midnight for me) usually tends to be the busiest. Even my statistics sheet agrees!

My topics are as the blog tag line states: “Blog about everything and nothing and it’s all done in the best possible taste.” Meaning the content can be open to most every topic I can imagine. Possibly due to the simple fact, that humour plays a big role in most postings and adding photography to the mix, my followers seem to range from all ages and genders. Of course it is impossible to please everyone all the time, but I do have quite a few returning visitors and I try to do the same to my followings as well.

For statistics there is one qualm I have: those people who are not part of the WordPress community, cannot press the “LIKE” button. My followers by email only, exceed by two thirds the number of followers in the community. This also means I don’t get feedback from the email followers, unless they write me email or respond in the other social media forums.

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Throwback Thursday 2015-12-10

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“By Thursday morning, we’d gotten over the worst of it” William Scranton

Throwback Thursday 2015-12-10

Today is time for a walk down memory lane again and dig into the archives of Rantings Of A Third Kind since the beginning of time. Well at least from the beginning of this blog 😛

Here are a few featured today:

Life is a Musical (number) (Repost for TBT)

musical

Chocolate is The Answer, Who Cares What the Question is! (Repost for TBT)

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I may not be Everyone’s Cup of Tea, but I am Someone’s Double Vodka (Repost for TBT)

tea-vs-vodka

Let the Rantings continue!!!

throwbackthursday

Reflections, Two

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Writing 101, A Poem A Day, Day 2: Reflections
Poetry & Photography

On water, in puddles, in glass, in mirrors – reflections can clarify, blur reality, or fracture it altogether. They can serve up surreal images or a perspective that’s unexpected. Whether it’s street light-reflected raindrops or the sky distorted in a half-melted patch of ice, reflections are nature’s funhouse mirrors.

Reflections are not limited to non-living objects. Our bodies reflect our internal health and our clothes reflect our lifestyle. We also reflect internally upon our world, our physical state, or on ideas bouncing around inside our skulls.

Clear or distorted, in your poem today tell us something about the reflections you see — in the world or in yourself.

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“Style is a reflection of your attitude and your personality” Shawn Ashmore

Reflections, Two

Through the looking glass
Reflections from present and past
Mystified images mirrored
In your mind’s eye forever

reflections-1

Reflections, One

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Writing 101, A Poem A Day, Day 2: Reflections
Poetry & Photography

On water, in puddles, in glass, in mirrors – reflections can clarify, blur reality, or fracture it altogether. They can serve up surreal images or a perspective that’s unexpected. Whether it’s street light-reflected raindrops or the sky distorted in a half-melted patch of ice, reflections are nature’s funhouse mirrors.

Reflections are not limited to non-living objects. Our bodies reflect our internal health and our clothes reflect our lifestyle. We also reflect internally upon our world, our physical state, or on ideas bouncing around inside our skulls.

Clear or distorted, in your poem today tell us something about the reflections you see — in the world or in yourself.

reflections-6

“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection” Winston Churchill

Reflections, One

Reflections on the walls
Reflections on the windows
The sunsets and sunrises
Reflected on each surface

reflections-4

Blogging 201, Branding and Growth: Day Two: Audit Your Brand

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Blogging 201, Branding and Growth: Day Two: Audit Your Brand

Some of us have purely personal sites to discuss the day-to-day, while others use our blogs as a springboard for other projects. No matter which describes you — or whether you’re a bit of both — you’re not just a blogger: you’re a brand.

You may never be Coca-Cola or Apple, but you can still use good branding to grow your blog.

Today’s assignment: audit your brand — look at all the ways you communicate information about your blog to make sure they’re consistent and focused — and make one update to reinforce it.

confrontational-audit-committee

 

“I always do a mental audit at the end of the week to make sure I’m balancing time between my career and my personal life” Jill Wagner

Audit Your Brand

ROATK

A blog about everything and nothing.
Fiction, fact, poetry, odes, homages, photography.
Humour, yet some serious thoughts.
And it’s all done in the best possible taste!

 

You can never go wrong with black background, white font and with a touch of gray, especially when photos are concerned. And since my blog is mostly about the photographs and the stories, then the outlook is excellent!

My current theme, The Visual Theme, serves well for both the written word and the images. The font and colours came with the theme and the simplicity pleases my eye at least for now. I have gotten a few compliments as well, so I know I am on the right track.

Rantings of a Third Kind, with the slug “Blog about everything and nothing and it’s all done in the best possible taste!” pretty much describes the nature of the blog, the writer and the contents. I do not really rant about things, but I like to keep that option open for the future;) I also have visions of adding more content like videos, short and longer stories, serials and photo stories to the site. A travel blog is in planning. Therefore I prefer not to tie the knot with any specific genre, format or subject.

My user name is my name, well, with a twist of course 😉

I also registered the domain for the site “rantingsofathirdkind.com” but am yet to implement the name change for the blog. I also have a domain for my user name “gunroswell.com” with an introductory page set up for the same.

I have used widgets to create more visibility for searches and links. Also keeping a calendar of the posts on the main page. In addition, advertising the community I follow.

I have accounts in Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, LiveJournal and Pinterest. This to advertise my postings to a wider audience outside the WordPress world. I have quite a few hits on Google alone and if you Google my name, site or use any of the tags for example from the fandom/homage posts, you can be certain my links will pop up on the top in a search!

For photographs, I also share them on Instagram, Flickr and the 500px community.

 

Tag line:
Rantings Of A Third Kind
Blog about everything and nothing and it’s all done in the best possible taste!

Contact and email:
A separate page for the contact form: https://atomic-temporary-83380856.wpcomstaging.com/contact/
Email address: gun@gunroswell.com

 

fit-for-purpose

900 Post Celebration @ Rantings Of A Third Kind

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Celebration time on Rantings Of A Third Kind

redballoons

“I blog, therefore I am”

900 Post Celebration @ Rantings Of A Third Kind

900th

Today is a great day and certainly a time for celebration!
I have posted my 900th post on Rantings of a Third Kind.
Thanks to all my followers and readers for keeping me going!

Keep calm and keep on blogging!
Gun

blog def

Magic (Part Two for Writing 101 Poetry)

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Writing 101, A Poem A Day, Day One: Magic
Poetry & Photography

Magic-Quotes2

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work” Colin Powell

Magic

Like a flick
Of the light switch
Like scratching
A really bad itch
I had started writing
Once more
Just like that
Just like magic
I found my muse
And I did it

mac-1

 

Blogging 201, Branding and Growth, Day One: Set Three Goals, Part Two

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Blogging 201, Branding and Growth, Day One: Set Three Goals

 

“Blogging isn’t about publishing as much as you can. It’s about publishing as smart as you can.” Jon Morrow

Blogging 201, Branding and Growth, Day One: Set Three Goals, Part Two

Day One: Set Three Goals

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?

All of the above, but then again, none of the above. Confused? Good! That means I got your attention 😉

Why did I ever start a blog you ask? Well, there really is a very simple explanation to that. In the prehistoric blogging ages, you know those, when the dinosaurs roamed the earth… Ok, so maybe not that far back. Let’s go back some ten years, before the times of today’s so called social media and blogging. People actually wrote and published on the internet, but those days it was more personal and tight knitt groups who wrote and followed each others’ writings. I used to be one of those people.

In the here and now, everything is easy and you can post your thoughts, life and pretty much anything your heart desires and there are others who either a) read and enjoy what you have to offer or b) read and hate it. Simple as that.

Still not convinced?
Well, I like to write so, there. Simple truth, now written “out loud”.
Guess a book deal, a script deal or similar wouldn’t hurt either 😉

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?

I would actually pay good money for someone with similar vision and time to revamp my site. With the limited time I have for this “night job” which I like to call my blogging, I barely have time to write and snap photos, never mind the outlook of the pages. The knowhow is there, the time is not. I rather spend the precious time I have for writing and leave the admin to someone else.

As my blog states, everything and nothing for anyone and no one, so the net is cast wide and as far as dreams go, well, I would like the world to enjoy my offerings, both written and visual. I would prefer to post eight hours a day, have it as a full time job. The good deyeties know I have enough material to last a few lifetimes. However, the reality is, after some full ten hours on the paying job, my night shift on the blog takes only second priority before sleeping and eating of course 😉 However, that being said, I am currently posting every day at least a poem, photo and a theme per day. I am also taking part in quite a few challenges and of course, Blogging U courses!

So to summarize (or to make a promise):
1) Never miss a day of blogging
2) Keep in touch with the community
3) Try on new things (for the blog) ;P

Keep Calm and Keep On Blogging Everyone!

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Throwback Thursday 2015-12-03

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“By Thursday morning, we’d gotten over the worst of it” William Scranton

Throwback Thursday 2015-12-03

Today is time for a walk down memory lane again and dig into the archives of Rantings Of A Third Kind since the beginning of time. Well at least from the beginning of this blog 😛

Here are a few featured today:

Ode to My Mac(intosh)

mac

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot

tea

Put Me in a Box, Why don’t You

boxed

Pure Energy

lifeenergy

 

Let the Rantings continue!!!

throwbackthursday

Four Options For Coffee (Repost)

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“Coffee – the finest organic suspension ever devised. It’s got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it”Captain Kathryn Janeway

coffee 3

The Four Options Of Coffee

1) Good
2) OK
3) Drinkable
4) Yak

How to recognize bad coffee:

1) Looks like tea, doesn’t taste like tea and certainly not like any coffee you’ve ever tasted!
2) Sticky gooey stuff sticks on your tongue: Looks like tar, tastes like tar!
3) Your face twitches in a funny way: Not funny good, but funny bad.
4) Coffee with milk: Except when it’s ice coffee, with lots of coffee, a little ice and hardly any milk.

You know it’s an excellent cup when the coffee is:

1) Black.
2) The spoon melts in it before you manage to stir.
3) You have a burned after taste in your mouth for several hours after your last cup of the day.
4) It’s ten o’clock in the evening and you are still drinking it.

Note: Why you would actually stop drinking coffee at any hour is beyond me!

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