Our office Christmas party is being held December 11th.

I optimistically rsvp’d for myself + 1.

That leaves me  34 days to find a +1.

Is your computer out of action? Use the time to improve your blog with these six activities as suggested by Ali from Alpha Student.

Even the most ardent bloggers will occasionally find themselves without computer access. If you’re just lacking an internet connection, you can at least write posts – but what can you do when all you’ve got is a notebook and a pen?

Whether you want to make use of your commute or lunch hour, whether you’d like to squirrel yourself into a corner at boring family events, or whether you’d just like to get a bit done towards your blog whilst standing in line at the post office, here are six computer-free activities that will help your blogging.

1. Generate Ideas

Have you been blogging for a while? If so, do you have times when you feel like there’s nothing new left to write about in your niche? That means you need to do some quality idea-generation. This method is incredibly easy – and it works:

1. Write the numbers 1 – 50 down the side of your piece of paper (you may need several sheets).
2. Set a timer for 20 minutes.
3. Write an idea next to each number – before the time runs out!

Don’t worry if you have some ideas which are a bit similar, or some which don’t seem to be full posts. You might find that one idea will form a series – or that another can be a sub-point in a longer piece.

Once you’ve got your stock of ideas ready, you can…

2. Plan Next Month

Wouldn’t it be great to have a month of posts planned out in advance? If you normally write on whatever’s in your head and hit “publish” straight away, you may realise you’ve spent two weeks covering pretty much the same topic each day – and your readers are getting bored.

Sit down with a notebook, and work out how many posts you want to publish in the next month (e.g. about 13-14 total if you’re aiming for three a week). Now figure out a title or topic for each of those posts, using your list of ideas. You’ll want to consider:

• Rotating between different categories to maintain reader interest
• Planning a mini-series, or posts with follow-ups, to help make your blog sticky
• Mixing up longer, in-depth and shorter, snappier posts
• Trying slightly different tones; humorous posts, list posts, “open thread” posts…

The great thing about planning ahead is that you’ll start getting ideas churning away for some of those different posts. That means it’s time to…

3. Brainstorm A Post

Write the title of your post in the middle of a blank piece of paper, and start a spider diagram:

image by -nathan

This is a very simple and effective way to help yourself think laterally about the topic of your post. Jot down the main points that come to mind which you want to address around the central circle, then start thinking which points you could link together. If any points spawn new ideas, add those on. (Warning: depending on how in-depth you want your post to be, you might need a large piece of paper!)

When you’re back at your computer, you’ll find that writing posts becomes almost effortless when you’ve already set the foundations by figuring out a solid structure for your post. You may want to add a few extras to your piece, though, so how about using some computer-free time to …

4. Take Photographs

I tend to get my images from sxc.hu and Flickr, using the excuse that I’m a rotten photographer – but with great blogs like Digital Photography School out there, I know I’ve only myself to blame for not taking the time to learn!

So why not try snapping some of your own images for your blog? You might even want to get someone to take a few shots of you for your “About” page. (Readers love to see what you look like!) If you’ve got cute kids – or cute pets – you could include them too.

If you feel your head-shot would frighten readers away, then how about going back to that list of posts and figuring out what images you might need? For example, if you’ve got a post titled “My two cents on the state of the blogosphere”, you could take a snapshot of … two cents. Think laterally too; how about someone stirring a pan as a metaphor in a post about the process of letting ideas simmer into life? Outdoor shots – flowers, trees, landscapes – can make great all-purpose images.

If you’re bored of photography by now, why not …

5. Read A Good Book

Have you ever noticed that most bloggers cite examples and give quotes from other bloggers? It’s rare to see a book quoted in a post – yet, in any field, there’s a huge amount of in-depth, thoughtful and well-researched content in books. If you’ve fallen into the habit of getting all of your news, views and facts from blogs alone, try picking up a book or journal in your field. Every time I do this, I find a new idea to blog about.

Not all niches have a host of magazines on the shelves: if you’re blogging about something obscure or very new, you might not be able to find any related publications. Reading is still valuable: you’ll find inspiration in unlikely places. Titles and headlines – from mainstream magazines, not just niches ones – just might spark off a train of thought that leads to your next brilliant article.

By this point, you might be getting tired of all the idea-generating, planning, brainstorming, photo-taking and reading. If so, it’s time for the last non-computer blogger-friendly activity…

6. Have A Break

However passionate you are about your blog, there’ll be times when you get stale, jaded or just plain worn out. Everyone needs to kick back and relax: and yes, you do have time. Of course you want your blog to make it to the Technorati Top 100 – but you need to be ready for the long haul in order to make it there.

Blogger burn-out is no fun. Don’t run yourself, and your blog, into the ground. If you find yourself with an enforced computer-free day, for whatever reason, use it as a great excuse to unplug. Go to a movie, head to the park, prowl the mall, or whatever it is you enjoy. By taking some time out, you’ll return to your blogging refreshed and enthused. You’ll be looking forward to hitting that keyboard again!

If you’ve got a great tip for blogging without a computer, why not add it in the comments?

Ali is a postgraduate student and professional writer. She runs Alpha Student (grab the RSS feed), a blog which aims to help students get the most of their time at university.

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In a move that demonstrates a commitment to web technology, President-elect Barack Obama has named a Google executive and a Launchbox Digital cofounder to his transition team.

Julius Genachowski, from Launchbox Digital a DC-based web incubator investment company in the order of YCombinator and Techstars, IAC and Rock Creek Ventures comes to the team with a tremendous amount of value and knowledge. And he’s one of our own.

Sonal Shah comes from the Google.org Philanthropy branch of the internet search giant and is also a former executive for Goldman Sachs.

I guess the takeaway here is that grassroots is power (Launchbox Digital) and that an Obama administration believes in “Don’t be Evil.”

One of our key cornerstones for an Obama endorsement was his commitment to advancing the technology and science sectors here in the United States. This is a great start in the right direction.

[Source: CNET]

A girlfriend of mine just sent an e-mail out this morning about her upcoming big new-relationship step to meet the parents. This is indeed a huge step. My last relationship failed because, after a year, I still had not even met the brother.

My friend was having a mild heart attack over what to wear, what to say, etc. and I was reminded of the last time I did meet the parents. I was still in University,  so the fact that the bf was living at home was ok. He played football, so he obviously couldn’t get a job to pay for his own apartment (go Rams!).

I was really nervous about meeting the mother. (After having dated him for 3 years, she still scares me). I really wanted to make a good first impression. At the time, I only had two categories of clothes, dressy (cause I worked in a shoe store) and super casual (cause I was in school). I thought something in between was more appropriate.

I called on my bff at the time for help. She lent me some khaki shorts, a sweater vest and a golf shirt. I looked like I just came from a freaking tennis match. It was soooooo not me. But I thought it made me look respectable, from a good family, all that jazz.

The second the bf opened the door, he burst out laughing; which instantly made me feel like a dork and totally put me at unease. Then, still chucking, he brought me back to meet the fam. I was so nervous. Then when the mom looked me up and down, saw the nervousness and uncomfortableness on my face, she began laughing too. My face went beet red and I’m pretty sure I began speaking in tongues because I forgot how to speak english.

Here is how the conversation went. I remember this because the bf reminded me about it over and over again throughout our relationship:

Mom: So, what movie are you going to see?

Me: Don’t. Know.

Mom: What kind of movies do you like?

Me: Don’t. Know.

Mom: What theater are you going to?

Me: Don’t. Know.

Mom: Well, did you drive here or are you going to be walking?

Me: Don’t. Know.

Should’ve had a shot of tequilla before that night.

The end of an era has arrived for a legend in computing. Windows 3.1, the first widely accepted foray into graphical user interface operating systems from Microsoft, has reached its End of Life.

The BBC covered the story noting, “[It] helped Microsoft establish itself and set the trend for how it makes its revenues, and what drives the company until the present day.”

While Microsoft stopped releasing the OS as a desktop operating system years ago, licenses were still being issued as it was apparently wildly popular as an embedded Operating System. The BBC points out, to my surprise, that it is even being used on Virgin Atlantic and Qantas airlines to power the in-seat entertainment systems for their long-haul flights. Note that this does not appear to be the case with Virgin America that appears to be using a Linux variant, as we covered over a year ago.

To me, it seems that Windows 3.1, while it was certainly lightweight by todays standards, is a bit overkill for an embedded operating system. Certainly, mobile phones tend to benefit from Java ME (Blackberry smartphones, for instance, are run on Java), Symbian which is wildly popular among Nokia phones or event the .NET Compact Framework usable in Windows apps on mobile devices.

Of course, mobile phones are not the only mobile devices. Every electronic device that does anything has some sort of embedded operating system that might be a embedded linux variant, or the like.

The trick for embedded operating systems is that they must live in a very small memory space and typically are feature limited to essential functionality usable in a miniature device. Windows 3.1 ability to live in the reserved 640k memory space of a DOS environment made it sexy for this kind of application (keep in mind that Windows Vista requires a minimum of 1GB of memory, so do the math on technology differences).

@ECHO OFF
LH /L:2 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX /D:MSCD000 /M:15 /E /S /L:D /V
LH /L:0;2 /S C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\SMARTDRV 2048 16 /V
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MODE CON RATE=32 DELAY=2
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MODE CON CP PREP=((865) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EGA.CPI)
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MODE CON CP SEL=865
LH /L:2 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\KEYB DK,865,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\KEYBOARD.SYS
LH /L:2 C:\MOUSE\MOUSE
LH /L:2 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DOSKEY /INSERT
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\CTSND
SET DIRCMD=/P /A
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET SOUND=C:\CTSND
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:G
C:\CTSND\DIAGNOSE /S
C:\CTSND\SB16SET /P

It’s been a good 18 years, not that I miss Windows 3.1 all that much. I got my start on Apple IIc and moved quickly to an 8088 before beginning real learning on an i286 running Windows 3.1. This was back in 1990, so there’s a bit of nostalgia here. Congrats, Microsoft, for making a game changer.

I have been woefully neglectful of this blog for the last couple of months – this I know.  Im woefully neglectful of this blog anyway, huh?  Maybe I need to start running my Twitter feeds through it again, so at least you know where I am. 

So, whats been going on? 

• Im whoring myself out to get Christina Loves rolling – and its doing well.  And its tons of fun.  And its pretty!  3 for 3!  Guy Kawasaki and the fine folks at Alltop added me yesterday to their beauty page, so something is working for me.  I have joined Glam again, but am waiting waiting waiting patiently to get set up over there. 
• Marshall’s father is tremendously ill with encephalopathy, a side effect from liver failure.  It is unbelievably sad to see and the progression is so fast.  Ryan (my stepson and recent LSU graduate) has moved here to stay with Dr. Jones (Poppy, as he is affectionately known), as he needs 24 hour supervision as of the last couple of weeks.  Oy.  Thank God for Ryan.  Take care of yourselves – you need your liver to work.
• Survey crews have been here this week and staked off our property so we can get the deed and start bulldozing!  We live in an 80+ year old house on Nunn Jones Road that was built by – guess who – Nunn Jones.  Marshall’s grandfather.  And it is not only falling down, but it is a firetrap.  I was thinking last night that I bet a licensed electrician has never cast a shadow on this property.  The Jones’ are a family of men – my husband has two brothers, their father has two brothers, and I think there *might* have been a girl in the generation before, but Im not sure of that at all.  So these manly men can do it all themselves, and they have.  Here.  For 80+ years.  Do you have any concept of how much stuff I have plugged in here in my office?  Oy again.
• We had a hoppin’ Halloween party for Zoe’s friends on Halloween night.  They didn’t do much but lots of “he-ing and she-ing” (and some hilarious bobbing for apples) but seems like they had a good time.  No trouble other than one smoking kid (cigs, nothing illegal), and my Noah, who at 10 yrs old chose to stay at the party instead of go trick-or-treating, and lets just say he learned a lesson or two.  As did I.  Thank God for Rock Band – it sucked some of those high school kids in to play with him, so the night wasn’t a total wash.
• My new job is going fabulously.  For the first month or so I felt a little lost, and wasn’t really sure what to do with myself, but I now have a to-do list a mile long, and feel nice and cozy.  I think I work a lot better with a long to-do list.  I am easily distracted when I’m not on a mission.  Have I mentioned Beautyfix?  Check it out – it totally rocks.  And go sign up for the newsletters at Blush if you haven’t – once Beautyfix is going strong I’ll be working on getting Blush going.  Right now it is just newsletters, but before long it is going to be SO. MUCH. MORE.  I can’t wait!  This move was the best decision I have made in a very, very long time.  Probably since I decided to marry Marshall.  Someone was definitely watching over me on this one – the timing was almost too coincidental.
• We bought a snotty new Mercedes.  We had Mercedes’ when I was growing up – I have always really REALLY loved them.  Marshall and I both drive 10 year old SUV’s, and not only are his weekly trips to and from Texas City incredibly gas hoggy, but the risk of the Tahoe breaking down is getting worse and worse.  Especially since he SHOT it.  :P  Marshall doesn’t do stranded, so new car it is.  It’s a sedan – I am holding out for a vintage convertible.  And a VIP ticket to the next Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.  One can hope, right?  Me, I’m just thrilled we got a car loan in this crappy economy.  Cross your fingers for the home loan.  Did I mention I hate debt?  Well I do.  We have almost none now – shortly we are going to be up to our eyeballs.  Lovely!
• I am in the process of moving all of my websites over to Wired Tree.  Thanks to Joe for the fabulous recommend.  Siteground is officially oversold and telling tons of folks that they are over the CPU limits – even folks that don’t have anything but a regular old blog.  They have kicked 2 of my sites off now, and I am done and taking everything with me.  When I started with Siteground they were so nice and had such amazing customer service.  I loved their UI – they were fab.  Not so much anymore, and while it makes me sad, I am growing up and learning to manage my own server, slowly but surely.  Good stuff.

So I guess that is the long and short of what’s going on at the moment.  Not too much, but plenty just the same.  I am *so* not ready for the holidays.  It’s hard when its 85 degrees still.  Hope you have a great day!

One way to build awareness, brand, credibility and buzz about your blog is to appear in mainstream media (read more about the Benefits of being featured in Mainstream Media).

A lot has been written about how to get your blog featured on other blogs - but how do you get press coverage whether it be TV, Radio, newspapers or magazines?

Image by tozzer

Following are a few tips on how I’ve done it:

Develop a Unique Story

One of the best tips I can give is to really think about the story that you’re pitching to journalists before you approach them. If you simply contact the editorial staff of a mainstream media outlet and say that they should write about you without giving them a unique angle they’re unlikely to respond positively (if they respond at all).

Stories about a blog are not that exciting to write - so what angle can you give them? What have you done, experienced or achieved that is going to grab people’s attention? What relevance does your story have to the readers or viewers of the media outlet?

Note: you don’t just manufacture these stories out of nothing but if you’re on the look out for opportunities they do come up. They might emerge out of a post that you write that gets attention, causes some controversy (controversy is a great way to get media attention), gets picked up by other blogs etc - or it could even emerge out of something that someone else does that you could comment about or that you’re featured in.

For example I was featured in a ‘top Aussie bloggers’ list last year and shot a link to the list to a national newspaper - the story got picked up with me as one of the bloggers featured.

Think (inter)National AND Local

I know one blogger who complains every time that I bring up mainstream media that he’s never had any success. When I ask who he’s pitched his story to he tells me that he’s approached the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC and a few other top tier news outlets.

While I commend him for thinking big - a more successful approach is likely to be to approach not only the big guns but smaller outlets. For one you’ll increase your chances of success in approaching a more local outlet - but you might also see the story picked up by larger media outlets (or you can use it to pitch to them later).

Write the Story

I’m not suggesting that you fully write an article when pitching mainstream media - but I’ve found that when I pitch a story and when I do a little extra work in showing how the story might look that journalists sometimes take what you present them with and build upon it.

So do some work on your pitch. Provide the media outlet with any facts, figures, stats or quotes that might help the journalist do their job more quickly and efficiently.

Be Approachable

Sometimes it isn’t a matter of pitching your story to mainstream media as them approaching you. This grows as your blog and profile grows but you can enhance your chances of being approached by being contactable.

An essential item for blogs should always be a way to contact the blogger. Whether this be by providing an email address, phone number and/or having a contact form - if you’re able to be contacted (and make it easy to be) you’ll drastically increase your chances of being approached.

Also useful for this is developing an about page that contains the type of information that journalists are looking for. Include information like your biographical information, links to a FAQ page and even a specifically written Press Page that shows how other press outlets have covered your story.

Press Releases

I’ve had limited experience and success with writing press releases but know at b5media that we regularly use them and that they are very useful - particularly when launching new blogs/portals.

You can learn more about the power of Press Releases here.

Build Profile

Perhaps the most important thing to do is to work hard at building a fantastic blog and having a great profile in your niche.

I’ve found that as I’ve done this that mainstream media outlets have increasingly come to me and that on the occasions that I’ve approached them that they’ve been much more open to covering me.

This of course comes with time and you can’t manufacture it over night - but I say it to give bloggers having problems getting on the radar of media a little encouragement - stick at it and build a great blog and it’ll come in time.

Keep In Touch with Journalists

If you do strike it lucky and get featured in a story - keep the contact details of the journalist that writes the story. If they’ve written one article they might be willing to do another. Also let the journalist know that if they ever need a quote for another story that they are writing that you’d be willing to take their call.

11 Tips from my Friends on Getting Media Coverage For Your Blog

I asked my Twitter followers for their tips on getting press coverage for blogs. Here’s some of what they said:

1. “If your writing to try and get press coverage be emotive, timely and topical - demonstrate ’special’ or ‘insider’ expertise” - keithdon
2. “1- easy to find contact info; 2- photo of self & decent bio; 3- blog trends, hot topics” - alizasherman. She also tweeted - “My miscarriage blog was featured in More mag. I was blogging a “controversial” topic in a daring way. Got noticed & featured.”
3. “Break the news so the press use you as the source. Has worked multiple times for me.” - michaelmeloni
4. “Keep blogging your niche and the reporters will find you. And when they do contact, jump at the chance to help them.” - GrantGriffiths
5. “Treat traditional media like you would want 2 B treated; don’t spam them, read their stuff 1st, be concise, give links 4 more” - CathyWebSavvyPR
6. ” 1) write quality content 2) have clients that write quality content and reference you” - leahmac
7. “Be bit controversial, write press release for them (they lazy) be original.” - theworstofperth
8. “provide constructive criticism when everyone else is bitching about a problem and you’ll be noticed” - MadLid
9. “give your blog a spit shine before press release. Check spelling, grammar and theme errors. Be prepared for a big jump in hits.” - beanfair
10. “Start small. Offer something eg tips, advice, short column to local newspaper. See what works then go for the bigger papers.” - bussogardener
11. “Media coverage advice for bloggers- Be honest, be brief, and find a relevant hook. I’ve had success with the press doing this. ” - BJMendelson

To be included in future lists of ‘tips from my friends’ - follow me on Twitter.

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If you’re looking for some SEO teaching and have a spare 30 minutes you might find this video presentation by Stephan Spencer at a recent WordPress event.

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Now that the election is over and we have an understanding of the numbers that were put up by both campaigns, I think we can safely say that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill both killed the McCain campaign and reinforced social media at the helm of communications for the future.

Let me explain. There were over 120 million votes cast (a conservative number at that!) in yesterdays election. That is almost all of the eligible voting population, or approximately an 85% turnout rate. Obama raised nearly $900M for his campaign and spent nearly $860M of that.

What happened over the past 2 years has been simply extraordinary. McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act was passed in 2002 to much fanfare by placing strict regulations on “hard” and “soft” money. Hard money was money contributed directly to a candidate while soft money was defined as money contributed to a party for discretionary allocation. Usually, soft money was tied up in “issue based” advertising that benefitted a candidate indirectly.

McCain-Feingold imposed limits on how much money could be contributed to a campaign by special interests. This placed the “money support” mandate in the hands of individuals. Obama capitalized on this by extensive use of grassroots campaigning. Jay Voorhees calls it an Open Source Presidency.

Through the use of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and text messaging, he locked in the Gen X and Millenial votes and raised more money with grassroots efforts (”Donate $5, please”) than any other campaign in history.

Social media friends here in DC went to Florida, Virginia and Colorado to ensure that the vote was turned out for Obama.

Special interest had little role in this election. Passionate people rallied and inspired, contributing frequently in small amounts, powered this victory.

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign tried to run a traditional campaign subject to the rules that the candidate himself authored in 2002.

Victory will always go to the individual who is able to adapt to changes in the landscape and Obama clearly did that better than McCain.

It try not to be too picky when it comes to the men I date, but I do have a few deal breakers. 3 things I will not put up with in a relationship:

1) unemployed (I don’t make nearly enough to support two people)

2) lives with his mother (I can’t believe I actually have to say it, but I know too many men who still live in their mother’s basements

3)…

Ok, it’s really just 2 things.