I took a nice long walk today and spent my walking time thinking about why I have such a hard time writing regularly for my blogs. I have plenty of ideas, and plenty of time. I decided the reason was I struggle to write posts that I think are a decent length. Like 250 words or longer. Then I realized my posts can be any length I want! Plus, maybe short posts are better. After all, everyone seems to be all aflutter over twitter and that is all about super short posts.
So what do you think, mini (under 100 words), short (100 - 200 words), medium (200 - 500), or long (over 500)? Which is better?
If you are interested in health issues, but more than in just a “surface” type of way, I think you would enjoy Art and Science of Disease Prevention: Lite Version
It is not your typical health and nutrition book. It is a combination of scientific information presented in an intelligent manner, and the art of healing and health. The book is divided into 5 sections.
Section One starts at the beginning and deals with fertility and conception. Included in Section One is an in depth look at chromosomal abnormalities which is fascinating.
Section Two deals with the Nutritional Value of Fats and Oils. I think many of us are still wary of fats and it is important to understand that fats play an important role in overall nutrition.
Section Three was very interesting with its discussion of plant medicine. Especially of interest to me was the chapter on how plant medicine can be used to help with hyperinsulinemia, or insulin sensitivity.
Section Four is the prevention of degenerative diseases. It includes chapters on dealing with menopause and cancer.
The best was saved for last and Section Five deals with Quality of Life and Life Expectancy. Chapters include stress management, exercise and massage. The massage chapter was my favorite because Dr. Roy goes into the importance of human touch. He points out that society often confuses sensuality with sexuality and because of this people are reluctant to touch each other.
Overall Art and Science of Disease Prevention: Lite Version is a very interesting book on health and wellness issues that did not insult my intelligence!
…And I’m Not Coming Back!
Normally I try to stay on the positive side of things. There are plenty of bloggers ranting out there! But today, I don’t know, I’m in a mood, and I just can’t hold it in anymore. Today I am ranting! Here is why I HATE YOUR BLOG!
You have any type of auto play audio.
I don’t care if it your favorite song ever, or if you think it adds to the “ambiance” of your site. I don’t like it. I have my own music, or more likely, I like it quiet. If you have those audio ads on your site that’s even worse. The minute I hear something coming from your site I am jumping for the back button. Hopefully, never to return.
You have “sexy” pictures on your site. And I don’t mean sexy in a good way. I don’t care how good your content is, if I have to look at boobs and butts I’m not staying. Number One. I’m not a 14 year old boy. Those pictures just don’t do anything for me. (And if that is your ad, there is no way I’m going to click on it!) Number Two. I have kids, and parents, and a husband. If they happen to see what I’m reading on my computer I don’t want to have to do any explaining about how those are only ads for other sites, and really, I just read it for the articles.
You try to trick me to click on your ads I hate being tricked. It also tells me that there is no reason to believe anything you write so why should I visit your site?
OK, I know I said 3, but I have one more, a bonus rant if you will.
I can’t find your content for all the ads. I understand making money. I have ads. Ads are great! But if everything above the fold is ads, why should I keep going? And don’t annoy me with flashing, neon colored ads. They give me a headache.
Wow, That was fun! Maybe I’ll do a rant of the week! But enough is enough. What do you hate about my blog?
I was going to write today that I was ending my 30 day blogging challenge early. (The challenge was to blog every day for 30 days.) I have a couple of real exciting projects in the works and I would like to focus on those projects, plus do a better job keeping up with my other blogs. However, I was please to find that I started my 30 day challenge exactly one month ago today, on February 27, 2008. So today is officially day 30.
So how did I do? Well, if you want to be strict, I failed. I posted 26 posts in 30 days, and two of those posts were on the same day. A few of those days I just posted a quote, or a contest, or some “easy” type of post.
But I am not too strict with myself, and in my mind my 30 day blogging challenge was a big success. I have become a better writer, and a better blogger. I spend a lot of time thinking about what would be interesting to post. And, what I am not including in this challenge, are all the posts made on my other blogs. They have also benefited by having more frequent posts. (Although not a post a day.)
I have also decided that I am most definitely a blog addict. I am constantly coming up with new ideas for blogs. I have bought a few domains, just for “someday” when I have time to work with them. I have to pull myself aways from the computer to get some exercise, or to say Hi to my family. Now I just need to find a good way to monetize all these great ideas!
I liked the idea of a 30 day challenge, and I think I’ll go for another one April 1. But this challenge won’t be related to blogging. I will challenge myself to get some form of exercise everyday. I’ll let you know how I do. Would you like to join me? What do you challenge yourself to do every day for 30 days?
At the end of February Google changed it’s Terms of Service. Now every adsense publisher must have a privacy policy.
Here is an excerpt from the new terms and conditions.
You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management.
So I have been spending this evening updating all my sites. I would have been at a loss to write a privacy policy for myself, especially if I had to talk about “web beacons”. But thankfully there are helpful bloggers out in the blogosphere.
Jennifer Slegg of Jensense.com has written an Adsense friendly privacy policy sample and she is graciously sharing it with others. All you need to do is insert your site’s url and you are ready to go. Do you have a privacy policy. Do you think it is OK for Google to require all its publishers to have a privacy policy?
