Bloggers, Website Owners, General Geeks UNITE!
 

Hey! I thought it would be cool to have a thread devoted to sharing links to our work. If you own a blog, a website, or want to share some general geekery, bits of code, etc. Drop it here so we can ooh and aah!

(and no, don't post your competing Butch/Femme website link here! LOL)


I hope that CanMarie will come in here and share the link to her blog. She has a FABULOUS blog documenting her weight loss journey.

I know Linus and several others who have blogs or websites so show me your stuff!!

S'not up to date...I have a huge back log of pics and stuff to go up.

http://scooby63.wordpress.com/

See below. I get a lot of hits from here--I appreciate it, everybody. I think everyone feels stupid writing a blog at first, well, at least I did, but when people read it and come back, it's encouraging.

^tapu~tapu is the actual name of my blog. For some reason, Blogger wouldn't let me have just two tapus in the url.... ?

Afterthought: We should be like the xmas card xchange and xchange hits on one another's blogs!

These are two my blogs:

www.artbymedusa.com

www.tokenfatgirl.com

Oh, well, in the exchange we're only checking out one. >;-)

I'm in the process of reviving my blogs again and perhaps even starting up a new one (work related).

My Syrlinus Blog (about transition, life of a Canadian in the US and just life in general)

My CigarNewbie Blog (about cigars, whiskey and nice fountain pens) <-- this one, interestingly enough, got me an offer recently by someone wanting to buy the domain. It'd take a lot to make me sell any of my domains but certainly it was flattering.

Another blog that I'm hoping to start this year is one related to my work. I'm in the process of writing a technical book and with that, I'm sure, will come all sorts of little tidbits. That blog will be called Virtual Buddha but I'll post that once I have it going.

June did some great logos for me that I've yet to add to my sites so that is the other thing I need to work on this year. (it's a great way for me to relearn some php/HTML5).

the weak spot with my website is the written content

i don't know if this makes sense but there seems to be an online voice that can make the difference between professional or amateur site.
maybe it's text size, font and structure

i haven't been able to put my finger on it yet - all the above sites have it
any tips or hints for written content?

i would totally blog but i can't decide on a title. also, e is threatening to not make dinner if i don't go back to being femme--something in the title should reference my add.

i like dogs.

Oh. I started a blog share thread in the writing section but now that we have this thread I suppose I can delete the other one. Wait, can I delete the other one? Or is that something only admins can do?

I'm a blogger but not a geek. (as you can tell, I'm pretty terrible at computers.) :)

This is a nice thread, I like it. I've visited a few blogs posted already & will try to see everyone's as they post them. I really enjoy blogs & people who keep them. I photoblog mostly although sometimes I will talk about technique, equipment, and inspiration.

My personal photoblog is here: http://faireunvoeu.wordpress.com/

and my shop is here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/faireunvoeu

...and i love visitors!

We could merge them. Do you have a link specifically to it and I'll see how much overlap there is.

That's probably unnecessary since I'm the only one who's posted on the thread so far. But thanks anyway! :flowers:

I think the key is having your own voice and in my (admittedly limited) experience that comes with time. I developed my writing style my first year of college when I missed home like crazy. I kept in touch with my friends through snail mail and wrote several letters a week for about a year. It was much better incentive than a grade. I knew I had to write well to get timely responses. (Or any responses)

But in my day job I spend a lot of time talking with art students. A topic that comes up with every student at some point is personal style. Most of my students are freshmen and the idea of actively cultivating their style is new to them so I suggest they take their favorite 2-3 pieces so far and write as many descriptive adjectives as possible. Find the overlap in the descriptions of those peices and you'll have a start to figuring out what your style is.

Or, ask your friends and family to come up with the list of descriptors. You might be surprised what your audience sees since your experience of the finished product is informed by the process and their experience is just the finished product (among other reasons).

This exercise works with a myriad of art forms from writing to sculpture to dance.

Oh, and on another note, experiment. You may find that you can get comfortable with several techniques or styles but one feels more like "home". :writer:

I hope this helps!

Hey there, t. unless i've missed the link, could you put it here so I can take a look at your text design? I'm not sure if you mean that, or actual content, but I'd like to see both.

Ladyface gave good tips on exercising personal writing style. I have an approach, too, but I'll see what you've got first, if I may.

I think personal style is one of my writing's greatest strength, but I also think it's hard to nail down what it is even when you've got it. A few readers have described mine to me, so I might be able to help pull out yours.

taps

I've let my blog go :(

But I'm associated with a couple of websites.

My good friend and ex (a transman) is blogging from jail. His first post went up today. It's at originalplumbing.com I think of that community as really supportive but there have already been some icky assumptions about his situation and some not very nice comments. Anyway, I'd love to hear what you all think.

love love love (and no more ickyness),

ladyface

Yeah, naming the Blog and describing it pops up first.... I didn't have any idea until I started writing it, but I named it after me, and then put just that in the description: that I'd been staring at it and had to move on if I were even going to have a blog. It worked! I started writing and haven't stopped.

[I can hardly understand that last thing I posted. I think I was having auditory hallucinations at the time. Must have messed me up.]

Hey, Linus, our bright, handsome boy--

I was redo-ing the link in my sig when it came up that "URL is not BB code." Huh? I don't see where I can implant a link down there now either. The tapu-tapu-tapu line is plain text.

Do you know what's up? Thanks! taps

See here: http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/foru...&postcount=153

thank you tapu and 1ladyface
i'm going to go over my current content and try your technique and see what manifests

no link posted yet - my website is for my small business and not a personal website or blog
i'm not sure what the planet's policy is so i think i should wait for now.

i try not to use my own voice because i like to use short one or two line, fortune cookie like sections instead of paragraphs and i don't like to use the shift, tab or a lot of the punctuation keys

not very professional at all

what about appealing to the widest audience possible - finding that balance that will connect with visual, intuitive and aural thinkers

bah - there should be a simple scientific ratio

Gee, that kinda bites. But I get it, thanks.
I'll just pop the link in here for now:

http://tapu-tapu-tapu.blogspot.com/

My latest blog and project below in my sig. www.sachitacollective.com in fact I just built it yesterday and it will document our work here building the farm into a sustainable organic community.

I also have www.farmgoddess.com seriously needs updating.

Then of course there is my main farm blog www.dancingcreekfarm.com

This is fun. I am interested in seeing what everyone is up to. I love decorating blogs and found this really cool graphic artist Itkupilli
who shares blog designs for free. I adore her: http://blo64rt.blogspot.com/

I have two blogs:
This one is related to a radio show I produce here in Austin on Holistic Health. It includes pod-casts, guest info and articles some of my co-hosts have written.

Tales from the Golden Cabinet

This one is Erotica and I really need to get back to writing on it:

Touching Strangers

Interesting situation in my Blog hits lately:

I have one or two hits a day that show the incoming link as part of "google open social blah-blah," which often shows up when someone with a blog also on google hits me.

These were looking like someone might be using a proxy because each hit was from a different country: Italy, Germany, Slovenia (is there even still a Slovenia?), UK, South Africa. One came in from Luxumbourg, and I was like, "Gee, buddy, what's the other guy in Luxumbourg doing while you're on my blog?"

Anyway, I was able to trace a few down and it would seem that they are all from blogs in a spanking ring! As in, straight guys wanting women to spank them. They're very explicit sites.

I'd figure it was one of the random weirdnesses of the internet, but I'm wondering about how unrandom it might be. Certainly I know more than what I figure the average person might know about such a thing. Did some connection get made somewhere and I'm not aware of how? Bleh.

Also, I do participate on an international fetish forum. Just definitely not that one. Could things, though seemingly unrelated, come through there???

I figure if anyone will know, we will. Anyone know?

somespankblog.blogspot,—Linz, Oberosterreich, Austria

It's possible, if you advertise your blog there. Additionally, keep in mind that this particular forum, IIRC, is open to guests (not all of our forums are but this one might be).

That said, it's likely spammers. They just want to post random crap on your blog in an attempt to advertise whatever it is they are selling or promoting (kinda like the guys who leave fliers under your windshield wipers at the mall). Just moderate your comments and check afterwards.

Tapu, I have rounds of the same kind of visitors from time to time. I was told they were spammers. They are mostly from Eastern European countries. You have a neat blog, I enjoy your writing and photos.

Ah, thank you both. Their pattern makes them seem like spammers, but they haven't posted any comments yet.... I think I'll just keep an eye out for that and otherwise let them play in my sandbox. I do wish they'd wear pants to do it, though.

quick update:
thanks to all the helpful tips above - i've spent the last several weeks tweaking the written content of my site and it's 100% more appealing to me.
thanks everyone

i have another question and i'm having a hard time deciphering information i've found online

i am currently using a free slideshow module that contains a hidden backlink to the developer
there seems to be conflicting opinions on how or if this will affect the users web ranking

any opinions here?

My clicks are starting to pick up on my blog a little bit. I've found that posting current news articles with my own commentary helps a lot.

Recently purchased a dedicated server to host all of my blogs. Cheaper than individual hosting (much, much cheaper) and all of my tools are in one place. Hostgator rocks!

Wordpress is where it's at!

Oh yes girl! You can use it strictly for blogging but Wordpress comes with tons of plugins that operate very similarly to full blown websites (galleries and shopping carts!)

It's one of the most user-friendly platforms available! IMO of course!

wordpress has lots of cool themes and add ons

but

i use joomla myself - and i like it

I got into some joomla today and it feels pretty familiar. Might go a little further with it to stretch my comfort zone.

I migrated 3 of my personal blogs today to a new hosting company and am proud to say it was super easy and I didn't lose any data. Moving ALL of my hosting away from Godaddy.com and will begin moving the domain names I have registered there pretty soon as well.

Anyone working on new projects lately?

Well, I did the unthinkable - I made a Facebook page to help my photography along. I'm really pretty anti Facebook but all the professionals tell me, you really need one to be successful in today's marketplace. {insert 12 year old eyeroll lol} So I did and here is the link and it is clickable:

https://www.facebook.com/faireunvoeu/

And, I'm hoping some of you who do enjoy Facebook will stop by and "Like" me? I think that's the key to getting my page shown to folks; the Likes. Well, that and reviews and quality work. For those of you who don't know, I specialize in children's (6 mos - 6 yrs) photography. I am willing to travel as well if anyone is interested.

At any rate, wish me luck! And again, if your a Facebook user I would be so appreciative of a thumbs up if you could manage that. Muchly love & thanks in advance.

Smart!

Facebook certainly has its place with helping get the word out!

And, as you already know, Instagram is HUGE for advertising! I only got into Insta about 18 months ago and have been finding my way around with daily photo challenges. Started a page for the planet about 3 months mago and we are at over 1100 followers already and a LOT of engagement.
I saw an article recently that Instagram has outpaced Facebook as a media growth market and is on par with Youtube as being the fastest growing social media ad platform.


(I love this shit!)