Danny Brown's Blog, page 28
February 26, 2015
The Writing Process
It’s pretty hard to write about your writing process when there isn’t a specific writing process to write about (try saying that three times late on a Saturday night!).
While I completely understand that there needs to be some kind of flow, to be honest that’s not how my brain’s wired.
Given I’m juggling a lot of hypothetical balls (and I’m worse than Mr Magoo when it comes to juggling), the chances I get to write “properly” are few and far between.
However, since the kind ladies at Morning Rain...
February 24, 2015
The Smoke and Mirrors of the Self Publishing Game
This is a guest post by Jenn Grainger, and is taken from her awesome comment on my recent post about your best work.
This isn’t a post about sucking eggs. If you do want to do that, you can find some tips about doing so here.
Instead, this is a post for people who have a good book in them, but aren’t so sure about navigating all the smoke and mirrors that can come with self-publishing.
The launch phase lasts one week, where ranking with Amazon will succeed or fail.
There are skills you need befor...
February 19, 2015
We Are All We Have
We’re born with our eyes closed, and we leave with them closed.In-between, for however long we’re on this planet, our eyes are open.
And yet, sometimes, it feels like they’ve stayed closed since our first breath in the open air.
We see colour, but we see it as something that makes people different and not in a good way.
We see love, but it’s the wrong kind of love if it’s between people not of a different sex.
We see beliefs, but we rip them down and start wars to force our own beliefs on others....
February 17, 2015
A Social Conversation About Social Conversations
For the last few months, I’ve been thinking about how content is panning out, both from a creation and distribution angle.
As someone whose blogged since the late 90’s, it’s been interesting to watch the medium evolve from simple text on a screen to full-on media rich experiences, not to mention seeing how social media has swallowed some of the mainstays that were previously exclusive to blogging.
Perhaps one of the things that’s changed the most is the area of conversations. It used to be they...
February 12, 2015
Your Best Work is You
If you were asked to give someone a link to your best work when it comes to your content, what link would you share?
For me, some spring to mind, but what’s to say they’re my best work? Perhaps my favourites for whatever reason – but best? I don’t know. And what defines our best work?
Is it the educational post about using the latest social media tool or application?
Is it the blog post about a charity that we’re involved in that hopes to change the world?
Or is it just an ordinary post, talking...
February 10, 2015
Why I Don’t Want You to Come Back to My Blog Post After You Comment
One of the things that continues to intrigue me when it comes to content is how we interact with each other after reading a post.
I’ve shared various thoughts on how I see digital conversations evolving, and how we need to close the loop more on making the experience the best it can be for everyone involved – blogger, reader, subscriber or occasional visitor.
Due to a change in how readers consume content and how they discuss it afterward (and, more specifically, where they discuss it), many bl...
February 7, 2015
A Look Under the WordPress Hood at DannyBrown.me
Every now and again, I’ll get asked what plugin or solution I’m using on this blog to achieve a certain effect or result.
Because I use self-hosted WordPress to power this blog, it means there’s a crazy amount of add-ons, plugins and other optimization and performance solutions for bloggers to choose from.
While that choice is great, it can also be overwhelming.
Since I’m a self-confessed geek that likes to try out pretty much most things on this blog in the name of experimentation, I’ve used a...
February 3, 2015
Brands and Marketers Won’t Ruin Social Media – Consumers Will
There’s a popular saying that marketers ruin everything. As a marketer, I agree and disagree.
Yes, crappy marketing by brands, or crappy marketers in general, ruin social media. Yet that’s been true of any crappy marketing, and it’s not restricted to social media.
Let’s face it, crappy anything ruins something.
A crappy experience with a customer service adviser who’s having a bad day can ruin your perception of a brand;
A crappy meal can ruin your special evening;
A crappy update of your favourit...
February 2, 2015
Important Message for RSS Subscribers – This Feed is Moving
Two and a half years ago, I moved my blog from Google’s Feedburner service to Feedblitz, due to concerns over the continuation of Google’s service.
Because of these concerns, it made sense to make the switch to Feedblitz to ensure delivery of this blog by either email or RSS.
Unfortunately, the experience with Feedblitz has been a poor one. Very limited email templates, delivery issues, and wonky metrics that fluctuated all over the place made for a frustrating time – especially for a paid serv...
January 29, 2015
We Are the Creators of Hate
My kids are aged three and five . My daughter, Salem, is three and my son, Ewan, will be five in May.
Both of them go to school. Salem goes to a “pretend” school, meaning she goes to private daycare, and our daycare lady takes Salem to a little school each morning where other kids her age play and learn. It’s almost like junior junior kindergarten.
Ewan goes to full-day junior kindergarten (he started last summer) and has had a blast making new friends, learning new things, discovering who he...
