Your Comment is Awaiting Moderation…NOOO

Comment moderation seems to be the big thing now. Whenever I leave a comment on a blog and press the Submit button, I get “your comment is awaiting moderation. It will appear when the blog owner has approved it.” I’m starting to see this more and more. I can understand personal blogs doing that. I’ve had people, who I knew in real life, stalk my blog and leave rude comments whenever they could. This happens a lot with personal blogs, so if the blog owner wants to moderate the blog, then I don’t see anything wrong with that.

However, business blogs are increasingly getting into this practice and it doesn’t make sense. The rules don’t apply to them like they do with personal blogs. I’ve gotten my share of rude comments on my blog posts. It sucks when I see them, and I do get the urge to delete them, but I don’t. The best way to show your professionalism is to handle the comment head on. It will make your readers think “Wow, this person has got it going on,” and it will give you a sense of accomplishment.

Business blogs, take that moderation off.  If you are worried about spam, get something like Akismet to manage it.  If you are worried about rude comments, deal with it.  Not everyone is going to like what you write, so all you can do is accept that and move on.  It discourages people to leave anymore comments when they see the moderation message pop up.

How To Rock Your First Blogger Meetup

meetup.com meetup, originally uploaded by urzzz.

This past week, I went to my first Blogger Meetup.  I had never been to a meetup before, so I decided to check it out.  We mingled, networked, and discussed our expertise with one another.  On that day, I learned what it takes to be a Rockstar at your first Blogger Meetup.

1. Smile – If you read a self-help book, the first thing they always say is to smile even when you don’t want to.  It helps to relax you, and it helps to attract people to you.  Even if you are having a bad day, and you decide on going to a meetup, force a smile.
2. Make Your Name Tag Stand Out – Usually in meetups, you have to write your name on a name tag that you display on your shirt.  I noticed that the people who caught my eyes were the ones who decided to doodle a cute design on it, and/or wrote the URL of his/her blog. 
3. Introduce Yourself to a Group – You do not want to be staring at the floor while everyone around you is networking.  Swallow a huge gulp of air, and approach the group who seems to be having the most interesting conversation.
4. Have an Elevator Pitch – First impressions are extremely important, and usually in these meetups, you only have one chance.  Create an elevator pitch, memorize it, and use it.  However, learn to make it sound natural because nothing is worse than a robotic pitch.
5. Educate Yourself – If you are new to blogging, educate yourself on the basics (e.g. different blogging platforms, terms, and methods).  Nothing is worst than a bunch of people talking, and you are totally clueless as to what they are referring to.

My first Blogger’s Meetup was amazing, and I am excited to attend the next one.  I met some wonderful people who knew what they were talking about and had passion for blogging. Here are the blogs of the people who

• A Glenn – http://jenesaisrein.blogspot.com & http://aureliaglenn.wordpress.com
• Dave Newman – http://groovysoup.com
• Margie Newman – http://flackrabbit.com
• Kier Duros – http://www.durosia.com/
• Kathleen Canedo – http://brutalism.net
• Mike Licht – http://NotionsCapital.com
• Pat Thibodeau – http://DCBlogs.com
• Yali Friedman – http://biotechblog.com
• Joe Logon – www.joelogon.com/blog
• Shevonne – http://freeagentwriter.com (moi)
• Bill – http://clarendonnights.com
• Marie – http://blog.mermedia.com
• Leon – http://www.ListenToLeon.net
• Jade – http://jadxia.livejournal.com

Twitter Could Be a Mini FriendFeed

Twitter Real Time Inline Search, originally uploaded by TimCohn.

Last weekend, I got an alert from TwitterMoms, which is a social networking site for mommy bloggers who tweet. It was for a virtual wine tasting via Twitter. How it worked was that you used a hash tag when you posted a tweet related to the wine tasting. In another window, you had a “real-time” search to follow the conversations.

One of my complaints about Twitter is that it is rare when there is a bidirectional conversation. It’s usually one way. Yes, my interactions have gotten better the more people I follow, but it’s still not what I want.

The virtual wine tasting was the first (and only) times that I felt I achieved that. However, I don’t think that Twitter should call it “real time” because it wasn’t. For the early adopters of FriendFeed, it’s like the old “Standard” view. In order to see the new tweets, you had to keep refreshing.

Other than that, I have to say that I was impressed because it showed the potential for Twitter to become a microblogging service with bidirectional conversations. For now, Twitter needs to play catch up.

I am happy that I participated.  I met some great mommy tweeters who I never would have probably found in another way. =D

Three Ways to Stop Copying Other People’s Writing and Images

The Internet has made plagiarism as easy as pressing Copy + Paste.  I was reading the forum of one of my LinkedIn forums when I came across a post labeled “Attention All Bloggers – Read At Once!”  Mike Clough wrote how someone had copied his post for word-for-word, and had even taken his images. Here is what he said:

“A terrible thing happened to me last week. After being really excited about the popularity of a post I made to my blog (the most views ever by 300%) I began to research why I had such a great response. Unfortunately, I found something that really upset me. It had absolutely nothing to do with the popularity of the post but it did cause me to take action. I found that another blogger had ripped off my post word for word (even the graphic I used) and posted it on his blog without even giving me credit or links back to my blog. Upon further investigation, I found that every post on his blog was ripped off from some other blog. Not a single one of them was his own. Over the next view days I learned a lot. I learned this is a very common practice (it is probably happening to you as well if you are a blogger) and I learned how to get the plagiarized copy removed from the offending site.”

Even though I know that this is rampant on the web, I never really thought that this could happen to me.  Usually I hear people talking about images, but never actual blog posts.  After reading this, I looked through WordPress plugins and found one called “Copy Alerts” to find one that scans the Internet, and if it finds one that is similar to your post, it will shoot you an email.

If you are going to use someone’s post or his/her image, all you have to do is one of the following things:

1. Shoot him/her email.  You never know.  All you probably have to do is trackback to the original post or image.
2. Use APA style for citing sources.  You can do like I did above.  Put quotation around it, italicize it, and link to the person who said it.
3. If you need images, go to Flickr.  There are plenty of images that have the “Blog This” option.

It’s time that we stop taking other people’s work.  They spent their time and energy to develop something that they are proud of.  More often than not, all you have to do is ask.  If there is a chance that the person says no, there is usually another post or image that the person will probably say “yes.”

It’s like my mother always taught me.

“Treat others the way you want to be treated.”

STOP the Insanity! Create a Blog Schedule

I am starting to write for more than one blog, so I have decided to start relying on a blog schedule. A blog schedule is a great way to organize and structure your blogging, so you don’t miss any deadlines and are on top of things. Below is the chart that I created:

I am going to take this and implement it into my Google Calendar, so I can get reminders and view it in my Gmail or iGoogle.

Here are some references to create your own version of a blog schedule:

• Develop an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog [Day 12 - 31DBBB]
• Make Time for Blogging with a Schedule
  
• Creating A Blogging Schedule

Have you created one?  What tips or advice can you give to people on how to create a blog schedule?