I’ve begun to feel a convergence lately—of tools and motivation, of desire and actual potentials toward reality, of wherewithal and professional and personal need, of hubris and humility. I ain’t all that good at this social media thing—and I need to be. And so I’ve determined to more directly invoke my editorial calendar and focus on the task at hand: writing productivity.
Two quotes that say a lot have crossed my radar screen in recent days:
”Honesty begets clarity.”
Attributed to Kendra Copper, you’ll find this little nugget all over Twitter. And more often than not you’ll find it posted by a Buffer user, as it’s one of the better cheat tweets that tool will provide you when you want to top off your queue (Inspire me!) and are hurting for something original to say. It happens.
This quote has oozed its way into me since I first encountered it. At a glance, sure it makes sense as creator’s advice. Burden your work with the warts of your true thinking and feeling, and you will unburden it of convoluted and misdirected fog.
And so it is that I’ve determined to shift the focus of this blog from a knee-jerk collection of resources and reflections, to a more focused exploration of my varied professional and personal passions. By inserting myself more honestly and directly into the text, I expect greater clarity of message to naturally emerge.
”Thought leaders are thought leaders because they write.”
This one originated with Tac Anderson, pitted against its converse “Thought leaders don’t write because they’re thought leaders.” Now whether this is universally true is less important than the fact that it needs to be true for me. To beget my own clarity, my brain has been fashioned over the years less for creatively entertaining original thought—I have them, just not for pay—and more on better presenting the thoughts of others. Any original concepts of merit that I’ve come up with on my own were iterated from scraps of transcription meticulously kneaded, hammered, and sculpted. Handling them as if they were the thoughts of another has been my route to productivity. It will be again.
I’m simply not the kind of blogger that can rattle off a thousand words and hit the Post button. I’m more measured by training, for better or worse. So it is with great deliberation that I present these four new years resolutions…
New Years Resolution #1: Post Regularly
Speaking of great quotations, da Vinci said “art is never finished, only abandoned.” That’s another of my favorites. In it is two lessons. First, any project overworked sacrifices its focus and value at the altar of scope creep. So one should communicate one’s core message, then stop. Second, only through frequent “abandonment” of your projects to the scrutiny of your imagined audience, can you hope to build a body of work that holds together, that speaks to who you are, and ultimately turns that audience from imagined to quite real. (Pretty highfalutin for a guy simply trying to suss out enterprise software, right?)
So I’ve built a simple editorial calendar for this blog that blocks out writing time in my schedule and provides guidance enough to develop and publish one post per week. Life may be what happens, but a weekly post makes for a serviceable aspirational blogging goal.
As a tools guy, I’ve also done an audit of my social media management and production applications—particularly with the arrival of the iPad to my workflow—and have come to a streamlined quiver of helpers to keep the juices flowing. Remember the Milk, Feeddler, ifttt, Evernote, Scrivener, WordPress: these tools are so helpful I’m tempted to write an entire post about them (and someday I may just do that).
Important today, though, is my commitment to commit more.
New Years Resolution #2: Clean up Old Posts
I’ve migrated from blogging platform to blogging platform—starting with Movable Type back in the day—and while each handled formatting, categorization, and tagging a little differently, I’ve not always been diligent about updating old posts to maintain or improve usability.
After exploring Blogger, Posterous, and Tumblr—and perhaps some others over the years—I’ve settled on WordPress, as it’s completely web-based, includes the management features that are important to me, and offers a wealth of ready-made and stable blogging templates (like the attractive and very usable template I’m using now).
So updating the back catalog would seem a suitable resolution as well: not busywork, mind you, but a sincere effort to drive more value out of my own archive. Audit the metadata and the older posts get new life. Standardize the formatting and they develop a consistent sense of belonging. Thus, with a cohesive body of work, I can more clearly see my blogging trends and the evolution of ideas.
For you experienced bloggers out there, this may seem like a no-brainer. For someone of my particular chemistry, however, it is the product of much deliberation and a bridge I had to find and cross on my own. I’ve read enough teaching about writing to know that it can’t be taught, and enough about project management to know the list of best practice is exactly as long as the list of successful projects.
True dedication to this medium has demanded of me a particular honesty of approach that’s taken years to come by. With that honesty barrier broken it’s far easier to divine the tasks necessary to move forward. Knowing where I’ve come from, what I’ve moved through, what ideas I’ve explored, abandoned, and built from—these are all drivers of a personal platform that can only become healthier and more vibrant moving forward.
I look forward to revisiting this past, rediscovering its merits and warts, and growing right along with the product.
New Years Resolution #3: Update Social Profiles and re-engage
Staying with the growth theme, it’s been some time since I conducted a holistic examination of my personal brand. I’ve got profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and more that may for all I know include inconsistent or contradictory messaging.
If this blog is to be my digital home base, then it makes sense to draft an “About Me” page that speaks to who I am both professionally and personally. On the blog, there’s no space or formatting limitations; I can craft a statement that reflects where I am now and link outward where appropriate to other places and platforms.
From there, it’s simply a matter of updating my social network profiles to match, respecting the spirit and limitations of each, and linking back here for the full story. Blog first is the mantra.
The second half of this resolution is packing up this updated, more focused identity and traveling back into those same networks, reintroducing myself, re-engaging.
I have my favorite tools here as well, and will surely discover more. So I won’t take the space diving too deeply into my engagement process. Process will and must constantly evolve anyway. For now it’s far more important to have something to say and to say it in a voice that’s genuine. Process will take care of itself.
New Years Resolution #4: My Topic
Finally we arrive at the meat and potatoes of this post, that peculiar and vague light toward which I walk: the purpose for this blog.
In 2009, Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone, two established designers and experts in the field of social computing, leveraged their experiences at Yahoo! and elsewhere and compiled an excellent book called Designing Social Interfaces
These electronic connections and social tools are changing the way we interact with one another. We believe that these tools can be designed and simplified to help normal people expand their online experiences with others. These social patterns of behavior and the interfaces to support them have emerged and continue to evolve as we find better ways to bring people together.
Social patterns are the components and pieces of interactivity that are the building blocks of social experiences. They are the best practices and principles we have seen emerge from hundreds of sites and applications with social features or focus. They are the emergent interaction patterns that have become the standard way for users to interact with their content and with the people who matter most to them.
No one would argue that humans have always been social creatures. Social media is the web’s natural and inevitable response to the twin exigencies of increased global access and Moore’s Law. Aside from our inherent and inherently human natures, social patterns, as outlined by Crumlish and Malone, are the underlying reasons why half of Internet users worldwide interact with social media on a daily basis, why half a billion dollars were spent on social media marketing globally in 2011, why 1 in 5 Americans have a Twitter account, and why the nation called Facebook can claim to be the world’s third largest by population.
So impressed was I with Designing Social Interfaces—with its reduction of that chaotic and ever-mutating world of social design into a framework of simple structures—that, naturally, I began to ask myself how this mode of thinking could be brought to the world of work.
After a couple of false starts and preliminary sketches, I cooked up a pattern framework of my own. Starting with the bits of Crumlish and Malone that most speak to me, I stirred in the traditional patterns I’ve witnessed in my career as designer and communicator, seasoned with the hallmark capabilities of enterprise tools such as SharePoint and Salesforce.com with which I have experience, and paired with refreshing takes on the classics of management wisdom passed down through generations of successful corporations.
So it’s a work in progress.
I call it the “Enterprise Social Patterns Framework” for lack of a better title. Right now it exists as a couple of diagrams and a sprawling resource outline in Evernote. Today I make it my task to detail it here in this forum. In so doing, I hope to crystallize my thinking on the subject, re-grow some healthy writing habits, and learn from those practitioners and others willing to engage in this conversation on the evolving nature of work as a verb.
Bringing the energy, efficiency, and empowerment of the consumer web into the enterprise is an important job. That’s why there are many great thinkers, writers, and organizations diligently working on that task today. My work—beginning here, today—is to curate my journey through the subject and reflect on those developments that most speak to me. To beget my clarity.
And while I do this work for that critical audience of one (a little too critical sometimes), I invite your participation as reader, perhaps as foil, and as partner in the journey.
Great goals Dan. Glad I was able to play a small part. Here’s to a great 2012.
Thanks, Tac. I’m a fan.
Oh my…I think I need to do #3 as well. I’m terrible with that one…haha.
Fantastic post and Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed! 😀
P.S. And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you as well!
Hahahahaha I think someone just wrote my thoughts out. Well, I don’t make resolutions because I end up not doing them but then, these are really the things I need to work on. Great post 🙂
I love the idea of tackling New Year’s Resolutions from a blogging perspective — as a full-time freelance writer (and a blogger who doesn’t blog as frequently as I should), I’m fully focused on goals this year.
I do believe 2012 will be the year of my first book. Based on my blog. So half the work is done, and even more work is “done” every time I post. Win-win!
Thank you for the inspiration and for reminding us all about some of the important aspects of writing and goal-setting. Your tips about “cleaning up old posts” and re-engagement are my big take-aways from your post.
Congrats and best of luck in 2012!
Cleaning up one’s blog is crucial. After that, depending what you’re aiming for, interaction is needed. A blog is only as good as it’s readers. I can keep a diary if I wanted to write my feelings. So, interaction is critical, at least to me.
But you’ve taken the first step and it’s the best step to take. Good luck on your journey, and happy holidays.
Val
http://valentinedefrancis.wordpress.com
Great post. I need to get much better at engaging twitter and other social media that’s not Facebook! I really like “honesty begets clarity” too, haven’t come across that one before!
I just posted my Resolutions for 2012 on my own blog @ http://oracularspectacular.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/12-resolutions-for-2012/
Being brand new to the blogger world, I found your article extremely informative and helpful. I look forward to reading more of your articles in order to educate myself regarding social media and blogging.
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
Last year I made the writer’s resolution to submit three pitches or stories a week for the entire year. Sadly my plans were derailed last April when my life got a bit hairy. Doesn’t mean I can’t try again in 2012.
I wish you the best with your New Year’s resolutions. May you stick with and benefit from them no matter what life brings your way.
boondoggle.
Indeed, such is life. We are all a work in progress.
how well do you think you will do? I know I dont usually do a very good job on mine.
Honored to learn this post made Freshly Pressed… “The best of 323,883 bloggers, 715,307 new posts, 413,995 comments, & 157,798,071 words posted today on WordPress.com.”
If that doesn’t add a little pressure to the resolution-keeping, I don’t know what will! 😉
How does a post become freshly pressed?
That’s awesome! I think I would feel the same way. Probably something like this…
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay! That’s so aweso…. Oh crap!”
Congratulations and good luck.
You’ve got almost a decade of blogging archive! I am sure equally elaborate social networking history. I hope someone to your rescue develops a tool to assist with your organization. Congratulations on being freshly pressed. It’s a moment of pleasure not pressure. Enjoy it.
Doing the same thing with my own blog. I just finished a class in social media marketing and have decided that I need to make my blogging presence more professional and to change the way I blog about personal things. I like your to do list. I have a recurring issue of posting before the editing is fully finished. It’s pretty humbling that I keep making the same mistake!
I spend so much time writing, reading other posts, and responding that I can’t imagine spending even more time with Facebook and Twitter. Do you think this attitude is short-sighted, or is this what writers in 2011 have to do to stay current?
Ronnie
Those are great New Years Resolutions! I’m still trying to get a hang of using my blog and social media outlets to reach my readers and branch out. It’s a lot of work that never ends but it will certainly pay off. Good luck to you!
momentum progress betterment of your self in life as well in cyber space.. keep up the good work..
after reading this post, it has truly pump up my motivation to make my blog a better one in 2012 😀
And this writer’s 2012 resolution(s) is/are to get published.
Great resolutions! May have to steal one or two of them.
BTW, congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
Wow, that sounds like an enormous task! I find that once you have a plan wrapped up in a neat little package that meshes together, there’s a sigh of relief. And then you try to accomplish that task, and wonder why you ever started in the first place. However, you seem a seasoned blogger enough to give a good run at it. Good luck to you!
http://sywsoyouwanna.wordpress.com
I will need to take a week off to read them all – but it looks like I will enjoy myself.
I’m down with this. I’m right there with ya! Let’s become great thought leaders!
I’ll interject a quote a professor told me: “Write what you know.” The quote was from Flannery O’Connor. Reading your post, that quote immediately came to mind. As writers, that’s what we all do. As a person, I’m a bit discouraged that I don’t have as many adventures or experiences in my lifetime. But I wrote a story about breaking out of that shell. I do have a lot of pain, and I use writing as an avenue to convey those hurts.
Like most of the bloggers out here, I’m working on a reflective/resolution post. It’ll carry the tone of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” It may take some time, but I’ll get it done.
All bloggers have a lot of blogging to prepare resolutions for the year 2012. While I still do not prepare at all: (. Sad really, but it does not matter. Previously known greetings from me, the blogger from Indonesia.
Good luck! 🙂 Also, if any, what are your thoughts on leaving Facebook?
Interesting. thanks for sharing.
thanks dan, as a relatively new blogger i learned a lot from this post. And love the Da Vinci quote!
Thanks buddy, that’s a whole lot of motivation
I would suggest you blog more than once a week. I have found very few bloggers who post consistently and who offer truly dazzling content. The most essential element, for me as a reader, is a voice so compelling I can’t to hear it again — not just a pile ‘o info.
Congrats on being FP and good luck with the New Years Resolutions. I find the word NYR too much to muscle with so I have replaced it with “Simple Aims” and kept them short, check it out – http://bit.ly/smwswV
All the best for 2012.
Excellent ideas. Sounds like a lot of work for the new year. Keep up the good work! Congrats on making it to Freshly Pressed.
Congratulation on years of successful blogging! I, too, tend to be a slow writer (by some standards), but most of the time I’m not writing to deadline. As for social interaction, well, I’d rather be hidden behind a laptop
thank your information good…
Awesome Resolutions. I definitely like the first resolution. Keep up the good work! and check out my blog at theincircle.wordpress.com
Great work and Merry Christmas!!!
Have a great day,
Tom
http://www.PhotoBotos.com
your post inspired me to write more often and give new life to my blog! So, you are my first person to “follow” in the blogging world- here’s to more writing!
Great resolutions.
Thanks for the post, good thoughts. Must be great with your blogging history to be reasonably asssured that people what to read what you have to say. For me, still the biggest question I need answered over the next months as my blog develops. Although its a bit Catch 22, there is a balance between investing time and wasting time.
Good goals, and interesting examination of your writing/social media life and persona. Is the writing around your picture purposely in that Latin-looking language, or is that a filler text, like Apple uses in Pages? It’s distracting, since I can’t read it. I always wondered about it when I first started working with Pages, wondering if it’s a real language. Congratulations on being Fresh-Pressed!
‘Lorem ipsum’ is filler that’s used in templates etc to illustrate where text could appear in the layout. It’s based on Latin but deliberately nonsensical so that the viewer doesn’t get distracted by reading the actual content of the text.
Interesting, huh? 🙂
Thoughtful post. I’m curious to know what people think about length of posts in blogging. When I first started blogging, one person said 1000 words was too long and I agreed, managing to work my way down to about 500 per post. Then someone said it was too short. Maybe it’s the quality of writing that counts and not how much or how many? Best of luck!
James LaForest
http://dayreturn.wordpress.com/
Good question. I try not to go much past 500, and to break the post up into paragraphs to give the eyes a rest. There’s something different about online text than printed text, I think.
This is very true. It is the quality that matters. Its the quality of this post that drew me in.
Wish was in your shoes. Keep the spirit for ever.
Good post, Daniel. This gives me inspiration to add some struture to my own blogging journey. Resolutions are easy to make–difficult to keep. Best of luck in your journey. Getting there is half the fun.
Russell
Good post, Daniel. This gives me inspiration to add some structure to my own blogging journey. Resolutions are easy to make–difficult to keep. Best of luck in your journey. Getting there is half the fun.
Russell
Congratulations and good work.
https://schroedernotes.wordpress.com
You might like “lol…OMG” by Matt Ivester if these are your goals for the New Year. It’s a helpful book about polishing your online image.
Good for you, Daniel. I’m off to make my own now. Will check back in a year’s time for your progress report!
These are good…I hope you can keep them. Just remember that if you don’t, you are being beaten by a sophomore girl that has way less free time than you. Yes. this is a competition.
Great resolutions. Thanks for sharing 🙂 made me think about my blogging, posting and the ways I could do better. Good luck…
A good list. Resolutions for writers are an interesting collection – Really there is only one – Write as much as I can next year… write ’til I can’t write no more.
http://billchance.org/
Thank your inspiring me and giving me such valuable tips. Now if I could only turn off Friends and focus! Lol, oh well, I have until the New Year right?
I’m new to blogging, please let me know what you think
http://www.helesetalks.wordpress.com
Oh, and please excuse my typo in that last comment…lol
Thanks for the thoughts. I agree that blogging at least once a week is a must – it keeps readers’ interests and forces you to take blogging more seriously. I also like the honesty bit – your the second person to mention it as a key ingredient to successful writing. Now I just have to put it into practice. Good luck to you!
hi
Congratulations 🙂 🙂 🙂
pls. visit my blog (http://writer-nathi.blogspot.com/) waiting for ur comment and ideas
thanks
Your goals/resolutions for next year have left a great impact on me as a novice writer and blogger. Not only me, but others as well. Hope you continue to be an inspiration to others!
Gr8 post ,gr8 goals and gr8 inspiration. Thank you ,And Happy Holidays
First, let me congratulate you on your unique perspective and for taking the time to set your goals for the new year. I think the hardest thing with blogging is to stay focused and timely – it seems like great ideas either come in flurries and a person writes a lot, or else the real world takes over and a person’s blogging falls behind. Good luck to you in 2012 on meeting your goals.
Beyond that, I wanted to thank you for sharing a post with such a nice array of perspectives and thought-provoking ways of looking at blogging. I especially found your mention of the two sides of the “thought leaders” discussion especially thought provoking, and very much inspires some which came first, the chicken or the egg type thinking. Glad I discovered your blog, and looking forward to reading more in the future. Happy holidays!
I’ve been thinking about how I can improve my blogging, these resolutions were helpful to read and hear the explanation as to why they should be done.
@MissAJBurton
Thanks for sharing this Daniel. I’m looking forward to reading your upcoming writings.
I promise to blog LESS in 2012 because there are already too many bloggers writing too much.
Great resolutions – I actually did a lot of these recently, like cleaning up my old posts to give them new life. Looking forward to your upcoming posts! I’m hoping to post weekly as well!
great blog! Keep up the good work! If you need any help let me know.
Robert
theinternetexperts.net
A blog is always a work in progress, and it’s hard to know why so many of us spend the time it takes to compose via the internet. Whatever happened to just keeping a journal? Your goals are insightful, and though you may be writing for yourself, it looks as though a number of others enjoy what you say. Keep on.
I resolve to make less resolutions!
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing! and Happy New Year!! 🙂
Most New Years resolutions are to be broken
Good stuff, and thanks for sharing your thoughts and intentions. I think regular blogging is certainly an important part of building a blogging platform – and practising writing. Great resolutions – all power to you for achieving them!
Matthew Wright
http://mjwrightnz.wordpress.com
http://www.matthewwright.net
You have one of the most informative pages. How long did it take u to add all the information. I am new to blogging and I am making lots of mistakes. However, I plan to continue my quest to build a master blog post..
hmmmm, food for thought
Great post! I’ve bookmarked this to come back to it–likely more than once. I’m very impressed with the range and depth of your work.
Mmm. Social media can be so hard to keep up with, can’t it? I considered myself a creature of the blogosphere ten years ago, but it has since completely outpaced me!
One thing that I wonder about, one question that’s been raised more and more in recent years–is how much sociality can we handle? Is there such a thing as too much communication? There may very well be. Scientists say our brains are made to handle about 150 interpersonal relationships–these days most people have more Facebook friends than that, let alone Twitter and the rest of them! How do we manage this new, interconnected world? I wonder…
All i can say is amazing:)
mindlesslog.wordpress.com
thank you
your comment inspire me write more blogs and keep blogging..
This is definitely one of my new year resolutions.. I have to clean the dust off my blog and start posting regularly .. Lately , most of my posts make to the “Drafts” category .. I hope they make it to the “Publish” button.. Nice post ! 🙂
Awesome Post!!! Congrats on your positive outlook for 2012. I wish you all the best in your writing endeavors. I share similar goals for next year. I look forward to reading more from you as you work on accomplishing your goal. I love your blog design. Clean and very easy to navigate.
wow this article is very nice. It’s a new inspiration for me. i like it. thank you my friend. merry christmas and happy new year.
Great post. You are the post of the week over at my blog (blakewdean.wordpress.com) Couldn’t find an email so I guess I would just comment.
I really enjoyed reading this the moreso because you articulate your approach, your rationale and then your capacity to reflect.
keep it up! 🙂
Great post! So many good resolutions to follow into the new year. I really want to work on social media, trying new channels and updating my old ones.
Excellent post! I intend to do a similar post on my blog and you’ve touched on many of the issues and thoughts that I’ve been having. Notably the integration of all the social media that I’m tied to and reexamining the scope and focus of my blog. You use the term scope creep (have you had 6 Sigma training, LOL), I’m trying to figure out how to let a little creep in. Keep up the good work!
Last year my resolution was to start my blog, which I’ve kept up with. This year I want to make my blog better. Great post!
it’s amazing!!!!! 😀
Loved this post. Has motivated me to follow your blog read other posts ‘pressed’ by you. You have also inspired me to write better on my blog, http://atozbookreviews.wordpress.com/. Thank you so much!
Good list. Will come back to take a look at this. So much to do before New Year’s!
I like your blog plan and wish you the best. I have been blogging twice a month and it is difficult sometimes to keep up with because of everything else that needs to take priority. If you can keep up with weekly, my hat is off to you:)
Resolutions that will make any blogger make huge splash for 2012. An awesome post that inspires the heart…
Great list! I try to post every week but twice a week would be better. Congrats on getting on FP, that’s my goal!
I have decided to delve into this world of social media. I have been trying to decide if I should post random thoughts in an organized manner or organized thoughts in a particular category. I will be interested to follow your posts and see what direction you head.
Hmm, I was thinking of doubling my site views as a new years resolution, but I suppose the real goal should be figuring out what I need to do to reach such a goal and just integrate it into my daily blogging!
As an avid blogger, I will post more often. I’m starting now so that I continue the momentum.
wonderful post.. totally agree with diving into social media! congrats on getting freshly pressed! happy new year!!
http://itsawant.wordpress.com/
Great post, it’s also motivating me to keep my blog, yuliveyulearn.wordpress.com, up to date and the way I intend it to be. As you say, it’s a work in progress!
Thanks for the blog…Random thoughts are always cool…I write about what I think is important to our readers…health, relationships, love, insanity, fun, life…ya know a mix of topics not too stiff…keep it worth reading
good luck in your endeavor! I hope I could do the same with mine 😀 With a busy schedule and too many things to do at the same time, blogging has always been my last priority. I am trying to make it my schedule to blog at least once a week.
All good ideas. Write often when the mood strikes and don’t put it off.
Very inspirational post. I think it’s good to have a schedule. I don’t. It’s good to revisit old posts. I do that sometimes, really because I’m so new to this whole thing that I belatedly realize the purpose of tags and such. I think I have to consider myself a blogger instead of just a person with a blog. It’s a mindset I have yet to embrace because it’s a whole new world to me. A very cool new world. Thanks for the post.
Good post. I too have some prioritizing of my blogging efforts and a little “reengaging” to do.
Good luck to you and have a safe happy new year.
Great post! I’m just finishing the Postaday2011 challenge and have decided to host a No Comfort Zone-2012 Challenge to encourage us all to shed our old skin and try something different, to start saying yes, and to grow with each post.
All the best to you!
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Great resolutions for the new year. i don’t really use social media too much, except Facebook, but it’s a good idea to get on the bandwagon.
As a writer myself I find it hard to balance writing and blogging, but I guess the important thing to do is to KEEP WRITING.
Thanks for your helpful advice.
Updating social profiles is a good one, as my career has morphed and progressed my profile now is rather different from just months ago. It’s a good tip to renew more frequently, thank you!
Great resolutions–I’ll have to bookmark this post for reference.
Yup… really nice read, thanks!
Great post, thanks for the motivation (I need it) 🙂
Thanks for this post – I really appreciate the resolutions you’ve laid out here. It’s interesting to think of the need to update/revise our social network profiles, but you’re absolutely right – it’s like cleaning out a desk at work or at home, updating your resume, or changing the look of your business card… interesting thoughts here. Thanks for the motivation!
http://100in2012.wordpress.com/
Great post, thanks Daniel! As a pretty new blogger I learned a lot from this, and will explore and follow your blog. Lots to learn! Ray
I am newbie blogger/writer. Your post made me think of some things, which would have probably come to me later. Thanks!
Great tips and thoughts. Writing the resolutions is the easy part but putting them into action is hard.
Does the net really seriously influence the real life?
I rather suspect “real life” is what happens among the 80%, while the 20% online community are chattering to each other about real life.
I will be making a note of this post, to revisit it for inspiration. Great ideas, and lots of meat! Keep it up . . .
I think this blog post was pretty awesome.
It’s very neat to know that there are similar concepts I can identify with you on because I’m a newbie here somewhat. I hope your New Year’s resolutions come true and you meet your goals.
I LOVE these resolutions! This is what I have been trying to preach to my customers and clients. You put it in a great light here! I think I may have to link this post to one of mine!
These are great words of wisdom for bloggers. I am starting out myself and it is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Here is why I have NO resolutions at all for 2012: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/new-years-resolutions/
I don’t have any resolutions concerning my blog, but kudos to you for setting yours, and hopefully, you’ll meet them!
Yes, honesty is bringing clarity. Here’s to a great blogging year in 2012!
Super resolutions there! I will pick up a few from these… 🙂
Thanks for your insightful list.
http://1divineperspective.wordpress.com/
happy blogging year!
hey, have you designed your share button because i am not having sharing option buttons just like yours
This is great! I believe that social media is one of the best tools we currently have to sell ourselves. More and more employers look to social media to research potential job candidates. We always hear stories about a bad picture on Facebook LOSING someone a job; however, the inverse can be true and a well-structured and impressive presence on social media can help you LAND a job. I’ll definitely be adding these things to my personal resolutions! If you need any help following through with your resolutions, see my blog about making this year a New Years ReVolution. http://thepostic.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/new-years-revolutions/
I’ve been encouraging visitors to my blog to post their resolutions in the form of haiku (haiku-lutions). I think it’s key to write resolutions down, and in the haiku format, you can’t help but be economical with your words.
Great post!
I like this a lot. Especially number 3, thats the beauty of Facebook, twitter, etc
Your posts will have more clarity if you write more the way people speak. Your sentances are far too complecated and convoluted — and not because the ideas you are trying to get acroos are complicated or convoluted. It is simply and function of your sentance structure and word choice. Big, complicated words are only useful if there isn’t a shorter easier word that can get the point across.
Great post. I think these resolutions work for all us bloggers, but #2 may prove to be difficult since it is more fun to write the new stuff than clean up the old stuff! Have a safe and happy new year.
Great post! As an entrepreneur I’m making strides this year to build my company, brand and client base. Here’s to a great 2012 and blogging greatness!
Well done. Happy trails in 2012!
I wish you the best of luck in your resolutions. Hope you don’t mind if I pattern mine after yours. Cheers!
http://youtu.be/W-adz9N8eDA
I resolve to write, record and release a song complete with music video for every major holiday this year.
-Jay Gillespie USL
Excellent! I liked your direction. Only thing is, I don’t know what metadata is so I wouldn’t know how to audit it. But cleaning old posts to make them uniform, that does make sense.
WordPress is THE ONLY blog site I’ve been on, and I love it. Only started Aug’11, but I feel a really good community & some blogs are enormously interesting – ie, some people out there in the world. Great direction, thanks.
Guess what, one of my New Year Resolutions also include blogging on a more regular basis. We have something in common. Great post. Loved it. 🙂
http://freedomtosurvive.wordpress.com/ ——-feel free to visit….:)
Woo!
One of the things I’ve put into my to-do list this 2012 is to write more regularly! 😀 To be a better writer/blogger, one has to hone one’s craft 🙂 wheeee! thanks for this post!
i resolve to start a revolution, if not only in my mind.
I dig the way you write. I echo this post and aspire to the same, though without as much clarity. Oh, I firmly attracted to the word ‘clarity,’ so use it more. Have you been schooled in the writing art — where and what? Kindly inform.
The hardest part about #2 is continually doing it in the light of #1, especially if you internally link between your own entries; blog post 67 suddenly means that blog posts 3, 7, 14, 15, 34 and 47 (tonight’s bonus ball is 23!) need to have new internal links set up to it. It’s a chore, but the hope is obviously that you can get people to link hop.
Great resolutions! I’m a new blogger, so maybe I’ll follow these resolutions next year 🙂
Interesting post. Please be sure to blog about how you manage to efficiently integrate your profiles. I use social media, but I am very scattered about it.
Happy New Year and good luck!
Simply Excellent. 🙂
Lathe Machine Manufacturer
good piece of advice
I am glad I came across this post. As someone who has been in social media on a personal level for awhile, I can say these are things I would like to work on myself. Especially since this is what I have chosen to do as a business starting in 2012. I think this looks great, and if you still have work to do, I know I have PLENTY work to do.
loved the post!
Dan, you are absolutely brilliant. I can’t wait to read your upcoming posts.
I’d like to nominate you for the Versatile Blogger Award. If you’d like to participate, please visit http://never2late2write.com/2012/01/16/vesatile-blogger-award-nomination/. Thank you for sharing your blog. it is truly a privilege.
Sincerely,
Janet
Thanks all come back soon….pittsburghpoet2.wordpress.com