THE DREAM IN ACTION

Recently, the fact that I have a semi-successful blog has caught wind around my office. I was asked this week to answer a few questions on blogging that will be used in some presentation about why we should be using blogs for communication in the corp world. I hope the presentation reaches some people, but I thought I’d share my answers here…

1. What is the easiest part about blogging?
The easiest part about blogging is that it’s fun. I enjoy taking the time to reflect on a subject and funnel my thoughts into something that I believe will help or be constructive for someone else (the reader). In my 3+ yrs blogging I’ve gotten much better at diagramming an idea and communicating that idea to others.

2. What is the most challenging?
Staying focused can be very difficult. When you start a blog you have choices to make: Who’s my target? What are my goals/metrics? Why am I doing this? Keeping the answers to those questions in mind is critical to writing a good blog. I write posts for the GEHC IT blog that will expose the employees to something that they’ve not been previously exposed to or to give them helpful hints/tips on specific IT things. In short, you have to give them a reason to come back.

3. What are your goals/initiatives as far as professional blogging?
This is difficult to say. First, I’m not at all a professional blogger. Second, I think this term “professional blogger” can confuse some folks. Professional bloggers are blogging for a living, for profit, I blog to stay fresh, improve my writing, and generally increase my voice to the world. It’s still debatable whether or not I have any thing worthwhile to say :)

This blog post is not meant to be insightful or meant to share an opinion on any particular topics. It’s sole intent is to ask you your opinion. I have a question.

Is the casual style of writing that comes along with blogging a good thing or a bad thing for society?

Some times I still have my parents read over my writing and usually their reaction is that it’s too informal. I write like I speak and often times that means grammatical errors, slang terms, and off the cuff remarks. What’s the big deal? Well, recently there was a phenomenal blog post on the Fake Steve Jobs blog about ‘why mainstream media is dying’.Whoever the fake Steve Jobs is, he wrote…

And to all those people who go around wringing their hands and saying what are we going to do when the “real newspapers” all die and we have to get our news from Gawker and HuffPo and TechCrunch? Friends, I think we’re going to be just fine.

Part of it is the form of the media itself. If you’re a reporter at the Times, you get one story, and a fixed number of inches, and you’re smothered by layers of editors. At TechCrunch it’s one guy who can get his teeth into something and there’s no limit on how many articles he can do.

I love this. He points out that the agility of the informal publishing platform of a blog is what will allow so many people to eventually make the “standard” journalism world irrelevant. But back to the question, is this casual style bad for the overall reporting of news and how society consumes it?

I think not. I think that a less formal style of writing will eventually be the way that most of us consume the news. Obviously good writing will rise to the top, and that’s why I encourage current newspaper journalists to team up, leave their paper, and start a top notch blog with higher quality writing and coverage. But the print is going to die, it’s just a matter of time, and it would sure scare me to work in a known dying industry. But if that journalist is really good, they readers will come.

Penelope Trunk wrote a great post last month on why the internet has created a generation of great writers. Her last argument, which I really like…

Finally, for those of you who think students don’t know how to write in full sentences, you are the people who probably don’t understand how to use text as a persuasive medium.

In summary, I think that the style of writing that is most affective is changing. It’s more casual but like most successful things these days, it’s more personal, it’s more comfortable, and it’s more fun. Looks like I did end up sharing an opinion. But, like I stated at the start, what I want to know is what do you think? Is this style of writing that I employ and that so many others are beginning to use good or bad for readers?

image via flickr

Today marks 2 years of blogging. I started out on ActionsTalk.com, then I was on RyanAGraves.com, now I’m on the URL THE DREAM IN ACTION.com. I thoroughly enjoy the process and have learned a lot in the process. This site gets about 3,000 unique readers a month which, in my eyes, with all the changes to the site, is no small accomplishment. I hope that over the next year we can hit 10k per month. Here’s why…

I write about my dreams, and how to make yours a reality. Why, and where do I get off trying to teach other people how to do it? My hope is that as I answer these questions you’ll see my answers as reasons to subscribe to the RSS or come back to the site on a regular basis. I hope that the experiences I have, that turn into blog posts, help you get closer to your dreams… through action of course.

This Is Not A 4 Hour Work Week

First, it needs to be said that this isn’t a get rich quick blog. It’s not a ‘how to blog for a living’ site or a ‘use the internet to scam people and make a quick buck’ site. I’m not going to try and teach you how to live a 4 hour work week, others do that better than I, so why rebuild the wheel. This site is the all about making your dreams realities on a daily basis. It’s about how to make your life better one step at a time so that you not only achieve your goals in life, but that you enjoy the process.

Full Time Job

I’m an entrepreneur. By that I mean I have revenue streams outside of my day job, but let me be clear, I do have a day job. I do not work on my startup full time and I’ve not reached the point that my entrepreneurial ventures are large enough to sustain my life (YET). However, I definitely believe you can live with an entrepreneurial spirit without being a CEO or a founder of a startup. I’ve written about being a corporate entrepreneur and I know from first hand experience that now, when our economy is at one of it’s shakiest moments, is when large corporation need entrepreneurial innovation the most. Put the dream in action and enjoy what you do by changing your workplace and your life for the better.

lanjut →

Updated Image: I snapped this gem in a public square in Sodermalm, Stockholm. I honestly thought it was Bruno for a minute, then realized it was just a cheap, but hilarious, imitation. It’s all about ‘exposure’.

The Hidden Secret of Successful Blogging

As you probably know, building a real following or reader base on your blog is all about authority and authenticity. These words are thrown around left and right by people writing how-to-blog posts. The kicker is that nobody seems to be addressing the real reason people’s blog grow.

Tim Ferriss recently posted a video of a talk he gave to the Wordcamp Conference that is based around the WordPress blogging platform. His talk was about how to write a killer blog without killing yourself. His talk was packed with extremely valuable tips to writing a better blog. An underlying theme Tim spoke to is that you don’t have to follow all of the “conventional rules” of blogging. Optimal post length, post topic, and post frequency has been debated since the beginning of blogging, but I would argue (and so would Tim) that these things don’t really matter in the process of growing your blogs following.

Put all the tips that you’ve ever read from Problogger, John Chow, or Tim Ferriss aside and let me break down the one thing that everyone avoids telling you that will absolutely lead to a successful blog. I’m not sure why this fact and (or secret) is so rarely discussed but it is proven over and over across the web.
lanjut →

via mario.nolla

I’m now working on startup numero 3. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process but I’ve not really enjoyed the process, yet. As in, I’ve not made it. I’ve yet to create anything that was sell-able, sustainable, or strong enough to go full time on. So, I decided to make a list for myself of the first 25 things that I should do before really diving into the next one. Each step or tip has a link to resources on making that step happen. Follow these steps (not necessarily in order) so that you don’t have to use tip #26.

Here’s what you’ll first need to do in order to really start on the right foot.

1. Get Your Head Right
2. Build The Right Foundation
3. Put Your Lipstick On and Pucker Up
4. Getting Attention
5. Oh Yea, You May Need Money

Get Your Head Right

There are so many great blogs out there with experienced advice on starting businesses that it’s foolish not to read them. Spend some time learning from the experience and mistakes of others.

“Smart men learn from their own mistakes, Genius’s learn from the mistakes of others.”  -Unknown

1. Start a Business with Passion – Loic Lemeur is one of the most passionate entrepreneurs I’ve watched. He talks about how to start with passion.
   
2. Read Getting Started - This book by 37 Signals is one of the best books for starting a technology business. How to develop with style, speed, adn efficiency using Agile. Learn from the great companies especially when the provide such a valuable & insightful resource.

lanjut →

Music is not something I’ve ever really blogged about. I’m not super critical with music because I find that I have a different emotional reaction to different kinds of music, I enjoy that. I’ve recently been inspired and more specific with which music I want to hear. At the same time as I’ve started to think about specific music I was contacted by Dan Kantor. Dan developed a WP plugin called Streampad, an easy to use music streaming program, for blogs. As you well know, I’m a huge fan of early adoption and agreed to help beta test the product. At the bottom of this blog you’ll see a bar that makes it super simple to stream music that I’ve recently posted.

I don’t promise to post a song a day or even a song a month. However, when inspired I may post 5 in a day. Give it a try and please let me know if you have any issues playing the music so that I can report them to Dan and help make the service better and better.

To start, I’ll share the music that has been on my mind. In 2007 I went to Lollapalooza and saw Matt & Kim. They were not a mainstage show but it was one of the best of the weekend. Check out the songs linked below…play them from Stream pad.

No More Long Years

Yea, Yeah

Verbs before nouns

This is my first post using Wordpress 2.7. The newest version has gotten a lot of press recently because of the completely different backend layout. Many bloggers are complaining that they’ll have to learn a new workflow to blog posts and won’t be able to find things…to that I say “get over it” and “don’t be grandpa”. Grandpa’s don’t want to learn; they enjoy the status quo, and new generally scares them. Welcome to Gen Y, we learn, all the time, and if things AREN’T changing we’re getting uncomfortable.

My initial reactions to 2.7 are that there is now more in each screen. There has been a consolidation of buttons and menus, so it does take a bit of getting used to, but I think that the change will likely be for the better. There is a menu to the left now instead of a header menu. It contains drop down style navigation that will make things easier to get to with one click…a plus.

Overall I think the new change will be a good one. Hopefully the new WP backend improves my writing :)

Related articles by Zemanta

• WordPress 2.7 – So Much to Love!
• How Much Work is Being a Professional Blogger?
• WordPress News: WordPress 2.7 Released
• Do you think blogging is dying?
• 5 wish list items that would improve Zemanta service and their Windows Live Writer plugin

Today was awesome. I had a productive day at work, I started early (about 6:50am), got to work on some video editing which was fun, got news about a potential stint in Paris, and left a hair before 5 (always nice). Then when I came home I realized that it was an awesome “social media day”. That may sound a little “douchy” but I’ll tell you, it was awesome.

For a blogger, at least for me, its all about quality and quantity. I want tons of people to come to my site, and I want big names to come to my site. Often times big names can mean tons of people, if they share. Plus, they’re big names for a reason…they’re awesome! Two of my favorite blogs are…

• Fred Wilson AVC.com
• Gary Vaynerchuk garyvaynerchuk.com

… and both of those bloggers came to my site today!

Fred Wilson’s blog is probably top of my must read list so having him read my stuff is quite an honor…he’s got a style that is second to none. He has over 150k readers of AVC.com and has grown that by simplifying the mysterious world of venture capital for the everyday entrepreneur and investor. He respects his readers and he understands community (he replies to almost every comment I make).

Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV is one of the largest personalities on the web. At the very least he’s the most energetic! He hosts a 20 min wine show 5 days a week and is the icon of personal branding. ActionsTalk will be having Gary V on next week so don’t miss it!

The list doesn’t stop there…

Blake Samic - co-founder of ActionsTalk and all around bro

Joe Budde – my college roommate from sophomore year that I haven’t talked to since (sorry Jbud1)

Dave Cohn – an ActionsTalk contributor and good friend who runs Spot.Us

Soren MacBeth – founder of StockTwits.com

Frank Gruber – founder of TECH Cocktail (I’m going Nov 6th in Chi) also SomewhatFrank

Gregory Ng – a social web brethren – check out Gregs new frozen food site FreezerBurns.com

So, in growing a blog its all about the community and the content. Celebrating the small victories like this one are important. They are what keep you writing and excited about you blog…so really those victories are what keep your blog awesome. Thanks to all the readers…without you I’d quit!

I set a goal a while back to get 100 people to my blog in a single day and I’d like to thank all of you for helping me get there! I encourage you to use comments and let me know how I can continue to improve Ryan A Graves.com. This is cool!  

  Many of you like using Friendfeed to aggregate your internet activities and share those activities with friends and followers on the web. Sweetcron (that a came across from Dave McClure’s FF) is very similar to Friendfeed in the sense that it will aggregate any web activity that you decide to share with your Sweetcron, the main difference is that Sweetcron is self hosted like a normal blog. You install the Sweetcron software on your server and host your site like normal. The developers name is Yongfook and he is based in Tokyo. I wasn’t familiar with this developer before but as I watched his explanation of what Sweetcron is he seems awesome, and hilarious!

This is the screen shot of Yongfook’s Sweetcron based site where he pulls in images of twitter comments, links, shared on Digg, things from Facebook, images from Flickr, and more.  Like I said, this is cool, and this guy is awesome.

As Dave McClure said on his blog, 500Hats, about Sweetcron, it is going to be “Fooking huge!”

UPDATE TO POST:

I have now installed Sweetcron on my server and set it up early this morning. It really is awesome. Now folks can get to my Sweetcron Lifestream by clicking the  LIFESTREAM link at the top of my site. Here is a little screen shot of what it looks like!

Recently I’ve become some what of an evangelist for “most” thing tech. I find value in the technologies that I use (that’s why I use them) and I try and share that value with the people around me.

Blogs for example: My Dad was a journalism major and is a phenomenal writer and I’ve encouraged him to start writing more, possibly using a blog format. My Mother studies a ton and prepares a talk each week for the Bible study that she teaches, and that would be a great content to post/share on the web. My sister is, so far, the only non-techie that I’ve been able to convince to start a blog. She works for a PR firm in San Diego and finally started a blog. Although her blog currently has only one post, it is a very solid post and will benefit her in her professional and her personal development. My next project is to convince my girlfriend, who is an inner city kindergarten teacher, to set up a “class blog” where she can ‘feature’ :) the work of the kids in her class and write about some of her experiences. This could also be a great communication tool between her and the class parents! Not everyone needs a blog, I get it, but many people have a voice, and in today’s world why not share that voice?

The blog that inspired the name of this post is Gotham Gal. She is the wife of VC Fred Wilson of AVC.com and I stumbled upon her blog via his (I think it’s awesome that he links to hers!). This blog is the most normal blog I’ve ever seen! and that’s a compliment. It’s contents consist of 1 thing and 1 thing only, her thoughts, which actually covers almost everything. Gotham Gal discusses her vacations, her children, often times her cooking or a good recipe. Her most recent post was about how her family is a bunch of political junkies, but a post last week was the recipe to a cherished Feta Salad (it was good by the way), and before that, about why her family loves technology. Great work Gotham Gal!

People struggle with the idea of putting their lives on the web and being very public. Remember, you control what goes up. Write about what you feel comfortable sharing, nothing more, nothing less. Use a pseudo-name if that makes you more comfortable, their is nothing wrong with that at all! In the end I just hope that my efforts to evangelize cool technologies (in this case, blogs) is taken for what it is meant to be, helping. I get a ton out of regularly writing this blog and I think others can benefit from the practice as well. Let me know if you consider yourself a non-tech person and you have a blog. Or, if you consider yourself a tech evangelist to non-techies. I’d love to share and learn your “tech”niques.

I have no money and my site doesn’t have a enough traffic to pay for it…but both of those things will come with time.With that said, I’m looking for some help in these following areas on my blog. If you’d be willing to help I’d be very grateful!
Just shoot me an email at graves.ryan @ gmail.com

desired blog improvements:

wide center column
dynamic width sizing
load center column first (optional)
readable on all browsers (even IE, mobile)
mobile browser detection (optional)
URL decision
ryanagraves.com vs. ryanagraves.com/blog/ *Update: this issue has been taken care of, only go to ryanagraves.com

page load times – see widgets
selective w/ widgets?
blog stats
ads?
mybloglog – community feel
flickr – personal/standard

Posted by email from ryangraves’s posterous