blogosphere

Herding trolls.

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thYesterday was a Suzy Homemaker* day for me: I made deviled eggs, a batch of soft oat rolls and some oatmeal cookies, then invited my niece and her kids over for a round of Café Awesome. After that we went out to glean feral raspberries.

During the day I also put up the first of those Swagbucks “Five for Five” promotional posts and wrote and scheduled the other four. I arranged for a couple of interviews, did some research for next week’s articles, rounded up and washed jam jars, and made a huge batch of raspberry-rhubarb jam.

(Note to self: Nine cups of rhubarb means lots of chopping. Find an easier recipe.)

However, I also made the mistake of visiting the comments section of “How to make a quick $50,” that day’s MSN Money post. Suffice it to say that the process sucked far too much time out of my day.

DF sympathized when he got home: “Herding trolls again?

 

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Share your thoughts, and maybe win prizes, at a pair of Twitter events on July 23.

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thI’m participating in a pair of Twitter events tomorrow. You should, too, because you likely have something to contribute and/or you might learn something.

Did I mention the prizes, including Visa and Amazon gift cards?

Now that I have your attention, let me describe the fun:

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7 PF experts, no waiting: Join us for a Tweetchat.

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thGot money questions? One of them might win you a copy of Liz Weston’s updated and revised Deal with Your Debt.

She’s hosting one heck of a Tweetchat on Thursday, May 9, and will be giving away several copies of the book to folks who submit questions ahead of time (more on that in a minute).

Even if you don’t need the book, surely you know someone who does.

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Another anniversary. Couldn’t have done it without you.

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thJust over four years ago I started writing this site, even as I wondered (a) if anyone would care and (b) whether I could keep it up.

The answer was “yes” on both counts. Sort of.

I haven’t got the huge fan base and influence of a “name” blogger, and there have been times when I was too overwhelmed by my paying jobs to devote enough time to my avocation.

If I had more readers I could turn the site into what the kids call a serious alternate income source. It does make some money, but nowhere close to a living wage. More to the point, I’d like more followers because, well, what writer wouldn’t?

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In which I cop to some odd habits.

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thJust read a lovely, raw, real piece called “Sometimes” written by a woman named Arnebya at a site called What Now And Why.

It’s lovely because it’s honest: Sometimes, I am jealous of my children. They have so much time and opportunity and I feel like I’ve wasted so much time and opportunity.

It’s raw because it’s, well, really honest: Sometimes, when I pull up to my house, I don’t want to stop; I want to keep driving.

And it’s real because she exposes herself fearlessly: Sometimes I want a drink so badly I consider leaving work early to sit in a bar alone, read my book, and catch a virus from the peanuts being eaten by many unsanitized hands.

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One post a day, all month.

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Those of you who’ve been keeping score may have noticed that I’ve been posting more frequently. A lot more frequently. That’s because I bought into the BlogHer version of National Blog Posting Month.

th-2Normally NaBloPoMo occurs in November. Over at BlogHer it apparently happens every month. I didn’t know that when I made a secret promise to give this a try.

The theme this month is “risk.” Appropriate, because I thought I couldn’t do it.

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Live, and almost live: Advice on writing and personal finance.

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k7316319You’ve got two chances to hear me talk, if you so desire. The first is archived and aimed at writers, and the second is personal finance advice done in real time on Google this Friday. (Edited to add: This, too, has been archived; see below.)

Those of you who missed the 2012 Financial Blogger Conference can catch some of it as archived presentations on the FinCon video page. My own speech, “Got voice? How to make your posts more compelling,” just went up.

I came up with the idea at the initial Financial Blogger Conference in 2011, after my “Write like a pro” presentation. Several people asked some version of the question, “How can I learn to write like you?” My response was, “You shouldn’t try – you should learn to write like you.”

I don’t think the problem is that bloggers aren’t creative. I think it’s that they don’t trust their own voices.

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6 things to do while you’re on hold next weekend.

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Telephone © by plenty.r.

Planning to shop online between Black Friday – which is increasingly more of a Post-Turkey Thursday – and Cyber Monday? A company called STELLAService has determined that the merchants with the shortest phone-support hold times are Nordstrom.com (18 seconds), Overstock.com (44 seconds), LLBean.com (46 seconds), Zappos.com (1 minute, 9 seconds) and Target.com (1 minute, 18 seconds).

That information is based on the 2011 shopping season. I bet it’ll be just as good this year, since retailers are scrambling to stand out among the din of the busiest shopping weekend of the year.

And if you’re buying from a place that leaves you languishing on hold for lonnnnng minutes? Here are six things to do while you wait:

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