Write A Blog People Will Read - Surviving and Thriving

Weather, COVID and a deep discount.

April 20, 2021 by Donna Freedman

A couple of weeks ago it was below zero. Today it’s supposed to hit 62 degrees. This has been a weird spring, full of weird weather.

Re the photo at left: Either the greenhouse effect is real, or the remote thermometer in that greenhouse is defective. Maybe a little of each. (The temperature on the right is that of our living room.) This picture was taken on Monday afternoon, when the temperature was in the 50s outdoors – not what you would call extremely warm, but the angle of the sun hits the greenhouse just right.

About that sun: Sunday, April 18, was the first night of 2021 without complete darkness. According to the National Weather Service, the sky will not darken past “astronautical twilight” until Aug. 25.

If you, like me, are unfamiliar with astronautical twilight, here’s how the NWS explains it: “the level of light observed when the sun is 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon.”

Okay then. Until I moved here I also had never heard the phrase “civil twilight,” either. Live and learn.

Incidentally: The sun rose at 6:23 a.m. today and will set at 9:34 p.m. But thanks to that astronautical twilight, it will seem earlier/later. And, as DF points out, we still have lots of snow left on the ground to amplify that light. Um, yay?

A deadline, and some money news.

June 30, 2024April 6, 2016 by Donna Freedman

Apparently I can’t read a calendar. Last week I offered a 40 percent discount on my Write A Blog People Will Read online course. At the end of the post I noted that the discount was good until “11:59 PDT Wednesday, April 8.”

Swell, except that April 8 is a Friday. Ooops.

Those who are still mulling it over (and I’ve heard from a couple of you) now have two extra days to make your decision. If you’re on the fence, feel free to e-mail me at SurvivingAndThriving (at) live (dot) com with any qualms. [Edit: This discount has passed, obviously. But if you were persistent enough to find this article, use the code 40OFF.]

For example, one reader wrote to ask how much experience was needed for the course. Although she does a lot of writing for her job it’s a very different type of scribbling. Thus she wondered if the course would be “too advanced” for someone who was new to blogging.

I responded with a note plus a couple of sample chapters so she could get an idea of what the course holds. If you, too, have specific questions (how can I know whether I’ll find enough ideas, what if I’m not sure there’s time in my life to maintain a blog, et al.), send them along and I’ll respond with advice*** and a course sample that helps address that question.

In other news:

Why I hate self-promotion. (And here’s a coupon!)

June 30, 2024March 31, 2016 by Donna Freedman

I subscribe to several writing-focused newsletters whose authors sell courses, books and other products. Sometimes the newsletters include educational or thought-provoking facts, or links to free videos or webinars.

Mostly, though, they sell. Oh, do they sell.

A subject line like “three simple steps that helped John change his life” or “she halved her work hours and quadrupled her income” might lead you to think the newsletter contains valuable advice.

Sometimes it does. Generally speaking, though, the advice is “if you buy my product you can change your life, too.”

This is all smart marketing. I understand that. I just don’t know how/don’t much care to do it myself. My background in print journalism taught me to keep myself strictly out of the story. The new paradigm, however, is to promote one’s “brand,” if not one’s products.

Which brings me to last week’s giveaway.

Hey, I’m a ‘game-changer’!

July 11, 2015 by Donna Freedman

A couple of months ago I spoke at the New Media Expo conference in Las Vegas. While there I met a slew of podcasters, some of whom asked for my card and inquired as to my availability for interviews.

One of them recently followed up: Dot Cannon, an independent new-media broadcaster with TwoMaverix.com. In her Over Coffee podcast series she talks “with artists and innovators about the process of changing the world in terms of what they do.”

We set a date, did the interview and now “Game-changing the future” is available for your listening pleasure.

A newsletter, double Swagbucks and BTS shopping.

June 28, 2015 by Donna Freedman

Recently I added a sixth way to enter the giveaways on this site: subscribing to my Write A Blog People Will Read newsletter. The weekly(ish) newsletter is writing-focused, but that doesn’t mean that non-writers shouldn’t read it.

Sure, it includes info like how much freelancers should charge and why blogging matters. But general-interest topics show up as well, such as why walking can change a bad day, how “Moose: The Movie” can inspire us all and the ways that fear can actually be good for people.

So even if you aren’t itching to start your own website, give the newsletter a try. Here’s how to do it:

Go to WriteABlogPeopleWillRead.com/blog.
Look for the “Free Writing Tips” box on the right-hand side.
Enter your name and e-mail address and you’ll be subscribed.

Every time you enter a Surviving and Thriving giveaway, be sure to leave a separate comment stating that you’re a newsletter subscriber. It’s just one more chance to win.

Blogging is cheaper than therapy.

July 20, 2017May 8, 2015 by Donna Freedman

Once upon a time people kept journals to deal with the tedium and trauma of daily living. These days the online world is a stage on which we can play out our lives in public, if we choose.

Not every personal website is about someone’s cute kids or cute shoes, either. Or even about a race to pay off student loans, learn a skill, start a business, homeschool their kids, buy a home or retire early.

Sometimes the poor players strut and fret some pretty intensely personal business: love, genderqueer politics, marriage, divorce, infertility, midlife reinvention, empty nests, aging, dying.

Writing helps us feel our way through chance, challenge and change. Or so I note in “When life hands you blog fodder,” a piece on the blog associated with my online writing course.

The Internet is crammed with the drab and the dramatic, adorableness and grotesqueries, rampant TMI and TL;dr. What makes for the most readable work, I think, is what one of my newspaper editors called “conflict.”

Are you eating your house?

April 2, 2015 by Donna Freedman

During a business-related trip to Texas last summer, I met up with a blogger who goes by the name “empressjuju” and blogs at (the) Vegas in Austin. Along with her husband we enjoyed a delightful regional brunch (think “breakfast tacos”) and talked about money and life.

Homeownership was definitely on their minds. But months went by and they kept discovering swell new restaurants and activities. Austin can do that to you.

This kind of overspending is insidious, she noted later, and it can feel oddly necessary because we’re all such busy people. In fact, her husband was inclined to think that it wasn’t really a problem.

The empress begged to differ. “How are we ever going to buy a house if we keep spending like this on food? We are eating our house!”

How do you save money on travel?

January 23, 2016March 22, 2015 by Donna Freedman

Frequent flier miles? Trading in hotel loyalty points? Those all work. So do the tips I offer in a guest post called “Destinations on a dime: 10 tips that will change your wandering ways,” a guest post over on The Real Deal, the house blog at Retail Me Not.

Anyone who’s read me knows that I’m more likely to go for hostels, museum reciprocity, buddy passes public transit and the Megabus.

Rewards programs, too; in fact, I recently cashed in points from a rewards credit card to get a Buffalo Wild Wings gift card for my trip to Phoenix next month (more on that in a minute), and will also cash in Swagbucks points for gift cards to Red Robin and Cracker Barrel. That way I can treat my daughter and son-in-law to a few meals out. After all, they’re getting me to and from the airport.

What else have I been writing lately? So glad you asked.

Write a blog people will read.

January 16, 2017March 12, 2015 by Donna Freedman

That headline isn’t a command, but rather an announcement about the personal project I’ve hinted at lately.

Now it can be revealed. The project is an online course called Write A Blog People Will Read, and it’s available starting today because I just couldn’t resist a Friday the 13th launch date.

The above link is to the course’s website, but don’t click it just yet if you’re interested in taking the course. I’m offering a short-term deal of 20 percent off to my loyal readers. Were you to click on the link above, you’d pay retail – and you know how I feel about that sort of thing.