Shaine Mata Blog

Image by shainelee via Flickr If an RSS feed falls in the forest of millions of websites, and nobody mentions it, does it mean nobody noticed? This is a bit of a late post, insofar as Internet speed is concerned. It's so last week. Well known tech guy, Leo Laporte, had a bit of a meltdown after realizing that his Google Buzz had not been updating ( http://leoville.com/buzz-kill ) his twitter with his latest posts. This caused Leo to question whether his social media presence is all in vain; because nobody noticed or mentioned it to him. This, in turn, has caused others to question how valuable social media is in terms of reaching audiences. Just to give you some perspective, Leo Laporte is a one-man media machine. He does the following: Live broadcast radio show The Tech Guy (techguylabs.com). Podcasts: This Week in Tech, iPad Today, This Week in Google, Windows Weekly, MacBreak Weekly, Security Now, net@night, Daily Giz Wiz, Munchcast Blogs at le...

Part of the problem I face is that I blog whenever it strikes me. To develop an audience, however, you need to be consistent. I have not. I am working on an editorial calendar. I have several “projects” that require updates. See more progress on: Be a better blogger

Duet with Io

Image via Wikipedia Magazines, especially the ones that print once per month, have pretty much laid out what their content will be from month to month far in advance. It takes a great deal of work to write the articles, hire the models, shoot the photos, design the layout, and all that. Unlike your blog, on which you can basically pound out an update whenever you feel inspired, magazines require a great deal of lead time . So, they have editorial calendars. We are not talking about personal blogs where you talk about your cats and pet peeves. If your blogging has a business purpose of some sort, then this is whom I intend to reach. Trying to come up with something creative and original every day or every week can be difficult. It is especially so without a plan in place. I realize it sounds contradictory to say that you need to have a plan in place so you can be creative. It really does help. Many times, when we don't know what to write about, it is because there are ...

The debate whether to get a Nook or a Kindle has been somewhat settled in our home. My wife decided to go for a Nook, which complements our lifestyle, given that we visit Barnes and Noble frequently. The free coffees, exclusive content when visiting a store, and other considerations of the hardware make the Nook a more family friendly option. Now the question, or questions, are whether to get a Kindle in addition to the Nook, or to make a complete commitment and get another Nook. Both readers have computer versions and Android versions, which evens the playing field in terms of access anywhere. In fact, we technically don't need a reader at all, except that reading a book on your phone is murder on your battery and not as cozy on the computer as it is reading in bed. So, let's discuss the first question, whether to buy a Kindle or not. Now that we have the Kindle's main competitor in our household, it weighs heavily on the decision. Getting another device means tha...