A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

blogging ideas

It’s time to clean up the blog

Holy cow.

Apparently, I haven’t been too good with finishing some posts in the past. This morning, as I struggled to come up with a quick post I could write up, I figured I’d see if I had anything in the draft file.

It would seem that I should start utilizing things like this to plan this blog a bit more…

Um, yeah.

So it would seem over time, I’ve started many a blog post. And then I’ve left them to rot away. In my draft queue, there are 36 posts. They vary in length from just a few words to nearly being finished. Some of them would make no sense to post now as they were timely one. Maybe it was because I was fired up about something or something else.

But there they sit — suspended in time.

It’s funny, though. I remember some of these posts and I remember why I started writing.

In some, I remember why stopped writing them as well.

You see, this blogging world can be tough. Especially when you are of the personal nature. I don’t make money off this blog, obviously. It’s basically my little place on the Internet where I can kind of keep track of what I do in life.

In fact, I’m usually jumping for joy when I get more than 50 page views in a day.

So I’ve now made it my goal to go through every single one of these posts. If I think they are worthy of still being used, I need to finish them and schedule them so they are out of the drafts queue.

If they aren’t worth keeping, then to the trash they go.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll get a bunch of new posts out of this queue and be able to remember some good stuff to actually post about and not leave in the queue.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Issues in blogging: The eternal fight to find good ideas

I can’t lie about this.

Despite having a notebook with a bunch of ideas to blog about, sometimes things don’t flow. Maybe I’m not in a writing mood or it just doesn’t seem to work that day, but there are times I can stare and nothing comes to mind.

Many of the ideas I have written down are more for the future — when I am employed again and have the ability to do some different things. Right now, many of these ideas are just that — ideas.

When that happens, sometimes I turn to Google in the hopes of finding some magical ideas to fill the blog.

That’s when things get interesting.

See, if you aren’t a blogger — or even if you are and have never searched for things like this — you might not realize how many blogs are out there to help you blog.

Seriously.

Doing a quick Google search for “blog ideas” came up with the following places for me to visit:

  • 50 Blogging Ideas to Steal and Take Credit For
  • 25 Blog Ideas That Will Rock Your Readers World!
  • 20 Ideas for Writing a Blog Post
  • 81 Topic Ideas for Starting a Blog that Matters
  • 365 Blog Topics and Journaling Ideas: FREE eBook!

Sheesh!

The best may be when you look through some of these ideas. Ya know, the things you should be blogging about could be any of the following:

  • Lists (after all, people apparently love lists!)
  • How-to posts
  • Reviews
  • Current events
  • Tips
  • Photos

I’m not kidding here, people. There are blogs out there telling bloggers to do these things. In other words, pretty much do what every blogger has done since blogs began. I already do a lot of these things. How does that help?

Digging a bit more on some of these blogs can give some decent tips, though. Items such as carrying a notebook (which I would personally encourage every writer to do — if the idea comes, jot it down) are good pieces of advice, but it doesn’t help with the issue at hand.

See, writer’s get blocked on occasion. It happens. So I’m usually trying to find a way out of said blocks. I don’t want to be told to write a how-to post. I want to find something to give me some inspiration.

Many of these “blog idea” sites also try and sell eBooks or some other thing to prove how great they are. I once purchased an eBook that was written by a blog I frequented. I did it more of as support than anything else, but the idea of it was to help you grow your blog and get more visitors.

That didn’t happen.

Alas, for the $2 or so I spend on the book, I came away with three very important things I use quite often, so it was money well spent. And it only took me a night to read the book.

In the end, personal blogs are often the toughest to do. I know I don’t need to publish something every day, but I like to do so. Even if it’s something silly or whatever. Why? Just because. But by doing so, it sometimes slows things down in regard to the blogging process.

That’s when you get posts like this!

It still amuses me, however, that sometimes people need these sites. If they had some great ideas or something to get the juices flowing, I’d be all about them, too. But it’s basic stuff that any blogger — personal or professional — already knows.

I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m kicking along here. And I need to get some of these ideas flowing. So hopefully a post like this will allow me to get some creative juices flowing a bit more.

If not, I might have to turn this blog into a how-to list on how to blog.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Notes from my Noodle: August 30 edition

It’s good to be back and have no worried about hosting issues…

For that last line to make sense, let me go backwards and tell the whole story.

When I post something to my blog, I have an application that automatically posts it to my Facebook wall as well as the wall for this blog (please hit the like button on the right side of the page! Shameless plug, I know!) When I have posts written ahead of time, the application still works.

I had Sunday’s post ready to go at like noon and it never posted to my Facebook wall. That seemed odd to me. So, I thought I might have put the wrong time in and I went to check my blog out.

I was greeted with a mainly white screen and these words…

“Bandwidth Limit Exceeded” (in large, bold typeface).

“The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.”

As you can imagine, I was shocked. I had never reached the limit before. It was several days before the end of the month and I didn’t want to wait it out. I needed to figure something out and fast. One think I’ve thankfully seen is a small growth in the number of visitors who come to my site. When I started doing this on a more regular basis, I would celebrate 20 or 25 visits. I’ve since grown and have seen that number go up by quite a bit, which is nice.

So the last thing I wanted was new readers to come and see that.

Panic mode set in, but after a few deep breaths, away I went to figure this out.

I went to the live chat with my host and discussed possibilities.

Let me say this — I have been with this host company since it was in its infancy. My price plan was excellent because I had done many things back then to get some special perks — such as unlimited add on domains etc. That was their way of saying thank you for writing reviews and such. The company has been excellent to deal with for more than 10 years, so I figured we could work something out.

The person that I chatted said he or she understood my loyalty, but the hands were tied. They couldn’t do partial upgrades. The reality was, I only needed some extra bandwidth. I didn’t need full upgrades.

The bandwidth increase with their basic package would have been way more than I needed. But it took away a lot of what I had earned and apparently the company couldn’t do anything about that. This person kept insisting I needed to upgrade to the “Silver package,” but didn’t understand that I couldn’t afford that big of an upgrade (to be fair, the price isn’t bad… but I didn’t need everything it offered) and I didn’t think it was fair that I had to pay for things I had been rewarded in the past, just to get an upgrade of bandwidth.

After 30 minutes of this, I decided it was going no where, ended the conversation and took it to support.

Tech support was much better to deal with, as they always are. They sent me to billing and the person there understood what I was saying. This person apologized that the company had the policy and he couldn’t do anything about it. That still meant for me to keep everything I had already, I needed to go to the silver package.

Argh!

Alas, this got better as the person I was dealing with offered me a loyalty discount of 30 percent, which brought the price down to almost the basic package. I was also told that price would remain with me. In the end, I decided to accept that offer and my site was soon back online. It also gives my site the ability to really grow as the bandwidth allowed is incredibly more than I had before. Let’s say this, I was on a plan that allowed 3.5 gigs of bandwidth per month and for the first time ever, I went over that. This new plan now allows 15,000 gigs of bandwidth per month. Yeah.

In the end, this host came through again. I have another host that doesn’t have a lot of bandwidth on it with one of my other sites. Though I don’t update that much, it has gone over bandwidth the past couple of months (that one is even lower than the 3.5), so I think I will be canceling that account and bringing that site to this account with the added bandwidth I now have. In the end, I’ll be breaking even on the price for the most part.

***

I'm going to miss covering football on nights like this.

Labor Day weekend is upon us.

In the past, that usually meant I was prepping for the high school football season. Previews needed to be written. Schedules and rosters typed in and proofed. Special sections needed to be done and then there’s the rush of the season. Friday night games with 30 minutes to write a story. Those things I will miss.

Since being laid off in February, this was the time of the year that I wondered how I’d feel. And it stinks. I always looked forward to high school football season and it was one of my favorite beats.

I still plan on going and shooting some photos. Maybe I can freelance for another paper or two. We’ll see. But it will be odd knowing I don’t have to go to a game. Or that I can just go to any game I feel like going to. That’s going to be one perk for sure. If I feel like watching this game over another, I can just head over and do so.

I will say this — I won’t miss the games where I’m standing under a downpour on a really cold Friday night. That’s what radios are for!

***

The waiting game in the job hunt is the worst.

I had a phone interview a few weeks ago for a job that I would love to have. It would be one of those where I think I could make it a career and be happy as can be. I’m not sure how the interview went. Unfortunately, though I thought I was very prepared, a couple of questions caught me off guard. I’m hoping I didn’t ramble too much or give bad answers as I think if I got an in-person interview, I could do really well.

I keep hoping and waiting, so we’ll see.

In the meantime, I keep the job search going and hope for the best. It’s a tough market out there and it keeps getting tougher. I am not sure what I need to do to secure good employment. So goes for that master’s degree really doing wonders for me.

I did send something else out today, so let’s see what happens. I’ll keep pushing along.

***

I’ve been having a good time with the blog as it’s been a way for me to keep writing and such. As it grows in size, however, I know I have to start doing some other things with it. I am working on some features and some journalistic-style things to have soon. I want to do a few series of stories on some things that I have been slowly trying to figure out. I have contacted a few people for each subject, so hopefully it will work out well in those parts. These series of stories, if done the way I have envisioned, will be posted in several installments over a few days.

I’m also working on making the HooHaa 9 stories a weekly thing until I fill the team (and likely keep going). But before I start releasing them, I want to have a couple written so I can be working ahead. Therefore, those probably won’t start until a week or two after Labor Day. There is, of course, the weekly Snapshot Saturday. I don’t want each day to have a “set item” as I do still like having the freedom to write about whatever. But I will be having two or three “set things” for a few days per week.

I have some other ideas for contests and such that I want to start running, so as soon as I get those figured out, I will post them as well.

If you have any good ideas for some topics I can blog about, or a series of stories I could work on, please let me know. Drop a comment or send an e-mail. I’m not looking to break news, rather I’m looking to show a different slice of life.

***

I made a booboo with Postcrossing.

I have wondered why none of the 10 or so postcards I sent recently had arrived at their locations. Well, it turns out I had forgot to send them. Ugh! They have been sitting here on my computer desk, covered by a few other papers and notebooks. I will be getting these out ASAP so they can get to where they need to be!

I have a good pile of postcards here, too. I need to start scanning them and doing some blog posts about them. There are some really wild looking cards and some nice stamps, too.

For those of you who haven’t heard of or have never tried Postcrossing, I highly encourage it.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!