Welcome back from the weekend!
We were halfway to Barstow on the edge of the desert when—well, you know the rest. Am I mentioning this legendary opening line of Hunter S. Thompson’s infamous book because I’m headed to Sin City myself this week? It wouldn’t be out of the question, but ProBlogger seems to have Vegas and going Gonzo on its brain, too. The post is asking bloggers to please, please let go and lose a bit of control over the formality or structure of your blog and do things a bit differently—as Thompson did with his report-on-a-motorcycle-race-turned-manifesto-on-psychoactive-drugs-and-loss-of-the-American-Dream Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. “The world is full of dull, sterile writing,” the blogger says. (Don’t you just love the use of the word “sterile” there? Evocative and perfect.) Don’t be another dull, sterile blog; defy even your own expectations of the project with which you are confronted. Break the rules—we won’t tell Mom.
And speaking of the use of the word “sterile,” check out Copyblogger’s post on how to sell like Steve Jobs—particularly the blurb about getting hooked on mere words.
Maybe it’s the summer heat, but everyone is all about going a little crazy this week. “Be funny. Be serious. Be dark. Be outrageous. Be yourself,” Copyblogger says in its post about another industry titan Matt Drudge (who, by the way, drives more traffic to news sites than Twitter or Facebook). Just please, dear gosh, do not be boring. And also please, dear gosh, don’t confuse confusing with interesting. Sometimes simplicity can be the funniest, darkest, most outrageous, and most yourself.
Since clearly, all of this off-the-wall blogging is going to incite an overload of commenting, you’ll need to determine the best comment system option for your blog. And I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it now, just don’t respond to comments like this author.
So in case you’re not familiar with me yet, I’m the Writer Community Manager here, as well as an editor. And I was perusing For Bloggers By Bloggers today when this post came up: How to Involve Your Community In Your Blog: The Guest Posting Invitation. I figured since I’m all for community, particularly mine, instead of putting up my “Caitlin is playing craps and swimming right now, no Round-up” message for my post next Monday, I have offered an invitation to my community to guest post this Round-up. I’m pretty excited about it, so let’s see how it goes—and don’t forget to comment away for the fill-in with encouragement.
What about you? Please share any interesting or relevant links and maybe I’ll feature them in the next Round-up!
