This Round-up is a guest post from ideaLaunch Associate Content Strategist Corey Eridon.
Happy Monday. **Grumble**. If you don’t already have a case of the Mondays, I can fix that by dropping this existential crisis in the face of anyone who blogs (or hopes to) for a living. Problogger’s guest blogger Juice ponders whether blogging is dead and if there is any true online engagement anymore. PC Load Letter ain’t got nothin’ on this post. But for what it’s worth, I think Juice is probably just experiencing growing pains, and may take heart in this Mashable article that both commiserates with her decrease in traditional metrics of engagement, and presents some alternative ways to measure success and encourage conversation. Juice, we’ve all been there. From one Detroit expat to another, keep on trucking!
Alright, let’s turn down the steam in this pressure cooker with some writer gossip from two of my favorite websites. Did you know Lady Campbell was bumpin’ uglies with Khrushchev, Castro, and JFK all within the span of 12 months? There’s more juicy gossip about your favorite literary titans in Flavorwire’s article about writer couples and their doomed relationships, found via The Hairpin. Once you’ve downed that shot, chase it with The Awl’s list of famous authors that were once copywriters. I thought any aspiring novelists out there might need an upper.
I’ve heard a lot of writers out there saying they really mean to install Google Analytics on their blog, but they just haven’t gotten to it yet. Hmmm, do I detect a hint of fear in that response? Lots of people think you have to be Bill Gates before you go traipsing around in your site’s code, so here’s a video from Danny Brown at For Bloggers by Bloggers to tell you that a.) no you don’t, and b.) here’s how to do it. After watching it you’ll take your palm to your forehead for ever freaking out about it. It’s really easy. For real. Or you’re just lazy; that’s cool, too.
Finally, at the risk of possibly being the last one to the party on this, Write Anything has a really cool weekly inspiration challenge called Fiction Friday. You can check out the guidelines here (there are few), but the long and short of it is they post a prompt, you get to writing. If you’re having trouble getting your creative juices flowing, I recommend stopping by to participate. You can take it one step further by recording a reading of your Fiction Friday work, and sharing it on your blog and Twitter account with #spokensunday.
That’s it for today, crew. Got some links you want highlighted in a future round-up? Send ‘em our way via the comments section!
