Todd Lyden

I tried for the longest time to integrate audio posting with blogging. I tried it WAY back when I had an Android phone. I've tried several incarnations once I switched to Iphones. One of the latest can be found here: http://www.ipadio.com/channels/ToddLyden I tested Ipadio a few times and while I really enjoy the easy of calling to record and then post and embed rather easily. It isn't quite what I was looking for. Way back in the heady days of 2011, I tried Cinchcast from Cinch:  http://www.toddlyden.com/2011/01/one-huge-problem-with-cinchcasting.html Most of the earliest iterations relied on calling, which is not the best way to record a podcast. I am not looking at doing lengthy interviews and what not. I just wanted to share quick snippets. I think I found it in the Opinion App. Others sing its praises here . Here is what I am producing with it: podcast.toddlyden.com I am lapsing into a semi-sort-of schedule with Monday- movie reviews; Wednesday - app of...

I should have been giving Google Plus a little more attention in the first month of service. It still feels very much like it is reserved for the special people, but that's probably a good thing. I've decided to experiment operation out of Gplus primarily for the next week. I set up my feed to head over to Facebook and Twitter . I will still address stuff that is in those places as if I were still posting from there, but I am going to try to do all the posting from Gplus and see how it works. You can selectively send posts from Gplus to Twitter and Facebook, but I don't want to worry about that. I generally share tech and specific stuff to Twitter and more personal stuff to Facebook, so that might get a little dicey. Thoughts? How can you keep the fans on either more popular site happy, while integrating Gplus?

Number four in the #Reverb10 series:Wonder.  How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? I'm doing it. Blogging on a regular basis has REALLY amped my questioning, wondering, and curiosity this year. A while back I promised that I would post at least once/day and this series is forcing me to ramp it up. I am SEMI-counting this as part, but if I have something that ABSOLUTELY needs to be said, I will post it anyway. Double dip! I think one of the benefits of this series is that I am going to discover some new bloggers to check out. Think I am going to head out now to do that, join me by checking out the #Reverb10 hashtag on Twitter or Delicious! Related articles #Reverb10 Day Two: Writing.  (sydneyowen.com) Reverb10: Wonder  (eemusings.wordpress.com) Three Acts to Make 2011 a Wonder Year  (psychologytoday.com) Zemanta  helped me add links & pictures to this email.  It can do it for you too.

Second in  the #Reverb10 series: Writing. From  Leo Babauta:  What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?  I'm going the cheap route. Nothing. I dare say EVERYTHING you do contributes to YOUR writing. Sure, the question implies that you can prioritize your life and cut something out like a dead limb. This might be true for a lot of people. And YES, I can prioritize, but cut that limb? I don't think I can see it. There are moments of slackadastical behavior I have no doubt that I could eliminate, but who doesn't need down time? There are moments of sheer do-nothing, but those usual involve my kids- those aren't going anywhere. I am sure I could crystalize some truly WASTED seconds, but I doubt it would RADICALLY improve my writing. Would it any more than reading a myriad of blogs, newspapers, magazines, books that I enjoy? Probably not. Would it any more than the radio I enjoy listening to? Probably not. If you can elim...

So I decided I would stop writing posts on a particular someone's blog postings. In hind sight, I think one of the subliminal reasons I wanted to stop was because I was overly reliant on the idea that I could just do it. Over and over, nitpick it or find something I just disagreed with. More to the point, it became an easy crutch for me. Need a post? See what Godin was writing about. I couldn't always, but there it was- something reliable, something supportive, but at the same time- debilitating. It was holding me back from something better.  I don't think my posts on my problems with Godin were bad, just the reliance. I could still come up with something similar for someone else and probably will on occasion. My point here is take a look at something you are doing that props you up. They aren't all bad. We often times need it to get by, but most people do not strive to live on  crutches .  But where you are overly-dependent on something to ge...

So another slate of blogging proponents are quitting?  Nathan Hangen ,  Jim Kukral ,  David Winer  are amongst the names. Hangen was the most recent- his reason? No reason for posting any more or that it was a content dump? Do I feel like I am giving anything away? No. I've been worried about this because I was getting burnt. Mostly on my own self-imposed schedule of a post per day, but also on keeping up with the flow of information out there. The case for not giving up blogging? It only has to be part of the pie,  here Joel Spolsky  explains why this company is "taking it off line", but it seems like when blogging is what got you there, why would you just diss it? Hubspot had the rebuttal here:  http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5680/Why-Joel-Spolsky-Should-Not-Quit-Blogging.aspx Kristi Hines explains why 5 common reasons for giving up blogging are bunk: http://kikolani.com/5-bad-r...

Thank god for folks like Stanford aka @pushingsocial . I was reading this  latest nugget  over at his  site  as I struggled today. I've got three unfinished posts that  just  weren't ready. At least for me.  I think something like that fish Dory from "Finding Nemo"- " just   keep swimming,  just   keep  swimming..." I like his three phrases (words) of advice on generating great content. 1. Don't try to be a  thought leader . Definitely none of that here, right? I've written since middle school for papers, for fun, for graded school projects. Now I am fairly sure I am litera lly  just   writing   for me. And that's not a whine. I am fairly sure I'm not going to sway folks into thinking much of anything, but I will try to share information and MAYBE generate a stray thought or two per Stan's advice. 2. I will disagree slightly with Stan on his second point. Mind you, we are not  writing ...

This is probably going to rub some folks online the wrong way: to start messing around with social media including Twitter, Facebook, etc does NOT require a strategy. From Wikipedia: Strategy refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. How many people first got on Twitter or FB, worked on a Wordpress blog, or finally figured out an RSS feed with ANYTHING resembling a strategy? Did you REALLY have a plan of action with a particular goal in mind? I still don't and no doubt it shows. Everyone is saying that in order for a small business or someone breaking into the "blogging for money" racket they MUST have a strategy. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of social media gurus/pundits/bloggers who would say, "But Todd, I don't think everyone needs one when they start." Of course, these are the same folks that have ads selling such things as "How to Become the Social Media Rockstar of the Universe" or are giving away...

Cause what the world needs now is another folk singer like I need a hole in my head. Lyrics by Cracker, "Teen Angst"  What the world doesn't need: 1. another blog about blogging 2. another blogger who just wants to help others to blog (about blogging) 3. another "I'll show you how to get $ from blogging" program/guide/class Really. We just pure D do not need another. I implore you, if you are considering starting another blog about blogging. Just Don't. I've immersed myself in the blogosphere fairly hardcore for over a month and I am here to say, no more.  Caveats: 1. Blogs are good, blogs are tools, blogs are innocent. It is the repetitive use of blogs to promote blogging about blogs which is overdone.   2. Blogging for money. Caveat on the caveat: using blogs to promote your business is not bad, in fact, its a great idea, but thousands of ads? Not good, nor is shilling every affiliate product to come down the pike. 3. ...

How do you tell someone that their baby, their blog - the thing they put time and energy into- just does not work somehow? Doing this for over a month now, I have been reading a lot of other folks blogs as evidenced by my prodigious sharing of links (that's a joke). I judged debate for many years and learned how to be as tactful as possible to tell people why something they thought they were doing right didn't work for me. Mind you, that was me. It was also one time and one place. Blogs are semi-permanent- almost as if they were our children. Fly away little blog post, do what you will in the world and don't get beat up too much by all those mean readers! So how do you tell someone that the design is heinous? That ads placed ALL OVER THE PLACE are beyond off-putting? Let's look at some advise. Here is some generic advice for giving criticism. The gist of this one: do not criticize in public. GREAT advice for bloggers. The reality is we probably can deal...

So I found this infographic just fascinating. These were the stats from 2009 according to Problogger. Of course, self-hosted Wordpress is growing like a well-water lawn. The best part is the click through to see that while Wordpress.org is growing by leaps and bounds, Wordpress.com declined since 2007.  Even more astonishing is that Blogger GREW! I love Blogspot myself and have done several sites using the platform. Of course, I'm using Posterous right now because I wanted to give it fair shot.  I am REALLY contemplating bagging this platform. I like it, but it does not offer enough toys to work with and is expressly hard to customize.  Thoughts? What about Tumblr? Think it will expand and what happens with the news about Typepad and Moveable Type ?

Image via Wikipedia Well, I made it to thirty days of blogging . Somehow I managed to make the last one coincide when I would be out of town. I have a few ideas on the backburner, but could not get to them over the past two days due to work travel. What have I learned in thirty days? 1. Writing makes you think better. 2. Writing makes you think creatively. 3. I missed writing but apparently not thinking better or creatively. 4. You can write without an audience. 5. An audience can literally just be yourself. 6. Take your time finding what you want to say, but once you know what it is just say it. 7. Blog writers are EXTREMELY forgiving when it comes to spelling and grammar. 8. Blog writers probably ought to be more discriminating. 9. Finding folks who share similar ideas rocks. 10. Not trying to use a blog to sell crap is rewarding. I think I can keep up this pace. I am going to keep trying month by month to do AT LEAST a post/day. You will notice (which I don't suppose anyone will...

DE Plane, De Plane!  Pretend you heard Tattoo from Fantasy Island saying the post title. Go ahead, we'll wait.  Not so funny? Fair enough, but neither are most of the things you read on the internet. I was reading a blogger's site for some interesting stuff. It was ok, but one thing stood out on the pitch to join his subscription list. "100s of people can't be wrong!" Join all the other readers to get apparently exclusively FREE stuff, along with all the hundreds of others. Really? They just can't be wrong? I think we'd all beg to differ. I've seen some GREAT posts dig into this one better than I can. In particular, Susan Young's latest rant was GREAT. My fave there: " A Tweet that says “I just worked all day on my new blog post. Read it at________.”  A touch of Jersey sarcasm here, but no one cares about how long you struggled to create your genius post." Priceless, but true. Do you care how long it took me to sy...

"Sucking Hump" is a patent-pending term from  Man Vs. Debt blog . I loved this post for a variety of reasons.  1. Just heads on good advice for blogging. 2. Great listing of resources. 3. Invention of the the phrase "sucking hump." To quote:   I n other words, I feel I’ve crossed over the sucking hump.   Quite honestly, I invite you to LIVE on that "sucking hump."  Baker describes it as living between success and sucking, so I suppose it could be a success hump, but that doesn't have the ring or illustrate the point. Why should you live there?  Because thinking that you have gotten over that hump might lead to thinking that the journey is done right? If you are searching the horizon for the next success, living with the sucking or failure that could come with the risk of success, then you pretty much have to exist on the "sucking hump." That takes guts though doesn't it? Baker seems like he is living on tha...

Sarah Harris of Zen College Life wrote a piece over at Tycoonblogger .  She spoke to finding new sources for blog posts and invoked George Washington - that's enough to get me to listen.  I've been thinking about this and spoke with Brian Landi over at his blog, bits of business, about this. One thing I have found key is to make sure I can capture the notion, idea, or kernel before it disappears.  Everyone suggests keeping a journal or something to write on, but personally I have my cell phone to be the best. I send myself a text to my email to remind me or if driving, as I suggested in a recent post, I happen upon something that I felt worth sharing. That's the REAL key isn't it? Finding something worth sharing- on another lazy Sunday (especially before Labor day ), I've used other blogs to find something worth sharing.  Nothing wrong with that! Related articles Enjoy Your Labor Day; We're Back Tomorrow [Announcements] (lifehacker.com)

Why do people bother getting a vanity URL in this day and age? Phaedrus said, "Unless what we do is useful, our glory is vain." This is handy as this is the same guy who stole all of Aesop's fables and wrote them in Latin. In getting MY OWN vanity URL, I was trying to figure out how to be useful, have glory, and not be vain at the same time.  I've made that first step, but the second step of actually writing something worth reading is tough.  You are probably on Facebook and read nuggets of information from your average 130 some friends (more if you are REALLY popular). Or you are not, because you are not about to fall into this abyss online that just sucks up all your time and energy reading about your old high school sports buddy's trip to the bathroom. Either way, you managed to trip to my section of the inter-web. Now imagine, what do you write about?  Remember THOSE assignments in junior high? You barely had enough brain power coping wit...