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The articles about social media that I would REALLY like to read

By The Princess on September 7, 2011 8:19 AM in Blogging | Comments (0)

The Internet is full of articles about how to use social media to help yourself succeed. If you don't believe me, just go look. "How to participate in this community just enough so that then you stick your own stuff in, people won't think you're a jerk!" "To succeed in social media, you have to be generous, so that you can get stuff!"

Ugh.

If I could only ever do one kind of blogging again for the rest of my life, it would be curated linkblogging. I love to share links. I love to find cool things and force other people to look at them. Just ask my husband. So I wish there was more advice about how to use these tools in a non self-serving way. Such as:

How to use StumbleUpon to get lots of attention for awesome stuff created by people you don't even know!

How to build your Twitter following so you can send readers to fabulous content you randomly found online!

Five great tips for using Digg to help strangers' cool blogs and other projects succeed!

Helping other people who are trying to accomplish something on Facebook beyond socializing, even if you don't really understand what they're doing: A Beginner's Manual

I'm not saying it's bad to promote yourself online. It's good to help people with a legitimate interest in your content find out about it.

I'd just love to read some social media advice without being constantly told that I have an ulterior motive.

When you care about a person with a disability, this is what happens

By The Princess on June 8, 2011 10:12 AM in Blogging | Comments (0)

Stick with me on this one, folks. This post starts off sounding technical, but it's really not.

A few years ago, I did a fair bit of blogging and a little bit of speaking about how to make your blog more accessible to people with disabilities. One of the biggest issues in accessibility is how to create an equivalent experience for your blog's readers who, for whatever reason, cannot access some of your content. Images are the most often discussed item, since some people either cannot see them or find that they're most comfortable browsing the web with images turned off (relevant on some mobile devices as well).

Built into the HTML code for an image is the possibility of adding a bit of description called "alt text" that serves as equivalent content for anyone who isn't getting the image. This can also be useful on technological fail, when the image suddenly goes missing due to a server issue or something, since the alt text can display in its place.

Alt text can be abused in a misguided attempt to boost website rankings. On the other end of the spectrum, I have seen people use both alt text and an extremely long description of the image in the text of the post - which is duplicative - and also detailed descriptions of the image that are so mechanical that I would find them boring even if I could not see the image. They don't convey the same experience despite an exhaustive explanation of all the aspects of the image. Those people, though, are trying, so I give them props.

This woman, though? I give her super-props:

What's Past is Prologue at Smells Like Happy.

I may have never seen such a beautiful equivalent for an image. It's written for one of her friends who uses a seeing eye dog. The blogger obviously took so much care in writing that paragraph so that it would provide the same sense of surprise, wonder, and fun included in the image itself. I doubt it was painful to write, either, because she was doing it out of love. And it ends up provides extra richness to the post for all her readers.

I'm not saying that every image in every post can be done this way. Purely decorative images often don't need such treatment. But what if we all acted as though someone we know and care about would be trying to enjoy our blogs? What if, instead of slapping some cursory alt text on an image, we used even a couple of sentences of the post text itself to convey what the image is and more importantly, what it means to us and how it makes us feel? Wouldn't that lead to better blogging as well as better accessibility?

What happened in August stays in August. Okay, not really, I will tell you.

By The Princess on October 14, 2010 1:29 AM in Blogging

It always takes me at least a month to recover from BlogHer sufficiently to post about BlogHer. This year it took two months, since I took a vacation to Portland, Oregon about two weeks before I flew off to BlogHer in New York City. I barely know what year it is.

More about what happened to me in NYC...

Happy Something Or Other To My Blog?

By The Princess on April 14, 2010 9:23 PM in Blogging | Comments (2)

Today is the eighth anniversary of the oldest post that currently exists on this blog.

I have no idea what my real first blog post was about, since I deleted it and many others in the migration from Blogger to Movable Type. I also have no clear memory of what blogs I read first, why I started blogging myself, how I chose Blogger, how I heard of Movable Type and decided to switch, or even how the name of this blog came into being. Lizard Kingdom makes sense, I do get cold easily and would prefer a large warm rock to be available at all times, but flooded? Why? Was it raining that day?

Then again, I also have no memory of my sister running into my foot in the kitchen during high school and breaking her toe on my shoe. I think my brain just isn't as capable as some people's. So thank goodness for the roughly 1170 posts I do have, otherwise I probably wouldn't have any ability to answer questions about what I've been doing for the last eight years. You know, when the cops show up because reality has become just another Law and Order show since as far as I can tell from the televisions at the gym, they are pretty much taking over the world.

Carry on.

Finding Ways To Save Time

By The Princess on January 27, 2010 9:45 AM in Blogging | Comments (3)

Upon reflection, I've realized that I would have more time to do exciting things like laundry if I would tighten up my blog posts. For example, here are alternate versions of my last two posts that would have freed up precious minutes - nay, hours - for me to pursue domestic chores.

"I have enough time on my hands that I spend some of it worrying I might watch the wrong 293 movies next."

"I'm a 35 year old woman developing an interest in the X-Men comics so strong that I have even started reading blogs about comics. Kill me now!"

Perhaps to give up blogging altogether and go back to Twitter.

Ain't No Party Like A BlogHer Party

By The Princess on December 15, 2009 9:40 PM in Blogging | Comments (5)

I'm not exactly sure where December has gone, but I think the sick two year old and the car's muffler basically falling off may be somehow involved. It seems like just yesterday I was at the Austin BlogHer holiday party at Central Market... which I haven't told you about at all! Yikes!

The whole thing started when the BlogHer mothership told us they were having holiday meetups in SF and NYC, and didn't we want to play along at home? Of course! Especially once I knew that the Dallas BlogHers were doing it too.

But truth be told, I was a little (a lot) nervous about pulling this event together, because the holiday season is so dang busy and it was predicted to be wicked cold that night. But my partner in crime Tied Up With A Black Velvet Band kept me from hyperventilating too badly. By 7:30, the party was in full swing, with the following fabulous blogs represented:

It's amazing, every time i turn around these days I'm finding more Austin blogging women! Some of them found out about it through the Austin-Area group on BlogHer.com, some through the grapevine, and there are quite a few blogs on this list that I didn't even know about until the bloggers walked in the door.

Pizza, wine, name tags made out of gift-wrap labels, and a whole lot of talk about blogging (and how to smuggle booze onto cruise ships) made for a perfect evening.

The best part? We collected 74 food items for the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. Unfortunately, my desire to get an actual weight for this massive haul was thwarted by my son breaking our scale, the Central Market produce scales only going up to 6 pounds, serious reality check from the smart part of my brain on driving the whole lot up to my vet to weigh on their scale, and the staff at the food bank being in a staff meeting on the day I dropped off the donation.

SO, an extremely scientific estimation process has been used:

Most items = cans weighing about 15 ounces

At least 12 items = bags of rice or beans weighing 2 pounds

About 10 items = boxes or cans weighing 1 pound or slightly less

(15 average ounces * 52 items) + (12 ounces average * 22 items) = 87 pounds

87 pounds of food! For reference, that far overfills one copier paper box and three grocery bags, and by overfill I am referring to both weight and volume. When you stack it all up, it looks like this:

food donation

Unfortunately, it's impossible to plan a party where everyone's schedules permit attendance, but the great thing about planning a party like this is you also get to say hey to other folks by email or whatnot, like I did with this is life in austin, MizFit, Fragrant Liar, Marla'z Austin Journey, Elizabeth Knox Photography, The Bean, Stepmother's Milk, I Stare at People, Hey Elise, Fête & Feast, and the About.com Austin Guide.

I know, right? MORE AUSTIN WOMEN WHO BLOG. It's like we're a city full of people who like computers or something.

If you're still reading this post, it's probably because you are a fabulous Austin blogger, tweeter, or blog-reader yourself. Please feel free to leave a comment letting us know about you, especially if you're interested in hearing about the next BlogHer get-together in our fair city. After we've had time to recover from the holidays, that is. We will also post the info in the Austin-Area group on BlogHer.com so check that out as well.

Austin Area BlogHer Holiday Party!

By The Princess on November 19, 2009 9:51 PM in Blogging | Comments (4)

This is for the locals! Or anyone who wants to come to town!

BlogHer is holding holiday parties in NYC and SF on December 3rd, and Dallas is having one a couple of days later, so I didn't want Austin to be left out.

Central Market Cafe North, 7-9pm. More details here. Bloggers, tweeters, and blog readers are welcome.

And holy mackerel, we have a lot of women bloggers in this town (and nearby)! Here's my current list, which you may note has grown quite a bit since last time I posted it. When lists get too long I feel a biological imperative to start breaking them up, so it's in three categories kinda.

Other caveats: if I missed your blog, let me know and I'll add it. I'm trying to only list blogs if the blog itself SAYS the blogger is in Austin/Central Texas or the blogger tells me it's okay to list them. If I miscategorized anything, let me know and I'll fix it. Some of these blogs may be pair/group blogs with at least one woman blogging. Etc.

Food bloggers - I found most of these because there's a huge awesome list at Relish Austin:

Mama bloggers (but don't pigeonhole them, or they get cranky!):

Other Bloggers I Haven't Broken Out Into Categories Yet but feel free to make suggestions:

There's also an Austin Design/Craft blogroll at Average Jane Crafter (see her right sidebar) that I haven't even had time to look through yet!

Pseudonymous Bloggers: What's Up With That?

By The Princess on August 14, 2009 9:24 PM in Blogging | Comments (4)

Obviously this is a strange question coming from someone who signs her posts "The Princess," but please feel free to take a look at my dandy new About page if you're one of the last three people on the Internets who doesn't know my real name. I actually should be better about remembering to tell people that they CAN use my name in association with this blog, though I appreciate it when people are cautious.

What I mean by pseudonymous is a hypothetical blogger who calls herself a perfectly normal name on her blog, something like Emma. So you go along reading her blog, and you're thinking "I like this Emma person, she's neat."

Maybe that's not so odd. Maybe Jennifer has a desire for privacy.

But let's say Emma/Jennifer posts pictures of herself on her blog all the time. She writes about what town she lives in, where she shops, etc. If anyone who knew her came to her blog, they'd be like "Hey, it's Jennifer's blog!" So she's not doing an anonymous blogging thing per se.

What happens when you finally meet Jennifer? Let's say she goes to a blogger meet-up. You recognize her, and you're like "Oh hey, you're Emma." Then she says "Actually my name is Jennifer."

When people, including myself, use wacky pesudonyms on their blogs, the reader knows what's up. You're expecting to find out that Wild Empress of All Suburbia is named Pam. But when Emma turns out to be Jennifer, it's just seems like a bit more of an adjustment.

Thoughts?

My Top 8 Reasons Why I Am Not Commenting On Your Blog

By The Princess on August 7, 2009 5:24 PM in Blogging | Comments (7)

When bloggers don't get comments or don't get as many comments as they would enjoy having, they often think they're doing something wrong. I've been wondering lately, for blogs I enjoy but don't comment on, what my reasons are for that behavior. This is what I came up with.

If you have found yourself in the situation of wanting more comments, you might find it interesting to note how few of these reasons have anything to do with the blog itself, and how many of them are all about me.

  • I meant to, and I even bookmarked that post, but then I forgot, and when I found it again, it was two months later and that just seems silly.
  • I can't figure out a way to comment that doesn't sound like I'm just hijacking your blog to talk about myself.
  • I can't figure out anything else to say but "Good post!" and that's really boring.
  • I enjoy reading your blog, but I know NOTHING about the topic you're writing about compared to you, and I'm afraid to sound like an idiot.
  • I ran across one of your posts somehow, and it was cool, but I don't want to comment because I just can't read any more blogs on an ongoing basis, and I don't want you to think I'm reading your blog on an ongoing basis and then be disappointed when you later (somehow magically) find out otherwise.
  • Your post already has a ton of comments, so it seems redundant.
  • Your blog has very few comments, and everyone who comments seems to know you in real life, so I feel awkward, as if I might be intruding.
  • I don't want to create a login just to register on your blog. I already have Blogger, LiveJournal, Wordpress.com, TypePad, and probably some other logins, and I'm done making more.

For the record, I have also decided that commenting on other people's blogs (even if I can't read them all the time) is one of my biggest pick me ups, so I'm going to work on not letting these things get in the way. So if you're reading my blog, I want to head over to your blog - because we all have good posts, and I would love to read yours and at least say "Good post!" even if I can't think of anything more creative or substantial. Tell me where your blog is in the comments, okay?

Oh The People You'll Meet

By The Princess on July 30, 2009 3:29 PM in Blogging | Comments (6)

BlogHer 2009 was my fifth BlogHer, meaning that I have a 100% track record on attending. Even though I missed most of a day, I still managed to connect with about 50 of my fine co-attendees. That's the part I love about BlogHer, and why I always register even before I know what the sessions will be about. Here is a list of the folks whose cards made it home with me, or who my poor tired brain managed to make note of meeting in the hallway or at a party.

(If I missed anyone, I'm sorry, and please let me know so I can fix that oversight. You have no idea how my IQ was cut in half by Saturday's ER adventure.)

While this post may seem a bit meaningless to some (who cares who I met at an event you didn't go to?), it's my way of saying thank you to each of these folks. If people like you did not show up, there would be no BlogHer, and that would be truly sad.

If you missed BlogHer, or it just isn't for you, I still invite you to take a minute or two and see if any of the blog titles below grab you. There's a little something for everyone, click on through and see what you find...

The social, the political, the awesome:

I got to give them compliments they richly deserved, yay!:

Kept me entertained while my friends were trying to make out with a cardboard cutout of that guy from Twilight:

Mamas (but don't put them in a box dangit!):

Sites for people who have kids in their lives:

Good to see y'all again:

Cool resources:

And everything else under the sun, including:

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