billso.com

I started blogging back in 2003, and I learn something new every day about writing, attribution, and basic research when I write a story. When i was in art school, my drawing instructors told us to draw something every day. It’s a skill, not a gift. Skills need work and practice.

Friends of mine who do SEO (search engine optimization) consulting have told me that I should be running several different blogs, each with a different domain name. My mobile technology posts could go in one blog, while my Honolulu political posts could appear at alohapundit.com, for example.

I have made one major change in my blogging model. I’ve started writing articles about home office technology, the Mac and small business security for BrightHub.

There are some benefits in writing for a larger web site. At BrightHub, I have three editors that provide feedback and topic suggestions. BrightHub sells ad links to the articles, and maintains the site and its content management system (CMS).

BrightHub keeps the copyright over the articles I write for them, I do earn some revenue on each article. My BrightHub articles are listed in my profile on that site, as well as my BrightHub page at billso.com.

FriendFeed is another service that I use. It’s a social media aggregator that collects my posts, comments and items from other services like Twitter, StumbleUpon, Google Reader and my Amazon Wish List.

I have set up a page at billso.com that lists my recent FriendFeed activity. It’s not as pretty or as organized as my FriendFeed.com page but it was a fun way to do some RSS filtering.

While I enjoy posting a new entry at billso.com every day, I may scale back that commitment so that I can post more articles on BrightHub and other services.

Related posts and pages on billso.com

• BrightHub
• 25 June 2008: Honolulu Advertiser blogs need more content and authority

Annie Jacobsen thought she saw 14 Syrian terrorists on her airline flight. So she wrote an article and posted it on her web site. Now she has published a follow-up, trying to defend herself. Be careful: Annie’s writing style is painful to read.

Snopes says Annie is full of it. There isn’t much evidence to support her claims. They were musicians heading to Las Vegas. Annie was so upset that the air marshal on the flight was worried that Annie was blowing his cover deliberately.

Music: Yahoo! News - Livewire: MP3 Blogs Serve Rare Songs, Dusty Grooves: “A new genre of Web sites that offer an eclectic mix of free music downloads may not be strictly legit, but the sites’ creators say they’re doing the beleaguered record industry a favor. Named for the MP3 music format and the popular self-published Web sites known as blogs, they are part online mixtape, part diary, and part music magazine. ”

Tech: Fast Company | Thinking Outside The Cup: “So this girl walks into a bar. She holds a tall iced coffee in one hand, and her blond hair is piled high in a ponytail, neon bikini strings peeking out from her tank top. At this bar, however, headphones hang above the stools, and computer screens are embedded in the countertop. The girl looks at the ‘bartender’ quizzically. ‘So you can burn music here and it’s, like, legal and everything?’ she asks. The bartender smiles and nods. ‘Omigod, so you have, like, every song, ever?’ Well, not every song, but quite a few: approaching 150,000 — about 20,000 albums’ worth. The girl settles onto a stool and grabs a headset, taking a long drag on the straw in her drink as she starts tapping away on a screen. ‘That’s awwwesome.’”

Music: Vice Records has a new compilation out called YES NEW YORK. Plenty of good tunes, including Interpol and the Rogers Sisters.