It’s something I often find difficult. I don’t want a blog post title to lie, but I do want it to catch the potential reader’s eye. I dislike some of the puerile titles you often see in tabloid newspapers, but of course they’re done for that very reason – so that potential buyers will snap up a copy of the rag. I do feel that they’re often aiming to be a comic and not a newspaper though, and going for the lowest common denominator of reader. I suppose that sounds snobbish. Anyway, while I want to attract readers, I don’t want anyone to feel that my blog is like a tabloid. God forbid.

Eyebee

Still, that kind of approach works. One of my most read posts is simply of a picture, and it’s titled ‘See Your Mom Naked‘

Perhaps there are many perverts out there, or it’s just plain curiosity. Anyway, it’s not at all pornographic. It’s simply a picture of a boy looking shocked at a computer screen. You can’t see the screen. It’s all suggestion. Anyway, it’s been on my blog for the best part of a couple of years now, and still gets hits almost every day. Now if I could write good content, and good titles every time, I’d be onto a real winner, instead of having a hobbyist blog!

By the way, I got my inspiration to write this short post after reading ‘The Five Worst Ways To Title A Blog Post‘ over at Problogger.

What To Title Your Blog Post is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

Amplify is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

One Blog, or Many Blogs? is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

1. The family picture is on HIS desk.

Ah, a solid, responsible family man.

The family picture is on HER desk.

Umm, her family will come before her career.

2. HIS desk is cluttered.

He’s obviously a hard worker and a busy man.

HER desk is cluttered.

She’s obviously a disorganised scatterbrain.

********

3. HE is talking with his co-workers.

He must be discussing the latest deal

SHE is talking with her co-workers.

She must be gossiping.

********

4. HE’s not at his desk.

He must be at a meeting.

SHE’s not at her desk.

She must be in the ladies’ room.

********

5. HE’s not in the office.

He’s meeting with customers.

SHE’s not in the office.

She must be out shopping.

********

6. HE’s having lunch with the boss.

He’s on his way up.

SHE’s having lunch with the boss.

They must be having an affair.

********

7. The boss criticised HIM.

He’ll improve his performance.

The boss criticized HER.

She’ll be very upset.

********

8. HE got an unfair deal.

Did he get angry?

SHE got an unfair deal.

Did she cry?

********

9. HE’s getting married.

He’ll get more settled.

SHE’s getting married.

She’ll get pregnant and leave.

********

10. HE’s having a baby.

He’ll need a raise.

SHE’s having a baby.

She’ll cost the company money in maternity benefits.

********

11. HE’s going on a business trip.

It’s good for his career.

SHE’s going on a business trip.

What does her husband say?

********

12. HE’s leaving for a better job.

He knows how to recognise a good opportunity.

SHE’s leaving for a better job.

Women are not dependable.

How The Company Views Its Employees? is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

There’s a lot of folks busy blogging in the lowcountry. Some write occasionally; some write every day; some write more than one blog. Any way they do it, there’s a lot of interesting stuff out there.

So, why not take a moment and swing by The Lowcountry Bloggers site, and check out today’s round up, featuring a few of the blogs out there?

You can get there by smacking your electronic rodent just here

Lowcountry Bloggers is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

I don’t get huge traffic here. However, like many bloggers, I’d like to grow it. Whilst I realize that content is king, and traffic growth doesn’t happen overnight, I’m very much feeling that Feedburner’s somewhat erratic performance isn’t helping to acheive my aims here.

So, after some careful consideration, and research, I’m switching over to FeedBlitz.

They appear to offer more services, and from what I gather from other users, better reliability.

So, to that end, I’ve shut off the links here to Feedburner.

If all goes well I shall be doing this on all the blogs I maintain and administer over the next couple of months.

If you’re reading this via the feed, you’ll still get this for the next 30 days. In about 15 days, you’ll get a reminder that the feed is closing, and the easiest way to change to the new FeedBlitz feed is to simply unsubscribe from the current feed in your reader, and resubscribe with the RSS link in your browser address window, or the little RSS FEED icon, on the left hand side.

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line, a tweet, a comment on friendfeed, or a comment on this post.

RSS Feeds Are Getting Blitzed! is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

I usually forget about the end of January. That’s when I stop making a deliberate effort to remember that it’s a new year, and that’s when I make the mistake and put the previous year on stuff.

Anyway, I hope you had a pleasant evening seeing in the New Year in, or, if you don’t celebrate,  a pleasant evening anyway.

If you did celebrate, I hope you’re not too hung over.

If you had a good year in 2008, may 2009 be even better, and if 2008 was a year you’d rather forget, well forget it! It’s 2009 now.

I know it’s only an arbitary date, but it’s still a good time to look forward, and set a few new goals for a new year.

Talking of goals, set them high for sure, but don’t set them too high that they are unattainable. If you really don’t think you make a million this year, go for $100K, or even $10K.

You’ll feel better than you made that lesser goal, and it’ll give you a starting place, and even more inspiration for 2010. Don’t undersell yourself of course, and whatever you do, when you reach that goal, if you can carry on past it, then be sure you do!

2009 is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

The last few weeks of the year are normally quite mad for many.

In the United States it starts with Thanksgiving when a large percentage of the population eat themselves silly on Turkey and trimmings for the day.

The following day many of those take their overstuffed bodies to the local stores and cram their karts full of Black Friday ‘bargains’. Some stand and freeze overnight to participate in this activity.

Then there is the frantic flurry of updating lists. No, not the endless round of ‘Best of’ lists that come at the end of the year, but the Christmas Gift list, and the Christmas Card list.

Everyone has their own method here of course. I wonder how many tons of cards end up not getting delivered though, because Mr Smith hasn’t lived at 2030 Jones Drive for at least the last ten years, and you don’t know that,  because he lost your address and can’t write and tell you. Mr Smith has email now, but he’s not sure how to find you online either, and you don’t know hes online in any case.

Then comes Christmas itself. Are you going to them this year, or are they coming to you? Everyone in the family really wants to stay at home and escape the travel nightmare, but no-one wants to admit it, so one or the other of you go through the adventure.

After all that, Christmas itself comes and goes in a flash. Jsut as you draw breath though, it’s New Year, and a round of parties etc. Again, you might feel like a quiet night in, watching your favorite host see the New Year in, but you can’t say that! “What do you mean, you’re staying IN New Years Eve?”

So for many, New Years Day, is not  an auspicious start to the New Year. It’s that ‘I’m not going do that again THIS year’ feeling.

Christmas might be a religious festival for many, but on New Year’s Eve, the end of night prayers are often to the porcelain God.

So. here we are. It’s New Years Day. Perhaps it’s sometime in the afternoon when you’re reading this. The Hangover you had is beginning to fade, and you think you might feel like eating a little something soon.

You didn’t drink much? Or at all? You can feel a bit pleased with yourself as you hear from those silly fools that did then!

Now, those New Year Resolutions.  You know, the crazy things you said last night? You can’t remember even to the next day?

They are a mixed thing really. If we’re running our lives efficiently, we should be making and aiming for new goals all the time. Isn’t that what resolutions are? Quitting smoking? That’s a goal to aim for. Making a million bucks? That’s another. You don’t need to wait until it’s a new year to do put those goal in place though, do you?

Let’s be honest here too.  A new year is an arbitary date, on which much of the world have agreed to standardize. The year number is, of course, the number of years since the birth of Christ, but even the great theologians of the world can’t agree exactly when that was?  Anyway, if Christ was born on Christmas Day, how come the New Year starts a week later? I know, Christmas Day was an old Pagan festival and the date got ‘borrowed’.

Still, if making a resolution now, helps you reach goals in your life, then go right ahead and do it. But really, at the end of the year, it’s just another day, isn’t it?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year? It’s Just Another Day is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

I’ve been busy on a new project today.

Now, I’ve often heard it said, and almost as often read, that you should work at what you enjoy. Many folks don’t have that opportunity of course. It’s the Monday to Friday grind at the factory or store, and look forward to the weekends. Thing is, most of us have got to do that for the best part of 40-50 years, so might as well enjoy it if we can!

For the most part, I enjoy web site work, and writing, and that’s what this new project involves and it’s also something that has that other quality that’s mentioned. Passion. It’s something I’ve felt quite passionate about for a number of years, and so now, I’m going to go ahead and do something about it.

More news coming soon.

Coming In The New Year is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

Blogging has, for the majority of us, moved past the personal diary stage. You don’t really want to know what cereal I had for breakfast, when I showered, or the color of my socks do you? OK, you do – email me afterward then.

So Why blog?

I’ve heard this question many times.

I’ve heard a number of answers too. Some say that services such as Twitter or Friendfeed largely eliminate the need for blogging, as we can all interact in these services without setting up and maintaining a blog.

Now there are only so many minutes in a day (yes I know it’s 1440). I know I’ve been blogging less lately, as I’ve been spending more of my time in Friendfeed. Too much time, sometimes. However, it’s not wasted time, by and large, as there are many good links posted in there, and I learn new things all the time (as we all do).

Whoa! Hang on a minute…..

If there are links posted in there, that means they’re coming from a web site, and some of those links are blogs, right? Yes of course. Many links are to YouTube videos or mp3s at last.fm perhaps, yes, but there are many links I get to news sites, and blogs too.

My take on it is that if you wish to write longer articles, opinions, share news or a hobby, a blog is still the best place to do this. You can write what you want to, about what you like, and then share it on the social media networks with those you think might be interested in reading your diatribe.

Of course, if you’ve nothing to say, then blogging is perhaps not for you, but there’s few people that truly have nothing to comment on at all.

I’m not much of a science fiction fan, but one thing that does fascinate me, and it’s this. If we look back 500 years or so, communication was still basic, and storage of communications even more so. Only the rich could read, and write, afford to buy books, and so much history is based around the elite or ruling classes.

However, if we were in 2525 looking back to now, what a rich library we would already have to look through to see how the common person lived an every day life. How interesting it will be to see what we all got up to, and how we lived back here and now.

On second thoughts then, perhaps I should blog about my breakfast cereal and my socks after all. Even if you’re not interested in the minutiae of my life my great-great-great-great grandchildren might well be.

In The Year 2525 If Man Is Still Alive is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog