Jeremy David’s Variety Blog

Is it possible to teach someone to write well, or does eloquence come naturally? Let’s find out. I did some “research” on Google and found a few writing blogs. I am going to see if any of these writing-bloggers are up to the challenge. Can you help me write better?

This is an interesting opportunity because these individuals have the chance to put their abilities to the test. They can show the world if they really posses possess the ability to make someone write better. What do they get if they win? Bragging rights. Five years from now they can say “I helped Jeremy David become the writer he is today.” If successful, that statement could have a lot of weight to it… maybe I’ll dedicate a book or two to them, ha ha ha. Seriously though, if anyone is up to the challenge please let me know!

Here are the blogs I am going to contact:

1. copywriter.typepad.com
2. thegoldenpencil.com
3. mywritingblog.com/writer
4. fabfreelancewriting.com/blog
5. sixfigurewriters.com
6. writeandearnaliving.blogspot.com
7. copyblogger.com
8. copywriterunderground.com
9. successful-blog.com
10. inkthinker.blogspot.com
11. contentdonebetter.com

The purpose of this blog is to help me become a better writer. I want to be able to write compelling literature.

My friend and I were talking the other day and she asked me what I would want to do if I could have any job. I thought about it for a minute and told her that I’ve always wanted to be a writer. If I had to chose a niche I would have said a screenplay writer. The only problem is that my writing sucks… which is a rather large dilemma considering what I want to do.

So here I am, creating a blog about writing. Actually, to be more specific, this blog will be writing. Eventually I hope to be proficient enough to help other people learn to write, but for the time being this will be an exercise in improving myself. I hope this proves interesting and useful to people who have stumbled upon this page, like you.

If you are interested there are several things you can do to help. First, criticize everything I write. Constructively. I want to become better, not self-loathing and emotional. Second, if you know of any great writing recourses, please tell me about them. The more I learn, the (I’m trying to think of another word for better) more my… I can’t do it. Maybe I need a thesaurus. Anyway. Third, become a part of this process. If there is anything you think I should write about, share your ideas. If I want to improve, I am going to have to write a lot.

I wrote four versions of this post couldn’t get it right, so I’ll keep this one extremely simple. I have decided that I am no longer going to write this blog. I am too busy with work and school, in 2 months I am taking 6 courses (to finish my degree), and in 6 months I am going traveling for a year. The end is inevitable, so it makes sense to have it here. I should use any extra time I have now to develop my travel blog because I will be living through it for a very long time.

The irony of this situation is that I finally have a blog that people are reading. But that is life. In the last few days I haven’t even had time to open Google Reader (to browse my many RSS subscriptions), and I cannot see me having more time in the foreseeable future. I always seem to end up in these situations. Oh well.

The good news is that you will still be able to follow me along on my travels at www.jpony.com. It’s certainly going to be an interesting adventure, because I’m letting random people all over the world literally make suggestions and vote on what I do. Check it out!

Thank you kindly for your patronage. I hope you join me on my adventures.

Take care,

Jeremy David

The Google Press Center Zeitgeist showcases the most popular search terms… but there seems to be something missing from the list. Now I might be mistaken, but I think it is pretty safe to assume that there are a lot of people out there using Google to find pornography. I remember I read a website that reported 40% of all searches on Google were for adult websites (unfortunately, I cannot seem to find that page again). I would have thought at least one or two of the top Google terms would have been something adult-esque.

Now don’t get me wrong. I honestly do not care if the top search term is sex or not. I do, however, care if companies are providing misinformation. I guess I have two questions.

1. Are the figures presnted to us on the Google Zeitgeist accurate?
2. If not, why is Google censoring / lying to us?

I’m interested to hear what you think. Am I completely off my rocker, or is there something missing from Google’s reports?

My friend Aidan (mappingtheweb.com) and I were talking about Search Engine Optimization this weekend, and he pointed me to some resources that would improve my blog’s Google rankings. I’m always one for a quick fix, so here are some quick and easy ways that, in 5 minutes or less, will improve your blog’s SEO.

1. The Head Meta Description is often overlooked on Wordpress blogs, even though Google really likes it when each page has a different description. How can you remedy this? Download this plugin. It automatically takes the first 25 words of your post and creates a meta description with it.
2. Neil Patel suggests using only your post’s heading as a title for your blog entry. His fix? On wordpress, go into your header file and make the following modification:
   <title><?php if (is_home () ) { bloginfo('name'); } elseif ( is_category() ) { single_cat_title(); echo " - "; bloginfo('name'); } elseif (is_single() || is_page() ) { single_post_title(); } elseif (is_search() ) { bloginfo('name'); echo " search results: "; echo wp_specialchars($s); } else { wp_title('',true); } ?> </title>
3. Use a Related Posts plugin. Not only will this showcase some of your other great content to your readers, but search engine crawlers will be exposed to more links! Always a plus.

If you have more than 5 minutes, consider reading these articles.

Search Engine Optimization for Blogs
Optimizing your blog for search engines

• Colds and flu’s are caused by viruses
• Antibiotics do not affect viruses
• Cold and flu germs outside a host body usually die in three to seven days
• Most colds and flu’s are caught by placing your infected hands to your eyes or nose
• Most cold and flu medications only mask symptoms; you remain infectious to others
• The only cure for colds and flu’s is your body’s immune system
• We can either aid or inhibit the body’s immune system by things we eat, drink or do [source]

I am very, very sick right now. I’ve spent the last 36 hours in bed. I have a fever and an incredible headache. It’s awful. So I decided to Google the flu and find out what I can do about it. To start off, here is a list of possible symptoms.

• Shivers
• Aching muscles and joints
• Exhaustion
• Loss of appetite
• Fever
• Headache
• Dry Cough
• Nasal Congestion
• Sore Throat

Hmmm. It looks like I have the flu (since I have all of those symptoms except for a sore throat). But I am more interested in knowing what I can do to get better. Stayinginshape.com gave me these suggestions:

• stay in bed and drink plenty of fluids
• breathing in hot vapors from a shower may help you feel better
• elevate your head at night to help nasal passages drain
• use medication for specific symptoms when appropriate

The only thing on that list I havn’t done yet is have a shower, so I shall. Let’s hope it works. Here is an interesting article I found on Beating Colds and Flu’s the natural way, if you are interested in that.

At Northern Voice I had the opportunity to meet A-List blogger Robert Scoble. I was admittedly a bit awestruck in his presence, but he was very down to earth and approachable. He actually stopped everything he was doing and gave me his complete attention during our conversation, which made me feel that he was interested in what I had to say. I was impressed, and realized that these big name bloggers are people too. Good people. But it was really exciting to speak to him nonetheless.

We talked about the success of his blog and how gaining popularity has made it more challenging to him to be a blogger, and I was intrigued. He told me his blog has shifted from him playing around with techy stuff to him talking about other people’s usage and development of technology. I asked him “doesn’t it become easier to blog as more and more people become interested in what you have to say? You certainly would have a lot more influence.” And he corrected me.

“No. This is not CNN.” He reminded me that blogging is not a top down delivery of information. It is a conversation. As more and more people read a blog, it becomes increasingly challenging to have one-on-one relationships with them all. It’s actually impossible.

At the conference Darren Barefoot led a session titled “why do you blog?” My honest answer to that question was “I blog because I want people to read my blog” and my logic there was obviously backwards, flawed, and insane. I came to a very important realization:

Blogging is not about me, and it’s not about you either. Blogging is about engaging with each other.

The evolving web is a continuous learning experience and blogging has given me the opportunity to learn many things - experientially. This real life, real time application is the common thread that ties all of my blogs together. It doesn’t matter how many people read my blog. It matters that I’m doing something productive, engaging people, and being a part of the community.

The Internet gets a lot of criticism for isolating people. Technology is supposedly rifting society apart. I beg to differ. Blogging is bringing us together. At Northern Voice a team of volunteers organized a conference that gave me and 300 other people the opportunity to meet face to face. It’s a growing community, and I am very excited to be a part of it.

My good friend Trenton left these words in my comments:

I don’t really see the point in setting out to become an A-list blogger and I’m sure the Mark Cubans and Robert Scobles didn’t intend on this at all. They simply provided interesting content that proved to be worthwhile to a large body of people. If you do the same then I’m sure there will be people out there who will want to read it. However, if you simply get caught up in your own agenda of internet stardom then you’ll end up creating trivial content and losing sight of the entire purpose of blogging. Worst case scenario? Everyone stops reading your blog.

IMHO, if you want to be a good blogger you should blog for the sake of blogging and b/c you really love it. Write about whatever you’re passionate about. Forget about the celebrity (at least for now) and try and write the best, most interesting stuff for the people that do read your blog.

Thank you Trenton for that stark description of what I unintentionally had become. And thank you, Robert. You catalyzed my acceptance of that and have enabled me to move on.

(I pre-wrote this post as I am currently at Northern Voice: a blogging conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada).

Every Friday I am going to talk about a website that I think is revolutionary and provides great value to the Internet. In this first edition of the Jeremy David Review, I am going to highlight CouchSurfing.com. In one sentence: eBay meets MySpace in a travel-centric social networking community.

People from around the world create profiles where they advertise their vacant couch on the Internet. Travelers can look up couches, find a free place to stay, and meet some interesting people. The eBay aspect of the site comes in when users leave feedback on each other’s profiles post-surf. This helps make the project safe. Best of all, it’s free.

How is this site revolutionary?

“The friendships made through CouchSurfing enhance members’ lives and contribute greatly to making the world a better, safer, more peaceful place.” Sounds pretty impressive to me. This August I am going traveling around the world (well, to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand) and I intend to use this site to its fullest. I will have the opportunity to meet cool people and go on adventures that are not easily found in a travel book. This community project is funded by generous donations by its members, and so far there have been 92,362 positive experiences. Outstanding.

This open sourced and collaborative project to bring the world together is certainly deserving of its nomination. Congratulations! And as always, if you have any comments, ideas, or experiences relating to this post, please leave them in the comments section!

It seems that everyone is jumping aboard the fat blogging bandwagon. Which is good! I think this showcases that members of blogging community can (an do) help eachother. It is very exciting to see a movement on the Internet that is focused on being healthy… so I thought I would take it to the extreme.

I would not describe myself as fat: I’m 6′2 and 170 pounds. To be honest, if I called myself fat I am pretty sure that many people would be offended. However, I used to be 225 pounds. A few days ago I was reading the new Vanity Fair and it contained a little insert titled “The Oscar Diet”. The magazine told its readers that if they wanted to fit into their Oscar Dress, they had to:

1. Limit caloric intake to 1200 calories per day
2. Do 40 minutes of cardio every morning
3. Weight train three times a week

Sounds like anorexia / bulimia to me, and I would not suggest that anyone follow those rules. But what the heck. Let’s see how I feel when I starve myself like mainstream popular culture is telling me to.

I have been following the story of Second Life - a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents - and am confused.

I do not understand why people would want to play around in a virtual world that mimics their own. Video games make sense to me: in “real life” one cannot fight aliens in space or demons and monsters in a dungeon. I’ve never been a fan of sports games - but I understand that not many people have the opportunity to play in a professional Basketball or Hockey game. Even the SIMS (which I love) is different. In Second Life, someone built an Apple Store. Why?

What is the purpose of this game? How do you win? When does it end? Why would people spend real money on a house and clothes in a virtual world when they can do the same in the real world? Wouldn’t it be more fun to make dinner and watch a movie with some friends? Obviously I am missing something: there are currently 3,804,013 players, err, inhabitans. I don’t get it.

Or is this the new web? The future of the Internet? A taste of things to come? Instead of just visiting websites, are we going to interact with them in an online role playing game? Sounds pretty Matrix-esque to me.

Does someone out there feel like enlightening me? I would be interested to hear what you have to say.