Hey Everyone,

So here it is - my first HUNT!

All week I’ll be looking for the best advice on this topic and I’ll update this post as I get new information. You are also invited to post your thoughts in the comments.

The Problem
Many bloggers have faced this issue. You start a blog to focus on a few topics in a general field or industry, but sometimes you feel the urge / need / responsibility to write something out of the ordinary. It might be due to a necessity, or just for fun. You might need to vent, or you might be excited about some personal accomplishment. In any case, you don’t want to annoy your readers who regularly visit for the specific topics you introduced at the start. In fact, let’s say you don’t only want to write these topics once in a while, but you always want to write on different issues. So is it more advantageous to have more blogs to cover the different areas, or should you keep it all on one blog? If so, how?

Update:

Funny…

Source: Speed Bump by David Coverly

Update:

Some good advice from my thread at Cre8asiteForums about this question:

EGOL:

“I think that a person might gauge their ability to depart from their theme by the types of comments that people post on those departing posts. If you get no comments then those posts are stinking up your blog. If you get lots of nice comments and questions then you can get away with it… To be safe you should always allow just a few lines of these posts to display on the front page of your blog…. I don’t want to scroll and scroll and scroll to get past the pictures of a bloggers pets.”

Respree:

“I tend to gravitate toward insightful, thought-provoking styles of writing that I can relate to… Many times, an interesting personal story about a certain situation hits home for me and makes me connect with the author in ways a very clinical, impersonal style cannot… I see nothing wrong with the ocassional vent, but if the blog or site is riddled with them, I find I’m not attracted to negativity.”

Ron Carnell:

“[Do] you want to think of your blog as a series of short stories, related perhaps but otherwise distinct, or whether your blog is going to be a novel? A novel … has to offer a balance of sorts because action gets pretty boring unless carefully woven with less exciting fare… It’s called pacing and it’s often one of the hardest things for a writer to master. In my opinion, yes, a blogger should definitely mix it up a bit. It shouldn’t be haphazard or spontaneous, though. It should be very carefully planned.”

Miriam (SEOIgloo):

“If the blog is a business blog (for example, dealing mainly with SEO, or design) why not have a personal/creative category in addition to your technical categories? If you keep the category name broad enough, you could put pretty much anything in it that didn’t fit in your tech categories. We did this on our blog. We have a section called Inside the Igloo where I’ve posted stuff like news about us, awards, etc. “

Kim Krause Berg (cre8pc):

“I go off topic too. I have a category called “When I Have the Talking Stick”, which is a Native American custom of whoever has the “talking stick”, is allowed to speak about anything they wish to. I didn’t start this until I had developed a following however and established a rapport with my readers. They wanted to hear more from me and my life and responded with positive feedback to my off topic posts.

Update:

And more good advice from my thread at Tazzu:

Ed C.:

“I would leave it all on one blog, as we do here on Tazzu. That way, it’s all in one area, from a Rant, Rave, Promotion of a site, or new business idea - it’s all in one place.”

Jer (Infiniti):

“Think of the bifurcation similarly to how we contrast LinkedIn and Facebook (or MySpace is probably more accurate). Not in terms of functionality but in terms of market and presentation… To split beyond that would be to over-categorize, to divide-and-fail, and to ask the impossible really. Think about how hard it is just to categorize posts. At least they can be cross-categorized.”

Robert Ballantyne:

“It is part of the strength of a blog that all material is presented chronologically. It is also a weakness because parallel streams of topics — like other columns in a newspaper — are not really possible. In that case, I’d recommend running parallel blogs. They could even be at the same web site and have cross links. Another advantage of running separate blogs is you may find that one really finds a niche and becomes hugely popular. It could catch fire without overwhelming its more thoughtful and quiet sibling. “

Also check the comments for great advice from Vivien, Jeanette, and Raul.

Hey everyone,

So most of you probably have a Facebook account, but have you ever thought about whether one account is enough? Yeah, I know you’re probably thinking “is he crazy? I get enough pokes and vampire invitations already.” But hear me out.

Before they become habits, we all come to social networks with some type of agenda. In the case of Facebook, there are many reasons why people use it because although it began with students, its user base is continually expanding to the general population. Firstly, we use it to keep in touch with our current friends, relatives, and associates. Second, we use it to get back in touch with people with whom we lost touch. Third, we use it to network with professionals (i.e. people at work, people at school, people in the same field, people from the same discussion forum). Fourth, we use it to learn or teach about issues we consider important (e.g. Allow coloured profiles on Facebook, Don’t allow coloured profiles on Facebook, Leave Britney Alone, 1,000,000 Who Hate George W. Bush, etc.). There are other reasons as well.

Now, if you have one profile - and only one - it will be difficult for you to post images you want to share with friends, while you have professional associates on your Friends list. Likewise, if you’re in groups with strong political or religious motivations, it could have repercussions in your work or school situation.

I know that technically Facebook doesn’t allow or encourage multiple accounts, but I think it is essential. Here’s how I would go about it:

The Personal Account
Use this account for only your close friends, family, and people with whom you’ve grown up. People that you trust and who trust you. People who wouldn’t Photoshop your pictures and re-post them on Fark.com. This is the profile where you can relax a little bit.

The Professional Account
Use this account for your work associates, school non-friends and professors, and people to whom you’d like to show your most polished self. This one can have a more detailed “Career” section while not having to be filled with your favourite movies, books, etc. It’s a good idea to keep your profile on this one free from the clutter of applications like “Hot or Not” and “Pet Pupz” and instead make it look like a professional portfolio.

The Anonymous Account
Facebook doesn’t like anonymous accounts and they might try to stop you, but usually you can come up with a reasonable name that is totally anonymous. You can use this for activism. If there is a group that you want to join or start, but can’t be associated with, you can use this account. Some people might not like my suggestion here, but this is a really important tool for non-profits as well. Sometimes you want to promote a cause, but don’t necessarily want your organization to be responsible for the group. You can start a group with this account and still promote your cause and even indirectly promote your organization, but not be representing your organization. Note: in a legal sense, regardless of the name you choose, you are responsible for your actions and I do not suggest anyone to use this method for anything inappropriate or illegal. Use your head!

It’s important in the case of all three of the above to keep an eye on your privacy settings. Sometimes when you have your settings set too loosely, people can still see your profile although you’d prefer they didn’t. For example, when you send someone a message, they will be able to see, at the very minimum, your limited profile. So it’s a good idea to make sure you’re sending a message to a particular person from the appropriate account.

Fake Profiles for Spam
Be careful if you’re using an anonymous account. Only use it for good, and don’t get attached to it. If you use a fake profile for spam, that is EVIL! Don’t do it! You probably will get reported and it’s not good karma.

Source: JVManna on Flickr.

Next Up
Throughout the month of May (and some of June), I’ll be sharing my experience in the last two years with the following topics: “Facebook Marketing for Non-Profits” and “WordPress as a CMS” - Look out for it! If you have any questions for me you’d like answered, please post them in the comments or e-mail me: info [at] kulpreetsingh [dot] com.

Hey everyone,

You have to admit it - for most social people, Facebook is more a habit than a hobby. We’re so accustomed now to logging in, a few times a day, checking photos, notes, groups, etc. Posting on peoples’ walls, making graffiti, and wasting time defining our relationships. Facebook has us like coffee has… well most of the working population. Some people can’t get through a few hours, let alone a day, without their coffee. Now what happens when, the thing that you kind of depend on every day, is bought out by the super mega company that kind of monopolizes all computers in the world? Hmmm! Huge potential for evil!

According to Kara at All Things Digital, Microsoft has been gauging Facebook’s interest in being taken over.

After failing to court Yahoo!, Microsoft is a little anxious for a partner. Well, I think Microsoft-weds-Facebook would be a match made in heaven. You all know Facebook’s real goal is to control and influence large amounts of people to make profit from them. It’s like Orwell’s 1984 2.0. And who better than Microsoft, well besides Google, to help Facebook reach that goal?

Comic: Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan

There is a real humanitarian crisis happening right now in Burma. After Cyclone Nargis, the military regime has released reports of over 22,000 people dead and 41,000 missing, although a US diplomat in the country claims the death toll may actually be over 100,000 and the missing over 70,000. There are real concerns for peoples access to basic needs and prevention of diseases. If you would like to donate to relief efforts, please visit FeedTheHungryCanada.com - they will forward 100% of proceeds to the victims aid.

If you know about any other reliable relief agencies that will not misuse the funds and will only use the funds to provide direct aid to the victims, please post them in the comments.

Hey Everyone,

I was honoured to have the opportunity to write a guest blog post on the Cre8ive Flow blog today, which is the blog of the Cre8asite Forums. I wrote a summary / roundup of the WordPress Camp in Vancouver, BC hosted by Tazzu at The Network Hub last Wednesday (April 30th).

Thanks to Elizabeth Able for connecting me to the opportunity and giving me advice on my post. Of course, an event roundup is dependent on the quality of the event itself and the WordPress Camp was a great success. Hopefully the post can give people some new insights and inspiration about blogging and content management.

You can check it out here: http://blog.cre8asite.net/archives/477

and Sphinn it here: http://sphinn.com/story/44714

stay in rising spirits :)

-k.s.

Good Food!

It unites people. It gives nourishment. The intentions with which you make it can affect those that consume it.

I love to cook. It’s therapeutic. It’s humbling. It’s fulfilling. It’s usually not burnt, and pretty decent to taste.

So tonight I made whole wheat pasta with organic pasta sauce for the family because my mom was busy helping my sister get ready for a camping trip. I called it “TGS Tortellini” because the three main flavours that stand out are tomatoes, ginger, and spinach. However a lot more can (and did) go into it… Read the rest of this entry »

Hey everyone,

This one’s a wish list, not a to do list, because although I can do something to fulfill my wishes for WordPress and other Open Source stuff, the most I can do for Facebook is send them e-mails and pray. But I wouldn’t want to waste my prayer time on Facebook so I can just send them e-mails. But they’d reply with the same generic message: “maybe we will some day (which means never) but thanks for your e-mail,” so… wish list it is!

1) A simple option in your privacy settings to turn of all new application requests. Why so lazy on something so obvious, Facebook??

2) An option when you’re inviting Friends, to invite them all. I understand most people have different types of friends in their list, but for a power user like myself - I have four of five different accounts with different types of people in each account. And I don’t want to click 100 names. [Update: Here's an awesome FireFox add-on called Check All which can help with that.]

3) The option to change the name of your group, within reason. They have a no exceptions policy on this, and I think that’s unfortunate. Sometimes you start a group, it gets big, and the mission or vision changes, but you don’t want to have to ask all 600 or 6,000 or 60,000 people to move to a new group!

4) Functionality to work with large groups. Usually on Facebook, after your group has more than 1,000 members, a lot of the functions stop working. You can’t message all members, you can’t make officers or admins. It just gets silly.

5) Better Video. Facebook’s video extension has issues. Sometimes videos that are being processed just disappear. Sometimes you can’t tag people. Strangeness!

One thing I am really liking, however, is the Graffiti Wall public gallery. Many of the full time artists are using tablets to draw it, but still some very nice stuff.

Image by: Anna Leychenko

Hey everyone,

I’m introducing a new feature on the blog tonight called The Hunt. Almost everyone’s seen images or video of a predator hunting its prey in the jungle. The lioness, the zebra, the natural elements, the suspense, the thrill, etc. etc. Well every Monday morning I’ll define a prey (in the theme of the typical corporate manager on a Monday morning!!), or more specifically a problem with some business or technology issue, and all week I’ll be trying to kill the problem. Not quite as thrilling as the lions and zebras, but as the solutions to the problems get more useful for you and me, I’m sure you’ll start enjoying it.

The basic rules: I’ll continue updating The Hunt throughout the week. I might find the answer early on, but I’ll keep discussing the topic to provide insight on all angles. You can let me know in the comments if, by the end of the week, I killed the problem, just got a bite, or if I missed it. You’re welcome to help me out with your comments, or you can e-mail me at info [at] kulpreetsingh [dot] com.

Lion Photo Source: Chris Gin

-k.s.

Social networking websites such as Facebook are more effective than the emergency services and media at dealing with disasters, a new report claims. - Telegraph.co.uk

Hi Everyone,

The Tazzu Wordpress Camp on Wednesday was a great event, and I’ll be discussing it in detail in a day or two. However I just wanted to post a few thoughts that I had during and after the event.

I thought it was kind of ironic that originally WordPress had been built as a blogging platform, and the majority of WP users only know it from that angle. However, I have been using WP for the last two or more years for everything but blogging. I’ve been using it to design websites, make catalogues, create mashups, and I’m currently planning a WPMu Social Network (God help me if BuddyPress doesn’t come out soon!).

I think WP is supreme for blogging, but my experience highlights the uniqueness of WP as a CMS application. There are many content management systems out there. I’ve used Microsoft CMS, Drupal, Joomla, and Wordpress. I found WP to be quick to set up, easy to manipulate, and very flexible depending upon the developer’s goals. Some of the larger applications have more powerful engines that can do great things out of the box. However I think WP is so flexible and light-weight that using it has been irresistable for me.

The point of this post is to hint at the future. Over the next two years, I know WP and WPMu will start competing more head-on with the mainstream solutions out there. However, I wonder, will the concerns of the blogging community outweight the concerns of CMS developers who use WP? To whom will Automattic and the WP community give preference? At some point, for the community and for the application core, there is a fork in the road. Both paths leading out from there are great and worthy, but they are different and will be interesting to different types of audiences.

What I’d like to see is the WordPress core product splitting into two editions: WP for Blogs, and WP CMS. This way, we could grow out of the “posts” and “blogroll” terminology, and start using more website/content specific terminology. We could allow developers to not only custom sites for clients, but also custom dashboards and admin panels.  I know Matt Mullenweg hinted at his interest in the growing use of WP as a CMS during the recent WordCamp in Dallas (video), but how serious are they about it? I would love to see “WordPress Suite 2009″ of unique products, some of which are already available, each with its own focus: BBPress (forum), BuddyPress (social network), WordPress Mu (multiple blog hosting), WP CMS (websites & mashups), and the original WP Basic (blogs). I think it would help expand the WordPress brand, and provide unique solutions for all types of content developers and managers.

stay in high spirits

-k.s.