New Look

After a few weeks off (a much-needed mental vacation), Other Side of 40 is back up and posting.

I look back on the past few months as a wonderful learning experience. Maintaining a daily blog requires a large part of one’s free time, and looks far easier than it is in reality. Stress of working full-time vs the wish to create here (as with a lot of bloggers) created quite a bit of conflict in my life, which was beginning to wear me out. I started to feel that I was just writing for the sake of getting a post done for the day. The fun was gone, and it seemed that this blog was just another item in a long list of things to get through before the day was over. Lesson learned! It was time to make some changes.

I’m treating of the first part of this year as “training camp”. It has given me a chance to see what worked and what didn’t, both writing and blog layout wise. Spring cleaning started a bit early this year. The first thing to go, were both my post count and word count tallies on the side bar. These two items were becoming a big distraction to me, and it turns out I have no problem reaching my target of at least 300 words per post. The visit counter has also been removed. People don’t read blogs based on visits, they read because they enjoy what the writer creates. I also have dropped out of the PostaDay challenge in favor of the PostaWeek challenge (I will be posting more than once a week, but less than everyday), and I now write under my name (not bigyellowbus) as well.

Finally, while I liked the old look of the blog, I wanted to make a clean start so I chose to add a new theme as well. This was a very hard decision to make, and it involved trying out several of them over the space of a few days (you might have noticed several of these changes if you stopped by during that time period). What you now see is the result of my mini-makeover.

I hope you enjoy the new look.

Ken

Weekly Webpage (Feb 6th to 12th)

This week I would like to share the blog of a friend called “Soldiering Through the Writing World” by Haley Whitehall. While Haley is on the Other Side of 40 in comparison to me, she is a very talented young writer. If writing is something you are interested in, then her blog is definitely worth the time to visit it. She covers many aspects of writing, while not making the reader feel out of their league.

A big thank you to Haley for all the support that she has given me over the past few weeks!

“Soldiering Through the Writing World” blog created by Haley Whitehall. Besides helping would be bloggers, Haley also writes Historical Fiction.

Comments, Please?

I hadn’t really planned on writing a post on blogging today, but when I was reading one of the blogs that I check out regularly, I came across this topic and it took over my day. Blogging friend Haley Whitehall talked about the “The Invisible Audience” in her post today, and it sounded very  similar to my thoughts. This is one of those grey areas of writing, that puzzles the puzzlers for some bloggers.

On one hand, a good many bloggers will tell you that they do this for themselves and should anybody else read it, then it’s a bonus. I have, on several occasions, made this declaration myself. As writers we are attempting to grow and become better at it. Putting a post out there for someone to read is also an invitation for a little feedback. So you see, getting reader’s comments actually does mean something. It’s a real conundrum; do you worry about not hearing any feedback, or do you ignore it and just carry on?

Now, I could take the high road here and say that I’ll try to put it from my mind and just keep writing. That unfortunately would not be true. I do care if somebody likes or dislikes my daily offerings. Blogging is a chance for me to see if I can really form words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into a story. In short, I hope to become a writer some day and this is my testing ground. Back in school, we were graded and learned from mistakes or built on successes. That is how we became better. However, out here in the great big world-wide web, there aren’t any teachers per se, so to learn we need to hear from you, the reader.

Even if you just click the Like button, you can give me some much-needed information. I’m sure that there will be times when what I write just doesn’t work. Remember the train wrecks you see on American Idol, the people who truly believe they can sing? Though entertaining (which is why the network shows them), ever think how different it might have been if someone had told this person the truth? How can I improve if no one points out the mistakes? The same goes for confirming that something is working as well. For those readers that have offered me their opinions over the last month, thank you, it really means a lot to me. For those that are sitting at the edge of the pool, come on in, the water’s fine! I promise that I will make every effort to respond to you, if you do drop in.

So please, don’t be shy! It would be nice if I get a chance to hear what you’re thinking. The big friendly comment box is just waiting you to meet you. If you aren’t comfortable with that, there is always the Fan Page or even my Facebook feed. Penny for your thoughts?

The comment box. Bloggers friend, and your window into our world!

The Invisible Audience (via Soldiering Through the Writing World )

Some words of wisdom from a blogging friend! It’s a good read, and gives you an idea of a what a blogger hopes for sometimes.

I have discovered that much of my blogging audience (and most people’s blogging audience) remains invisible. I can see from my site stats roughly how many people visit my blog each day. However, unless they comment on one of my posts, subscribe to my blog, or “like” one of my posts they remain invisible. How can I cater to this invisible audience? How can I get this invisible audience to make themselves known? Feedback is important. Feedback help … Read More

via Soldiering Through the Writing World

Hot Spam It’s Friday!!!!!

Another work week is finally over! I’ve had an interesting time this week, with the blog under siege from both spam comments and spam referrers! I figure I can either get all upset, or I can have a laugh about it. So in honor of all those chain emails, offers to make you the next King of England, and pills that will help you…….. well you get the idea. Spam, I salute you! Now, while I email my banking info to this really nice guy who needs my help to get the family fortune out of his country, you enjoy this week’s edition of Fun Fridays!

I just checked my post comments, and oh no……

Google Images

Got any spam?

Don’t just Spam there, dance!

Well spam it all! I thought I was the only guy who got that email.