bloggers Archives - South Florida Filmmaker

Last Fall, I wrote a post titled 5 Badass Women Bloggers You Should Be Following based on my discoveries as I journeyed down the rabbit hole (more on that later). Now, admit it: most of the blog posts we come across on our social media streams end up sucking monkey nuts. You know it and I know it. Like many of you, I once had nothing but lame social media blogs listed on my google reader (“They” told me these were the blogs that mattered). And like many of you, I usually found myself asking, “Why the hell am I subscribed to this stupid blog?” And like many of you, I was living in “The Blogging Matrix”, floating by in a sorry state of blog ignorance; a slave to the blogging elite (the evil gatekeepers!).

Then I discovered Captain Smack, popped a red pill, jumped head first down the rabbit hole and began acid tripping on blogging badassery. My eyes were open. I was free. I ran outside, tore off my shirt, looked up to the sky (it was raining), raised my hands to the heavens (just like Andy Dufresne did after crawling through 500 yards of prison shit and piss in “The Shawshank Redemption”) and yelled, “Free at last; free at last; thank God almighty I’m free at last!”

Then I went back inside, dried myself off and made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Oh, and I haven’t looked back since. So free your mind and check out these 5 badass bloggers:

Abby Has Issues is where writer Abby Heugel documents her brilliant insights (whilst wearing yoga pants and running mental marathons). Admittedly, she started blogging as a way to write for enjoyment and not just employment. She confesses, however, that if she could somehow blog for employment, she would experience more enjoyment. In other words, she can be bought. Capiche?

Oh, and she’s also an author of a book of essays also called Abby Has Issues. Now, with all the lame books being written by folks who just want to land lame speaking gigs at lame conferences, do yourself a favor and buy her book (yeah, I own a copy and paid for it myself). Her observations on every day life are hilarious and the dang thing costs only $10 ($2.99 on Kindle!). Need more persuasion? Check out I Smell and I Don’t Have Kids, So I Brag About Pets. Nuff said?

Flourish in Progress is the blogging home of Elizabeth Jayne Liu, a former single teen mom who spent her 20’s mothering, loving, drinking, crying, partying, yelling, working, sighing, pacing, moving, scrimping, saving, shopping and dancing. Now a happily married stay-at-home mom who enjoys watching reruns of “Little House on the Prairie” and listening to Gangsta Rap, she started blogging to chronicle her 30th Birthday Project. Check out her Monday Dares section of her blog then check out what’s a good substitute for swearing? drugs. and crotch calamity…then tell me she ain’t badass. I dare you.

Good Day, Regular People is where Alexandra Rosas Schultze, an overanalyzing, oversensitive, overwhelmed mother of three boys living life in a small town where she finds herself like a fish out of water, writes. Suffering from severe self scrutinization brought about by an “interesting” childhood, Alexandra claims her blog saves her life. Everyday. “I spend my life wishing I would say what I was thinking”, she says. “With my blog, I can say it.” And she says it with humor as evidenced by posts like When Someone You Love Has A Blog and Just When I Was Beginning To Like You. So pay the empress a visit…because you can’t use your friends as therapists forever.

It Builds Character is a collection of parents writing not necessarily about what they know best, but at least what is immediately in front of them on a daily basis. They understand that parenting has a steep learning curve but is a heck of a lot more fun with other parents with whom you can laugh, celebrate, or commiserate. The good news about this blog, other than posts like The Worst Things About Parenting, No. 17: Nutshots and 10 Things That Changed When They Showed Up is that the many contributors to the site also have their own blogs you can investigate. This should keep you busy until my next Badass Blogger Post.

Just Making Convo is the blogging home of writer Becky Cardwell. She’s a ‘Mommy Blogger’ who doesn’t have any kids. When asked why she would call herself a ‘Mommy Blogger’, she replied, “Don’t you think that’s being a little racist? If women can vote and watch sports and make sandwiches and stuff, why can’t we have mommy blogs even though we don’t ever plan on compromising our barren yet extremely resilient wombs?” She also claims to be a not-for-profit Scientist, specializing in Anti-Social Experiments. I say she’s just a badass blogger who’s ‘Published Convo‘ alone would send most blogs scurrying back to the rock they crawled out from under. And when you consider posts like How To Help Your Dog Lose Weight and The Black Hole (one word: Colposcopy!), you’re not gonna care that she doesn’t have a real job.

So there you have it, 5 more badass bloggers to enrich not only your blog reading experience but your life in general. Consider your eyes opened. Now go…and sin no more.

Know any badass bloggers I may have missed? Speak up.

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This post originally appeared as a guest post over at DIY Blogger

I’m a blogging dummy. And I’m glad to be one. You see, when it comes to blogging, ignorance can be bliss. Sometimes, we listen to too many “experts” tell us how we should blog that we forget that blogging (writing) is an art form; and art has no rules. Right?

I never went to film school, or worked at a film or video production company. Perhaps, if I had, I would have thought that one person couldn’t possibly direct, produce, shoot, or edit their own film. My very first film (which I directed, shot, and edited), won an award at its very first film festival. My second film (which I produced, directed, shot and edited) won ‘Best Florida Film’ at the 2010 Sunscreen Film Festival, beating out films helmed by film school graduates with a full crew.

Bragging? No (OK, maybe just a little). But had I listened to a bunch of filmmaking pros tell me what I needed to make a film (I’ve read many articles since then that would have totally discouraged me), I might not have even tried. Or maybe I would never had realized my own budding abilities. I was a dummy. The same way Orson Welles was a dummy when he directed “Citizen Kane”. Blogging (writing) is no different.

Now, let me preface the following points by excluding those people who are paid to blog (people that have to produce content on a regular schedule for their company or employer) and those people whose income is dependent on traffic generated by their blog posts (regardless of how original they are). You all get a pass because when you have to do something, it ceases from being an art form and becomes a job. For the rest of us dummies, here’s my take:

1) Forget Your “Audience”

One thing I hardly ever consider when writing a post is my “audience”. You’ll often hear, “Write for your audience!” proclaimed from the social media pulpits. This will eventually create a dilemma: “I really wanna write about (X) but is that what my audience wants?” Don’t let your “audience” stifle your creativity. Your readers may actually appreciate a fresh perspective, another side of you they didn’t know existed, something different than the norm. Do you think the people that visit your blog regularly are gonna stop coming because you published a blog post that’s different from your usual posts? The only thing that will make people stop coming are consistently crappy blog posts. If you’re not writing for YOU first, you’re just a pretender (and we’ve got way too many of those already, yes?)

2) Don’t Be An Ass-kisser

Oftentimes, I’ll come across a blog post that appears to have no other objective than kissing major ass. “50 Amazing Bloggers That Will Make You Feel All Tingly Inside” or “117 Awesome People On Twitter That You Should Be Following”. Upon further review of these posts, you’ll find nothing less than the who’s who of the A-List social media community (many of which, in my opinion, produce some of the stalest content on the web). I guess if you kiss the ass of 50 people on your blog, you should expect nothing less than 30/40 “Thank you!” comments and when you throw in your own 30/40 “You’re welcome!” replies, you’ve got 60/80 SEO boosting comments on your blog. Lame. Very lame.

If you’re gonna shout out some bloggers, why not highlight a few flying under the social radar? You just might find a few new loyal readers of your blog instead of taking a number and hopping on the A-Lister ass-kissing line so many bloggers are already on.

3) Don’t Blog Every Day

Again, unless it is your job to do so or your income is somehow dependent on it, there is absolutely no need for you to blog every single day. Some of the blogging “experts” will tell you differently but pay them no mind. Most of the really good blogs I read post every 3-4 days, some even weekly. Not surprisingly, the content is always fresh and original. Moreover, many of these blogs generate 30-50 comments on average. Who can possibly post something fresh and original every day? Whilst working a day job, running a business, taking care of a family, spending time with friends, and watching “American Idol”? Like a great painter, songwriter, or composer, great works come via inspiration; and inspiration doesn’t always make a daily visit.

Don’t cheat your readers from your best work by rushing up a post because some blogging genius said you have to blog every day. Moreover, don’t emulate the über-lame bloggers who stick up an insipid, double-spaced, single paragraph disguised as a blog post (with the infamous generic stock image) just to keep their self-imposed daily blog quota intact OR the other desperate bloggers who are at least smart enough to realize that they most certainly cannot come up with a fresh blog post every day so they allow any Tom, Dick, and Harry to guest post on their blog just to keep google happy. When you allow quantity to supersede quality, your blog will start to suck eggs and your readers will look elsewhere for fresh content.

4) Share Your Stuff

If you spend any amount of time on the social space, you’ve heard that “content is king” when it comes to blogging. Good, fresh content, of course. But how do you know if your blog posts are worthy of a thumbs up or a thumbs down? You gotta get your posts in front of readers, no? Otherwise, your great post is just a giant redwood tree crashing down in the forest that nobody hears. Thanks to various social media platforms, we have no shortage of outlets to share our stuff.

Share a link to your blog post a few times a week on facebook. Post it on Linkedin (and don’t forget to share it on any groups you belong to where the content may be relevant). Share a link to your post on twitter…not just once or twice but 4-5 times a day, several hours apart…for several days. You heard right. But let me add this: if all you do on twitter (or any social media platform) is promote your links, you’re just pissing in the social media wind. Keep your timeline busy with other activity throughout the day: comments, replies, and especially links from all the other cool blog posts you’ve read. People aren’t online 24/7. They have jobs and families, and a social life outside of social media. They may only check their timelines a few times a day. You wanna give your post the best chance to get discovered. Oh, and anyone who tells you you’re breaking some social media “rule”, tell them to go fly a kite.

If you stay active on social media platforms, several good things will happen: more people will connect with you (just like in the “real world”, people like people who talk/listen to them), you’ll find birds of a similar feather who will dig your blog content (and you’ll dig theirs, giving you additional good content to share), and you’ll also be putting the Law of Reciprocity to work by sharing the creative content of others. It’s win-win all the way.

5) Disregard 73% Of What You Read On #Blogchat

Are you familiar with #Blogchat? (a twitter chat every Sunday night at 9pm ET). When I started blogging, I spent many a Sunday evening studying the fast-moving stream. During that time, I’ve picked up some good blogging tips on plugins, site maintenance and best practices. I’ve also learned to disregard a good percentage of what I read there. Why? Too many voices shouting too many “rules”. How long your blog post should be, how often you should post, who you should write for, what keywords you should use in your post, what you should write about, when you should write about it, yada yada yada. ‘Blog like this, not like that’ makes blogs lame. Blogging ain’t hard…just write.

6) Just Write

Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re gonna make a six-figure income (or even a meager living) by blogging. For the vast majority of bloggers (even many of the so-called “experts”), this just isn’t the reality. So if you’re gonna write, do it for yourself first…and enjoy it. Make it the best you can before hitting “Publish” (what’s the rush?). If you’re gonna put several hours (or days) into writing it, make sure you’re proud of it before sharing it with the world.

At the end of the day, whether a few thousand people view/share your post or just one, if you enjoyed writing it; if it helped you relieve an emotional burden you’ve been carrying around; if it served as an outlet for your anger/frustration; if it made your wife/kids smile; if it allowed you to express that which only the written word allows us to express…then you’ve done well. You’ve written.

So let the pro bloggers blog as they will. Since writing my first blog post a couple of years ago, I’ve come to enjoy the process of writing; of expressing myself, my views. And the fact that I can write about whatever the heck I want to write about makes the process even more enjoyable. I follow no writing schedule, only opening up a Word document when I get a bug up my ass to write something. And before I hit “Publish”, I’ve always been pleased with what I’ve written. And guess what? My work has been read, enjoyed, hated, and shared by thousands of people. That’s gravy. So for me, I plan to remain a dummy…

Because when it comes to blogging, ignorance is indeed bliss.

[Photographs by Les Goodman]

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