10 Dollars for Cancer Research

Reality check darling--you ain't superwoman!

This scent can turn fowl quickly!

Thank you Penelope Trunk! I discovered Penelope’s blog through an article someone posted in a Linkedin group.  While scanning her blog, I came across her guide to blogging and felt the weight of my paralyis by analysis world slowly lifting off my shoulders.  Penelope’s guide has many useful tidbits, but the following sections definitely spoke to me:

“4. Post something right now.
Don’t tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow. Blogging is about courage to say something. Don’t worry about being stupid because trust me, no one is reading your blog. Post anything. You can nix bad posts later. For now just start writing.”

Lol. This has been the most difficult for me.  I know most blogs are lost in the vast abyss of the web, but I want mine to be read…please! Now obviously, I can’t expect people to read my blog when there is nothing to be read! But the blog world is inundated with interesting topics and talented writers who wield humor and anecdotes…lol you see I became too intimidated to even finish that analogy! Anyway, I know I’m lucky because I actually have an interesting topic. But I want people to be entertained by my writing dammit! Lol I am sure you sensing my age.  So instead of routinely posting about my triathlon training and fundraising, I’ve been keeping all that raw information in my head–cutting and pasting over and over again until I feel it’s worthy of posting. And guess what happens? It’s never worthy! So thank you Penelope for helping me get over myself!

“6. Ignore your lack of readers.
The hardest part is sitting down to post on a regular basis. Don’t distract yourself with blog promotion until you’re sure you can actually do the writing. If you can blog regularly for a month, you can be a blogger.”

DON’T DISTRACT MYSELF WITH BLOG PROMOTION? NOOOOO..OO…O…cough. Definitely a case of getting the wagon before the horse. Is that the phrase? I’m so bad at remembering aphorisms. One of the reasons I’ve started a blog is because I love marketing and advertising.  Since, I am currently unemployed the blog gives me an excuse for sharpening my marketing skills.  I have been so focused reading up on digital marketing trends and on promoting my blog on various social media sites that I have neglected actually writing the blog! Ha! Good job…invite the Spring Breakers to the beach but then neglect to buy the alcohol (ode to my science years: OH). Not pretty folks!

Post: Don’t waste your time worrying about typos on your blog. Just post.
Will everyone please shut up about the typos on blogs? Show me someone who is blogging every day and also complains about someone’s typos. Just try. See? You can’t. Because anyone who is trying to come up with fresh ideas, and convey them in an intelligent, organized way, on a daily basis, has way too many things on their plate to complain about other peoples’ typos….

Real grammarians, by the way, have memorized the AP Stylebook. Newspapers and magazines have people who are paid to enforce these rules. There is no way a blogger could hire for this, and few bloggers can justify spending the years it takes to memorize The AP Stylebook. So you could spend your life reading the AP Stylebook, or you could spend your life spouting ideas.

So what if your ideas have hyphens in the wrong places and you turn an adverb into a noun? People can almost always figure out what you’re saying anyway, but they won’t care enough to try without a great idea lurking there to attract their effort. And there’s a reason that people who have amazing ideas get paid twenty times more than people who have amazing grammar: Ideas are worth a lot more to us.(…more)

Again thank you Penelope! Being anal about typos in my blog can be debilitating! It’s so depressing to feel all the exciting energy drained from you after you’ve spent one or two hours republishing a posting because you keep noticing a mistake! And you’re like really? Really? Do I have the energy to go through this for every post? At that point, a little voice whispers in your head, “You’re tired. You’ve just returned from running for 40 minutes straight (lol my best time so far). Do you really want to spend your time editing? Exactly. Write this tomorrow.” But tomorrow never comes. Sadness. It really makes you appreciate editors!

So how does this relate to “Paralysis by Analysis?” I have devoted the past month trying to determine the most effective and innovative ways to promote a blog and how to fundraise. But I haven’t been blogging or fundraising. Something is seriously wrong with this picture! Newsflash Arlene: this isn’t just about you learning new skills–you actually need to raise money for cancer research!

“Yes ma’am.” Arlene whispers sheepishly, as she stares down at her feet. She notices she has really cute shoes on.

You really have to check out Penelope’s guide to blogging. She has refreshing down-to-earth advice. It seriously feels like a very charismatic  friend is dishing out great advice to you over coffee!

Musical Influence: The best of Caetano Veloso

Favorite Song on Album: Cucurrucucú Paloma (Live)…so beautiful!

So I’m going to start posting! Wish me luck