AntSaint

Eugene Beer & Blog Today

Friday, Feb. 6
4-6 p.m. at McMenamins 19th Street (19th & Agate, Eugene)

What is it?
"Eugene bloggers meet up at the East 19th Street Cafe to help each other with their blogs. Good times are had by all."

Beer and Blog Eugene

See you there.

Dear Bloglines

Stop resetting my feed counts. There are not 3000 unread posts in here, and I'm tired of resetting them manually and missing stuff I might've wanted to read.

You are on notice. I were half as cool as Stephen Colbert, you would get a dreaded double-wag of my finger.

Now to prepare an alternative to jump ship to... maybe Google Reader?

Changing Antsaint's Posting Frequency

For a while now I've been looking at what I can do to provide a better blog. With both Antsaint and Ride Three to do up content for, it's not always easy to put out consistent posts (much less, ahem, quality ones). Drawing on other bloggers, such as the Men with Pens and their post on Cutting Back on Posting Frequency, I'm making some changes on Antsaint.

You may have noticed that posts have generally started coming on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. For the foreseeable future, that will be the new posting schedule for both Antsaint and Ride Three: 3 times a week, on those days.

Over time the content may be changing too; I'm looking at focusing Antsaint much more around writing, Eugene, and food and drink. We'll see how that progresses over time.

I love running both sites, but I've been putting pressure on myself to try to do too much – focusing perhaps on quantity over quality. I'm taking that pressure off myself, and by posting less, over time both sites should give you better content, that you care more about.

That's the hope. Thanks as always for your suggestions and support, and let's see what happens!

The Marketing Value of Blogs

What is the business and marketing value of a blog?

Ralph Wilson and Amanda Wattlington have a great 5-minute video on The Marketing Value of Blogs, including what companies need to build in to their blogging strategy in order to have a successful business blog. Here are some of the points touched on:

• Customer brand interaction
• Blogs not as a novelty, but as a viable marketing tool
• Blogging as an ongoing use of time and resources
• Strategy and planning needed for a successful blog
• The danger of the blog being abandoned
• The value of creating a clear editorial plan

Watch the Video: The Marketing Value of Blogs

2-Week Blogging Vacation

The blog and I are on vacation for the next couple of weeks. We'll be returning after Sept. 9. In the meantime, enjoy summer, Labor Day weekend, and some pints of Oakshire beer.

Did You Email Antsaint? Please Send It Again

New Email Address Too

Have you tried to send me an email within the past 2 weeks? Wondering why you haven't heard back from me? The answer: My email provider has been having some issues the past couple of weeks.

If you've emailed me since August 5, please drop me another line. And please accept my apologies for the email-dropping nonsense. My provider's lost a fair few emails — at this point, I don't know how many.

Tandem to that, I also have a new email address. You can email me anytime at anthony at antsaint dot com

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Happy Fourth of July!

To the Eight Readers who are in the U.S., Happy Fourth of July! I hope you had a great weekend of fun, grilling and more grilling. As for me and Jodie, we'll be out and about. Posts will resume on July 7.

Why You Shouldn't Blog

You can't help but check out something with a title like that — "Why You Shouldn't Blog". Indeed. And there are many good reasons. You don't know what to say, you don't know who's going to take care of the writing, upgrading, maintaining, fixing, community response, all that sort of thing. There are a lot of good reasons for anyone, from an individual to an organization, not to blog. Or, at least, not to blog yet — these video tips are also good food for thought for what anyone needs to consider before doing a blog for the long run:

Link: Online Marketing Tips Video: Why You Shouldn't Blog from Search Marketing Gurus | Search Marketing Tips, Advice, Strategies & Tactics From Internet Marketing Professionals.

"There is a lot of excitement around launching a blog or the idea of a blog, but sometimes companies need a bit of a reality check before setting foot into the blogosphere"

Pondering the Future of the Antsaint Blog

Where is this site going? What do I want to write about? What do my 8 readers want to hear about?

Questions like these have been on my mind for a while. Antsaint is, and was conceived as, a highly miscellaneous blog. That's in total contrast to Ride Three, which is very niche, very focused. And I've always enjoyed this difference. On Ride Three, I get to yammer on about my Ural sidecar motorcycle, and post all sorts of links and photos and what-not about Urals and what it's like to own and ride a sidecar rig.

But Antsaint? Very different kettle of fish — and each fish in the kettle is a different kind of fish. Antsaint's been going for about, oh, 4 or 5 years now, and more and more I think it's time to look at narrowing down the focus.

For starters, I think that would help me do better, more original posts. I enjoy linking to things I read, and from what I hear tell some of my 8 readers even find that stuff interesting too. But doing some more creative things, some more original things — that's been gnawing at me.

Maybe just writing, food and drink, and Eugene. That'd be a narrow down. Gads, maybe I'd even finally get a real header. Hmmm...

Thanksgiving blogging holiday, Nov. 21-25

May my hands touch only food (and a glass of good grog), and not a keyboard, for the new few days. The blog and I are taking a Thanksgiving break to stuff ourselves silly. To all celebrating it, have a Happy Thanksgiving. Posts resume Nov. 26