Postcards from the Funny Farm

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There are many physical deterrents to a healthy psychology. Acne for many people is a big one. I ran across a website that is an excellent resource if you suffer from the medical and psychological effects of acne. I recommend this website because it is made up of an ever growing library of information about acne treatment.

If you suffer from acne, you may know the hard truth that it is not curable. However, there is a plethora of pages and links here that can get your acne manageable and completely under control. I like the vision on one page of the importance of a man with acne being able to shave (as an example of management). It is also very important for a woman to get her acne under control so she can feel attractive. If you surfed in here it is probably because you are looking for acne products and/or acne solutions. The theme of this blog is mental health and inspiration so I am extra pleased to be able to offer you this resource to help both!

If you are suffering from the symptoms of acne, check out this very helpful and credible website. It is a lighthouse to guide people through their acne problem.

Over the past year or so, I’ve met several excellent bloggers who really know their stuff. One in particular is Jacob Share who authors a few really “top-shelf” blogs. I call them that because their circulation is high along with their analytics. However, In addition to that, they have subjects relevant and helpful to me as a blogger. Group Writing Projects, is one of those excellent blogs. If you have a blog to promote or if you enjoy reading blogs, I want you to know about this resource. Getting into one of these things can explode a post. One of mine went from 27 views to nearly 3,000 as a result of a group writing project. Every little strategy helps, they are like seeds. After all, most of us internet writers secretly hope to be more popular in searches than stuff like women’s lingerie, do we not ;)

Jacob was kind enough to let me interview him and share it with you all. Please visit Group Writing Projects after reading, it’s an excellent resource. Here it is:

1. Who should use Group Writing Projects.

By announcing their group writing projects on my site, creators get more exposure for their group writing project and their blog, which in turn drives more traffic, participants and potential subscribers. Plus they earn more links for their project and its participants, which they can use to attract even more of the above. Finally, creators will also be able to share and learn best practices to make their projects even better next time.

Every creator is also a potential participant and participants have it good on Group Writing Projects, the only place they need to subscribe to stay updated on where the latest group writing projects are happening. It’s a great way to get blog post suggestions regularly, with the additional benefit of guaranteed links and attention to your article AND blog. The “random” appearance of gwps also helps bring your blog to readers that have probably never seen it before.

It’s win-win.

2. What is the benefit to your visitors?

Very few blogs can keep up a high rate of quality unless they’re making enough money to support themselves full-time or the blogger doesn’t post very often. For other blogs to have success, even their “lower quality” posts need to have value for their readers, and that’s the tack I’ve been taking with Group Writing Projects. Most of the posts on the site are newsworthy project announcements and results roundups that will only pull you in when you need them but that you’re nevertheless happy to see. Otherwise, higher quality, instructional and opinion articles come out appear every few weeks but my goal is to increase that frequency to once a week.

Taking a different angle with your question, Group Writing Projects doesn’t filter. The site will announce any gwp that comes to my attention, but I will not hesitate to recommend against participating if it’s justified. I have an article coming out soon with more on that, it will surprise some people.

3. What was your motivation to start this?

Very simple. When I first discovered and fell in love with gwps while blogging on JobMob, my reflex was to search for more and I quickly realized that there was no centralized resource bringing them all together. I decided almost right away that I would take on the project but I actually put it off for almost 6 months before getting down to work on it. Both my blogs started to take shape in November, and both were launched a few months later. I may do that again this year as well with yet another :)

4. When did you start?

Group Writing Projects was semi-officially launched in February 2008. I say ’semi’ because I had a whole launch planned but I froze the launch halfway along the plan. That’s the topic of a whole blog post in itself that I’ve promised my readers so I won’t go further here. As for traffic, it varies, by design. The announcement and results posts were designed to be easy for subscribers- quick to scan in your feed reader, with links to creators’ sites if you decide to participate. They also don’t have much interest for search engines, and so they don’t bring many people to the site but that’s fine. The “higher quality” articles tend to do well for the opposite reasons.

5. What is your defining objective with Group Writing Projects?

I make websites that help people. JobMob is about helping people find jobs, and Group Writing Projects is about helping bloggers to achieve their blogging goals. For example my recent Building RSS group writing project has only begun to help bloggers with tips about how to get more subscribers, and the upcoming free e-book for my readers will be so handy that every blogger will want it.

As for an objective, I will only be satisfied when I see gwps as a regular blogging device appearing on blogs of all sizes, in all industries and niches. That’s when I’ll feel that my work is done ;)

Thanks for the interview, Damien. If anyone has questions, they should just come over to Group Writing Projects and ask in the comments or contact form.

After writing part II of a series I’m doing called “Love Homework: Mirroring” over at at It Might be Love I got a really inspiring email from the author that included a guest post from she herself. (So cool!) She’s part of a select few that answers my open plea to write here occasionally. It allows the oxygen to once again enter my bloodstream as I take a rest from posting at the Funny Farm :) FYI, I interviewed Chelle a few months ago here. It’s a wonderful interview for bloggers and/or lovers to read :) The niche of my blog here is psychology on the offbeat side and her post, below, is about as “in the pocket” with that as you can get. I hope you enjoy Chelle’s post about the worth of ones work.

For the past few weeks, as we’ve been reading here at Postcards From the Funny Farm, we’ve been listening to Damien go on and on about Google Pagerank and rating systems based on numbers. And as usual it got me thinking about the “deeper side of things” which inspired me to write this post.

There are 2 important things to remember in life: 1. It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks of you, you’re still who you are and 2. Why I Failed Physics Class (I know the second one seems pretty strange, but keep reading and you’ll see what I mean.)

It’s so important to realize it really doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks of you. I applaud Damien for coming up with his own CAN Self Blog Rating System. Your self rating system should be all you rely on and all that matters. There are billions of people out there, each with their own thoughts and opinions. Sooner or later you’re bound to collide with someone or something that doesn’t agree. If you set your mind to it you can do anything. Take for example the man who recently made a life scale car out of matchsticks. Do you think the neighbors held back on “rating” that idea?

But think about it: If someone thinks you’re weird or silly or mean, does that make it true? Of course not! What do they know? Just because they might have some “system” or outdated values to judge you it doesn’t mean they KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOU. And since they don’t know and understand you, what they think just simply doesn’t matter. In the end, it’s what you know and understand and what you believe that is true.

So now that I’ve explained why it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, let’s move onto why I failed physics class.

Our physics teacher often gave us test questions like these: “A guy is riding on a motorcycle at 60 mph. Up ahead is a 36 degree jump over a cliff with a distance of 50 feet to the other side. Will he make it to the other side?”

Sure, there’s a mathematical equation to finding the solution to this problem, but I personally refused to answer it. How can we REALLY know he will or will not make it to the other side? What if a big gust of wind suddenly comes and makes him turn his wheel? What if he gets dust in his eyes? What if by some miracle a huge eagle comes swooping down and lifts him by his shirt collar to the other side?

Sure, those things probably won’t happen. But there is A LOT more to life than just numbers and math formulas. Life is full of variables. Just because numbers say something will or will not happen, doesn’t mean it can’t. It’s an old cliché, but there’s an exception to every rule.

Needless to say, my physics teacher didn’t like me too much. After about 9 weeks of the class we both mutually decided it be best I become the first person in my high school’s history to be allowed to drop Honors Physics. But I refused to believe that everything in life can be generalized, predicted, and relied on as being true just because that’s what the numbers said.

We can hope that Damien and other fellow bloggers’ pagerank woes will soon be solved. But until then, it’s always good to remember the important stuff in life isn’t ranked by numbers. And even if your blog does manage to bring you and other people a lot of money, ultimately it is only the standards that you set for yourself that should determine your success.

This has been a guest post by Chelle, blog author of It Might be Love. Pack your virtual luggage and go read a few posts of hers why don’t you.

This post is another (I hope the last) rant about Google so feel free to jump ship before you go one. I don’t usually like to whine about stuff, I like to change things or shut up generally. After this post I plan to pretty much shut up about Google PageRank but I will respond to comments of course ;)

I’ve been setting goals for my blog and recording them here since December of 2007. It has been gratifying in almost every respect but I still am not where I’d like to be in other ranking systems such as Google and Technorati. Instead of getting frustrated or trying to game the system, I’ve decided to make my own ranking system based on the things that I value in my blog. I’m calling it the CAN. system My hope is that you, the regular reader, and anyone else who wants to will follow my progress and learn that serious writers can make legitimate money on their blogs without PageRank. My goal since December of 2006 has been to create, innovate, and intergrate quality content. I haven’t lost this goal, I’ve simply defined it more clearly and added “money” as a goal element. This blog does NOT deserve to have a zero PageRank.

Google seems to be highly puritanical when it comes to paid-links on a blog. It’s actually worse than “highly puritanical ” it’s near obscenely puritanical … it makes no rational sense. Who are they serving really? Do you care if a helpful blog post was paid or not? I know I don’t.

I have examined Google’s criteria for PageRank and frankly, I don’t think they even know what they are doing with it. Nonetheless, we have to suck it up as bloggers. It’s the industry guideline that advertisers and publishers use when hiring and taking blogs seriously. Thank goodness many influential bloggers are starting to come out against Google. IZEA is leading an effort against PageRank “.... As for me, watch for my first CAN. update in August. You can see my goals for July here. Maybe it will give you something you’ll find engaging to read by your espresso machines.

One thing, I will give away right now as I close: To make my logo and button for the CAN, Rank System was to use a tutorial for Photoshop. If you’d like to try something similar, it’s a lot of fun. The Google logo itself contains a font that costs $99. But this tutorial shows you how to make it with Ti.... It is cool. There are also tutorials there for companies like Hooters and O’Reilly … a lot more fun stuff. Enjoy and remember in whatever it is you blog about you CAN.

I’ve been in a situation recently where my physical body/animal brain was moving me to retaliate against someone who offended me (actually a couple people) and at the same time my intellect was telling me to relent, or hold off until I’d calmed down. I won’t get into specifics because that’s not my point here. I’ll tell you I did relent and I am so glad.

Once I calmed down and reassessed the situation, I realized that while my feelings were 100% valid, they were not a good determiner of action. In fact, if my feelings had determined my actions in the professional environment, in this case I could have severed (possibly permanently) networks with key people likely to be in my circle until I retire. When the hot cools down from work days like that, you have some amazing realizations reclining at home or jumping on your trampoline. You have no idea what they will be in the heat of the moment.

So what did I learn from this and why am I sharing? Well, as I have said over and over, I write about psychology and inspiration here in order to better your life. It isn’t therapy for me. If it were you’d read a lot of bad words etc. I am thinking and analyzing my life all the time for good lessons to share with you. I hope these lessons advance you in your journey. That is why I blog on psychology and inspiration. In this post, my lesson is simple: In the professional environment, let facts not feelings determine your actions.

When you feel upset, insulted, or angry, these are usually products of a bruised ego and not the real you (as Eckhart calls the “being”). Relenting when you feel badly can help you recover your sense of being and throw off your ego. So, here are the three things I did when I was offended/mistreated recently at work. Translated into your life, I hope they help you save yourself some grief and advance like I did:

1. Get the facts written down.
2. Write down a note (official in wording) to the offending party(ies) stating the wrong done to you and DONT SEND IT. Put it in your wallet folded tightly closed.
3. Forget about it and go about your day.
4. Later in the evening, pull out the letter. You may be ashamed you wrote it, but keep it for 3 days. If the issue does come up, you will be upset and you can take the note out for the facts that emotion may cause you to forget.

That’s it! As I have said (to the rhythm of something Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled,

I’m no expert on psychology but I have read more on psychology than some psychology experts :)

Now you’ve read some of that yourself, succinctly put in a blog post. At work, be a real man (or woman) and act on facts, not on feelings. Do what you have to do to stay cool. Another thing I do, and I have written on the value of a music CD, is make and listen to a CD of the best tunes I know.

Quick after thought: WATCH OUT! Something is at risk with this kind of talk, and it’s your job! You will be better off to use this approach but remember you should never forget any wrong done to you against the law or your contract. Write it down! All I am saying to do is to deal with it later.

My friends in this community sometimes ask me if I know any good ways of getting traffic. I try to do creative stuff, but sometimes the traditional things work best. Using forums to build traffic is one of those traditional ways. Of course there are several in my community that are doing just fine. Perhaps those readers could give us some further tips on this discussion.

I’ve read on several “big time” sites that forums are an excellent way to attract more readers to your blog or website. Up until recently, I had never put this one to the test. This is partly due to the fact that I haven’t had the time to experiment with it. I plan to do some “foruming” this evening so I wanted to let you know the results once I am finished. As I head out to try my hand at this endeavor I am thinking these guidelines might be helpful to someone out there who wants to try it:

1. When you choose a forum, choose the topics that follow your passions. ie; mental health, literature, psychology, self-improvement and blogging are a few interests of mine that I belong to forums on.
2. Put your url in your profile and signature or every forum you post at. This is obviously to your blog’s advantage. Theoretically, the ones who like what you have to say will click on your profile or signature and find your wonderfully suited blog. Ok, so I’m being a bit sarcastic. Nonetheless, it’s one way to get your url out there and it may even garner you some Google Juice.
3. Answer many threads before you leave. Some threads are closely monitored and some are not. Doing more will increase your chances of starting up a conversation or even friendship with people on the forum.
4. Subscribe to the threads you comment in. Like most blogs, forums have an option many times to subscribe by email or rss to the threads.
5. Do not get offended and do not say offensive things. This is self-explanatory to many, but to me it is a lesson I have had to learn the hard way many many times (mostly before I ever started blogging). Stay cool and let your words be the same when foruming.
6. Bookmark the front page of each forum and put them in a folder on your toolbar (Firefox) so they don’t become obtrustive. Since the folder causes them to cascade straight down, you can have more than you’ll ever need on your bookmarked toolbar (for help on how to do this, read this).
7. Flattery will get you EVERYWHERE. That may be an old fashioned notion, but go with it and see if it’s still true.
8. Keep your comments short but thoughtful. Don’t waste your great ideas and prose on a forum, use the ideas you get while there to write on your forum and link to the post! (Don’t do this too much or you may be considered a spammer and kicked out)
9. Once you are in, many forums allow you to post a link on your profile page or in the sisgnature, or both.  An example of these types of links can be found here (scroll down to my signature at the Jeep page.  The anchor texts inspiration and psychology are linked back to my blog).  This will help your backlink authority.
10. Once you create the link on your profile page, figure out what the permalink to your profile page is and socially bookmark it to as many as possible.  This will also help your backlink authority. Example of same Jeep profile page on Stumbleupon.

I hope these tips help. If you are new to forums and would like some help getting your feet wet, drop me a line and I’ll see if I can help. On the other hand, does anyone out there have any forums they enjoy and would recommend to this community? Enjoy foruming to build traffic.

Okay, so I covered the first two letters of value: “V” for visceral and “A” for aphoristic. Now the third: “L” for linkage! Link love is the #1 way to make friends and influence people (namely bloggers you link to on the web. After you’ve written your visceral post of around 200 words and given it a catchy and creative title, it is important before you press the “publish” button to add 3 deeplinks (links to other posts on your blog) and 3 linkloves (links to other blogs). This can become a standard practice and you will find it easy then. IT IS VERY CUMBERSOME AT FIRST. You need to try and automate the process however you can. It should be like brushing your teeth every morning. Just to give you some of my tips:

1. For backlinks I have a shortcut to my most popular posts page. I open it in a new tab and getting relevant backlinks that are my most popular is as easy as copy/paste. This helps with rank and authrity. It also links your best stuff for people who are interested in it. REMEMBER: The best way to include links is within the context of your writing. Just inserting them random looks like spam and worse than that, it turns off your readers. You can automatically insert links in your blog (I recommend for a 200 word post 3 backlinks and 3 linkloves) and have it enhance your content.
2. For linklove: I use WordPress. As I add new faves to my blogroll, I can go to Manage / links in the admin section an choose the “blank” window feature. Then when I want to get a link open to check out or copy, all I need to do is click. I try to consistently link to my favorite blogs and I notice they really appreciate it. ONE NOTE: Chelle reminded me that the anchor text that the url is assigned to is important to rank, so choose appropriate words. For example: I really like this guy, if guy is the anchor text, then they only get juice for the word guy. If I says: “This guy knows music!” Then you link more effectively to his site about pop culture, music, and being a D.J..

Linkage of external sites along with the 2 types listed above is the third letter in blog value. Coming up tomorrow: The mysterious “U.” Keep following these guidelines and who knows, maybe you’ll be lookin’ into those las vegas hotels

Yesterday I wrote about how Google PR and other ranking systems for blogs fall short of really selecting value. Let’s face the fact at the start though not everyone agrees on what is valuable in blogs. It is often the same sort of preference as between clip on earrings and studded. There are some things that are universal though. I wrote about an acronym v.a.l.u.e. and specifically the “V” in value for a blog. I chose the word “visceral” and targeted to a nice short 200 words because so many blogs are not.

While that was a very large point that needed over 400 words ;) the aspect today is not so needy of length: “aphoristic” for example, with a catchy title. An aphorism is a short quote or phrase.

Writing a blog is unlike writing a book. Readers rarely will “curl up with a good blog.” On the other hand, when they read a book they are more patient and allow more time for ideas to develop. SO, be careful to not fall into the trap of thinking you are a JK Rowling or Eckhart Tolle online. Even if you write that well, you have a different sort of audience that doesn’t want to hang out long.

Here are three tips on how to add value to your blog by being aphoristic:

1. Wait to create your title until you have written your 200 or so words in your post. 9 times out of 10 you will have a better title after you have the post.
2. As you write thing more in sound-bytes, or lines people could quote. I did that when I wrote: “Readers rarely will “curl up with a good blog.” On the other hand, when they read a book they are more patient and allow more time for ideas to develop.”
3. Use the blockquote function as much as possible without being over-the-top.

So now we’ve covered 2 aspects of a valuable blog: 1) visceral, and 2) aphorostic. Tomorrow I will talk about “L.” If the suspense is too much, again, I will tell you in an email for 25 bucks and I hope you appreciate sarcasm. Have a great Sunday out there making blogs of value.

Google PR is a joke. Bad blogs get high PR all the time. Let’s discuss value and how you can get it on your blog.

It seems the trend these days to get “quick fixes” to long term issues. For example, today I saw a popup ad that said colon cleanser could solve your weight loss woes. Is it possible? Maybe. As far as blogs go, the same amazing claims are out there for traffic and PR. I even asked my wife for a $25 program for my birthday Monday that claimed to improve backlinks. Thank God she said no. It was a momentary lapse of reason.

I’ve been at the task of improving Google PR for over a year now and not much has helped. The stuff that has been worth my time doing however has been stuff that increases the VALUE of my posts and blog. This stuff increases my traffic and decreases the bounce rate: SO … having said all that, I am starting a series to discuss the things that I have found useful in bringing more value to my blog. In the end, after Google PR is a distant memory (which it will become if it doesn’t reflect value) blogs of value will remain standing. I will examine a letter from the word VALUE in each post in this series. I’d encourage you to subscribe so you don’t miss anything. Let’s start with what you can do to create more value for your blog: V.A.L.U.E. V=visceral

1. Be visceral with a target of 200 words

If you are like me, you have to look up visceral to know what it truly means. I knew it meant to be “of feeling” but check out the other definitions:
Visceral \Vis”cer*al\, a. [Cf. F. visc['e]ral, LL. visceralis.]
1. (Anat.) Of, pertaining to, or affecting the viscera;
splanchnic.
[1913 Webster]

2. Fig.: Having deep sensibility. [R.] –Bp. Reynolds.
[1913 Webster]

3. proceeding from emotion or instinct rather than from
intellect; deeply emotional; — as, a visceral reaction.
[PJC]

4. dealing with coarse or base emotions; — as, a visceral
literary style. –[RHUD]
[PJC] (source)

Doesn’t that say it all for a valuable blog post? Write from a place of inspiration. That will vary from writer to writer, but many things never change. There is a new site out there dedicated to talking about writing and blogging called “Wriging.” Check that one out for sure. I chose 200 words as my target because shorter that that is often considered spam by the search engines and more than that often makes me click away. Let’s face it, who has time in their bloghop to read more than 200 words. Oh and guess what else? IT’S EASY TO WRITE 200 words! Everybody likes stuff that’s easy. Sometimes longer posts are okay when they contain excellent research. Andy Beard’s Niche Marketing is an excellent example of how long posts can be okay. USUALLY however, less is more folks. This one is, many apologies, 402 words (eek I am such a hypocrite). I hope you see my point.

Write 200 visceral words is the first part of adding value to a post/blog. Next time: “I”. If you can’t wait, send me an email, I will reveal it to you privately for $25 (LOL. j/k … maybe). Derek’s price will be slightly higher.

I asked myself a question today as I was preparing to go out into my Truman Show here at the Funny Farm here I call my life. The question was based half on Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth and half on my own outlook on life. Blogs can be a great way to journal what is going on in your life while getting feedback as well.   Since I am turning 39 June 9th, I am tending towards the philosophical side. I know you may find it hard to believe that I love it but I do. Happiness is found there as well I am finding.

We are all in a proverbial “funny farm” I think and so there are two sides of life we need to address to succeed, get out, and to be happy: 1) The side of neurophilosophy, or our physical brains, and 2) the cognitive side. This “present” idea is a cognitive idea. (and what’s cool about it is you don’t even get charged a copay here, though you may want to subscribe via -or- .

Anyway, Eckhart’s book is all about being “conscious.” (See here for another post I wrote about him) If I could count the number of times he uses that word, I would say it’s probably more than any other word apart from “the.”

It’s an awesome word to keep in your head all day “conscious, conscious, conscious.” If you have ever been unconscious (as I many times am) in a room you know how much you can miss just pretending to be there. I strive to be conscious always but today that is not my word. Today I am present.

Present is the word on the way to consciousness. Like water spilling over from a river into the sea, consciousness usually merges with present. Remember the annoying, idiotic boy in grade school who after every person’s name was called for attendance with a resounding “here” had to shout “present!” You know, the one the teachers always ranted about. Well I am/was that kid and the only difference is now I am shouting “present” on my blog.  Here’s my simple goal today for being present.

Today I will be present by looking people in the eye

I will also say this mantra today every time I start to think I am becoming “absent:”

(YOUR NAME HERE), Present!!!

Here’s a question for you: maybe down the road we can get more deep, but for now: In what simple way can I move toward being present today? Here’s a picture of me a couple years ago fully present.  Can every moment be that way?  That is my goal.

Today I will be present by looking people in the eye.

In what way will you be present today?