ComHacker.org

by Patricia Mayo

The “experts” say you should include pictures in anything you publish online - but they never say what to look for in a picture.

Photo via Fail Blog

They say a picture is worth a thousand words - but very few realize exactly what they are saying with their pictures.

Normally, we aren’t aware of the messages these images are communicating - but that just makes the message even more powerful. Just ask any pro selling through a catalog or direct mail.

The difference between a good image and a bad image is very cut and dry - success, or failure. Period.

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Trisha, @mayobrains on Twitter

by Patricia Mayo

Of course you’re not. What, you - afraid to read a blog post? Pshaw. No way. Couldn’t happen.

Photo by Sophie

Yet if I had titled this “Ambiguity Aversion” and just left it at that, I bet you wouldn’t be reading this right now. That’s because of a hard-wired fact of humanity - we’re fully-trained trained skeptics of anything unfamiliar.

And I’m willing to bet that if I didn’t tell you I’m about to detail how to overcome ambiguity aversion to increase any metric, you probably wouldn’t read beyond this point. But since I just did - well, let’s move on, shall we?

by Patricia Mayo

Did you notice something strange in the last few entries? There’s columns and microposts and strange pictures - oh my!

Photo by Bart

Over the last couple days I have broken my blog more times than I can count - all in the name of improving my writing style. Of course, it helps that it all looks neat and fancy too.

Really I’m just trying to forcibly train myself. Some people write long paragraphs - I write long sentences. Sure it may not seem like a bad habit. However, I believe if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.

by Patricia Mayo

It is possible to make money blogging - but it doesn’t happen the most obvious way.

Photo by Jay Lopez

I actually make a good chunk of my income blogging.

However, if you look in my sidebars, I don’t have ads. Not a single one. No sponsors, no donate buttons, no Entrecard. This site isn’t in any kind of traffic rotator schemes. I did an affiliate promotion once, but the results were so crappy you’re not going to see that again.

This is all very much on purpose - because the concept of “problogging” does not work if all you have to offer are your words on one blog.

by Patricia Mayo

A couple days ago a good buddy, Mike Davis, said to me, “Trisha, my blog sucks. My blogging sucks. I look at yours and it’s all so cool. How can I be more like you?”

Photo by Dave Dyet

What you see now on GlobalCitizenExperiment.com is the product of about 6 hours of lighthearted work. I didn’t bother taking a “before” screenshot - trust me, it was a real eyesore. There’s still more to do, but we’re already pretty close to that “pretty ‘n pro” look.