The SoapBoxers

Note: these tidbits are simply worded in a question/answer format – they are not actually submitted to Kosmo as questions.

Q: Kosmo, I have some money invested and would like to know how soon it will double.  Is there an easy way to do calculate this?

A: Indeed there is.  It is called “The Rule of 72”.  Take 72 and divide it by your interest rate.  The result is the number of years it will take to double your money.  For example, if you are getting a 6% return, it will take 12 year to double your money.  You can also flip this question around and ask how high of a rate you must achieve to double your money in a specified period.  For example, if you want to double your money in 3 years, you would need a 24% APR (72/3 = 24).  Good luck with that.
 
Q: Kosmo, I’m all thumbs when it comes to tools.  I can never figure out which way to turn a tool to loosen something.  Is there some sort of general rule?

A:  Righty tight, lefty loosey.

Q: Kosmo, why did they call those old fashioned storage devices “floppy disks”?   They definitely weren’t floppy, and nw that I think about it, they weren’t disc-shaped, either!

A:  Au contraire!  Floppy disks were indeed floppy.  You are confusing the disk asssembly with the actual disk.  The assembly contains a hard plastic case and a metal shutter that the computer would push aside to read data from the actual disk.  If you want to see what the actual disk looks like, pry one (preferably one without data on it) open with a screwdriver.
 
Q:  Kosmo, I’m a big sports fan.  I wish there was a way for me to determine which team was the home team when the scores flash by.

A:  Actually, there is!  The visiting team is always on the top and the home team is always on the bottom.
 
Q: Kosmo, there’s a little pinhole near my computer’s DVD drive.  What’s up with that – does it need air to breathe or something?

A:  You have discovered the manual eject mechanism.  This has been around for as long as Kosmo can remember.  To trip the mechanism, simply take a bent ovally metal disc ejector – otherwise known as a common paper clip – and push it into the hole.  Whatever disc is in the drive should be ejected.  This works great for times when the operating system won’t recognize a disc and won’t allow you to eject it.
 
Q:  Kosmo, my friend tells me that I’m just as likely to get an Ace/Ace combo dealt to me as I am to get an Ace/King.  In essence, he’s telling me that all combinations are equally likely.  My experience seems to indicate that this is wrong.  Who is right?

A:  Congratulations – you are right.  This is a longer answer, so it will have to be the last question of the day.  Let’s take a look at the possible combinations for Ace/Ace:

• Spade/Heart
• Spade/Diamond
• Spade/Club
• Heart/Diamond
• Heart/Club
• Diamond/Club

All told, 6 combinations out of the  1326 possible combinations.

Let’s take a look at the possible combinations for Ace/King:

• Ace Spades / King Spades
• Ace Spades/  King Clubs
• Ace Spades / King Hearts
• Ace Spades / King Diamonds
• Ace Clubs / King Spades
• Ace Clubs/ King Clubs
• Ace Clubs / King Hearts
• Ace Clubs / King Diamonds
• Ace Hearts / King Spades
• Ace Hearts/ King Clubs
• Ace Hearts / King Hearts
• Ace Hearts / King Diamonds
• Ace Diamonds / King Spades
• Ace Diamonds/ King Clubs
• Ace Diamonds / King Hearts
• Ace Diamonds / King Diamonds

As you can see, there are 16 possible combinations.  Drawing a pair is always less likely than drawing two unmatched cards – the fact that you already have the ace in your hand means that there are  a maximum of 3 aces left in the deck – whereas there are a maximum of 4 of every other card.

Now, if your friend twists this a bit and says that you’re just as likely to draw Ace Spades / Ace Clubs as you are Ace Spades / King Clubs, he would be correct.

Over the years, I have come to the realization that a lot of people are not familiar with the process of balancing a checkbook.  This is a life skill that can save you a lot of headaches, so today we’ll step through the process.

When your bank statement arrives, you see that the bank balance of your account is $318.42, compared to the balance of $308.52 in your check register.

The following facts apply:

– For simplicity, we’ll assume that this is a brand new account

– The bank charged you $4.52 in service fees

– Per your check register, there are 3 checks during the month

• Check 1001 for $142.13 (groceries)
• Check 1002 for $16.12 (greeting cards)
• Check 1003 for $714.88 (whoa – went overboard at the outlet mall)

– You also withdrew $100 in cash from the ATM

– You had two deposits during the month

• $1413.12 from your day job
• $800.34 from your night job

The first thing you do is deduct the bank service fee.  You enter this in your check register, resulting in a balance of $303.88

Next, we check the bank statement to see which checks, deposits, and ATM transactions have cleared the bank.  These are checks 1001, 1002, and the deposit for $1413.12.  Mark these off in your check register – there is typically a column specifically for this purpose.

Next, add the outstanding deposit to your bank balance ($318.42 + $800.34 = $1118.76).  Hey, cool, you’re rich.

Whoa – not so fast.  Next, deduct the outstanding check (check 1003) and the outstanding ATM deposit.  $1118.72 – $714.88 – $100 = $303.88.  Great – that matches the balance in your check register – you’re done until next month.

What do you do if the numbers don’t match?

• Check your math.  In particular, it is quite easy to make a mistake in the check register
• Verify that the checks cleared for the amount you have recorded in your check register.  You may have written them down wrong, or your sloppy writing may have caused the bank to improperly process a check (not that this has ever happened to me)
• Make sure you you have excluded all cleared checks and deposits from the process, while also making sure that you have included all outstanding transactions.
• Did you forget to record a debit card transaction, automatic payment, or ATM transaction?  If so, record these in your check register and compare the new balance to the number your got during the reconciliation process (the process and adding and deducting outstanding transactions to the bank balance – $303.88 in our example).
• Make sure you recorded the bank service fee in your check register
• If you can’t figure it out, take a break and try later.  If you still can’t figure it out, ask a friend for help.

Next month, things change a bit.  When you start the reconciliation process, you will include the transactions that had not cleared this month (check 1003, the $100 ATM transaction, and the deposit of $800.34), as well as any new transactions.  Check off any cleared transactions in the check register, deduct the amount of the bank service fee from the check register, add outstanding deposits to the bank balance, substract outstanding checks from the bank balance and compare again.

Any questions?  I’ll be happy to go into more detail.

I have written a few other articles on the topic of writing fiction. Today, I’ll spend our time together talking solely about the development of characters.

Let them have a little fun

Characters are the lifeblood of any story. If your characters are dull, your story will be uninteresting. Conversely, an interesting character can not only captivate your audience, but also inspire you during the writing process.

Recently, Martin Kelly mentioned that he liked his characters. To an outsider, it might seem odd, but I also find myself relating with characters. With a short story, a writer doesn’t spend a lot of time developing characters, due to the compressed nature of the writing. For longer stories, though, many hours can be spent molding the character.

In order to explore various plot scenarios, I often will send my characters to the “back burner” of my brain to let them try out various experiences in and effort see what experiences are good fits of the plot and which are not.

The net result is that I create a nearly sentient being. These characters can run wild inside the imagination of an author, living very full lives as they rush to and fro, experiencing all that life has to offer. Do I sometimes wake up and wonder what a character did while I was sleeping? Well, um, sometimes.

Let your characters have fun, and you will have more fun writing about them.

Attributes of a character

One problem I have stumbled across is that many of my characters are quite slender. Why is this? Quite simply because I’m projecting. I stand a shade under six feet tall and tip the scales around 150 pounds. Not surprisingly, it is easier for me to write about slender characters than it is to write about characters who are 5’4” and 275 pounds. I simply don’t have as solid a frame of reference for the other characters.

I also have a habit of making most of my characters physically attractive. Most of my characters also have very engaging personalities. Many of them share the interests and hobbies that I myself enjoy. In short, they are people that I would get along with great.

So, by default, I have a bunch of Stepford characters running amok in my brain. In terms of their usefulness as imaginary friends, this is pretty nifty. Unfortunately, these happy-go-lucky characters make for a pretty lousy plot – because there is not conflict.

Thus, I am always compelled to roughen the edges on a few of the characters. Interestingly, it isn’t difficult for me to create truly bad characters such as murderers – I struggle more with putting a few necessary blemishes on the nice people. For the most part, I actually fail at this. The majority of my characters are still much nicer than I would like.

So, it’s OK to like some of your characters, but you should also dislike a few – and dislike some aspects of nearly all of the characters. Also, avoid using yourself as too much of a reference point. After finishing up the writing of Key Relationships, I was stunned to find out that the vast majority of the story is written from the male perspective! Even worse, there was no valid plot-related reason for this.

Names and Dialogue

If you write a lot of stories, it can be difficult to constantly find new names. You may find yourself using names of family, friends, and celebrities. Within the past year, I have begun going to the source. The US Census Bureau tracks first and last names and ranks them by how common they are. This is, in a word, SWEET. Not only does it provide you with names you may not have considered previously, but it also lets you know how common the name is.

As we segue smoothly from names to dialogue, we encounter the topic of names being used as part of the dialogue. It is important to avoid overusing the names of characters during the dialogues. If Mark and Bob are speaking to each other, you need not use “Mark” or “Bob” during each line of dialogue – you will drive your readers crazy.

It is also important to spice up the dialogue with a bit of variety. “Said” is a perfectly fine word, but people can also ask, shout, exclaim, whisper, hiss, utter, reply, or comment. Amazingly, most of the time you can simply avoid using any of these verbs. The presence of quotes already makes the reader aware of the fact that someone is speaking.

Finally, natural dialogue will typically be less formal than the prose that surrounds it. Spoken language tends to be less formal than written language – in large part due to the minimal preparation before speaking. If your characters’ dialogue sounds as if they are reading it from a teleprompter, it won’t ring true to your audience.

Something that longtime readers of The Soap Boxers have noticed is the gradual morphing of the writing staff from one lonely writer to a merry band of writers who are actively pushing the magazine forward. A blogger friend of mine was intrigued at the fact that I was able to get some many quality writers to join. How did I do it? Contrary to what you might hear, I am not the Pied Piper.

Honesty and Fairness

The Soap Boxers has no funds to pay staff writers, in large part because we have no funds, period. This is something that I have always been very up front about, to avoid any possibility of someone jumping to the wrong conclusion. Giving someone unreasonable expectations makes for a very shake foundation.

Since I had no ability to pay my writers, I did the next best thing – I proposed a profit sharing agreement. The gist is this – once general overhead (i.e. items that I pay for out of my pocket) have been paid for, advertising revenue will be split proportionally. At this point, the site isn’t actually turning a profit, but if it suddenly becomes the hottest thing on the web, the writers share in the upside.

[Wondering why you aren’t seeing any of these ads that have the potential to shower the staff with revenue? Well, if you’re a regular visitor, you don’t see the ads. This is a courtesy to reward you for your support.]

Look for Untapped Potential

Do you have intelligent friends who often share insightful ideas with you? These people could be writers who are simply waiting for a platform. They might not have the interest in going through the steps necessary to set up a blog and build a readership. They might be interested in jumping up onto your platform and writing a weekly or monthly article, though.

Several of the staff writers are friends whose writing I have enjoyed over the years. These writers now have the ability to see what other people think of their writing.

Chase Some Stars

I reached out to a few people who were already established bloggers. The likelihood of getting them to write for my blog was relatively low. However, I pitched some ideas and one of the bloggers (Jonna) was interested enough to give it a shot. The others declined the opportunities. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A couple of things to keep in mind here. First, there is a fine line between asking someone if they want to write for you and becoming a freaky stalker type person. Avoid being the freaky stalker type person. Give the person room to breathe. If they decline the offer, thank them for their time and move along. Don’t try to badger them. Second, try not to ask for too much. If the person already has a full time blog, it may be difficult for them to contribute more than once a month, simply due to time constraints. Third, try to approach them with an angle that is different than what they write for their existing blog. Finally, be somewhat reasonable in your expectations. For example, I’m not going to try to get Peter Gammons (of ESPN) to write baseball articles for my blog. (Although that would be pretty sweet.)

Be Flexible

Although I try to have a set schedule for articles, I am pretty flexible within that structure, and am even willing to push articles to other days, if necessarily. After all, I’m working with what is essentially a voluntary workforce. Making demands on them would really not be a smart choice.

On the technical side, I’m also very flexible. I have given my writers two basic options for submitting stories. They can either log into WordPress and write the story there, or simply email me the story. Everyone so far has chosen to simply email me the story.

Show That You Care

If your writers have blogs of their own, link to them in your blog roll. This is a common courtesy.

Leave comments on your writers’ articles. At this point, you are acting in the role of a typical reader of your blog. Read what your writers write, and share your own opinions on the subject.

Finally, make the phrase “Thank You” a normal part of the vocabulary.

What did you miss over the weekend?

• We announced the launching of TheFictionWriters.com on Friday.
• Jonna Wibelius made her debut on Friday, giving an international perspective to the US health care debate.
• Saturday featured Cheri’s Nobel’s review of the Jimmy Buffett novel A Salty Piece of Land.
• Kosmo did the math on ethanol fuel mileage on Sunday.

There are plenty of great guides to fiction writing on the market. Many of them are written by authors who are much more accomplished than myself. However, my advice is free, and today I share it with you. Of course, this is not a comprehensive guide, but just a few tips.

• Write – This seems rather obvious, doesn’t it? However, it is easy for life to get in the way of your best intentions. Set aside some time to focus on writing, and try to write a specific number of times each week. For many people, finding time to write 365 days of the year is not realistic. However, perhaps you can try two or three times per week. It is not necessary to write a story from start to finish – feel free to skip around. I use [BREAK] to note points in the story that have not yet been written (so if you ever encounter this in one of my stories, you have found an “oops”). This helps reduce writer’s block, as you can just skipped to an unblocked portion and return to the blocked portion when the block has dissipated.

• Know your genre– Read several books (or stories) within your genre to get a good feel for concepts that work and don’t work. For example, novels tend to describe events more richly than short stories – short stories typically have to get to the point much more directly, simply because they have less words with which to work. Here is an example of a scene, with one version written for a short story and another written for a novel.

  Short story: Kirsten walked across the room and turned on the lamp.

  Novel: Kirsten’s scarlet stilettos drummed out a melodic series of clicks as she strode purposefully across the marble floor. When she arrived at the mahogany table in the corner, she flipped the switch on the ancient lamp. The compact fluorescent bulb fluttered for a short moment before realizing its full potential and bathing the room in light.

  Clearly, this is an overly dramatic example, but you should see the point. If you consistently use “short story” descriptions in a novel, you’ll have difficulty achieving much length – and your readers will find your work a bit boring. On the other hand, if you’re trying to write a 500 word short story and drop in lots of “novel” descriptions, you’re going to run out of words long before you reach the climax. You just took 11% of your alloted words just to have a girl turn on a lamp!

  Additionally, concepts that work in mysteries may fall flat on their face in a romance novel. In general, familiarity with the genre will help you improve your writing style.

• Work on the technical aspects– There are a lot of tricky aspects to writing. Dialogue is one of the more difficult. Until recently, I have always punctuated dialogue incorrectly – and even now, I wouldn’t be surprised if you find a lot of errors in how I handle dialogue. It’s also important to avoid becoming repetitive. Once again, our friend dialogue pops up as a potential problem area. Let’s review a couple of examples.

  Bad:

  “Hi, Ted,” said Fred.

  “Hey, Fred,” said Ted.

  “The weather sure is nice today,” said Fred.

  “Yes, it certainly is,” said Ted.

  “Great game yesterday,” said Fred.

  Better:

  “Howdy, Ted,” said Fred.

  “Hey, Fred – how are you doing?”

  “Not so bad. The weather sure is nice today.”

  “Yes, it certainly is,” replied Ted.

  “Did you see the game yesterday? What an exciting finish,” exclaimed Fred.

  The first conversation suffers from a couple of problems. First, it is too name heavy. When you have two characters speaking to each other, it is not necessary to identify them every single time they speak. It is, of course, a good idea to to identify them periodically over the course of a longer conversation, to avoid having the reader lose track of who is speaking. The conversation also suffers from excessive said-itis. There are a lot of ways to describe someone speaking. Exclaimed, replied, questioned, squeaked, whispered, and shouted are the tip of the iceberg.

  Paying close attention to the writing of others can assist you greatly in writing better dialogue and handling other technical issues. You can also check the self-help section of the book store for grammar, usage, and style guides.

• Names – It can be difficult for a lot of writers to generate names for their characters. For my short stories, I often grab the names of my friends. I am careful to not use a full name – only a first or last. This allows me a lot more flexibility with my characters – I can have a character go on a murderous rampage without causing my friend’s name to pop up on a Google search for serial killers. There are actually books on the market devoted to how to develop characters, and some of them include names for characters. A good book of baby names will also work quite nicely. If you want a really good free source, you can always utilize the census data, which lists first names (broken out by gender) and last names in order of popularity. You probably don’t want to print the entire list though – the last name list has nearly 90,000 names.

• Share – Share your writing with others. This might meant showing a couple of close friends, or it might mean broadcasting to a potential audience of millions via the internet. Not only will this give you a stronger feeling of accomplishment, but many people will offer constructive criticism. Constructive criticism is a great tool to indentify strengths and weaknesses in your writing.

• Have fun – The vast majority of you are not going to become world famous writers. I’m not trying to burst your bubble; this is an unfortunate statistical truth. (For those of you who do become world famous writers, could you signed me a signed first edition?) Thus, if your only goal is to make millions off your writing, you might want to shift your focus. The journey is more important than the destination.

We take you back to math class in today’s edition of The Soap Boxers, as we discuss probability.

First of all, if someone tells you that you have a million to one odds of winning a lottery, they are wrong.  Your odds are actually a million to one AGAINST you winning.  Another way to phrase this is that you have a one IN 1,000,001 chance of winning.  But we’re being too picky, so let’s get down to the nitty gritty.

Let’s examine the multi-state Powerball game.  Powerball chooses 5 winning white balls from a group of 59 white balls, and then one red ball (Powerball) from a separate set of 39 red balls.  To win the jackpot, you must match all 5 white balls (in any order) plus the Powerball.

To eliminate confusions, I will refer to the numbers on your tickets as “numbers” and the winning numbered balls as “ball”.  Let’s use an example winning combination of 04, 18, 26, 31, 50 with a Powerball of 17.

• First number: The first number on your ticket has a 5 in 59 chance of matching one of the winning white balls.  There are 5 winning white balls and 59 total balls.  It isn’t necessary to match the white balls in order, so matching any winning white balls is sufficient.  Let’s say that the first number on the ticket is 26.
• Second number: The odds of a match drops to 4 in 58.  Why the change in odds?  Because the first number on the ticket was 26 – the second number can’t duplicate this!  We reduce the number of possible winning numbers to 4 possibilities (they are 04, 18, 31, 50) and the total number of balls remaining to 58 – because there are actually only 58 balls remaining in the selection pool.  The basic lesson is that the selection of the white balls are not independent events – the selection of each balls affects the pool of balls that are used for subsequent selections.
• Third number: The odds are 3 in 57, as there are two fewer balls in the hopper than when we began, and two fewer winning possibilities.
• Fourth number: Odds are 2 in 56
• Fifth number: Odds are 1 in 55
• Powerball:  The Powerball is completely independent from the other balls.  The odds are 1 in 39.

OK, we have the odds; what do we do with them?  We multiply them:

5/59 * 4/58 * 3/57 * 2/56 * 1/55 *  1/39

or

120/23,429,886,480

or

1/ 195,249,054

If you want to get really fancy, crack out factorials:

5!/((59! / 54!) * 39)

Most people dispersed their advice to graduates closer to graduation, so consider this to be a second helping.  Certainly many of the topics will have been addressed by others.

• Become independent – For 18 years, your parents have provided for you.  It’s time to start out on your own.  For some of you, this may mean complete financial independence, such as putting yourself through college and paying all of your expenses.  For others, this may occur in gradual steps.  However you address it, start taking steps in that direction.  You don’t want to end up thirty years old and still living with your parents.
• Learn about financial topics – I’m not suggesting that you need to become a stock market whiz.  However, with a bit of work, you can gain a functional knowledge of personal finance.  If you didn’t learn how to balance a checkbook during high school, learn now.  It will help you avoid overdrafts.  Gain at least a high level understanding of how the tax system works.  You should, at minimum, be able to fill out a 1040EZ form by yourself.  Learn about different retirement options (see this article for a discussion of Roth vs. 401(k)).  Start saving for retirement at the first available opportunity – especially if your employer has a matching program.  In addition to the mainstream media, check out some personal finance blogs – I have links to some in the right hand column.
• It’s OK to change your mind – If you’re heading off to college, you probably have a major declared.  Don’t be surprised if you change your major at some point.  You’re 18, and it’s quite likely that you have a fairly shallow level of knowledge regarding your major.  You might decide that this isn’t the right career for you, or you might simply fall in love with a different major.  Don’t be afraid to take the leap, even if it costs you a semester or two.  You don’t want to look back ten years later and wish you would have changed majors.
• Build strong study habits – If you sailed through high school and never had to study, you might be in for a rude awakening – I definitely was.  It’s hard to describe the difference in rigor between college and high school.  Suffice it to say that it is considerably harder.  It’s important to develop good study habits early, so that you don’t fall into bad habits.
• Stay out of trouble – Things that may have been considered childish pranks in high school may be considered crimes now.  You’re 18, so if you commit a crime, you can be charged as an adult.  If you have a juvenile record, this is a good time to turn over a new leaf.  Stay away from drugs and stop hanging around people who seem to get into trouble a lot.
• Have fun – You might think that you don’t have any free time at all!  In actuality, you’ll probably have considerably more free time now than you will during the later stages of your life.  Cherish the time that you have to spend with friends, and enjoy life.  Also bear in mind that your body allows you to do things that will be much more difficult when you’re older.  If you want to go mountain climbing, it’s a lot easier in yours teens and 20s than in your 50s!

My wife and I have a 20 month old daughter.  In the time since she was born, we have become very aware of which businesses are baby friendly and which are not.  Some places are so baby-unfriendly that we don’t go there any more – and likely won’t return even after our daughter is older.  So, what can a business (in particular, a restaurant) do to retain customers who now have a little one?

Changing stations

Changing stations are probably the single most critical factor.  If you are a restaurant and you don’t have changing stations, there is a very good chance that you will lose some customers.  Some places are still embracing stereotypes from decades ago by placing changing stations only in the women’s bathrooms.  Seriously, folks, get with the program.  There are a lot of men changing diapers these days.  I’m sure the changing stations are not a trivial expense, but you’ll come out ahead in the long run.  Personally, I have been a bit fan of the changing stations at Target stores.  Oddly, we have encountered isolated situations in a Wal-Mart and in a McDonalds where there were no changing stations in the men’s bathroom.  This was especially surprising for a business that is as kid-focused as McDonalds.

High chairs

If you’re a restaurant, have high chairs.  Just as importantly, have high chairs that are clean and functional.  We have encountered a multitude of dirty high chairs (Pampers wipes to the rescue!) and quite a few that are broken (usually a problem with the restraining straps).  This gives parents a bad first impression of your restaurant.  Spend a bit of time on QA and fix the problems with the chairs before the customers see them.  Often, it doesn’t seem that the problem would be difficult fo fix.  As for the cleanliness of the chairs, it only makes sense to clean them after each use.

Kids meals

Have at least a few options on the kids menu.  I’m not suggesting that you need twenty different entrees; just bear in mind that not every kid in the world loves chicken fingers (although, admittedly, most of them do).  Also, consider different portion sizes for different prices.  An 18 month old is not going to eat as much as a five year old.  Also, don’t ask if the parents of a three month old need a kids menu.  They don’t, trust me 🙂

I have only been blogging seriously for a couple of months few years, so I am by no means an expert.  However, I do think I have learned a few things along the way that brand new bloggers could find helpful.  If you want to jump to the next level and get advice from a professional, check out ProBlogger.

1. Write often.  Without writing, there is no blog.  It is important to get yourself into the habit of writing.  I’m not saying that it is necessary to write something every day.  In fact, for some people (such as those of us with toddlers in the house), this may be a physical impossibility.  However, see if you can write 4+ days a week.  You may be pleasantly surprised to find that the act of writing spurs creativity.  Find a time and location that work for you.  I try to write between 8 and 10 PM each night in a quiet area of the house.  I also have a few notebooks strewn around the house so that I can always grab one to jot down ideas when they pop into my head.
2. Post often.  I try to post about 6 times per week.  Sometimes I will have 2 posts in a day, but most of the time I will have exactly one posts each day.  Am I writing exactly one post each day?  No, of course not.  When I have productive writing sessions, I may write 2 or 3 articles.  Your blog platform almost certainly allows you to schedule articles to be displayed at a future date and time.  Note that this does not work for posts that are timely in nature – a Super Bowl article would not be very appropriate in March, for example.  However, certain topics lend themselves to so-called “evergreen” posts – articles that will be as relevant a year from now as they are today.  On most Fridays, I write an original short story for this blog.  Nobody will know if I write these the night before they are posted, or one month earlier.
3. Write about something  you enjoy.  Most successful bloggers write about a niche that interests them – such as personal finance or sports.  In my particular case, my interests are widley varied, and I didn’t want to constrain myself to a single niche (I blame this on the fact that I am a Gemini).  I write about everything from a celebration of Simpson stamps to grief over meth users who are looting arhaeological sites.  This was a conscious choice that was made with the understanding that a lack of niche would likely limit my readership.  However, this is what I wanted to write, so I followed Sinatra’s cue and did it my way.
4. Take advice graciously.  I fell into a lucky situation where I happened to encounter a successful blogger through another aspect of my “real life”.  This guy has already jumped over a lot of the hurdles that I face now and will face in the future.  It would be pretty stupid not to listen to his advice.  I might not always take the direction he suggests, but I always listen.  You might not have a fairy blogfather, but you’ll probably have friends and readers give you advice.  Don’t dismiss these ideas out of hand – consider them carefully.
5. Read other blogs.  I read several other blogs.  Not only do these spark writing ideas for my own blog, but I ocassionally pick up some cool widget that is being used on another blog and end up incorporating it into my blog.  Also, some people see my comments and go to visit my blog.  Note: this does not mean you should leave “go check out my blog” comments on a bunch of blogs.  Only leave a comment when you are actually adding value to the conversation.  If a comment on another blog generates new traffic for you, that’s nice, but it should not be the sole reason for a comment.
6. Encourage comments.  Make it easy for people to leave comments.  If you allow anonymous comments, you might get a few more spam comments, but you might also get more legitiate comments as well.  Also, allow commenters to link to their own sites or blogs when it is relevant.  The CommentLuv plug-in inserts a short “footer” at the bottom of the comment showing the commenter’s most recent post.  You will see this at work on my blog.  Another plug-in that I like is  the “related websites” plug-in.  This shows posts that are related to your current posts, but also finds related articles on other people’s blog.  The benefit is that your blog’s articles show up as related websites on the other blogs, as well.  You can also use plugins that change URLs within a comment from “no follow” (not indexed by Google) to “do follow” (indexed by Google) so that your commenters will see their own site become more popular in Google (yes, I realize that I have not yet implemented “do follow” on my own blog.  It’s on the agenda, I promise).
7. Use guest writers.  Using a guest writer has a lot of benefits.  First, they provide blog content for you, reducing the number of posts you need to write in a month – while also providing a bit of a change of pace for your readers.  Second, if your guest writer is another blogger, you may get a link from their blog (you should also link to their blog from the guest post, of course).  If they aren’t a blogger, you may get a long term fan.  You might be surprised how easy it is to find guest writers.  I have approached about a half dozen people so far, and I don’t think any of them have competely turned down the request.  Many people in your social circle have interesting stories to tell – let the world hear them.
8. Tell people about your blog.  You probably have friends who have interest that are similar to yours.  When you write something that they might like, send them a link to the article.  Don’t make them dig around in your blog to find it – send them the permalink. 
9. Get some stats.  I like using Sitemeter and Google Analytics to take a look at my traffic patterns.  This allows me to see what my total traffic is, as well as analyzing various aspects of the traffic.  Do you have higher traffic on certain days or certain times of the day?  Why?  Are you seeing a lot of Google hits on certain posts?  It’s also just cool to look at the geographical data.  I get a fair percentage of my traffic from outside of the US, and it’s cool to see which countries are generating the traffic. 
10. Have fun.

OK – does anyone else have any helpful tips for blogger newbies?
 

 

It seems that we live in a world with very different strata of financial awareness.  On the one side, the savvy investors of today have all the information they could possibly need at the tip of their stylus, and they know how to use it.  On the other side, there are a lot of people who do not use some of the most fundamental tools at our disposal.  I really wish that high school would focus a bit more time on financial awareness, considering how important a life skill it is.  Here are a few tips that I’d like to share with today’s youths (and anyone else who might need them).

Balance the checkbook

I know a lot of people never balance their checkbook, preferring to leave a “buffer” amount in checking to cover any mistakes that may occur.  Some people don’t even bother to make an attempt to keep track of transactions.  How often does someone in front of you pay with a debit card and not take the receipt?  Maybe the person has a great memory and remembers that McDonalds was $6.14 … but it’s more likely that the transaction is never getting logged.

Balance the checkbook every month, to the penny.  You’ll avoid overdrafts and you’ll sleep a little better knowing that your finances are in order.

If you have have never done this, if would take a bit of practice.  However, the process is pretty straightforward, and you should be able to master it pretty quickly.  Basically, it is a 3 step process.

1. Write down the balance on your last bank statement
2. Add any deposits that have been made (or processed) since the date of that statement
3. Subtract any checks (or debit card transactions) that had not yet been processed by the bank on the data of the statement

Voila – you should have the balance that appears in your checkbook.  It might take some practice, and you might spend time tracking down occasional mistakes (especially if you have sloppy handwriting like me) but if you keep on top of it, it will quickly become second nature.  If you use software such as Quicken, it’s even easier.

Understand the tax system

I’m not suggesting that  everyone become a tax expert.  However, it would be nice if more people had a grasp of fundamental concepts such as income, deductions and credits.  Start with the easiest form – the 1040EZ.  Interestingly enough, the IRS actually published instructions for all of the tax forms.  You might be surprised at how thorough the instructions are.  Push aside tax phobia and read the instructions.

Understand unit prices

Until recently, it was a safe bet that the largest package of an item resulted in the lowest price per unit.  However, I have noticed some instances lately where this is not the case.  If you’re not good at mental math, bring along a calculator to help you determine if the 12, 18, 24, or 30 pack of Charmin is the best deal.  If you think that a caculator would kill the cool persona you have been grooming for years, pull out your cell phone and use the built in calculator – you can pretend that you’re texting someone.

Other topics

These are just the tip of the iceberg.  Once you get this far, charge onward.  Learn about mortgages (What are points?  How much more will I pay for a 15 year mortgage vs. a 30 year?  How are property taxes calculated), retirement plans (Roth vs. 401(k)), and the stock market (How much risk should I have at my age?  What is an indexed fun?).  Money is an important component of today’s society – those who work to improve their knowledge of personal finance have a leg up on those who do not.