Share your “invisible self” online for better relationships – End of the Day for April 22, 2014

April 22, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

(Originally posted as part of the End of the Day series on My Word with Douglas E. Welch)

As social media has become a larger and larger part of lives, there has been much discussion about anonymity and privacy in our lives. Everyday we are confronted with articles warning us about the dangers of oversharing, sharing our location or even our thoughts. While I do agree that there are certain things you should never, if rarely, share online, most of us error greatly on the side of not sharing enough. We have a certain invisible self that never shows up online and limits how others see and understand us. I say its time to open up the curtain a bit and let your online contacts see more about you than what you had for lunch today.

Yes, there are countless stories about tasteless, destructive or criminal oversharing, but I believe these stories are only so prominent in the press because they are so rare. News outlets report on the exceptions in the world, not the norm and this sometimes causes us to confuse one for the other. Sure, one person posted to Facebook that they robbed the local liquor store, but millions didn’t rob a liquor store, nor would they post about it if they did!

Rather, I think we often hide away from our online contacts — posting only the most innocuous, pleasant or meaningless drivel and pretending it is “friendship.” The truth is, your real friends see more than you would perhaps like the to see and know perhaps more than you would like them to know, but that is part-and-parcel of friendship. Maybe the lack of connection that people often bemoan in social media comes from our own self-censorship, rather than any limitation of the technology itself.

For this reason, I would like to call on all of us, myself included, to start to share more of our invisible lives online and with our contacts there. In my case, I share a lot online, but there are a lot of things I don’t come right out and say. People who know me well probably know my political, religious and societal opinions and you might even be able to divine them the articles I post and share. Still, I am uncomfortable, in many cases, of coming right out and saying them. Maybe I need to be better about that. Perhaps people would understand me a but better, if like me less, if I shared more of those opinions? Who knows. This is a somewhat invisible part of me that I self-censor on a regular basis.

There are many parts of our invisible lives that we can and should share, though. What do you believe? What do you want? In love? In life? in death? Who do you love? Who do you hate? Why? Why do you do anything you do? Why can be a very simple word, but it often comes with a very difficult answer.

Part of the reason for my self-censorship ( and probably yours) in sharing thoughts like this come from the fear of being judged. I have carried this fear all my life and even at 50 still feel it deeply. That said, I am also getting to be old enough that I finally understand the words, “Those who mind don’t matter and those that matter don’t mind!” Friends (and online followers) who matter will stick with you when the going gets tough and the edges get rough. Those who won’t probably — in most cases — weren’t really connected to you anyway, except via a friends list. You may not always agree with what someone thinks or says, but if there is enough commonality, the benefits of friendship remain.

Take some time to think about what your LIKE to say to your friends and then say it. Face the fear and the consequences. Engage in an intelligent dialogue with people. Maybe you’ll change your opinion, maybe not. Converting others opinions isn’t the point. Rather it is the sharing, the discussion and the deepening of relationships that really matter. Share a little bit of your invisible life and I think you will be surprised with the results.

Previously on End of the Day:

New Media Jobs Available – All types of job listings at Jobs.WelchWrite.com – Search by keyword and location

April 22, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Looking for a job? There are a host of job listings available on Jobs.WelchWrite.com every day.

Enter the keywords you are searching for and your location to get fresh and focused listings.

Jobs.WelchWrite.com

Post a Job! $20 for 7 days

New Media 101: You are an expert! from “Blogging and Content Creation”

April 17, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:42 — 24.2MB) | Embed

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Part of the Blogging 101 series…

A quick tip from this 53 minute presentation — Blogging and Content Creation at the San Fernando Valley WordPress Group.

Watch the entire presentation

Transcript:

I often tell people that you are an expert if you have one more piece of information or one more experience than somebody else. If you have that, someone else wants to know that. If you have experience putting a plugin the WordPress Plugin Directory — and dealing with that — there are other people that want to know that. Ok? Because they are trying to do it, too, and they want someone with experience to lead them through the process. So you have automatically something that you can share that will find an audience because people will do those searches online — people will ask those questions elsewhere — and there will be someplace for them to go for that information.

Previously on New Media 101/Blogging 101:

More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:

All of you out there listening and reading in dark! – End of the Day for April 14, 2014

April 14, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

(Originally from My Word with Douglas E. Welch)

Blogging can be a solitary pursuit sometimes. You create the posts, the podcasts, the videos and then you wait to hear something back. Sure, you see page views, views on the videos and such, but it is the comments and shares that really give you a feeling that there is a person on the other end of this tenuous digital connection. I can tell you from personal experience that most bloggers would live to hear from you. Share your experiences. Share your opinions. Just give a quick thumbs up — or thumbs down — if you feel like it. Interaction helps us to keep going, keep writing and keep sharing.

Thankfully, every so often, I get a great letter from a blog reader or — as in the most recent case — a podcast listener. He wrote to say how he just made a big change in his career and part of the reason he was able to do it was that he heard my voice in his head urging him on.I am always floored by such letters, as I don’t get a lot of feedback on the work I do. It is always amazing to hear that it directly helped someone make their life better. That is exactly the result I am trying to achieve with all the work I do and it is great to get a little validation.

Recording my Career Opportunities Podcast — Click to see a time-lapse.

While we should all carry our own sense of internal validation inside of is, a little but of external validation can feel very good and is, I think, very important to your overall mental health. Hammering away at a big project, only to be met with silence is disheartening at beast and can even cause some people to stop trying anything. The truth is, if you feel in a certain way, have certain doubts, want to make certain changes, I can almost guarantee there are others out there that feel the same way. Even if t hey don’t write, post on Facebook or give you a call, you can reasonably assume that they are out there. While this knowledge isn’t really a replacement for hearing feedback from people, it can be a salve that gets you through this project and on to the next.

How much external validation do you need in your life and work? Have you ever stopped doing something because no one else seemed to be interested — or at least said they were? Have you send a little validation to your favorite writers, bloggers, YouTuber’s, TV writers, actors, etc? If not, why not? Hearing from you could very well make their day and spur them on to even greater things. You never know!

Previously on End of the Day:

New Media 101: A Reason for Podcasting from “New Media Question Time”

April 10, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:44 — 25.3MB) | Embed

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Part of the New Media 101 series…

A quick clip from this 30 minute presentation — New Media Question Time for UCLA Voiceover Class.

Watch the entire presentation

Transcript:

There is a benefit of podcasting that works for us all — and that is that it gives us control over our product. It allows us to speak directly to our audience and so I believe anyone can benefit from that. Anybody — regardless of their career, their job, their art, whatever they are trying to do — can use podcasting to talk directly to their audience.

We all have an audience. It doesn’t matter what we do. We can be a plumber. We still have an audience. We still have customers we are trying to reach, people we are trying to effect, policies we are trying to change.

Anyone can and should start podcasting to benefit their career.

Previously on New Media 101/Blogging 101:

More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:

Video: Blogging 101: Who you follow is more important…

April 3, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:42 — 59.7MB) | Embed

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Part of the Blogging 101 series…

A quick tip from this 53 minute presentation — Blogging and Content Creation at the San Fernando Valley WordPress Group.

Watch the entire presentation

Transcript:

It’s not about who follows you on social media. It’s all about who you follow. Your social media feeds should have value to you. It shouldn’t be about obligation. It shouldn’t be about automatically following back. It shouldn’t be following the popular people. It’s about does what that person is saying have value to you. Because that is where you get the value out of your social media use — in that way. Say, as an example you have a friend who is an expert on knitting. There know everything there is to know about knitting and that’s all they post about on Twitter and Facebook is knitting, knitting, knitting. It’s great content! I don’t care. Ok. I’m not a knitter. It doesn’t mean that person doesn’t have value. It just means their information doesn’t have value to me. Ok? Follow those people who have value to you. If you see a Twitter come through — if you see a Facebook post — come through and you are like “What the heck is that?” Click on that link and look at what they posted recently. Look at their last 10 posts — and if there is nothing of value in there — unfollow them. All they’re doing is polluting the value of your social media stream. You’re getting less out of your use of Facebook — less out of your use of Twitter — because they’re there. Because you can’t find the good stuff. And I apply that same rule to me. I look at my Twitter stream every so often. I look at my Facebook stream every so often. I look at my – whatever — Google+ stream — every so often. I look at it and say, “If I were coming in as a person who happened to see one of my posts and was thinking of following me — would I follow myself?

Previously on Blogging 101:

More information on Douglas E. Welch and Careers in New Media:

Capture your “content” and share it! Please! – End of the Day for March 30, 2014

March 30, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

(Originally from End of the Day on My Word with Douglas E. Welch)

After an extremely busy day yesterday, we were all pretty tired this morning and got off to a rather slow start. Thankfully nothing required us to get up an moving — until we discovered that a friend was holding a boo reading and signing at Diesel Books in Malibu. Being that he is a very good friend of ours and I need little excuse to go to Malibu on such a beautiful day — we cleaned ourselves up and headed down.

As I usually do, I took along my cameras — both still and video — and figured I could capture a bit of the reading to share here on the blog and YouTube. I do this because I don’t believe in throwing away “content” that other people might enjoy. If I am going to enjoy an experience then it is a good possibility that others will, too. They might not be able to come to the event otherwise due scheduling or, more likely, because they live at great distance form where the event is happening. Why not share the fun when it takes relatively little work to do so?

You’ll be seeing the results of today’s event in a few days, but as always, it makes me wonder why more people — especially creative people — and businesses — especially bookstores — don’t make more of an effort to share their events in whatever way possible. For me, taking few pictures, grabbing some video — even with a smartphone — is far preferable to doing nothing. Events, once passed, are lost if you don’t do something to capture them. More importantly, everyone NEEDS to be capturing their content because this is the media you will use in selling the current book, song, movie, etc and also the media you will use to sell your NEXT book, song, movie, etc. If you don’t capture this content, you are crippling yourself, your sales, your promotion and possibly even your career.

It is so easy to capture and share content these days. We really don’t have an excuse for NOT capturing it. OUr smartphones take 1080 HD video and record CD quality sound. Our point-and-shoot cameras take pictures far better than anything in the past. It is the “will” that is lacking. Most of us have still not realized the deep importance in capturing our content. We don’t make it an automatic part of our life and work. We let things happen and then let them go without ever realizing the value these events carry for our future.

People often ask me why I go through the effort of capturing content for other people. First, I gain value from the content by sharing it online, on my blog and YouTube. The subject the event also gains value from increased exposure and the chance that an audience will stumble upon their book, music, etc and find they that they like it. Third, I also do it as a way of showing (and hopefully) convincing others of the value of capturing their content. It is “Real World Example” of how to capture it, how to package it and how (and why) to share it. By providing a good example, I hope to bring others along with me on this New Media journey.

The next time you are involved in a creative project, an event, a fundraiser, whatever — please, please, please at least consider capturing the content surrounding the event. Share your photos via Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and others. Upload the video to YouTube and share it on social media. Send links to the content to everyone involved and ask them to share it with their friends, family and business contacts. I think you will greatly — and pleasantly — surprised by the results.

Previously on End of the Day:

Video: Blogging 101: Don’t throw away your content

March 27, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:53 — 67.9MB) | Embed

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Part of the Blogging 101 series…

A quick tip from this 53 minute presentation — Blogging and Content Creation at the San Fernando Valley WordPress Group.

Watch the entire presentation

Previously on Blogging 101:

Music: “Rocket” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

Audio: Blogging and Content Creation with Douglas E. Welch – San Fernando Valley WordPress Group

March 22, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

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Douglas E. Welch, writer of Careers in New Media and several other blogs, presents on Blogging and Content Creation to the San Fernando Valley WordPress Group (54 mins)

This talk contains the following topics:

Why you should be blogging for yourself, your career and your business?
Where do you find content for your blogs, podcasts and social media?
Capture the content that already exists in your life and work
Let people “behind the scenes”
Create “series” to make it easier to develop content
Read voraciously!
Share your content everywhere

Music: “Rocket” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

Follow New Media Tips on Twitter at http://twitter.com/newmediatips
Like New Media Interchange on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/newmediacareer
Circle New Media Interchange on Google+ at http://tinyurl.com/gplusnmi

Video: Blogging 101: The most important reason to blog

March 22, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:59 — 35.2MB) | Embed

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Part of the Blogging 101 series…

A quick tip from this 53 minute presentation — Blogging and Content Creation at the San Fernando Valley WordPress Group.

Watch the entire presentation

Previously on Blogging 101:

Blogging 101: The beginning

Music: “Rocket” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

* Follow New Media Tips on Twitter
* Like Careers in New Media/New Media Interchange on Facebook
* Circle Careers in New Media/New Media Interchange on Google+

Video: Blogging and Content Creation with Douglas E. Welch – San Fernando Valley WordPress Group

March 20, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:27 — 847.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Douglas E. Welch, writer of Careers in New Media and several other blogs, presents on Blogging and Content Creation to the San Fernando Valley WordPress Group (54 mins)

This talk contains the following topics:

Why you should be blogging for yourself, your career and your business?
Where do you find content for your blogs, podcasts and social media?
Capture the content that already exists in your life and work
Let people “behind the scenes”
Create “series” to make it easier to develop content
Read voraciously!
Share your content everywhere

Music: “Rocket” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

Follow New Media Tips on Twitter at http://twitter.com/newmediatips
Like New Media Interchange on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/newmediacareer
Circle New Media Interchange on Google+ at http://tinyurl.com/gplusnmi

Photo: Podcasting Interview from 2006 with Dan Klass from The Bitterest Pill

March 19, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

I am backing up a lot of older photos to Google+ and came across this photo from 2006. G+ Auto Awesome turned it into an animated GIF.

Back on My 20, 2006, myself and Dan Klass, fellow LA Podcaster and producer and star of The Bitterest Pill were interviewed by the Red Fence Project web site. It has taken a while, but it is great to see this 12 minute video that resulted. We talk about podcasting and the LA Podcasters, and have a little fun while we are at it.

Watch the entire interview here — “Podcasters” from Red Fence

Cover and Interior of “The Promise” designed by Douglas

March 15, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

The Promise Web Site

Print Edition | Kindle Edition

I have a few Kindle books of my own, so I was familiar with the process, but when my wife and her writing partner came to me to produce their children’s book, The Promise, as a print-on-demand title, it took a bit more effort. I had already shot and designed the cover for the Kindle book, so that was easily re-used — although it did take some redesign to fit the format of the Creatspace service (now owned by Amazon).

Createspace has some decent templates for laying out the text of their books, so it only took a few iterations of edit and test before we found something that worked.

Now that I have produced this book, I am contemplated releasing print versions of my own career-realted ebooks in a similar format. I figure I might as well put my new-found knowledge to work.

If you aren’t researching print-on-demand for your project, I highly recommend it. The days of being stuck with a garage full of books (costing hundreds of dollars) is over. Print books as you sell them and use the power of Createspace and Amazon to produce and deliver them directly to your readers.

That said, we recently purchased 2 boxes of books for school presentations Rosanne and Dawn are doing this month, so it easy (and relatively cheap) to order books for your own, face-to-face sales.

Print Edition | Kindle Edition

Why should you blog, podcast and share? – End of the Day for March 11, 2014

March 12, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

This post originally appeared in My Word with Douglas E. Welch

As you can tell by this blog (and my others) I have been putting a lot more time into writing new content and sharing content from others over the last several months. Partially, this is because I now have more time to create content since I am no longer doing day-to-day computer support, but also because I have a great need and desire to share my interests with others. It is so fun when someone comments on a recipe or gardening post, finds a TechnologyIQ post that solves their computer problem or enjoys one of my photographs. There is certainly a lot of reward in that, but I also blog for another reason — to share what I do and how well I do it with others.

The writing and sharing that I do is directly designed to provide what, I hope, is a good real world example of how blogging, podcasting and social media (in fact, all the New Media tools available) can be used to improve your life and the lives of those around you. This improvement then leads to money-making projects and consulting contracts where I can go even deeper in helping others share their (and their company’s) story with the world. This is exactly how I came to work as a blogger and representative for Troy-Bilt back in 2011 and 2012. They discovered my work on the web and when they had an opportunity to hire people to represent them, my name was already in their mind. This is a great example of “attracting opportunity” instead of spending your days looking for work.

These “End of the Day” blog posts are a bit of departure for me. They are much more personal and reflect not only on my work but also my life in general. This demonstrates another idea I cultivate, too, though. A blog is really just a reflection of your life and work, not matter what the topic. The best blogs use real life as an opportunity to illustrate important concepts and teach important lessons. On several of my blogs I even have series entitled “Real World Examples” where I highlight just this idea. When anyone comes to me asking how they can get start blogging I always say “start with your life.” What interests you most? What are your biggest questions? What questions do you get asked most? There is much knowledge (and blog content) to be found there. Even more, their is an audience out there waiting for your to share your ideas, your thoughts, your questions with them. All you need to do is speak to them.

In an effort to attract more opportunity to me in the coming months, one of the best ways you can help is by sharing my blog posts, my podcasts, my shared items, everything I do with those people you think might be interested. Share a link via Google+, Facebook or Twitter. “Like” on Facebook or YouTube. Email a blog post to someone you think needs to see it. Opportunity is a numbers game. The more people who “stumble upon” my work, the more opportunities that will appear. If I help you in any way with my work here, please help me, yourself and your friends and family by sharing it further. This allows me to continue creating more useful material for all of you!

Check out the share buttons at the bottom of every post on every blog here at DouglasEWelch.com. This makes it easy and convenient.

Previously on End of the Day:

Link Focus: New Media | olloclip iPhone Telephoto + Circular Polarizing lens system from ThinkGeek.com

March 8, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

New Media | olloclip iPhone Telephoto + Circular Polarizing lens system from ThinkGeek.com

There are a wide variety of add-on lens for your iPhone or other smartphone, but I have some direct experience with the olloclip products, so this post of the lens system at ThinkGeek.com caught my eye. These lens slide over the existing lens of your device and optically alter the focal range for macro/closeup photography, wide angle and fisheye photos. This kit also includes a polarizing filter which is often used on traditional cameras to cut glare and heighten the lighting of a photograph directly in the camera.

Make sure you get a lens unit for your specific device. Since they slip over the existing lens, they need to be designed with proper clearances and slip-on fit.

Some of my person photos shot with Olloclip lens and iPhone 4S

More info on Smartphone lens:

Smartphone lens from Amazon.com:

Previously on Link Focus:

Link Focus is a series that comments on some of the links I share on my social media accounts and here on the web site. To get these links as I find them, subscribe to me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and elsewhere. Also look for the “My Favorite Things” posts that appear regularly in the blog. These include collections of links for each calendar month.

Get new shared links as I find them via my social media feeds:

Event: Douglas speaking on Content Creation, Professional Blogging and the Eco-Sphere of WordPress – Tuesday, March 18, 2014, Tarzana, CA

March 3, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

I’ll be speaking on Content Creation and Blogging at the next San Fernando Valley WordPress Meetup. Come and join me and Glen Bennett, who will be speaking on “The Ecosystem of WordPress” and how it can work for you.

Event: Content Creation, Professional Blogging and the Eco-Sphere of WordPress

Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 7:00 PM

Location: Tarzana Recreation Center, 5655 Vanalden Ave, . Tarzana, CA (map)

FREE

RSVP using Meetup.com

Description:

Creating content is an ongoing demand for any website, in particular a WordPress site. Yet doing so, keeping it fresh and keeping it consistent can be a tough challenge.

We have a professional blogger, Douglas Welch, with over 10 years of writing experience that will be sharing his work flow and many years of accumulated “how to” information. With plenty of opportunity to ask questions and interact we hope that this will provide just the knowledge and inspiration to make your WordPress site sing.

Then we will have a presentation from Glenn Bennett on the ecosystem of WordPress, bet you didn’t know that they had one! An ecosystem is a community of living and non-living things that work together. In the WordPress world there is a vast network of resources to be tapped and to link into. Find out more about what exists and how to use this ecosystem to really take of with your own WordPress site(s).

Bring your blogging questions! I always make a point of allowing plenty of time for Q&A every time I speak, so this is your chance to get your most burning blogging questions answered.

You have to believe to blog! — End of the Day for March 2, 2014

March 2, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

This essay originally appeared in My Word with Douglas E. Welch

A progression of days leads to a progression of weeks and a progression of months. Despite my feelings that it can’t possibly be March, the month has arrived all the same. It is bad enough when days fly by too quickly. To see entire months pass in the blink of an eye is mind-boggling.

So, what does March hold in store? I have another speaking engagement, this time on the hows and whys of blogging and content creation. People take notice of how much I create and how often I post and are intrigued by how they might do that themselves. The difficult part for them to learn, though, is they have to WANT to do it. They have to WANT to share “what they do and how well they do it.” They have to WANT to engage with others on the Internet and share what makes their life unique, even if is seems, at the beginning, that no one is really listening. Instead, many of the folks I talk with don’t believe. They are only interested in blogging because others have told them the SHOULD be interested. There is a huge gap between those positions. If you don’t believe in the reasons for blogging, you simply will not do it. You won’t find the time, the energy, the drive to keep going. We have all see it, of course. Someone starts a blog, makes one or two posts and then is never heard from again. They don’t BELIEVE and so they fail.

Blog screen

Writing this post in MarsEdit blogging software

For me, I am constantly seeking out the believers in any group. These are the people I want to engage with and energize to share their own unique stories with the world. I know that if I can get them started — if I can get the snowball rolling downhill — the momentum will build on its own and sustain them long into the future. If someone is blogging because someone told them they should, they will hate it. They will despise the amount of time it takes. They will see no value in the process and they will eventually, usually quickly, stop. Unfortunately, many of these same people will add an additional burden to their mind, though. They will feel guilty about not blogging. Even though they don’t want to do it, they will feel guilty because somewhere, in the back of their minds, buried deep, they know they should be doing it.

Don’t be one of those people. Either blog, or don’t. It is nothing to feel guiltily about. It isn’t designed to add an additional burden to your life. I think that there are great benefits to blogging, but there is nothing I can do to convince you to blog. That is a decision you have to make all on your own. If you don’t believe, you won’t blog.

Now, if you are one of those believers, what questions do you have? What can I offer you, what can I teach you, how can I support you in your efforts? Drop a question into the comments here and I will be glad to answer. Come to my speaking engagement. I’ll post all the information once it is finalized. Just drop me an email to talk, if that is what makes you most comfortable. I’m here to help, if you really want to blog. There are people out there who want to read what you have to say. Trust me on this!

Previously on End of the Day:

Video: New Media Question Time for UCLA Voiceover Class

February 25, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:47 — 402.9MB) | Embed

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Douglas answers questions from students in Janet Wilcox’s online Voiceover class at UCLA Extension. (http://uclaextension.edu). I talk about the why you should start podcasting, how to market yourself and some of the equipment involved.

Music: “Rocket” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

Follow New Media Tips on Twitter at http://twitter.com/newmediatips
Like New Media Interchange on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/newmediacareer
Circle New Media Interchange on Google+ at http://tinyurl.com/gplusnmi

Video: WordPress Wednesday 10: Weekly Check-up and using MangeWP.com to update multiple WP blogs

February 19, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:48 — 32.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Short WordPress tips to ease your way, especially if you are just getting started with WordPress.

Doing your weekly check-up and using ManageWP.com to update multiple WordPress sites from one location.

Wp wed 010 title

See previous episodes of WordPress Wednesday in this playlist

Music: “Go Kart” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License.

Follow New Media Tips on Twitter at http://twitter.com/newmediatips
Like New Media Interchange on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/newmediacareer
Circle New Media Interchange on Google+ at http://tinyurl.com/gplusnmi

Take a Picture Already — End of the Day for February 16, 2014

February 16, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

(Originally appeared on My Word with Douglas E. Welch)

I’ve always been one to take a lot of photos, but you may have noticed more photos lately in my social media streams and here on the blog. I figure that I always take photos, so why not share them more widely and see what results. I often use these photos to illustrate my other blog posts, like the those in the “Interesting Plant“, “Garden Alphabet” and “New Food” series here and on A Gardener’s Notebook. Bloggers always need photos for their blog posts and I believe that the best one’s you can use are those you take yourself. This prevents any copyright issues and somewhat guarantees that you have the photos you most want to use.

View a slide show my Flickr Photostream

Photos are an important part of any blog post. They make it more attractive, help illustrate the point and also give a visual element when the blog posts are shared on Pinterest. Google+, Facebook and Twitter. There are so many reasons for taking and using photos, I am often surprised when other bloggers don’t use them.

My photo subjects range as widely as the subjects of my blogs. One day I will be shooting flowers, the next a family event and the next photos to illustrate a recipe I recently made. Sometimes people wonder if it isn’t a lot of work to take photos, but I always figure that it is no extra work, really. I am going to be doing something or attending an event anyway Why not take some photos to remember the event, share with the other’s involved and also end up with content for the blogs. It seems I am getting 2 or 3 times the effect for the simply effort of taking a couple of pictures.

A recent trip to the Antelope Valley Indian Museum in Palmdale, CA

Someone, a long time ago, told me the best way to take great pictures is to take a lot of pictures. Today’s phones and smaller cameras make it easy to carry a camera wherever you go, so why not use it. When something catches you eye — take a picture. When you see something you might use to illustrate a blog post, school or business presentation, charity project — take a picture. Even if you think something might be only interesting to you — take a picture. It can only benefit you in the future!

Typically, you can find all of my photos on my Flickr account where I tend to upload everything that might be of use. View a slide show my Flickr Photostream. This isn’t every picture I took, but rather a cull of those things that might be interesting to myself and others. I also tend to post items to my Facebook Wall, especially family and school-felted items so that others can tag them and share them with their friends and family. A subset of my pictures also appear on Instagram, although those only include photos I shared through the Instagram app. You’ll see these photos included in my Flickr, Facebook and Google+ streams, too. As for Google+, I am sharing photo sets there more frequently, but you’ll already find links to sets and collections posts to the blogs and other accounts. Finally, links to all my photos also appear in my Twitter stream. So, you should never be at a lost to find my photos on whichever service you use most frequently. You’ll also find I share a lot of blog posts from other sources on how to improve your photography or just enjoy it more. Watch my social media feeds for those posts.

I hope you enjoy my photos. If so, please take a moment to Like, Favorite and Share them with our friends. The more people that see them, the better. If you REALLY like something, and would like to include it in your publication, advertisement or web site — i’ll give you a good price for licensing it. Drop me a line!

Previously on End of the Day:

Careers in New Media

Helping to Build New Careers in New Media

Author Archives: Douglas E. Welch

New Media Jobs Available – All types of job listings at Jobs.WelchWrite.com – Search by keyword and location

New Media 101: You are an expert! from “Blogging and Content Creation”

All of you out there listening and reading in dark! – End of the Day for April 14, 2014

Video: Blogging 101: Don’t throw away your content

Audio: Blogging and Content Creation with Douglas E. Welch – San Fernando Valley WordPress Group

Video: Blogging 101: The most important reason to blog

Photo: Podcasting Interview from 2006 with Dan Klass from The Bitterest Pill

Cover and Interior of “The Promise” designed by Douglas

Link Focus: New Media | olloclip iPhone Telephoto + Circular Polarizing lens system from ThinkGeek.com

You have to believe to blog! — End of the Day for March 2, 2014

Video: New Media Question Time for UCLA Voiceover Class

Video: WordPress Wednesday 10: Weekly Check-up and using MangeWP.com to update multiple WP blogs