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To Yell at a Guru?

Posted by Justin at 11:03 rants

Feb 232015

Image via Wikipedia

Well for better or for worse, I have been looking at some nuts and bolts around here at the Coots site. I have discovered in the course of events that Ralph has been writing much more than anyone else here. Maybe he is just more dedicated or maybe he just has nothing better to do than to be an instigator.

Instigator in the dictionary of the coots should read: 1. Ralph Carlson, see ralphcarlson.com 2. The guy who has nothing better to do than come up with ideas for others to implement, see #1. 3. A guy with too much time on his hands, see #1. 4. Retired and needing to do something to stay away from his murderous-minded wife, see #1.

You have all read the origin story of the coots, from humble comment to site, comment made by, you guessed it, Ralph. And as we grow and go forward he keeps coming up with stuff for us to do. Maybe he has all the time he wants to sit and write for 2 blogs, his kids are grown and he doesn’t have medical issues that need major narcotics to deal with. Or maybe he is just the Coots Guru that we need. (see picture: Coots on a tire! which one is Ralph?)

I used to be able to keep up with him pretty good on postings and our numbers were fairly even. Bob is so far behind that he is never going to catch up. But now, I find myself 33 posts behind Ralph! I know I was off for a while but good freaking grief in a kettle. I know that numbers like that shouldn’t mean anything, my posts are far superior, well some of them at least, but just by sheer numbers I have to dub Ralph the Coots Guru.

And now, I have to decide to yell at him or not. He is the patron saint of Cantankerousness here. I think I will not yell today. But I always have that option. And now here is a real life question for you. Is it permissible to yell at your Guru’s? By that I certainly mean yell, but also disagree. If you pick up a new program (much like my new stay at home dad program that will be launching soon) and you don’t agree with something in there, I would like the feedback for someone to leave me a profanity laden email cursing out generations of my family and telling me what I did wrong.

I will probably make fun of that person on Twitter but I am not opposed to the criticism. We have the right to our own thoughts and the speech that comes from us protected under the Constitution and the First Amendment. We also have the right, no the obligation to disagree with someone who we truly feel is wrong, see Declaration of Independence. These are not new concepts. These are not wild ideas that I have created.

We need to strive for the fortitude and the Cantankerousness to put out there what our minds conjure. We need to read and understand others, to look at their ideas and programs, and then decide if they are for us or not. And you don’t have to be mean about it, but sarcasm helps.

Have a great Thursday.

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Getting Traffic to your Blog.

Posted by Justin at 11:02 Plain 'ol Cantankerous, Technology

Feb 232015

Image by v o 1 d via Flickr

Hello again folks. I was thinking for today about how this blog gets traffic. I see the stats in 3 different stat counters every day and they are all different. Different, but similar enough in trends to be useful.

Now you may have clicked into this post just to see what sage wisdom I have to offer when it comes to getting traffic to your blog. I have a short answer: Beats me. Now before you click off (literally, if you don’t like something on this blog just CLICK OFF!) at least read the rest of what I have to say.

Some people look into a business degree online when
they want to learn more about marketing to get the desired effects of blog traffic.

The trafffic here on the Coots is fairly constant. We get between 80 and 100 or so visitors per day. Sometimes there are more. Like Yesterday, with Ralphs post. There were 131 visitors at 1140 mountain time when I checked. Why so popular? I dunno, I can only hope people are linking to older posts, as I can see Ralph’s Current post has only garnered 10 visitors. Of course that was last week. This week has been no different though.

It doesn’t seem to matter too much how we promote each post. Twitter, linked In, Facebook, Digg, we advertise on each of these plus stumble upon and traffic is the same. People come to read about Cantankerousness and to have a good time. I would like to see more. So what do we do? I could ask each person who reads this post to tweet it to 10 others and ask them to do the same, but I am almost positive that somewhere that is illegal.

If not illegal then too much like a pyramid scheme. So don’t do that. If you have any ideas, please let me know! I would like to hear how you each get traffic, besides the “go out and comment” answer. This post will be linked on Twitter and all of the other sites, so we have that. Just, how do you each get traffic? And, do you have any blockbuster ideas for a cantankerous post that will go viral and make us all famous?

I can’t wait to hear from you all!

PS. go back and check out Ralph’s post from Wednesday. We would like to have some more answers to our poll!

-Justin

Blog Traffic: 128191 Unique Visitors | Gvishnu.Com (gvishnu.com)

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

Think Before You Tweet

Posted by Gurl at 11:44 rants

Feb 102015

I am getting ready to blast someone I actually like…and it almost hurts me. This person has been very good to me, and given words of encouragement a time or few. However, last night, he Tweeted something out that just made me see red. He’s generally a decent guy, but without context the tweet was just plain idiotic.

He is a Digital Emperor, and has a lot of awesome things going for him. He’s just released his first Iphone app. He’s got a great music service going and he has a blog. Yup, he’s a blogger and much more. Something I am striving to be. Let’s take a look at the tweet, then I will say why it peeved me off.

I don’t need another blog to read…what I need is another “doer of great shit” that I can admire.

Nathan Hangen
nhangen

As I said, I like Nathan. I can also see his point. However, without context, the comment seems to indicate he thinks he is above reading “new to him” blogs. May or may not be true. If I were a new follower who was embarking on my adventure in blogging, that would make me wonder if I was doing the right thing. It would upset me that someone I admired might never look at my blog until I got to the big time..if that was my aim and I got there.

Yes, we could use more people doing great things. Yet we all have to start somewhere. Nathan him self started out writing articles for a paltry sum each in order to fund his business start up while he was in Afghanistan as a member of the US Military. His story is inspiring to say the least.

However, just because you’ve “made it” does not mean you can say or do anything you want! We should think of others and help them. Nathan is great for helping those who cross his radar. However, I think he should have thought a moment before posting the tweet in question. If someone like me, who admires and respects him, found that post off putting…imagine a newbie bloggers reaction. Especially with all the talk of the blogosphere being saturated! In this case, I think he could have done a lot more harm than good.

Here’s the kicker for me…I doubt he will care. He spoke his mind and will stand by it. The two of us and some others were in an almost heated discussion on another blog…and he came off as very narcissistic to some of us. There are times it seems Nathan has a hard time seeing others points of view. I sometimes wonder if the nice guy or the asshole is the real Nathan Hangen. The jury is still out for me on that one for now.

I know that one of the reasons his comment hit me hard is that I am working on becoming a do’er of great things. My start on that is building a great blog, and then moving on to great products. It’s going to take time, so I am depending on others to want another blog to read as I move up to a doer of great things. A LOT of people use this model these days. It would be easier to do it the other way around, but this is the most cost efficient way for me. And it pisses me off when it seems someone is knocking what I do. Most especially when they are doing the same darned thing.

So here’s my points for the day:

Think before you tweet (or post to other social media)! You don’t have to keep it nicey nice, but don’t be a friggen hypocrite.
Be very careful not to put people you admire on a pedestal. It will come back and bite you in the ass.
Grow a thick skin if you are going to be doing something new to you. It will help you weed the naysayers from people with legitimate advice.
Don’t depend on anyone’s thoughts to validate you or what you are doing. If you are, then you’re on shaky ground.
Learn to call out the bullshit when you see it. It just feels good to tell it like it is.

Gurl

Hi! I am a thirty-something college student in Virginia, USA. I started blogging as a personal outlet in August of 2009. I am now turning Gurls Asylum into a semi-niche blog and working on ways to improve my search ranking AND monetize it. I am also an avid Facebook gamer and Tweeter . I love to read, watch movies, listen to music, and blog!

Down with Twitter

Posted by Ralph at 15:46 Down with

Nov 232013

“For me, the most fascinating interface is Twitter. I have odd cosmic thoughts every day and I realized I could hold them to myself or share them with people who might be interested.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Now I get it. Twitter is not for the hoi polloi. It’s a place where the elites can cast pearls before swine and smirk. No wonder I’m frustrated. I apparently don’t have the intellectual gravitas for Twitter. Cognoscenti use Twitter is for sharing those cosmic thoughts that regularly pop into their brains. Lately those cosmic insights for my brain seem to be in short supply. My impression of Twitter was that it was a place to post snappy one liners. Not that I’ve even been good at those either but, at least, I’ve got a chance.

What could be more appealing than an audience panting for your input? Theoretically, the idea of a forum for pithy insights is appealing. Something happens. Your synapses crackle. The brain responds but then there’s a problem. What do you do with your inspiration? Blurt it out like fool with Tourettes? Write a letter to the New York Times? Share it with your brain trust? It’s not easy. If you leave it unsaid, it’s like the tree falling in the forest- nobody will know. You brain will explode. It’s a disaster.