plumpdumpling

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Starting a Blog: How to Choose a Host

Posted by plumpdumpling on January 13, 2011 – 12:30 pm

Filed under administrative
Tagged as administrative

People ask me all of the time how I decided on WordPress as my blog provider and which provider I think is right for them, so I thought I’d more or less copy and paste the response I sent to a friend the other day who wondered if she should get a blog or stick to posting on Facebook.

Facebook: First, I think you have to decide if you want to do the little bit of work it takes to get a blog going. With Facebook, your audience is built-in; to get them to read your updates and notes, you don’t have to do anything except have not beaten them up in high school. The tradeoff is that since most people have protected profiles on Facebook, there’s no chance someone’s going to stumble onto you while searching for glory holes (the #1 search term used to find me) and forward your stuff to their friends in the publishing biz. With a blog, you have to get people to look at your posts. Unless you’re already super-famous or just really, really good-looking, people are going to need a reason to follow you. You have to comment on their blogs to get your name out there and then keep writing great stuff that will get them to return.

I also think how much you plan to post is important. If you really think you’re into posting for the long haul, then definitely go for a blog. But a lot of people seem to wimp out pretty quickly or only post a couple of times a month, which I think is more appropriate for Facebook.

Tumblr: If you just want to post a photo or one snappy paragraph and don’t mind possibly feeling like you’re talking to a void, Tumblr is for you. It’s awesome for beginners because the interface is so easy to get the hang of, and the “like” function on each post makes it so people can let you know they dig your stuff without having to think of an actual comment to leave you. The lack of a built-in comment system is a major drawback if you want to actually build community with your readers, though; you’re not going to get to know someone personally, as I have with a lot of the bloggers I read, if all of your interactions are just “liking” each other’s posts. And since you have to be a member of Tumblr to do anything but read posts, you’re never going to get any “likes” from non-Tumblr-having-people who stumble onto you. It’s great if you want to talk about yourself but don’t want to bother with getting feedback.

WordPress.org: For me, conversation is sort of the point of this, so being able to receive comments and reply to them is an absolute must for me. I went with WordPress.org because it’s extremely customizable, and someone out there is making a WordPress plugin for absolutely anything you want your blog to do. The fact that you get an e-mail every time someone replies to one of your comments or that you see a list of related posts from my blog at the end of each of my posts or that I can create a simple poll on IS IT PEE-PEE? is thanks to a free plugin someone wrote. The drawback is that you have to pay a company to host the server you store your blog on, and it’s a little expensive if you won’t be making any money on the blog.

Blogger: So if you want comments but don’t want to spend anything, Blogger is great. They have tons of layout options, the comment system is built in, and they have a Google Connect feature that makes it easy for you to follow other people’s blogs and for them to follow you while still allowing non-Blogger-users to comment on your posts. It doesn’t have nearly the plugin library that WordPress.org does, but there are a couple of free Blogger add-ins that make it possible for you to reply to comments and for the commenter to get an e-mail with your reply so they can come back and continue the conversation. My best friend and I use Intense Debate for that, which you can see in action on our low-carb blog, UNBREADED, at the bottom of any post. I don’t see any drawbacks to Blogger once you install something like Intense Debate; without it, I’m annoyed by the fact that you have to post a new comment in order to reply to someone else’s, which doesn’t ensure that they’ll ever see it.

WordPress.com: This is the free version of WordPress.org that needs no additional setup nor server space on your end. Intense Debate isn’t available for it yet, it doesn’t have the Google Connect community-building of Blogger, and only a handful of customization options are available until you upgrade to a paid account. The only upside to using it that I can see is that its user interface is better-looking than Blogger’s.

So to sum it all up, my advice is:
• Tumblr for lazy egoists.
• WordPress.org for OCD chatterboxes who are really, really into blogging, maybe even professionally.
• Blogger for everyone else!

This is What Being Good Gets You

Posted by plumpdumpling on January 11, 2011 – 12:00 pm

Filed under all of my friends are prettier than i am, living in new york sucks so hard, restaurant ramblings
Tagged as all of my friends are prettier than i am, downtown brooklyn, living in new york sucks so hard

My roommate, Jack, and I stopped at the local Wendy’s recently to pick up a snack before heading home. A man sitting at the table just inside the door greeted us as we entered, but after being preyed upon countless times during my formative years here in NYC, I’ve trained myself to ignore anyone who might possibly try to pry what little money I have out of my grubby little Ohio hands. Jack, on the other hand, despite having lived here almost his entire life, somehow missed out on those teachings and shockingly turned to see what the man wanted. FOOL!!

Immediately noting the man’s homeless appearance, Jack tried to escape what was to come by innocently saying, “Let me just get my food.” But the guy had obviously been around the block once or twice and said, “Oh, god bless you, sir. Thank you, sir.” How could Jack resist a guilt trip like that?

By going out the back door–that’s how. When we spotted the alternative exit, it was like you could actually see the weight lifted off of Jack’s shoulders. He would simply grab his food, slip out the other door, and feel like he was off the hook just by virtue of inconvenience. Surely no one–even god–would expect him to walk all the way to the front of the restaurant just to hand over his money.

But as luck would have it, the guy apparently watched us work our way through the ten-minute line and then met us at the ketchup stand, where Jack was busy filling little paper cups with the manifestation of all our sins. “Thank you, sir,” he repeated. “God bless you, sir.” So of course Jack had to give him a dollar.

And wouldn’t you know it, when he got home and unpacked his nuggets, nestled at the bottom was one shaped like a heart.

I’m No Good with the Alphabet

Posted by plumpdumpling on January 7, 2011 – 12:00 pm

Filed under readin' and writin'
Tagged as readin' and writin'

Aside from it being, you know, generally not good, notice anything funny about this scrapbook page I made in Tracey‘s store during my Thanksgiving trip to Ohio?

I knew something was wrong with it when I glued it down, but I just couldn’t figure out what.

Not Even My Mom Ever Looked This Middle-Aged

Posted by plumpdumpling on January 6, 2011 – 4:30 pm

Filed under narcissism
Tagged as narcissism

Yesterday afternoon, I looked like this:

Like a baby bunny, right? A baby bunny who has to turn her head to the left or right to see you out of the two little holes she’s made in the curtain of curls that hangs down to her nose and refuses to be swept aside or pinned back.

Annoying.

So, last night, I went to see my stylist, whom I only started going to because she works at the same place where Felicity got her hair cut. And also because she charges $20 when I’m pretty sure you can’t get a haircut elsewhere here for less than four times that much. Or maybe ten times that much. I’m sure a real woman of the city like Jill could tell you.

Anyway, she lopped a little off as requested and then asked if she should blowdry it. I thought that meant use a blowdryer on it simply to keep me from catching a cold, but it actually meant blowdry it straight like probably every other woman who walks in there requests.

And you know what? It actually felt kind of nice not to have to worry about which curl was sticking up where and which curl had wrapped itself around which other curl to give me the appearance of a DNA model kit. But it felt awful to