10 Questions with Adriane of Avant Gaudy

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
While most sites focus on vintage fashion as an artifact, Avant Gaudy adheres to Coco Chanel’s creed: “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” While we draw inspiration from trends on the runway and on the street, we portray what we see through vintage clothing. Our blog reflects this juxtaposition, and draws readers who crave sustainable, innovative style. The blog offers our writers’ opinions on the relation between film, music, pop culture trends and more in relation to fashion. Finally, the blog also provides updates about news and merchandise from Avant Gaudy, our online vintage retailer.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
It’s so hard to pick just one! We have so many talented writers with different personalities and different interests that it’s hard to pick one BEST post. However, I think this entry, Contemporary Vintage: “Log Cabin Chic”, demonstrates how Avant Gaudy strives to focus on the importance of vintage fashion at a time when vintage clothing is more relevant – and prevalent – than ever. While we have a variety of different kinds of posts on the blog, this particular posts seems to emphasize part of our purpose: pointing out runway trends that are also being worn on the streets and teaching readers how they can create the same look with more affordable vintage pieces.

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
One thing that sets us apart from other bloggers is that our blog coincides with our online vintage store, Avant Gaudy. While we often post about trends, boutiques or fashion news, we also try to update our readers about the newest merchandise available on our Web site or give readers a sneak peek at our latest photo shoots. The blog also gives us the opportunity to hear back from our readers and customers. We love comments and feedback!

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
Honestly, I personally just started blogging this summer! I started a blog with my friend where we just talked about fashion things we liked or other random things we were interested in, but we quickly ran out of time to work on it. I then started working with Avant Gaudy in June and since I’ve become incredibly involved with this blog, acting as blog manager with a team of about 14 writers. Now I want to start my own personal blog as well to discuss things I like and I’m interested in that might not fit on the Avant Gaudy blog. This is also the first time most of Avant Gaudy’s contributing writers have been blogging, too!

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Spam. It’s incredibly annoying and we’ve been linked back to some very random sites for some reason. I’m incredibly grateful for Akismet!

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
As I had said, thank God for Akismet! And I really love checking out our stats, too. I love to know how many views we get each day, which posts are the most popular with our readers and how people are finding our blog. I love to see which search engine terms people have used and have found our blog through – it can be incredibly amusing.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
This is a tough one! It might sound cliché, but I think it would be incredible to have Coco Chanel write a guest post for us. We’ve actually written a few posts about Chanel already and her famous quote (“Fashion is in the sky, in the street…”) inspires our writers daily. If I had a second option as a guest writer, it would probably be Anna Wintour. It would be interesting to see her share her opinions in our blog.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
As the manager of the Avant Gaudy blog, I think it has definitely made me a better person in that I’ve had the opportunity to work with other talented and opinionated fashion writers. I think blogging has also made me more aware of how much is really out there already. With so many blogs available on so many topics, it’s incredibly important to be unique and relevant.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Edit, spellcheck, edit, review, edit, check grammar and edit again!. Make sure your post is PERFECT before you publish it. I’m also a journalism student and careless grammar or spelling mistakes are one of my biggest pet peeves. It’s not difficult to read over your post at least once before publishing it and making sure there are no mistakes. It will make your blog look even more professional.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
I love reading style blogs that are written by incredibly talented, stylish and YOUNG bloggers. I find it amazing – I’ll admit, I was never that stylish or Internet-savvy when I was in junior high! Or even high school! A few of my favorites are Style Rookie, The Stylish Wanderer and Sea of Shoes.

10 Questions with Wil of Spot Cool Stuff

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
How about one phrase or less:  Destinations, gadgets, music, movies, websites and high design items with a WOW factor.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
Only one? My most recent post is still swirling in my mind. So, at this moment, I have to point you to Eat Breakfast With A Giraffe.  Besides the fact that I hope this post makes people go WOW, my intent was to make this place seem accessible. Almost anyone with the means can go experience it for themselves, you don’t need to be any great adventurer. I mean, how great is it that we live on a planet where there’s a Giraffe Manor?

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
Our WOW factor. And that we bring that sensibility (or try to) to all five categories we write about: travel, tech, media, websites, and design.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
At the same time bloggers first discovered blogging, back in the late 90s or early 2000s when I was working for the Discovery Channel Online.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Blogs that have more ads than useful content. I saw a blog yesterday (I wish I could remember the URL) that was literally dozens of adsense ads surrounding a blog post that was, wait for it, one sentence long.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
Especially on the travel portion of Spot Cool Stuff I couldn’t live without my Folding Categories plugin; I have so many categories it would really be impossible otherwise.  The plugin I’m starting to like more and more is CommentLuv. I started using it in my Travel And Websites areas but might be expanding that to the others.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
How can you not go for some one dead if that option is out there?  Lots of names come to mind but in the end I’d have to say Leonardo da Vinci.  I’m not sure there’s ever been a person who has more sought out life’s WOW factors.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
Interesting that you are assuming that it has. Writing, researching and making contact with others has certainly enriched my life. But made me a better person?  I’m not sure.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
A friend of mine recently launched a blog and asked me to take a look. Her blog posts were written in light red text placed upon a medium-red background.  Naturally, I told her that her readers might find her color choice difficult to read and headache-inducing. Her reply: “But I like red!”  So my advice is this: Think about your blog from your reader’s point of view.  How does what you are writing appear to them? What’s THEIR experience on your blog and how can you make that better? What do they want to know?  On almost every blog I’ve been to (mine as well, in some ways) the blogger is far too self-centric.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Breed ‘Em And Weep – Excellent writing, combined with a delicious sense of humor and profound outlook on life.

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
Used Dog Rescue – Success Stories!

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
We are different as we are both fun and informative – and cover BOTH cats and dogs. We also have rescue stories, etc. and we are consistent.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
Discovered blogging in 2005 as a place to share pet info.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
My blogging pet peeve would be comments that are plugs for a site that has nothing to do with the post. I don’t mind a link to a website on dog training on a post about training…but spam comments get me going.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
We love Snapshots and Freekibble.com banners.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Johann the Dog – great social marketing has been done with her blog (Leslie May).

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
Connection with pet lovers.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Try and be consistent in posting.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
HoundsGood – rescue blog, and tons of others, but like what they do.

10 Questions with Sy of The Wheel is Turning, but the Hamster is Dead

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
The site is a testament to a man who used to have a lot of time on his hands. It is a mash up of various types of posts, all dependent on what is going on in the world at the time. The site is universal, and I try to make it acceptable for the majority by not writing posts that may offend on purpose. I try to write in “plain” English rather then use crazily long words that make people think. The site is not about thinking, but is more about mindless escapism.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
It’s a Kind of Magic. Possibly of the Mushroom Kind.

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
I don’t think I can say I am set apart from other bloggers. I read many other blogs, and am astounded at the quality of the blogs out there that can post day after day. If anything, it is that I make a point of replying to every single comment, and try to strike up online friendships by email with my readers by actively encouraging them to contact me off of the site.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I used to read a lot of IT news sites, and always “had something to say”, but humour was always my thing in life and decided in December 2007 to give it a go just after being burgled and wanting to vent about it. I put a humour angle on it, and the site went from there.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Having the time to create content people want to read, and having the time to get my site out there and get new readers. I have found promoting my blog a hard task as my home life has changed and the time I have to surf has decreased.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
Stats. Be it Feedburner or Statcounter, it is important for me to know that people are reading my site. After all, I spend a lot of time writing posts, so it would be sad to know that no one is reading it.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Ade Edmondson. A lot of people wouldn’t know of him, but he is a UK TV star. His comedy has me in tears and I would love to see what he could do on a post. If his posting skills are half as good as his acting and script writing, my site would benefit many times over, as would my readers.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
I cannot say that it has made me a better person per say. If anything, it has made me painful to my wife in my constant attempts to write good humour posts and bugging her asking her if she thinks it is OK. Of course, she always says yes, but I think it is because she doesn’t want to hurt my feelings!

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Do not become obsessed with stats. People will come if you get your name out there, and there is no such thing as a thousand hits a day 3 posts in to your blog! And cut down on the ads. Do you want to write a site, or do you want to make a lot of money? If it is the money, then you need to look elsewhere. I have no ads at all on my site. Enjoy writing your posts and do not let yourself turn in to the perfectionist. Trust me, it makes each post harder and harder!!

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
It’s a Funny Thing…
I love Don’s posts. The photo manipulation makes me incredibly jealous, while making me very happy that I found his site. He seems to have an abundance of posts available which makes visiting there a pleasure.

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
I’ve been blogging on and off for several years now on a range of subjects from mountain biking to network marketing, but I’ve never been fully focused and persistent. I’m engaged to be married next year and have a 3 month mountain bike tour planned as our honeymoon, so I needed to consolidate my businesses. I decided to start this blog as a way to focus my energies and ideas, and to share what I have learned about online business over the past 6 years. I discuss and teach marketing, business, and web design and although my blog is quite young, the feedback I’m getting is awesome!

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
Using WordPress to Build Websites as a CMS
I’m trying to give as much pure content as I can with this blog. I’ve been designing websites commercially since 1999, so I’m hoping to give back a lot of the knowledge I’ve picked up from the online community.

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
There are plenty of bloggers in the Internet marketing niche, and there are plenty of very techie developers blogging out there, but I hope that I manage to bridge that gap. Although there are certainly technical elements to some of my posts, I try not to assume too much technical background and always try to appeal to newbies while still giving content with real depth to it.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I honestly can’t remember when I first discovered blogging. I guess my first blog was of a 900 mile solo cycle trip I did in 2002, but I didn’t use a blogging platform – just updated the HTML each day! Can’t imagine doing that now. Life without Wordpress wouldn’t be the same at all!

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
It’s amazing to me how many people still spam out there, same with forums. You can be sure that every single day you get single one line comments or forum posts from people you never hear from again, just looking for that quick link rather than engage in the conversation.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
Soooo many to choose from. I certainly wouldn’t want to be without Askimet, Simple tags is great (and simple just like it says!) but my number one would have to be WP_CodeShield which is such a help on a blog like mine which includes sample code from time to time.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
I guess it would have to be Larry Page – so much of what I read on blogs is speculation about Google and their algorithms. It would be great to hear it ’straight from the horses mouth’!

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
Blogging has definitely given me a new focus and commitment. I try to be consistent with my posts, and plan ahead – something I need to do more of with the rest of my business and life!

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Engage in a conversation – encourage and reply to comments, get inside your reader’s heads and find out what they want. If you can deliver content that is exactly what your visitors want, you’ll be a massive success!

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Internet Business Mastery
OK so I know it’s a podcast primarily but these guys put out such great content and are the only ones in my niche who really focus on mindset and goals… plus they are genuinley funny – that’s important too!

10 Questions with The Vegas Art Guy of The Desert Glows Green

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
My blog covers just about everything, including religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin. During the school year it’s mostly about education and my adventures in the classroom. When school is not in session, it’s open season.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
There were several, but this one is a good one: Good News for a Change

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
Why, me of course. :) That and I don’t stick to just one subject, and I’ll admit my faults and successes.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I kept hearing about blogs and how cool they were. I poked around and started to read a few that I liked and decided to give it a try.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
All the cursing, and working really hard on a post and not getting any response, then mailing one in and you get huge discussions, go figure.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
I love Haloscan, it makes managing my comments way easy. It’s way better than the comment system Blogger uses.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Ronald Reagan. I’m a big fan of his and he wrote and spoke so plainly and yet so eloquently.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
It’s made me write more clearly and has made me a better communicator. It’s also forced me to think more critically than I used to in the past.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Be honest, especially if you screw up. Return comments and visits from other blogs. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and make sure if you do politics to do some research before you just spout off your opinion. In addition you should put up an entry every couple of days or so, that way your readers will keep coming back and please have fun!

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Just one? That’s not fair! :( OK I read American Power every day. Dr. Douglass’ posts on the political scene are always interesting and I always learn something new when I visit his site. OK I’m addicted to his blog… lol

10 Questions with Corey of Diligent Design

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
Diligent Design is not a blog about making money online or about beating out Digg and search engines. Diligent Design is a blog for newbies, professionals, and internet enthusiasts who started blogging for a reason: to have fun. While there are definitely professional “on-topic” posts at the blog, I also try to include posts that really bring back the human element to blogging, such as “why bloggers are like rugs” or “how to kick a habit by blogging.” It’s all about the fun and the community.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
Who Are You? or Designing Your Portfolio
I think this post shows a lot about my character just because it’s about making mistakes and getting frustrated with designer’s block and trying to overcome that. I feel like I constantly have these random attacks of “Murphy’s Law” (what can go wrong will go wrong!) and so this is just another example of my pushing through.

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
Aside from being super young (16) I also manage to find connections that other bloggers just don’t think about, and I try to write with the idea of really affecting someone in my readership. In essence, I “blog to move someone.” My favorite (and one of the blog’s most popular) post which got annihilated in the server crash was “Why Bloggers Are Like Pregnant Women.” It was fun to write and it really got people thinking.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
The word was being thrown around on television a lot about celebrity blogs and myspace blogs and so I setup a LiveJournal account and started talking about my 8th grade life. It really was quite fascinating, especially when me and my friends had a war over AIM. The community ate that up. After realizing that people actually enjoy the way I write, I figured, why not try self-hosting?

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Everybody is into “niche blogging” and “making money online” and my personal favorite, “digg worthy posts.” I’m getting pretty sick of lists that don’t really innovate! Of posts that are nothing but ad fodder. What happened to blogging for fun and connection and the profit was just kind of on the side?

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
Feedburner, definitely. RSS and XML and other associated acronyms confuse the heck out of me, and it’s nice to just copy and paste and let people connect with Diligent Design.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog, who would it be and why?
Douglas Adams (author of HitchHiker’s Guide to the Universe) because I absolutely love his writing style and how he subtly critiques the world around us. I’d really love to see what he thinks about blogging or what connections he might make.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
It’s definitely taught me to be patient. I remember I would start internet projects and think that they would go off in a weekend. (I was like 12, but still) I learned that things take time, even something as simple as trying to put up a favicon.

Another thing I learned, which goes hand in hand with patience, is how to talk to and deal with people. Asking for interviews can be kind of scary, but at the same time, in real life I’ve got to meet new people and I’ve got to deal with people who will criticize me and handle it smoothly, because of the groups I belong to and the commitments I’ve made, as an honor student and a band officer and just a good kid.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
When people review your blog, consider their opinions! I know way too many defensive webmasters.

Also, take the time to use Google, because aside from slowly taking over the world, they actually do give you search results. Lookup CSS references and grammar references and wikipedia and whatever else interests you. You wouldn’t believe how annoying it is to have a PM box full of requests to fix little problems with CSS on a free template.

Finally, remember that it doesn’t matter if you’re an expert or if you’re 13 or 53, it’s about how you write, and what you bring to the table. If you’ve got super awesome writing skills, use them. For example, I can define antidisestablishmentarianism. I don’t need to, but I can do it.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Atomic Robo definitely. It used to be a story blog, I think? Now it’s a comic. All I know is I woke up one day and checked it at random and there was a hilarious post about frogs, and I just kept coming back for more. I don’t actually read the comic, but the post themselves are really entertaining. I think it’s just one of those blogs where the writing style hooks you, even if you aren’t part of the group.

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
Like me, my blog can’t be described in less than five sentences but I am going to try (dang I just wasted a sentence to describe my blog talking about how it can’t be described). Black southern female reality blogging, actually it’s a reality blog that is colored by the fact that my reality is affected by my race, gender, and where I was raised. I like to believe that I bring a creative aspect to blogging; I’m a different kind of voice that combines the melodies of spoken word and how words roll off your brain or tongue. I love words and how they sound, and when I write my tone and cadence makes you feel as if I am there holding a conversation with you, many of my blogs can be read aloud like music or poetry. My blog is written for therapy and release (every time OG writes a blog pimp hand goes down) more than anything it’s a view into my world that helps you see a different side of the world, because I, like everyone else in the blogsphere, think I bring a unique perspective to the table.

2. Link us to one post that best defines who you are.
Black Like Me
This was an extremely hard choice for me. Its one of the reasons I do not do best of list on my right hand side. My blogs are like children. I think they are all wonderful and should be read. Ok, well most of them. I choose this post because I think it speaks to a dynamic beyond racial duality while being completely about it. I think we all struggle with the many faces of the prism that make up who we are as people. We are but a sum of our parts, and some of us have lady parts. Lady parts are cool.

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
I think my cadence and tempo. I think my love of the English language and music with my slightly offbeat humor makes me an OG. I think the way I deliver stories about my life and my convictions is not the average delivery of today’s blogger, but doesn’t everyone think that? I think that my blogs are layered and full of life they can be read over and over and something new can be found with each new read. Maybe it was a play on words you didn’t see or a pop culture reference that had escaped you until now. In that way I’m kinda like Family Guy, except I’m single and black and southern and not a cartoon. I think my willingness to experiment outside the box and do things I have never seen before on my blog always makes it exciting to visit my blog. I think my quick wittedness (is that a word?) and positive view even on the negative things sets me a part from a lot of blogs, it’s not Pollyanna but it’s not doom and gloom. I like to think of it more as if Pollyanna woke up and found out she was black. She isn’t, is she? Is she colorless like God? I think my refusal to address things that the mainstream media wants us talking about makes me unique. In my space it will always be about what I want to talk about. I often wait for topics to die down or last longer than a sound bite before I weigh in, because some of this news we are discussing in the blogsphere IS NOT NEWS! So to sum it up, I think me being me is what sets me a part from other bloggers.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
Man, I remember blogging like yesterday. It happened in December of 2001. A very good friend of mine works for MS. She told me they had just set up a beta blog site. So I just started blogging about my seemingly happy life. Nothing too deep, just blog fodder, almost like reading the diary of a seven year old. You know how you think at seven what you are writing is scandalous and then you realize that writing about your crush on your neighbor in the 5th grade is hardly what they make playboy movies out of. Then not too long after my blogging life started, I went through a separation, divorce, and a few of life’s other hard knocks. Blogging became my way to address the pain. Unlike journaling it allowed others to weigh in and let me know I was not crazy for feeling how I felt.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Good question. I live most of my life in the black blogsphere, not really a conscious choice but we gravitate to those things that affect our lives. I think I hate the fact that many bloggers don’t spend a lot of time putting out solutions. They critique everything under the sun, but they never put out solutions. I also don’t like the amount of refusal to listen to other thoughts or views by commenters who jump on sites and refuse to see the other side of the coin. You would think as a computer operating human, being there would be more brain power to have rational discussion, but really there isn’t. So Sad. So Sad.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
I don’t know if I have one. *lol* I don’t use a lot of widgets of services. My blog is organic; I don’t even have Adsense on my blog, as of now. I try to view this as a passionate hobby. I guess I’m like Q-Tip from a Tribe Called Quest. He said it was just him and his microphone; well, it’s just me and my laptop. Ok maybe Sitemeter.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog,who would it be and why?
I’d have to say no one. I’m not really big on it. I guess Jay Leno does have a guest host and teachers have subs, but to me blogging is not one of those things that you need to have stand-in for. If I don’t blog, then oh well. The world keeps on spinning and the big wheels keep on turning and Proud Mary keeps on burning. When I’m away I do sometimes schedule posts and while I do try to blog daily, sometimes I don’t. I think for my blog having a guest blogger would be hard because of my writing style. I like to think of it as unique and different and that bringing someone else in would disrupt its flow FAR MORE than a few days with out OG. However if that question is to just see who I admire as a writer or person in the world, I would just tell you Toni Morrison is the truth!! Despite that fact, she still can’t write a guest post on my blog. Plus I’m sure they have some special blog for Nobel Laureates to post on.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
I essentially grew up on my blog. I don’t think we ever stop growing and evolving. Well, enlightened human beings don’t. I learned from my mistakes and pushed through them into this great mental space I am in right now. I chronicled all of that in some form or fashion on my blogs. Blogging about those things really helped me look at my feelings objectively and not just internalize them. Blogging saves the little bit of sanity I have left. I call it working my life’s problems out on paper. To me, blogging is the metaphorical equivalent to showing your work on your math homework. You know people want to know how I got to this space, how I found my answers and if they really want to know, all they need to do is READ my blogs from day one. You will see me work out my ideas and my life and my friends and everything right there in front of you. Some of it only I know the specifics to, but most of it you can chart. You can see me in my valleys, you can read a post and say “Oh this is where she carried the 1”. It really is the best therapy there is for me.

It has allowed me to be easier on myself. It has allowed me to see my growth as a person. The one thing about chronicling your life in cyberspace is IT IS THERE FOREVER AND FOR EVERYONE TO SEE. I made it a hard fast rule a long time ago NEVER to delete any post I published. I think because of that rule I really have to be sure when I am writing the blog it is something I am ready to share and ready to get the truth about. My blog folder is full of blogs that never see daylight. When I tackle personal subjects about people I know I have learned to be more tactful and discerning with my words just out of respect for their privacy, because you never know who is reading. It definitely makes me more creative when sharing my anecdotes. I very rarely address people that I know lurk. It’s tacky to me, but that is all growth on my part as a person and a blogger. It has also made me a better writer. It has made me a better researcher even though I very rarely use my research for anything else other than double entendre and pop-culture jokes. Man I am telling you I’m the Family Guy of blogs.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Be honest and be open. Spell check (this is my thing) and read your blog to yourself both as your editor (I am learning more about content editing the more I blog) and as your target audience. Lucky for me I’m my target audience. Realize that more people than you can imagine are reading you and take it as your opportunity to shine. Find your writing strengths, learn who your audience is as opposed to who you think they are, and above all else be true to whatever YOUR vision is of YOUR blog. Only change what it is and what you are writing on it for you. I am a firm believer in “If you build it, they will come.” I call it the Field Of Dreams philosophy. Please remember you have to build it on solid foundation; otherwise, when they come, it will crumble!

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Man, I read so many, but I do have my regular stops. I don’t let my friends know I read their blogs often because I know as a blogger it sometimes inhibits your creative space when you know friends or family are reading/lurking; however at some point it becomes unavoidable. I would have to say Raving Black Lunatic. Can I say that on TV? (Just jokes people, just jokes) I have watched him develop and evolve his own style which is different from other political and social commentary blogs I see out there. I think that he offers an insightful and intelligent look at his life as a black man in New Orleans. He also isn’t afraid to tell the truth, even when it means he needs to step up his own personal growth game. I admire that. Big Man never disappoints me with his take on things and our world today.