Recently in Blogging Category

Saw this at a bookshop today, and decided to buy it.

To give you an idea of what to expect, here are a couple of excerpts:

Milton’s Paradise Lost

Shakespeare’s Macbeth

So don’t think I’ve totally stopped reading fiction. See, I’ve met my quota of at least one fiction book a year. (Everything else I read now is self-help/business/management related)

And considering how bite-sized the chapters have become, since they’re now in the form of tweets, I may even be able to finish reading this book!

If only school textbooks could be like this…

It’s been 3 weeks in France already and the food is great. I don’t miss Singapore food at all (Let’s see if this can last for 2 months). The breads, the cheeses, the wine, the champagne are all good. And the weather is lovely today. Clear skies (UV rays!!!), cool winds, better road manners. What more can I ask for - apart from the company of my dear R and my family, who will be arriving in June.

I realise that while I’ve been writing about living abroad, I wasn’t specific as to when I’ll be back in Singapore. I am in France for my final term at INSEAD, and will be back in Singapore in early July.

Up to then, there’s no point inviting me to any events back in Singapore. Thank you for keeping me on your list.

This blog’s back up again, but the spammers are still hitting my MT comments file, according to my web stats log files.

I’ve just blocked several more IP addresses, all coming from Nevada / Las Vegas. I apologise if there are really people from that state trying to read my blog, but in one day I don’t expect thousands of pageviews from people in that part of the US, unless it was an automated attack.

Which leads to another point: After years of using MovableType and endorsing it, I feel like moving to Wordpress.

Why? Here are my pros:

Time. I simply don’t have the time to upgrade MT every time a new version comes out. Whereas with Wordpress, I can go to my Cpanel and automatically upgrade it without having to upload any new files.

Comments mess. I think it was a mistake for me to switch, midway, to the new Typepad comments system. My old comments are still in my database, while the new comments are stored over at Typepad. It’s neither here nor there.

Comment spamming, even with a built-in blacklister, is still hitting my site hard. I wouldn’t mind switching to a PHP platform instead of having my Perl/CGI comments file attacked all the time and causing my websites to be inaccessible…

Familiarity. I am familiar enough with Wordpress, having used it at work and toyed with it at home for years. It’s reliable, responsive, and has the power of the crowds behind it. I loved MT, but somewhere along the way it lost momentum and became all big and corporatised. I used to donate to it when it was still free. Then later I realised I needed to pay more to get professional help.

And as a long-time user I haven’t felt like I belong to a special “MT community”. I used to feel that way in the early 2000s, but not anymore.

Cons:

Databases. I don’t like the idea of Wordpress requiring 1 database per blog. I have quite a few blogs on this platform. Which means I need to set up 1 database. Troublesome, but not entirely difficult to do; it just creates some inertia.

Design. I stuck with MT because I was familiar with how the templates worked. But that was a few years ago when things were more straightforward and I was more into hard coding. Now it makes less difference if I switched to Wordpress. Plus, there are many more Wordpress templates than MT ones, which tend to look pretty similar to each other.

Obviously I am writing of the top of my head, because I don’t have time (nor much interest) to dig through technical details anymore. If I’m wrong on any points, let me know. Basically I want something that gives me the least trouble and is the easiest to set up and update.

In the meantime I’m getting on with my job search, homework, travel plans and the big move to Fonty.

Just checked my Mint stats and discovered lots of linklove from Cowboy Caleb. Seems that my recent post on Feedback to PR teams may have generated some interest among other local bloggers. As I mentioned then, I don’t mean to stir up trouble but clarify how things can be better so that we don’t waste each other’s time.

Here’s a sample of incoming clicks…

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve received 3 invitations to technology and arts-related events. I appreciate the attention, but would like to pass on some feedback to public relations teams:

Send invitations in advance, not at the last minute

Two of the invitations were for an event that would occur the day after. Given the busy recruitment fair going on every evening at INSEAD, and the heavy homework load, it is unlikely that I will change all my plans, skip studying and spend a night out.

Also, as I’ve been given advance notice of other events I’ve attended before, I felt like I was an afterthought. One rep did mention he was shorthanded thus invitations were sent out late, and I appreciate the sincerity.

A personal message is worth it

Two of the messages indicated interest in my blog and myself, even mentioning how they were aware that I was currently doing my Masters and might be busy. This made me feel that they didn’t see me as just another faceless blogger on a long invitation list.

In both cases, the representatives noted one thing in common that I had with them - a school or religious affiliation. Hopefully this isn’t a formulaic approach. I will deduce that if several more invitations arrive written in the same format! For now, this makes the communication tone more open and friendly, and so I am more inclined to attend the next event they invite me to.

Let me know if my friends are going, too

If I’m undecided about going to an event, one way to sway me in favour would be to tell me who else is going. The last thing I want is to turn up and nobody knows me or bothers to show me around, and I have to introduce myself to everyone, as though I invited myself.

This hasn’t exactly happened yet but at other events there have been gaps in the welcoming process. If I don’t feel comfortable the first time, that might prompt me to decline the next invitation.

Make it worth my while!

This last point may apply more to myself. My lessons start at 8.30am and sometimes end at 7pm. This month our evenings are filled with career talks and networking events.

Therefore, my opportunity cost to attend a blogger event is the price of NOT meeting potential employers from top consulting, industry, finance etc positions and learning more about their companies so I can be better prepared if I get called for interviews. No hard feelings if I cannot make it - we’re all looking for a better future, in difficult times ;-)

The other thing is, we technology bloggers have become a dime a dozen at events. The same people (i.e. us) show up at every event. Then you then see the same product information perpetuated over the local Blogosphere, which makes me feel redundant. I know there are studies that indicate that the more a prospective shopper reads good reviews from various sources, the more likely he will purchase the product. However, the last thing I wish to become is a postbox or Xerox machine.

So I want to take a different perspective on things. To make your job easier, I am more likely to attend events and blog about them, if:

1. There are opportunities to meet not just the PR agency reps designated to handle bloggers, but the management, the evangelists and designers behind the product that’s being launched. As a student in a leading business school, I would like to meet the people who make this company tick, and learn where the company is headed. In fact I would be very interested to invite key execs as speakers to our business events. You can reach out to future business leaders from various industries from all over the world, while we can learn from an experienced industry leader. This is clearly a win-win situation for both sides.
2. It’s isn’t just a sales pitch where we have to listen to awkward speeches about how excellent your products are. Instead, show us how you stand out and where you draw your inspiration from! As a former designer and technologist, I appreciate innovation and design and want to write something more meaningful than a copy-and-paste specs sheet, or an egocentric post with snapshots of myself with gadgets and random blogger-friends.
3. I already have some affinity to your product. Maybe I’ve used it before - liked it, then hated it, then grew to understand it (e.g. Dell). Or maybe I already worship it (i.e. Apple). Other brands whose products I’ve used and respect: Nokia (phones), Canon (cameras), HP (printers, handhelds), Panasonic (cameras), Sony (TV, 20-yr-old hifi that’s still working, Walkman, Discman)…
4. Your product doesn’t capture my interest. I can’t blog about something I don’t appreciate, because it isn’t sincere. And I’m not just interested in gadgets, though I suspect the PR agencies have classified me as such. I don’t attend the hardcore gaming / processor events because I don’t play such games. However, invite me to a business book launch or a Web 2.0/entrepreneurship event and I’ll do my best to make it.
5. Society will benefit from better publicity. I still have ties to my last workplace and will support social and health causes such as HIV/AIDS.

Note also that I will give a balanced review and not just say good things about it, because I don’t want to compromise my integrity, and besides, readers are smart and can see through these things.

I have no intention to sound bossy. This is to save everyone’s time and also to clarify my position as a blogger.

If you’re fine with all of these, then by all means contact me.

[Update: Thanks to Cowboy Caleb for the linklove!

Update #2: Thanks also to Daryl and Claudia for expanding on this post!

Update #3: Additional insight from Ben and Tym as well. Wow!]