This is probably a repeat in terms of blogging advice, but it bears repeating.  Keep your blog design simple. Make sure people can find your content as well as your archives.  If you look at this blog, you’ll notice that everything is pretty clearly labeled.  You know where my content is as well as any advertisements or recent posts.  I’ve gone to quite a few blogs recently and not only is the content hard to find, there are Google ads right in the middle of the post. For me, that is distracting and takes away from the aesthetic of the blog layout.  Let people do their own Google search for computer service orange county, don’t force them read your post like it has a commercial break.

Did anyone try to keep a running diary of the Academy Awards last night? I didn’t have my computer on during the ceremony, but there are a few things I noticed that I want to get some of your opinions on.

1. There are 3 men who were born to host the Oscars: Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal and Steve Martin.
2. What was with T-Bone Burnett and the men’s sunglasses? I thought Jack was the only person cool enough to pull that off.
3. Would Ben Stiller have been funny if, like he said, Avatar had actually been nominated for best makeup?
4. Why does John Hughes get his own memorial and the likes of Paul Newman and Billy Wilder from years past had to make due with being in the memorial montage?
5. Is Kanye is rubbing off on others?  Will we have to endure more microphone bandits?

Fox news ran a fun little slideshow today on male celebrities and the facial hair they have sported in the past. Specifically beards. The premise is what would these beards say about their appearance and the celebrity to which they are attached. It got me to thinking: what would other accoutrements say about their functions of the stars. What would the polarized sunglasses of Jack Nicholson have to say? What would Leno’s chin say? It makes life more fun to think about these things every once in a while.

Speaking of blogging live events, Sarah Palin was on the “Tonight Show” last night and while the interview/stand-up monologue is not the easiest live event to blog, there was definitely enough there to comment on. Watching the whole segment, she got a couple of good jabs at Leno’s expense during the sit down portion, and her confidence in her actions is noteworthy. The monologue she did as a response Leno inquiring whether she would like to do a talk show someday also had its moments. The material she came out with, whether she wrote it or someone else did, is that typical monologue jokes you hear from Leno all the time. Obviously, with her inexperience at timing and delivery, if she does want to do a talk show, she’ll need to hone those skills a bit.

I’ve seen other people do this, and if I had the patience, I might try it myself. Do a live blog on an upcoming event. This weekend is the Academy Awards; so, if you’re a big fan of movies or Hollywood, blog as you watch the ceremony. Have your computer nearby; when a category has a memorable winner or the production takes a turn for the worse, throw a quick update onto your blog. If given the choice, I would have to blog on the deciding game of the World Series. That would be fun.

If you’re looking to get a blog going and have no clue where to start, check out Paul Bradshaw’s article. One thing that Paul suggests that I really like is to have a guest blogger write an article on some area of expertise. I like this idea because it helps others get their voice out as well as provide you with a momentary break from creating content. Coming up with content is not that hard, but coming up with good content that keeps people coming back take a little more time and practice.

Any one remember the TV show Full House? That syrupy sitcom that introduced us to the twin vortex known as the Olsen twins? Fox news did a fantasy recast and their choices are quite interesting. Probably the best casting is Stephen Colbert in the Bob Saget role. This got me to thinking: which show would I recast? Who would be cast? So, I turn it over to you. What TV show would you recast?

Philip over at ihelpyoublog.com has created the ultimate topic list for a blog. He has listed 101 different types of blog posts you can add to increase your readership. Basically, you can take each type of blog post, and do it once, and if you want to blog every day, you’ve got almost 1/3 of the year covered.

There’s an article over on dailyblogtips.com that advocates specializing in one aspect, becoming a master at it and not spreading yourself too thin. I have to say I disagree with this one. Here’s why. Let’s say for example, you specialize in one skill. Let’s say you manufacture parts for cars. You study your field, you examine new production techniques, you refine your process to ultimate efficiency. Then, the company you work for discontinues the car model that uses your part. You no longer have a job, and since this is your only skill, you have no value to bring to the job market. This happens all the time, especially with people who work at mills for many years. The mill closes, people get into a lull doing the same job, honing that one skill, and when the job is gone, they struggle to find more work.

Now, what does this have to do with blogging? If you’re looking to make money by doing this, you aren’t going to make enough at the beginning to sustain yourself financially. If you’re new to this, this is a new skill you are developing, so you will need to continue exercising your other skills while developing this new one. Now, where the author from the above article gets it right is in the number of skills you try to develop. If you try to develop skills in 6-7 areas, you will not be as efficient as someone developing 2-3. And if you develop a new skill set, work diligently, research, and come close to mastery before adding other skills.

Keeping with the last post, I decided to put another Star Wars related post up today.  This comes from Goldentusk, the genius who put together the LOST video I posted last week.  This is one of my favorite videos/songs from this guy.  Enjoy!