With the internet offering bloggers as many opportunities as it does, including paid blogging, paid tweeting, product reviews, giveaways, and special partnerships with companies, just to name a few, it’s important to present yourself in a personal, authentic manner with a professional twist. Once upon a time business cards were just for big time executives and door-to-door salesmen, but these days anyone can benefit from a business card. And if you’re selling something niche-like, such as plus size swimsuits or wedding favors, you’ll definitely want to have your own business cards! And since they’re so cheap, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have some as well!

How to design a blogger’s business card

My personal recommendation is to keep things short and sweet. Break away from the standard, “professional” look for business cards and create something that represents you as a person, as a blogger. But be sure to include your name, your email address, a phone number if you don’t mind giving that out (I use my cell phone number), and of course your blog URL(s). You may also wish to list the things you’re interested in and actively do as a blogger, such as writing sponsored posts, generating SEO content, hosting successful giveaways, etc.

How to order business cards

Once you’ve got the design down, now you need to get those business cards printed up! A few websites I have used for professional business card printing include 123 Print, ooprint.com, Vista Print, and most recently, UPrinting.

If you have a printer, Microsoft Word or another word processing program that can generate a business card template, you can use that and a standard set of Avery business card templates to print up your own cards!

For those interested, here is my personal/blogger business card:

A lot of bloggers, when criticized/attacked/called out on something they have said or done, tend to run away from the confrontation. They’ll put up a hiatus message, temporary disable their blog, or in some cases, permanently shut it down altogether. I can’t tell you how wrong I think this is. In this world, when it comes to confrontation, it’s much better to stick around and face the music. It’ll be unpleasant, sure, especially if you’re being called out on something that you said or did wrong, but why take the cowardly way out?

Remember: bad publicity is still publicity.

You can take a bad situation and turn it to your advantage, at least in terms of harnessing that new traffic and doing something positive with it. Assuming you haven’t done anything terribly atrocious, such as putting harmful toxins in lab coats, you can simply continue on with Business As Usual. If you have done something wrong, acknowledge it, own up to it, apologize, and then move on. The worst thing you can do is feed any drama by dwelling on what’s going on. If you’re going to publicly acknowledge the bad publicity, do so once and for all in a concise manner, and then move on.

Most importantly, show the people who have come to your site with bad intentions that you’re worth getting to know, and that they should give you a chance. Now might be a great time to put up that new layout, show off your photography skills, or simply wow people with your great writing.

Believe it or not, in the paid blogging world there is a little separate niche known as paid commenting. Paid commenting is just what it sounds like — being paid to comment on blogs. Of course the payout for a paid comment isn’t nearly what a blogger is paid for writing an actual blog post, but participating in paid comments can be a worthwhile endeavor. For one thing, it’s a quick and easy way to earn some extra pocket change. For another, it exposes you to new blogs you may not have otherwise discovered. Plus, it can be fun to read and comment on blogs!
On average, paid commenting pays anywhere from $0.50 to $1.00 per comment. Each advertiser will have his or her own specifications, but generally you’re expected to include a specific name (usually a keyword) in the name field, a specific email address and URL in the email and URL fields, and your own comments.

There is definitely a lot of controversy surround paid commenting — in fact, I think paid comments are more controversial than paid blog entries! It’s such a hot topic because it’s one thing to utilize your own blog to make some money. But to use other people’s blogs? Like I said… a definite hot-button issue.

I will be the first to admit that I have done some paid commenting here and there. Besides getting paid, the only thing different about these types of comments is the info presented in the name, email address, and URL fields. Other than that, everything is the same. I thoroughly read the blogger’s blog entry, and I formulated a response that showed my sincere interest in what they had to say. I’ve left compliments, offered advice, commiserated with someone on a shitty day, etc., via paid comments.

Some will argue that paid comments are a way of “using” a blog for its SEO potential. But when people normally leave comments they include their own URLs, in the hopes of getting hits back to their own sites. So in that regard, how is it any different?

Hopping onto an unsecured network is controversial not only because it can leave you vulnerable to viruses, malware, your information being intercepted, etc., but because it’s against the law (isn’t it?). Connecting to an unsecured network and using it to access the internet without asking for permission is equivalent to jumping into a stranger’s car and taking off. Or is it? Some would have you believe that both offenses are equally dastardly, but I beg to differ. Both are wrong, certainly. But while stealing someone’s car can lead to an accident, a crime being committed, or both, using someone’s unsecured network connection usually does no more “harm” than using up a very insignificant amount of bandwidth. I’d say that using someone’s wireless network without permission is more like using ellipticals at the gym without asking the previous users if they were done, than it is like stealing someone’s car and taking off with it!

I freely admit to taking advantage of unsecured networks every now and again. What can I say? Sharing is caring. But when I have, I have first and foremost protected myself by setting it as a public network, so that none of my files are accessible, and I’m not even present on their network list (though I would be by IP address/MAC address, were they to check their router settings). And secondly, I protect them by using the connection only minimally — just to check email or log on to a website real quick — and never accessing anything that could be even remotely construed as illegal.

But for the most part, I carry my own internet connection with me, via my Sprint mobile network account, so the debate on unsecured networks is a moot point.

So, what’s your take on unsecured networks? To use or not to use?

Bloggers getting dooced is nothing new. Heather Armstrong is one of the big ones, of course. Most recently The Beautiful Kind has joined the ranks of bloggers that have lost their jobs due to their blogs. However, if what she says is true, TBK wasn’t canned for blogging about her job or blogging on the job, but simply for blogging about her sexual lifestyle, a lifestyle that her employer(s) found to be distasteful and not in agreement with their own opinions and morals.

Well, fuck opinions and morals. So TBK is into BDSM. So she just happens to be a single mother. So the fuck what? Who she screws and how she screws them is nobody’s business but hers, and should she choose to share the info, it should not in any way, shape or form threaten her employment.

I said it on jenn.nu and I’ll say it again, TBK should sue for discrimination and wrongful termination. Sadly, in this conservative, politically correct society, something tells me she wouldn’t win. But at the very least, she would put the spotlight on this very important issue.

• Guestbooks
• Guestblocks
• Tagbooks
• Tagboards
• Plugboards

?

Man, the first half of the 00s had so much cool stuff. Now we’ve all settled into our XHTML valid ways, and to be quite honest a lot of designs have gotten quite boring. I miss the days of being absolutely enthralled by vibrant, sprawling, completely invalid CSS & HTML designs. Now we’re all into clean, grid-happy and column-happy layouts, the best in CSS, clean colors, neat and precise landscaping, etc.

*yawn*

My mother — who recently came into a decently sized insurance policy — has hinted at getting me a netbook. I used to scoff at them, but to be honest, there are a lot of times when I bring my 17″ laptop along to outings and such “just in case” (I do a lot of freelance work around the clock, so if I’m going to be doing nothing somewhere for 15 minutes or more, it definitely pays to have access to work!), and while I do enjoy bringing it along, I don’t enjoy how heavy and awkward it is. I’ve complained a few times, I guess, hence why my mother is dropping the hints.

Now, I know she ordered a netbook for herself last week, from HP. It’s possible she might have ordered one for me as well, especially since my birthday is coming up (I turn 26 on June 13th), and I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion my resentment and hurt at the fact that she has not given me a single thing for my birthday for at least eight years. And no, that is not an exaggeration. If she does surprise me with one, I’ll definitely be excited and grateful. But if she asks me if I’d like to have one, I don’t know… it’s one thing to have a custom-built netbook handed to you (I know my mom; she wouldn’t be satisfied with the standard pre-made models). It’s quite another to have someone basically say, “Okay, I have three hundred bucks laying around… should I use it to get you a netbook?”

Decisions, decisions.

P.S. If it helps matters any, I always have big, roomy purses that would more than accommodate a little 10″ netbook! :D

Dear Google Chrome,

Blogging and general internet surfing would be so much more enjoyable if I had a more appealing look for my browser. Right now your theme choices are sadly limited, and to be honest there’s only two or three that I half-ass like, anyway. And you can only switch things around so many times over the course of two or more months before you give up and go back to the default, boring silver/gray. And when I’m spending hours researching and writing about life insurance no medical questions and life insurance in general, you better believe that boring silver/gray gets really old, really fast.

For the love of god, get something fresh in! Or maybe make it so that users of Google Chrome can create their own themes (either locally or remotely)! Pretty please? Thanks!

Sincerely,
A former Firefox user who is almost tempted to switch back just to have something more enjoyable to look at!

If you are going to communicate with others on the internet, keep in mind that it can be very difficult, if not downright impossible, to remain anonymous. However, it always pays to take precautions. It’s true that people can use your IP address to at least get a general idea of where you live or work, but if you take a few extra steps, you can keep others in the dark about your exact identity and location. Here are a few tips:

• Never use your last name. Be careful not to use an email address that reveals your last name, or even its first initial.
• Never, ever, ever give out your home or work address. If you want to exchange correspondence or receive a gift, have it sent to a PO box. A PO box can be slightly inconvenient to check, but it’s worth the inconvenience and the price (which is generally $40 or less per year).
• Never give out your home phone number, or your cell number. Records can be accessed based on your telephone number, and those records will more likely than not reveal where you live.
• Don’t give out the full names of family members or friends. If they use the internet, ask them to help protect your identity by using only your first name, or an alias.
• If you post photographs, make sure that they do not contain any revealing street names, signs or landmarks. If they do, crop that part of the photo out, or use a blurring tool to at least obscure the identifying info.
• Make sure that phone numbers are not visible in your photographs, as they can be queried to reveal local geographical information.
• If you own a domain name, pay the extra moolah for a proxy or private registration, so that your own name and mailing info isn’t published.
• Use separate email addresses for general online correspondence and location-specific correspondence. This way, if you choose to use your local FreeCycle, you don’t have to worry about people querying your email address and finding you there.

Remember, it is not always impossible to find out information about someone on the internet. But if you take steps to not give out much or any identifying information, people will have to work that much harder to find out more about you.

A client whose blog about weight loss supplements I sometimes help out with recently lost nearly four months worth of posts, thanks to a Yahoo Webhosting snafu. I felt bad for them, but at the same time I couldn’t help but wonder why the heck they didn’t bother to have backups on hand. I use WordPress Database Backup, which I can set to do daily or weekly backups and email them to the address of my choice. I can even specify the tables I want to be saved in the backup!

Seriously people… as easy as WordPress is to use and customize, why can’t you install one simple little plugin that will save you so much potential hassle and grief later?