My favorite comic, Pearls Before Swine, turned its attention to blogs today.

I like the analogy.

That’s my new goal for this blog I think: It needs to be more fulfilling — both for me and the readers — than beating someone with a toilet seat. I hope I’m up to the challenge.

Courtney Tuttle pointed out a great resource today. He just had a logo designed by a regular at the Digital Point forum called Adrian … and he paid only $10 for it.

This guy does fantastic work for incredibly cheap prices. He definitely has a style — all his designs are typically Web 2.0, with puffy fonts, rounded corners, flat colors, etc. But if you’re looking for that particular feeling, Adrian’s the go-to-guy it seems.

Sounds like he’s been so busy that he doesn’t yet have a portfolio site, but you can read through the Digital Point thread and see many examples of his work. He’s got me thinking of new niche ideas just so that I can order some logos!

Maki at DoshDosh is introducing a new regular feature: Weekend Media.

I consume a lot of information every week through all forms of media: Apart from blogs and online magazines, I regularly read books and watch films. I love to learn new ideas and I thought why not share what I read or watch with my readers?

It’s an interesting idea, which brought to mind a problem I see for bloggers in two situations:

Bloggers whose mother tongue is not English

Despite the exponential growth of non-English Internet users and bloggers, the language of commerce on the Internet continues to be English. There must be some serious challenges to bloggers who write in English but for whom it’s a second-language.

This has been brought home to me in recent years, since I became part of another group: Continue Reading »

Courtney Tuttle just wrote the ultimate blog post: This Worst Post in the Universe. Every awful post deserves an awful comment, but I couldn’t bring myself to actually inflict it on Courtney’s blog. So here it is.

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Yay, number 1!!

Courtney, I don’t think I agree with u but everyone’s entitled to there opinion, OK? — LOL — Some of the things you said … Dang, I just spilled Cheez Whiz on my pants, don’t you hate when that happens, the spicy Cheez Whiz I mean, the regular stuff blows, you know?? … anyway, some of the things aren’t quite accurate. I mean, I don’t think you’ve really thought it through this idea of not repeating what you just said even though you may not have said what you meant to before you repeated it the first time. The way you just said it, ya know?

Anyway, the reason I wrote is because you must make mad money online ya? And I’ve got a computer and so I figured that you could tell me how to do like no work ever online and still get loads of cash from suckers who want to buy Vi@gra and stuff? (yeah, I know i know, I’m learning … gotta use those $ymbols for words like Viagra or your computer just stops cold cos of spam right?)

I already set up this kicking Geocities site here www.geocitys.com/tuppysplace/cool_site.httml , so could you check it out and give me some good ideas of what to write about … or maybe I could just copy it from another site right?My friend told me that’s what all you big bloggers do, but she was drunk when she told me, know wot I mean? She was partying like a rockstar so she’d be ready for conferences when I’m a guru.

BTW, I looked all over your site for that picture of you with your bald head holding up that sweet adsense check for like millions of dollars … where did it go?

There’s a delightful post about linking strategy this morning from Monica at Easy Wordpress:

… you can use incoming links to give back to those who clearly favor you and your blog. Here is what I do and it is fun …

She outlines the ways in which one can show gratitude for an incoming link. Since reciprocal links are potentially counter-productive, she suggests that one should instead Stumble, Zoom, Sphinn & Twitter their post in gratitude. And of course, you could simply drop them a friendly thank you email.

She has lots of other ideas for link loving, and her post is a nice reminder of the value of gratitude.

There are aspects of my work life that I find very easy and pleasant, and others where I’m conscious I have some real weaknesses. One of my greatest failings is that I enjoy learning about a new subject — a new internet marketing technique for instance — much more than I enjoy getting down to work.

I can read and read for hours about article marketing; AdSense arbitrage; affiliate marketing; PPC campaigns; niche blogging; list building; and on, and on. I’ve become quite an expert on many of these subjects, although I’ve no list and I’ve done precious little affiliate sales.

I’m not sure exactly why I find it so hard to take action. I don’t think the pop-psych generalities are necessarily accurate in my case … I’m certainly not afraid of success, nor do I believe that I’m incapable of achieving good work. Continue Reading »

Part 2: The Work

As I hinted in my last post, neither Mrs. Tuppy nor I have taken mainstream jobs here since our move to Israel. Instead, with the freedom that the Internet gives us we both work in the US from a distance, although in rather different ways.

Like most people, my picture of offshore workers used to involve computer support staff in India but the truth is that there are some very highly-skilled professionals working across time-zones around the world. My wife is an assistant to a small group of radiologists — all American trained and board certified — who cover the night shift in a series of East Coast hospitals. Since almost all imaging is now digital, rather than on film, files can be sent to Israel as easily as they’re sent down the hall to the radiology department in the hospital. Continue Reading »

Part 1: The Move

One of the miracles and blessings of the Internet is the freedom that we have to work from anywhere. Three years ago my wife and I took advantage of this to facilitate a dream we’d had for many years … but first, some background.

I grew up in England, and lived there until I was around 20. In college I majored in American Studies and thus had the chance to study in the US. I spent my junior year at the University of California in Santa Barbara and that, as they say, was it. I absolutely fell in love with America and during my final year of college back in England I made plans to return for graduate school. As chance would have it I got a scholarship to study at the University of Kansas and, in my naivete I figured “California … Kansas … How different could it be?” Continue Reading »

Or: How to learn new skills on your employer’s time

I never was one of those kids who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. I still envy my friends who knew in elementary school that they wanted to teach, or be a doctor … me, I had no idea. I knew that I had little or no head for math & science, and I read like mad; but I had no idea what work I wanted to do. My parents never had the chance to go to college but it was taken as a given that I would, which suited me fine.

My first degree was great fun, but prepared me for … well, for very little really. I majored in American Studies, a combination of history and literature. It was the perfect choice for someone who loves to read, but has little patience for anything written before about 1850. The great thing about American literature is that there is none (or precious little) before then! Strangely, employers weren’t beating down my door to hire me with my shiny new BA in American Studies, so I decide to indulge a lifelong interest in theatre and go to graduate school. Continue Reading »

Over the last twenty-something years I’ve had several different jobs and I’ve finally reached a conclusion that’s been coming for a l-o-n-g time. I don’t like having a job.

I went for about three years being self-employed — I was a graphic designer — and I loved the freedom of setting my own hours, working with a variety of clients and problem-solving on my own. But I found the ups & downs of a freelance income a great challenge, and eventually went back to a full-time job. Continue Reading »