Blogging Versus Psychiatrists

Blogging for your health. Photo courtesy of flickrcc @N04/2312596915 called trabajando en el Blog.

People write blogs for various reasons. They want to vent or voice their opinion, share their ideas and connect with others. Some just want to get the words out that are roaming in their heads.

Since I know journaling is recommended to relieve stress, I wondered how many psychiatrist visits were averted by simple blogging.

Really, if you think about it, when we go to a shrink they want to hear what we have to say and want us to open up honestly with our feelings and perceptions. This in turn, allows us to reexamine for ourselves how we think and act.

Isn’t that what we are doing as bloggers?

My hypothesis for today: Blogging lessens the need for psychiatric visits. This is not saying people don’t need psychiatrists or psychologists. As a preventative measure, blogging can be a tool for mental well-being.

Before you feel the need to make an appointment with your local shrink, consider blogging. You’ll keep money in your pocket and be healthier for it.

The Key to the Rainbow

Original Author: Mike Horvath New version by jacobolus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been working on a newsletter from Mail Chimp, which offers a free email service. For the basic service, they allow users a certain limited amount of colors within their templates of their WYSIWYG editor.

The color I’d been looking for to compliment my newsletter wasn’t one that was offered. Yet, I noticed they gave the hexadecimal code alongside the color block, so I thought… why not replace the code with the color I wanted?

After finding hexadecimal color charts online at html-color-codes.com, I began plugging in other codes and to my surprise it worked.

As silly and simple as this little task may be, I was glad I read about RGB values and hexadecimal codes in The Non-Designers Web Book prior to my design attempts.

It allowed me to get the color I wanted instead of settling for what was offered.

The More You Read, the More You’ll Write

By Debbie Morrow

Reading motivates you write. Photo: asistente en pienario, courtesy of flickrCC.

Recognize Good and Bad Web Design

Since this is a blog focused on the mechanics, design and writing of blogs, I wondered if I would run out of topics to discuss.

I realized the more I read blogs, the more I learned about blogs. I’d take notice of design and ask these questions:  Is everything aligned? What about proximity? Would I change anything on the page?

Blogs and How They Stack Up

As far as design, WordPress.com templates are pretty similar. There’s not too much people can really be off on.  It’s those other blogs and websites that I read through my Google reader that catch my newfound eye.

Now that I’m paying attention, I’ve been able to pick out spacing, color and template repetition that help unify a website or blog.

Other Benefits to Reading Blogs

To Use or Not to Use…That is the Question!

Using a Smartphone Blog App

Errors occur easier with smartphone writing.

We all like to stay connected and adding a blog app to a smartphone can be a great way to do the basic tasks. What concerns me is that people will begin to publish meatless posts (and I don’t mean vegetarian here) where brief words or comments don’t always have the depth that many of us love.

I’m not asking for a thesis. Even a hundred words could do.

I’m not a perfect writer even though I write professionally. I check, edit and recheck. Expecting to find errors on a tiny screen is insanity. Sure there’s the spell check. But we all know how sometimes it fails us.

As a writer who understands the importance of concise writing, spelling and syntax, I cringe with the thought of posting with a blog app.

One Writer’s Advice

Real Men Blog

By Debbie Morrow

Men can find relaxation in blogging and it is beneficial to their health. Photo courtesy of flickrCC : The Barefoot Blogger.

Blogging for Your Health

I tend to agree with The Geek Gal Juj from Geek in the Home.  In her post Why Men Need Blogs, she suggests men need a writing outlet to channel their feelings, find support and release emotions they may not feel comfortable sharing in person.

Many times, men (and anyone else, at that rate) need a healthy outlet after a stressful day. This could be either writing what they’ve encountered during their day, or reading what others in the same boat are feeling.

Evidence of Good Blogs by Men

The Geek Gal doesn’t seem to think there are good men blogs out there. For this point, I’ll have to disagree.  Women do out rank men in the blog world, but I’ve come across some interesting heartfelt or funny blogs from regular guys.

Some of these would include:

Racking My Brains about RSS Feeds

Learning: Not Always Easy

Trying to learn something new can be frustrating. Photo Xelda was kicking my butt, courtesy of flickrCC.

I’ve read the chapter on RSS feeds a few times in How to Do Everything with Your Web Blog 2.0 and at the WordPress.com support site. After each time, I still didn’t get it. If this was real simple syndication, how come it didn’t feel so simple?

I’m not the type to give up. I’m maybe dense at times, but not a quitter. So after reading what makes a good blog with the piece 12 Things to do After You’ve Written a New Blog Post and seeing again how RSS feeds are important, I tried for the third time to make heads or tails of it.

Illumination

I ran across a 3 minute video from leelefever on YouTube that finally sunk in. For the past 6 weeks, I was trying too hard to understand the mechanics behind RSS Feeds.  When I look back, I think…how did I ever not get it? That’s learning for you, once you get it, there’s no going back.

Now, all of my blogs (Frugal Frights and Delights and The Write Girl for the Job Blog) have RSS Feeds and I can check that one off my to-do list for my blog design! Now…what’s next?

12 things to do after you’ve written a new blog post [infographic]

I’m going to have to step it up and add some of these features. This gives a visual, quick and understandable assessment of what needs to be done with your blog.

What Makes a Newsletter Appealing?

By Debbie Morrow

Examination of a Corporate Newsletter

Critiquing ProTravel International’s newsletter called Travel Watcher

They use a simple white background template that uses columns for clean alignment and is easy to read. The banner title text is larger, in a different font than the rest of the text and is easily recognizable as the name of the newsletter.

The company logo (left, top) is clear who the newsletter is representing and what they do. With their word art emphasizing the letter “I”, it leads me to believe they are trying to show their readers they are important (by singling out the “I”).  This occurs with Apple products.

The newsletter is dated by month and is easily found on the top black border under the banner. It does not have a volume number. Other newsletters can be found within the corporate website with links to past monthly dated newsletters. Being a digital copy, there is no spine with additional information.

Unlike the non-promotional

Why Do We Blog?

Image: Blog Tagxedo courtesy of FlickrCC.

By Debbie Morrow

 

My first experience with blogging began back in 2010. It was for a writing class which did not address any part of formatting and design. Like so many other students, I just did what was necessary.

I wrote feature stories and classmates critiqued them. Very few of us, if any, gave ourselves a sidebar, blog roll, or other add-ons that can help a blog become successful. That wasn’t our objective.

Blogging Today: Connecting

Today, as I learn how design my site, I’m also learning why we blog.

When I blog or read other blogs, there’s a certain unity within the blog community. Although we’re writing about so many different topics, there is a connection.

At any given time when I search my reader on WordPress, I’m able to find people that enjoy the same interests as me. These are not just the few who have rallied or paid for higher search engine rankings.

Voices Often Unheard

I like to hear from people who might not be found if I had used a search engine.

I’m quite pleasantly surprised how

Examining Promotional Digital Non-Profit Material

Screen shot of WXXI newsletter on July 8, 2012.

The Cover Page

An example of non-profit digital promotional material can be found at WXXI’s website. They have several newsletters/magazines on a number of topics to reach people of all interests.

To be able to see the newsletters, a person needs to register with an email address. After a password is assigned, past issues can be viewed from a link within the WXXI site and upcoming issues will be sent to an email account.

Notice the banner name is done (top left) in a larger, two-color