Emhoo Blog

Here is a story drawn from the book entitled "Morti Bianche" (White Deaths), written by Samanta Di Persio and made available free of charge on this blog.
"The accident involving Antonino Mingolla occurred on 18 April 2006. My husband was working for a company called Cmt, a firm that had been awarded the maintenance contract for the Ilva plants. Due to his many years of experience in the field, he was appointed as deputy site foreman. On that fateful day, he and his team were scheduled to replace a valve on a certain pipeline that removed the gases produced by the blast furnaces. This task required that the workers wear masks connected to air tanks located on the ground. Prior to the commencement of the maintenance operations, Ilva was required to make the area safe, in other words, shut off the gas supply and flush the pipeline with nitrogen in order to remove any remaining traces of the gas. The flushing occurs through a number of flues. The valves were then to be shut by Ilva employees prior to handing over to the outside company for them to begin with the necessary work. In order to ensure the “safety” of the operations, the company normally handed out the masks they kept on hand, which were fitted with gas detectors, but apparently, on tat day none of these detectors registered the presence of any gas.
The pipes on which the people were working are enormous. They are three metres in diameter and are suspended some twenty metres above ground level. There were walkways located adjacent to this pipeline. On the one side was the entrance with the staircase leading up, serving both as access way and escape route. In the spot where my husband was working, there was a two-metre by four-metre walkway, fenced off by a handrail. Each time Antonino needed to move around, communicate with anyone at the other end of the working area or simply move away in order to keep an eye on the workers, or if he perhaps felt unwell, he was obliged to clamber over a three-metre pipe.
This was an untenable situation and one that was anything but safe. When a company puts a job out on tender, they should oversee the work in order to ensure compliance with the safety regulations, even as regards temporary operations. Are we honestly expected to believe that neither Ilva nor Cmt committed any safety violations?
Notwithstanding the fact that the conditions were not up to the required standards, my husband and his team nevertheless began with the maintenance procedure. If the truth were told, this was the way it had always been. They started disconnecting the pipes to insert the blank flanges that run on rails, in order to prevent any gas from escaping while the valve was being worked on.
Already early on during the day, they had encountered certain problems with the insertion of the blank flanges. At around 10 o’clock, one of Antonino’s colleagues began to feel ill due to the emission of toxic gaseous substances into the air.
When I spoke to him, he told me that he had changed the gas tank. The procedure for changing the tank was the same as it had always been previously and involved the workers moving back to a safe zone. That morning, instead, when he put the mask back on, he began to feel ill as a result of dizziness and nausea. What I think is that there were high levels of carbon monoxide in the air, which also landed on Antonino’s mask and he eventually died at four in the afternoon. His shift was due to end at 15h00. He stayed on for an extra hour due to his sense of duty and because he wanted to see the maintenance job through to its conclusion.
Only the court case will be able to establish the precise dynamics of the accident with any kind of certainty. For the time being, there is only a lot of passing the buck.
Antonino and I were the same age; we were both 46 years old at the time of the accident. We had two adolescent children who are now 15 and 16 years of age respectively. We had made a joint decision that he would go out to work while I would stay at home and raise our children. I try to provide the children with everything they may need so as to ensure that they can live in a carefree manner and, I must say, they have been extremely understanding. I feel honour bound to carry on fighting, together with the other families that have been left all alone, both by the trades union and the politicians. The only trade union that has given us any kind of support at all is the organised SLAI COBAS trade union of Taranto, who advised us to set up the “12th July Association”. Ilva has never approached us, not even as regards the conciliation attempt set up by my attorney.
Antonino was afraid because there had been far too many accidents of late. For example, I remember on of the stories he told me. On one occasion, a worker standing next to my husband fell off the scaffolding, under which ran the conveyor belts. They asked that the conveyor belts be stopped so that the man’s body could be recovered, but Ilva could not halt their production. From the year 2000, through to 2007, 16 men lost their lives in that place. That place is and always will be Dante’s Inferno, so it is appropriate to quote the phrase “abandon hope all ye that enter here”. It was only thanks to a bit of fear and irony that my husband was able to continue going to work. I am concerned about the fact that around 1,300 people die every year due to their work, that too many of these have no voice and are not ever mentioned. We are talking about an average of 3.5 deaths every day. My prayer is that no more bodies be separated and broken because these are human beings and should remain intact. What I wish for is that the hope for justice never dies, because it is difficult to face court cases where, against a colossus such as Ilva, I feel somewhat like an insignificant little ant. I cannot believe that the statute of limitations on these cases actually expires after just seven years.
During this period, hearings may be postponed for no reason and the delays increase without any valid reason, for example, when certain witnesses fail to show up. There is no respect or protection, not even after tragedy for which my husband bore no blame. There are 13,500 people currently working for Ilva, and another 8,000 currently working for associated companies. There is no other option but for them to join the other families involved in the Associazione 12 giugno and the many other associations that would like to join forces, so that we can give each other strength and to travel throughout Italy to tell the story to anyone who may wish to fight at our side."
Samanta Di Persio, from the book entitled "Morti Bianche".

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“How do I increase the chances of getting a blog post to the front page of Digg?”

I’ve had questions about getting to the front page of Digg many times in the last few weeks so thought I’d put together a guide with a process for doing it. By no means is this something that will guarantee you success on Digg - but from my experience it’ll increase your chances to follow some of this advice.

1. The Content

If there’s one factor that can influence the success of a post on Digg it is the actual content that is submitted. This should go without saying but I chat to bloggers all the time who tell me they have no success with Digg and when I look at the posts they’re submitting - they’re just all wrong.

Digg users like a certain type of story and it can be well worth your time doing a little research into what works and doesn’t work by spending some time on Digg:

• Topics - a large range of topics work on Digg but some are more likely to work than others. For example Tech, Offbeat, some Entertainment stories can work really well - but if you have a craft blog or are blogging about cats you might need to work a little harder. It’s not impossible to do well on digg with some of these less popular topics - but you’ll need to think carefully about how you present it (read on)
• Voice - one way to rank well for a more obscure topic is to write your post in a style that grabs attention and appeals to the Digg crowd. They’re a bunch that likes humor, irreverence and quirky stuff - so if you’re writing on cats you would do better to do something off the wall like strap a camera to one than to write about something more serious.
• Titles - sadly, some stories get voted up and down on Digg simply based up their title. Take time to get it right.
• Page Layout - make sure your blog’s design is well laid out, not stuffed withe ads, professional looking and not cheap and nasty. Pictures can work well.
• Format - some people say that the best way to get on the front page of Digg is to write ‘list’ posts. I agree - but also find that when you write a more comprehensive and in depth article that this can also appeal.

For more on the type of content that works on Digg I’d highly recommend that you read Maki’s post on how to create Digg-Friendly Content.

2. The Submitter

The person who submits your post to Digg can be a very important factor in how well it does.

From talking to hardcore Diggers there are two theories going around in how to approach who should submit your Diggs (and these theories change depending upon what Digg is doing with their Algorithm:

• Power Diggers - one approach is to find a power Digger to submit your posts for you. What happens when you have one of these Diggers submits a story is that it gets seen by their friends on Digg and voted up quite quickly. You can expect to see 100 or so Diggs within a few hours of them submitting it. Once the initial rush dies off things tend to slow with Power Diggers - although just having their name on your post can create buzz and additional diggs.
• Small Time Diggers - another approach is to have posts submitted by lesser known Diggers. The theory here is that it can take these Diggers less votes to get to the front page while a Power Digger can take a lot more.

Whichever method of submission - in the majority of cases on Digg it’s not enough. As a result you might also want to consider some of the following.

3. On Page Digg Cues

One important factor in drumming up some more organic Diggs to go with those that your submitter naturally brings is to add visual cues on your posts inviting people to Digg the story.

• Digg offers a variety of Digg Badges for you to use
• The ‘Digg This’ button is also fairly influential
• Also check out the Digg Widget - this is particularly good because you can get it to show any recent posts from your blog that have been submitted to Digg. Put it in your sidebar and it means people who are on any page on your blog know there’s something climbing up the ranks in Digg (not just those who are on the post itself).

Don’t feel you have to use these buttons on every post. I actually will use them more when there’s a post climbing up Digg.

Lastly - add a text link to an upcoming post inviting readers to submit it. Again - I wouldn’t do this on every post but it can be effective when you’ve got something on the rise.

4. Giving it a ‘Nudge’

So you’ve got some great content that’s been submitted to Digg, you’ve got visual cues in place that will make it easy for readers to Digg it - now it’s time to give your post a nudge.

There are a number of ways to do this. Some are more blatant than others.

• Ask for Diggs - lets start with the obvious, one way to get Diggs is to ask for them. You can do this in any number of ways and using any number of tools. Some will shoot quick requests to people that they know using instant messaging, others ask on social messaging services like Twitter, others have email lists that they utilize. The key with asking for Diggs is to think about who you ask and how often. Work out who is open to invitations and work with them, but only on your best stuff. If you ask for Diggs on every single post you write you might annoy people more than anything else.
• Shout It - Digg has a tool on each digg page that enables you to ’share’ the story - it’s there to help promote stories on Digg so use it. This enables you to email people, blog it or ’shout’ it with your friends on Digg. Shouting can be a great way to get a story in front of other active Digg users. Once again - don’t shout too often - pick your best stories for this type of thing. Also know that the more you digg your friend’s stories when they shout them to you the more chance there is that they’ll reciprocate. If you’re looking for Digg friends - start with this list.
• Drive Traffic to Your Post - another technique that is less blatant that asking for Diggs is to work instead (or as well) at driving traffic to the post you’re working to get on the front page of Digg. Here’s the thing - if you have a post with ‘digg this’ buttons and you’re able to get another popular blog or site to link to it you’ll increase the chance for organic diggs. You’ve got 24 hours once a story is submitted to Digg, so if you think you’ve got something that other sites would be interested in make sure you send them links at the start of the 24 hours (or even before it’s submitted).
• Other Social Bookmarking Sites Help - I quite often notice that the posts that do well for me on Digg will often do well for me on Delicious or StumbleUpon first (although sometimes it happens the other way around). What happens is that when you get on the popular page of Delicious users of that service who also use Digg will bookmark your story in both places. As a result it can be worth working on ‘nudging’ votes in multiple places.

You’ll notice that on this point I said to give your post a ‘nudge’ rather than spam every person you know asking them to vote. Subtle promotion of your posts on Digg is recommended for two reasons - firstly you’ll annoy everyone you know if you’re constantly asking for Diggs and secondly, Digg has measures in place to track people who are manipulating their system and too many people voting up your stories too quickly or from the one source could send warning bells ringing and get your story buried.

5. Educating Readers

Lastly I want to talk about something that has less of an immediate impact upon a specific Digg campaign - but which over time can help.

Educate your readers about social bookmarking.

Many blog readers have never heard of Digg so finding ways to show them what the service is and how they can use it can have a real impact. The more of them who know what it is the more likely it is that they’ll use it - something that will benefit you as you begin to create a Digg Culture on your blog.

6. Organic Diggs

There comes a point in every story’s rise (and fall) on Digg where you have to stand back and let things happen.

What you’ll find is that at some point most successful Digg stories enter the ‘upcoming’ and ‘recommended’ lists and a certain amount of natural and organic digging begins to happen by people who you don’t know. This is where you see if your story has the legs to go all the way or whether it’ll be buried by people.

This is where you realize that it’s not about how many people you can get to Digg a story from your network that matters but whether you’ve actually written something that appeals to Diggers - because if you’ve written something bad you’ll find the story gets buried and all your hard work has gone to waste.

One more thing….

Let me finish with one more piece of advice. Don’t become obsessed with Digg.

I see a lot of bloggers obsessing over climbing the rankings on Digg and while it can bring a lot of traffic to your blog and be worth the effort to promote some of your posts on it when you become obsessed you can fall into these traps:

1. Only ever writing for Digg - I wrote about this earlier in the week but if all you ever write is content aimed at the Digg audience blogging can end up being a bit of an empty experience.

2. Spending All Day on Digg and Not on Your Blog - I’ve come across a lot of people on Digg that could benefit from spending a little less time trying to game Digg and a little more time investing into building a quality blog. The funny thing is that if they actually built a better blog they’d probably end up doing better at succeeding on Digg.

3. Submitting every post to Digg - not every post that you make will be ‘diggable’ - and that’s ok. IF you’re going to use some of the above techniques I would recommend that you only do it with your very very best content. Choose that content that people would want to naturally pass on to a friend or bookmark for later - this is the type of content that will do well on Digg - concentrate on promoting these ones, not your day to day posting.

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Google Gadget Description:
Just type in your favorite bands, movies and/or books, and you will get recommendations based on what you like. A gadget that helps you explore your taste. Brought to you by Emmy the Taste Kid.

Author:
Felix Oghina

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If you’re looking for a job as a blogger then the ProBlogger Blog Job Boards have seen 8 new jobs advertised in just the last 3 days. Actually there’s more than that - because some of the ads are for more than one blogger and one has already been filled.

Here’s the latest batch:

• Editor and cross-blog promoter for Spanish blog
• Food blogger/writer
• Fundraising Blogger
• Web Hosting, Golf, Education and DMV Writers Needed
• Business & Technology Bloggers Wanted
• Online personal tech publication seeks freelance writers
• Tech Blogger/Journalist (contract)
• Link Bloggers

There are also quote a few other jobs still open from the last few weeks here. Jobs like these are being filled very fast so to get notified of them within minutes of them being posted subscribe to the blogger job board RSS feed.

If you’re looking for bloggers….

If you’re looking to hire a blogger for your blog the job board is a wonderful place to find them. The RSS feed is subscribed to by thousands of bloggers, jobs appear in the ProBlogger Twitter feed (subscribed to by over 9000 people) as well as appearing on the front page of ProBlogger.net (seen by hundreds of thousands of people every month). Jobs also get picked up on a number of other job sites that track and aggregate our jobs! That’s pretty amazing exposure for your job considering it only costs $50 for 30 days.

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Army in the city
Click the image


Ignazio La Russa has deployed the army. Three thousand soldiers in the cities of Italy. If before this, the law enforcers always went around in twos, now they go around in fours. Two soldiers and two carabinieri or police. The mixed teams are already at work. In Milan, where Piazza del Duomo is controlled not unlike Kabul (there’s even the dog and his controller), in the first two days there have been three actions by the army, all decisive.
- First intervention: a man uses his elbow to smash a the glass of a fire alarm in the metro. “A patrol of police and military from the army arrived rapidly on the spot(*)". The guilty one was identified and denounced.
- Second intervention: two young people on a scooter didn’t stop when told to do so by a police car “The scooter was blocked by carabinieri and military in a mixed patrol at the “delle Cave” park. The chase started in via Forze Armate (where else? [editor]) and ended when the scooter entered the green space. Once inside the park, however the two youngsters got a flat rear tyre and while they were pushing the scooter towards the exit they were blocked and identified by the new mixed patrols of carabinieri and military (*).”
- Third intervention: a drunk was arguing with a shopkeeper “Military at work even in via Padova, where they are patrolling together with police officers. Yesterday they intervened to sort out an argument. But the intervention in this case was minimum. It was enough for the soldiers to turn up and bring back the calm(*)."
The deputy mayor “camerata” Riccardo De Corato was exultant: We have obtained the first important results, both in terms of deterrent and in terms of bringing back the serenity and the quiet life in problematic areas.”
The Police have always less money, they don’t have petrol for the police cars and overtime is not paid. This is why they bring out the army because the State has a ragged arse. And they make out that cuts in Police funding are increasing security. The Army is used like the strikebreakers of once upon a time.
At the Venice Film Festival the police won’t be there. The police officers have not yet received a euro for overtime in 2007 done during double shifts. If they are not paid they will not go to the Lido.
The Ministry instead of euros proposes “compensatory repose”. The 200 officers will probably be substituted by parachutists of the Brigata Paracadutisti Folgore. Cacciari has already said he is OK with that in the name of governability. One flew over the strikebreaker’s nest
(*) Corriere della Sera, 6 August 2008 Comments (No responses yet)

Stuck for something to write about on your blog? Here are a few suggestions of things that might help get the creative juices flowing.

1. Use Mind Mapping

I’ve previously talked about how Mind Mapping can be used to generate hundreds of ideas for blog posts. It can be used both to come up with fresh ideas for posts but also in extending previous posts that you’ve already written.

2. Change Your Blogging Environment

Sometimes simply writing in a different place can release a little creativity in you. If you’re fortunate enough to have a mobile device or laptop - hit a cafe, park, try a different room in your house, go to the beach…. You might be surprised what will come.

3. Answer a Question

The best posts are often those which answer specific questions. Questions tap into people’s needs or problems and can often be greatly appreciated by readers (this adds to reader loyalty).

There are lots of ways of getting relevant questions to answer:

• Answer one of your own questions
• Ask your readers to submit a question
• Ask another blogger for a question
• Ask your Twitter followers for questions
• Check your comment section to find questions from readers
• Visit other blogs and forums to search for questions from their readers
• Put yourself in the shoes of a beginner in your topic and imagine what their questions might be
• Look at your blog’s search engine referral statistics to see what people are asking to find your blog

Once you’ve got a question - answer it.

Tip: Start a ‘question journal’ of your own that you note any questions that you come across. Add any reader questions to it as they ask them - this way you’ll always have a question on hand to tackle.

4. Start with a Title

Most bloggers start writing their post first and add a headline later - however sometimes doing it the other way around can be fun. You might not end up using the headline that you start with - but it might be enough to spark a little creativity and get the ball rolling on a blog post.

5. Take a Break

One of the best things that I do to come up with ideas for blog posts is simply to go for a walk. Not a walk to think about blogging, just a walk, usually with my son. It is amazing what a little exercise and a little time thinking about something else can do for your creativity and ability to think clearly.

6. Give Yourself a Deadline

I have an unwritten deadline in my mind that I have to publish a post every night at midnight on both of my blogs (the timing varies a little from day to day but I have to at least have one ready to go by that time). I find that having this deadline in mind motivates me to come up with something. While there’s no one there to enforce the deadline it still seems to work for me.

7. Rid Yourself of Distractions

One of the biggest barriers for me in writing posts is getting distracted. Emails, instant messages, phone calls, family noise, online games, researching my next gadget purchase….. I could go on but even as I’m writing this I’m feeling the urge to do something else!

While there’s nothing wrong with any of these things - clearing time to write and putting barriers in place to keep the distractions at bay is important. For me one of the best ways to stop a lot of the distractions that tempt me away from writing is simply to get offline. Other tips include maximizing your screen so all you see is the document at hand, switching off email and instant messaging clients, using a tool like Writeroom (a mac tool that leaves you with nothing to look at on your screen except what you’re writing) etc.

8. Introduce ‘Random Challenges’

This is a little ‘odd’ thing that I sometimes challenge myself with - but on occasion I’ll challenge myself with writing tasks that are a little left of centre. I think I got this from Edward De Bono who in one of his books has a brainstorming exercise that challenges you to think of 10 ways that XXXX is like a XXXX. The exercise is designed to free up your mind and while most of what you’ll come up with is going to be rubbish it sometimes helps you to come up with new ways of looking at problems.

A recent example of this in my own blogging was a post on what the Mona Lisa Can Teach Portrait Photographers. While the Mona Lisa and portrait photography might not be too random - I actually started out to write a post that was about what Leonardo Da Vinci could teach us about blogging! The thought process that I went on led me to a much better topic.

9. Revisit a Previous Post

Once you’ve been blogging for a while it is easy to feel like you’ve said everything you want to say on a given topic. While you don’t want to be saying the same things every day - it’s OK to revisit previous topics.

The key is to find new ways to say those things you’ve said before, keep information up to date and relevant and to show that you’re developing and growing in your understanding of a topic.

• What have you written about previously in your archives that is now dated and in need of revisiting?
• What have you learned about since you first started your blog that you could write a new post on?
• What have new readers to your blog missed out on in your archives?

10. Speak the Post Out Loud

Sometimes I don’t get stuck with the initial idea of what to post - but the next step of refining it into an actual topic that I can write about.

When you’ve got the start of your topic it can be helpful to actually start talking about it - get it out of your head and explain it (even if it’s just to yourself). Sometimes the act of verbalizing ideas can crystalize them in your mind.

11. Free Writing

Similarly to verbalizing it - sometimes just sitting down and writing can release creativity. Many writers use this technique simply as a ‘warm up’ exercise - they sit down with their writing tool (pen and paper, computer etc) and simply write…. they write anything that comes into their mind. It might be total rubbish - but the exercise is not designed necessarily to come up with any ideas (although you might) but simply to get your brain into gear.

12. Switch ‘Voices’

Most of us as bloggers write the majority of our posts in the one ‘voice’ or ‘personality’. Sometimes forcing yourself to write as someone else would write can be helpful. The best fun I ever had writing a blog post was when I wrote 5 Things You Should Know about My Dad the ProBlogger - in the voice of my 1 year old son (I know - most of you thought it was really him…. but it was me!).

The experience of writing about my topic through the eyes of a family member was not only a lot of fun but it also brought a new perspective to a topic I’d covered many times - it also connected with readers in a different way.

13. Switch Styles

In a similar way - sometimes switching the style of writing can be helpful. By style I mean switching from writing ‘list posts’ to writing ‘rants’ or from writing ‘reviews’ to writing ‘case studies’. I’ve put together 20 types of blog posts here that might help you find a new one to experiment with.

14. Repurpose Other Communications

Many of the tasks that we do in the day to day of life can make excellent blog posts if only we’re on the look out to capture and repurpose them.

In my post 5 Ideas to Come up with Blog Content from Your Daily Life I examine these techniques for coming up with post ideas:

1. using answers to reader questions
2. using email communications as blog posts
3. documenting how you complete tasks
4. videoing yourself doing things
5. recording conversations

Sometimes your next blog post is in what you’re doing right now.

15. Achieve Something Else

Sometimes it’s not the coming up with an idea that stops you writing - it’s that you need to be doing something else. There’s a pile of dishes in the sink, your dog needs a walk, the lawn needs mowing and an assignment at work or school is over due…

I find that when other jobs are clouding my mind and stopping me from writing well that if I pick one of them and knock it off that the sense of achieving something can roll over into my writing. So put your writing aside for 15 minutes and go and do those dishes and get it off your mind before sitting down to write.

16. Go Surfing

I don’t mean to grab a surf board and actually go surfing (although that would tap into a few of the ideas I’ve already written about and could work) - but go surfing online for ideas. There are a number of places to head:

• Other blogs in your niche - what are they writing about? How could you extend what they’ve written? What have they missed? What are their readers asking? DON’T steal their ideas and DO give credit when they stimulate something that you write - but don’t be afraid to bounce off another blogger - that’s what blogging is all about!
• Forums - one of the richest places that I find for idea generation is forums. It’s actually one of the reasons that I started a photography forum - because every day there is a treasure trove of ideas created in it.
• Social Media - what is popular on Digg, Delicious or StumbleUpon today? What type of articles go viral and how could you apply the principles you see in posts that do to your own topic?
• Social Messaging - ask your Twitter and Plurk followers questions, interact with them around their answers - you’ll find that quite often as you interact in these messaging services that ideas will flow.

17. Go Surfing for Ideas Offline

One of my favorite places to go trawling for ideas is a local news stand. Almost every time I go there I come away for ideas for topics after 10-15 minutes of looking through magazines there. Sometimes it’ll be a topic that a magazine writes about that I can adapt for my blog and other times it’s just the titles that I find inspire my writing.

Similarly - libraries or bookshops can also be good sources for inspiration.

18. Play Devil’s Advocate

One of the best ways to come up with a fresh post is to take something that you’ve written about previously where you’ve argued strongly FOR a particular way of thinking - and then write an article taking the opposite view.

You might not completely agree with the post - but can present it in a way that makes this clear. For example - I once wrote a post on why people should consider joining a blog network and then did a followup post looking at why they shouldn’t. While I personally resonated more with the first article the second one actually was well received as it brought balance to the topic.

19. Involve Someone Else

If you’re completely frazzled and incapable of coming up with any ideas for yourself - it might be worth involving someone else.

• Ask someone to write a guest post for you.
• Invite someone to come on and be interviewed by you.
• Swap blogs with another blogger for a day.
• Ask another blogger if they have any ideas for posts.

Sometimes an outsider’s perspective can give you the lift you need.

20. Identify Your Golden Hours for Writing

My best time of day for writing is mid morning. I regularly block out this time purely for writing.

For other bloggers that I know the evenings or afternoons are best. The key is to identify the time that you work best and then block out time in that window for writing. Don’t let it be crowded by less important tasks but diarize the time for what is most important - content creation.

Having said that - don’t feel you can’t mix it up. Some days when I just can’t get going in the morning I’ll throw in the towel and go do something else until later in the day.

21. Big Picture vs Small Picture Posts

One problem that I see many bloggers struggling with is being overwhelmed by the hugeness of their niche and the topics within it and feeling the need to cover it all in each post. As a result they write these mega posts with 40 points and then find themselves with not much else to say because they’ve just covered their whole topic in one post.

What I encourage them to do is to think about writing a combination of ‘big picture’ posts and ’smaller picture posts’.

For example - this very post is what I’d consider to be bigger picture. While it is all on one topic it’s covering a fair bit of ground (20+ points). However over the coming months I could follow up some (or all) of the points in this post with more in depth expansions upon each one.

Alternatively I could have chosen to break this actual post down into 20 or so smaller posts - a series.

22. Ask Your Readers a Question

You don’t need to be the one with all the answers on you blog. Come up with a question to ask your readers that relates to your blog’s topic. You could run it as a poll or simply as a discussion starter.

When you ask readers questions there often will arise possibilities for followup posts including:

• answering the question for yourself
• compiling reader answers
• compiling a list of resources on the topic you’ve asked about

Asking questions also gives readers a sense of involvement and develops community on your blog.

23. Set up News Alerts

If your blog has a ‘news’ focus you’ll definitely want to set up alerts using tools like Google Alerts or Technorati’s watch lists. These alerts will email you or notify you via RSS when a news service or blog posts about the keywords that you identify to be ‘watched’.

Such alerts are also useful for non newsy blogs also as they will let you know how other blogs and news sources cover the topics that you’re writing about. It’s often through these sorts of alerts that ideas for new posts will come.

24. Summarize what Others are Writing

One of the most popular posts that I’ve written on my Photography blog lately was 25 Great Photography Tutorials and Links from Around the Web.

The post was simply a compilation post of posts that other bloggers in my niche had written, plus a few from my archives and a few videos.

While the post is simple (it does take some work to pull together but it’s a different kind of work to writing your own tips) it was very popular with readers and did quite well on social media sites.

What I also found as a bonus is that in compiling the list I ended up with quite a few ideas for future posts of my own!

What Do You Do When You’re Stuck for Ideas to Write About

All of us struggle to find things to write about on our blogs from time to time - I’ve shared a few strategies of what I do - but what about you? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on how you break though those dry patches too - share your thoughts in commetns below.

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It’s time for a new poll here on Problogger - this time the question is:

Do you Run RSS Ads on Your Main Blog?

RSS advertising has been around for a couple of years now and I see quite a few RSS ads appearing in my own RSS reading - but I’d be interested to know just how far it extends into the blogosphere - so lets see shall we?

Looking forward to seeing the results of this poll.

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In Italy, defamation pays. It is the backbone of disinformation. The stick to use against enemies and against friends who are too entrepreneurial. A club that has hit just about everyone. The mad Bossi who attacked the mafia guy of Arcore in the early 1990s. Fini, the young career man who wanted to do things on his own, with the new companion pilloried by "Striscia la notizia". The young man with beautiful hopes Azzurro Caltagirone, reduced to a smudge. For the enemies, and here you understand enemies to be those who have not allowed themselves to be “bought”, the ration is doubled, tripled, so basically, really abundant. Whoever is not for sale is dangerous. They cannot be blackmailed. And how can you trust a person who you cannot blackmail? In the times of bombs and the Corleonesi mafia, you had them explode into thin air. One strike and it’s done. But at that time, information was not completely under control. They were crude but inevitable mechanisms. The machine gun for Dalla Chiesa or the TNT imported for the military that was brought from the continent to via D'Amelio, are distant memories
These days, the motorways are useful for imposing the State “pizzo” by means of the Benetton concession. To destroy them when a judge is passing by, as happened at Capaci, creates economic damage.
The nutriment for defamation is (false) facts, (one-sided) opinions, adjectives to disqualify. Ms Forleo becomes psychologically unstable, and above all she cries. What guarantee is offered by a judge who cries? A weak and fragile woman. Whether she is right is not relevant. If she touches D'Alema she is to be transferred, far from Milan, to Cremona. De Magistris had put his finger in the sore of the exchange vote, of the European funds shared out with the local criminals and the parties. He was attacked for being active, accused of having violated the code. He was absolved of every accusation and anyway transferred to Naples. The politicians from Calabria under investigation have not been transferred. Calabria is full of clean swimming pools in the villas of power and full of turds floating on the beaches because of the purification plant that have never been made to function. With the accusations against me, you could fill an encyclopedia. The great thing is that they are all false.
The defamation of the adversary has even the aim of moving the attention from MY problems with the justice system, to YOUR (non-existent) problems with the justice system. From MY corruption to your (non-existent) abuses. From MY closeness with people convicted of mafia crimes to YOUR justicialist rages. The more they are lurid, the more the shit I throw on my adversaries, cleanses me.
The System is united. Repubblica and Emilio Fede are not different. Belpietro and Padellaro are Siamese twins separated at birth and united in the defense of the master.
We cannot go ahead like this. Hard and soft defamation has to be fought. It is by now a virus that infects the mind of the Country. People believe what is decided by Berlusconi and De Benedetti and the powers connected to htem. People are intoxicated. Anyone who puts themselves forward to change the System is attacked by the media with the absolute certainty of remaining unpunished. The most they risk is a fine. Nothing to destroy a reputation.
From today there’s an active area of the blog called "Sputtaniamoli" {Let’s discredit them}.
Insert the false articles, the links and the information about the journalist who signed them. I will make it a fixed column in the blog.
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Today I want to tell you the story of a blogger whose problem that he was too good at getting on the front page of Digg. But first - I want to share a quote from Michael Gray who said something last week that hit the mark for me:

“One way to make sure your linkbait is successful is to pick a subject that you believe in, are passionate about, and that will bring out an emotional response from members of your target audience.

Or you could play it safe and write the 5 ways Twitter is helping web 2.0 businesses.

The first is memorable the second is utterly forgettable. ”

I wish I’d said that.

A Blogger With a Problem

I spoke with a blogger (we’ll call him Buddy) last week who presented me with a problem. Buddy’s problem was this:

He had been blogging for a year or so and had worked out how to write the kind of content that did well on Digg. In fact he’d perfected the art of writing Diggable content to such a degree that he hit the front page most weeks. As a result he had a blog with a lot of monthly traffic.

This doesn’t sound like that much of a problem… well not yet….

Buddy’s frustration was that he had no (or very few) loyal readers.

His reflection to me was this:

‘I’m writing fluff. It’s good fluff because it can draw a crowd, but I think they quickly leave because it doesn’t really mean anything to anyone, including me.’

Buddy asked me if he should stop writing the ‘Diggable Posts’ (the fluff)? My response to him was to try a couple of things:

1. Bring the Digg formula to topics that matter - what if he applied the principles to topics he was actually passionate about?

2. Mix in posts that go deeper - not every post needs to be ‘fluffy’ - in fact I find that a good mix of styles of posts can work well on a blog. A ‘Top 10 ways to…’ ‘how to’ list post one day, a ‘review’ post the next day, a question for your readers the next, a ‘rant’ the following day, followed up by a case study the next day….. etc (you can see 20 types of posts here).

What I find is that the ‘fluffy’ posts draw the crowd but the other types of posts actually engage them and keep them coming back. In effect this is what I’ve been doing on DPS and it’s worked well for me.

There’s nothing wrong with writing the type of post that could go viral on social media sites - however like Michael says - it’s posts that mean something to you, that are written with passion and that bring out some kind of emotional response in your readers that will make an impact upon people.

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Each year the Italians pay taxes even to give about 13 billion euro to the European Community. This money finishes up in a common fund. About 8 or 9 billion returns to Italy. That’s called help from the European Community, but it’s our money. That escapes from any control by the government. The one signing for the destination of the funds is an unknown official in Brussels. The billions destined for works that are usually not brought to fruition or are useless or not even spent (but pocketed). The euros returning finish up on the whole in Campania, in Calabria, in Sicily. But the people of Campania, of Calabria, or of Sicily don’t see the positive effects. This flow of uncontrolled money feeds criminality, the undergrowth of politics, the exchange votes. And all in the light of day, but it’s all hidden. Like the best traditions of our country. Once upon a time, there was the “Cassa del Mezzogiorno”, today there is the “Cassa di Bruxelles” {Brussels Cash}. The blog, as soon as it can, will give an account of the spending and will publish it. The Italians need to know where their taxes go, who spends the money and what it’s used for. The Internet has exactly this function.

”I’m an American, from Apulia. I’m in advertising and I’m outraged. That’s why I will never participate any more in the Italian public competitions for communications.
These are the facts: on 14 December 2007, the Region of Apulia published a competition announcement for the communication and promotion of its territory in Italy and in the world. The money offered is not a mean amount. 7 million euro! And as it is money from the European Community, it has all to be spent, as is very clear in the competition announcement, in the two years 2007 to 2008.
And already here, I who am American, perhaps naïve and perhaps an idealist, identify the first anomaly. Where I live, if someone receives public financing and they say that he has to spend it in a certain way, he does it. It would be as if my doctor tells me that in order to get better from my illness I have to take a certain medicine for two years, and I decide to take the medicine only in the second year but two at a time.
I have an advertising agency in New York and one in Italy and lots of agencies belonging to our group in the main countries of Europe. I am an American citizen and I’m an Italian resident. My family has its origins in Apulia. I know, respect and love Apulia. How could I not have participated in this tender? So, together with my partners and with the agencies of our international system, we set to work: strategies, creativity, numbers, ideas and documents. So much paper, hundreds of sheets, millions of sheets!
On 11 February 2008 the tender period closed and 7 companies apart from us, present their proposals. I’m thinking, may the best one win. And here is the second anomaly. I discover that in the competition there are not just advertising and communications agencies, but also groups of publishers and TV networks from Apulia. Strange, isn’t it? Where I come from, communications are done by communications agencies. It’s as though to promote the sale of my ice creams in the bars of the whole world, I ask the bar under my apartment to create the campaign. But let’s get to the third anomaly. It’s February. Summer is getting closer and the proposals sleep in the drawers of the Region, under a warm layer of dust. The months slip by and my astonishment grows. How is it possible, I ask from New York to my colleagues in Italy. They lost last season, they wouldn’t want to lose this one as well? Yes. They want to lose this one too.
Today, 20 July 2008, the contract to promote Apulia in the two years 2007 – 2008 has not yet been assigned. After the opening of the final envelopes, the classification causes some perplexity and strange shadows hover over the certainty of its assigning. And guess who is in top position? “The bar under my apartment” To say, without giving offence, the local company.
I don’t know whether it will be made official the allocation of the budget, but I know that to spend 7 million euro in TV advertising, press releases, radio advertising, flyers and brochures, all in a handful of weeks at the end of the year is an offence to common sense. And for what then? To attract to Apulia skiers and those in all the world who love winter sports?
Here are my conclusions: I participated knowing that I could win. But also putting into the calculations that I could lose. We have not lost. It’s worse. We were excluded for a vice of form. We were about to appeal because our lawyer said that the reasons for our exclusion do not exist. I have stopped everything and I have decided to write this letter. I am not interested in being an accomplice in this waste of money. I am interested in denouncing it. I am doing it as an outraged American publicist, as a proud Italian resident, as an injured person from Apulia. And I am asking why does no one make his voice heard? Does the European Community have nothing to say when it sees how its money is used? And does the Italian association of advertisers not feel the need to defend their professionalism? I know that when I open the American newspapers I will see advertising about other regions of Italy. And I also know that the next time I land at Fiumicino, Rome’s airport I will see massive advertisement for Sicily, Tuscany etc. And I will laugh when I arrive at Bari Palese and as always, there will be big posters promoting tourism in Apulia. As usual the money will be well spent! OK. It’s said and it’s done. I accept the responsibility for my gesture. And I send good wishes to the TV networks and to the publishing houses who united together in a temporary association of companies, will see themselves being allocated the contract. Waiting for them, there are a handful of weeks of hard work! To produce the campaign and to broadcast it on their networks. So at least the people of Apulia next year will choose to go on holiday in Apulia.” Paul Cappelli
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