I read about this on my newsfeed and, like Jill, I was floored. I was going to write my own post about this, but then I saw that Jill beat me to it. And since she expressed my sentiments on the matter quite effectively, I figured I’d reblog her post on my blog. Take a moment to read Jill’s post.
This one came straight out of my local news channel and my jaw dropped to the floor. A local man, Jeffrey Smith, is in the hospital fighting for his …
Frank, aka PCGuy, has published another one of his Truthful Tuesday posts, and this week Frank wants to know…
Does it ever surprise you that people pay attention to your blog?
“Surprise” is not the word I’d use. I put a lot of time and effort into my blog, so the word I’d use to answer Frank’s question is “delighted.” I’m truly delighted that people visit, read, like, and comment on my posts.
What I am surprised by is the number of spam comments I’ve been getting over the past few weeks. Literally thousands of spam comments. Last night, between the time I went to sleep at around 11:15 and the time I woke up this morning at 6:45, there were 250 new comments in my spam folder and an additional 60 in my trash folder.
Prior to a few weeks ago I rarely got more than a few dozen comments daily in my spam folder and even fewer in my trash folder. I wish I knew what triggered this significant uptick in spam comments. But at least they are all being swept up by Akismet and few are actually making it into legitimate comments on my blog.
It’s time for my weekly Story Starter prompt. Here’s how it works. Every Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to give you an incomplete “teaser” sentence and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that partial sentence. It doesn’t have to be the first sentence in your story, and you don’t even have to use it in your post at all if you don’t want to. The purpose of the teaser is simply to spark your imagination and to get your storytelling juices flowing
This week’s Story Starter teaser is:
If you care to write and post a story built on this teaser, be sure to link back to this post and to tag your post with #FSS. I would also encourage you to read and enjoy what your fellow bloggers do with this teaser.
And most of all, have fun.
Welcome to August 31, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “macabre.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.
“If you want your blog to go viral, you need to generate more traffic,” my buddy, Fred said.
“Duh,” I said. “Tell me something I don’t already know. But I don’t know how to build up more traffic.”
“That’s simple,” Fred said. “Clickbait.”
“Whaddya mean?”
“Come up with some really fanciful titles for your posts, sprinkle them with sexy, provocative images, and get people click to your site. Your number of site visits will skyrocket and your Google rankings will go through the roof,” Fred said.
“But won’t that be misleading if my post titles and the images have little to do with the content?” I asked. “My blog is intended to be a union of information and entertainment, not to appeal to readers’ baser instincts.”
“Your response is indicative of small thinking,” Fred said. “People gallivant from website to website. Why not have them land on yours?”
“Sorry, Fred,” I said, “but I’m not going to sell my blogging soul for more hits. Clickbait is not my style.”
“Okay,” Fred said. “But I bet if you added the picture I just texted you to your post you’d get a lot more hits. Just try it.”
“Fine,” I said. “Just to humor you. But this will be my only time, got it?”
Fred got a wry smile on his face.
Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (generate), Ragtag Daily Prompt (fanciful), My Vivid Blog (misleading), The Daily Spur (union), Word of the Day Challenge (indicative), and Your Daily Word Prompt (gallivant). Photo credit: Barry_Madden at Flickr.
This, That, and the Other 