Day: August 30, 2021

Clickbait

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“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.

Share Your World — 8/30/2021

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For this week’s Share Your World, Melanie is going deep. She wants to know…

Are human beings required to better themselves and will doing that make them happier?

“Required” to better themselves? What happens if they don’t comply? Is it noted on their permanent record? No, humans are not “required” to better themselves. Will it make them happier if they do? I guess that depends upon how motivated they are to better themselves.

Is it easier to love or to be loved?

That depends upon how much of a control freak you are. If you like to be in control, then it’s easier to love, since you’re in charge of your own feelings and emotions. As to being loved by someone else, that other person is in control over how they feel about you and all you can do is react to it.

Also, it depends on whether you’re the assertive type or the passive type. I think for the passive type, it’s easier to be loved, while for the assertive type, it’s easier to love.

Outside traumatic brain injury, can memories be completely erased?

I think that those suffering from dementia or from Alzheimer’s may have significant memory loss. Are those memories “completely erased” or are they just irretrievable? And is there really a difference? I don’t know.

Is there such a thing as a good death?

I’d say that dying peacefully and painlessly in your sleep would be a “good” death.

And one ‘silly’ one because the former questions were fairly serious: What do you imagine is inside a baseball?

Pick me! Pick me! I know!

Blogging Insights — Do the Math

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Dr. Tanya has decided to change things up a bit for her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. Instead of using the Q&A format, she’s going to provide us with a quote about blogging or writing and ask us to express our opinion about said quote.

Except today’s quote has nothing to do with blogging or writing.

“Did you know that 1980 and 2021 are as far apart as 1980 and 1939?”

It’s all about math and the median, which is the middle number in a sorted, ascending or descending, list of numbers. For this exercise, your age is the median number. Just take your birth year and subtract your age from your birth year to find the distance applicable to you.

The older you are, the more dramatic the difference. For an old fart like me, my birth year serves as the median number between 2021 and 1871.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #133

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Welcome to Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge. Each week I will be posting a photo I grab off the internet and challenging bloggers to write a flash fiction piece or a poem inspired by the photo. There are no style or word limits.

The photo below is from sasint at Pixabay.com.For the visually challenged writer, the photo is of three young boys playing in a pond and splashing on each other.

If this week’s image inspires you and you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FFFC, and link back to this post. I hope it will generate some great posts.

Thanks to all of you who have participated in these challenges. Your posts have been very creative. Please take a few minutes to read the other responses to this photo challenge.

Please create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Generate

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FOWCWelcome to August 30, 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 “generate.”

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.