Too Many Baby’s, Not Enough Time

The Blueprint has been an interesting ride over the last 5 months.  It began with a bang and then settled into a small, but close knit community.  From our excellent guest posts by Sid Savara of SidSavara.com, Marc of WelshScribe.co.uk, Janice Hunter of SharingtheJourney.co.uk, Dan Miranda or CommandYourTime.com, Ali Hale of AliVentures.com and Janet Green of JanetGreen.net, to wonderfully genuine and in-depth comments we’ve received over the past months.  We couldn’t be more proud of the bloggers/readers who took the time to read our content and share their thoughts.

Too Many Baby’s

We’ve always been busy with the business of blogging. Ever since our beginning late last summer, the two of us have been willing to burn the candle to nothing but a nubbin at both ends. The Blueprint was a wonderful way for us to pour concrete into our collaboration and become tangible friends in the offline world. Three-thousand miles might separate us from a handshake, but the sentiment is as solid as an ancient oak.

Our online offspring have multiplied. Both our various online ventures are now beginning to blossom with the true fruit we need to pull our families forward, and Eric has added a beautiful baby boy to his family tree. The two of us have struggled with what to do with our first collaboration. Our time for this particular project has been whittled to a whisper. After a lot of deliberation, we’ve decided to travel a different path with The Blueprint, one that returns us to cradle of where it all began.

Before there was the blog, there was the book.

Our Blogopolis Blueprint book and kit is a wonderful product that our lack of experience failed to properly promote. We are going to lay it back on the drafting table, take it to 2.0, and release it, along with a few surprises sometime in the near future. The Blueprint Boys will always collaborate, but this site will be best served as a static landing page. From here on out, communication will take place through our email newsletter.

The newsletter will be a conduit to all communication and early word on all we have in store. It’s been wonderful. We thank you all for joining us on the adventure.

Feel free to say good-bye in the comments. We’d love to join you in some final farewells!

Adios!

Eric and Sean

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An Essential Persepctive

Note: Today’s guest post is from Dan Miranda of Command Your Time. Please take the time to read his post as there is an important reveal inside that addresses one of the essential truths of our collective future.

The year was 2003 when I first clicked “Enter” on the Yahoo.com sign up page. I was excited as any young man could have been. I had just received my first e-mail address and it was a more significant moment than I had imagined. Having a virtual home gave me reason to explore the Internet and changed my life forever.

1. Social Media. This is probably the most obvious one. I think it’s certain that sites we haven’t even heard of will give Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace a run for their money. Out of the three aforementioned sites though, I think Facebook will end up being the most successful, with Twitter at a close second.
2. Blogging in form of videos. We have seen footprints of what could be a huge explosion. If YouTube challenges Viddler, we could see a magnificent battle for the top “blogger-friendly” video making website. I’m assuming everybody is going to have a much higher bandwidth and hopefully the sites will reflect this.
3. Search engines. They’ll be more precise and won’t just cover the web. They will be our official directory. Google will remain prominent in that scene, but will slyly expand into bigger, better things. For instance, it’s my belief that we won’t refer to Google as a search engine, but rather a complex website with a ton of great features (ie: GMail, Google Maps, Google Reader, etc).

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Like Chocolate for My Eyes

Like Hot Chocolate For The Eyes

I have a confession to make, a guilty secret that my burdened chest is just desperate to be rid of. There’s something I love more than writing.

I’ll just pause here to give Sean a chance to get back onto his chair.

Ready? Good.

It’s Chocolate.

There’s nothing as delightful as the feeling of that sweet, silk like food in your mouth or the delicious taste that lingers on your tongue and causes your taste buds to scream out in unison for more. The only thing that can come close to it are pictures of said delicacy.

You know what I’m talking about right? Yes you. The one with the sweet-tooth. You only have to see a picture of chocolate and your taste buds are already building up into that chocolate craving frenzy. Am I right or am I right.

So apart from a front-row seat at Chocoholics Anonymous, what am I getting at?

The Psychology of Your Blog’s Readers: Human Brains and Images

I’m not literally talking about images of the human brain, despite that cool photo – unless of course that’s the topic of your blog. No I’m talking about the psychology of the human mind, which is unusual for me as I’m normally talking about dog psychology.

Anyway, unlike dogs with their scent-oriented brains we humans are practically ruled by images. When we see a picture of something it can evoke memories and more importantly emotions. Images have a profound effect on us, even more – I daresay – than words. (I’m just going to carry on, Sean can catch up). There is a truth to the saying “A picture speaks a thousand words”.

Don’t get me wrong. Expert artisans such as Sean and Janice are able to weave words together in an effortless manner resulting in a picture being painted directly to the canvas of our brains, if only we were all as blessed. Still, they’re not shy of calling on the power of images as and when needed. The good news for us is this; that same immense power is available for us to tap into.

Why Using Images in Your Posts is Vital to Your Blog’s Health

Images can provide a cue to what your post is going to be about,  a visual backup for your message, especially your headline. They are also a direct line to your reader’s emotions and as all good writers know, a great story is all about the emotions.

Furthermore they act as a sub-conscious break for the reader. Don’t ask me why but we can sit down for hours reading a best-selling novel, losing time – and ourselves – to the pages with hardly a thought given to the lack of images. Yet when it comes to reading anything online there is nothing worse than a wall of text.

Freelance Folder points out the 5 Steps For Finding the Perfect Image. You should also check out Eric’s Motivate Thyself site for some stunning examples of images at work.

I’m off to find a bar of chocolate.

About the author: Marc is a freelance writer. Subscribe to his blog today to receive practical advice for your writing career.

hot chocolate photo courtesy of macinate
human brain in a jar courtesy of hatchibombotar

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The Most Important Blogging Advice You’ll Ever Hear!

See you in the comments…

Eric and Sean

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