I am delighted to announce the publication of my first Blogging with Beth Special Report, “What is a Blog? (A Beginner’s Guide)”. This report answers the big question – “What is a Blog?” – and also dispels blog myths, outlines the common characteristics of blogs, explains feeds and discusses comments and why they’re important.

If you’re curious about blogging and need a quick and simple introduction – this report is for you!  Also great for beginning bloggers who want to know a little bit more detail about the blogging world so you can improve your own blog!  Chock full of great examples and diagrams. 

You can purchase the e-book here (only $10!) and then download it immediately in PDF format.  All payments will be processed through Paypal, so it’s safe and secure.  If you don’t have a Paypal account, you can get one through the Paypal site (sign-up is quick and easy!). 

Purchase today by clicking on the “Add to Cart” button. Then click on the Paypal logo to go directly to Paypal Checkout.  After your payment is complete, make sure to click on “Complete Purchase” to go to your download page instantly!

What is a Blog? (A Beginner’s Guide)

Price: $9.95

Note:  You’ll need Adobe Reader to open your Special Report.  If you don’t have it, you can download the latest version (free!) here:

Questions about this report?  E-mail me at bethhayden@mac.com.

Some Author Blogs You May Want to Check Out:

Malcom Gladwell, The Tipping Point

Gary David Goldberg, Sit Ubu Sit: How I Went From Brooklyn to Hollywood with the Same Woman, the Same Dog a Lot Less Hair

Keith Ferrazi, Never Eat Alone

Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

David Meerman Scott, The New Rules and Marketing and PR

Blogging

Book Publicist Stacy J. Miller talks about why blogs are a great idea for authors

Typepad – A terrific, cheap blogging tool

WordPress – Another great tool for starting a blog

Amy Gahran of Contentious.com offers great advice on commenting

Social Bookmarking

Digg – A great social bookmarking tool.  And it’s fun to say, “I digg that.”

Erica Sadin offers advice on getting started with Digg

Submitting your own content to Digg – It’s also quite fine to say, “I digg myself.”

Facebook

Facebook, main site – start here to set up a profile and start connecting.

Getting Started with Facebook Guide

Facebook Pages - Establishing a presence for your book (or you as an author) on Facebook

Microblogging

Twitter

Newbie’s Guide to Twitter

Want to know what the blogging buzz is all about?
Would you like to get started with building a new website or updating
an old site using blogging tools? Do you just want to find great blogs
to read? My "Basics of Blogging" class is for you!

During this workshop, I’ll cover the following topics:

• What’s a blog?  What blogging is (and isn’t) and why it’s a GREAT marketing tool for any business

• The parts of of a blog post and why they’re important
• How to find blogs you’ll like to read

• How to use feeds to make reading blogs and other sites easy

• How to get started with building your own blog

• What commenting is, why it’s important for getting involved in the blog world, and how to develop a commenting strategy

Everyone will leave with a solid grasp on blogging
basics and lots of good handouts.  You can bring your own laptop to the
workshop if you like, or you can follow along with the presentation
I’ll be doing on a projector – you’ll learn plenty either way.

Sound interesting?  Sign up for one of my May sessions!

Thursday, May 8, 6:00-8:30 PM

Wednesday, May 21, 6:00-8:30 PM

Class will be held in Boulder, location TBD.  Registration fee for the class is $65.  Class size is limited.
To hold your spot in this class, please submit your full registration
fee by four business days before the class.  Otherwise, I may have to
give your spot away.

There are two ways to pay - 

• You can submit your payment via Paypal using the
  "Pay Now" buttons underneath each class (above).  Please make sure
  you’re choosing the correct class time! 
• You can mail a check (made out to Beth Hayden) to
  Beth Hayden, 4845 Pearl East Circle, Suite 101, Boulder, CO 80301. If
  you mail a check, please include a note indicating which class you’d
  like to attend, and make sure to include your email address.

Please email me with any questions, and I hope to see you there!

1.  Advertise the Good Stuff!
Millionaire Mommy Next Door

2.  Write Cool Content, Part 1
Steve Pavlina’s Advice

3.  Write Cool Content, Part 2
Read this article serries on Basic Posting Formats by Amy Gahran, Contentious.com.  This is an older article of Amy’s and unfortunately
her archive navigation within this article is broken, so please follow
these links to navigate around this incredibly useful series:

Series Index – Blog Posting Formats
Part One – Link Only
Part Two – Link Blurb
Part Three – Brief Remark
Part Four – List Style
Part Five – Short Article
Part Six – Long Article
Part Seven – Series

4.  Advertise Your Feed
Follow Cynthia’s Lead

Use Feedburner

5.  Use the Keywords You Readers Search For
Wordtracker – Terrific tool for discovering frequently searched-upon keywords.  There is a charge for the service, but it is well worth it.

6.  Do Strategic Commenting
Amy Gahran’s great advice on reaching out to other bloggers.

7.  Register with the Blog Directories – then ping them.
Technorati

How to Claim Your Blog with Technorati

IceRocket

Ping-o-matic

8.  Make it Easy for People to Share!

Addthis

RFKActionFront – What it looks like when you use "Addthis"

Sharethis

Steve Pavlina – What it looks like when you use "Sharethis"

9.  Use Social Networking Services

Facebook
MySpace
LinkedIn

10  Use Twitter!  It’s FUN!
Twitter
Newbie’s Guide to Twitter

Got a blog, but need to do more with it? This class is for more advanced bloggers. I’ll give you ideas for doing more with your blog, including integrating your blog with a Facebook presence, adding widgets, using Twitter, and more. This class also includes a review of your blog by the instructor – I will look over your site and give you a complete written review (including suggestions for additions, content and marketing).

Registration is $85.  There are two upcoming sessions:

Saturday, March 22, 9:00 – 11:30 AM

Tuesday, April 22, 6:00-8:30 PM

Classes will be held in Boulder, location TBD.  Registration fee for the class is $85.  Class size is limited.
To hold your spot in either class, please submit your full registration
fee by four business days before the class.  Otherwise, I may have to
give your spot away.

There are two ways to pay - 

• You can submit your payment via Paypal using the
  "Pay Now" buttons underneath each class (above).  Please make sure
  you’re choosing the correct class time! 
• You can mail a check (made out to Beth Hayden) to
  Beth Hayden, 4845 Pearl East Circle, Suite 101, Boulder, CO 80301. If
  you mail a check, please include a note indicating which class you’d
  like to attend, and make sure to include your email address.

A Penn State group takes on the big dogs of collegiate a cappella.

The musty smell of New York rain seeps through the cracks in the Broadway theatre’s walls as 14 Penn State students step on the stage.  Adam Giesy, an electrical engineering major, sets up his bass mike as a fan in the audience yells "We are…" The crowd roars "Penn State".  The lights come up, and the student singers take their places. 

They are the Pennharmonics, a Penn State a cappella group who won the International Collegiate A Cappella quarterfinals last spring.  They went on to pull off a surprise by beating out the University of Michigan’s Amazin’ Blue – the hometown favorites – at the regional finals in Ann Arbor.  That win earned them the right to stand on this stage in the fabled Beacon Theatre on Broadway, competing in the international finals.  No Penn State group has even made it this far, and their odds of winning are a long shot. 

The top names in collegiate a cappella are here – groups like the North Carolina State Grains of Time (started as a war protest group in 1968), and the SUNY Binghamton Crosbys (three-time ICCA Finals veterans).  The Pennharmonics, soon to be 10 years old, are one of the youngest groups on the competitive circuit, and they’re the only coed group who made it up to the Beacon’s stage (many a cappella groups are men-only). 

Under the hot lights, the Pennharmonics start their performance with Bon Jovi’s "Living on a Prayer".  Soloists Deb Copenhaver and Jim Fleckenstein fill the theatre with 80′s angst, though tempo problems throw the singers off by mid-tune.  They recover during their second song, a Counting Crows ballad called "Anna Begins". 

Their final number is a creepy rendition of Pink Floyd’s "Brain Damage/Eclipse".  Dan Brian conveys the madness of a slow descent into dementia as Peter Drake sings eerie harmony as the little voice in Dan’s head.  In the meantime, the group does its best to look collectively nuts:  Ben Clarke catatonically stares off toward the back of the theatre and Sara Schonour compulsively rubs her eyes. 

One by one, the other five groups take the stage to show off with their best sets.  On the Rocks, from the University of Oregon, does a jazzy rendition of "Peanut Vendor".  The Amherst College Zumbyes have a quirky, audience-pleasing style, complete with a swing-dancing group member dressed as a huge banana. 

The ICCA judges weigh the groups on two qualities: musicality (including arrangements, tone and pitch) and presentation (stage presence, visual coherence, and overall effect). 

The winners are announced:  The Crosbys have won; the Pennharmonics didn’t make it to the top three.  But placing wasn’t the only reason the Pennharmonics got on a bus bound for Broadway – they came here to make a name for University Park a cappella.

Boarding the bus headed home, Giesy glances at the lights of Broadway one last time. "Just looking up at that marquee, I can’t help but get teary-eyed.  This is something I’ve always dreamed about."

For him, and for most of the other Pennharmonics, just singing on that stage was enough.

The Pennharmonics have taken time off from competition to raise money for a new studio disk, but they’ll host the ICAA quarterfinals at the University Park campus in early February. 

Magazine Articles:

• “One Singular Sensation” (Published in the Penn Stater Magazine, January/February 2004)

• “Why I Do What I Do:  Kim Lowenborg-Coyne” (Published in Delicious Living, November 2004)

• “Why I Do What I Do:  Matt Feeney” (Published in Delicious Living, October 2004)

• “Breaking into the a Cappella Scene” (Published in N2Arts, March 2003)

Essays:

• Superhero

• Paper Cut

Press Release:

• Art Camp for Women

The best time of the year is right around the corner. A time for
costumes, sugar highs and spooky stories. Mix all that with blatant
commercialism, and you’ve got a trip to Target during Halloween
pre-season.

I really wanted my son to pick out a nature-type costume. A bird,
perhaps, or a bat. Maybe a nice, politically-correct penguin. But
unfortunately, the folks who stock the Halloween aisle at Target aren’t
remotely interested in nature. They’re interested in sales. And what
sells to the average preschooler is….

Spiderman.

My son fell in love with a red and blue spiderman costume on sight, and he would not be swayed from his
quest to be the webslinging wonder, even when I tried to entice him
with doctor’s scrubs ("Look, buddy, you could be a surgeon!") and a
fireman’s hat ("Check it out sweetie – you could fight fires and carry a
fake plastic axe!"). He was having none of it. It was Spidey or nothing.

So, we shelled out $12.99 for the cheapo polyester spidersuit and
immediately returned to the house so he could don it. He was thrilled,
having gained huge fake muscles and superpowers all in one fell swoop.
I was cackling with laughter as I took pictures – he was posing
and grinning and prancing around, pretending to sling webs from his
wrists. I love this kid so much it breaks my heart. What an absolute
delight he is.

During this Halloween dress rehearsal, he said, "Mama, I’ll fight the bad guys."

"I’m sure you will, sweetheart," I said.

He turned to me very seriously and said, "Don’t worry, Mama. I’ll save you."

I said, "You already do, kiddo. You already do."