Aussie Bloggers

If you want to have a snazzy button to link to the Aussie Bloggers Blog and Forum, and don’t have the time to make one up on your own, we have a selection of 29 different buttons - in all varying sizes from the “antipixel” (80×16px) all the way up to photograph size, which, of course, you can resize to fit your own needs.

They also come in all different colours from green and gold, to the colours of the flag, and even black-and-white. Most of the images feature a map - some have Tasmania, some don’t, but can always add them back in, right?

As another part of the celebration of six months of existence, we present to you the Aussie Bloggers button collection, suitable for posting on your own site, but remember that you should host it on your own site, as displaying the images as hosted on here is considered hotlinking, and you might wind up facing a surprise.

To help you out with getting the images hosted on your own site, here are a couple of tutorials, the first designed for those with access to their own site’s FTP, and the second for those who don’t have access at all to upload files to their own blog (i.e. Blogger users) -

• How to upload files using FTP
• Host images online for free? Yes, you can!

Before showing the images, you can download all the images by simply saving this Zip file and choosing the one you want out of the selection.

And now, without further ado, here are the 29 buttons that make up the Aussie Bloggers button collection:

The Aussie Bloggers Blog and Forums were officially launched on the 21st of January 2008. Monday marked our six month birthday, and we thought we would like to give you a present.

Our moderators and administrators were given a short story, and asked to fill in the blanks. The results have been combined into The Lazy Bloggers Blog Post Generator.

I have seen it said around the web that a blogger should never write a blog post that apologises for not blogging - no matter how long it has been, no matter what happened to get in the way of blogging, you should return as if you never left. And now you don’t have to write the post - you can let the blog post generator do it for you. All you have to do is use the drop down boxes to choose the text you want, then click on the create your blog post button. Just like this -

Holy Snapping Duck Do! I just had a terrible scare when I thought I have not updated this since Hammertime was in the charts… You would not believe how hard it is being waited on hand and foot and generally lounging around. I prostrate myself in sorrow and beg thy forgiveness..

I am absolutely consumed with setting fire to people wearing Crocs watching Dexter just generally being a biatch to my local police, my day is a magical flight from the first cockadoodledoo from the rooster to 11pm at which point I fall asleep on the couch. I am putting money aside so I can run away. I need a nap.

I absolutely, positively promise to update at least once a week. Honestly! Don’t hold your breath though, you’re likely to turn blue..

So, let us know if you have any problems with using it, we have tested it across a large range of browsers but this is the first time it has been available to all and sundry.

I’ll be back later today with another post which gives you some new options for blog badges, and also with links to posts people wrote about us, so make sure to check in later - for now feel free to let your blog readers know about the generator. Enjoy!

(Update - We seem to be having an issue with Internet Explorer browsers and the generator. We are trying to fix this issue, but while we do that, maybe you’d like to download another browser? Perhaps Firefox, Opera, or Flock? Because just quietly and in my opinion, Internet Explorer sucks. No other browser requires so much effort on the part of web designers to make things work with it. Including this blog, which actually has two sidebars, but can you see two? Not if you’re using IE, you can’t.)

(Update on the Update - we think the internet explorer problem is solved. But I still think you should get a different browser. I’m just sayin’.. )

Apologies to Douglas Adams.*

But it’s true! Every time I visit the Aussie Bloggers Forum I shake my head at all the people who twitter and stumble and friendfeed and plurk.

How do you find the time?!

I struggle just to keep up with my reader list - admittedly it is lengthy - and blog - which I try to do every day - or rather feel compelled to do every day.

To spend time following twitters and plurks and whatever else seems impossible!

I gather it results in more traffic to your blog. Does it? How much more traffic?

Does the time you spend twittering/plurking etc take time away from blogging or does it inspire you?

I’m a simple soul. I blog. I comment on other blogs. I work. I say hi to my kids on the way to the computer nook. I sleep.

For me, the joys of twitterhood and plurking are heights to which I can only imagine.

In a perfect life.

You know the one, where actual life doesn’t get in the way.

Yes I can feel my bum slipping…

What?

Oh I see. That’s middle aged spread is it?

*Zaphod: “Hand me the Rap Rod, Plate Captain!”
Waiter: “I’m sorry sir?”
Zaphod: “The phone, waiter, the phone. Gee, you guys are so unhip it’s a wonder your bums don’t fall off.”
Waiter: “Our whats, sir?”

When I first started reading about blogs and finding out what the heck they were, Loobylu was one of the first blogs I found via the Weblog awards website in 2004. I know when it was because not long after I started my own blog.

I was immediately drawn to her style of writing and her content and have stuck around ever since. About a year ago she stopped writing on her blog and I’m sure I’m not alone to have missed checking in. Recently, however, Loobylu started up again so I decided to ask the person behind Loobylu - Claire Robertson - to answer a few questions for me.

I really want to thank her for agreeing to this.

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?

I have been blogging since the end of 1999. I started because I was working in web design and playing with lots of ideas and things which would never suit any of our clients sites so I was publishing bits and pieces to my own website and the blog just became an extension of that – it was so wonderfully easy and satisfying to create a personal space on the web. I liked the control and the ease and instantaneous nature of web publishing. I liked the sudden community that popped up from all over the world and all the good feedback.

How did you come up with the name Loobylu?

I can’t really remember why I liked the name Loobylu. I was looking for something anonymous to blog under and searching through children’s rhymes. I have a notebook which has some of the alternatives jotted down and I look back and am amazed that the domain names were actually available for some of those words!

You had a break for a year or so recently after the birth of your second child. Did you miss blogging more than you thought you might?

No – in fact I missed it far less than I thought I would. Loobylu and being part of a blogging community seemed to have been a part of my identity for so long I thought I might suddenly feel all at sea but in fact it was just a kind of peaceful absence. It was nice not to have that buzz in my head all the time, I am sure you know what I mean; “oooh, I could blog that…” or “if I do this, it would be great to blog about” etc.

In the end I decided to start up again because I just suddenly felt like I had something to say again. I have come back with a different focus and I needed that time away for that to happen. It’s less about family detail now, and more about… well, anything but, really.

I love the illustrations you do on your blog. They are quirky and distinctively you. What do you use to create them?

I have been using a mixture of Photoshop and Illustrator for a long time – almost 12 years when I think about it. At the moment I think I am going through a bit of a style change - I am playing with lots of stuff away from the computer– using brushes and ink, spray paint and oils and so on.

Illustration by Claire Robertson

Slightly related to the last question, did you create the illustration (as seen below) on the Freelance Switch blog?

Freelance Switch website

No – that’s not me!

I asked this question because it really reminded me of Claire’s work. What do you think? See Claire’s folio.

You also do lots of other crafty things. What’s your favourite?

I guess making things with fabric. I haven’t done much in a while but there’s something very satisfying when making something for my children with fabric – toys and quilts and all the things which give them lots of pleasure. The craft blog community has been like a big lovely squishy family for me over the last five years. I wish I could keep producing lovely things at the rate so many of those fine bloggers do – it’s a true inspiration.

About two years you started the Kiddley.com website – a site for parents about activities and products etc for their kids. Are there any plans to resurrect this?

I think I was slightly insane when I started Kiddley. I put it down to “nesting” hormones as I was 37 or 38 weeks pregnant when we started it up. Some people do up a nursery, I start up a new kid-related blog. Nuts I tells ya. But no, there are no plans to start it up again – it was just too time consuming. It’s hard enough maintaining one blog and other creative pursuits let alone sweating over producing new content for that one. And it really was “producing” content. We had this idea that we would come up with the activities, do the activities with our kids, photograph or illustrate the activities and then write it all up in tutorial form.

I see you have a ukulele. I’m a bit partial to them myself. Do you play?

Not yet! I have been searching Youtube for “how to” clips – but right now I am concentrating on breathing down my daughter’s neck while she practises the piano. I am learning vicariously through her. I am really not musical at all but it would be fun to play something.

I can tell you Claire that learning to play the ukulele is pretty easy and very fun.

Go and visit Loobylu. Not only does she create some beautiful stuff, she manages to find other people’s great stuff as well.

Well maybe not quite the epicentre of blogging but we do have some active bloggers who regularly meet and share ideas. Every month there is a bloggers meet-up (in fact there’s one tonight - 21st May - upstairs at the Brass Monkey, Northbridge from 7pm) and there was a Barcamp Perth 2.0 earlier this month. (more on Barcamp - Live blog)

We’re apparently hosting the World Blog Awards in August… although where this comes from is a mystery… maybe it’s wishful thinking.

What’s not wishful thinking but in fact reality is the Edge of the Web Conference - November 6-7 - in Perth. It was announced at BarCamp and has a lot of people excited about it.

The Australian Web Industry Association is proud to announce that Perth, Western Australia will be getting it’s very own world-class web conference event: Edge of the Web 2008.

More details will be announced as they are confirmed, but mark 6-7 November in your calendar now. We have an exciting lineup of local, national and international speakers on both technical and business topics - including accessibility, usability, information architecture, code, marketing with social networks, and much, much more.

You might be wondering why I’m not more fulsome in my descriptions of BarCamp 2.0. Surely, you are thinking, Cellobella wouldn’t have missed such an exciting event on her doorstep? Surely she would have signed up at once! Surely such a blog savvy individual such as she would have been possibly even presenting!!

Well stop calling me Shirley.

Dear reader, I fully intended to go, I really did. I signed up on the wiki even. Not to present - there were plenty of others already lined up for that honour - but just to go and experience an unconference. Unfortunately I had a terrible cold and spent the day in bed feeling sorry for myself and making my family suffer.

I’m a terrible patient - especially when my plans are thwarted.

I lay there imagining Central TAFE full of excited geeky types… the nerdy ones with thick glasses and green or brown tee-shirts, baggy seated jeans… the oh-so-cool Web 3.0 types with funky hairstyles and skinny rectangular glasses (they all look like Elliot Spencer in my mind) … and the Bloggy types - harder to categorise - I’m thinking a cross between Bloggy Hell and Karen Cheng - or maybe Mad Goat Lady crossed with Rotto Bloggo?

They are all sharing ideas and coming up with amazing web business plans and getting very enthusiastic about the Edge of the Web conference in November.

And there are sandwiches…

Did you go? Am I close?

For a long time I’ve had an account at www.istockphoto.com to source royalty free images for presentations, newsletters, websites and even for books. But I’d not thought about what would be involved in seeking a piece of music that I could legally use until recently.

You see, I’d put together a PowerPoint presentation for use when presenting at conferences but it recently occurred to me that I didn’t want to have any issues with using material I’d not paid for. Further, I wanted to turn the PPT presentation into a movie clip for Youtube, in the hope that it might attract some attention and become one of those ‘feel good’ viral emails that you see doing the rounds. I know that often that are PPS files that get sent around but I thought it would be good to have it up at Youtube too in case people start looking for it.

Anyway, I tried a few places I was told about but in the end decided doing a Google search might be as good as anything else and I was surprised by the number of royalty-free music sites that showed up. Guess I shouldn’t be really, should I?

Result is I did find some really good pieces and now have to make a decision as to which one I want to use. The site I really liked was Freeplaymusic.com because of the way it was set up, you could do searches on types of music and when you went into each category it told you the music mood, the instruments used, the style of music and the length of play - you can do a ‘preview’ before you download it to use it. However, it is important to read the Terms of Use before choosing a piece of music and it would seem that my planned use would require payment and I’m still to work out exactly what that amount would be.

Another site was Royalty Free Music and you can choose to subscribe or pay for a single track or purchase a library of tunes.

And then there was Music Bakery where you can pay once and use the piece forever and the price was very attractive.

It is important to note that ‘royalty-free’ does not mean FREE music, but music that is free of royalty charges for its continued use.

If you have a favourite place for downloading royalty-free music, I would love to hear about it!

They say that all successful endeavours (programs, products, businesses) were once nothing more than an idea - so today I want to present you with an idea:

Last Thursday I wrote a article called - Eight Steps to Getting out of that Rut - I spoke about the notion of using an Accountability Partner; someone to help you stay focused, objective, proactive, positive and productive on your journey. I also talked about the value of channelling your energy into something (a project) or someone, other than yourself. The truth is that (1) from time to time we all need a coach to kick our butt, answer our questions, listen to our concerns and support us through a challenging time and (2) we can all benefit greatly by investing our time, energy, knowledge and compassion into the lives of others; taking the focus off us for a while. By helping others we actually help ourselves; the perfect win-win relationship.

Well, these two factors seem to have pushed some buttons with a few of you and have given rise to an idea. A bunch of comments and emails have told us a few things:

1) Some of you struggle from time to time to keep doing what you need to reach your goals and could benefit from having your own Accountability Partner… but finding one is easier said than done.

2) Some of you would like the opportunity to ‘give back’ and are interested in being able to coach, mentor, support (be an Accountability Partner for) someone who needs some help… but you don’t necessarily know how to make that happen.

3) Some of you may want to support someone else while seeking out an Accountability Partner of your own (even coaches need coaches) at the same time.

With this in mind, we (Webmaster Johnnie and I) have launched the first Aussie ‘Renovate Your Life Forum‘ to make this happen; a cyber-place where you can find an Accountability Partner, or become one for someone else.

Interested?

If you’re interested in (1) finding an Accountability Partner to help you reach your goals or (2) becoming an Accountability Partner to help someone else on their journey, you may want to check it out. If you have any thoughts, ideas and / or suggestions we would GLADLY welcome your input and help. Goodness knows, we need it!

Imagine being able to do good, help a stranger and genuinely make a difference without even leaving your house; volunteer work from your keyboard - too cool.

Earlier in the year, I offered to write a guest post for the Aussie Bloggers site ….. well here it is!

Seven months ago now we pulled up stumps in Sydney, and relocated to hinterland of the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, on the eastern seaboard of Australia, to follow a very long held dream of owning a farm and producing organic foods.

So why would two otherwise intelligent forty-something’s go into partnership with another couple, choose to live with them under the same roof, have the husbands walk away from seemingly good employment with nothing firm to go to, with none of them having any previous farming experience save for a trained urban horticulturalist? This must be some mighty strong dream we’re following.

Australians know that there is something in our psyche that draws us to the beauty that is the wide open spaces and natural splendour of this ancient continent. For me that was instilled at an early age, growing up near and spending early years playing in suburban bushland, that later led to bush-walking and cross-country skiing through our wonderful National Parks.

Family visits to farming friends also played a part in the genesis of The Dream! Declaring that I wanted to be a farmer to the assembled family in my early teen years bought looks of disbelief, and comments of derision. I clearly needed to take a different tact.

After spending a decade and a half being a ‘city farmer’ (landscape gardener) following a decade in sales and marketing in the music industry, I began to question how we could really make a difference to this world and roll all of our beliefs and desires into what we were doing.

The organic food movement was finally starting to gain momentum here in Australia, and thanks to the explosion of Farmers Markets around the country, regional foods and real, tasty, wholesome produce was finding a market. The universe was starting to align!

My Irish wife Therese, had spent three months as a WWOOF-er (Willing Workers on Organic Farms ) in Tasmania when she first returned to Australia early in 1993, and remembers that she made a personal pact to always try and eat organic food from that point on. A year living in the Southern Highlands just south of Sydney confirmed for me what I already knew – we needed to find a way to support ourselves so we could move to the country and set up our own organic enterprise.

The final straw came when we witnessed a very animated David Suzuki on his last Australian tour in Wollongong – aside from his awesome lecture on the state of environment, climate change and the then general inactivity of our governments, some of the last words that he said were “and for heaven’s sake, EAT ORGANIC FOOD!” We both left the hall knowing that our future path was set, now we just had to make it happen.

A chance conversation with a mutual friend led to the partnership with Lyndon and Beth being formed and the search for suitable land that met all (or most) of our criteria began. Weekends were spent travelling the countryside, following up leads that the hours of searching real estate sites on the internet had produced. Other weekends were spent at Farming Field Days, most notably Mudgee and Tocal .

This went on for some time, and then one weekend after traipsing around we came across a picture and description in the window of an agent in Port Macquarie. Could this small property really be it? Calls were made, website addresses and links forwarded, and an initial inspection arranged. The property looked great – 22 acres bordering the Pappinbarra River with enough infrastructure for us to start our enterprise with, and it hadn’t had any intensive farming activity for some years, perfect for intending organic farmers - and while the house was no diamond, it was large enough for two mature couples to live in and would be adequate until a second property could be purchased in three years time.

Sums were done, mortgage brokers consulted, offers made, and … ACCEPTED. Wahoo.

All the logistics were sorted – removalists booked, tenants found, leases drawn up, bosses enrolled in our wives ‘tele-commuting’, hours spent dealing with Telstra about broadband (!!) etc – and on September 1 we were in.

Since then we’ve been very active, both in the local community here in the Hastings Valley, and on ‘Near River’, our property at 1466. We get to really appreciate the ambience of the rural lifestyle, the birdlife and visiting mammals, and we are slowly repairing the vegetation along the river bank by removing the noxious weeds that have taken over. The front paddock that will be our 2.5 acre market garden is taking shape, but as we are practicing bio-dynamic farming , herbicide use is forbidden, so the loathed Kikuyu grass is being removed by hand after covering it by all matter of things (grass slashings, corrugated iron, tarpaulins, black plastic). And seedlings are going in. Last week our first livestock purchase arrived, two Dexter cows, who are both due to calve in July.

What’s next? In conjunction with planting more seedlings, we need to promote our marketing vehicle, which is Community Supported Agriculture. This refers to a partnership between a farmer and a community of supporters. Initially started in Japan, then Europe and now very popular in the USA, we are looking to help lead the way with this form of farm produce marketing in Australia that reconnects farmers directly with their customers. It also provides people with an opportunity to know the people that grow their food, know where and how it is grown, and have a connection with a rural community again. This will be one of the ways we will contribute to the wider community.

And what else? Enjoy all that there is in the wonder of the regional areas of this majestic country. And for those familiar with the Canned Heat tune ‘Goin’ Up the Country’, yes the water really does taste like wine.

Our own Carnival of Australia is set to celebrate her first birthday this month, right here at Aussie Bloggers. Throw the snags on the barbie and the beer in the esky for this BYO event, cos we’re set to do it in real Aussie style - with posts from all you Aussie bloggers.

Our pink flash of Lightening Online hostessed the last Carnival of Australia and did a beauty of a job. Have you visited her Carnival post yet? **Megan is pointing her finger at you!** If you have no idea what a Carnival is, then having at squiz at Lightening’s Carnival and learning a bit more, here, is a must.

The Carnival of Australia first threw its Akubra in the door on April 25th, 2007: The Carnival of Australia: ANZAC Day Inaugural Edition. I had already been blogging for almost a year, was participating in several blog carnivals and was frustrated that there was little around, Carnival wise, to showcase Aussie blogs and Aussie bloggers. Finding the motivated Aussie community at Bumpzee was a God send and the Aussie carnival centric idea grew from discussions there.

Open to all Australian bloggers or those who have blogged about Australia, the Carnival of Australia has its niche in the variety and diversity of our great southern land. Some things will not be tolerated in our Carnival though. Each host has the right to weed articles offensive to their blog or beliefs. Given I am a child protection advocate, I am fundamentally opposed to any adult content or posts that sexualise children. Racism, hate and over the top swearing are also weeded - sometimes even before they make their way to the fortnightly host.

To start the Carnival, I just did it: I had an idea and I acted on it. While I am definitely a ‘Seeker’ of meaning, there was no “Carnival is over” thoughts for me. Not one to obsessively procrastinate on ideas until everything is crystal clear, I cyber spoke to a few other Australian bloggers to gauge interest, and then claimed the Carnival at BlogCarnival. I advertised on my old child protection blog spot blog, the home schooling blog that I kept at that time and on Bumpzee. Both Leigh from All for Women and Meg from Blogpond also started advertising on their blogs, and the submissions grew each fortnight.

I knew that I wanted the Carnival to have joint ownership so I called for other Aussie bloggers to share the hosting. Colin from Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe was the first external host and he has since hosted another three times. Thanks Colin. Just as in the beginning, the Carnival of Australia runs fortnightly on different Aussie’s blogs.

To host a Carnival of Australia you can either do minimal work (its a cut and paste job from instacarnival) or put your personality, your sense of humour and own commentary into the edition that shows on your blog. When I host, I prefer to always make additional comment, to visit, read and to stumble all submitted posts. Just as I do my children, I spend time on my Carnivals because I am the Carnival of Australia’s mother.

Carnivals do bring additional hits, visitors and trackback checkers. To increase traffic to a new blog, both participating in and hosting Carnivals can be a useful strategy. For me though, celebrating the diversity of Australian though, life and interest remains my motivator. I have such little time in my hectic professional life to spend on forums and social networking sites, that Carnivals now act as my pivotal meeting place for new blogs.

One of the success attributes for the Carnival of Australia has been the regular reminder emails - an email arrives to remind you to submit your post and to provide you the link to make submission super easy. A follow up email then alerts you that the Carnival is live and that you need to go and check your links. Whereas I used to collect email addresses of all people who participated in the Carnivals and send them off an email from me, nowadays, I use an aweber automated system that bloggers need to sign up to in order to get email alerts. If you want to capatalise on this service, then sign up via the Carnival of Australia’s home page.

The open and click through rate to the automated email reminder service is quite acceptable and acts as a measure of Aussie blogger participation: there are 39 Aussie Bloggers subscribed to the list (yep, while this is okay, you had better sign up, hey). For the immediate past Carnival hosted by the beautiful Lightening, 29 people opened their email reminder and there were 22 clicks onto links (15 to blog carnival to submit, one to Aussie Bloggers, three to Imaginif and three to Lightening Online).

C’mon Aussie, c’mon, c’mon - let’s make the first birthday edition a Carnival to remember. Hosted here on Wednesday 23rd April, you need to have your post submitted to BlogCarnival by Monday 21st April, 11pm. Submit now!

**Aging seeker, breaks into song** Say goodbye, my own true lover,

Megan, mother of Carnival of Australia, from Imaginif

When I first got introduced to blogging it was on behalf of a client. I’d been asked to investigate what it was all about and whether it was a suitable medium for my client to gain more activity for her business.

Being the dutiful assistant I am, I not only started researching, but also set up a blog of my own so I could spend my own time practising this new art and perfect the new skill I was about to deliver to my client.

Well, I merrily wrote a few posts here and there for about six months, blissfully unaware that an addiction was just around the corner. I decided to set up a family blog that Christmas to replace my annual family Christmas newsletter and sent the link to family members around the country. And then one of our cats went missing so I blogged about that and when he showed up again 4 days later (it was an intense hot summer that year here in Australia), I posted photos of our injured and dehydrated cat for family members to see after he’d come home from the vet.

What happened then took me by surprise. I had people from the other side of the world post comments about my poor cat and a conversation began to take place in the comments of my family blog. How did that happen?

I was unaware at the time how quickly search engines pick up blog posts and didn’t really understand about Technorati tags at that time, although I had been using them and exploring this new world of blogging.

Suddenly I found out what the real attraction was about blogging and I began to write much more regularly to both my blogs. I wanted more people to come talk to me!

A couple of months later I was listening to a speaker at my church and he mentioned a word which appealed to me so I wrote it down, thinking I could write about it sometime (did I mention I’m a writer too? ) but before the service had finished I realised there was more than one article inside me on that topic and I rushed home to buy a new domain and set up a new blog. Enter number three…

Over the next year I had purchased several more domains and set up several new blogs and each began to develop their own following. I had become addicted and it happened without noticing.

At least, I didn’t notice but I think my family did. Now my family tell me I’m a ‘domain junkie’, and a ‘blogging addict’ amongst other names. Me, I just like to think I’m interested in lots of things and it would appear there are readers for each thing as well so I’m not alone in my interests. Perhaps it’s just because I like an audience but they can’t see me so it’s kind of done anonymously… well, almost because I do use my name.

So, if you’re wondering what this blogging bug is all about and how to get started, what should you do?

• Well, join our Aussie Bloggers for a start. You’ll get to meet a bunch of people as crazy as me and some not so crazy.
• Then you need to decide on a blogging platform. I started with Blogger.com which is owned by Google by the way, but shifted to Wordpress because I wanted to have control. Control over the hosting, control over the domain name, and I wanted ownership – they were mine, mine, mine!
• Then you need to start writing and publishing your posts. It’s as simple as that.

But after awhile and after visiting heaps of other blogs you’ll notice different templates, and things they call widgets and plugins and heaps of extras and suddenly your plain ole blog will be just that – plain but perhaps not quite so ‘ole’. Don’t worry, you’ll get heaps of advice about that too and pretty soon you’ll be like the rest of us and you’ll have to join Bloggers Anonymous because we’re pretty much beyond help! So why not come and join the fun?

This is an interview with Josh Sharp of techCollective and Josh Sharp - web application development blog. techCollective is Josh’s new project, an aggregation site for Australia’s brightest and best Web 2.0/social computing blogs.

Andrew: Josh, what are you aiming to achieve with techCollective? What’s the main selling point, the message you’re trying to get out there?

Josh: I really feel that the Australian web industry is under-represented as a whole. You have to look hard to get a good feel for a local perspective on startups, technologies, and the like. And that’s the one thing I’d really like to change. My main aim is to bring the focus back to the local industry – by giving Australian bloggers a voice, and by giving interested readers a chance to find content they may have otherwise missed. There are all these authoritative, local voices coming from people who have launched startups, or are changing how the web works at some fundamental level, or just have brilliant ideas. And it’s very hard to hear them over the likes of big international and US-based content like http://techcrunch.com. It’s a real shame.

So my aim is to at least get people aware of these bloggers, so even if they just bookmark the site and browse it every so often, they’re still going to get more of a local perspective on things.

Andrew: Where do you see techCollective going? Is there a limit to the number of blogs you can aggregate with it in the current one-page format?

Josh: You’re right, there is. When I came up with the idea I didn’t have any long term plans aside from raising awareness about the local industry. But I’m open to ideas, and I’d love to grow the site over time. Ultimately I think it could become a portal to local tech content, with further niche content available, forums, the works. But I’ve only just launched!

Andrew: So are you thinking of allowing user-generated content, like tagging of individual stories? What about individualised RSS feeds or some other sort of personalisation?

Josh: I think ultimately that growing and evolving techCollective will be a community process – I’d love if it expanded to include a forum, or some other form of user interaction. Blogging is unique in that it’s turned reporting and journalism into a two way conversation, and I’d like to take advantage of that. User-submitted content is a good idea, and if there proves to be an enthusiastic community waiting, I think that’s something I’d love to turn my attention to. But those sort of extras will come with time. At the moment I’m keeping it simple, and focussing on promoting local bloggers.

Andrew: Finally, if anyone knows someone that should be on techCollective, how do they get in touch with you?

Josh: Easy – just head over to my contact page, and tell me about your blog.

Andrew: Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed, Josh, and all the best in the future.

Josh: Thanks Andrew.

The great thing about Aussie Bloggers is that it’s given me the chance to interview some of my bloggy heroes, one of whom was recently nominated for a Bloggie for Best Food Blog. I’m talking about The Food Pornographer. We met one Saturday morning at the Subiaco Hotel (for breakfast of course) and I brought along a digital audio recorder and my little flip video camera. TFP had her camera.

Once we’d ordered and I set up all my equipment, we began chatting. I wanted to replicate as best I could a typical meal with TFP, interruptions by waiting staff included. After all, meals are what we know her best for. So…

When did you start blogging?

I guess I always had a personal journal thing before people started talking about blogs and getting a Blogger account. It must have been about eight years ago. I had animated gifs, midis and flashing stuff on the site - I went through all that. I had a journal site and talked about what we did, where we went out… The main reason was to keep in contact with lots of people without too much effort. I’m not very good at keeping in touch.

I started posting food from family celebrations to try and tempt my sister to come home -”Look at this gorgeous beef rendang” - then people who were searching for food starting commenting and interacting and I thought, “This is really cool”, so I started concentrating more on food and taking more and more photos and the blog became more about the food than me. The food’s more interesting than me.

But it’s not just a food blog. You put some of yourself in there…?

I’m not a professional photographer. It’s not like a magazine type of thing where the food is perfectly presented; there’s always a story behind it - we’re going out or its a family celebration - so it’s more than just the food itself.

[The waiter brings us our drinks: English breakfast tea for TFP, long black for me.]

So I didn’t have a comment system on there so people sent me emails. I love it when people send comments and emails. I value what people write. It means in some way I’ve reached them, even if it’s just one photo they like.

Does having a community of your own drive you to blog more?

Absolutely…

[Breakfast arrives and completely distracts us as we talk about the food a bit and TFP takes photos and I take video of TFP taking photos of food. She’s having a full breakfast and I’m having a very healthy fruit salad (how boring).

TFP tends to take a few photos and afterwards she decides which one’s the best.]

I move the plate so that the protein is in the foreground. That’s the highlight of the meal for me. The toast means nothing, it’s just there. I use the macro; in fact, my camera is permanently set to macro. I tend not to use zoom as it gets a bit shaky and I prefer to use natural light rather than flash.

[TFP’s hot tip: Photograph the menu so you can describe the food properly.]

What does your family think of your blogging?

I’m quite private about myself and my partner Jac and so I’m quite careful about talking about us. Sometimes I use people’s real names but I always ask first. Personally I wouldn’t use my real name and I don’t say enough to identify us. For example, I wouldn’t show a photo of the front of our house. I’ve had some weird emails where people want to say something pornographic to me so that’s another reason to guard my privacy.

My family is very patient and very tolerant (thank you, thank you, thank you) but I’ve learned to be quite quick when photographing their meals. I’ve got other family members who blog too so that helps. In fact, one of my sisters posted about all of us who blog in the family. So often there are two or three accounts of the same family event on the net.

[TFP takes photos of toast.]

Blogging has a useful side too. When Jac was ill recently we could look back on my blog and find out when exactly her symptoms started because I mentioned it. I’d blogged about when we’d got back from the hospital. We’d had toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches.

[Everything comes back to food.

It seems mean to conduct the interview over breakfast. Was her food getting cold?]

You’d be surprised how often I eat cold food. Because I don’t want to bother people with my photography, I take photos of everybody else’s food first so by the time I get back to my plate…

Do restaurants approach you to review their food?

I was approached last year. An Indian restaurant had noticed my photography of their food and offered me a voucher for dinner and they were keen to use my photos for their redeveloped website. They haven’t yet got back to me

After the event I started to think it doesn’t feel quite right to write about a restaurant review after a freebie because if I don’t like something, I don’t feel right about saying it. It’s like literally biting the hand that feeds you. So I think if someone was to offer me another freebie I don’t know whether I would take it. If you pay for the food you can slam it, can’t you?

Is that how you feel about advertising?

I know a lot of people are against advertisements on blogs. I’m completely against pop-ups. I know a lot of people are trying to at least get back their costs. Hmm… I’m reviewing what I do about that at the moment.

Did your traffic increase after the Bloggies nomination?

In the few days after the nomination and after a few people generously talked about on their blog, I did see increased traffic and increased my plan just in case.

Being in the company of some of my favourites is such a huge thrill but what’s really cool is that now that I’ve been mentioned in the news my boss has finally bothered to look at my site. She said, “Ooooh, there’s my lunch!”. I had to make the Australian news before she would check it out.

Do you have any other blogs?

No, I don’t have time. I do have a personal site with my CV but I’m struggling as it is and finding it hard to keep up with The Food Pornographer and I want to make them really good so people don’t wait and then get disappointed.

Not junk food?

People like the McDonalds ones I think. I’ve been really criticized for putting junk food online but there’s a lot of people out there just love looking at junk food.

[Just for the record, TFP is very slim despite eating a full breakfast including hash browns - which were very good.]

And the future?

At the moment I’m working on a revamp of the site. I use WordPress but I haven’t updated my versions since I installed it - [gasp from me] - I’m scared of breaking it. So what I’m going to do is build a mirror site and make sure everything is working before I copy it across. I’ll revamp the categories which are a real mess. I think I’ll go for a three column blog with a random banner at the top with brand new photos. I like the black and orange and grey so I’ll probably stay with that colour scheme.

TFP’s Tips (And she says she is not a professional photographer!):

• Protein at the front
• Take a photo of the menu
• The food looks better - more natural - if you don’t use flash
• Use the macro settings
• Make sure the food is sharply in focus
• Only put up the really good photos

TFP uses a Panasonic TZ3

The following is an interview with Guera from A Roaming Aussie Mum, who talks about what it is like to be an Australian parent and expatriate blogger overseas.

Andrew: Hi Guera, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for Aussie Bloggers. What is it like being an expatriate Aussie in Mexico?

Guera: A lot of days it is a huge challenge. It can be exhilarating, interesting, frustrating and really hard work. I have loved learning a new language (Spanish) and many everyday things are so fascinating, like all the fiestas and rituals they have and the amazing food we have had. Some days though, you just want to do something simple, like go to the doctor, pay the phone bill or do the shopping, without the hassle of working out how to manage it in Spanish and with a foreign country’s systems. And of course, we have a lot of days where our family life is not so different from home, hanging out with the kids, work, school etc.

There are quite a few expats in the city we live in but no other Aussies (as far as we know) so sometimes we feel quite removed from Australia. That’s one of the reasons blogging and the Aussie Bloggers Forum has been great - to connect with other Aussies. And sometimes we get a bit homesick, missing family and the familiarities of home, but we go back to visit often and have regular visitors from home, so its not too bad.

Andrew: You blog on a variety of topics, and seem to mention family life overseas a lot - Tips for Flying with Children looked especially helpful, and Flying with Children - A Cautionary Tale was very touching. Can you see yourself continuing to blog about family life if/when you return to Australia for good?

Guera: When I first started my blog I really only thought of blogging about life as an expat in Mexico, but I soon discovered how much I enjoyed blogging and how many different things people were blogging about, so I started talking about more things in my everyday life, that aren’t particular to living in Mexico.

I definitely won’t be stopping my blog when we go home, I think there’s always plenty of blog fodder in everyone’s daily lives. My blog will probably just move in a slightly different direction. I have found particularly with personal blogs I follow that you really get involved in people’s lives and are interested in what they are doing. They definitely become friends so I would hope that people who’ve followed our adventures would be interested in what our life is like when we come home and re-adjust to life in Australia.

Andrew: Here’s the hard question: are there similarities between various expatriate Australian blogs? Is there enough material in common such that they could be considered a niche in and of themselves?

Guera: There’s that word again! “Niche”!

I read quite a lot of expat blogs and I think there are similarities between them. A lot of them are not really “blogger’s blogs” though - many people are blogging primarily to keep in touch with their families back home, so its hard to define them with normal blogging terms.

There’s definitely a strong expat blogging community though, with a few sites like Expat Blogs and Expat Women which have directories of expat blogs so you can find other people experiencing the same things as you or do a bit of armchair travel to places all over the world. I guess you could probably say that expat blogging is a niche. Expats no matter where they are from or where they are living, have similar experiences about adjusting to life in a foreign country.

Andrew: How have you found the Aussie Bloggers Forum so far?

Guera: I can’t believe how friendly and helpful the vibe is there! It’s been a great place to find new blogs to read, meet new people and get loads of tips about blogging. Aussie Bloggers seem to be very community minded so there’s a lot of people giving their time and expertise to help other bloggers and there’s a lot of honest and thought-provoking discussions going on, as well as quite a bit of fun!

Andrew: Finally, where do you see your blogging going from here? Do you have any plans for an expanded number of blogs or blog projects?

Guera: I’ve got lots of ideas for continuing with my blogging on my current blog and for a few new blogs. I’d love to think that I could make a bit of money from blogging, but it’s not the easiest thing to do and I wouldn’t want to do so to the detriment of fun I have in blogging and the enjoyment that readers of my blog (hopefully!) get out of reading it.

I love playing around with the design of blogs and with lots of other online tools, so at the moment I’m having fun. I’ve been doing a bit of work in the background on a couple of new blogs, but I’m also trying to focus on getting my primary blog going well so the others are a longer term project. I’ll let you know when they are ready to launch.

I’m also looking forward to doing a few guest posts for this blog, which are going to focus on expat Aussie Bloggers - maybe we’ll find out if we do have similar blogging experiences and are our own niche!

Thanks for interviewing me Andrew and for the great job the founders and everyone involved in the Aussie Bloggers Forum and Blog are doing. Well done for creating such a useful resource!

I wrote my first blog post in January 2006.

It seems a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

I set up a Blogger account and away I went. With absolutely no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it, for that matter.

It didn’t take me long to jump ship to Wordpress.com with it’s stable platform, handy stats package and brilliant Akismet spam security guard.

And gradually, as I found I was interacting mainly with people who shared my hobby/passion for scrapbooking, I discovered I was writing more and more about that topic rather than anything else. And now Scraps of Mind is totally focussed on Scrapbooking information, tips and tutorials - including video tutorials which I have started making and am totally loving. Although I also write blogging tips for Scrapbookers.

In July 2007 I decided to ‘get serious’ about blogging and joined Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind Program, moving my blog Scraps of Mind to its own domain at the same time.

I won’t go into detail of the dramas of that move, but I’ll just say that Scraps of Mind changed servers three times in that month and I was a nervous wreck at the end of it. I’m sure that many of you who have made the jump have been through similar trauma. And like many before me, I just wish I’d done it earlier when the pain of severing links and traffic history would have been so much less.

So I have spent the last six months working on building the quality of my blog to service my niche market and implementing the lessons taught by Yaro in his course.

And let me just say that I consider the last six months of the Blog Mastermind Course totally worthwhile and money well spent. I’ve used my affiliate link to the BMM but I’m not sure if the course is even currently open at the moment as Yaro closed the doors to new members at the beginning of December for an undisclosed period.

But if you haven’t already done so, I totally recommend you download Yaro’s free Blog Profits Blueprint which is just bristling with ideas for improving your blog and potentially making money from it.

Anyway, in the last six months I’ve built Scraps of Mind into a Page Rank 4 blog with an Alexa Ranking of 170,000 (down from over 1.5 million). And I’m No 16 on the Top Australian Women’s Blogger List and No 36 on the Top 100 Australian Bloggers List, so I figure I must be doing something right.

My blog is starting to earn money but I still have a long way to go. The important thing for me is that I love what I’m doing and I love the great global community that I’m building on Scraps of Mind. Being located in Australia is no disadvantage to accessing a global community with blogging. And in fact I find blogging with an Australian ‘voice’ gives me a point of differentiation.

Now I spend more time blogging about scrapbooking than I spend actually doing it!

Bloggo Ergo Sum

I blog, therefore I am.

Karooch is an AussieBlogger from Victoria.

She writes the Scraps of Mind blog which she describes as: a feast of Scrapbooking information and tutorials for both the Digital Scrapbooker and the Traditional Paper Scrapbooker. Seasoned with Antiques & Collectibles, Music inspired, and Blog Presentation articles to add some extra spice. All served up with a light hearted and fun style.

And also the Scraps of Mind Weekly Word Art Newsletter which offers three pieces of original designed Word Art delivered free to your inbox each week.

Earlier this week resident moderator Karen met up with Darren Rowse, arguably Australia’s most famous blogger, for a perfectly civilised hour of chatting about blogging and he was most obliging in answering some of the questions posed by our members.

How do you learn to cope with so many people wanting a piece of you?

It is more just having people competing to stand in front of you, to get notice or attention. What I find difficult - and disappointing - is how I cannot personally help the sheer numbers of people who ask for help or advice. I do try, but I get stretched thin.

That’s why I don’t do memes; that’s why I rarely refer people to other sites which may be calling for donations for worthy causes. If I open that door, I will (and do) get flooded.

It’s also why I need an assistant now for 10 hours a week; to almost purely go through and approve or spam the comments I get on my blog. She now is savvy in knowing what a genuine comment is and what is not. It can be very time consuming. All that said I still spend at least 30 minutes a day also moderating comments.

Being so successful must inevitably result in criticism from time to time. How do you deal with this?

I’ve been dealing with it for five years now, so it washes off me more than it used to. It used to quite upset my blogging, and my patterns and moods would fluctuate accordingly. What I wish is perhaps before people write aggressive, attacking posts is that contact me first to perhaps figure out the problem or ask for clarification. What’s most interesting is that a lot of people don’t even think their negative remarks will come to my attention in the first place! I find that quite odd.

Do you think being an Aussie blogger is harder than it would be for other nationalities?

Well being in Australia actually helps with my Digital Photography blog because a lot of the breaking news in that niche comes out of the Asian district – in basically our time-frame – but also when America is sleeping. So in that respect I can sometimes ‘get the word out’ first by making an announcement. In America and Canada, though, there does seem to be a lot more face-to-face contact between bloggers, but that may just be simply due to the enormous population difference.

I have been surprised to find, flicking through the Aussie Blogger Forum members list, just how many bloggers I recognise there that are Australian and I didn’t realise beforehand.

Why is Carlton so consistently bad, year-in and year-out?

*laughs* Have you seen the line up for this year? 2008 will be different. Or in maybe 2-3 years.

Can you puncture some hype for us? For example, “Is it really all about quality?”

I wish I could just say, “Yes.” Full stop. But it simply isn’t that easy to define. What is ‘quality’? You could have a very marketable, funky blog with poorish writing which is still successful due to the other merits. Then there are the blogs which have reams of ‘quality’ writing which may not be as successful. I think a lot of it comes down to individual’s voices and how well they put their voice across. If it is clear, and has something to offer, with meaning, then I think that is good. Quality of writing is an important part of the mix - but unfortunately bloggers wanting to rise above the noise need more than just that. It takes quality in other areas too like marketing, SEO, branding, networking etc.

Do you think pro-blogging is sustainable in the short to medium term if there’s a recession and ad expenditure inevitably gets slashed?

It is a concern and it is something larger conglomerates – such as B5 media – will have to consider, more so perhaps than individual bloggers. If you look at certain graphs and reports you will see there has been a downturn for some marketing strategies, as some companies perhaps seek alternate methods of advertising. Some of it is seasonal, granted, but the truth is if a recession were to occur the first cuts companies would make is in the advertising sector. It’s just the way of things.

Darren, on a personal note, I’d like to thank you for taking time out of your day to come and meet me for our little chat, and I’m sure the readers here at Aussie Bloggers do too!

When I started thinking about what image to put into the header of the Aussie Bloggers blog I went through all the usual suspects. Ayers Rock, Kangaroos, Koalas and all the other cliched things that are supposed to represent Australia. The more I thought about it, the more I knew this stuff wasn’t going to work. Sure, it would look cute, but what would it *mean*? I wanted something that had a deeper meaning to it.

Then I remembered back to when I began blogging. Most of the bloggers I knew were from the US. I did not know many Australian bloggers. Even though it was less than two years ago, there was no central place that I knew of where I could find fellow Australian bloggers. Nor did I know anyone in “real life” from Australia who blogged at all. I was literally in the dark. It felt like I was all alone and I wondered if maybe we Aussies were not embracing blogging as fast as the rest of the world.

Little did I know that there *were* other Aussie bloggers out there - I just did not know how to find them.

Thinking back to those days it reminded me of an image I had once seen - the world from space at night time. The image of Australia in darkness with lights showing where the big towns were had fascinated me because I knew I must have been in it, though you would never see me or anyone else. It was looking at our country from a perspective very few of us ever get to see.

And then I thought - not only was I in that photo, but more than likely every Aussie Blogger was also in it - with a few exceptions of those who were overseas at the time. It seemed to me the perfect symbol of Australian Blogging - we’re all alone in the dark until we find the blogs of fellow Aussies who are out there somewhere blogging too.

When I finally found some Australian bloggers (via the Australian Blogs Community on Bumpzee) I was amazed at how friendly and helpful they were. I am thrilled to find that this friendly and helpful vibe is happening in the forums as I type this - people helping each other out with issues, people saying hi, people visiting each others blogs, people posting articles they found interesting and useful - as well as people sharing their thoughts on topics from TV shows to what they’re having for dinner tonight.

You don’t have to be Australian to join the forums, all nationalities are welcome. If you are interested in blogging at all then join us in the forums today and take some time to connect with bloggers you may never have met before.

Don’t sit alone in the dark.

Thanks for stopping by Aussiebloggers.com.au. This blog is launching on 21st January.

In the meantime you might like to:

Join in by registering for our Forum

Subscribe to our feed

Watch our video clip (compiled by Squadron)

You don’t have to be an Aussie to join the forums, in fact if you are interested in blogging at all you’ll want to join. Unlike other forums out there on the web, questions are welcome and you will find lots of friendly Aussies willing to help. Helping out mates is part of the Aussie way, after all.

In the meantime, please feel free to make use of our forum.