A few days ago, you might have seen my claim that I would begin blogging daily.

I’ve been thinking that while this site is a great resource, many might miss it due to infrequent or unexpected updates.

Regardless of our past update frequency, blogging daily sounds like a tall order.  Here are some steps I plan to employ in order to keep daily weekday blogging (and quality) up to par:

1 – More regular writers. Having guest posters is fun and gives people some fresh ideas, though having regular contributors takes on a whole other voice to your blog.  Select these people wisely, as they should balance your normal tone.

2 – Nightblogging. I’ve just found it most effective to blog in the middle of the night.

3 – Assembly line method. One thing that has been particularly effective for me is what I’ll refer to here as assembly line blogging.  Literally, if you look at your blog post as pieces on an assembly line, they become easier, especially when you’re looking to keep up a frequent pace.

So let’s say I come up with a great idea to blog, but don’t have the time.  I quickly jot down the idea in notepad, or put in a draft in WordPress, usually with a catchy title.  When time will allow, I will continue to develop the idea.  Unless it’s a pure research post, the last steps I will do will be adding links, images and video.  Give it a final edit, and the post is on its way.

4 – Delayed Publishing. Thanks to the beauty of WordPress, we’re able to schedule posts to publish in the future.  While I might have some great ideas at 3am, it might not get the best exposure should I choose to publish at that time.  So I could publish at 6am and have the blog do the publishing work by itself – just in time for my morning coffee.  Does it really take that much time and work to publish a blog post? Of course not – it’s just nice to know that your post is on its way in a scheduled fashion.

5 -  Keeping Fresh. Nothing keeps you on your game like blogging on a daily basis.  Once you fall off your schedule, you may find yourself in a pattern of “paralysis through analysis.” I’ve fallen into this trap too before.  You haven’t blogged for what you think is far too long, so you over think and over analyze the “perfect post.” You sit on it for days, maybe even weeks.  Last I checked, nobody has won the Nobel Peace Prize for writing a blog post, so break your behavior here and publish already.  It’s a self-defeating behavior that doesn’t help you, and your audience would appreciate the updates.

6 – There are some things Twitter wasn’t made for. Yes, you heard me.  Twitter can’t make your coffee (though you can order coffee from it), and it can’t blog.  Not beyond 140 characters.  So this can lead to a lot of noise.  Also, you don’t “own” your Twitter blog and links are nofollow, so the more you Tweet, the more you’re actually working for Twitter.  Reclaim some of your blog power – your readers will thank you for the focus.

7 – Keep one step ahead of yourself. Try to keep at least one full post ahead of your writing.  If you can’t do that, at least have a few half written ones, ya slacker

I’m not asking you to blog daily…though I’m curious: what do you do to keep up your pace?

I am a nitty-gritty practical kind of guy and my initial thought was this : if Wikipedia is made up of voluntary user contributions, does Wikipedia first of all have legal permission from the writers to print the material? Did they get legal waivers from each contributor saying it was fine to use their work?

If so, is Bertelsmann allowed to make any money from it (seeing that the contributions were voluntary)? If so, shouldn’t some of that money make its way back to the writers who wrote the articles in the first place? I mean, every writer is entitled to a royalty. By denying the writer their royalty, Wikipedia is ripping them off big-time. No, in fact, let’s not beat around the bush here. Let’s say it for what it really is. Wikipedia is SHAFTING THEM.

The whole point of Wikipedia is to provide a voluntary online source of information. That is why people voluntarily gave up some of their time to write the articles for free in the first place. It is a noble project, the writer believed in the project and so they participated in it. Had they known that Wikipedia would then use their work in a commercial printed venture, I’m sure they would have had second thoughts about writing those articles. At the very least they would have demanded a contract and perhaps a guarantee of financial compensation later.

It really is a damn cheek to be honest. The writers are asked to write articles under the guise of voluntary acts of kindness, they are not credited in any way and then later on, Wikipedia decides to publish that work, charge 20 Euros a pop and pockets all the money!

Wikipedia has told the media : “It is not about the money. It is a very good example of the power of free knowledge”. If the money really doesn’t matter, then why is the book so expensive? Why not give it away?

By Mark O’Neill