Today I have a guest post on business ethics in the trenches over at Good Honest Dollar $$. It’s one of my favorite blogs, all about business ethics. Andrew is a superb writer and I’m honored to be there.
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Last week, I had a guest post at Joanna Young’s Confident Writing. Thanks, Joanna. The topic was writing experiments. I wrote about my idea lab, Scrambled Toast, a humor blog I’m currently trying to revitalize with Robert Hruzek and Free SEO Services Guy, George Ajazi.
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Our Cell Phone Users and Abusers Group Blog Project is underway. If you need $50 to $500 for Christmas shopping, enter! I also have a few Cell Phone Humor books to give away, courtesy of my client, the author. Leave a comment or drop me a note if you’re interested.
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Amazon recently changed how they calculate Top Reviewers. I’m happy to report I’m now a Top 500 Reviewer. What are you reading right now? Any recommendations?
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Lillie Ammann came up with a neat idea to promote her new book, a Blog Book Tour. An intriguing approach to social media marketing – Lillie, how did it go?
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Boston is a wonderful city but how do people find their way around? We were walking down Newbury Street, and the buildings were numbered in the 200′s and 300′s. A couple blocks directly south, on Boylston, the buildings were numbered in the 600′s. Here in Chicago, we have a numbering system and it’s incredibly easy to navigate. If I were in the GPS business, I’d make Boston my HQ.
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As I write this, a blizzard sweeps across my back yard in the dusk. Looks like tee shirts and shorts are headed for a long winter’s nap. I look forward to winter. Snow is a comforting backdrop for serious writing and concentrated work. How about you … Do you like the change of seasons, or can you live without them?
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Looks like you’ve been busy, Bubba!
Sometimes I truly miss a real winter. Down here in Houston we get summer for 11 months, then it cools down for a bit. Occasionally we’ll get a frost, and MAYBE a snowflake or two. But that’s pretty much it.
When I lived up north, it was always nice to have four actual seasons.
Robert Hruzeks last blog post..Why I Hate Cell Phones
Robert, Texas has an appealing climate, except for those nasty, occasional hurricanes, unfortunately. Sometimes I dream of living in Phoenix, but those changes of seasons are nice. Winter is a joy … until February anyway.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..News, Observations, and a Question or Two
Brad, I love the change in seasons though have to confess we don’t get too much snow here. I know it becomes impractical after a while.
Congrats on being a top 500 reviewer. Does it bring nice perks?
Joanna Youngs last blog post..Quotes on Experimenting, Writing, Art and Life
Joanna, Perks? Hmm. I do get authors/publicists asking me to review books on occasion (that happens to you as well, right?). This has helped me learn about good new marketing/writing books, which is a definite plus. A book review I did on David Meerman Scott’s New Rules book helped me strike up a bit of a relationship with him, which has been very enjoyable for me. It may be that being a Top Reviewer gives me a measure of credibility as a writer, but that’s just a guess. I write reviews because it helps me remember what I read, and because reviews are so helpful to me, writing them is a way of returning the favor.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..News, Observations, and a Question or Two
Bearing in mind previous posts about words I picked up a book at a charity sale called Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson. It is a hoot. He talks about misuse of words, grammar and punctuation. Right up my street….It was first published in 1984 so I doubt it would merit review now but you might want to watch out for it ( if it is published in the US of course)
Jackie Camerons last blog post..It takes time to become an overnight success
Jackie, It is available here. Thanks for the recommendation – I must read it. Other Word Sell readers will probably want a copy as well.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..News, Observations, and a Question or Two
Brad,
Congratulations on becoming a Top 500 reviewer. I don’t know exactly how Amazon ranks reviewers, but I understand that now readers’ ratings of the usefulness of the reviews is considered along with the number of reviews. So you have to write good reviews as well as a lot of them.
The subject of reviewing is in the air. In addition to your mention and your review yesterday, Joanna wrote about reviewing on her blog, and I wrote a review of a book on how to write reviews on my blog. One of the interesting things I learned from that book was the difference between “reader reviews” like those at Amazon and “professional (or reviewer) reviews.” Reviews at Amazon can be professional reviews, as well, but reader reviews don’t follow a set structure whereas reviewer reviews do. I’m curious as to which type of reviews you write at Amazon.
One more question about Amazon reviews: what do you think about Amazon not allowing you to use reviews posted there anywhere else?
Thank you for mentioning and asking about my blog book tour. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of hard work. I’m gathering information from the tour hosts now—I’ve asked for stats and comments for the day of my visit and a week after so won’t get it all for at least a week. I’m going to write a wrap-up post on my blog, which I hope will be helpful to anyone considering either having a tour themselves or hosting authors on their tours.
I will be hosting authors from time to time on my blog (starting with the author of the book reviewing book I hosted yesterday). Hosting authors is a natural on my blog about writing and books, but any blogger can do it. If you were interested, for example, you could host authors of business books.
Lillie Ammanns last blog post..Book Review: The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing
Hi Lillie, It’ll be interesting to see how your tour came out. It sure was a novel idea (pun intended).
My Amazon reviews are reader reviews. I rarely read the professional reviews. With reader reviews, you can be fairly confident the authors are giving you their genuine opinions.
It would be nice if Amazon allowed reader reviewers to publish their material elsewhere, but I can understand why they don’t allow it. It’s been their policy as long as I can remember. Making the content exclusive to Amazon guarantees that people will go to amazon.com for opinions about books they’re shopping for. That certainly gives them an enormous advantage over other book sellers. How do you feel about the policy?
Thanks for the hosting offer … certainly I would be interested in doing it if the opportunity arises.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..News, Observations, and a Question or Two
Brad,
It’s interesting that you suggest reader reviews are more honest than reviewer reviews. The authors of The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing state just the opposite. One of the strict requirements of a professional review is honesty and objectivity. Reader reviews can be honest and objective, but they aren’t required to be. Often people write overly gushing or overly negative reviews based on their friendship or jealousy of the author.
I know you don’t write those kinds of reviews, but just pointing out that reader reviews can be written that way. Professional reviews must include both positive and negative (if appropriate) and must be written with tact if there are negative aspects of the review.
The author gives the basic structure of a professional review in an answer to a question on my blog post. I’d be interested to know if you include those elements in your reviews.
I haven’t written reviews at Amazon in a long time. I don’t write many reviews, but when I do, I like to send a copy to the author to use as he sees fit. As an author, I like to be able to use reviews on my Web site for promotion so I prefer reviews that I can use. However, I also like having reviews at Amazon for readers to find the book there. So their exclusive policy is OK in that regard. For reader reviewers, it’s probably not an issue because they aren’t likely to even want to post the review anywhere else. But for professional reviewers, it’s restrictive.
Lillie Ammanns last blog post..Book Review: The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing
I forgot to mention that the only reviews I’ve ever done before have been reader reviews, though I’ve always tried to be honest, objective, and tactful. The review of The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing was my first attempt at a reviewer review, and I tried to use what I learned in the book on that review.
Lillie Ammanns last blog post..Book Review: The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing
I enjoy the change in seasons, but yesterday’s drive in teh multiple snowstorms was a little much. I am looking forward to wintering in Hilton Head, SC.
Brad,
Thanks for your compliment about my writing. Much appreciated.
Congratulations on making it into the top 500 in Amazon.
Boston citizens can at least be thankful that they have a numbering system – in Korea, there is no numbering system at all (there are building numbers, but not street numbers), nor are there any street names. To find an address with which you are not familiar, you should first go to the neighborhood (easy to find on a map) and then simply ask directions to the relevant address.
Andrews last blog post..Employee rights and responsibilities part 2 – Fundamental responsibilities of employees
@Stepehen, Have fun in Hilton Head. Can’t believe you got that much snow already.
Andrew, No street names? Incredible. Is that unique to Korea or common in that part of the world? Must be incredibly hard to get around.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..News, Observations, and a Question or Two
Is that pic where you live Brad – it looks awesome. Seriously though – you are doing all these guest posts and you still didn’t do one for me – that just isn’t fair. Joanna has enough time to write on her little island. I’m a stressed and underprivileged blogger for crying out loud.
I liked Lillie’s tour – it was an awesome idea. But it started out in disaster for me. I thought she was actually physically coming here to stay. And she tried to email me to explain but my aol was so clogged up with junk that it wouldn’t let her emails through.
So how many reviews did you need to do to get in the top 500 then?
Cath Lawsons last blog post..Do You Have Business Questions?
Hi Cath, I would LOVE to do a guest post on your blog. Can we talk offline about a topic? Even better, how about a guest post exchange? I am similarly stressed!
My first review was about ten years ago. I’ve written about 240, mostly for books. How Amazon calculates rankings is a mystery, but it has to do with number of reviews, percentage of helpful votes, and how frequently/recently you review an item. I think.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..News, Observations, and a Question or Two
Brad,
so many questions and informations! I’ll just concentrate of the questions regarding the seasons. I enjoy the four seasons: the colour of autumn, the cold and snow in winter, the new green in spring and the free and easy ways of summer. I think we need all four of them in order to enjoy them fully – wouldn’t it be boring just to have summer all year through?
Ulla Hennigs last blog post..The cell phone that wasn’t turned off
Brad,
I don’t know about the situation with street names in other countries, but I don’t think Mexico has any.(I could be wrong there)
Koreans seem to manage without street names, but I still think life would be considerably easier if they were adopted.
Andrews last blog post..Guest post from Brad Shorr
Wow Brad you have been busy! Congratulations on the Top 500 and sharing your wit and wisdom on other blogs. I have found Phoenix to be one of the most easily navigated cities. I’m not sure about Michigan’s numbering system (still learning) but the mile roads facilitate navigation except when they change from a mile road to a street name then it’s just downright confusing.
Karen Swims last blog post..What you Talking ‘bout Willis?
Hi Brad – an exchange would is a brilliant idea. I will email you my phone number.
Cath Lawsons last blog post..Do You Have Business Questions?
Hi Brad, You forgot one of your guest posts. I just read one this morning at Robert Hruzek’s, Middle Zone Musings. Sounds like you’re extra busy these days.
Robyn McMasters last blog post..As a Writer – I Can
Hi Cath, that’d be fine, though I miswrote when I said offline. I meant we could email/Twitter our discussion further. Unfortunately I don’t have Skype. Anyway, let’s proceed!
Robyn, You’re right! Hey, would you like to be my secretary?
My brain obviously needs some organizational assistance. All this traveling is new for me.