7 Pieces of Good News Not Being Reported

Between watching news of both national and state politics in MN debating budgets and the hearing the verdict of the Casey Anthony case, I've been depressed to turn on the news again. However, some good news isn't being reported. Ever hear the saying, bad news sells? Maybe that's the current case.

#7 The Gulf of Mexico is almost back to it's pre-spill health levels. The Gulf is recovering much faster than anyone expected it to. Further, what was expected to happen didn't.

#6 The good news about AIDS. Today's HIV patients can expect to live a lot longer - even decades past their diagnosis. Further, the the global rate of new HIV infections has declined by 25 percent since 2001.

#5 The Antarctic Ozone hole is shrinking. Despite what you've heard of the Ozone gap growing, the truth is it is actually shrinking every year!

#4 Traffic fatalities are insanely low this now. Despite what you hear on the news each day about car accidents - the truth is that the number of car accidents happen is the lowest it's been since 1949.

#3 Teen pregnancy is actually at a record low. Even with shows like Pregnant and 16 on MTV, just like the news about traffic fatalities - teen pregnancy is the lowest it's been in 70 years.

#2 People get happier as they get older. A recent survey involving 340,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 85 showed that the older you are - the happier you become. The group answered a series of questions about lifestyle and the results were surprising. The older age groups actually reported being happier, less stressed and more in control.

#1 We're all living longer, better. Statistician Hans Rosling has proved that average life expectancy globally has increased greatly since 1810.

For more information on the blog post check out - www.cracked.com for the whole story.

5 Social Tips for Women to Increase Media Exposure

Locate and follow journalists and bloggers online.

Most journalists and bloggers have a Twitter handle or another online source to share content and ask questions. Take the time to follow them and read what they are working on. Get to know them on some level and join in the conversation when you can. This will help you build a relationship with them. The key is to think, how can I benefit them rather than how can they benefit me.

Leave a trail so others can follow you.

We live in a time of digital technology and we want instant answers to our questions. Journalists highly rely on the Internet for resources, and you should watch your own SEO. Make sure you have an online presence and use hyperlinks and other connections online to build your own SEO. This will make it easy for others to find and learn about you. Further, if you're going to build a social media outlet for yourself, make sure it represents yourself well. Think of your overall objective always.

Produce interesting content.

Use your website, blog or social media outlet to showcase some of your best and most interesting work, thoughts, creations, etc. Position yourself in the industry as someone who produces thought-worthy content. This does not mean you should blog or tweet just anything. Try to stay up on the news and trends, then look for unique angle that excites you and provides value. Then, learn basic SEO to try and position yourself better.

Be your best publicist.

Utilize social media releases and pitch yourself with viable story ideas to guest post on blogs with higher visibility traffic. Develop a microblogging strategy that encompasses a combination of publishing and publicity. Look for existing industry groups on social networks to increase your reach by participating in industry chats on Twitter, niche networks and message boards.

Be a resource to reporters.

Instead of pitching yourself, let them come to you with inquiries. Sign up for Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to receive daily email blasts with reporter queries from your local daily to the New York Times. Look for the stories you can serve as an expert resource to or provide helpful information to and respond.

How Much Does Freelance Writing Pay?

If you're thinking about becoming a freelance writer, I think you'll find this information interesting.

I'm thinking about offering up my services as a freelance writer for websites and social media sites. This got me to thinking about how much I should charge. I have a creative communications and journalism background and have experience working in public relations and marketing. I believe I can be considered to have been a writer about two years, although I think I've been a writer most of my life.

After doing some research, I found that the answer to this question varies.

• You can charge by the hour, just a flat rate. A nice starting rate for this is $12 an hour. This is actually a really good rate.
• You can charge a paragraph rate. This can become somewhat lucrative, unless there's a limit to how many times you can write/post. A good starting rate for this is about $5 a paragraph.
• You can charge per word. If you want to charge this way, an average pay is about .01 per word, sometimes a bit better. However, some places only pay .005 per word. If you're a fast writer you can make a decent amount this way. This rate can go up as you work longer.

If you're or have been a freelance writer, please offer up your advice or how you've been compensated in the past. Let us know how it has worked for you.

Google Takes on Facebook

"Google to launch Facebook competitor very soon" tweeted Kevin Rose, the tech entrepreneur who founded the content-sharing site Digg. The message that the online world that we all have come to love may drastically change sent a shiver up most social media enthusiast's spines.

Search engine giant, Google, is going to take on social networking powerhouse Facebook with a service reportedly called "Google Me," but hasn't disclosed yet how it will be different. This of course leaves all of us in the blogosphere wondering. Will it integrate Google's existing social networking services like, Orkut or Buzz? Will it build onto Google Profiles?

Just recently my friend and I tried out Google's newest innovation: A Gmail feature that allows you to place a phone call through your computer. The service is free in the US and Canada for at least the rest of this year and costs as little as two cents a minute to dial countries such as Germany and Japan.

However, the most radical idea of the year was Google's jump into social gaming. (Currently, Facebook is the most important platform for this kind of game.) Google has already taken steps onto 'Facebook's turf.' In August, Google announced that they were buying Slide for $228 million, a start-up that makes apps for social networking. Also, Google recently invested in Zynga, the company behind the popular Facebook game, FarmVille.

So, why is Google doing this? Google wants your time. Networking and playing games takes more of your time than searching, and time is money.

According to Nielsen Co. report, Americans spend 22.7 percent of their online time on social networks and blogs, compared with 3.5 percent on search-engine sites. Further, social networking sites have boomed more than any other category that Nielsen tracks for share of US Internet time; they were up 43 percent in June of this year compared to June 2009. In contrast, search engines only edged ahead one percent.

Facebook is definitely enjoying its glory days, but will they last forever? I'm not sure. I do believe that if any other company is to take on Facebook, it should be Google. It will be interesting to see how they differentiate their social networking site. I predict that this element will be the key factor to the site's success or failure.

War and WikiLeaks: Who is a journalist and are journalists’ still considered the gatekeepers to society’s information?

What occurred on the floor of the People's House on Tuesday afternoon was quite possibly the first ever congressional wiki debate. Lawmakers are privy to all sorts of classified information and confidential briefings about national security, but as they argued about a new spending bill to fund the war in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, they spent a good bit of the afternoon bickering about things they'd seen on the Internet.

WikiLeaks is an international organization, based in Sweden, which publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive documents while preserving the anonymity of sources. Its website, launched in 2006, is run by the Sunshine Press. The organization has described itself as having been founded by Chinese dissidents, as well as journalists, mathematicians and start-up company technologists from the U.S., Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa. (www.wikileaks.org/)

Earlier this week, the site became an issue when thousands of classified U.S. military documents, regarding whether or not the U.S. should leave Pakistan, were posted on the website.

Currently, no information in our society is secret and with the updates and changes in cell phones and the creation of social media sites such as blogs, twitter, Facebook, etc. anyone can share information easily. No longer do we need to depend on journalists and news sites to be the gatekeepers. This raises a question to me, who is a journalist? What classifies someone as a journalist? I think the line between who is and who is not, is very thin.

Top 25 Blog Tips

Blogging isn't just the realm of first-movers and enthusiasts anymore. Today, every respectable company that wishes to do business online maintains a blog and everyone really should. Blogging is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get your message out to people and adds more relevant results for your website. Here are the top tips to help you make the most out of your blog.

1. Ditch the default site layout. Nothing says unprofessional than a blog using a default layout. Not only ill your blog look like countless other generic blogs out there, it also sends the message that you're not serious enough to care for your own appearance.
2. Get a designer. Corollarly to ditching your default layout, hiring a deigner can be one of the most important decisions you will ever make. A good designer is key to making your blog aesthetic and most of all believeable.
3. Get your own logo.
4. Be consistent with your tone. When writing posts, be sure that your style of writing is concistene all throughout. Is it fun and perky? Strictly formal? Informative? Pedantic? No matter your tone, stick to it.
5. Write with proper grammar suited to your audience. Reading run-on sentences can be really painful. Most readers will simply give up from trying to understand what you're saying and just forget about you.
6. Add a profile. Tell something about yourself.
7. Keep paragraphs short. Short paragraphs will keep the attention of your readers for long enough for you to make your point. Chances are they will read the whole post!
8. Use headings when appropriate.
9. Stick to one topic per post. Don't try to cover many things at once - a different topic belongs to a different post. Attention spans are short and you don't want to confuse your readers.
10. Do something unique. Readers will remember you if you're unique. You need to stand out by offering something only your blog can - comics, quote of the day, daily pictures, etc.
11. Again, if you have the funds, purchase your own domain. Show your readers you are serious about your identity.
12. Use "pretty" URLs. Many popular blog software have settings for this. Make sure you activate it.
13. Get a fast host.
14. Moderate your comments. Install akismet or a captcha for your blog software. You can also remove trolls and other similar behavior from your comment pool. Readers are annoyed if there is a mountain of comments consisting mostly of spam and nonsensical arguments.
15. Respond to comments. Show your readers that you care enough for their viewpoints to replying to them. It doesn't matter if it's criticism or praise - appreciate their feedback.
16. Categorize your posts.
17. Tag your posts.
18. Do regular updates. Do not leave your subscribers hanging by not being regular with your updates. It doesn't have to be daily' the key here is being regular. Stick to a schedule.
19. Cross link to your own blog. Sometimes you might need to talk about a topic you've covered in the past. Not only is this a good Search Engine Optimization, but linking back to previous posts will allow your reader to get some context.
20. Make it easy for people to bookmark you. Adding a bookmark widget allows readers to post your blog link quickly to facebook, twitter, reddit, digg, del.icio.us, etc.
21. Use snippets.
22. Backup your database often.
23. Update your blog software often.
24. Join a blog network like Technocrati or BlogPulse
25. Content is the most important thing. Remember, none of this really matters unless you have something to say!