Here are some of my highlights looking back:

• Announced the birth of both of my girls via twitter.
• Shared numerous links that I liked or found interesting.
• Helped my dad sell his iPhone 3G.
• Met some new friends.
• Gave away a Mavericks ticket (or two).
• Learned some cool stuff from others.
• Publicly affirmed friends and family.

And here are some mistakes I’ve made along the way:

• Tweeted about some monotonous details of my life.
• Complained about being in boring meetings (and later called out about it).
• Paid too much attention to my phone when I should have paid attention to the people around me.
• Spoke more than listened.
• Gave TMI quite a few times.
• Ignored twitter for large chunks of time.
• Felt like having more followers somehow made me more important.

Ultimately I’ve decided that the reason I tweet is to add value to the lives of others. That might be random thoughts I have throughout the day. It might be sharing a link to a site I find useful. Or it might be just to share a little bit more about who I really am so people can know the real me a little better.

Those are just a few thoughts I’ve had looking back. What are your thoughts about twitter? Do you have any tweets you’ve regretted posting? If you follow my tweets, what do you like best? What should I stop doing?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

More posts = More traffic

Take a look at the above graphic. It’s a chart from Google Analytics of the visits to my blog over the past 30 days. See the peak right in the middle? That’s the day I decided to get back into regular blogging and posted three new posts that day. I linked to the posts from my twitter and facebook accounts and traffic jumped. It jumped quite a bit, in fact.

New traffic doesn’t come automatically

You can also see over the week or so that followed there was a drop off again. It lines up perfectly with a fall off of blogging again. For some reason I had thought that my bump in traffic would keep up. It didn’t If you want more readers you have to write more.

Writing about popular topics will generate new traffic

One of the posts I did this past month was about Ed Young, pastor at Fellowship Church, and the news story that the local ABC affiliate ran about his salary. That post generated a comment from a person I’m pretty sure I don’t personally know. Also, my blog is the number seven Google search result for Ed Young salary and number eight for mega churches in Dallas. Those stats won’t really general much long term traffic, I think, but it does show that hot topics, either nationally or locally, will bump your traffic.

Those are just a few things I’ve learned over the past month in blogging. What are some tips you have about generating traffic to your blog? Share in the comments.

You can also find a lot tips in Darren Rowse and Chris Garret‘s great book on blogging ProBlogger. I’ve read it and highly recommend picking one up if you’re interested in becoming a better blogger.

As I pulled up to order, I asked the guy on the other side of the speaker if he could describe to me what a gordita is. His reply: “It’s a Gordita.” You may be shocked, but that didn’t really help me on my quest to get my preggers wife the exact item of food she desired, so I pressed further. “Ok, what kind of shell does it have?” “A gordita shell” was his response. At this point I started to wonder if I was really just dumb, since apparently everyone else in the world knows exactly what a gordita is. I attempted once more to get a little more information about this elusive delicacy by asking, “Could you describe it some for me?” His reply, “It’s a taco inside a gordita shell.” So I just said, “Ok, I’ll take one” and hoped that this would satisfy the woman carrying my second child in her womb.

I worked the drive-through at Chick-Fil-A in high school and college, so I know how hard it is to communicate over the intercom, but I left there feeling like the cashier could have done a little better in his explanations of the gordita. I probably could have asked better questions, too. Thankfully, Brea was happy with the gordita, so I didn’t have to make another Run for the Border.

This encounter reminded me of one of the concepts that really stuck out when I read the book Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath called “The Curse of Knowledge.” Here’s an excerpt of what Chip & Dan wrote about it:

“Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has ‘cursed’ us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind.”

An example they gave in the book was a test that was done where people would tap out a popular song for another person to guess what the song was. The songs were common ones like “The Star Spangled Banner” or “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.” It would seem like that would be really easy to guess one of those songs if you heard it being tapped out, but it’s really not. If you don’t believe me, try it out with someone.

This encounter did make me wonder about how preachers and teachers in the church do the same thing. How often do we talk about things like grace, fellowship, mercy, forgiveness, and repentance assuming that everyone knows exactly what we mean by each of these terms? Once you know what these terms mean it’s really hard to refer to them as anything else, but if you don’t know what they are you’ll probably be lost.

Thank you, Mr. Taco Bell Drive-Thru Dude, for an important reminder to communicate with people in a way that they will understand.

Where have you seen or heard the curse of knowledge in your everyday life?

Gordita image courtesy of flickr user The Canyon Guru.

Let me tell you this: If you have not yet read this book, do yourself a favor and add it to you reading list. I got through it in about three sessions (albeit LONG ones). It captured my attention, my mind, and my emotions. The authors draw you into their lives and tug at your heart. It’s a story of transformation, compassion, and forgiveness. The main characters’ lives are extremely different, but they are drawn together through what can best be considered God’s will.

The main thing I took away from this book is that I need to step out of my comfortable bubble and start loving people who are different than me with the tangible love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Also, when I do this, I need to do it not because I’m better than anyone else (I’m not) or because others need it (they do), but because people matter. All people. People who may seem different than me, but really are the same.

Have you read this book? What were your thoughts?

This week I rediscovered how much little kids (at least my twenty month old daughter) love to play in pretend forts (or “house” as my daughter calls it). I remembered this idea when I was flipping through the book Cheap Ways To … the other day. All I had to do was rearrange our four dining room chairs a little and toss a comforter over them. She has absolutely LOVED it. I bet she could play in it for over an hour before getting bored. Best of all, it’s FREE!!!

Here’s a couple pictures of the fort:

This probably should have been a no-brainer, but I really had just forgotten about it.

Got any other ideas on keeping little ones entertained?

What I’ve ended up with is a nearly perfect way to pack and ship books that’s easy, cheap, and pretty much guarantees that your book won’t be damaged in transit. Follow these simple steps below and you’ll never ship a book another way again.

Step 0 – Gather the needed supplies.

The first step to any project is to make sure you have all the supplies you need. Some of these you may already have around the house, but here’s the list of stuff you’ll need:

• Corrugated Cardboard B Flute Roll (18″ is what I use)
• Heavy Duty Stapler and 1/2″ staples
• Scissors
• Plastic Poly Bags (ZipLock or similar)
• Packing Tape
• Book to ship

You probably don’t have any b flute cardboard sitting around the house. It’s an odd name for the product, but it works. It works so well in fact that I’ve found myself using it for shipping all sorts of stuff. I bought my roll of b flute from a local paper/cardboard box dealer at least three years ago and I haven’t run out of it yet. It was the best $20 I have ever spent on shipping materials and was BY FAR cheaper than using cardboard boxes or manilla envelopes.

Step 1 – Put the book and order slip into a plastic poly bag.

You need to ensure that your book arrives to its intended recipient in the same condition it left. I like to put the book along with a packing slip into a plastic bag to protect it from rain or if a postal worker drops the package into a puddle. Plus, the bag keep the book from getting scuffed up by the cardboard. I like to leave a little bit of air in the bag to add some extra cushioning for even more protection. Again, you don’t want your book to be damaged in transit. That’s never good for anyone.

Step 2 – Wrap the book with cardboard.

Once the book is snug and secure in a plastic bag, wrap it tight with corrugated b flute cardboard. You’ll want to make sure you hold it tight through this step because the cardboard tends to unroll fairly easily. Wrap it with two layers of cardboard. Any more and you’ll have trouble stapling it closed. Any less and the book is more likely to get damaged.

Step 3 – Staple the ends of the package closed.

Now that your book is tightly rolled with the cardboard, grab your heavy duty stapler and close both ends of the package. I’ve found that 1/2″ staples do the job pretty well. Just be sure to pay attention to the limits that your stapler has. I bought some that were too long for my stapler once.

Put use about four staples on each end of the package, depending on the size of the book. The key is to make sure the package stays closed, but you still want it to look professional, so don’t go crazy with the stapler (as tempting as it might be).

Step 4 – Add a shipping and postage label.

The easiest and cheapest method of shipping that’s out there for books is USPS Media Mail. This is a discounted rate for shipping books, CDs, DVDs, and video games and the like. The USPS lists shipping time as taking up to 9 days, so this may not work in all situations. I’ve found that the package usually arrives in about 4-5 days, so it’s a good deal and not much longer than more expensive options.

I always print labels using PayPal, no matter how I sold the book. I also just use regular paper (it’s cheaper) and affix it to the package with packing tape. Printing the label at home is cheaper than buying it at the post office and you can much more easily track the status of delivery. PayPal sends an email confirmation with the tracking number for every label you create, so it’s easy to track down the number, especially if you use Gmail.

Step 5 – Ship it.

This step is probably way too obvious to really be necessary, but I did want to point out that you have couple options on how to actually ship your package. I live really close to the post office, so I’ll just drive by and drop the package into the bin inside the building. I’ve never had to wait in a line for this, so it’s really quick to get in and out. You could also schedule a pickup for your package in PayPal, but I haven’t done this in a long time, so I’m not too sure how that works out.

Conclusion

So that’s the method I use. It takes some practice at first to make the process run smoothly, but after you’ve done it two or three times you’ll find it happening much more quickly.

What about you?

Do you sell books online? What tips or tricks have you found useful? Is there anything unclear in my tutorial? I’d love to hear from you.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGXrBqkkqwU

Not anymore.

The old adage “You get what you pay for” turns out to be true. Well, at least some of the time. There are some things that generic or less expensive equivalents are a good idea. But there are others that I’ve decided it’s worth spending a little extra on.

Here’s a short list of things that I used to buy cheap, but now I’m willing to spend a little extra on:

• Q-tips
• Toilet paper
• Jeans
• Tools
• Mexican Food
• Underwear
• Tires

There are still some things that I still think you can get by with buying cheap, though. Including:

• Soda Pop (or coke or whatever you call it)
• Cereal
• Shampoo
• Cheese
• Freeware / Open-source software
• Hand soad
• Mouthwash

What would you put on either one of these lists?

[Image by exfordy]

I really do love my daughter, but this video doesn’t really show it. We were at the Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound, TX. Emory was having a great time running between the pumpkins. Then, WHAM, down she goes. I didn’t immediately run over to check on her. My first thought was, “Sweet! I’m glad I was recording!”

Thankfully she was fine and went on running after we wiped the grass off her jeans.

Toddlers are resilient like that.