I hear this question a lot. Usually about two weeks after someone starts a blog or twitter account.

"Am I Adding to the Conversation?"

It's a good question — and at the same time, a not-so-great question.

Really? What on earth do any of us think we can add to the conversation that will be mountain moving? After all, there's nothing new under the sun, hmm?

In some sense, no – none of us are able to add to the global conversation, per se. And what a freeing thought that should be to us.

And oh, the pressures of being eloquent, prize-winning prose-ologists . . . well, I get mental meditating on such massive machinations.

So now that we understand our words will hardly motivate nations or create cultural shifts or gaps in the ozone – now we can be free to just spill and see what transpires.

Write fast, publish bits and pieces, and by articulating what you're thinking — you'll get better.

All that said — yes. You are adding a great deal to the conversation. Because you're participating in it. If it's important to you, it will be important to someone else too. And there's always room for one more good one.

There's always room for one more good one.

Photo on Flickr by ohhector

This guest post is written by Lauren Carlson of Software Advice and points to an important topic and blog post about Copyright Protection

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So, when someone copies your work, you should be delighted, right? Not necessarily.

We at Software Advice have been active bloggers for quite some time, and as a result, have often had our content "borrowed" by other websites. Going along with the above adage, we weren't bothered too much, and thought it was nice that other sites wanted to use our content. However, with Google's latest algorithm change, the Panda update, things have changed up a bit.

The Panda update was meant to reduce the number of "spammy" websites, or content scrapers, that don't produce original content, but steal from other websites. This sounds like a positive update, but in some cases, Google screwed up. When the update went out, we saw a handful of spam sites disappear – good news. However, we also started to see cases in which spam sites were ranking higher than the original publishers of the content. Unfortunately, we experienced this firsthand.

The logical thing to do would be to force the scraper site to remove the stolen content. However, filing an unregistered copyright claim will do about as much damage as a toothless tiger. The only way to ensure that your content is protected is to register it with the U.S. Copyright office. So, that's what we did. Yes, all 1,200 pages of our website are now protected. Spammers beware! The process of copyrighting content is somewhat involved and can be slightly overwhelming for the first-timers out there. So, we decided to write about our experience, explain the process, and pass along any little tidbits of wisdom we picked up along the way.

To read the post, visit our blog here.

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Lauren Carlson writes about various topics related to CRM software, with particular interest in sales force automation, marketing automation, and customer service. She has a background in the music industry, and when she isn't writing about software, you can find her running at Town Lake and singing at local venues. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Fanatics!

From a poker junkie to star trekkie, football fans to Beatlemania – people flock together to celebrate and commiserate and even fan the flames of their fanaticism.

The content ignites community and creates conversation. Are you providing and provoking the content worthy of the flame?

Again, we can go to our bookstore lesson and especially the magazine section to see what’s hot or not.

• What topic has multiple titles?
• What are the weeklies and top monthly mags headlining?
• Who is adorning the most covers (either individual or genre)?

If you want ideas on what’s being devoured, tap into the mags on the rack. These publishers spend millions in market research. Stop guessing and follow some of their lead.

Have an abundance mentality in sharing too. Don’t hoarde your findings. Be the resource!

By sharing the best poker games and sites, the junkies will return and reward you, and then you will have a winning hand.

Companies large and small want to have a blog (or Facebook or Twitter), but don't want to be the one to do the work.

For a long time, I've felt that without the direct engagement or involvement with someone in the company doing the work, then they weren't looking for someone like me to coach them. I wasn't about to do the writing for them. Integrity, authenticity, transparency … all that would be missing from "the voice" of the content.

There's a story, I think it's in Seth Godin's Purple Cow, about the company who was delivering blocks of ice when refrigerators came out and started replacing the old ice boxes. Instead of of starting to deliver refrigerators, the company sold the trucks and closed their doors.

Recently, I've begun talking with small business owners about using Google Voice for blog posts. This allows a company to "listen to their day" and consider every conversation potential social media content (with some generalizing to protect the client, of course).

By using Google Voice, and the transcription that comes with it, it's a way to maintain authenticity, and still delegate important parts such as linking out and providing eye rests.

Late last year, I began writing for one person on their blog. Because I knew this person well enough, and we'd transcribed several conversations, we were able to deliver content that was pretty much their words. At the core, it was really copy editing.

Yesterday, I was with a new customer asking many questions about the nuances of their production, delivery, and future plans. While we won't publish the "secrets" – we were able to glean a few short pieces that would make for great Twitter or Facebook conversation in the future.

So, the purist in me still prefers to see somone from the company doing the actual engagement. But I would be ignorant to think this is going to happen all the time.

Getting to know the company – the people of the company, the voice of the company – may take some "job shadowing", but it allows the people of the business to do what they do best – conduct their business.

Am I giving in too easily? I don't think so. I believe it's pattern recognition. But what do you think? Is this line of thought supporting Ghost Writing or Copy Editing?  Sell the trucks or deliver refrigerators?

Photo on Flickr by Lisa and Alec