ROL: In Review.

Given my professional history in funeral service I started "A Life Well Lived..." as my conception of a funeral home blog in April, 2011. The thought was "a life well lived" could help dilute the pain associated with a funeral for some families. The blog has taken a turn with my association with "Passionate Parents". "Passionate Parents" is a blogging tribe for parents, so I regularly include some parent themed posts. "Return On Life" is a signature topic that appears weekly on Thursday.  "Return On Life" offers for consideration incremental changes that can greatly increase quality of life hopefully, adding to "a life well lived". As 2011 comes to an end, I would like to offer 3 of my favorite "ROL" from the past year.

• The 1st ROL from May, which is about having the last word.
• From July about doing your best.
• From October about defining my (your) beliefs.

Thank you to everyone that has spent a moment or two with my little blog. Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy and successful New Year.

Triberr #BookburningChat Monday 9 PM EST

Triberr doesn't really have a book burning chat on Twitter, as far as I know. I don't participate in any book burning chats. But now I have your attention...

Triberr.

For those unfamiliar with Triberr, Triberr is a mutual tweeting collective designed to provide increased exposure for bloggers. Tribes are organized by loose (or stronger or looser) parameters. Tribal chiefs invite bloggers to join the tribe(s) based on fit. All tribe members agree to tweet links to blog posts by tribe members, thereby exposing the blog to many other potential readers. 

source: morgueFile.com

Meeting Standards.

My first week in Triberr (back in the good old days when Triberr had an autotweet option) I was taken aback when a tribe member referenced reviewing posts for suitability. I was invited and accepted into my tribe, Passionate Parents, based on parameters. The chief felt I met tribe requirements and by accepting the invite I had agreed to blog within the general parameters. Since blogs are about ideas there is an acknowledgment that posts could vary from tribe criteria. Common sense should direct bloggers to self-limit variations from tribal norms. I reject the notion my post requires review a priori. The concept that a tribal colleague should assume my post pass a litmus test is a bit offensive. As a new tribe member, I held my tongue. I'm glad I did. The tribe member I mentioned has since left the tribe having not enough time to review all tribe posts for fitness. My views are way up. Triberr is performing for me.

source: morgueFile

You Must Agree.

As chief of my own tribe, Renaissance Roundtable, I often troll the #Triberr hashtag looking for potential tribe members. I saw a tweet about reviewing posts  to tweet "what I agree with". I'm not sure what I find more troubling: the idea a Twitter following thinks with one mind; the idea a Twitter following is so fragile as to wilt should they encounter a contrary idea; or the idea that a Twitter following is hypercritical of a tweeted link.

The best way to approach the concept of "disagreeable posts" is to tweet the link, note your thoughts in the comments and let your Twitter following do the same. Protecting a following from a contrarian idea is to allow that opposing opinion to flourish. Revealing and then challenging a disagreeable thought allows that disagreeable concept to be debunked. So protecting your following in fact does the opposite.

Feel free to do as you wish, but I think blogging is about ideas. The only fear of differing opinions is that your opinion might not hold up.

Have Them At Hello. It's A Must.

For those keeping a duh! file for blog posts, this is one for the file. Sometimes it's necessary to state the obvious. 

Triberr Works.

I have been privileged to be a member of the Passionate Parents Tribe on Triberr for a month. I've also started a tribe, Renaissance Roundtable. During the past month, pageviews are up 5 fold. Comments have increased practically infinitely. Blog subscription has doubled. I could not be happier. I would like to take this rare moment of satisfaction to share two key observations.

What's In A Name?

My posts are tweeted to over 70,000 tweeters. None of those tweeters are required to click on the link to my posts. The post title must prompt those reading the tweet to click and/or retweet the link. The post title my be on point, brief and creative. Title SEO is great but I'm concerned about those 70,000 "birds in my hand." Great content unseen is a waste.

You Look Mahhhvuhlus.

The blog itself must  be easy on the eyes. Posts should be simple to approach, using subtitles and images to shorten and vary the readers field of vision. A curious click will not lead to readership of a long, bland looking post. Great content unread is also a waste.

Triberr is a great tool. But a mighty tribe and a killer algorithm can't turn hash into a gourmet seven course meal. The rest is up to the blogger.

Triberr, Spam and Fertilizer.

I've been a "Passionate Parent" on Triberr for under two weeks and I'm now ready to take a stand: Triberr either is or isn't spam. Wow! What a relief to finally admit that! Perhaps some context might help.

Triberr Primer.

Triberr's primary purpose is to help bloggers seek out and expand readership. Triberr accomplishes this through an algorithm that automates tweets about blogposts. Triberr is exclusive by invite to a specific tribe(s). Tribe members agree to mutually publicize each members post's via the Triberr algorithm. Tribe size, frequency of tribe member posting and quantity of tribes joined affects the number of Triberr tweets that go into a tribe member's Twitterfeed. There exists the possibility that a very popular Triberree (ex: a member of many large tribes with very active bloggers) can have a noisy Triberr-driven Twitterfeed, which creates a noisy Triberr-driven Twitterfeed for followers of the aforementioned Triberree.

Twitterfeed Purity: My Story

I respect the desire to keep a Twitterfeed free of excessive meaningless tweets. My first 18 months on Twitter I was SMS only(text, no internet) when mobile. There was some motormouth kid from Malaysia clogging my Twitterfeed. Even though motormouth was following me, I whacked the kid. Kid's name was Aaron Lee.  Yup, I whacked Aaron Lee.  Well, ya live (hopefully) and learn (hopefully).

source: Wikipedia

Putting aside my personal aside, at a certain point the argument about unclogged Twitterfeed falls apart. Once you are following 200/500/1000 the Twitterfeed becomes unmanageable on a one to one basis. At that point, what's another 20/40/100 tweets per hour?

Missionaries and Irony.

One of the beauties of Twitter is the open exchange. Got an opinion? Phrase your opinion in less than 140 and tweet. Want to target a specific group? Add a hashtag. So I ask the "Triberr is spam crowd" why do you add the #Triberr tag when you complain that Triberr is spam? Do you think someone cares? Are you trying to convert the Tribe(rr) natives to your more evolved religion? As you crusade about spam, how much spam are you creating on the #Triberr hashtag?

Don't Go Away Mad...

Any Triberr member understands the potential pitfalls and accepts those challenges for the broadcast benefits Triberr creates. For those that find Triberr to be spam, hey it's your opinion and your Twitterfeed, duly noted. Now please, shut up. Or use another hashtag, like #Triberrisspam. Or better yet, shut up.

Top 10 Concerns of Parents.

As I celebrate the end of my first week as a "Passionate Parent", enough of the sunny, rosy, it's a wonderful world talk. It's time to go negative. For all the wonders of being a parent, there's an enormous list of parental worries. In order to make the weekend just a bit gloomier, I ask exactly what keeps parents awake at night?

In August, WebMD ran a post about the Top 10 Concerns of Parents. The overall breakdown according to the WebMD survey is as follows:

1. Childhood obesity, 33%
2. Drug abuse, 33%
3. Smoking and tobacco use, 23%
4. Teen pregnancy, 24%
5. Bullying, 24%
6. Internet safety, 23%
7. Stress, 22%
8. Alcohol abuse, 20%
9. Driving accidents, 20%
10. Sexting, 20% 

The article goes further, breaking down concerns and respondents by ethnicity. Total number of respondents was less than 2000.

I don't know WedMd's methodology. I think the poll items in total certainly represent a month's worth of parental nightmares. I disagree with the order. No disrespect to childhood obesity or tobacco use, but those are long term killers.  I would put driving accidents, alcohol abuse, internet safety and sexting all before obesity and smoking. My reasoning is simple. Accidents, booze and improper use of technology can get a kid killed right now instead of later.

What do you think? How do you feel about the poll rankings? Take a moment and leave a comment or respond to the poll in the left sidebar.

On a final note, though you can never protect your children completely active and involved parents can and do minimize the risk of growing up. As you finish this post do comment or take the poll and then please ignore my tongue in cheek treatment of the issue. Do everything possible to have a great weekend. Every moment is dear, enjoy your kids.

How I Scored A Triberr Invite.

Increase Your Reach.

I first heard about Triberr in April via a post from Gini Dietrich. You could say that Gini's shtick makes for clicks that stick. Or not. The fact is when Gini says investigate, I click. I saw all this stuff about Tribes and Invites and Chiefs and Bones and Bonfires and again realized why I wouldn't join a fraternity. Frankly, it was more than I wanted to assimilate at the time so I went on to something else.

Triberr, Again?

Within the last 10 days the name Triberr appeared on my radar again. I clicked and the whole "reach multiplier, invite required" showed up. I went onto the blog (Bonfires) and looked for some back door way to get an invite. No such luck. I read a post about getting an invite and set a standing search on Seesmic for #Triberr. That's right, I was going to cyberstalk.

If You Can't Say Something Nice...

The first thing I noticed on the #Triberr search was the large amount of people pissing and moaning about how Triberr is spam. That's right, complaining about the application on the hashtag for devotees of said application. Great, I thought, another future blog topic for free.

Desperately Seeking Triberr Invite.

Within a day I saw tribal chieftains scouring the hashtag for potential members.

• "Seeking German Opera Blogger"-no, not me.
• "Looking for left handed auto mechanics with a passion for writing"-still not me.
• "Do you hate social media, especially blogging? Come join my tribe." -ironic, but not for me.
• From @erinswallace: "Have a tribe Passionate Parents, looking for bloggers, tweet me". - well not really my portfolio, there's always tomorrow.

Be Patient, Collect Reward.

The next day I saw a Chief looking to fill a writing tribe. Again, not really me but I asked via tweet "How tightly are you defining writing?" Well, @erinswallace responded to my tweet and asked if I was interested in joining her tribe of Passionate Parents. I'm as passionate a parent as there is with a deep seated hatred and total mistrust for my kids (These are qualities of being a good parent, trust me). @erinswallace and I exchanged a few tweets about fit with both of us asking questions. I received an official invite code, joined the Passionate Parents tribes Saturday night and had my first parenting post up well before kickoff on Sunday.

My Plan Can Work For You.

That's it. A little time, some honesty and I got my Triberr invite in under a week. It didn't hurt that I am new to Triberr and my blog doesn't look like a NASCAR race car. If you're looking for an opportunity to join Triberr, I just gave you a 3 day roadmap. If you're not looking to join Triberr, why are you still reading?