Blogging Tip #32 – Print It Out

In this series of posts I will be giving out tips that I’ve found useful in the course of building and maintaining blogs and websites. While not every tip will work for you, take the ones that seem to fit and utilize them to your advantage. If you’re new to blogging, trying out some new ideas and techniques is always a good thing. Anyways, on to the tip!

Blogging Tip #32 comes to you by a nice healthy dose of SPAM. Well, not really, but I saw a can today in the super market and got to thinking that the can of SPAM I was staring at would be on this planet longer then I will be. Considering SPAM has a half life of something ridiculous like 450 years or such. This got me to thinking about Blog relevancy and historical placement within the grand scheme of things.

Now we all know that the internet is still a fairly new technological development. Its only been around for 40 years give or take some DARPA discrepancies – you know the government had the internet in like 1920. All conspiracies aside though, most blogs and websites will not make it more then a year or two at best before fading into disuse or the irrelevant information domain.

Digital files are easy to create, and just as easy to wipe out or delete. Paper and books have a much longer life span than that of the typical blog. I’ve found that in writing for this blog especially its nice to have print outs of the articles I’m working on. Call me old school if you must, but there is just something different about revising an article on paper then on a screen.

When you physically correct something on paper you’re brain is forced to function in a different manner then when you read something on a screen. This simple, yet effective change of pace has enabled me to catch writing errors and general structure idiosyncrasies that I otherwise would not have found.

On with the blogging tip right? I know you’ve either read the above lead in on skipped your way on down here, either way is fine really. So here it is. Always have extra ink on hand and nearby in your home office. I can’t possibly tell you how many times I’ve gone to print something out only to find that the cartridge has run dry and I cannot print. Having an extra cartridge handy makes all the difference in the world and keeps me on pace to write articles for the many blogs and websites that I need to get to in a given day.

I’ve recently been introduced to Inkers.biz by a colleague of mine and have become a fairly regular user. Even if you’re not a heavy Ink user like myself, you can still find some really good deals. The last thing you want is to have to print out your child’s homework or presentation and have no Ink left because you felt like rubbing it all over yourself the night before in an opium stupor (*sarcasm, don’t do opium its bad for you).

Inkers.biz can facilitate all your home office needs, and keep you from becoming a bleary eyed screen addict as well. Try it out on your next article or two. Take the time to print it out, set it aside for a few hours, and then read it over from the physical print out. You’ll find yourself making deeper corrections and more intuitive writing style will emerge. Taking your writings and musings off line for awhile is not a bad thing some times.