John Kuraoka, freelance advertising copywriter

www.kuraoka.com
(619) 465-6100
Ad Blog FAQ: answers to frequently asked questions

Quick finder (advertising blog only):
Ad Blog main page | Monthly archives | Ad Blog FAQ

Why no syndicated feed?
Why no permalink or commenting capability?
Did you know you can easily get those tools through a dedicated blog host like (FILL IN THE BLANK)?
How do I link to one of your ad blog entries?
Why the focus on BBC News stories?
Why don’t you post your blog entries in (NAME OF FORUM)?
Why didn’t you post for nearly a year?
Do you have any other blogs?
Where is your regular FAQ about advertising and copywriting?

Why no syndicated feed?

Stupidity and inertia.

When I first started my Ad Blog, syndication tools were more-complicated to implement than they are now. Or, perhaps more accurately, I chose not to invest the time or brainpower to learn how to use them.

However, in my case, I think I may have been right to avoid syndication. While syndication could increase my Ad Blog’s profile many-fold, it also would take a chunk of my traffic off-site while simultaneously increasing my bandwidth costs with marginal traffic (sorry, but I get paid to write advertising, not rant about it).

Now that more companies are embedding advertising in feeds, my stupidity and inertia may have paid off. See my April 28, 2005 entry for proof.

However, if you want you can follow me on Twitter: @kuraoka. My tweets include pointers to the ad blog when a new entry is posted and other stuff, mostly relevant to advertising, marketing, and branding.
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Why no permalink or commenting capability?

Stupidity and inertia.

I don’t have a way to qualify that. I simply haven’t had the time or brainpower to implement those tools on my website. Although I must say that lately I have mixed feelings about commenting capability. My email address is right there if anyone wants to share relevant links or start a serious dialog. And, if people really want to have their say, they should create their own blogs.
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Did you know you can easily get those tools through a dedicated blog host like (FILL IN THE BLANK)?

Yeah, well, that’s stupidity and inertia for you. I like my web host and my independence, and I’m too lazy to educate myself about add-ons or other choices. Given that a few major dedicated blog hosts (including Dave Winer’s original Weblogs.com) have gone dark, and others (including, more recently, Tumblr) have either been bought or started serving ads or both, this may not have been so stupid after all. It was still inertia, though.
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How do I link to one of your blog entries?

Well, if the entry you want to link to was posted prior to November 2008, the closest you can get is a page link from the Ad Blog archives. Sheer stupidity and inertia.

However, if the entry was posted November 2008 or later, there is a work-around. You have to use the <#name> attribute in the link coding. So, for example, to link to my review of the AlphaSmart Neo, which was posted November 16 2008, you’d type:

<a href="http://www.kuraoka.com/adblog/nov08.html#111608">John Kuraoka’s delightfully fresh review of the AlphaSmart Neo</a>

That last bit after the “#” symbol directs most browsers to the correct entry within the archived month page. If you click on the clickable link, you’ll see how it works.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This will not work to link to posts on the main Ad Blog page (the index page), because that page changes almost every day as I add new entries and delete old ones. So it’ll work for a while, and then suddenly stop working when that particular entry falls off the bottom of the page.

Yes, I could get automated “link to this entry” buttons by going with a dedicated blog host. But moving this entire blog, with over a decade’s worth of posts, would require the application of intelligence and energy, as opposed to the continuation of stupidity and inertia.
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Why the focus on BBC News stories?

You have me there. That’s statistically more true than I’d like. Would you believe stupidity and inertia again?

I appreciate non-U.S. perspectives on the day’s news stories, so my homepage is the BBC main news page. It’s the first thing I see, before I hit the news aggregators or pick up my email. If what I see is interesting enough to comment on, I never get to anything else.

The stupid bit was in not thinking you’d catch on. I’d offer to change my ways, but there’s that inertia thing.
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Why don’t you post your blog entries in (NAME OF FORUM)?

What else but stupidity and inertia? Even though I know I could raise my Ad Blog’s profile by posting in advertising and marketing forums, that’s more work than I feel like doing. And, it feels like drive-by forum-spamming.
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Why didn’t you post for nearly a year?

Well, it might have been stupidity and inertia. But it was mostly a major life change that I explain here.
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Do you have any other blogs?

Sort of. On the personal side, my family’s blog-like weekly family journal pre-dates most blogs, having been regularly updated since 1998.
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Where is your regular FAQ about advertising and copywriting?

That page is right here.
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My experience as a copywriter.

John Kuraoka, freelance advertising copywriter

www.kuraoka.com (619) 465-6100 Ad Blog FAQ: answers to frequently asked questions

My experience as a copywriter.

Answers to frequently asked questions.

Advertising & marketing advice.

Me, me, me.

Email me.

www.kuraoka.com
(619) 465-6100
Ad Blog FAQ: answers to frequently asked questions