When something happens in the world, the internet is one of the key sources of information – we log on to find out more, read more, learn more and understand more.

If you have thoughts on what’s happening, blog about it and ask your readers for their thoughts. If you have an old post that is relevant, revive the post – create a new post, include any new thoughts, and link to the old post.

Blogging about what’s current is like have a dinner party with friends, discussing the latest in the news, sharing your views, and finding others that might share yours.

If you enjoyed a particular post, let them know. If you have questions, ask. If their posts got you thinking, blog about it on your own blog and link back to them. If you have written something on your blog that you think they might be interested in, let them know.

It’s a wonderful way to get to know other bloggers and this interaction will help you generate ideas for your own blog.

When your readers leave comments, they would love to hear from you. So take the time to reply to them.

It’s like standing in a room talking to a bunch of people. Your words resonate with some of them and they will step forward to begin a conversation with you.

If your readers ask questions, answer them. If they agree with you on something you said, give them a smiley face. If they disagree with you, don’t start a fight. Engage instead in a discussion on why.

Whatever you would do in real life when someone says something to you, do it on your blog. It’s a two-way street in the blogosphere, you get to know them better and they get to know you.

The plugin we are using is called Similar Posts. The plugin is easy to install and configure. And so far it’s working well. Visit any GudeBlog to see the plugin at work.

We’ve also boosted GudeBlogs with Google Analytics for clients who prefer Google Analytics. We are using a plugin called “Google Analytics for WordPress”. So far, it seems to be working well!

It works pretty well. If you want to check it out just press the “Listen Now” button that is on this blog post.

The voice reading the blog post, by default, is male. We were hoping we could choose male/female voice! We’ve written to the folks at Odiogo to ask! Because right now, it is a little strange to hear a male voice read out the blog posts obviously written by women (See: Musings by Grace Chng and Living Life @ 70 by Constance Singam)

Technology-wise, Odiogo is really easy to install and use. All you have to do is go to their website, pop in the URL of your blog and your e-mail address and the site will give you step-by-step on how to install. It took us just under 15 minutes to do it.

John Bittleston has accomplished a lot in his life. He has been at the helm of several successful companies, authored a very popular series of children books (Wiglington and Wenks) and transformed the lives of many individuals through his mentoring programmes. He also writes a column in Today.
Learn more about John Bittleston.

But that’s only half the truth about John. You really have to meet him and work with him to understand the profound effect he has on people. He definitely warmed our cockles with this little poem he wrote for Jiayi (Jiayi lead the team in designing and developing his GudeBlog).

Our treasure: Jiayi

A little thank you from her #1 admirer

The treasure we know as Jiayi Ho
is a treasure beyond compare.
She’s bright and she’s right and she’s on the go,
She’s thoughtful and kind and we love her so,
She always says ‘yes’ and she never says ‘no’,
She’s the fairest of the fair.

The angel we know at the heart of the web
is an angel of passion and flair.
She spins and weaves like a rustle of leaves,
She laughs and cries and her bosom heaves,
She drafts and works and chases the thieves,
She’s the fairest of the fair.

The Darling who dances on Satan’s head
is a Darling beyond compare.
She’s sane and mad as a sailor lad,
She’s kind and sweet like a passing fad,
She’s beautiful, soft and she’s never sad.
She’s the fairest of the fair.

John Bittleston
26Nov08

We met Constance more than 4 years ago when we revamped AWARE’s website and helped them to install a content management system so they could easily use the web to reach out to members.

But it was really her restaurant – Spice and Wine at 16 Jalan Kelulut, off Yio Chu Kang Road – that brought us together. We shared many wonderful meals and memories together at the restaurant, including polling nite of the last general elections.

On her 70th birthday, Connie announced that she was going to work with us for an “internet project”. Back then we had conceived something called “3 words” which was meant to be a communal blogging platform for anything that can be summarised in 3 words – “Food is Good”, “I love you”, “I hate you”, “Power of One”, etc.

As with all things, we procrastinated for quite a bit then Connie took up the reins to lead AWARE again. Almost 2 years has passed, and we thought we’d better get “some internet project” started together. So “3 words” has been reborn as “GudeBlogs”.

For those of you who don’t know Connie, she is remarkable in many ways. She obtained her first degree at age 46 (BA hons in Lit) and her masters at age 60. She is living proof that we can do anything we set our minds to. At 68, she took up the challenge of running a restaurant that serves marvelous Indian food. And now at 70+, she is starting to blog.

Visit Living Life @ 70 by Constance Singam

Since she retired 3 years ago, she has taken an interest in hair loss – a topic that apparently is common dinner conversation among friends and retirees.

Cherry’s blog is an expression of this new found passion to help others with their thinning hair problems and the perfect complement to workshops she runs on preventing hair loss.

Cherry is someone who’s always open to new ideas. And has a healthy sense of self-deprecating humour that will make even the most stunted strands stand. Professionally, she is “no nonsense” and “straight talking” – you never have to second guess her intentions.

Visit We Love Our Hair by Cherry Han

Grace has asked us to provide a feature to allow bloggers to quickly add YouTube videos and Google videos to their blog.

And that’s what we’ve done. As our version 1.1, all our bloggers will see two new buttons on their WYSIWYG editors. One for YouTube and one for Google.

There are many plugins available but we picked the one that was the most easy to use – Viper’s Video Quicktags . There are some bugs in this plugin so if you intend to use it, we suggest you test it thoroughly.

Now it is our turn to challenge Grace to feature some videos on her blog “Musings by Grace Chng “.