THE CASTLEBERRY HILL ART STROLL

Friday, June 10, 7pm!

ATLANTA (May 25, 2011) – There’s no better way to spend the second Friday night of the month than soaking up the springtime during the Castleberry Point Art Stroll on Friday, June 10.  Revelers can register early for the AIDS Walk Atlanta then head on over to Emerging Art Scene Gallery to check out the exhibit of “Art on Atlanta Quarterly Showcase” benefitting patients at the Shepherd Spinal Center.  Zucot Gallery will feature an exhibit of local African American artists and The Wine Shoe will host its $10 wine tastings.  Did we mention that the Atlanta Food Trucks will be lining Nelson Street?

The event will take place from 7 to 10 p.m. throughout Castleberry Point.  Park for free in our covered lot and see what the neighborhood of Castleberry Point has to offer.

WHAT:

Pre-registration for AIDS Walk Atlanta & 5K Run

Emerging Art Scene’s exhibit “Art on Atlanta Quarterly Showcase”

An Exhibit of Local African American Artists at Zucot Gallery

ENJOY:

King of Pops

Tex’s Tacos

The Pup Truck

Westside Creamery

Grace’s Goodness

Wine Tasting at The Wine Shoe

WHERE:

Castleberry Point
327 Nelson Street (Click HERE for directions)

WHEN:

Friday, June 10, 7 p.m. art opening and food trucks

Castleberry Point is at the epicenter of Atlanta’s only true art and loft district, Castleberry Hill. An all brick exterior, soaring windows, and open-air courtyard are punctuated by today’s modern finishes and amenities. The access-controlled building features a rooftop swimming pool with sweeping downtown views, rooftop owners’ lounge, and a fitness center. FHA financing and down payment assistance are available, as well as developer-paid closing costs. Featured homes start at just $99,900, an unbeatable value in downtown Atlanta. To learn more contact LaCressa in the sales center at  www.castleberrypoint.com.

Miller Gallman Developers, LLC has compiled an impressive track record for its historic rehabilitation of multi-family communities, neighborhood in-fill projects and new construction venues.  The company has developed nearly the entire city block of Glen Iris next to City Hall East, including the Glen Iris Lofts, Troy-Peerless Lofts and Ponce Springs Lofts.  In addition, Miller Gallman developed A&P Lofts, Whitehall Mill in Athens, Flowers Building in Columbus, Lofts on the Square in Covington as well as Swift & Company, West Lumber Lofts, 330 Peters St., Castleberry Row, and Fair & Walker Lofts – all in Castleberry Hill. Interested homebuyers can obtain more information at www.castleberrypoint.com.

You Better Tell Somebody!

So you think your great idea for a blog is gonna “go” viral the minute you push “publish”? It’s possible, just like it’s possible for you to hit a ball out of Wrigley Park your first time at bat. So for those who want to be smart about how to avoid blog mistakes, here is a list of the top 5 blogging bad moves you can make right out of the chute, and how to avoid them:

1. THINKING READERS WILL FIND YOU WITH NO HELP

It astounds me when people begin blogs certain their posts will “go” viral when they’ve done nothing to promote it. Sure all your friends and relatives may click on your new blog, but to generate real traffic you have to, at the very least, promote your blog by a.) networking and b.) providing posts that enrich your readers in some way.  For example, launch a blog project (like Christal Presley’s 30 Days with My father, now a book to be released next year) or have a contest – give people a reason to come back – rather than just navel gaze and wonder why your audience is dwindling.

2. IGNORING THE BENEFITS OF SEO

SEO means “search engine optimization.” Writers have to face the fact that there is a new reader in their audience that deserves their huge consideration, and that reader is a robot named Google. If you don’t figure out and incorporate what Google is looking for in terms of your subject matter – and somehow proliferate that throughout your posts without sounding like a robot yourself – then you may as well pick out a cave for future residence.

 3. DENYING “LINK LOVE”

Unlike the old days, when writers kept their “sources” close to their chest, bloggers  need to share their audiences in order to survive.  The more blogs and other sites that link to you, and vice versa, the more new traffic you get and the more your fan base grows. So if you see a post you found informative, LINK it! And let them know you linked it. The idea is that they will reciprocate.

4. STAYING AN AMATEUR BLOGGER

In order to make a viable income from your blog, you have to host it under your own domain. When you blog under the auspice of Blogger or Wrodpress, for example, you are contrained in terms of marketing whatever it is that you want to sell, be it your book, your service as a house painter or your handmade soaps. Migrate your content to your own domain and will give you the ability to customize your blog so you can actually take orders and charge people, for example.

5. NOT PARTICIPATING WITH OTHER BLOGS

Like I said earlier, bloggers stay above extinction by sharing with each other. Let’s say you write a blog about albino vampires, for example. It would really serve you to join online forums devoted to your genre, AND it would doubly serve you to write guest posts on other blogs devoted to similar subjects (club-footed werewolves?) This allows the audiences of these sites to find you, which will put rockets of your traffic stats.

____________________________________________

To learn how to start a professional blog or just make the one you’ve got greater, sign up now for Atlanta’s Famous Blogging Workshop at the Shocking Real Life Academy with Hollis Gillespie and Michael Alvear!!

Hurry, the Atlanta blog workshop is limited to 25 attendees and we’ve sold out every blogging class! THIS CLASS IS SO POPULAR, THAT WE SELL OUT EVERY TIME!

Buy Now! to attend the class on SUNDAY, April 17, 11am – 5pm Credit-Card Users, after clicking the above button, look for the “Pay with debit or credit card as a PayPal guest” link under “Don’t have a PayPal account?” at the bottom right of the screen.

Cost: $175

100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified.

Click now and you’ll get an immediate email confirming your seat. Instant confirmation only available online

* Includes finger food, champagne and inappropriate conversation.

CLASS Location is in the historic Castleberry Artist District at 313 Nelson St., Atlanta, GA 30313. The workshop space is a large live/work loft complex in Castleberry Point. There is ample street side parking as well as covered parking. CLICK HERE for directions from your location.

You Better Tell Somebody!

1. “First things first; I hear you have a great benefits plan.”

Think of the job as the hot chick at the bar, and the benefits package as her rack. You know why you want her, she knows why you want her, but stating the obvious right off the bat (“Hey, great rack”) isn’t gonna snag her. Solution: First compliment accomplishments and personality (example: “I’m impressed with the annual 10k for charity you sponsor”), then, when you’ve breached the inner sanctom, you can state the obvious (“Hey, great benefits”).

 2. “I’m sorry, I really gotta answer this.”

Nothing blares to a potential boss what a rotten worker you’ll make better than you taking a cellphone call during the interview. If your phone so much as even beeps the latest Facebook update, your prospects dwindle considerably. Solution: Turn it off.

3. “I know nothing about  this company.”

Who’s gonna want to hire you if you can’t be bothered to do a basic Google search before showing up for the interview? If you don’t have an insightful answer when the interviewer asks you what you know about the company, you might as well kick your own @ass out the door. Solution: Do your homework.

4.  “My former boss is an idiot.”

Even if your former boss really is an idiot (and chances are probably high), that’s something you’re gonna wanna keep under wraps while talking to a potential new boss.  Since bosses in general tend to side with each other, you shouldn’t feel free to whip out that tidbit until you’re safely on the payroll. Solution: Suck it up an be nice.

5. “Nope. I really don’t have any questions of my own.”

Show some healthy curiosity for God’s sake! Your interviewer is hoping you have a discerning set of standards, otherwise you might as well tattoo your desperation on your face. Solution: You can’t go wrong with a question like, “What do you love about your job here?” or, “What do you think a typical day would look like in this postion?”
Do you know that 30% of best-selling memoirs are by writers dishing about their jobs?

(Think Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarianby Scott Douglas or Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain)

Learn to publish your memoir and turn your dirt into dough! Take the Shocking Real Life

“Secrets to Writing & Selling Your Book” Workshop

Dec. 12, 11-5 p.m.

You Better Tell Somebody!

Below are the 5 worst holiday gifts I’ve ever given or received. Word of advice; cover your eyes:

1. The Sweatshirt.

Never let it be said that there are  meaningless gifts. This was an Atlanta Braves sweatshirt, wrapped up all beautiful with a big bow, given to me by a boyfriend when I thought an engagement ring was in the offing. This gift gave a message loud and clear. The message was, “I bought this as an afterthought in a food court on my lunch break, and you were expecting a ring?” Needless to say the relationship did not last.

2. The Vintage Bowling Ball.

I actually did not give or receive this gift. I just heard about it from the guy I was dating, who said his last girlfriend gave it to him for Christmas. “I hated it,” he told me. This freaked me out because, personally, I think a vintage bowling ball would be the awesomest gift ever! I have since bought, like, five of them for myself. Anyway, it shook me up so much that he would have hated to receive something I would have loved to receive that I completely choked and bought him, like, one of those genero, testostero Brookstone alarm clocks  or something that year. Needless to say the relationship did not last.

3. The Invisible Package

A certain family member swears that each year for the last four years in a row I was sent a package full of wonderful gifts that “must have gotten lost in the mail.” I don’t even care about not receiving any gifts from this person. I just wish I could hear a more inventive excuse.

4. The Blowfish Lamp

I received this from my mother when I was 18, because she was with me at the thrift store where we discovered it, and she heard me say, “Wow, I can’t think of anything more fabulous than this,” but somehow she missed the dump-load of sarcasm that went with the words. It was all stiff and shiny and shallacky, and still smelled like dried-up dead sea life. The funny thing is that the thrift store where we found it was located in Honolulu. We were there on vacation. My mother had to lug that thing all the way home and hole it up for six months before giving it to me. These days I really wish I still had it, though.

5. Sarah Palin’s Book, Going Rogue

For me, political autobiographies hold less appeal than do-it-yourself eye surgery. That said, I’m sure my sister got me this book because we walked by a bookstore where it was on display or something, and I said, “Wow, can’t wait to read that,” and she heard the words without the dumpload of sarcasm to go with them. There is a lesson here, and that is that I should shut my sarcastic trap. Because now I have this book on my shelf with the rest of my real collection, which includes my own highly-acclaimed yet profanity laced books. It sticks out like a narc at a biker rally, scaring the parents of my daughter’s playdates and such. Serves me right.

“Secrets to Writing & Selling Your Book” Workshop

with Hollis Gillespie

Dec. 12, 11-5 p.m.

Use the button below to enroll and save $20

(regular price: $175. YOUR price: $155)

 (*I made that up.)

You Better Tell Somebody!

Besha: Writing about taste is incredibly difficult. Think about it – how many synonyms are there for ‘crunchy’? You have to be at once very descriptive and at the same time not too flowery, which is hard.
Food writing, like music writing, is incredibly subjective. So passion is key. But like all good writing, it’s about story telling. If you have a great story, everything else will fall into place.

Besha: Read the publication! I get so many pitches for things we don’t cover, and more importantly would never cover (like the new packaging for the latest Miller beer).

Besha: I’m looking for writers who understand our readers. This means being tuned in to the food nerd community in Atlanta. I’m also looking for voice and passion and a strong point of view.

I think food transitions especially well to new media – food blogs just work. It’s also because food is so localized that newspapers and magazines can’t get away with outsourcing to national outlets. You can buy a movie review from the AP wire, you can’t buy a local restaurant review. But it also has to do with the food revolution in general – more people are interested in food now than ever before. People are going back to the kitchen for the first time in generations, and everyone is restaurant obsessed. Food is universal – not everyone has to read books or watch movies or drive cars or watch sports to survive — we’ve all gotta eat. And there are surprisingly few people writing about it well. I actually have a very difficult time finding food writers for the paper. I think people think it’s one of those dream jobs they’d never get so they don’t even try. But there’s a huge market for it.

You heard it, folks, there’s a huge market for it! Come to the Shocking Real Life Food Writing “Eat, Drink & Get Published” workshop this Saturday from 11-5. You can pitch to Besha as well as learn the secrets of writing and selling your food-related writing pieces, whether they come in the form of a book manuscript, blog, newspaper or magazine article. The class also includes a wine tasting and Epicurean pot luck! (Enrollees are encouraged to bring a sample of their signature dish.)

The workshop is held in the notorious Sister Louisa Art Gallery in the Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Emporium (“Come on in, Precious!”) in the charming Virginia Highlands neighborhood of Atlanta. Click HERE for a map to the location.

In this class, you will learn:

• How to write compelling pitch letters
• How to approach print editors and web editors with your ideas
• The components that make up an engaging food writing essay
• Which magazines and websites are easiest to break into
• Today’s most popular food writing topics
• How to understand the market of food writing and food blogging
• How to write and edit a recipe for print
• How to contanct a literary agent for your boffo recipe-book idea
• How to start a blog (or refab the one you have)
• And how to use your blog to sell yourself

The Shocking Real-Life Food Writing Workshop

Eat, Drink & Get Published!

Saturday, June 12, 11-5

100% Safe and Secure – We are PayPal verified. Credit-Card Users, after clicking the above button, look for the credit-card icon at the bottom left of the screen and click “Continue.” SRL Alumni? Go to the bottom of the page to register at a discount.

You Better Tell Somebody!

Hey, all, here’s my third book, titled Trailer Trashed; My Dubious Efforts Toward Upward Mobility. Buy yourself a signed copy, it will do wonders toward allaying your fears that the world is devolving into a big wad of wasted potential. THANK YOU!!

You Better Tell Somebody!

I got an email the other day from a marketing wank working the worst kind of “grass roots” angle that is so popular now among freelance marketing suckups hoping to horn-dog free publicity off the backs of media people like us who are already working WAY TOO HARD to salvage our income during the internet onslaught. Here’s the gist: This particular campaign involved corralling local Atlanta “influencers” with a form letter that read like the following:

“Hollis Gillespie: You are a true Atlanta influencer, and therefore perfect for the [fancy car company] program my agency is starting this week . . . [we have] been hired by [fancy car company] to find 32 key influencers in Atlanta and we would love for you to be one of them . . . In this campaign, you would be given a [fancy car] to drive for a 4 day VIP experience!”

Woohoo! FOUR WHOPPING DAYS in a fancy goddam car! All I had to do in exchange for 4 whopping whoop-di-ass days in a fancy car was blog for free on their site, campaign like hell for them for free, harangue my audience — my especially cultivated, years-in-the-making audience, the people who TRUST me not sell out like a cheap Tijuana whore but to HOLD OUT like a more, let’s say, moderately-priced whore –all I had to do was hand them over to [FANCY CAR COMPANY] for weeks and weeks for fuhREE. And for what? Four days in a nice car with the chance of few grand tossed to my charity?

I declined. I told her to give me the car for a year and then we might have a deal.

Her response is what really pissed me off.

“That’s unfortunate to hear,” she said. “It’d be a great way to reach out to your community in support of a charity.”

For one, I’ve already cultivated my community and it is vast and still growing. She, on the other hand, is trying to horn dog in on my community and snake it for nothing. For two, I’ll raise funds for my charity myself, thank you. Last year I raised way more for the Juvenile Justice Fund than the pittance [fancy car company] was offering to foist in exchange for weeks and weeks and weeks of my indentured blogitude And again, the donation to my charity was only if I won the ridiculous “challenge.” All the nonwinners will have lent [fancy car company] their audiences, their names and their endorsements for what? 4 days in a nice car?  Lord God Almighty.

In the end, [fancy car company] harangued 32 “true Atlanta influencers” to lend their names, their time, their work, their audiences, their carnival-barker shuckstering, and only one of them gets to have the paltry coupla grand tossed to their charity. Who wins here? Not these “true Atlanta influencers,” not the charities but FANCY GODDAM CAR COMPANY!

Seriously, scores of writers are jobless because big corporations cut them loose thinking they can either do it themselves or trick other writers into doing it for free in exchange for “exposure.” Buying into this literally cheapens our profession.

You Better Tell Somebody!

Hollis Gillespie’s 20 Hit-Boosting

Headline Tips!

In the web world, your headline not only has to appeal to human eyes, but to search engines as well. The more clicks you get, the higher you rank on Google, the more you make with whatever it is you’re selling (cupcakes? books? custom underwear?)  Below are 20 tips and examples to help make your headlines become CLICK MAGNETS:

1. Be Concise
Search engines are not known to get fancy. “D.C. Politician Murdered,” works a lot better than “Community Shocked at Body Found in Dumpster,” but “Murdered D.C. Politician Found in Dumpster” works best.

2. Include key words and phrases
At https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Google provides you a great tool to help find the most searched phrasings on any subject. For example, if you want to write about Pandas, simply enter “Pandas” in the search field, and you’ll see that “Panda Bear” and “Baby Panda” are by far the most popular search phrases, so you’d make sure to include one of those in your headline. “Panda Bear Kills Man Who Tried to Eat Baby Panda.”

3. Keep headlines under 65 characters
This is the text length that will appear in Google search results. Anything extra will be dropped. Headlines can be longer as they appear on your blog, but because Google won’t read any more than 65 characters, it’s important to get the keywords across in the first few words.

4. Use the full names of people and places
People search for specific things. If you are writing about George Clooney getting married, for example, don’t headline your piece “Burly Ex ER Star Weds.” Make sure you use the full name and a place name if applicable: “George Clooney Marries Las Vegas Stripper Lola Lusty Jugs.”

5. Include Details of the Story
In traditional media, a headline will often hide details of the story to pique the audience into reading further. On the Web, a headline that hides details of the story does not work, because web readers are generally either hurried or lazy or both. They want to be told what they can expect right away, otherwise they will just click on the next item on the Google search page. Bad web headline: “Senile Feline Enthusiast Dies.” Better web headline: “Dead Crazy Cat Lady of Dayton an Undercover CIA Spy.”

6. Example: The Direct Headline
This is the headline that states the purpose of the post directly, without any bells and whistles. Example: “Austin Opens Depot for Discount Pornography!” It’s designed to cut to the chase and grab the eye of anyone on Google. I found it also works great as an ironic push button. I once used this method to shock people into action with a blog post titled, “Child Rape Now Legal in Atlanta!” in which I described how the trafficked children of Georgia were being jailed while their abusers were set free.

7. Example: The Indirect Headline
Example: “Akron Firemen Confess, Baring Your Chest Works Best!” This type of headline brings the reader right to the center of the topic with a tease that makes them want to read further. The above headline could be about local firemen posing for their annual calendar for all we know, but the fact is that we wanna know, and that’s the important thing. I know this seems to go against Tips 1, 13 and 19, but you gotta mix it up.

8. See What’s Trending
A sure-fire hit booster method is to go to http://google.com/trends and see what the trending topics are for that day. Let’s say Tiger Woods is at the top of the list, but you want to write a consumer piece on cars. “The Car So Safe Even Tiger Woods Can Drive It,” would be an example of how you can twist that to your favor. It’s cheap but very effective.

9. Example: The How-To Headline
“Hot To” headlines are another cheap and quick way to get people to click onto your site. Web readers like their content to be direct, they don’t want to have to sift through chapter after chapter of nebulous information in order to get to the gist. Wrong: “The History of Hammer Toe.” Right: “How to Cure Hammer Toe.”

10. Write in the Active Tense
Words like “is,” “was,” “are,” “were,” “have,” “had,” and “has” should not be in your headline. Wrong: George Clooney has Married. Right: George Clooney Married. Wrong: Crazy Cat Lady Has Been Killed. Right: Crazy Cat Lady Killed. You get the idea. (An exception is the How-To approach above. “How to Cure Hammer Toe” is passive to the more active “Cure Hammer Toe,” but “how to” is unique in that it is a highly searched phrase and you want to benefit from that.)

11. Example: The “Secret” Headline
Headlines that profess to reveal secrets about a certain undertaking are another cheap and easy way to boost traffic to your site. Say you want to write about air travel, “The Secret to Surviving Holiday Airline Security,” or “The Secret to Charming Your Way to a First-Class Upgrade” would be more click-able than simply, say, “Travel Tips.”

12. Example: The “Do Something Like Something” Headline
The is a variation of the “how to” headline but more descriptive: “Seduce Women Like a Soap Star!” “Lose Weight Like a Castaway!” “Land Movie Deals Like James Cameron!” This is a good way to incorporate Google Trends as well, “Date Blond Hotties Like Tiger Woods!”

13. Make It Sensible Out-of-Context
Web headlines are often seen out-of-context, such as on Facebook pages or contrasting blog and/or media sites. They have to make sense as a stand-alone entity without accompanying copy in order for the audience to want to click on it and read further.

14. Don’t Mistake a Web Reader for a Newspaper Reader
A Newspaper reader is invested in the paper at (physical) hand and will take the time to enjoy a clever word-twist of a title by reading into the body of the text to back it up. A Web reader is unlikely to read past the cute-but-vague title of your piece before moving to the next item on the search page to click on that instead. A Web headline needs to act more like a label that effectively summarizes what the reader can expect.

15. Cross Check Against AdSense
This is a shortcut to determine if your headline is conveying what you want it to convey: Once you publish your headline and post, check the AdSense column along the right side of the Google page results to see if the text ads that pop up are of good relevance to the topic you wanted to convey. If so, you’ve written an effective web headline.

16. Avoid Repetition
Even with keywords, too much is not a good thing. Don’t repeat keywords and phrases within the same headline, and don’t repeat the headline’s exact phrasing within the body of the article. To do so is a bit of an insult to web-savvy readers, who will immediately recognize the attempt to trick search engines into placing it higher on the results page. Ideally, your post should land at the top of the search results due to clicks from people who enjoyed reading it

17. Example: The Stand-By “Top 10″
The top-10 list is so effective and overused it’s skewered by webphiles and comedians alike. I once even blogged a “Top 10 Reasons to Stop Using Top 10 Lists,” and David Cross devoted a chapter in his recent book titled “Top 10 List of Top 10 Lists.” But the fact remains, the “Top 10″ headline draws an easy audience (much like “20 Hit-Boosting Headline Tips”).

18. Do Not Use “a,” “an” and “the”
These articles take up valuable space that could be better served informing the reader on what to expect in the post. Bad: “A Venezuelan Piranha Devours an Olympic Swimmer.” A better headline would be “Venezuelan Piranha Devours Olympic Swimmer.”

19. The 10-Words Rule
Consider this: If someone were to read your 5-10 word headline, would they know what the article is about? This is important because you’re competing with a long list of other posts promising similar information.

And lastly,

20. Don’t Be a Keyword Whore
I feel obligated to include this because blogging is a creative endeavor and if you put more importance on mongering the placement of keywords than you do on your natural narrative you risk losing your audience. People will follow your blog because your voice resonates with them. So find a balance so that your voice is stronger than your keyword placement. This NYT piece is a great read on the travails of forsaking a real audience for some gaggle of software bots.

You Better Tell Somebody!

Revolutions are like that. They invent and destroy and they only go one way. It’s like watching a confused person in a revolving door for the first time. They push backwards, try to slow it down, fight the rotation… and then they embrace the process and just walk and it works.” Seth Godin

The economy has hit few professions harder than it has hit writers and journalists. It takes time (lean times) to build your own platform in order to stay above extinction. If not for local discount vendors like ScoutMob, I probably wouldn’t leave the house. ScoutMob is a free service that gives you up to 60% discounts at some of your favorite restaurants and other businesses in Atlanta. Check it out. Because if you don’t leave the house, how the hell are you gonna find stuff to write about?

You know you wanna join the ‘mob… If you enjoy eating food, discovering new favorite spots, and exploring our fair city for all it’s worth, you’re really gonna dig Scoutmob. And if you sport this ‘stache? We’re really gonna dig you right back. But with or without the fake facial hair, Scoutmob is here to bring you absurd deals on your favorite local places. Think Murphy’s, The Shed, ONE. midtown kitchen and Souper Jenny. Now think of them at 50% off. We also come with curious tidbits to share with all your ‘mob-loving, deal-getting friends. Sign up for the free email All the local goodness comes straight to your inbox on scoutmob.com »

You Better Tell Somebody!