Bob’s Blogging Tips: Instapaper’s Read It Later Bookmarklet

Over the years, I’ve covered quite a few blogging tips. I’ve been meaning to blog about this one for quite a while.

As you find time throughout your day to surf the web, I’m sure you make the rounds to a few of your favorite blogs (like mine!), or check out your Google Reader. If you are being swept away by Twitter, like I am, you probably find quite a few interesting articles or links shared by your Twitter contacts. Invariably there isn’t time to finish reading everything that seems worth reading. What are you to do?

I’ve found a tool which helps me keep track of what I’m interested in reading. Instapaper has a “read later” bookmarklet. Once you sign up for a free account, you can drag a button to your favorites toolbar. Then when your browser is open to a page you want to read later, you just click the “read later” button and it is saved to your Instapaper account.

When you login to your account, you see a list of all your unread links. You can read them, save them, organize or delete them. I’ve found this quite helpful when I want to blog on something but don’t have time right then and there.

There may be other tools similar to this, but I find this one extremely easy to use. Let me know if anyone else uses this or has some other option which might be as good or better.

Minnesota Religious Bloggers

Desiring God’s blog, with 21,000+ subscribers may be the most popular Minnesota religious blog. Tony Jones’ emergent blog is showcased on belief.net. But in an article on Minnesota religious blogging published today at MinnPost.com, it is yours truly who heads the list of Minnesota religious bloggers!

Since blogging is inherently narcissistic, I guess no one is surprised that I’m tooting my own horn right now! 😉

Seriously, the article is an interesting read, and MinnPost.com looks like an interesting mix between online journalism, blogging and a traditional newspaper format. A couple of my local blogging buddies also make honorable mention: Jamsco at The Responsible Puppet, and Shaun at Bible Geek Gone Wild.

The article does bring up a good point. Talking about faith has been enhanced through the online media. Many who are in oppressive religious groups or who are just hesitant to make their questioning or religious seeking known, find the internet very helpful in evaluating their religious beliefs. The world wide web both equips and propels one to find out what they believe and why. The one thing you can count on with respect to the web is that your opinion will be challenged — from all sides. Personally, I think that is a good thing, as Biblical Christianity can stand on its own two feet, and a well-grounded faith is a strong faith.

So all my loyal blog readers will have to go over and read the article. Be sure to leave a comment too, and say how awesome my blog is!

A Gospel-Centered Response to Blog Attacks in Bandit Country

Carl Trueman has a great post on dealing with web critics or blog attacking bandits. I thought his advice was spot on, and his example of a Gospel-centered response to criticism quite helpful. I took the liberty of quoting Carl at some length, but I encourage you to read the full article.

This raises the question of whether one should respond to individual blog attacks. My advice is no, never, not under any circumstances. Now, one of the reasons I do not read these things (in addition to having a real life with real friends, real problems etc) is because I know that, if I did so, there would be times when the temptation to respond would be overwhelming, and that would be fatal. As soon as one responds, the attacker grows parasitically stronger, gaining an audience and a credibility previously denied him. And the victim has lost because he has taken the rant of some nutjob seriously enough to acknowledge it; he has granted it a status which it simply does not merit in and of itself; and in his efforts to refute it, he has perversely made it important, given it a constituency it did not possess. Look, to repeat: the web is bandit country. Let the wild and the whacky compete with the sane and the measured, the incoherent and rambling with the logical and well-argued, the extreme with the moderate. If people believe you are really a lizard from the Planet Iguanadon who has assumed human form and infiltrated a church or a seminary to make it the base for an Iguanaman takeover of the entire Christian church, then let them do so. Nothing you can say to the contrary will do anything other than convince them of the depth and sophistication of the extraterrestrial reptilian conspiracy. Their emotional and psychological needs are clearly more serious than your own; and if you respond to such nonsense, you give it credibility and allow the parasitic nature of the attack to succeed. Ignore it and it may not go away, but sane people will see it for what it is and walk by, slightly embarrassed, on the other side of the virtual information highway.

There is, however, a spiritual dimension to blog attacks which is, ironically, conducive to spiritual health and growth. Here I have learned much (as elsewhere) from the master theologian, churchman, public figure, and normal Christian believer, Martin Luther. It is well-known that in his writings in table conversation Luther would often refer to visits from the Devil, how the Devil would come to him and whisper in his ear, accusing him of all manner of filthy sin: “Martin, you are a liar, greedy, lecherous, a blasphemer, a hypocrite. You cannot stand before God.” To which Luther would respond: “Well, yes, I am. And, indeed, Satan, you do not know the half of it. I have done much worse than that and if you care to give me your full list, I can no doubt add to it and help make it more complete. But you know what? My Saviour has died for all my sins – those you mention, those I could add and, indeed, those I have committed but am so wicked that I am unaware of having done so. It does not change the fact that Christ has died for all of them; his blood is sufficient; and on the Day of Judgment I shall be exonerated because he has taken all my sins on himself and clothed me in his own perfect righteousness.’

…Those disturbed by web attacks on their good names should not be so. Believe me, you are much worse than they say, and God is much greater and more gracious than they imagine. It’s bandit country out there on the web but sane people know lunacy when they see it: let the nutters do their nutjobby thing; let the psychos babble; and let the vicious vent. And then, in the tradition of Luther, thank God for bandit country and use the malice you find there to help you appreciate Christ

Book Review Blogging Made Easy

I’ve written before about how to get books for free by reviewing them on your blog. Since that post, more and more Christian publishers are starting up book review programs for bloggers. Rather than having to email publishers and plead for a book, they are soliciting you to join their book review program. That makes it easier to manage so I’m hoping more of you bloggers out there can take advantage of this. Reading good books is important, and promoting them on your blog keeps your blogging productive and helps publicize a good thing.

So here are the book review programs I’m aware of. If you know of others, please let me know, I’ll add them to the list. I’ll divide them up into those programs that send an actual book, and those that send a PDF copy. Note: click on the Publisher names to visit the book review program and join!

Physical Copies

  1. Thomas Nelson
  2. Bethany House
  3. Tyndale House
  4. NavPress
  5. Waterbrook Multnomah

E-Books (PDF) Copies

  1. Reformation Trust
  2. NetGalley — titles by Broadman & Holman, Moody, Barbour, and others

Personally, I prefer reviewing physical books. The NetGalley thing is primarily self contained. They want you to post reviews on their site. Reformation Trust will send you a hard copy of the book, after you’ve posted your review. For me it is hard to read PDF books, though. So unless I get a free Kindle sometime soon, I’m going to continue my slow progress on pdf book reviewing.

I hope the trend continues with more and more Chrisitan publishers opening up to bloggers. It creates great publicity for them, and exposes their material to many new readers. And it makes blogging a more productive and fulfilling hobby!

Update: WaterBrook Multnomah can be added to the list too.

Mircroblogging: Twitter As the New Frontier of Blogging

Twitter is steadily becoming more and more popular, especially with bloggers. If you haven’t explored Twitter yet, you’re missing out on the microblogging revolution.

Blogging is great, but particularly with biblioblogging, posts can tend to be lengthy and updating one’s blog can be time-consuming. Microblogging, however, provides a much simpler alternative to blogging. Sites like Twitter, allow you to provide a link or a comment or both, in 140 characters or less. One click, and the update is published. You can follow lots of people’s updates more easily because they are at most 140 characters long (2 or 3 sentences). For commenting, you can reply (with an @ sign as in @johndoe how are you doing today?). You can also direct message your twitter friends. Â  Conversations are still possible, but everything is streamlined in the microblogging world.

Some blogging friends of mine enjoy Twitter more regularly than their blogging platform. It’s easy to discover new links and trends than using a standard blog reader (like Google Reader). When news is happening, it spreads fast on Twitter. And for those who use cell phones and hand held media devices, twitter is a perfect way to stay connected to your online social sites and friends, while on the go.

From time to time, I’m sure you’ve noticed that things slow down around here. My blog has always been somewhat inconsistent, with flashes of blog action followed by seasons of sporadic posting. If you’re hungry to know what I’m up to, and what I’m finding interesting on the web during these times, you can check my twitter feed (now in its own box in my sidebar). Sometimes I’ll share things on Twitter that I decide not to highlight on my blog. I was twittering about the Mark Driscoll – John MacArthur blog wars, and recently shared a link with John Piper’s thoughts on the topic in my twitter feed. Speaking of Piper, I also recently shared a link to his positive mention of Kevin Bauder’s call for fundamentalists to fight for a fundamentlism worth saving in light of recent anti-Calvinistic rhetoric from a FBBF speaker.

I also use my Twitter feed to update my Facebook account status. This lets me interact more on Facebook without having to log in over there. It makes me look like I use Facebook all the time, when in reality I only respond to people contacting me through Facebook from my Twitter updates.

Microblogging with Twitter makes sense, especially for bloggers, who can publicize important posts with Twitter, and reach a wider audience. It’s a whole new social media that’s really its own new world. Why not add some Christ-centered content into the mix?

One more application regarding microblogging. I have some friends who enjoy reading blogs, but don’t want to keep up with one of their own. For them, microblogging had given them an easy way to be a blogger of sorts, to share info and links and thoughts with others in an effort to influence them for Christ. I’d encourage any of my regular readers who don’t have their own blog, to sign up for a Twitter account, and add me as a friend. In time, bit by bit, you’ll see the benefits of Twitter and learn how it works. From there it’s fun to enter the world of microblogging.

Okay, one more tip. If you have Firefox as your browser, consider adding TwitterFox as an add-on. It is the easiest way to manage your twitter updates right from your browser. It makes Twittering even easier. You can retweet and shorten links automatically, and it sorts your replies and direct messages as well.