June, 2008

Today I was felling a little uninspired because of the rainy weather. Then I came across Getty Image's Moodstream. It lets you create great mood boards consisting of a series of photos and videos all with a background of customized soundtracks. You pick the media to display using sliders describing the mood you prefer. For example happy vs sad or calm vs lively. I choose happy, lively, humorous. The images were superb and my mood was instantly turned around!

Mood boards have always been a great brainstorming tool. Mine used to consist of clippings from magazines. Now I can easily incorporate video and music and really be inspired.

The Girl Effect has a powerful video (Youtube Link) with a very meaningful message. I love the site and the brand. Beautifully done.

Lately just as I discover a great blog and subscribe, the next post is about how the publisher doesn’t have the time to maintain it anymore. So it’s ending.

This has led me to think about what is the professional and polite way to end a blog and still keep your readers happy.

1. Explain why your ending the blog. Be honest and truthful even its for bad reasons. I recently met someone who abruptly ended her blog because a post didn’t help her land a job. Even though she had plenty of readers, she decided that disappointing one reader to that extreme justified a quick shut down.
2. Let your readers know how long you will be offline. If you think you might decide to come back online later, let them know. If this is a permanent decision, let them know that too.
3. Leave the existing content for your readers if you can. Readers will still refer back to your posts if you leave them. You can put some Google Ads on your site to help cover the costs.
4. Recommend other blogs that are similiar. Point your readers in another direction will not only make them happy but also please a few other bloggers too.
5. Let them know if they can find you elsewhere online. If it’s a LinkedIn profile, Twitter, or any other online space, let them know (if you feel comfortable about it).

Our London trip was filled with plenty of highlights. One of which was a graffiti art exhibit by Banksy called "The Cans Festival". A disused road tunnel on Leake Street under Waterloo Station in South London was turned into a giant free exhibition with works from Banksy and 29 other artists.

The work is amazing and best of all free. We took a hunded pictures and uploaded most to Flickr. If you happen to be in London, I would highly recommend it. And if you have a bit of spray paint, don't be shy about adding your own touch.