Free Advice for Candidates

Far be it for us to claim we have all the answers to blogging. We are far from experts at computers; we type slowly; we're minimally capable of writing code. But if we may say so, we do have a knack for self promotion, an opinion about damn near everything, and a willingness to listen to and respond to what our readers want to see. And you must like most of what you see as we blew past a quarter million total page views earlier (250,000!!).

So, in this spirit, we offer a little advice to our newest linked bloggers - the Pension Board candidates:

• Get a blog or a website - yes, we're talking to you Steve Robbins. The FOP backing is an 800 pound gorilla in this fight. You've definitely got the inside track. But a blog/website gives you the ability to answer and rebut a lot of the accusations flying around out there. You can also expound upon the postcard that was sent out.
• Update frequently. We usually post three items a day. Sometimes as many as six or seven. Granted, there's only so much you can say about an election. State your positions and defend them we suppose, but according to the date headers, John Tierney's site hasn't updated in 8 days now. The site is stale and so is the message.
• Open comments. Yes, you'll have to police them occasionally to keep the BS to a minimum, but you can address accusations, solicit suggestions, maintain contact and dialogue.
  
• Make something stand out, BUT stand out in a good way. Kevin Jans has changed site design at least once and now it's exactly like ours. Blogger has a couple of dozen site designs, but he must like ours. We guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Tierney's site is certainly eye catching, but it hurts our eyes - the font colors are very LOUD.

And please, DON'T just copy and paste your latest post into our comments section. It just takes up space and annoys our readers. You are welcome to jump into our thread and tell everyone you put up a new post and toss in a link to YOUR website. Thanks and Good Luck.