The Real Debate

Edited version of my livestream session on June 28. What did you think about the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump? When will we see a real debate between a candidate from the Jackass party and a candidate from the Grand Old Party?

EGO ANNUAL BLOG REPORT XVII

I have now been blogging for 17 years and published 2813 posts. EGO blog has now been viewed >1 million times (pageviews so far: 1,190,063.)

I have been a bit more active on this blog during the year, due to the fact that I have set up this blog as a destination through my podcast host, Libsyn, so new episodes of EGO NetCast will automatically show up here as blog posts.

I will do an update on my birthday on May 25 with a special podcast episode, celebrating 17 years as a blogger and 13 years as a podcaster. I will also do a live streaming session, thanking the buyers, backers and supporters of my first book on tea, with illustrations by John Cox.

Next annual blog report will include my "last" site, TeaParty.Media.

Related: My post, Annual Blog Report XVI.

EGO ANNUAL BLOG REPORT XVI

I have now been blogging for 16 years and published 2793 posts. Pageviews so far: 999,603.

I haven't been active on this blog during the year, but I will keep blogging here now and then. I have set up this blog as a destination through my podcast host, Libsyn, so new episodes of EGO NetCast will automatically show up here as blog posts.

I will do an update on my birthday on May 25 with a special podcast episode, celebrating 16 years as a blogger. I will also do a live streaming session, thanking the backers and supporters of my first book on tea, with illustrations by John Cox.

Have you read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand? Recommended reading: Onkar Ghate's article, In a Tribal Age, a Voice for the Individual: On the 75th Anniversary of The Fountainhead.

Related: My post, Annual Blog Report XV.

ANNUAL BLOG REPORT XV

I have now been blogging for 15 years and published 2778 posts. Pageviews so far: 911,000.

I haven't been active on this blog during the year, but I will keep blogging here now and then. I have set up this blog as a destination through my podcast host, Libsyn, so new episodes of EGO NetCast will automatically show up here as blog posts.

I will do an update on my birthday on May 25 with a special podcast episode, celebrating 15 years as a blogger. I will also do a live streaming session, thanking the backers and supporters of my first forthcoming book on tea, with illustrations by John Cox.

Related: My post, Annual Blog Report XIV.

Creating a Newsletter with a Twist

Do you have your own newsletter? How many newsletters do you read on a regular basis? Maybe I am a "cool kid" according to Veselina Gerova's definition! I have figured out the why of starting a newsletter... The challenge now is to stick with it. Here is an excerpt from issue number 2 of Lyceum Bulletin:

On 2/2, with 22 subscribers to my newsletter, I thought it was time to publish another issue of Lyceum Bulletin! ;)

My goal is to send out a new issue once a week with new media tidbits, business philosophy related topics, and the good life stuff (including tea and chile peppers). Elsie Escobar’s announcement on The Feed podcast, sparked the idea to start a weekly newsletter. 

I will add a twist to the bulletin by including a short audio clip in English and Swedish, as a mini podcast episode. It could be a “behind the scene” moment, a shout out to a new subscriber, feedback on the content, etc. I will start with this feature in the next issue of Lyceum Bulletin. I am feeling a bit under the weather with a sore throat at the moment, so I will spare you to hear a soundbite of my wheezy voice this time.

ANNUAL BLOG REPORT XIV

I have now been blogging for 14 years and published 2770 posts. Pageviews so far: 809,347.

I haven't been active on this blog during the year, but I will keep blogging here now and then.

I will do an update on my birthday on May 25 with a special podcast episode, celebrating 10 years since I started podcasting. I will also do a snap on Snapchat (username: TeaPartyMedia), thanking the backers and supporters of my book(s) writing project, #teaftwbook.

Related: My post, Annual Blog Report XIII.

3 WORDS FOR 2016

I haven't updated my first blog since my 13th annual blog report. I will continue with EGO blog, here on Blogger / Blogspot, but I will not write so often in the future. My main focus will be to update my forthcoming "umbrella" site, TeaParty.Media, for my social media activities and tea hobby business.

Please, check out my crowdfunding campaign for my first book on tea, over at GoGetFunding.com.

Get GoGetFunding's Fundraising Ideas

On this blog, I will publish cat photos, philosophical ideas and retro blogging stuff, e.g., blog carnivals, memes, etc.

My three words for 2016:

1. Tea
2. Win
3. Book

Do you have 3 words (or more / less) for this year?

ANNUAL BLOG REPORT XIII

I have now been blogging for 13 years and published 2765 posts. Pageviews so far: 695,844. I will update this post with a podcast session in the near future.

Podcasting will continue to be my main focus during the rest of this year and for the years to come. I haven't been active on this blog lately, and I had thoughts on putting it on hiatus for some time, but then this happened at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas on May 3:

• Texas Police Kill Gunmen at Exhibit Featuring Cartoons of Muhammad - The New York Times 
• Exclusive: "Draw Muhammad" Winner on Growing up in Islam and Defeating the Jihad - Breitbart.com

Please listen to my interview with Bosch Fawstin (September 7, 2011).

Many websites & TV shows aren't showing my prize-winning Mohammad cartoon in their reports. Help fix that by sharing. pic.twitter.com/ghegMe8i2h

— Bosch Fawstin (@BoschFawstin) May 6, 2015

I have now decided that I will update EGO blog on a regular basis, at least a couple of times per week. The main topics (labels) will be: cat, politics and religion.

Related: my post, Annual Blog Report XII.

EGO TEMPLATE LAYOUT

I will update the layout of the EGO blog template over time. I have started with adding an about me page. You find the link to the about page in the right column.

   by  Brett L. 

TOP 100 SMALL BUSINESS PODCASTS

I have compiled a list of 100 small business podcasts on Small Business Trends.

Talking about podcasting, please check out my podcasts:

• EGO NetCast.
• TrendPal with Lotta Gergils Aston.

   by  Colleen AF Venable 

GONE FISHING

I started my summer blog break with bacon chips and a Margarita drink!



I will be "away" during this month and August, more or less...

What will I do during the summer months, do you ask? ;) Good question. Here are some stuff that I will be busy with:

• Writing on my book on tea - #teaFTWbook.
• Thinking outside the box for my future tea hobby business at Meylah and Tictail.
• Planning for a new podcast show with trend thinker, Lotta Gergils Aston.
• Updating the EGO blog template with a Patreon "tip jar" / support badge, and removing some ad spaces.
• Doing social media activities for the start-up online venture, NetZpider, with Kalle Blomqvist.
• Implementing the to-do app, TeuxDeux, in my daily workflow.

I will not go fishing in the murky waters of Almedalen...

Photo Credit: Angelina Cupcake via Compfight cc

As a "Personal Jesus," I will reach out to my guest bloggers and ask them to write posts on EGO blog.



Do you want to "touch" my readers? Reach out to me on the social web and I will send you an invitation to become a contributor of EGO blog.

Cheerio and so long! :)

IS YOUR SYNDICATED PODCAST CONTENT LIBERATED?

How do you store and distribute your podcast material? The title of the blog post is a hat tip wink to LibSyn (Liberated Syndication). In my Annual Blog Report XII post, I said that I will put more effort into my podcasting and get back on track with a regular schedule.

The question that have been asking myself recently is:

- How do I secure my content, save it and promote it in an effective way?

At the moment, I have podcasts at:

• Audioboo
• SoundCloud
• BlogTalkRadio

I have had a nagging feeling that all the above mentioned services have had their share of challenges and I want to have a "safe haven" for my content in the future.

Now when I got my first patron (of the arts), Niklas Larsson, I decided to sign up for LibSyn's podcasting + smartphone app packages with 400 MB storage for $20 per month. I must say that the mobile app feature with a potential of revenue sharing, is a sweet deal! So, I ask you to stay tuned for my own Podcast Box app on iTunes and Amazon App Store. You could now listen to my podcast and support my work at the same time! :)

Here is an excerpt from Robert Walch's post, Podcast Consumption as easy as Angry Birds:

Today more podcasts are downloaded directly to Mobile devices than to computers.
This is a huge deal.  In March 2013 for all the downloads from all the 13,000+ shows hosted with Libsyn – we saw the following stats for where podcasts were directly downloaded to:   

Mobile = 51.37%
Computer = 48.58%
Set Top Box = 0.05% 

There are a lot of people that even today say consuming podcasts is too difficult. 

Really?

Based on What?

Today podcasting is as easy to consume as Angry birds is to play
You open your mobile device – you tap on the app and you consume. It really is that easy.

Maybe people are saying “THEIR” podcast is tough to consume. And that might be because they don’t have their own smartphone app.

Looking at the Libsyn stats for March over 7.5% of mobile downloads happened directly to Podcasters own stand alone smartphone apps – not the generic apps – but their own branded apps. And that percentage is growing every month.

If you don’t have your own smartphone app in the iTunes store, Amazon Store and Google play store – then maybe your podcast is not as easy to find and consume as your peers.

The other advantage of having a stand alone app in the apps stores is discoverability. People searching for a subject matter may stumble upon your show – while not looking specifically for a podcast – and decide to give your app a try. 

Libsyn blog, April 12, 2013.

You will be able to find my future podcasts at EgoNetCast.Libsyn.com.

What's your take on the future of podcasting and the different players on the market?

Podcaster selfie at Hej5 Studio in Gothenburg, Sweden.

ANNUAL BLOG REPORT XII

I have now been blogging for 12 years and published 2756 posts. Pageviews so far: 576,140. Before you listen to my podcast on SoundCloud, 12 Years of Blogging - EGO Blog, please read my post, Annual Blog Report XI.



Show notes:

• Podcast - EGO Netcast
• Listen to John Jantsch's interview ("Creating Audio Authority One Interview at a Time") with John Lee Dumas.
• Cats
• Tea For The Win Book
• Shout-out to supporter / sponsor: Body in Mind.
• Post on Libsyn (Liberated Syndication) by Ms. Ileane.
• Is Spreaker an alternative to BlogTalkRadio?
• Should I upgrade my podcast on Audioboo to a Plus account?
• Should I upgrade my podcast on BlogTalkRadio a Premium account again?
• Future advertising on GOT-Tea-Party.com?
• Hej5 Studio ("High 5 Studio")

• Are You Prepared for a New Prepper Podcast?
• What would America fight for? - The Economist, May 3, 2014.

• Gunboat diplomacy
• Read “Just War Theory” vs. American Self-Defense by Yaron Brook & Alex Epstein - The Objective Standard.
• Americanized website banner commission by John Cox.

ANNUAL BLOG REPORT XI

I have now been blogging for 11 years and published 2705 posts. My intention is to continue to publish stuff on EGO blog for at least 11 more years..., but I must admit that I have been thinking of putting the blog on a temporary hiatus. One reason for taking a blog break is that during the years of blogging, I have been adding new blogs to my content creation portfolio. At the moment, I am publishing additional content at the following places:

• EGO Sole Trader
• GOT-Tea-Party
• TeaParty.nu
• AtlasAnd
• Objective Argentum
• Americanized
• EGO

It could be hard to update all the above mentioned blogs on a regular basis. I will ask my fellow bloggers and contributors to write guest posts now and then. You will soon be able to read posts by a new guest blogger, Daniel Adetunji of Infowland.

As I wrote in my post, ANNUAL BLOG REPORT X, the main thing for the future will still be my EGO podcast on BlogTalkRadio. I have an idea to start a new site focusing on new media broadcasts in contrast to the mainstream media stations out there.

Pajamas at the Gate

I am planning to contact Influads for facilitating sponsorships of my podcast show.

One For You, New England (The SSP)

What kind of stuff will I publish in the future? I will go back to the philosophical core of EGO and write more posts on epistemology (reason), ethics (egoism) and politics (laissez-faire capitalism), but I will also mix it up with funny cat meme material, due to the fact that "Internet is made of cats"...

Internet Is Made Of Cats


As an ending note, I want you to stay tuned for my new project, Americanized.org. Please go to John Cox's post, Website Banner Commission, and read the comment thread and you will get "insider information" about the work of art.

EGO PODCAST FOR THE WIN

Please listen to my first EGO podcast show in 2013.

Listen to internet radio with Lyceum1776 on Blog Talk Radio

You can subscribe to the RSS feed in order to get notified of new episodes in the future. If you have an iPhone, I recommend you to check out the podcatcher, Downcast app and then add my podcast to it. Do a search on "EGO Blog Talk Radio" and you will find it.

I would appreciate it very much if you could take some time and go to the show page on iTunes and give some stars and write a short review of my podcast. :)

Please feel free to add a comment on the show episode by using your Facebook login credentials and go to EGO podcast Facebook page and continue the conversation!

Here are some show notes:

Baby 2013 cartoon by John Cox.

• Beyond 2012: Why the World Didn't End - NASA

• New Year's Resolutions - my post, WRITING DOWN NEW RESOLVING THOUGHTS (December 27, 2007)

• Tips on guests, topics...

• Schedule in the future: once a month, starting in February, later on fortnightly and then every week. I will do podcasts now and then with other tools too, e.g., Audioboo and Soundcloud.

• The word, podcast = (i)Pod + (broad)cast. WikiPedia, CommonCraft, HowStuffWorks.

Description of the show:

Reason - Egoism - Laissez-Faire Capitalism

• How to use social media in a rational way.
• Apply the trader principle in your business philosophy.
• Capitalize on the good things in life.

• Who First Coined the Phrase Laissez faire? - Adam Smith's Lost Legacy blog by Gavin Kennedy.

• Happy New Year by Myrhaf.

Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comment section! Stay tuned for the next EGO podcast!


SP mic.

THE SOCIAL QUARTER-HOUR

Here is the new episode of EGO podcast show. The title, the social quarter-hour, is a homage to The Social Hour with Amber Mac & Sarah Lane.

• Philosophy - Paul Ryan versus Ayn Rand.
• Social Media - new media fatigue?
• Good Life - chile pepper.
• New type of broacast...

Show notes:

• Further Thoughts on Why Objectivists Should Actively Campaign for Romney-Ryan by Craig Biddle. - The Objective Standard.

• Ayn Rand And The 2012 Presidential Campaign - The Diane Rehm Show at 11 AM ET. Hat tip: The Harry Binswanger List.

• Anil Dash of Dashes.com: Blogging & Business Then And Now by Brent Leary. - Small Business Trends.

• The Age of the Platform by Phil Simon.

• "Kick it up a notch!" - Emeril Lagasse on WikiPedia.

Jalapeno sauce with Tequila

• Cinch.fm mobile audio service shuts down, demonstrates troubles of when you bet on services you don’t control by Robert Scoble - Scobleizer. [Editor's note: My material on Cinch.m and SoundCloud.]

• David's tips for online show hosts: how to narrow down your topic like a champion by David Siteman Garland - The Rise To The Top.

THE FALL FORWARD OF EGO PODCAST

Please listen to my latest episode of EGO Podcast FTW. I have given it the title, Fall Forward as a play with words on the autumn season (fall) and my attempt to push my podcast forward into the future...

The weekly podcast will be around 15 minutes in length and have three sections (philosophy, social media, and the good life). The following is covered during this podcast:

• Philosophy - "Books That Shaped America" by Library of Congress.
• Social media - guest blogging.
• #GoodThing in life - TeaFTW. "Far Too Good For Ordinary People."
• EGO podcast - stats, schedule, future plans, etc.

Additional show notes:

• The books that shaped America (in chronological order). Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957).
• A List of Books by Stephen S. Smith. Future guest blogger on AtlasAnd.
• My new post, Far Too Good For Ordinary People, on TeaParty.nu.
• BlogTalkRadio’s New Integration With Facebook Gets You More Listens! [sic]

EGO Podcast - stats (premium feature) on BlogTalkRadio.com

Related: David Siteman Garland's post, 3 Questions & an Opportunity for You to Shamelessly Promote Your Web Show/Podcast.

SITEMETER AND BLOG STATS

It looks like SiteMeter is having some problems...

I hope it will be resolved in the near future. In the meantime, here is an overview of the blog stats on Blogger:

Related: My post, ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: SITE METER PROBLEM from 2004.

BLOG COMMENTS

EGO blog has received 300+ comments by readers since the comment feature powered by Blogger was implemented in 2007 with the new layout of the EGO template.

I am sorry that I missed to change the option to allow reader comments in some of the latest published posts. It is now fixed! Please keep 'em coming!

I have now enabled the threaded commenting feature on the blog.

Here are two great posts on comments on blogs:

• How to get more comments by Scott Berkun of WordPress.com (Automattic, Inc.).
• Are Blog Comments Worth It? by Georgina Laidlaw - GigaOM.

What is your take on the following comment platforms: Disqus, IntenseDebate and Livefyre?

  by  miss miah 

INTERVIEW WITH ANITA CAMPBELL

I interviewed Anita Campbell on May 18. [Editor's note: I am sorry for the technical glitch around 51 min. Anita Campbell took over and ended the show in a great way! :) I have some "endnotes" for about 10 minutes at the end of the program.]