Today on Catch the Brainwaves we’re featuring Mimzie, a witty and gut-bustingly funny blogger. Her writing is energetic, creative, and occasionally (OK, often) oriented towards adult topics, but it’s always a great read. Her Friday advice columns are not to be missed! So, without further ado, catch her brainwaves!

1. You’re a Southerner now working and living in the NY/NJ area. What’s the best thing about that?

The best thing is that I got out of the south before I ended up pregnant and living in a trailer park. I’m not saying that’s what all of the south is like but. . .

2. What’s the worst thing about being transplanted into the NY/NJ area?

I miss my family sometimes - and the snow! Crap, I forgot about the snow. If I never saw snow again it would be fine with me!

3. Why do you use Blogger/Blogspot?

When I was starting out, it seemed like the easiest one to maneuver around and use. I’m not that computer literate as far as HTML and such, so I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

4. How many people have you met through blogging or social media? How many have you met in person?

I haven’t met anyone in person, but I’ve made several friends through blogging. It’s amazing to me how many super nice and very helpful people are out there in the blog world. I love them all!

5. Your Ask Mimzie column is screamingly funny, yet not for the faint of heart. Do you EVER pull any punches in your writing?

I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m as sweet and as helpful as Dear Abby. Is that bitch dead yet? I should have her job!

6. You have a separate business website that is independent of your blog. Do those customers know about Mimzie’s Musings? If so, what do they think about it?

First of all, Muzings is with a Z. How am I supposed to be fun and quirky if you misspell it? Geez! How do you spell “misspell?” I never said I could spell! Shit, I spell musings with a Z, what do you want from me?!

Honey, I haven’t had a customer for my art work in. . . forever! I’ve tried not to mix the two – not sure why. I’d love to scrounge up some business for that. You guys head on over there (318x). I’m sure my manager would give you a discount on some of my paintings.

7. How are you able to stay on top of your comments? You seem to respond in five minutes or less! (Slight exaggeration, but still?)

I receive an email when I have a comment waiting and because I can’t leave anything alone and take care of it later (ADD.) I have to jump right over there and comment back. I’m a multi-tasking phenom!

8. Does your boyfriend blog? Is he ever tempted?

No, he doesn’t. He barely even reads my stuff much less come up with his own.

9. Pretend the Internet is destroyed overnight. What do you do the next morning?

Cry. That’s where I find my best porn! You can’t take that away from a girl!!

10. What one piece of knowledge, advice, or wisdom do you have to share with our readers?

F#ck what everyone else says. Can I say f#ck on here? Oh, f#ck it! If you enjoy writing, then keep doing it. Don’t be discouraged if no one is reading. If you’re good, they’ll find you eventually. If no one finds you then you probably suck and shouldn’t bother to continue. I mean, there must be something else you’re good at, right?

Thanks to Mimzie for being a great interview subject!

On Wednesdays I publish a list of links that I probably haven’t mentioned in the blog.  I’m sharing these links with you because I think they are interesting, useful, or entertaining – perhaps you will, too.

Here’s the latest load of links:

Because it bothers me
Yoni Greenbaum makes a case for providing context whenever a blogger links to another site.

Blogging May Change the Future of Publishing : The Blog Herald
Fascinating new idea about book publishing and blogging, combined with reader feedback

Mystery writer Truman, daughter of president, dies – CNN.com Author, entertainer, and President Harry S. Truman’s daughter

Seths Blog: The Hyping Point
More thoughts related to the “Is The Tipping Point Toast” article

Asshole Envy and the Value of Extreme Focus | On Moneymaking?
How focused are you? Are you willing to do whatever it takes?

The Economics of Ideas- What Makes Your Voice Worthy of…
The author is really interested in the whole idea of what makes someone “worthy” of expressing opinion on the internet, and the issue of credibility of sources.

I, Cringely | PBS
Intriguing tech blogger

The Work From Home Generation – ReadWriteWeb
Oh to work from home

Audacious Blogging
The importance of audacity (Skellie’s always got great ideas that you can use for your blog).

7 Habits of Highly Innovative People | ThinkSimpleNow.com
Listing of ways to be innovative

A Reality Check about Blogging for Money
Darren Rowse’s success didn’t happen overnight. Years of hard work, plus some fortunate events, were the key. Read it and learn more.

How to Write Scannable Content: A 6-Step Approach
Tips on writing blog content

Would You Pay $1 For A Feed? | CenterNetworks
An interesting topic definitely worth reading and discussing, regardless of whether you support it or not

Light Bulbs, Cell Phones And Utility | How To Split An Atom
Good piece on product utility

There’s a new Fast Company article out by Clive Thompson with an interview of Duncan Watts, “a network-theory scientist who recently took a sabbatical from Columbia University and is now working for Yahoo”. Watts has done research that seems, on the surface, to contradict some of Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas in The Tipping Point about the nature and power of influencers, the people who set trends or spread ideas through various means.

Fascinating stuff. I’m trying to track the conversations and I’ll be updating this post over time.

Here’s the Fast Company article:

Is the Tipping Point Toast?

Here are a bunch of reactions:

Scott Karp

Matthew Ingram

Herd

Guy Kawasaki

Seth Godin

Social Media Explorer (Jason Falls)

Smooth Span

All Things Digital

The Social Times

Gauravanomics (this post contains additional links to other reactions to the Fast Company article)

Logic + Emotion

Buzz Canuck

Conversation Agent – Valeria Maltoni

So, what do you think?

George Mantey has been blogging for several years. He’s a passionate family man and homeschooler who also works the make money online niche in his blogging.

Are you ready? Then CATCH THE BRAINWAVES!

1. George, I see that you use Legolas Greenleaf as an avatar on at least one website. Why the elf?

I used to use my picture, but I noticed that most people don’t use their picture. I decided to switch to the avatar of Legolas, because Legolas is my favorite character from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and I just like using it.

2. Related to the previous question, does it make more sense to use your real picture as an avatar as opposed to a fictional image?

Hmmm…. I have seen it done both ways, and I don’t think it matters much. However, it might be something worth researching. I think that if you use a well recognized fictional character you might actually draw more interest from people.

3. As a family man, do you have any worries about privacy and security on the Web?

Yes. My wife had problems with online harassment from an individual for over a year, and it was very difficult. If I were to do things over, I would have recommended that she not use her real name. She could have been blogging under a pen name. In fact, I probably should have used a pen name as well. I might do future businesses under a pen name because of this experience.

4. Your main blog is working the “make money online” niche. Don’t you worry that it’s overcrowded and tapped out?

I started it in July of 2005. At the time, the niche was not very crowded. In retrospect, I should have put more energy into it when I started, but I didn’t expect it to become one my favorite blogs to write for. Since I enjoy helping people in this niche, I am going to use my passion in the field to drive my blog to a new level in 2008. I think there are more and more people coming online to make money and it’s a good niche to be in. I have seen some of my former blog readers go on to develop quite popular blogs in this niche. If you decide to make another “make money online” blog, my advice is to make sure you are passionate about the niche. I also suggest that you focus on a sub-niche of making money online (like affiliate marketing, blogging for money, website monetization, link building, etc.)

5. Has the Web greatly enhanced the potential for homeschooling?

Yes, the web has made it MUCH easier to homeschool because there is so much information online. For instance, when our son asks us a question like “How does a water tower work?”, we can head over to howstuffworks.com and let him read how a water tower works. The web is a great tool for homeschoolers.

6. Was blogging a conscious choice or do you believe that you had a “calling” to start a blog?

Hmmm… good question. I made a conscious choice to start a blog called If I were President for fun to see if I liked blogging. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a test run to see if I would like blogging enough to make money from it. With my make money online blog, I started it to help people and make some extra cash. I never really thoughtof it as a calling either.

The only thing I currently feel strongly called to do is to be a good husband and father. I am actually currently in discussions with God about my business/career “calling”.

7. Can you briefly share your vision of Web 3.0 with our readers?

Web 3.0 will either be the end of people’s privacy, free time, social lives, spiritual growth, and sanity or it will enable those things ?

Actually, there are a lot different takes on what Web 3.0 will be, but I think that whatever it is, it will bring us one step closer to making all of us more dependent on the web for living our lives. I am actually a little concerned about the direction technology is taking us. I don’t know that we should be living our lives online. I wrote about this recently.

8. How do you deal with spam (or is that a problem for you?)

On my blog I use Akismet, which catches a lot of spam and I delete the rest. On email, I use various spam blockers, but mostly wind up using the delete key a lot. It’s a pain. I actually wrote this post about spam on my first blog that you might enjoy.

9. Pretend the Internet is destroyed overnight. What do you do the next morning?

Am I still alive?

I really don’t know, maybe I would run for President

10. What one piece of knowledge, advice, or wisdom do you have to share with our readers?

Take action! Don’t wait to do the things you want to do until everything is perfect. It’s better to do it now and make mistakes then never take action. This applies not only to making money online, but everything that you want to do. You will never get it if you don’t take action.

Thanks to George Mantey for his great answers!

Here’s a preview of what you can expect this week at the blog:

Monday: your incredibly uncanny preview post!
Tuesday: the next installment of Catch the brainwaves, our blogger/social media Q&A feature
Wednesday: Humpday Linkage, which I post a bunch of interesting links from this week
Thursday: A BONUS installment of Catch the brainwaves
Friday: A new post about… something (wanting to get more visitors to your blog?)

Misc. notes to start off the week, as of right now:

Blog views last week: 2151 (mainly due to StumbleUpon – bounce rate remains high)
StumbleUpon friends: 116 (increase of 10 this week)
Stumbles I’ve liked (lifetime): 1533
Twitter followers: 84
Technorati authority: 52

Misc. notes:

Have a good week, all!

You might have noticed that this blog continues to change over time. I’ve gone to a hosted blog with its own URL, changed themes a couple of times, tried Entrecard, rearranged my sidebar widgets a few times, etc. Content wise, I’ve tried to adopt an editorial calendar (or theme days, whatever you like to call it) so that you can have some kind of idea of what to expect here at this blog.

What I’d really appreciate at this point is some constructive criticism from all of you.

I don’t want to know what you like about this blog. I want to know what you can think I can improve here at Broadcasting Brain (I’m leaning towards this shorter version of the blog name).

My preferred method would be for you to send me an anonymous E-mail at:

contact

@

broadcasting-brain

dot

com

But please don’t use the contact form for this exercise.

I want honest criticism about any aspect of this blog. It’ll probably be work best if it’s as anonymous as possible. That way, you can say what you really think and feel without worrying about hurting my feelings (and you really shouldn’t worry about that in this exercise: I’ve got thick enough skin to handle it if it’s done in this manner.)

Why am I doing it this way? To try to get honest feedback.

Even in a digital medium where I’ve never met 95% of you in person, it could still be hard for some readers to be publically critical.

So please, take me up on this offer. No matter what you have to say, if it’s honest and constructive, I’ll read it and appreciate it. I need to work on climbing up Maslow’s hierarchy.  You’re probably looking for ways to get more visitors to your blog, just like I am. I’m looking to your wisdom and guidance for a means of continuing to improve this blog. Thank you in advance.

If you want to leave your feedback as a comment on this blog post, that’s fine, too. Just be honest and don’t pull any punches. I’m at the point where I could use some additional feedback.