Author: Todd Dow

  • The “5 Days of…” Series: Different Types of Blog Posts

    Starting on Monday, I’m going to outline 5 different types of Blog Posts that you can utilize in your blog. I don’t claim to have a monopoly on all of the different types of blog posts, but I’m sure that this list will provide you with a great starting point and plenty of great ideas to continue to build your blog’s content.

    Over the next week, I’ll be covering the following topics:

    So, without further ado, let’s dig in! Stay tuned for 5 days of Blog Posting Fun!

    Todd

  • How do we provide unconditional love?

    Part five of my five part series entitled “Who Do You Love?”

    Is this possible? Are we able to love those that are against us? This is where the challenge comes in. Agape isn’t easy. It isn’t fair weather love. It doesn’t come and go as your feelings change. Agape is unconditional. It doesn’t judge. It doesn’t categorize people into lists of cool, smart, popular or funny. Agape is consistent with all people. It provides dignity, respect and compassion to everyone. This is what God asks of us.

    I’ll wrap up with a personal story of dignity and respect. When I was living and working in Toronto, I became friends with a guy named Larry. Larry panhandled a block from my workplace, just outside of the subway that I rode to work every day. For months, I would walk by Larry every day, not really acknowledging him. Larry became a familiar sight in the morning and at night when I would come and go from work. One day, I decided to stop and talk to him for a minute. I was curious to see what his story was. If nothing else, he was dedicated to what he was doing. I think he showed up for his work of panhandling on a more regular basis than some of my co-workers.

    I was curious to know who Larry was, what made him tick. Over the course of six months or so, we slowly got to know one another. We’d say hi and bye each day, we’d occasionally stand and chat for a few minutes while I was on my way to work or on my way home to my family. Through conversation, he shared some of his life story with me and I shared some with him. I learned that he was making ends meet through panhandling and by working part time as a youth street counselor. He felt the need to dedicate some of his time to preventing kids from making some of the same mistakes that he had made.

    I asked him what I could do to make a difference with some of the social problems that he was experiencing himself, or that he was witnessing in those kids that he visited on a regular basis. His answer summed up agape so well for me. He told me that just saying hi to people and making them feel like people was a good start. He said that just recognizing someone as a person and providing them with that level of respect made such a difference. It didn’t cure their problems. But it gave them a sense of dignity and worth.

    To me, that’s an example of agape in action. Just recognizing someone and acknowledging them is important. Ensuring that everyone can contribute and that nobody is marginalized is part of God’s plan. It’s about encouraging dignity and respect in the lives of others.

    It’s ultimately about community. Loving your neighbour, regardless of who they are, what they do or why they do it.

    I’m going to leave you with a question. Write it down and put it on your fridge or your bathroom mirror or somewhere that you’ll see it on a regular basis:

    What can you do this week to express God’s divine love?

    Thank you and God bless each and every one of you.

    Todd Dow

  • AGAPE – unconditional love

    Part four of my five part series entitled “Who Do You Love?”

    Lucky for us, we have a third kind of love, agape. This is the kind of love that allows for reunions with loved ones in the future. God’s saving grace ensures that we will see our loved ones again in heaven.

    This is the love that God has offered us. It is divine love, which is an unconditional love. It has no strings. It expects nothing in return. It does not need love in return. It is simply love freely given. Agape is the word for love that is used over and over again in the New Testament. Whereas eros is worldly or material in nature, agape is divinely inspired and powered by faith.

    To explain it quite simply, agape is unconditional love.

    Agape is based on Jesus’ sacrifice and our acceptance of this through faith. Agape comes to us from God. God wraps himself around us in his cloak of loving fatherhood. It is an intimate individual relationship with each one of us. God’s love is unconditional. It is eternal. Love, to God, should be given to everyone in equal and universal measure.

    God’s love is meant for everyone. Remember Jesus’ words:

    Mark 12:30-31 – the greatest commandment:

    “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

    Loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength transcends the physical nature of eros and the fleeting nature of Philia. Agape absorbs both of these forms of love and it builds on them, pushing for a complete, selfless, unconditional form of love that should be freely given to everyone.

    This kind of love doesn’t keep score. It doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t check to see if the recipient is popular, cool, smart or funny. Agape is meant for everyone. I’m glad for this kind of love because I’m not popular, cool, smart or funny.

    Paul’s order, in 1 John 4 is as follows:

    Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

    We are to love one another in the same way that God loves us. This isn’t just a physical form of love or a form of love based on shared benefits. It is a love based on pureness of intention and a caring and unselfish spirit.

    Let’s look at this in a bit more detail:

    Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
    Love comes from God. This love is divine love. Everyone who experiences love expresses it in a way that is pleasing to God. And, because you love, you also relate with God, because you’re sharing the essence of God. You can’t give what God gave you without interacting with God.

    And further, if you don’t love, then you couldn’t possibly know God, because God is about love. And if you’re not sharing love, then you’re not right with God.

    This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

    Alright… so, you want to know what love is? Well, here’s how God showed his love to us. He sacrificed his one and only son so that we might live through him. This selfless sacrifice for the betterment of us is what love is about. Love is selfless. It is unconditional. It applies to each and every one of us. God doesn’t expect something from us first. He gave it to us. Free of charge. All we’ve got to do is reach out and accept it. What a wonderful gift God has given us.

    Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

    And finally, because God loved us, then we must pass this on to others. We are obligated to share this gift from God. We can’t just keep it to ourselves. We must get out there and spread this selfless, unconditional love that comes from God with who? With everybody else.

    And when we share this love with others, God appears. God is with us when we love those around us. In loving one another, we become God’s agents, effectively saying hi for God to those that need it.

    I think that’s incredible. When we love our neighbour, we are giving them a glimpse of the divine love of our creator.

    But who should we love? Should we love those people that fall under the category of “Philia”? Is it enough to love our family, friends and co-workers? Or is there more to it than that?

    Jesus said it is easy to love those that love you:
    Matthew 6:43-45:

    You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven;

    Matthew 6:46-47:

    For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

    But… is this possible? Are we able to love those that are against us? This is where the challenge comes in. Agape isn’t easy. It isn’t fair weather love. It doesn’t come and go as your feelings change. Agape is unconditional. It doesn’t judge. It doesn’t categorize people into lists of cool, smart, popular or funny. Agape is consistent with all people. It provides dignity, respect and compassion to everyone. This is what God asks of us.

    Coming up next: Part 5: How do we provide unconditional love?

  • 7 Tips for Good Blog Content

    In today’s post, I’m going to talk about the foundation of any good blog: content.

    Content is definitely king in any good blog. You can make a blog look as pretty as you like, but without good content, people will quickly grow bored and move on. You need to generate good, consistent, engaging content to keep people coming back for more.

    But what makes for good content?

    Content is good when it is:

    1. Written with authority;
    2. Written with passion;
    3. Written with a purpose;
    4. Written with supporting material;
    5. Written well;
    6. Written regularly;
    7. Written originally;

    Let’s look at these one at a time.

    1. Written with authority
    When I’m sick, I won’t go to just anyone to help me get better. I’ll go to a medical professional who has had years of training. Similarly, I take my car to a licensed mechanic. And, I don’t trust anyone else to do my computer repairs. Similarly, I only want to read content that comes from a qualified source. I read a lot, and one of the things I ask myself when I’m reading is, “what makes this person qualified to give such an opinion?” If you want to offer your opinion about something, do your best to position yourself as an expert or an informed source on the subject you are speaking about.
    2. Written with passion
    I remember Mr Wilson, my 11th grade english teacher, for his monotone voice and his consistently boring lectures. As much as I remember the lectures, I don’t remember any of the content of those lectures. Similarly, I will quickly turn off if I’m reading dry, boring content. Dress up your content! Make it alive! Don’t let it sit there waiting to be ripped off the page. Make the text jump out at the reader through passionate and invigorating writing!
    3. Written with a purpose
    Before you start blogging, outline your blog’s mission statement. Give your blog a purpose, or you’ll continually run around in circles, posting content that appears to be disjointed and with no clear, common direction. Just look at my early posts on this site. Once I sat down and defined the scope of this blog, writing content was easy. I hope that you’ll agree!
    4. Written with supporting material
    Don’t take my word for it – I should offer up advice from others, by linking to them directly. The internet is such a community-based medium. We can quickly and easily tie in advice from others to help support our arguments and to provide additional reference material to the topic at hand.
    5. Written well
    Nothing is more distracting than speling mistaks or bad grammar (yes, those spelling mistakes were intentional!). Take the time to proof read and to write clear, concise and linguistically accurate posts. Nothing will hurt your credibility more than poorly written content. Since content is king, the quality of that content will make or break your content’s reputation.
    6. Written regularly
    Like birds, loyal blog readers must be fed on a regular basis. So be sure to post regularly. Sporadic blog posts will not only provide you with sporadic blog readers, but it will also give readers time to forget about your blog. If someone finds a blog post engaging, they’ll likely come back soon to see if there’s more of the same content out there. Be sure to give them more content on a regular basis. That’ll keep them coming back for more.
    7. Written originally
    Which company has some of the most exciting product launches? Apple, of course. Why? Because they’re constantly pushing the envelope on creativity and fresh thinking. Apple knows how to keep them coming back for more, as they regularly deliver new and exciting products. We can’t all be like Apple, but we can strive to make new and exciting posts that make us stand out from the rest of the blog crowd. With so many blogs out there, you have to identify what makes you stand out from the others and maximize your effectiveness with your advantages.

    Taking advantage of these 7 points should help you to focus your writing and to make it more effective. With all of these items, the importance of practice cannot be stressed enough. Practice, practice, practice. There is no other way to get good at what you want to do than to keep doing it.

    And, for those that don’t want to take my word for it, here are some links to some other writing tips by other bloggers:
    Writing Content Tips by Problogger.net
    How to Write When You Can’t
    Where to start?
    12 First Rules Of Writing
    First Impressions Lead To a Lasting Loyal Readership

    Talk soon!

    Todd

  • Top 7 Features of a good blog

    What do you need in order to build a successful blog? There are a few key elements that will make or break any attempt to produce a good quality blog. The number one thing that will make or break any good blog is content. But content isn’t something that will differentiate good blog hosts. Only you can bring good content to your blog. So the question really becomes, what features can the current crop of blog tools bring to your blog?

    Here’s my top seven feature list to look out for when choosing a blog hosting tool:

    1. Plenty of easy to customize themes – this is the starting point for any blog. While some people are gifted enough to start from scratch when building a theme for a blog, most of us pick and existing theme and modify it slightly to fit our needs and to reflect our individual tastes.
    2. Tagging and RSS – Tagging allows you to categorize posts, which allows for easy sorting and presentation of posts by topic. RSS allows you to share your content with others in a simple, easy to use format. RSS is a big topic. I’ll talk about it more in a future post. For the time being, let’s just say it’s a must have for your blog.
    3. Word-like editing tools – the ability to bold, italicize, change fonts/colours/sizes, add photos and videos and preview and auto-save your posts should be a gimme for most current blogging tools.
    4. Stats – what good is a blogging tool if you are unable to measure your blog traffic? If your blog tool doesn’t have a built-in stats program, don’t worry. There are some standalone options (Google Analytics is one of the biggies) that level the playing field.
    5. Spam Protection – Within a few days of setting up a blog and having it indexed by major search engines, your blog is likely to be overrun by spam. Automated or manual, there are plenty of spam writers out there that will do their best to inundate your site with ads for less-than-desirable content. So, having some sort of spam mechanism in place is helpful in keeping your content clean and professional.
    6. Ability to back up your content offline – You spend a lot of time building your blog. You should be able to take that data with you and save it offline. Some blogging platforms allow content to easily be exported. Others aren’t so user-friendly in this regard. I think it’s important to have an easy way to get at your content and take it with you.
    7. Easy Customization – this is perhaps the most important feature. We all agree that a blog is an extension of the writer. It should be personal. It should reflect the writer’s online personality. And it should allow for easy customizations, tweaks and hacks if and when the writer wants them. Adequate security controls should be in place so that a blog does not get compromised, but all of that security stuff should go on behind the scenes, leaving the blogger with the freedom to build and maintain the blog they want. Javascript, custom widgets and some sort of API should be the bare minimum in this regard.

    For me, these are the main features that any blogging platform MUST have. And fortunately, the main blogging platforms out there offer these features and plenty more. And even better, most of the main blogging platforms provide the ability to use all of these features FOR FREE!

    And for those of you that are wondering, “which blog platforms are you referring to”, well look no further than my ever-expanding list of blog tools.

    So there you have it. OVer the next few posts, I’ll work through this “Group of 7” to explain each feature in more detail and to give you the ins and outs of using these features to their fullest.

    Talk soon!

    Todd