Two things I’ve come across lately that I’ve loved.
1. From Mere Comments, a guest post from Gregory Laughlin about how certain seemingly small details do indeed speak to a man’s character.
Just yesterday, one of my librarians came to me to report that he had just rejected a young lawyer’s request to use our library. (Our library is not open to the public and those who are not employed by or are students at Samford must receive permission to use our services and collection.) Normally, we give a pass to all lawyers and law students, no matter where they went to or are going to law school. However, this young man told the librarian that he had graduated from our law school (which would result in his saving $15 on the cost of his pass). Upon his effort to verify this, the librarian discovered that this was not true. As it turned out, the young man had graduated from another law school. The librarian refused to give him a pass on the premise that a man who would lie to save $15 would not hesitate to steal books (an unfortunately common action of some lawyers). He came to me to ask if I agreed with his decision. I did. A lawyer who would lie to save $15 is a danger to our system and a shame on our profession, a shame we deserve for not more vigorously policing the ethics of our members. If he would lie for such a petty reason, what will he do when confronted with the many difficult ethical dilemmas which confront lawyers every day?
2. Over at Blessed Among Men, Suzanne writes about how to homeschool boys. I don’t homeschool, but her post has given me good food for thought in how to deal with boys in general. We’re on the same page — some of her points I had figured out already, and a few were very good ideas that had not occurred to me. Here is one of my favorites, one I used to do better. Her post was a good reminder of this! Thanks Suzanne!
Motivate with Rewards: A trick I learned from my sister, Helene, was to let my boys earn computer time by reading for an equal amount of time each day. They earn as much as an hour a day and Saturday comes with a free half hour. This has worked beautifully here, both for motivating reading and limiting computer time. We also let the boys read past bedtime by reading lamps or out on the porch some nights with me. Late night reading doesn’t earn them computer time, the reward is staying up past bedtime.
And one more!
The always articulate, ever-popular (and fun to talk to — we’ve actually spoken on the phone, me and Jen!) — Jen from Conversion Diary writes about how to increase traffic to your blog. Very good stuff to consider.
If you only remember one thing from this post, make it this: It is a spirit of generosity that brings traffic to a website. As I know from personal experience, having a blog can tempt you to become a black hole of attention. However, the more inwardly-focused you become, the fewer readers you will have. Ironically, it is when you stop asking questions like “How can I get people to link to me?” or “Why don’t more people comment on my posts?” and start asking questions like “Who are some other great bloggers I can link to?” and “How can I better serve readers through my blog?” that your traffic will begin to grow.
