Typepad was down for the count today but is now back up (obviously)—and it inspired me to come up with a new Top Ten. I published this on Marketing Profs and sent Typepad's PR rep a note about it. Here was her response:
“David, enjoyed reading your post. Very sorry TypePad was down.
You can post it on TypePad now!
Jane”
Thought that was a pretty cool response—a good customer experience you could say. And definitely good PR. Note how Jane even encourages me to post this on Typepad. So good for you Six Apart. Now please don't drop service again. I contemplated drastic measures (like watching TV).
Top 10 Things You Can Do During A “Blogout”
10. Catch up on e-mail—it’s the next best thing to getting that “blog fix.”
9. Visit some news sites. Oh my gosh, there are current events that don’t involve Scoble, Amanda, and Rubel?? Who knew?
8. Read a book, magazine, or something else that won’t give you an error message, stop working and leave you to face your addiction alone.
7. Go home early—what’s the point of being in the office?
6. Actually leave your desk and talk to people—they’ll think you really want to talk to them but won’t realize it’s only because you can’t blog.
5. Take your kid to a movie, but forget about blogging about it afterward because you can’t.
4. Draft future posts about how you spent your “downtime.” (Top 10 lists are usually popular.)
3. Use the experience to quit “stat checking” cold turkey. Who am I kidding?? I’ll start the minute it’s up again.
2. Think about what you're going to write in your complaint note to your bloggy service provider “Dear Typepad—I hate you. But I love you. I’m so confused...please come back.”
1. Actually get work done. Scratch that. Find a blog platform that’s working (like this one) and blog about the whole crummy experience.
I feel so much better. So how about you? What do you do to survive a “blog outage”?
Feeling better? Now can you feel your toes?
Posted by: Paul McEnany | Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 12:34 AM
How about:
11. Install wordpress :-)
Posted by: karl long | Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 08:05 AM
12. just take a quick nap :-)
Posted by: Asi | Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 08:36 AM
Karl: Brilliant!
David: Welcome back. I was starting to worry....
Posted by: Ann Handley | Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 09:57 AM
Thank you all for your support during this difficult time. My hallucinations have gone away and I can feel my toes again.
Posted by: DA | Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 11:09 AM
13. Write a post in every comment box on every blog you come across, preferably unrelated to the subject you're supposed to be commenting on.
14. Write one post per e-mail and send them all to yourself one at a time. Then pretend your inbox is a really innovative blog and reply to those e-mails with your comments.
15. Pretend the Internet doesn't exist and play Pong.
Posted by: Jason Spector | Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 03:47 PM
haha, I like "Asi's" comment - this is why I have my own dedicated hosting. At least if things go down its my own fault:)
Welcome back. Honestly though, how could you quit looking at your stats - thats just impossible!
Posted by: Eric | Friday, July 14, 2006 at 09:25 AM
Ann should blog on Logic + Emotion today - would be fun :)
Eric
Posted by: Eric Kintz | Friday, July 14, 2006 at 03:12 PM