Mignon Fogarty (@MignonFogarty) is the founder of Quick and Dirty Tips, the multi-faceted publishing website that produces dozens of topic-specific podcasts based on several characters, the most famous of which is Grammar Girl.
Since creating the Grammar Girl Podcast, Mignon has authored 7 books, collected a host of podcasting awards, and recently assumed the Donald W. Reynolds Chair in Media Entrepreneurship at the University of Nevada Reno.
Our conversation follows Mignon's origins in online business, how she leveraged her early podcast success and existing personal relationships to create a broader network, and how she still prefers to do certain production elements herself.
Show Notes & Links
Mignon Fogarty is a professor — not a doctor — but her students call her by her first name
Britons will call Professors as such, whereas the Americans favour Doctor, when that's available. e.g. Professor Alice Roberts (@DrAliceRoberts), a medical doctor and professor at the University of Birmingham
"There's a lot of power in networks"
—Mignon Fogarty
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Grammar Girl (podcast) began as a hobby project whilst Mignon worked as a technical writer. Her clients kept making the same mistakes.
Grammar Girl reach #2 in iTunes within 6 weeks
Modern Manners Guy, Mighty Mommy, Money Girl, et al. were Mignon's friends/neighbours whom she recruited for spin-off shows
The Wall St. Journal picked Grammar Girl as the Web Pick of the Day - 4 Nov. 2006
"New York Publishers" (a synecdoche, of sorts; a toponym, more specifically)
MacMillan Publishing wanted a digital initiative; they partnered
Mignon chose podcasting over blogging alone because she "really loved it"
SEO-friendly blog posts helped folks discover episodes and the show in general
A post on Reddit, in the ELI5 subreddit, regarding colours as last names
"Redheads vs. Orangeheads" a post on Grammar Girl regarding origins of the colour orange in English
Gretchen McCollugh, PhD
Mignon was always "an entrepreneur at heart"; she and a college roommate sold hair accessories
Prescott misses Aardvark and Squiggly, characters from her show
Grammar Girl now has segments — Intro, Quick and Dirty Tip, The Meaty Middle, Tidbits, Announcements, Ads
Mignon uses content from her books and newsletter for podcast content
Many English phrases originate from train talk
Idioms
Fast and Loose derives from an old carnival game
Mr. Adolphe Sax, inventor of the Saxophone
Tall Poppy Syndrome, an Australian phrase
Malapropism
"People write in different ways for different media."
—Mignon Fogarty
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"What texting is, despite the fact that it involves the brute mechanics of something that we call writing, is fingered speech."
—John McWhorter
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"u" has replaced "you" as a pronoun, even in written schoolwork
Andrea Lunsford, of The Writing Center at Stanford, concludes there aren't more errors because of teh Internet
Affect/Effect or They're/Their/There
Google trends allows you to search for phrases like "on accident"
The New York Times could find Haikus within the stories
Google Ngrams to find first appearances
Google News Archive
The Teddy Bear, inspired by Theodore Roosevelt
"The Internet is [still] mostly a written medium."
—Prescott Perez-Fox
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The link between language & design: language ? grammar ? punctuation ? typography ? design
The Oxford Comma
"Visual Language" or "Brand Voice" are types of designer personifications
Professor Fogarty Mignon teaches Media Entrepreneurship & Social Journalism
Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty on Amazon and on Audible
Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing by Mignon Fogarty on Audible
101 Misused Words by Mignon Fogarty on Amazon
101 Words to Sound Smart by Mignon Fogarty on Amazon
101 Troublesome Words You'll Master in No Time by Mignon Fogarty on Amazon
Words Every High School Graduate Needs to Know by Mignon Fogarty on Amazon
"Applesaucing", Prescott's term for re-purposing and re-publishing your content
How Mignon organises and plans a book. Very cool[av_video src='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnSIMqtsgLY' format='16-9' width='16' height='9']
Mignon has written 7 books in 6 years — in your face, Todd Henry!
Fellini
Information Diets
When recording from her home, Mignon uses a walk-in closet with a snowball mic
Mignon Fogarty on Twitter
Mignon Fogarty on Instagram
Mignon Fogarty on Google+
Grammar Girl on Twitter
Grammar Girl on Facebook
Grammar Girl on SoundCloud
Mignon Fogarty tells her story to Leo Laporte on Triangulation, episode 117[av_video src='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA8ZH_cdl9M' format='16-9' width='16' height='9']
Tools
Snowball Mic
Pinterest
Trello
Freedcamp
Slack
MacBook Air
Large Apple Monitor
iPod Touch (for social media)
Boomerang for Gmail
Clammr
Audacity
Techniques
Use the script from your podcast as a blog post
Use guest writers for narrow subject matters, especially if they have a PhD in that topic
Assign content and schedule shows about 6-7 weeks in advance
Edit your script for pronunciation — some things are hard to say out loud
Use Pinterest to promote a podcast
Set deadlines for yourself
Hire help to manage you (especially for writing)
Keep two separate phones for your separate social media accounts
Habits
Delegate, especially social media
Uses content from her books and newsletter for podcast content
Workout every morning, before lunch rather than first thing
Make sure to drink caffeine with lunch
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