Spring Break
Honest to blog! - Making the most of your blog
John McKay
Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: Features
The old adage likening opinions to a certain part of the anatomy could likely hold true for blogs - everyone has one. Well, almost.
While some Web surfers may still be living under a rock, disaffected by the recent surge of bloggers, others have embraced this technology to blog about a wide array of topics.
A shortened term for "Web log," blogs have become an extension of one's social life. Whether bloggers post entries through their social networking site of choice (MySpace, Facebook) or run a full-featured blog (Blogger, Wordpress), even the most casual Web users have a streamlined method of blogging.
However, in blog culture, there are certain terms and features that may throw some newbies off course. I've been a fairly regular blogger for the past several years, and even I have a difficult time grapsing the breadth of blogging options. This drove me to pick up "Blogging for Dummies." While I admittedly laughed at the prospect of a how-to guide for a writing format that has no rules, I've concluded that the guide is essential for those inside and outside of the blogosphere.
So, you have a blog? Congrats! How many people read it?
In this issue, we featured a UM-Flint student, Krystle Holleman, whose blog was featured prominently by ESPN.com. Since ESPN is a sports network, it made sense that her blog dealt with sports. Topic-based blogs tend to do well with repeat, niche readers. In order to fulfill the hunger of these readers, however, you have to be dedicated to your topic. You have to be willing to blog on a pretty regular basis. If a reader gets into a pattern of reading your blog every Wednesday, let's say, and one Wednesday they come back and it hasn't been updated, you may have lost a reader. Make them want to come back.
Andrew Heller, columnist for The Flint Journal visited one of our journalism courses last year and gave his tips on blogging. He runs a very successful blog through his newspaper's host Web site, as many of our staff writers here do. He told us one of the best ways to keep readers loyal is to interact. Most blogs have a comment section. Whether readers have positive or negative things to say, follow up and respond to comments. Many will, in turn, respond. It adds a personal touch to show that you are accessible.
Is your blog words on a screen, or a multimedia hub?
Many bloggers make the mistake of making their designs too minimalistic and text-based. Like print journalism, blogs should be easy on the eyes. Many video sites utilize an "embed" option, for the purpose of re-posting clips on blogs. If you breathlessly dissect a video clip about a despised politician you saw on the news, why not see if YouTube has the clip in question and embed it on your blog for easy reference?
Are you talking about the latest band? See if they have any publicly available YouTube music videos or MP3 songs you can embed on your page. Brevity is best with Web writing, so if you can avoid a few hundred words and just show readers what you are talking about, you're on the right track.
Also, post pictures of yourself and your events, even if they are with a camera phone. Document your events from every angle, but do more than prove you were there. Give readers some insight into what it was like being there.
Also, many blog hosts allow you to use a rich-text editor, meaning you don't have to learn any HTML coding (the language used for writing Web sites). It is still beneficial to learn some HTML basics for customizing things to your liking, but for the novice user, most basic options are already available.
Where can I host my blog?
I host two blogs, one is on Blogspot (also known as Blogger, both owned by Google) and one is through Wordpress and installed on The Michigan Times' servers. Installing a blog onto a server is a much more advanced option for those who want a personalized URL, such as JohnSmithsFishingBlog.com.
Wordpress offers a free, basic blog hosting site much like Blogspot. These sites will have your user name attached to the wordpress.com or blogger.com URL. For instance, my Blogspot blog is named "stand-up-jack" and is located at http://stand-up-jack.blogspot.com.
If you want a basic blog, choose a blog host that is free, and free of ads. I recommend the two mentioned above.
What are all these symbols on the bottom of my blog?
Many blogs give a plethora of options at the bottom of each posting.
Many of you have probably seen this symbol:
This is the icon for RSS (Really Simple Syndication). This allows users to subscribe to their favorite blogs or news sites and view all posts on an easy-to-navigate console of their choice (cell phone, Google or Yahoo homepage, etc.) without having to visit each individual Web site.
This one is becoming pretty common, as well:
This is Digg. This allows users to "digg" their favorite stories by voting and commenting. The most "dugg" stories appear at the top of the Digg site and on Digg networks, while the less-"dugg" posts fade into obscurity.
There have been a few variations of this character:
This is Reddit. This is essentially another version of what Digg offers. Users can post links to content on the Reddit site and vote the stories up or down.
This is a newer one that I've started to notice, including on our own site:
This is Newsvine, a community-powered news website with a mix of original, user-generated content and syndicated content from mainstream sources such as The Associated Press. Users can write articles, seed links to external content, and discuss news items submitted by both users and professional journalists.
This is a little less common on blogs, but still exists, particularly on news Web sites:
This is StumbleUpon, which allows for easy "channel-surfing" of the Web. It will take sites you said you liked by clicking the StumbleUpon links and recommend other sites that might interest you. It allows easy interfacing with your own blog, as well.
I found this great blog about how to grow one's own blog with the help of StumbleUpon: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/09/20/how-to-grow-a-young-blog-with-stumbleupon/.
This one recently reformatted its name to make it easier to understand (and remember):
This is Delicious, formerly known as del.icio.us. This is owned by Yahoo!, and is a social bookmarking Web site. This allows easy tagging of favorite Web sites and blogs by keywords (say, "bowling") where users can search that keyword and find a choice site out of about 150 million bookmarks.
Everybody should know this one:
This is Facebook. Many blogs and Web sites allow users to post its content directly to Facebook.com as a note (similar to a blog) or wall post. Sometimes the content will appear on the Facebook site, sometimes a brief summary will appear, referring users to its main site. This is essentially a sharing link.
This is the weird, distorted "B" often seen associated on blogs:
This is for Blogspot.com, or Blogger.com (same thing, as mentioned above). This site is owned by Google and is a very easy-to-use blog host. This icon will often be seen on news links to post content directly to a Blogspot blog, or on other sites where the content may be generated by Blogspot blog posts.
Finally, there is the blogging interface we use here at the M-Times:
This is for Wordpress. Essentially, this is the same thing as Blogspot or Blogger, just slight variations of its interface.
There are tons more icons and terms to learn to truly master blogging, but hopefully this brief guide points you in the right direction.
Feel free to check out our blogs by clicking "Blogs" on the left pane of this page. Also, Mike Lewis teaches a convergence journalism class ("Online Journalism") that deals with the essentials of blogging. Pick and choose tips to make your blog a worthy entry into the blogosphere.
Check out our pull-out M² section on newsstands now!
While some Web surfers may still be living under a rock, disaffected by the recent surge of bloggers, others have embraced this technology to blog about a wide array of topics.
A shortened term for "Web log," blogs have become an extension of one's social life. Whether bloggers post entries through their social networking site of choice (MySpace, Facebook) or run a full-featured blog (Blogger, Wordpress), even the most casual Web users have a streamlined method of blogging.
However, in blog culture, there are certain terms and features that may throw some newbies off course. I've been a fairly regular blogger for the past several years, and even I have a difficult time grapsing the breadth of blogging options. This drove me to pick up "Blogging for Dummies." While I admittedly laughed at the prospect of a how-to guide for a writing format that has no rules, I've concluded that the guide is essential for those inside and outside of the blogosphere.
So, you have a blog? Congrats! How many people read it?
In this issue, we featured a UM-Flint student, Krystle Holleman, whose blog was featured prominently by ESPN.com. Since ESPN is a sports network, it made sense that her blog dealt with sports. Topic-based blogs tend to do well with repeat, niche readers. In order to fulfill the hunger of these readers, however, you have to be dedicated to your topic. You have to be willing to blog on a pretty regular basis. If a reader gets into a pattern of reading your blog every Wednesday, let's say, and one Wednesday they come back and it hasn't been updated, you may have lost a reader. Make them want to come back.
Andrew Heller, columnist for The Flint Journal visited one of our journalism courses last year and gave his tips on blogging. He runs a very successful blog through his newspaper's host Web site, as many of our staff writers here do. He told us one of the best ways to keep readers loyal is to interact. Most blogs have a comment section. Whether readers have positive or negative things to say, follow up and respond to comments. Many will, in turn, respond. It adds a personal touch to show that you are accessible.
Is your blog words on a screen, or a multimedia hub?
Many bloggers make the mistake of making their designs too minimalistic and text-based. Like print journalism, blogs should be easy on the eyes. Many video sites utilize an "embed" option, for the purpose of re-posting clips on blogs. If you breathlessly dissect a video clip about a despised politician you saw on the news, why not see if YouTube has the clip in question and embed it on your blog for easy reference?
Are you talking about the latest band? See if they have any publicly available YouTube music videos or MP3 songs you can embed on your page. Brevity is best with Web writing, so if you can avoid a few hundred words and just show readers what you are talking about, you're on the right track.
Also, post pictures of yourself and your events, even if they are with a camera phone. Document your events from every angle, but do more than prove you were there. Give readers some insight into what it was like being there.
Also, many blog hosts allow you to use a rich-text editor, meaning you don't have to learn any HTML coding (the language used for writing Web sites). It is still beneficial to learn some HTML basics for customizing things to your liking, but for the novice user, most basic options are already available.
Where can I host my blog?
I host two blogs, one is on Blogspot (also known as Blogger, both owned by Google) and one is through Wordpress and installed on The Michigan Times' servers. Installing a blog onto a server is a much more advanced option for those who want a personalized URL, such as JohnSmithsFishingBlog.com.
Wordpress offers a free, basic blog hosting site much like Blogspot. These sites will have your user name attached to the wordpress.com or blogger.com URL. For instance, my Blogspot blog is named "stand-up-jack" and is located at http://stand-up-jack.blogspot.com.
If you want a basic blog, choose a blog host that is free, and free of ads. I recommend the two mentioned above.
What are all these symbols on the bottom of my blog?
Many blogs give a plethora of options at the bottom of each posting.
Many of you have probably seen this symbol:
This is the icon for RSS (Really Simple Syndication). This allows users to subscribe to their favorite blogs or news sites and view all posts on an easy-to-navigate console of their choice (cell phone, Google or Yahoo homepage, etc.) without having to visit each individual Web site.
This one is becoming pretty common, as well:
This is Digg. This allows users to "digg" their favorite stories by voting and commenting. The most "dugg" stories appear at the top of the Digg site and on Digg networks, while the less-"dugg" posts fade into obscurity.
There have been a few variations of this character:
This is Reddit. This is essentially another version of what Digg offers. Users can post links to content on the Reddit site and vote the stories up or down.
This is a newer one that I've started to notice, including on our own site:
This is Newsvine, a community-powered news website with a mix of original, user-generated content and syndicated content from mainstream sources such as The Associated Press. Users can write articles, seed links to external content, and discuss news items submitted by both users and professional journalists.
This is a little less common on blogs, but still exists, particularly on news Web sites:
This is StumbleUpon, which allows for easy "channel-surfing" of the Web. It will take sites you said you liked by clicking the StumbleUpon links and recommend other sites that might interest you. It allows easy interfacing with your own blog, as well.
I found this great blog about how to grow one's own blog with the help of StumbleUpon: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/09/20/how-to-grow-a-young-blog-with-stumbleupon/.
This one recently reformatted its name to make it easier to understand (and remember):
This is Delicious, formerly known as del.icio.us. This is owned by Yahoo!, and is a social bookmarking Web site. This allows easy tagging of favorite Web sites and blogs by keywords (say, "bowling") where users can search that keyword and find a choice site out of about 150 million bookmarks.
Everybody should know this one:
This is Facebook. Many blogs and Web sites allow users to post its content directly to Facebook.com as a note (similar to a blog) or wall post. Sometimes the content will appear on the Facebook site, sometimes a brief summary will appear, referring users to its main site. This is essentially a sharing link.
This is the weird, distorted "B" often seen associated on blogs:
This is for Blogspot.com, or Blogger.com (same thing, as mentioned above). This site is owned by Google and is a very easy-to-use blog host. This icon will often be seen on news links to post content directly to a Blogspot blog, or on other sites where the content may be generated by Blogspot blog posts.
Finally, there is the blogging interface we use here at the M-Times:
This is for Wordpress. Essentially, this is the same thing as Blogspot or Blogger, just slight variations of its interface.
There are tons more icons and terms to learn to truly master blogging, but hopefully this brief guide points you in the right direction.
Feel free to check out our blogs by clicking "Blogs" on the left pane of this page. Also, Mike Lewis teaches a convergence journalism class ("Online Journalism") that deals with the essentials of blogging. Pick and choose tips to make your blog a worthy entry into the blogosphere.
Check out our pull-out M² section on newsstands now!
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