Chapter 1 AL Discovering Blog Basics In This Chapter RI ▶ Recognizing the hallmarks of a blog ▶ Getting started with your own blog TE ▶ Deciding what to blog about MA ▶ Blogging successfully B GH TE D y now, you’ve probably heard the word blog tossed around by all kinds of people, seen it show up in news stories or cited on TV news broadcasts, or heck, you may even have a child, friend, or coworker who has a blog.
10 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs Making Yourself Comfortable with Blogs I talk to a lot of people about blogs, many of whom know that you can find a blog on the World Wide Web, but who also have the impression that all blogs are written by navel-gazing cranks with an axe to grind or by 12-year-old girls. Some blogs really are diaries in which the blogger records the minutiae of day-to-day life — but blogs can be much more than that, and all kinds of people write them.
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics Think of a blog this way: It’s a kind of Web site. All blogs are Web sites (the opposite isn’t true, though), and neither the content nor the creator makes a blog a blog — the presentation does. A blog can be many things: a diary, a news source, a photo gallery, or even a corporate marketing tool. Blog content can include text, photos, audio, and even video, and bloggers talk about nearly any subject that you can imagine.
12 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs the stamps; they only have to leave a comment on your blog post. You might find you’re talking more with your family than ever before! You don’t have to find the postage stamps either, so keeping in touch through your blog is inexpensive and less time-consuming than snail mail. And no more envelopes to lick. Of course, not all lives come up roses every day; they can’t all be wedding and travel blogs. Personal blogs can be intense when they document rough times.
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics Exploring a hobby or passion If you have a passion or hobby that you just love to talk about, consider doing so in a blog. Anyone who shares your interest is a potential reader and is bound to be looking for more information wherever he or she can find it. You can detail your own experiences, offer advice to others, drum up support for whatever you like to do, or just talk about what you love.
14 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs Sharing information Sometimes, a blog is all about sharing information. Journalists use blogs to report on local, national, and international news; critics and commentators use the medium to state their opinions and predictions. Educators keep parents and students abreast of classroom happenings and dates. Coworkers let colleagues in geographically distant offices know what’s going on in relation to collaborative projects.
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics Figure 1-4: TechCrunch is your source for satisfying your gadget news appetite. General Motors, Google, and Sun Microsystems all have company blogs, giving readers a peek inside the corporate culture of what might otherwise be fairly faceless monoliths. Southwest has taken this approach (www.blogsouthwest.com).
16 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs Regardless of what the blog is about or who writes it, every blog features ✓ Frequent updates: Most bloggers update their blogs a few times a week; some bloggers even update them a few times a day. Blogs don’t have a schedule for publishing; the blogger simply updates the blog when it seems appropriate. ✓ Posts or entries: Each time a blogger updates the blog, he or she creates a blog post, or entry, that he or she then adds to the blog.
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics Figure 1-5: Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum is a sponsored blog written by a cookbook author. Courtesy of Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Cake Bible (William Morrow). Blogging through the ages The concept behind a blog isn’t new; after all, people have been keeping diaries and journals since the invention of the written word. Even on the Web, diary Web sites existed long before anyone used the word blog.
18 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs Those common elements are: ✓ Branding/logo header: A header at the top of the blog displays the name of the blog, often including a logo or other visual element. This header is visible on every page of the blog, identifying it, even to a visitor who visits one of the interior pages without first going to the home page. In Figure 1-5, the header contains the name of the blog, a caricature of Rose, and the Gold Medal logo (indicating the blog’s sponsorship).
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics sidebar of a blog, you can usually access both archive methods. Figure 1-6 shows the date-based archives of Rose’s blog, broken down by month. Date-based archives can also show weeks and years. • Categorized archives: Figure 1-7 shows the category archives of Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum.
20 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs • Information about the author: Because blogs are so personal, sometimes you want to know more about who’s writing them. Many bloggers know their readers are curious, and those bloggers put together short bios and other information for readers. Bloggers sometimes display this information in the sidebar or link to it, like in Figure 1-9.
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics needed a printing press and a distribution method to get his or her work to people, but he or she still needed specialized skills and technology. Unless the would-be publisher spent time figuring out how to use HTML, owned a computer that had an Internet connection, and understood how to put files onto a Web server, he or she was still pretty much in the same can’tget-published boat.
22 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs Different blog software offer different feature sets. Like with all software, the tricky part is finding the right one to use for your situation and needs, but I can assure you, blogging software comes in all shapes, sizes, and price ranges. In Chapter 3, I talk extensively about choosing the right software solution for your blog.
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics Having that much freedom can be a little scary and, if you’re like me, can leave you with an absolute blank in your mind. No problem; you can start a blog today about one topic, and when you actually figure out what you want to write about, change directions and go down another road. It’s a very flexible format! Think about the following tips when you start a blog: ✓ Choose a subject that genuinely interests you.
24 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs Watching how someone else blogs is a great way of finding out how to be successful yourself! Keep track of how the blogs you enjoy are keeping you interested: Take note of how often the blogger updates his or her blog, the writing style, and which posts you find most engaging and get you to leave a comment. Setting goals Just like you have many different reasons to blog, you have many ways to create a successful blog.
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics I’m not making an excuse, however, for ignoring all the rules of writing. Wellwritten and correctly spelled blogs attract readers just as often (perhaps more often) as those that aren’t. You can develop a friendly, personal way of writing without losing touch with the dictionary. I encourage the use of spellchecking, even for very informal blogs intended for friends and family.
26 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs is almost unique to blogs. (Forums, also called bulletin boards, offer one way to engage in online conversation on the Web, but they aren’t as directed by regular posts as blogs. Everyone in the forum community is free to chime in with a topic or question.) Visitors to a blog have the opportunity to leave a comment on each post. Sometimes, readers leave comments in reaction to what they read; other times, they might offer a suggestion or pose a question.
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics Figure 1-12: The Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum blog allows readers to leave comments and questions for the blog’s author. Courtesy of Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Cake Bible (William Morrow). Designing for Success Blog design is a very personal experience. The decisions you make about how your blog looks are just as important as the technology that you choose to run your blog and what you choose to put on it.
28 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs If you’re blogging for business reasons, either on behalf of a company or to promote yourself, make sure that both the writing and design demonstrate the proper tone. Seek advice from bloggers like you and find out from friends and family just how they think your blog should look. Check out other blogs, especially blogs that reflect the same goals or tone you want to create.
Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics ✓ Sidebars: Sidebars usually become a major focus for a blog site. Sidebars are columns to the right or left (or both) of the main content area, and they contain elements such as navigational links, special highlighting graphics that point to social networking sites, lists of blogs that you read (blogrolls), archive links, or anything that you want to share with your visitors outside the context of a blog post.
30 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs
