By Dr. Anthony R. Curtis
Mass Communication Department
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
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Update your world: why and how to start a blog
You may take them or leave them, but one thing’s for sure. Blogs are everywhere.
There are 150 million blogs on the Internet today. That’s a blog for every 40 or so
people on the face of the Earth.
Politicians have them. Celebrities have them. Cops, corporate bosses, schoolteachers,
doctors, lawyers, even Indian chiefs have them. If you don’t have one yet, here’s what
you need to know.
Immoderate digressions
Blogs used to be pretty much self-indulgent ramblings about what someone had for
breakfast or whom they met downtown last night. After all, a blog makes a fine online
diary that can be easily updated as frequently as need be. In the past decade, blogs
have grown into a different breed of cat.
Blogs are a sign that control of the exclusive
power of publishing and freedom of the press
have been taken out of the hands of Big Media
and now everyone has a voice. The megacorps
are still there, but now everybody can chime in.
In a cyberpunk world, the corporate culture of a
massive conglomerate sometimes is so powerful
it can distort reality, even ignore laws. Fortunately,
in this era of the blogosphere, the little guy with a
blog can shine a bright spotlight in those dark
corners.
Our blogs tell our narratives and can be used to highlight any particular issues or events
we wish and with an ensuing conversation online. The beauty of blogs is they are easy
to set up, edit and keep up to date.
A continuing conversation
Starting and sustaining a conversation about something you care deeply about with
people anywhere and everywhere is not only great fun but highly useful.
Blog about a specific topic and you will build a loyal readership that will develop into an
online community.
Ask questions. Invite comments. Promote interaction. You initiate a dialog with readers
and the conversation will be priceless to you.
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An audience that’s already interested in your subject or theme will read your blog. They
will supply you with comments, suggestions, ideas and feedback. Your blog will grow
organically!
What is a blog?
The word blog is short for weblog.
The word is a noun, but can be used as a verb, as in building, maintaining or posting
content to a blog. The activity is blogging. A person who has one is a blogger.
A blog is a simple website with articles, known as posts, that usually are displayed in a
reverse-chronological order. That is, with the newest posts first.
Back in the day, a blog was an online diary expressing the owner’s personal views.
Today, blogs cover just about any topic you can imagine, from news and current-event
opinions to how-to tutorials, fan worship, and product reviews. You name it you can blog
about it.
Here are examples of specialty types of blogs:
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anonoblog – blog with anonymous author
artblog – content by and for artists.
blawg – blog about legal matters
blogsite – links blog feeds from a variety of sources
celeblog – focused on celebrities.
CEOblog – posts by a chief executive officer.
clogblog – about shoes or written in Dutch.
darkblog – a angry blog or a non-public blog
edublog – educator blog.
eventblog – public relations event management blog.
groupblog – collaborative blog with multiple contributors.
klog – about shoes and kloggers
linguablog – language log about linguistics and translations.
kittyblogger – blogging about cats.
metablog – blogging about blogging.
milblog – blogging about military affairs.
MP3blog – a music blog offering downloads.
microblog – a blog with very brief content, such as Twitter tweets.
moblog – mobile blog posted from a mobile device, such as a cell phone.
movlog – moblog with video images
photoblog – publishing and sharing photos.
photocast – photoblog that updates as new photos are added.
plog – project blog.
podcasting – a blog with audio and sometimes video content.
progblog – progressive blog.
shocklog – controversial content
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splog – blog used to promote websites.
techblog – technology topics.
vlog – videoblog, a blog with video content in addition to text.
Why blog?
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It’s a great way to converse about something for which you care deeply.
It’s not difficult to build a loyal following and an online community.
It’s easy to use. You don’t need to know HTML programming code or FTP.
It’s a popular kind of website because it’s easy to use.
It’s interactive so people can engage in conversations with you.
It’s easy to subscribe so you can remain in touch with interested readers.
It’s accessible to nearly everyone everywhere.
It’s mostly text, so it’s easy for people using screen-readers.
It’s free.
On the other hand:
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The more popular your blog becomes, the more time it
takes to blog.
It can be very compelling work, so you schedule
updates at established times.
Conversations take time, so set up times when you
answer comments.
It can be difficult to write like a real person and not
sound like a PR machine.
Not every person has Internet access from everywhere, so you may have to keep
in contact with some of your supporters by other means.
Six steps to starting your own blog
1. Set up a free account at WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Live Journal or Tumblr.
2. Give your blog a name that’s relevant and attractive.
3. Add the blog URL to your email signature and letterhead. If you already have a
website, place a link on that site to your new blog.
4. Write a blog post about a real experience that sums up what your blogging
campaign or service is about.
5. Visit www.technorati.com and search for your topic, issue or area of work. Read
some of the blogs and write a response on your blog.
6. Publish a schedule telling your readers when you will be adding posts and when
you will be responding.
A hatful of tips and tricks
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Be brief. Post short pieces often. Think of it as keeping in contact with friends.
Be human. Tell stories. Speak like a person passionate about what you do.
Be honest. Admit when you get it wrong or don’t know something.
Develop an editorial style. The beauty of blogging is its informal nature.
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Include links to point your followers to other bloggers and sources of information.
The more you link to other blogs, the more they will link back to you.
Tell everyone about your blog.
No matter how well your blog is written, readers wont stick around if they see it is
not being updated so add posts on a regular schedule.
Include an About page with contact information.
Post on a regular schedule so your readers will keep returning for more.
Writing posts
Once you've established your blog, you can start posting.
Look for a New Post link on your blog's administrative dashboard page.
Give your blog post a title or headline, and then type or paste in the body of the post.
You should specify tags and categories:
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Tags are keywords describing the content of your post.
Each of your posts will have several tags. Each tag will
be one or two words long. For example, a post about
cat food might have tags such as cat, feline, food,
feeding and diet.
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Categories classify your posts, much like the Yellow
Pages classify their ads. A category sometimes has
subcategories. For example, a top-level category called
cats might have the subcategories abyssinian, angora,
persian and siamese.
When you click the publish button, your new blog post becomes visible to everyone as it
is added to your blog's homepage and also given its own separate page known as its
permalink. On the blog homepage, the newest post usually appears at the top.
Typically, blogs are organized with their entries or posts displayed in reversechronological order. The newest post is at the top of a page of entries.
Meat and potatoes
While blogs are mostly text, they often mix in still images, charts, graphs, tables, videos,
and audio files and podcasts, as well as links to Web pages, including other blogs on
related topics and informative websites.
A sidebar of web links is called a blogroll.
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Blogs often include calendars, countdown clocks, news tickers, weather reports and
other bits and pieces of utility software referred to as widgets or gadgets. Blog hosts
often make these small applications available for free.
Although they don’t have to be, many blogs are interactive with readers commenting on
the blog owner’s posts. That interactivity differentiates blogs from old-style static
websites. Of course, a blog owner can turn off the interactivity by disabling comments.
Blogs are not biased necessarily, but many do offer slanted commentaries. On the other
hand, lots of blogs have non-slanted descriptions of people, places and events.
Writing tips
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Write something timely that matters.
Write something relevant, authoritative and different with background context.
Write short sentences in short paragraphs in a short blog post. Make it a quick
and easy read.
Include key search terms in your headline and body text.
Include at least one photo, or other artwork, with caption and credit.
Include one or more links in each post, with descriptive link text, to some other
credible, related information on the Web.
If you excerpt information from someone's Web page, hyperlink a keyword from
that place in your text to their page so your followers can learn more.
Spellcheck as you write and proofread at the end. Edit and revise.
Post on a regular schedule so your readers will return for more.
Web syndication
The blogging software that creates and maintains the weblog is a specialized content
management system that supports authoring, editing and publishing of posts and
comments, with added functions for image management, moderation of posts and
comments, and web syndication.
Web syndication refers to feeding summaries of the latest
blog posts automatically to readers across the Internet.
RSS
RSS feeds – Really Simple Syndication – and Atom feeds
disseminate a blog’s headlines, summaries, and even the
full content to users’ feed readers across the Internet.
If it’s full content, the entire blog post and comment text along with any audio and video
can appear on the user’s computer monitor screen.
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Turning people on to your blog
To boost the popularity of your blog with more traffic, consider how to lure new readers
as well as keep current readers coming back for more.
Search engine optimization is a way to build traffic. Consider SEO a necessity if you
don’t want to become lost in the Web wilderness.
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Under what search terms would you like to be listed? Include those terms.
Include text links so search engines can index your pages.
The more keywords you have on a page, the more a search engine will find.
Search engines look for activity. It shows your blog is living and relevant. Update
your site at least weekly or even more frequently if at all possible.
The most important SEO technique of all is to write high quality, focused content that
your visitors will want to read.
There are well-known blog directories, such as technorati.com and icerocket.com and
blogsearch.google.com, that are good ways to promote your blog to a steady stream of
readers.
Use social media to promote your blog posts. List the URL of your blog on every Web
page you publish, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, wikis and other blogs.
An important blog feature is the ability for readers to add their comments to your blog
posts. This helps attract more visitors to your blog, and makes your blog posts more
useful to readers.
Where to get a free blog space
Hosted blogs are the easiest to use. Well-known hosts include WordPress, Blogger,
Tumblr, TypePad and Live Journal.
WordPress
http://wordpress.com
Blogger
https://www.blogger.com
Tumblr
http://www.tumblr.com
TypePad
http://www.typepad.com
LiveJournal
http://www.livejournal.com
When you use one of these free hosts, you won't need to install any software. Just sign
up for an account, pick a blog design, and start posting.
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The advantage of a hosted blog site such as WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, TypePad or
Live Journal is getting your blog up and running quickly and easily.
On the other hand, a self-hosted blog would be a site you set up on your own Web
server. You install the blogging software on your server. With a self-hosted blog you
have maximum control over your website.
Random blog examples
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Backyard Universe
Boing Boing
CNN has many blogs
Daily Kos
David Pogue
engadget
Gawker
Gizmodo
Mashable
Media and Society
New World Notes
Oregon Expat
Second Edition
TechCrunch
The Drudge Report
The Fosbury Flop
The Huffington Post
The Thought Pantry
TMZ
http://blogs.fayobserver.com/backyarduniverse
http://www.boingboing.net
http://www.cnn.com/exchange/blogs/index.html
http://www.dailykos.com
http://www.davidpogue.com
http://www.engadget.com
http://gawker.com
http://www.gizmodo.com
http://mashable.com
http://uncpmediaandsociety.wordpress.com
http:// http://nwn.blogs.com
http://oregonexpat.wordpress.com
http://secondedition.wordpress.com
http://techcrunch.com
http://www.drudgereport.com
http://thefosburyflop.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://thoughtpantry.com
http://www.tmz.com
Blog lingo
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A-list – top bloggers with influence over the
blogosphere.
Adbrite, Adsense, Blogads, Chitka, CJ – popular
affiliate advertising programs to generate money
from your blogs.
Ajax – acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and
XML. creates interactive web applications.
archive – a collection of all your posts on one page.
Can be categorized by month etc.
Atom – another specific web feed format. Blogger
feeds are usually of this type.
b5media, 9rules – examples of popular blogging networks. Collection of blogs
and bloggers providing great content, with revenue sharing sometimes.
blog – short for weblog
blog hopping – jumping from one blog to another
blogathon – posting every 30 minutes over 24 hours.
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blogger – a person who blogs
Blogger – a free blogging site hosted by Google.
Bloggies – Annual blogging awards.
blogging – the act of posting on blogs
blogiverse – the blogosphere
Bloglines, Rojo, Newsgator, Kinja, – news aggregators that display syndicated
Web content. RSS readers, feed readers, feed aggregators, news readers.
blogosphere – the internet blogging community
blogroll – list of links to other blogs in your sidebar. Also see blogrolling.com
Blogspot – free blog host
Blog this – function allows a blogger to blog about an entry they are reading
Boing Boinged – link posted on boingboing.net driving huge traffic to your blog
Captcha – short for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers
and Humans Apart”. Those word and letter verification images you are asked to
type to demonstrate you are human and not a bot.
categories – a collection of topic specific posts.
CMS – Content management system.
co-comment – tracks comments across platforms and follows conversations.
commenter – someone who leaves remarks.
comments – remarks left by blog readers.
Creative Commons – copyright licenses providing a flexible range of protections
and freedoms for authors to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach.
dashboard – the dialog box page where you log in to your blogging account.
Del.icio.us – site for sharing social bookmarks.
Digg – website driving traffic to your blog.
EFF – Electronic Frontier Foundation nonprofit group working to protect rights.
Expandable post summaries – small teaser part of a post that links to the full post.
Feedburner – a professional feed management system.
Flickr – photo sharing service.
footer – the bottom of the blog page listing navigation and copyright.
FTP – file transfer protocol.
Greasemonkey – Firefox web browser extension.
Haloscan – free trackback service.
hat tip – acknowledgement of a source that tipped you to news.
header – the topmost part of a blog page.
index page – the first page or cover page of the blog.
jump – continuation of a story on another page.
LiveJournal – free blog host.
lurker – a blog reader not posting comments.
Measuremap, Mint, Mybloglog, Analytics – site traffic tracking tools.
metablogging – writing articles about blogging
MSM – mainstream media, old media such as newspapers.
navbar – navigation links at the top of a blog page.
page rank – search engine measure of importance of a page.
Pageflakes – track multiple feeds on a single page.
permalink – link to one specific blog post.
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photofeed – web feed with images.
ping – Packet Internet Grouper, pings notify tracking tools for updates, changes
and trackbacks.
pingback – trackback.
plugins – files that improve functionality.
post – individual entry article in a blog.
RDF – Resource Description Framework format for web content syndication.
reciprocal link – you link to my blog, I link to yours.
RSS – Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary
feed format for Web syndication.
SEO – search engine optimization, to improve search engine ranking.
sidebar – a columns alongside a blog main page.
Slashdot – website driving traffic to your blog.
tag cloud – display of tag list keywords.
tags – keyword labels relating to similar posts.
Technorati – blog search engine tracks the blogosphere.
template – a standardized blog presentation design.
trackback – ping system to notify that an article has been mentioned.
Tumblr – a blog host.
TypePad – a blog host.
web feed – allows subscribing to a website.
weblog – online dated diary with posts in reverse chronological order.
wiki – collaborative website that allows readers to edit content.
WordPress – a feee blog host.
XML – eXtensible Markup Language for blog syndication.
YouTube – video sharing website.
Revised 2012-08-09