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Blogging 101

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This lens explores the basics of blogging and is part of my ongoing effort to educate people about new web technologies.

Blogs?

The Basics of a Blog

Short for web log, blogs are the web's biggest buzz. Blogs are often described as an online diary, with content displayed in reverse chronological order (newest items appear at the top of the page) and are written on a variety of subjects.

Blogs at their very core though, are simply a tool used to quickly publish information to the web. Their popularity comes in the fact that they greatly reduce the technical know-how typically needed to design, create, or edit a website. In other words, you don't need to understand HTML or other coding to put your content out on the web.

If you have ever visited a blog, you'll note that there a handful of commom elements.
  1. Title / Date - Each entry of a blog has its own title and date associated with it. Blogs are typically time-sensitive, meaning that people blog on topics that are current to the news, their business, or their lives.
  2. Comments - Blogs typically allow visitors to leave their thoughts, ideas, or criticisms via comments.
  3. Permalinks - A 'permalink' is a link to a specific blog post verus the more generic blog URL.
  4. Trackbacks - A 'trackback' is a way to notify another blogger that you have referenced something that they wrote.
  5. Blogroll - Many bloggers include 'blogrolls' on their blog. A blogroll is nothing more than a list of other blogs or bloggers that are of interest to that particular blogger.
  6. Feeds - Typically a blog will have a bunch of little buttons in the sidebar that read 'RSS', 'XML', 'Feeds', 'Atom', 'Sub Bloglines', 'My Yahoo', etc. The purpose of these buttons is to get you to subscribe to the feed of the blog. More on this element later.
  7. Categories - Posts are often categorized under specific topics, providing better organization and more structure to visitors.
  8. Sidebar - The sidebar is the area of a blog that includes many of the above elements, including an area for categories, blogroll, and feeds

More Basics

Some other reading to get you started.
Wikipedia on Blogs
A blog is website that contains written material, links or photos being posted all the time, usually by one individual, on a personal basis. The term is a shortened form of weblog, although the latter term has since fallen into disuse.
Answers.com on Blogs
A Web site that contains dated entries in reverse chronological order (most recent first) about a particular topic.

Blogging Options

Below follows a list of some options to get you on your blogging journey - listed in order of technical proficiency.
Blogger
Blogger is owned and operated by Google. It is a free and hosted blogging service, meaning that no software or money is required to use it. This service gives a newcomer the ability to start blogging with little technical knowledge.
TypePad
TypePad is also a hosted blogging platform, meaning that a user does not have to install any software to begin using it. It offers more advanced features and paid support.
WordPress
WordPress is an open source blogging platform that is highly customizable but requires much more technical knowledge, as well as hosting via a server. As an open source solution, it does not require any monetary investment but also only offers support via the WordPress community.

First Steps

What should I blog about?

A blog can serve a variety of purposes. In the personal arena, it can give your friends and family an up-close and personal view of what is going on in your life. For business uses, it can provide a more conversational approach to your web presence and provide a venue to display your knowledge and command of the space that you and your organization serve.

No matter where or how you use your blog, it's important to blog about what is important to you, to blog about what you are passionate about. Typically but not always, a subject that someone is interested in coincides with their knowledge about that particular topic. Thus, blogging in an area that either can display your professional or personal expertise will make your blog much more enjoyable and boost your overall readership.

Before you jump into the blogosphere, do some research, especially if you plan to add a blog as part of your business. The most successful blogs are those that add to the conversation of the blogosphere, meaning that you must find a niche and voice that makes your blog worth reading. Remember that you are competing against 14 million other blogs and counting.

Blogging Research

Want to do some research before you start blogging? Need some fodder to get your blogging juices flowing? Use some of the great resources below:
Technorati
Technorati is one of the best known and most prominent 'real time' blog search engine. Make sure you explore the different means to search through Technorati by using the various tab options.
BlogPulse
BlogPulse offers some interesting features including 'Trend Search' and 'Conversation Tracker'. Both extremely helpful research tools.
PubSub
Unlike most search engines (whether for the web or for blogs), PubSub offers prospective search. Essentially, the difference being that conventional approaches examine the web from a historical perspective, whereas PubSub seeks to give provide results as the come available (i.e., forward looking search).
Blogniscient
Blogniscient is your bird's eye view of the blogosphere, providing a snapshot of the blogosphere's biggest buzz. It uses an algorithm to automatically rank those blog posts that are receiving the most linkage and attention in various respecitve categories, including Politics, Sports, and Entertainment (disclaimer: Blogniscient was a past client).
Memeorandum
Memeorandum is another site that has a somewhat similar goal to Blogniscient in that it tracks and ranks what is going on in the blogosphere (right now w/two areas - Politics and Tech). The difference comes in that it focuses on the depth of its coverage versus the breadth.
Digg
Digg is a user powered approach to the problem that Blogniscient and Memeorandum are attempting to solve. Digg allows users to 'digg' articles they find interesting, thus allowing the community of users to separate the signal from the noise. Those articles that receive the most diggs are promoted to more prominent positions of the site.
BlinkList
BlinkList is a social bookmarking service aimed at being a 'personal discovery engine'. Users 'blink' sites under common tags, thus helping them discover new websites or articles of interest (if you are not familiar with social bookmarking and tagging, that is another discussion).

Getting it Going

Blogger Etiquette

Now that you understand the basics and have some inspiration, it's time for you to make sure you are following some basic blogging etiquette, less you anger fellow bloggers.
  1. Cite Sources - If you quote someone, provide a link. If you state an unknown fact, do the same.
  2. Cite Bloggers - If you find a point, idea, or link of another blogger relevant and use it, give the blogger credit via a link.
  3. Use Trackbacks appropriately - Trackbacks add to your "Google juice" because they give you a link on another site. If you trackback another blogger's post, be kind enough to mention them somehow and to give them some link love.
  4. Be Clear with your Comment Policy - It's OK to moderate comments. After all, it is your blog. Just be clear about your comment policy by detailing it somewhere on your site.
  5. Be Clear with your Overall Blog Policy - Let people know how you will address any needed changes on your blog (grammar, spelling, inaccuracies, etc.) by detailing it somewhere on your site.

Blogging Policy

A blog policy is especially important for business blogs but in general is a good thing to have. Check out some of these links.
Forrester's Charlene Li on Blog Policy
"One thing that I discuss in my report on corporate blogging is the need for policies, one for a company to provide guidelines to its employee bloggers, and the other for the blogger 'code of ethics' to build trust with readers."
Robert Scoble's The Corporate Weblog Manifesto
"Thinking of doing a weblog about your product or your company? Here's my ideas of things to consider before you start."
My Blog Policy
The policy I've implemented on my blog

TECHNOSIGHT

A handful of recent posts from my blog.
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Blogging Books

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Blog Useability and Best Practices

More links on blogging.
Galley Review of Naked Conversations
"Naked Conversations more than surprised me, in terms of the quality of the content and writing. Scoble and Israel are not only experienced business bloggers, they also did their homework. Their investigation of the use of blogs in the workplace is highly informative both from a contextual and practical standpoint."
The Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging
A must read for bloggers of all experience.
Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes
"Weblogs are a form of website. The thousands of normal website usability guidelines therefore apply to them, as do this year's top ten design mistakes. But weblogs are also a special genre of website; they have unique characteristics and thus distinct usability problems."
CreativeCommons
"Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works."

by

kyarmosh

I am the Editor of the Corante Web Hub and a consultant who helps
organizations, investors, and technology developers get the most out of
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