Chapter 1
In This Chapter
Recognizing the hallmarks of a blog
Getting started with your own blog
Deciding what to blog about
Blogging successfully
By 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 you may even have a child, friend, or coworker who has a blog. Bloggers are showing up inside businesses, and businesses are even using blogs to reach out to their customers. But what exactly do all these people mean when they say they have a blog? And what does a blog written by a teenager have in common with one written by a CEO?
Don't be too hard on yourself if you aren't exactly sure what a blog is. The word blog is actually a mash-up of two other words — web and log — so if it sounds made up, that's because it is. At its most basic level, a blog is a chronologically ordered series of website updates, written and organized much like a traditional diary, right down to the informal style of writing that characterizes personal communication.
In this chapter, you find out just what makes a blog bloggy and why so many people are outfitting themselves with one like it's the latest celebrity fashion trend. (Hint: It's not just that we're all narcissists!) You can get some ideas that you can use to start your own blog and become part of the blogosphere (the community of blogs and bloggers around the world).
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.
One of my favorite blogs (see Figure 1-1) falls into the personal diary category: Mimi Smartypants (http://mimismartypants.com
). A woman living in Chicago writes this blog, which records her thoughts and activities with such hilarious prose that I often find myself laughing out loud when I read her posts.
Think of a blog this way: It's a kind of website. All blogs are websites (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.
With millions of blogs in the world — the blog search engine Technorati (http://technorati.com
) tracks more than 1 million blogs — it's obvious that blogging is a popular and successful format for publishing a website. But just what are people doing with blogs? They can't all be talking about their cats!
And they aren't. Bloggers are using the blog format to communicate effectively in all kinds of information spheres, from the personal to the professional. In fact, many blogs serve multiple purposes at the same time, mixing posts about activities at home with news pertaining to work. Your blog can serve many purposes in your life.
A lot of folks use blogs for the same reason they might keep a diary — to chronicle their lives and activities. This urge to communicate appears in all kinds of mediums, from scrapbooking to taking digital photographs. If you're interested in sharing personal details with others, a blog gives you a fast, efficient way to do so.
If you send holiday newsletters every year or e-mail a group of friends and family to let them know about exciting events in your life, you can have a lot of fun with a blog. You can blog as often as you want, and your readers visit when they're ready to get more information. Best of all, each blog post gives your friends and family a quick way to respond to you; they have only to leave a comment on your blog post. You might find you're talking more with your family than ever before!
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. Steve Sheldon (http://lymphomania.wordpress.com
), a Vancouver-based blogger, uses his blog Lymphomania, shown in Figure 1-2, to document his experiences with lymphoma. He explains how the blog has been part of his journey:
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. Best of all, you might be able to make connections with others who share your infatuation, making friends and finding ways to get involved with your hobby more deeply.
Cybele May runs a blog about something she loves: candy. Candy Blog (www.candyblog.net
) is her personal labor of love and a great excuse to buy a lot of candy! Cybele reviews candies, writing extensive descriptions of taste, texture, and ingredients for fellow sugar enthusiasts. And they respond! Nearly every review garners comments from fans and critics of the candies that Cybele samples. Check out Candy Blog in Figure 1-3.
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. The uses of the informational blog are really limitless.
One popular information blog is TechCrunch (www.techcrunch.com
). This guide to everything Internet covers everything from new companies to the latest geek gadgets and, of course, offers a lot of information about software. You might not find every post useful, but if you're trying to keep up with the breakneck pace of technological innovation on the Internet, you may find TechCrunch (shown in Figure 1-4) and blogs like it invaluable resources.
You have spent a lot of time producing your blog, and that time has paid off in the form of a large audience. Why not turn those eyes into dollars? That's a question many a popular blogger has asked, and you can make it happen in several ways.
The most common technique involves including advertisements on your blog pages. For example, Google AdSense (www.google.com/adsense
) provides in-page advertising that's designed to match the content of your blog and therefore be of interest to your readers. Each time a visitor to your blog clicks one of these advertising links, you earn money from Google. I talk more about making money from advertising programs, affiliate links, sponsorships, and more in Chapter 20.
Of course, companies haven't missed out on the fact that blogs can help them drum up interest in their products and services, or inform and connect with consumers. Many companies, small and large, have added blogs to their websites, and they use the blogs to start conversations with their customers and potential customers. In many cases, use of the informal voice of the blog medium has helped customers understand that real people work in these organizations. This personal connection improves a company's credibility and often enhances customer recognition of its brand and values.
Southwest has taken this approach (www.blogsouthwest.com
). On the blog's About page, Southwest says, “Our goal with the new Nuts About Southwest remains to give our readers the opportunity to take a look inside Southwest Airlines and to interact with us.” Southwest tries to make sure that the blog represents many voices inside the company, from managers to captains — even the president of the company. As with personal blogs, the tone is light and conversational, making the company seem friendly and accessible.
You've probably seen a blog online already. Because the blogger isn't required to put a big This Is a Blog! sticker at the top of the page, you might not have realized that you were looking at a blog. With a little practice and familiarity with standard blog elements, though, you can identify any blog in a snap.
Regardless of what the blog is about or who writes it, every blog features
In this section, I give you a tour of the usual blog elements by using baker Rose Levy Beranbaum's blog, Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum (www.realbakingwithrose.com
). Rose's blog has all the usual features that I discuss in this section, as shown in Figure 1-5 — and a few more bells and whistles as well.
Most blogs — no matter what topic they cover — look quite similar because the elements of one blog are common to all blogs. Rose's is no exception.
Those common elements are as follows:
One reason for so many blogs is the ease with which they can be set up and published. The early days of the Internet were full of heady talk about the democratization of publishing; people discussed how absolutely anyone would have the power to publish because of the prevalence of personal computers. In fact, that idea wasn't strictly true. Writers no longer needed a printing press and a distribution method to get their work to people, but they still needed specialized skills and technology.
Unless the wannabe publisher spent time figuring out how to write 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 old can't-get-published boat. You could acquire those skills and the tools to publish, but you couldn't do so easily.
The answer, as it turns out, comes down to technology — specifically, software. I believe blogging goes a long way toward making that initial promise of the web come true. If you can write an e-mail, you can figure out how to use the simple interfaces of blogging software without any of the muss of dealing with HTML, FTP, or any of those other awful web acronyms everyone's supposed to understand these days.
Figure 1-11 shows the publishing interface of Blogger (www.blogger.com
), a great blogging software tool. To write a new post, you simply log into Blogger, fill in the blanks for a new post, and click the Publish button to put the entry on your blog.
Different blog software offers different feature sets. As with all software, the tricky part is finding the right one to use for your situation and needs. I can assure you, however, that 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 4 shows you how to start a blog in about ten minutes by using Blogger, and Chapter 5 walks you through the details of using WordPress. In Chapter 6 you can try a microblog using Tumblr; Chapter 7 takes you through starting a Squarespace blog.
You can find blog topics all over the map. If you haven't already read a blog, follow these simple steps to find one and read it, which is the best possible way to become familiar with the medium:
www.technorati.com
.For example, you might enjoy reading a blog written by someone with whom you share a hobby, such as knitting or parasailing. Or try a search term that describes what you do for a living; if you're an accountant, for example, you might search for tax regulations. You can also search for something that can help you accomplish a task, such as buying a house or finding out how to paint.
Technorati returns a list of recent blog posts that used your search term. When I searched for knitting, for example, Technorati showed me a blog post by someone who just bought some new yarn for making socks, one about a recipe for a knitting-themed birthday cake, and another post by someone who was frustrated with a pattern.
You can find blogs on so many topics that you can't help but find something interesting, whether it engages you professionally or personally. I read blogs on all kinds of topics that interest me, from (surprise!) knitting to the arts to real estate.
The blog format is exceptionally well-suited to letting you explore an idea, a hobby, or a project — but don't let that stop you from using it for other things. People have created blogs to pass along marketing expertise, sell shoes, cover the latest celebrity gossip, raise funds for bike rides, and even write books. The topic or topics that you write about should excite you and hold your interest, and they can be about absolutely anything.
Having that much freedom can be a little scary and, if you're like me, can leave you with an absolute blank 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. And although there are no guarantees that content you delete will disappear forever, thanks to cached copies and screenshots, you certainly have the ability to remove posts from your blog that are no longer a fit. It's a very flexible format!
Blogs are so quick and easy to set up that you can start one without having much of a plan in place for what you want to blog about, why you're blogging, or what you're trying to accomplish. Some people thrive on this kind of wide-open playing field, but others quickly become bored (or boring!).
To get your blog started on the right foot, think seriously about why you're blogging, and then make a commitment to attaining your goals. Don't get me wrong — this isn't a job! But, just as you wouldn't expect good results from a dinner prepared without paying any attention to ingredients, you can't start your blog without having a recipe for success.
Here's my recipe for a good blog:
Just as you have many different reasons to blog, so do you have many ways to create a successful blog. Don't forget that your goals and plans might not be the same as another blogger's. Do think about what your goals are, and keep those goals in mind when you start your blog.
The following are ways that you might characterize a successful blog:
When you start your blog, take time to think about how you define success. Do you want to help your entire family keep in touch? Do you want to let your friends back home know more about your college experience? Are you starting a company and trying to get attention in the media? Consider writing your goals into your very first blog post and then returning to that post every few months to see whether your goals have changed and to remind yourself of what you're trying to accomplish.
Many people think that blogs are poorly written, misspelled, and full of grammatical no-no's such as incomplete sentences. It's true: Many bloggers do write their blogs very casually, paying only cursory attention to spelling and grammar.
For many, this informality is part of the charm of the format. Readers find the colloquial, conversational tone accessible and easy to read, and bloggers who write informally seem approachable and friendly.
I'm not making an excuse, however, for ignoring all the rules of writing. Well-written 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.
You can find tips on how to develop your voice in Chapter 8.
Commit yourself to writing new posts on your blog frequently. Ah, frequently is such a deceptive little word — because really, what does it mean?
For some people, frequently means every day. For others, it means three times a day. If you want a blog that doesn't eat up every spare moment in your life but that you still update often enough to keep people interested, define the word frequently as at least two or three times a week. (If you want to blog more often than that, go to town.) This number of updates strikes a good balance for most blogs.
You also need to pace yourself. In the first heady days of having a blog, the posts flow freely and easily, but after a few months, you might find it difficult to be creative.
Comments make blogs really different from a website; the opportunity to interact and converse with the creator of a website and with other readers is almost unique to blogs.
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. Because any reader can leave a comment, readers may leave comments about other comments!
Blog posts often include a link directly below each post, indicating how many comments readers have left. Clicking this link takes you to a page that displays the post, any comments that readers have left about that post, and a form that you can use to leave your own comment.
After someone makes a comment, it appears in the Comments area of the blog, usually labeled with the comment writer's name, along with the date and time that he or she left the comment. On some popular blogs, readers compete to see who can leave the first comment on a new blog post.
In Rose Levy Beranbaum's blog Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum (www.realbakingwithrose.com
), Rose often responds to questions that readers ask by putting the answer in her blog post's comments area. Rose's comments have a shaded background that other comments don't have (see Figure 1-12) and feature her personal avatar image.
Not every blog allows comments. Many popular bloggers find that they're overwhelmed by the sheer volume of responses that they get and must turn off comments because they can't keep up with them. We should all be so lucky to have that problem. For most bloggers, comments are an important way to develop a dialogue with readers.
Blog design is a very personal experience. The blog that you're starting is a reflection of you and your professional life. 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. Because the web is an ever-evolving medium, no solid rules exist that tell you what you should or shouldn't do with your blog. But you can follow guidelines to keep putting your best foot forward.
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 members who read blogs frequently what design elements they enjoy. Check out other blogs, especially blogs that reflect the same goals or tone you want to create. What does the design of those blogs say about the blogger and the blog content?
Whether you hire a designer for your blog, use a blog template, or try to make the design yourself, seek ways to make your blog stand out from the rest. If you're a business, make sure that your logo appears on your blog. If you're creating a personal blog, add your own photos. Even if you use a default template, you can often add an identifying graphic or element on the site that differentiates your blog from others.
Let your readers be your guide: If your mom visits your site and says that she can't read it, find out why. If your friends start talking more about the annoying background color than your latest blog post, you have a problem. Just as you do with your content, keep the design focused on the readers to keep them coming back for more.
The average blog has four very distinct areas in which to place and customize content: logos, headers, sidebars, and footers. In a blog, each of these areas has a specific purpose. As more blogs have come into existence, these areas have developed in specific ways that can help you organize your content.
Here's some detail about each of these customizable areas: