blogging 101 march 2013

INTRODUCTION TO BLOGGING

AUB’s Online Collaborative

Benihana Kuwait v. Mark Makhoul

CASE STUDY

“If anything, I think the way they handled it made things

worse for the restaurant. They were right in that the

restaurant was new, but mark’s review wasn’t completely

terrible in my opinion. He pointed out the pros and cons of

his experience, which led me to believe I should give the

restaurant some time before trying it out.

Their actions, however, have turned ME off of trying it out.

And I want to clarify I mean ME. I don’t want to be served

with papers after all for allegedly swaying readers not to eat

there.”

OK LET’S START!

Quick Poll

Do you: Have a blog? Read at least one blog? Read 5-10 blogs? Read more than 10 blogs? Are you: Interested in one for Education use? Interested in one for Personal use?

WHAT IS A BLOG?

a website in journal format, personal in its tone

and arranged in a chronological order.

can also be used as a verb, meaning to

maintain or add content to a blog.

Video: Blogging in Plain English

DEFINITIONS

Blog: A web log.

Blogger: Someone who creates and maintains a blog.

Blogging: The process of creating and maintaining a web log.

Blogsphere/Blogosphere: The totality of blogs; a community or social network of blogs.

Blogroll: A list of a blogger’s favorite blogs, usually placed on the side of that blogger’s blog.

REASONS TO BLOG

PERSONAL

To share personal experience

BUSINESS

To promote business

ADVOCACY

To promote an idea or a cause

TEXT blog

MICROblog

MOBILEblog

PHOTOblog

VIDEOblog

PODCAST

TYPES OF BLOGS

TEXT BLOG

MICROBLOG

PHOTOBLOG

MOBILEBLOG

VIDEOBLOG

PODCAST

There are many different types of blogs and these blogs fall under many

different genres – which are further divided into many sub-genres.

GENRES OF BLOGS

BUSINESS/ENTREPRENEUR

COMMENTARY

ENTERTAINMENT

FAMILY & LIVING

FASHION & LIFESTYLE

HOBBY & RECREATION

NEWS & MEDIA

TECHNOLOGY

TRAVEL

Types of blog posts Instructional

Reviews Lists

Interviews Link Posts

Informational ‘What If’ Posts

Rant Debate

Critique Posts Collation Posts

Research Satirical

Case Studies Memes and Projects

Prediction & Review Posts ‘Problem’ Posts

Inspirational Contrasting two options

The 4 C’s of blogging: conceptualize, choose a platform, customize & create

SETTING UP A BLOG

CONCEPTUALIZE

• Niche/Type

• Blog Name

• URL (easy recall, relevant, not too long)

• Description

• Keywords

Blogger (Personal Blog)

Wordpress (Personal/Business Blog)

Tumblr (Mini-Blog)

Twitter or Facebook (Micro-Blog)

CHOOSE A PLATFORM

Less setup/maint

More setup/maint.

Standardized Personalized

BLOG PLATFORM OPTIONS

Custom blog

Lotus Notes

Wordpress.com

Blogger

Pro:

• You own the domain,

look and feel

• Full customizability

• Platform support from

WordPress/TypePad,

lots of widgets, help

available

Pro:

• You own the domain,

look and feel

• Customizability (but

more programming

involved than

WordPress)

• You can create and

review posts right in

Lotus Notes

Pro:

• Very easy to set up

• A fair amount of

customizability

• Free (with upgrades

available for $)

Pro:


• Free

Con:

• You need to pay for

hosting (~$10-12/mo.)

• You need to do the up-

front setup work and

maintenance

Con:

• You need to find

someone to host it (we

might be able to help a

few of you)

• Fewer template choices

(or more work to move

to move to a new

template)

Con:

• It’s not a personal

domain (although you

can redirect to it)

• Not as fully customizable

as if you run your own

blog.

• Free service hosted in

the cloud – no/limited

guarantees

Con:

• It’s not a personal

domain (although you

can redirect to it)

• Not as customizable as

free WordPress blog or

your own blog.

• Free service hosted in

the cloud – no/limited

guarantees

BLOG PLATFORM OPTIONS

DeveloperWorks

IT Toolbox

ChannelDB2

Pro:


• Network effect of being

included on

DeveloperWorks

• Makes it seem more

like an “official” IBM

blog

• Technical support

Pro:

• Easy to set up

• Free

• Network effect of being

included on IT Toolbox

Pro:

• Easy to set up

• Free

Con:

• Very limited

customizability in look

and feel

• Can take ~2 weeks to

get a new blog set up

• developerWorks

design/layout may not

be for everyone

• URL harder to share

(although can do

redirect)

Con:

• Very limited

customizability in look

and feel

• IT Toolbox

design/layout may not

be for everyone

• URL harder to share

(although can do

redirect)

Con:

• No customizability in

look and feel

• Limited editing tools

• Harder to find, link to

CUSTOMIZE

• Themes

• Layouts

• Headers

• Blogrolls

• Keywords

• About Page

CREATE

Once you have everything set-up, you are

ready to

ANATOMY OF A BLOGPOST

Blog Title

Date Header

Post Title

Timestamp

Permalink

Post

Author Name

Category/Label/Tag

Comments

Trackback/Pingback

Sidebar

Miscellaneous

Footer

SETTING UP A BLOG ON WORDPRESS.COM

SETTING UP A FREE BLOG ON WORDPRESS.COM

Go to www.wordpress.com

and click “Sign Up Now!”


Create a user

account


Pick a blog name and title


Congratulations – you’ve got a blog! (Well, we do need to do a little more work. Click the

Login link to start customizing it.)


This is your admin site

(where you’ll go to

customize things and

write posts)


First, click Design and

Themes to pick a theme.

Once you find a theme you

like, click “Apply to my

blog” from the preview

page.


You can now go to your blog and

check out your spiffy new design!

… but let’s customize it just a

little more.


First, you want to make

sure the title, tagline,

contact information is

accurate (it’ll help Google

find you, too.)

Click Settings and General

to update this information


You also want to be sure

that the About page is all

about you!

(Click Manage and Pages

to get there.)


Now, let’s customize the

sidebar by adding some

“widgets.”

Go back to the admin

page and select Design

and Widets.


Click Design and Widgets

to add widgets. I’m

showing the key ones I’d

recommend


To add some links to your

blogroll/resource list…

Click Write and Links to

add some links – to other

blogs, to online resources,

etc.


Click Manage and

Categories to add

categories to organize

your posts. (You can also

use tags instead of

categories.)


Now you’re ready to write

your first post!


Adding links is easy… just

highlight your text and

click the little “chain” icon

and enter the URL.

Adding images is just as

easy – just click the media

icons.


Click on “View Site” to go

see your post live on the

Web!


To view statistics (visitors,

traffic sources, etc.) select

My Account and Stats.


Hmmm… I might need a

few more viewers. Better

tell my friends about my

new blog!


You can purchase

Upgrades from Wordpress.

Notably, the ability to

further customize the

template or redirect to a

non-wordpress.com url…


If I wanted the site URL to

be db2isgreat.com

instead of

db2isgreat.wordpress.com

I could do so for ~$15 a

year.

CONGRATULATIONS, YOUR

WORDPRESS.COM BLOG IS DONE!

It took me 20 minutes to go through all the steps you just saw, from registering an ID, though choosing a template, customizing the sidebar and writing my first post.

Granted, I was going quickly and had done this before. I’d allow 3-4 hours for setup.

WordPress has a lot of online resources for tips and tricks and help: Start here: http://faq.wordpress.com/

SETTING UP A BLOG ON BLOGGER

SETTING UP A FREE BLOG ON BLOGGER

To set up a blog on

Blogger, head over to

www.blogger.com to get

started.


Create an account (or sign

in with an existing Google

account)


Give your blog a name and

choose a URL

Pick a template for your

blog.


Congratulations! You have

a blog!


You can now go write your

first post. (We will want to

customize some things

further, though.)


Your post is live on the

web!

(Hmmm – might need to

revisit that template.)


Select Edit to make sure

the title and description

are accurate.


Blogger lets you publish

on a custom domain

name.

GROWING YOUR AUDIENCE

LET’S START WITH AUDIENCE

First and foremost, who are you writing this

blog for? If the answer is “myself” and you have

more than one RSS subscriber,

congratulations. You’ve done it. If the answer is,

“Anyone into _____,” like “anyone into tech,”

and you have more than 10 subscribers

congratulations. Be clear about the audience. If

I’m going to bother giving you some of my time,

I want something back.

YOUR CONTENT NEEDS TO BE WELL CHUNKED

First off, journalists know this, but I’ll tell you: start with the best stuff right up at the top. Don’t do it as a build-up.

Second, make it such that people can read it in chunks.

Make headings that break up the post.

Use bullets that break up the post.

Lead with a graphic.

Pull out a graphic or a pull quote to keep it looking better.

Break things up so that human eyes can read them easier. Dense posts and super long posts are a turn-off.

PROMOTE YOUR BLOG EFFECTIVELY

Create an RSS feed: feedburner.com

Make sure there’s a very prominently displayed link

for folks to subscribe to your RSS feed for your blog.

The bigger and more attention-drawing, the better.

Second, add an email subscription option to your

blog.

PROMOTE YOUR BLOG EFFECTIVELY

Add your blog URL to all social networks you’re

on! Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+,

Youtube, Flickr, and wherever else you can

bring awareness.

Create a facebook page, twitter account,

google+ page for your blog and maintain them!

Add it to your email signature and your

business cards.

BE PERSISTENT

Try new things. Stretch out the medium. Think

of new ways to ask the same old questions.

Decide on challenging approaches to blogging

in ways that powerfully reveal the information

your audience seeks from you. Persist in such

matters, never accepting that your work is

flawless, but instead analyzing your responses

and uptake or downturn in traffic, and giving

more effort accordingly.

HOW TO GENERATE BLOG POSTS?

HOW TO GENERATE BLOG TOPICS?

DEFINE THE GOALS OF YOUR BLOG

To be found on the Internet

To be read by peers and potential clients

To demonstrate your expertise

To maintain relationships with past clients

To turn clicks into deposit slips

HOW TO GENERATE BLOG TOPICS?

Anything and Everything

Start with an area of expertise

Hobbies/Interests

Customer stories

Personal triumphs

Controversial topics (if you’re comfortable)

Make it distinctly you, don’t plagiarize, don’t compare and don’t underestimate yourself

CONTENT IS KING

Write about what you want to be

known about

Brush up on your writing skills if you

need to

Keywords in your post title and story

Picture descriptions and title

Relevant tags and categories

Keep the blog fresh

GET INSPIRED

Subscribe to:

RSSPieces.com (A Years Worth Of Blogging

Ideas)

Daily Blog Tips Website (dailyblogtips.com)

Read local newspapers and comment

Read industry publications and comment

Read blogs from outside of the industry

TIPS FOR BLOGGING

TIPS FOR BLOGGING

Length

Don’t worry about length – write to fit the post

Images

Adding images always helps

Google Image Search (http://images.google.com)

Flickr (http://flickr.com) – pay attention to reuse rights

iStockPhoto – Many images are $1-2

Links, links, links

Link to others. The more you link to others, the more others will link to you

TIPS FOR BLOGGING

Socialize online by reading and commenting in

other blogs for online interaction and

networking purposes.

Join in offline blog events/get-together. Real-life

interaction is also important in blogging.

Be yourself. Don’t blog just to impress other

people.

TIPS FOR BLOGGING

Content is King. Link Building is the Queen.

Merge them together and you might earn good

money from your blog!

TIPS FOR BLOGGING

Join in writing projects and blog contests. You’ll

never know what’s in store for you!

Keep on learning and improving. Later on, your

efforts will be recognized.

QUESTIONS?