Reading in the dark - A Brief Guide to Blogging
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A Brief Guide to Blogging
This is my presentation on getting started with blogging submitted for Week 8 of an online course titled "Online Networking as a Job Search Tool" being taught through
eSight Careers Network
http://www.esight.org/
a job resource and networking site for blind and visually impaired job seekers.
This guide covers three basic subjects:
1. Location, location, location: 3 tips for picking a blogging site that works for you
2. Branding: 3 things to think about in developing the style and content of your blog
3. Writing: 3 tips to improving blog readability.
1. Location, location, location: 3 tips for picking a blogging site that works for you.
* Look for conversations you want to participate in. Blogs are not merely one-way communications in which the blogger tells the world about herself and her work: they are part of larger online communities which maintain a range of continuing conversations concerning shared passions and interests.
In selecting a site to host your own blog, locate a blog site which includes blogs that focus on subjects about which you feel passionate.
If none of the blogs we have looked at so far in class really grab you, try doing some searches on
Google's blog search engine
http://blogsearch.google.com/ .
Don't be afraid to start a blog and move on when you find a site or subject more suited to you. I started out blogging through the Salon.com blog network, but I got lured over to LiveJournal.com by friends I knew in "real life," (sometimes called "meatspace"). It turned out, however, that LiveJournal suited my interests much better, because it had a high concentration of users writing about subjects I felt enthusiastic about: science fiction, disability, writing, and books.
* once you have chosen your blog site and created your own blog, begin to link to those other blogs you enjoy and participate in. Like Google ranking, blog ranking reflects a blog's visibility, and this is measured in the number of other blogs which link to yours.
This ability to link to other blogs is one of the features you should consider in your choice of a blog site. One of the features which makes LiveJournal so appealing to blind users is that it is very easy to link to other blogs on LiveJournal by adding the other LiveJournal user as a "friend." Once you have "friended" another LJ user, that person's posts show up on a friends page which is a very easy to read Web page. Additionally, you can add feeds from blogs outside of LiveJournal which also show up on this friends page. Other blog sites such as Blogger use "blogroles" which show links on your own blog to other blogs you read.
* Exploit the potential of ego surfing. Ego surfing is the act of going to Google or some other search engine and entering your own name to see what people are saying about you online. While this may seem like a rather egocentric exercise, it is actually a legitimate way of finding out what people are saying about a book, an event , or a social issue. Many people in the blogosphere (as the online world of blogs is collectively referred to) use ego surfing to track public opinion. This is a good reason to identify the movers and shakers in your particular niche and link to their blogs or Web sites, refer to them by name, review their books, report on events at which you have heard them speak. You are not only emphasizing those names and terms for which people are most likely to be conducting Web searches, but you are demonstrating your familiarity with the leading names and most important issues. Note how this intersects with the course topic for Week 9: Developing a plan to market yourself to key contacts and potential employers.
Note for computer users with assistive technology: Make sure the blog site you choose is accessible. This means it should be quick and easy to write and post. If the process of blogging takes too much time, you probably won't be blogging much. Two sites which are user-friendly for blind users are LiveJournal and WordPress, and I think Blogger has improved a lot in regard to accessibility over the past couple of years.
2. Branding: 3 things to think about in developing the style and content of your blog
* Think about the subjects you want to talk about and how you can use a blog to bring your particular knowledge and expertise to the subject. Don't underestimate the possibility of carving out new territory by combining a couple of your interests such as
law and the Internet
http://jimcalloway.typepad.com/lawpracticetips/
or
reading and cooking
http://www.readthemandeat.com/ .
Combining your professional and personal interests increases the likelihood that your blog will show off your unique set of skills. How about combining legal expertise with a love of reading to create a blog on books about lawyers (consider the opportunity such a blog offers for showing off your legal knowledge and experience). Most of all, you want your blog to be unique and offer value.
Another way to find your focus is to start thinking about a name for your blog, the shorter and more specific the better. This will not only make your blog easy to remember, it will make it easier for potential readers to locate through search eingines such as Google.
Your particular focus probably won't emerge all at once.
As my article on disability and blogging
http://kestrell.livejournal.com/333571.html
illustrates, the focus and tone of my blog changed over a long period of time (four years).
* Think about what tone you want to use: humorous, snarky, playful? Your tone should fit you like a good pair of walking shoes: if it doesn't feel natural, you won't get far.
* Think about your target audience. Are they lawyers? wildlife activists? bookworms?
Get to know the people you want to have conversations with, and talk with them, not at them. Recall one of our Week 2 readings
Aristotle’s Top 3 Tips for Effective Blogging
http://www.copyblogger.com/blogging-tips/
which gave the advice, "It’s Not About You." This advice made me think of some of my favorite teachers, who always seemed to teach by inviting other people to participate, rather than the sort of teacher who spent the entire class lecturing from notes that made the subject seem written in stone and handed down on tablets.
3. Writing: 3 tips to improving blog readability.
* Keep your blog writing focused and on topic for the subjects you want to concentrate upon.
This may be a good time to review some of the readings from weeks 1 and 2 such as
Amy Gahran's series about The 7 Basic Posting Formats"
http://blog.contentious.com/archives/200409/22/blogging-style-the-basic-posting-formats-series-index
and
The Seven Qualities of Highly Successful Web Writing
http://www.esight.org/View.cfm?x=132 .
Note that writing for blogs emphasizes the three consistent characteristics (or "three C's")of all effective writing: clarity, conciseness, and coherence.
The Online Journalism Review, which is sponsored by the Annenberg Center for Communication at USC, recently posted this article online
the way to effective news article design
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070312ruel/
which repeats much of the writing advice we have already learned from our course readings. In addition, it has specific advice such as the fact that shorter sentences with more paragraph breaks will improve readability. Note that such shorter paragraphs resemble the way we speak naturally in conversation.
* Keep your headlines short and specific.
There are two benefits to short specific headlines: 1. they tell your audience what the post is about, which improves their readability, and 2. it improves the query results when people search for relevant blog posts through a search engine, thus making your blog easier to locate.
* Write in a conversational style that invites your audience to become lured in.
Like any other good conversationalist, a good blogger invites her audience to participate by including them in the discussion. Post about news items or events that resonate with your own interests, and add something of your own by making a statement or posing a question.
Making your audience feel included involves a couple of complex and sometimes seemingly contradictory skills in that you don't want the conversation to be all about you, but you also want to make sure that you sound like you know what you are talking about. To address the former, try to get beyond using the word I to begin sentences. This is where writing instructors get their obsession with the first-person point of view; unlike them, I don't think it should be entirely eliminated--a blog would be boring without the first-person point of view--but it shouldn't begin every sentence either. To address the issue of sounding confident in your expertise, try to edit out waffling phrases like "I think" or "it seems to me," which not only add unnecessary words but also detract from your claim to be qualified to make informed statements on your chosen subject.
* A final note: Don't get discouraged if other people do not begin immediately responding to your blog posts. Just like other kinds of communities, online relationships take time. We all start out as lurkers and observers; once we are comfortable we venture to participate and try it out, then we aspire to honing the skill, and over time we become experts.
For more information about blogs including terminology, blog types, and legal advice for bloggers refer to
The Wikipedia article on blogs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
Current Location: aerye
Current Music: www.wumb.org
Tags: blogs, classes, how to start a blog, writing
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| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | March 23rd, 2007 10:24 am (UTC) |
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| | A Brief Guide to Blogging | (Link) |
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Thanks for this article. I am a blind person who has been looking around at starting my own blog For posting news & traffic related information here in the Chattanooga Tennessee area. Lots of good tips and tricks for me to consider. Any other information that you could give would be greatly apprishated.
Sean Paul
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | April 4th, 2007 10:48 am (UTC) |
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| | Re: A Brief Guide to Blogging | (Link) |
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Hi,
I just want to say i liked your article it was very helpful! It covered lots of areas and was to the point. thanks!
Cheers!
~Darkle Dagbar
http://darkledagbar.blogspot.com/ |
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