How To Blog

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How To Blog
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Why Blog?

• Cultivate a community with readers to test ideas
• Receive early and direct feedback
• Publish in the timeliest manner possible.
• Ability to publish outside the traditional news
  cycle and story format
• Deeper relationship with readers and leverage
  wisdom of crowds
• Link to other stories that are part of the
  ongoing, virtual conversation
• The blog entry seemed better than the newspaper
  story. It wasnt much longer, maybe by 300 to 400
  words, but those extra words contained some good
  quotes, some stylistic segues, and a little more
  color. It was, without a doubt, a better read.
  Unencumbered by the need to squeeze words into a
  finite space, the Internet proved better for me,
  as the writer, and Id argue for readers, too,
  than newsprint. Kevin Cullen, Boston Globe

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Whats a blog?

• A frequently updated online journal, written in a
  conversational style, with entries displayed in
  reverse chronological order (most recent stuff on
  top).
• Links to other news and information found on the
  Web complemented with analysis from the blogger
  (or bloggers).
• A comments link that allows readers to post their
  own thoughts on what the blogger is writing
  about. Not all blogs allow comments, but most do.
  
• Easy to publish. Web sites in the 1990s required
  some technical knowledge and were often flashy,
  but limited in content

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Terminology

• Post
• Permalink
• Trackback
• Blogroll
• Linkblog
• Vlog
• Moblog

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Mechanics

• Think email
• Link, summarize, analyze
• Be specific with headlines
• Be the authority, with personality
• Be short with posts
• Post at least once a day
• Leverage readers via comments
• Use photos, screenshots, video
• Love your blog

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Some Popular Blogs

• Technorati.com - blogroll
• Daily Kos
• Wonkette
• Engadget
• Boing Boing
• Huffington Post
• Mashable

• Gawker
• Perez Hilton
• Creating Passionate Users - Kathy Sierra
• A List Apart
• Dooce
• Kotke
• Teaching Online Journalism
• Austinist
• Angela Grant, Multimedia Journalist

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Media Blogs

• NY Times
• Washington Post
• Chicago Tribune
• USA Today
• Katie Couric

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Pew Center Study, 2006

• Blogging is bringing new voices to the online
  world.
• Telephone surveys capture the most accurate
  snapshot possible of a small and moving target.
• Contrary to the impression created by the press
  attention on political blogging, just 11 of
  bloggers say they focus mainly on government or
  politics.
• The blogging population is young, evenly split
  between women and men, and racially diverse.
• Relatively small groups of bloggers view blogging
  as a public endeavor.
• The main reasons for keeping a blog are creative
  expression and sharing personal experiences.

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Pew Center Study, 2006

• Only one-third of bloggers see blogging as a form
  of journalism. Yet many check facts and cite
  original sources.
• Bloggers are avid consumers and creators of
  online content. They are also heavy users of the
  internet in general.
• Bloggers are major consumers of political news
  and about half prefer sources without a
  particular political viewpoint.
• Bloggers often utilize community and
  readership-enhancing features available on their
  blogs.

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Media Post, August 2007

• Eight out of 10 Americans know what "blog" means,
  and almost half have visited the
  blogosphere--some as often as daily.
• Nearly 90 of 25- to-34-year-olds know what a
  blog is, compared to 64.5 of those age 65-plus.
  Similarly, 78.4 of 18- to-24-year-olds report
  they have visited a blog, compared to just 44.7
  of older Americans.
• Technorati reports there are 99.9 million blogs
• 87 of the people who read blogs said they don't
  spend less time with other media now that they're
  reading blogs. Of the 13.3 who do say they have
  ditched old media habits, newspapers, television
  and magazines have taken the biggest hits.
• 99 of gross online ad revenue is spent on the
  top 10 Internet sites.
• Nearly 14 of men versus 20 of women have blogs