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With the way technology is evolving these days, it is no surprise
that people are worried about online fraud, identity theft, and the
misuse of their personal information. They need to be assured that
sensitive data will be protected when using technology, and this
applies to web surfing as well.
One of the easiest ways to fix this problem is the creating a
Privacy Policy. After all, most major websites have privacy policies,
so why shouldn’t blogs? This is especially true when many readers will
give you their e-mail address and other personal information to
interact with the website, whether it be by posting a comment or
signing up for an online newsletter or e-mail RSS feed.
Creating a privacy policy isn’t too difficult. The document should
be unique to your blog, but there are a number of issues that all
privacy policies should include:
1. Explicit that you won’t sell or give away any
user’s e-mail addresses. This is self-explanatory, people don’t want
their e-mail addresses to spread across the web, so don’t release
e-mail addresses.
2. Make sure to talk about how you may collect
information on the browsing habits of users and share this information
with advertisers. Also mention that your site may use cookies. Talk
about all types of information that you collect (e.g., browser,
operating system, IP address, country) and how this information is used.
3. Make sure that you say that you are NOT responsible for the privacy policies for any sites you link to.
4. Reserve the right to change the Privacy Policy at any time.
5. Make sure to provide some method of contact for
users concerned about your blog’s privacy policies, preferable inside
the Privacy Policy itself.
6. Make it easy to read and understand. If you throw in a lot of legal jargon, people won’t understand it and it will be useless.
7. Obviously, make sure to follow all outlines you set for yourself in the Privacy Policy.
Some points added by Daniel:
8. Depending on the content of your site you might
want to add that the use of your site is intended for people who are
eighteen (18) years or older (I am not talking about porn… but rather
language that might not be proper to kids, or business websites or
blogs where the user engage in financial transactions, for instance).
9. If you plan to contact people that access your
site for any reason, make sure to add a clause mentioning that. Some
bloggers contact people leaving comments on their blogs, for instance.
Every day, millions of bloggers post
content online. Millions more people read and comment on blogs. With
all that communication, some interesting legal issues are bound to
arise. This article looks at 10 major legal points that bloggers must
know and offers some suggestions about how to work with them.
1. Develop a “legal consciousness” about blogging.
Like any publications, blogs frequently create legal questions.
However, there is no need to fear those issues. Instead, being aware of
the possibility of such concerns will help you identify them and manage
them effectively. This article presents some of the most common legal
issues that arise.
As you read it, consider how those issues
apply to your blog. Also, it is good to develop the habit of looking
for legal questions as you post new content on your blog. Using the
major points in this article as a guide, you can ask yourself, “Are
there any potential legal problems here?” whenever you update your
blog. This simple practice will help you identify important legal
questions and resolve them before they have a chance to cause problems.
2. Read carefully and understand the agreements related to your blog.
Depending on how you host, manage, promote, and monetize your blog, the
exact agreements you enter will vary somewhat, but here are some common
agreements that will affect most bloggers:
Web and blog hosting agreements, including terms of service and acceptable use policies;
content-sharing agreements and licenses;
syndication agreements; and
affiliate, revenue-sharing, and advertising programs.
You
should assume that these agreements are valid, enforceable contracts
that you must follow. Of course, if you have questions about any
agreements or policies or their validity, you should consult with a
lawyer to learn about your rights and duties. However, it is reasonable
to expect that in most cases you will have to abide by these agreements
as you operate your blog, so it is worth your time to become familiar
with them.
3. Adopt basic legal policies for your blog.
Most blogs can benefit from a “terms of use” agreement. This policy
explains how visitors to your blog may use your site and its content.
It is the fundamental agreement between you and visitors to your site.
The particulars of terms of use agreements vary from one blog to
another, but some common provisions include disclaimers of warranties
on any of the content, limitation of the blog publisher’s liability,
restrictions about how the blog’s content can be used, netiquette
policies governing comments posted on the blog, and so forth.
A
privacy policy is also an important document for blogs today.
Participants in blog conversations are concerned about identity theft
and the security of their information. Establishing and following a
privacy policy for your blog assures visitors that their personal
information will be protected and encourages them to join the
discussions at your blog. Here at Daily Blog Tips, Aditya Mahesh
recently outlined the basic points that all good blog privacy policies have. Following those points will give you a great start on developing a privacy policy for your blog.
User-generated
content (UGC) is becoming an increasingly important source of potential
legal disputes. Content-sharing sites may be the most obvious example
of participatory media and UGC, but blogs allow users to generate
content in the form of comments. A useful policy for UGC will answer
the following questions:
who owns the content that users post?
how can the blog’s publisher use the UGC?
how can other users use the content?
do visitors to the blog have the right to change or remove their content?
how will you handle UGC that infringes upon another person’s intellectual property rights or is illegal?
how will disputes over UGC be resolved?
Please
note that the questions listed above are just starting points. A
complete UGC policy will answer those questions and several others that
apply to the particular kind of blog you publish.
4. Protect your copyright in your original work.
Unfortunately, a lot of blog content is being copied and used all over
the Web without the permission of the content’s creators. Preventing
copyright infringement and plagiarism can be difficult and costly, but
there are some simple things you can do to address the problem.
display a copyright notice conspicuously on each page of your blog;
register your copyright in your blog with the United States Copyright Office or the copyright registration authority in your country;
license your work to your blog’s visitors (Creative Commons offers a number of standard licenses that you can use, if you don’t want to create your own from scratch); and
learn more about the problem of online plagiarism by reading authoritative information, such as Daily Blog Tips’ “Blog Plagiarism Q & A” and Jonathan Bailey’s PlagiarismToday site.
5. Respect others’ content and do not infringe upon it.
You can avoid many disputes in the blogosphere if you respect others’
copyrights and trademarks. Here are a few tips to help you avoid
infringing on others’ intellectual property.
For copyrights:
assume all content, whether online or offline, is protected by copyright unless you are certain that it is in the public domain;
get written permission to use copyrighted content and store that writing in a safe place in case you need it later;
always acknowledge the source of content and, if the copyright owner requests a certain format for the attribution, use it;
be extremely careful about “fair use” of copyrighted works.
The legal factors that determine whether a given use of copyrighted
content is a “fair use” may look simple and obvious, but they can be
very difficult to apply in practice. If you are unsure about whether
your proposed use is a fair use, consult with a lawyer. Even if you are
sure that you are making fair use of a copyrighted work, you will still
be wise to do everything you reasonably can to obtain written
permission to use that work, to avoid the possibility of disputes later.
For trademarks:
show the trademark symbol (”®” for registered trademarks, and “TM” for common law trademarks) immediately after the trademark;
follow the trademark owner’s guidelines for using the mark in blogs and commentary (for an example of such guidelines, see the LEGO® Fair Play policy); and
do
not suggest that the trademark owner approves of your content, endorses
your site, or is affiliated with you. Instead, display a statement
prominently that says you are not affiliated with the trademark owner
and that the owner has not approved or endorsed your blog or its
content.
6. Before you post statements of fact, be sure those statements are true.
Obviously, very few bloggers will intentionally publish false
information. However, in the rush to cover topics quickly, ahead of
other bloggers and ahead of the mainstream media, bloggers face
increasing pressure to “get it first and get it right.” Unfortunately,
though, sometimes speed comes at the cost of accuracy. Sacrificing
accuracy can cause at least three big problems for the blogger.
First, someone may accuse the blogger of libel because he or she misstated the facts.
Second,
you and your blog will lose credibility. In the short term, lost
credibility may cost you readers and advertisers. In the longer term,
lost credibility may affect your ability to successfully publish other
blogs.
Third, if you are selling goods, services, or information
through your blog, misrepresenting certain facts can subject you to
liability for fraud and violation of applicable consumer protection
laws.
7. Consider special problems that can arise in the workplace.
Several
disputes have arisen between employers and employees over blogging.
Some bloggers have even lost their jobs. There are a few basic rules to
follow in the workplace to avoid problems.
If you are an
employee, don’t blog on your employer’s time or using your employer’s
computer systems or network, unless you have your employer’s explicit
written permission. Such practices are likely against the employer’s
rules and you probably don’t have any legal right to use the employer’s
equipment for personal blogging.
An exception to this general
rule occurs when you are writing content for an official company blog
that your employer sponsors. In that case, you have the employer’s
permission, but you should verify that your blog postings comply with
the company’s policies for online content. If you are not sure about
the applicability of your employer’s policy, ask your manager.
If
you are an employer, make sure your employees understand your company’s
policies about blogging. Your blogging policies should be in writing
and you should ask employees to sign a statement that says they have
read and understood the policy and agree to comply with it. As with any
other policies, you should enforce your blogging policies consistently
and fairly.
8. If you publish a collaborative or group
blog, make sure all the contributors know their rights and
responsibilities concerning the blog and its content. The more
people you have contributing content to a blog, the greater the
potential for disputes. To avoid conflict, it is useful to develop a
written agreement with the other bloggers that addresses, at a minimum,
the following points:
who owns the copyright to the individual blog posts?
who owns the copyright to the blog as a whole?
can individual bloggers republish their blog posts on other blogs or in other publications, whether online or offline?
under what circumstances may individual bloggers remove their blog posts from the group blog?
do
bloggers retain any interest in the blog’s content, including in their
individual contributions to it, after they leave the blog?
who is entitled to revenue that the blog generates?
who is responsible for paying the blog’s expenses?
how will disputes among bloggers be resolved?
how will the various affairs of the blog be concluded if the blog ceases publication?
9. Blog anonymously, if your identity, reputation, or personal safety are at risk.
In some cases, the only reasonable way to communicate your message–and
to make it likely that you will be able to continue blogging–is to blog
anonymously. While some countries, such as the United States of
America, guarantee a legal right to communicate anonymously, exercising
that right on the Internet is not necessarily easy because a blogger
may leave various clues about his or her identity at numerous points in
the blogging process. While a complete discussion of the technical
means to blog anonymously is beyond the scope of this article, here are
two resources that will help you navigate those technical issues.
10. Learn more about the basics of the laws that affect bloggers.
There is much more to the law of blogging than a brief article can
cover. Moreover, as blogging becomes more popular, blogging law is
developing rapidly. Therefore, learning about the legal issues of
blogging is an ongoing process.
Happily, there are several good
resources available to help you stay up to date on legal matters. One
source of information is bloggers’ conferences and conventions. Those
meetings often hold sessions or workshops that present the latest legal
developments that bloggers need to know. Additionally, there are
several online publications that explain the law in much greater detail
and provide a variety of examples to guide you through the legal maze.
Here are a few samples of those texts.
Bonus tip: Get periodic legal checkups of your blog.
Although
this article presents a do-it-yourself approach to identifying and
managing the major legal issues you are likely to face as a blogger,
you can also benefit by having a lawyer conduct a legal checkup of your
blog periodically, perhaps once each year. An increasing number of
lawyers now offer preventive services such as legal checkups and those
preventive reviews can help you identify and correct potential legal
problems with your blog and learn about some of the more recent
developments in the law that concern bloggers.
Many people already wrote about the rules of blog comments before. Most of them, however, focused on the so called blog comments etiquette.
That is, they told you how you should always add value to the
discussion, respect the other people, never feed the trolls, be genuine
and yada yada yada.
While that advice is solid, I feel that it lacks some practical sense.
There are other points that I see people doing almost daily when
leaving comments, and they can be equally annoying for the blog owner
and for the other readers and commentators. Below you will find them: 7
things to avoid while leaving a blog comment.
1. Using the bold or italic attributes to highlight your whole comment
Blog comments can send good traffic to your website, and if you manage
to catch people’s attention with your comments, this traffic might
increase. Now, attention should be grabbed with a funny or interesting
comment, and not by making your comment text bold or italicized.
Use bold only or specific words that you want to put in evidence, and italics on names and titles of books and similar.
2. Signing your comment
As you probably have already noticed, most comment forms ask for your
name on the first input box. That is, you already signed your comment
even before writing it, so there is no need to finish the comment with
your name a second time.
3. Including a second (or third) link to your website
The previous point applies to website links also. Most comment forms
allow you to include a URL that will be used to hyperlink your name. If
you include that URL at the end of your footer a second time it will
give the impression that you are just spamming the comment section for
some links.
4. Leaving a comment without reading the article first
Common sense you say? I wouldn’t bet on it. I have seen a huge amount
of comments, both on my and on other blogs, from people that had no
clue about the topic of the article in question.
Sometimes they knew what the article was about, but they interpreted the message from the author on a completely different way.
If you are going to leave a comment, make sure that you have read and understood the article to begin with.
5. Leaving a one-word comment
It might be the case that people leaving comments such as “Great!” or
“Thanks!” truly read the article and mean it. Regardless, those
comments will be considered as spam.
Just take the effort to come up with a complete sentence, will you?
6. Leaving a second trackback
If you link to another post on your blog, your blogging software will
send a notice to that blog, which will in turn create a link pointing
back to your post on the comments section. This is called a trackback.
Sometimes trackbacks will not work, and in this case you could leave a
comment mentioning that you wrote about the post in question. If the
trackback worked, however, you would be spamming that blog by leaving a
second comment with a link pointing to your article.
7. Leaving a comment as if you are the know-it-all guru on the subject
Whenever I come across a comment that begins with “This is just
stupid…” or “You are so wrong…” I already arm myself against potential
nonsense ahead.
If you disagree with the opinions of the author, express it politely.
Even if you are right about the issue you will be seen as a jerk if you
come with the I-know-it-all attitude.
Just take it easy.
Update: Obviously these are my opinions, so feel free to
disagree. And if you are guilty of one of these points, remember that
it is not a big deal. Just keep it in mind for future comments!
I’ve been blogging for around 4 years now and despite all the
changes we see in technology and software, the ‘rules’ to a successful
blog tend to have remained the same. Yet, while the rules haven’t
changed much, a lot of our traffic generation methods have. Gone are
the days where 50 votes would guarantee a Digg homepage or you could
place some technorati tags in your post and get thousands of visitors.
Each niche is getting more competitive by the day but it still
doesn’t mean you can’t stand out from the crowd. One of my favorite
new sites for creating relationships (hugely important)
and getting website traffic has actually turned out to be Twitter. For
the last few months, the micro-blogging has been in my top 5 referring
sites, sending thousands of visitors monthly.
In this post I want to look at six common rules which can help with
your blogging and also benefit the Twitter users of you out there who
want to drive more traffic back to your site. Please note that I use
the term ‘rules’ loosely, everyone has their own way of doing things
and there will always be exceptions but you’ll probably find that these
work well for you.
1. Provide Value
Let me ask you all a quick question: Why do you read Daily Blog
Tips? I can safely assume you’re a blogger, but what is different to
the hundreds of other blogging blogs out there? While answers to this
may differ, the underlying factor is that the site provides value to
you in one way or another and you don’t want to miss it. That is the
single most important reason anyone subscribes to a blog.
They get value, whether that value is in the form of humour or in
the form of how to make money, that’s what people want. Instead of
getting into blogging to think of how you can benefit (mindshare,
income etc) look at how you can benefit your readers. How can you make
someone laugh, how can you make someone more money or in the case of
this site: how can you help somebody become a better blogger?
If you offer constant value to your readers, you’ll give them an important reason to stick around.
Twitter Tip:
Instead of just linking to your website all the time, why not help
people out. Ask people who you can help them or even just inspire
people with some motivational quotes.
2. Don’t Flood Readers with Posts
I’ve ran a number of blogs, from ones that focus on internet
marketing, one that covers self improvement and for a while I even ran
a celebrity blog (which I quickly sold). What I’ve learned from this is
that certain types of blogs have a different level of posting
frequency. If I only wrote once per week on a celebrity gossip blog
then readers of the site are going to miss out on all the news.
However, if I run a site about personal development and write a
3,000 word post everyday, that’s going to be far too much for people to
digest, and I’ll probably end up repeating much of what I’ve already
said. Unless you run a news blog that needs to be updated multiple
times per day, try to find a nice posting schedule that you can keep
to. I tend to post around 3-4 times per week on my main sites.
Twitter Tip:
Overactive users tend to get unfollowed. This has been minimized by
tools like Tweetdeck, but if you are tweeting 10 x per minute (some
people really do this) then you are going to clog up the twitter
’stream’ and people will stop wanting your updates.
3. Take Part in the Conversation
This point is relatively obvious so I’ll get straight to the point.
Blogging is not just about you and it’s actually not even just about
your readers. It also includes the conversation that goes on between
your blog and others in the same industry. Read the blogs of others and
leave comments to let them know what you think of their sites.
Link out to others and you’ll find that people will start linking
out to you; you can even go as far as connecting with other blog
authors on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and stay connected that way.
Do not think that your industry is confined to your blog; there’s a
whole world out there.
Twitter Tip: Get to
know the people that follow you and follow the leaders in your
industry. I’ve made many friends this way that has led to Re-Tweets and
even backlinks from their websites.
4. Make Your Blog unique
There are a lot of things you can do to make your blog stand out:
Have a unique design
Write long, detailed posts in a niche that writers short informative ones
Implement an idea nobody else uses like the bloggers face-off or a list of top blogs
Bring in authority figures for interviews
Offer content in different formats such as audio and video
Give away a free eBook for more in-depth topics like this one I did on how to make friends
Despite new blogs being created every single day, it doesn’t mean
you can’t stand out from the crowd. Make sure you offer pure value
consistently with a splashing of the above and you can’t go far wrong.
Twitter Tip: Make
your profile stand out by adding an image and a creatively designed
profile. It looks far better than a generic offering and shows you
really care about getting involved.
5. Make it Easy for Readers to Connect
Quickly think of some of your favorite blogs that you read
regularly. DailyBlogTips? TechCruch? ProBlogger? Something that I find
in common with people and their favorite blogs is that they know a lot
about the author, and feel like they ‘know’ them a bit.
Do you make it easy for your readers to get to know you and connect?
Some easy ways to do this include having an informative about page,
using your name on posts and blog comments and even sharing your
personal stories at times in your blog posts.
Twitter Tip: A good
way to tell people about you on Twitter is to fill in your bio, but you
can also include a link and use this as a specific ‘twitter landing
page’ that quickly tells people about you and your website. This is
usually far better than just sending them to your homepage.
6. Make Content Easy to Read
There is nothing worse in my opinion than content that is just split
into huge chunks of text with no line breaks. Even a post like this
which is well over 1,000 words, is easily scannable due to the ‘list’
format and the bold headings.
Some tips on making your content easy to read include:
Spell-checking your posts before you publish them
Use bullet points where necessary
Create sub-headings for longer, in-depth posts
If you are doing a list post, separate the points with bold headings for people who scan / skim
Include paragraph breaks after every 3 or 4 sentences
Read the post yourself to see that it all flows properly
Twitter Tip:
Although nobody expects you to write perfectly with 140 characters. Try
to make sense and don’t shorten every single word, use multiple tweets
or direct messages where possible.
Let’s say that you have a few hours free and you want to dedicate it
to your blog. It’s not enough time to take on a major project such as
building a new theme or completely redoing your categories/tags (at
least not if you have a large site), but you want to do something to
make your blog better.
If you find yourself with that blessing, here are five things that
you can do right now to improve your blog, all of which take less than
an hour and some only take a few minutes.
Best of all, doing these things will, in most cases, have an
immediate or near-immediate impact on your site. Making it more
approachable with better content.
So here are some ways you can improve your site right now.
5. Tweak Your Theme
You might not have the time you need to overhaul your theme
completely, but what about tweaking it a bit? Why not see if you can improve your site’s typography, thus making your text easier to read? Maybe it’s time for a better logo?
Though, in a perfect world, the look of a site would not impact the
way it is read, appearance matters a great deal on the Web, especially
when it affects readability. Take a few moments to look at your site,
analyze what its weakest points are visually and address them.
Even if it is as simple as adding new RSS buttons, it can be a huge help.
4. Run a Site Speed Test
How fast does your site load? What’s slowing it down the most? If you don’t know, run a site speed analysis
and find out. Then all you have to do is eliminate whatever is slowing
you down and you should notice a drastic difference in your site’s
speed ,all without moving hosts or paying more money.
If you have files that are slowing you down but can’t remove them, consider hosting them on Amazon Cloudfront or Rackspace Cloud
to greatly increase their download speed cheaply. Also, be sure to
optimize images as needed to keep them from dragging your site down.
3. Tweak/Add Static Pages
Though most people read blogs for the day-to-day content, most
people become regular readers, at least in part, due to something
available on the static pages of your site.
If you check your traffic stats, you’ll likely find that your static
pages are among the most popular on your site but, since they aren’t
being constantly written, they fall out of date.
Take a few moments to update or add to your static pages. Write a
little bit about yourself, include a picture if you can to forge a more
human connection and add pages that compliment your regular blog
topics. It works great.
2. Add a Feature
Though adding features to your blogs recklessly can get you in
trouble, especially with your site’s speed and appearance, if you have
been wanting to add Twitter interaction or a new widget, now is a great
time.
Since WordPress and other blogging platforms make it so easy to add
plugins, widgets and other elements, if you want to try out a new tool
or service, you can do so with relative ease and safety. However, be
sure to closely monitor how it affects your site and ensure that it
does more good than harm.
1. Brainstorm
Though brainstorming isn’t as immediate with its gratification, it
is something you will see benefit from tomorrow and for a long time
moving forward.
The problem is that, if you’ve been blogging long enough, idea
generation and blog post writing are likely part of the same process.
If you don’t constantly have ideas ready when you wake up in the
morning, you spend time coming up with ideas that should have gone to
writing and crafting the perfect post.
If you brainstorm in advance, you’ll find that your posts are much
higher quality. They are better thought out, have much tighter writing
and tend to wonder off course less. If you post every weekday and you
take an hour now to come up with 15 good ideas, you’ll have three weeks
of high-quality posts in your future.
What can improve your site more than that?
Bottom Line
When it comes to making your site better, it doesn’t take a lot of
time, just a lot of heart and willingness to sacrifice a few moments to
spend on things that are not directly related to blogging.
Best of all, these are just some of the things you can do to make
your site better. There are plenty of other things that you can improve
on the quick. You just have to belling to look around.
Blogging
is web writing for a personal, informational or commercial purpose.
Some people
use blogs just to keep an online diary, but many are
starting to use them to to sell products and report information.
Whatever your purpose, if you want your blog to be seen by the masses
and/or earn money, here are some easy-to-follow steps on how to blow
out your blog.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
is important so that people searching the web for various subjects
(that you write about) can find your blog. It's very desirable to have
your blog rank on the first page of Google and other search engines.
How to Find the Best Keywords
You need to find effective keywords for your blog. The best tools to find strong keywords are Wordtracker and Trellian's Keyword Discovery Tool. Keyword DiscoveryThey both require payment in order to use their services, but you can
use their trial versions to see if you like them. Free online services
for keywords include Google Adwords Keyword tool and the SEO keyword suggestion tool. SEO Book: Keyword Suggestion To Another great tool for free keywords is Google Trends, which gives you the top 100 keywords being searched for at any time. Google Trends: Homepag
Where to Place the Keywords
Once
you have determined which keywords are most applicable to your blog,
the next step is placing the keywords in the correct areas of your
blog. Most SEO experts agree that the following areas of keyword
placement are important Google search engine ranking factors.SEOmoz: Google Search Engine Ranking Factors
The title line (at the very top of the browser):
Keywords in the body text:
Anchor text of inbound link:
Page URL (web address):
In addition to the upper part of the web site, you want to place keywords in the following areas of your blog:
One final word about keywords, always try to go for specific phrases, not general terms.
For example, don't use the word "lawyer" as a keyword, be more
specific, like "personal bankruptcy lawyer Seattle." The word "lawyer"
could be a search term for a 16 year-old doing a paper for high school
or an old lady looking for a TV show with lawyers.SEO Book.com: Keyword Value Pyramid
However,
someone searching for "personal bankruptcy lawyer Seattle" has a very
specific need, they are looking for a personal bankruptcy lawyer in
Seattle. Keep this in mind when you read about how to make money with
your blog.
Step 2: Make Money with your Blog
If
you want to earn money from your blog, there are some powerful ad
programs that you can place in your blog to create income. Some ad
programs pay you per click of the ad, while others pay when a user
clicks through an ad on your blog and makes a purchase.
Similar to Google Adsense, Yahoo! offers an ad program called the Yahoo! Publisher Network which also displays ads that are relevant to your blog's content.Google Adsense: HomepageYahoo! Publisher Network: Homepa Like Google Adsense, you earn money when visitors on your blog click on the ads.
The same principles of ad placement and blending mentioned above also
apply. However, you cannot use both of these programs on the same blog
posting per their terms of service.
Text Link Ads is an increasingly popular affiliate program that provides text ads for various companies and their products.Text Link Ads: HomepageText Link Ads sends you the HTML code for various ads, but you place only the ones that you want on your blog.Text Link Ads: Homepage
Once
your blog is optimized and your ads are up, you need to bring traffic
(visitors) to your blog. A great way to do this is by posting your blog on community web blogs and bookmarking sites; these are online town halls where people read and post stories. This is also called "social networking."Pro Blogger:
After joining a community web blog(s), the next step is to post an enticing headline (also known as "link baiting")
about your blog's topic. This headline may also include a short
synopsis and should always include a link back to your blog. For
examples of good headlines/link bait, go to Popurls where the most popular posts from the most popular web communities are updated.
If people click on that headline/link, it will take them to the full article on San Vicente Media.San Vicente Media: Blog
Whether
you use text ads, banner ads or a combination of both, it's important
to try to match your ads with the content on your blog posts. Also, always place at least one ad "above the fold" which is the part of the computer screen that appears when you first log onto the web site.Performancing.com: Above vs below the fold ad pricing
More Places to Link and Plug Your Blog
News Aggregator Sites
Submit
your blog posts to news aggregator sites where a real live person will
decide whether or not your blog post should be published. Some of the
top news aggregator sites include: Truemors, Fark and Tailrank.Truemors: Homepage If your blog post is published, it could drive quite a bit of traffic to your site.
Join a popular website community such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can create links to your blog in these heavily traveled communities.MySpace: Homepage
Press Releases
Write a press release
about your blog. A press release alerts journalists about an
interesting story; if they decide to write an article about your blog
posting, that could drive in a lot of traffic.
Now that you have traffic coming to your blog (hopefully), you want to keep your audience coming back by doing several things.
Update and Bookmark
Add
new content frequently. If you don't, people may assume it's a dead
blog and stop logging on. Remember, the web has a huge appetite for new
content. You want to update 2-3 times a week, unless you're running a
news blog, which would be daily.
The easiest way is by installing ShareThis and/or Social Marker to your blog.ShareThis: Homepage These features allow users to bookmark your blog on popular community web logs such as Digg.Digg: Homepage
Finally, a powerful option for your blog is the "Subscribe to Comments" feature.ProBlogger: 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky
Some blogging platforms have this feature built in, while others
require you to add it via a plug-in. Every time there is a new comment
in the chosen blog post, the subscriber receives an email and a link
back to that blog post.
Step 5: Add Widgets to Your Blog
A widget is gadget for the web. By adding widgets to your blog, you can bring fresh content (created by others) to your blog for visitors to read. Most widgets reside in the left or right column/margin of your blog, depending on your blog platform.The Chitika Blog Archive: Blogs and Widgets By BUMPzee
Are
any of the aforementioned steps working? To find out, check your blog's
traffic info. Most blog platforms come with some type of basic traffic
measuring feature, but to get more specific info on your traffic,
consider these programs below.
Popular Analytical Traffic Tools
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service primarily used for web sites, but you can use it for your blog as well.Google: Analytics It tells you how many visitors came to your blog, how they were referred, each blog post visited, etc.
Yahoo! Web Analytics
Google's prime competition is Yahoo! Web Analytics, a pay service, primarily used by e-businesses.Yahoo!: FAQs
This high-end tracking system tool uses "first cookie technology" to
track visitors, returning visitors in real time. This service is for
bloggers who are seriously trying to make money from their blog.
If you're looking for a free traffic analytic service from Yahoo!, then try MyBlogLog, which gives you blog visitor stats and has its own community (great for plugging your blog!).MyBlogLog: Homepage
PostRank
PostRank is a free online tool that analyzes your blog posts and ranks them by the number of comments and bookmarks.PostRank: What it is
You can quickly see which types of posts your readers respond to and
which ones they do not. This is a great way to see what types of blog
posts are generating buzz!
Note: Most of these analytical tools work the same way. They
provide you with an HTML tracking code that is placed on each blog post
that you wish to track.Open Web Analytics: Homepage
Video blogging is nothing new — after all, video has existed on the web long before YouTube.
But video equipment is now cheaper, post production software more
accessible, and online platforms on which to distribute video — such as
YouTube — are easier to use than ever before. Still, only some of the
many people posting videos regard themselves as video bloggers.
Even though the notion of video blogging itself isn’t new, the actual
endeavor is still novel to many people. This guide will explore
concepts behind video blogging and the tools for creating and
distributing that content.
Video Blogging is Still in its Infancy
Robb Montgomery, CEO of a public charity that promotes journalism education called Visual Editors,
said in an email interview that web video consumption overall is a
booming phenomenon but maintains that we are still at the beginning of
an emerging art form and story form with video blogging and it may be
too early to generalize about long-term effects.
It may seem surprising that video blogging hasn’t take off considering
how cheap the equipment has become and how easy it is to shoot, edit
and post video online. According to Adam Singer’s Future Buzz blog,
some reasons it hasn’t include: it’s time consuming to produce
compelling video, video is not searchable, and pros still have an
advantage.
But the demand is there. In August, more than 161 million viewers
watched an average of 157 videos per viewer, according to data from the
comScore Video Metrix service.
A whopping 81.6 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed
online video and the average online video viewer saw 9.7 hours of video
in August.
Video viewing doesn’t show signs of slowing, but what about video blogging?
Web Video Puts People on Equal Footing
Video on the
Internet does two things — it puts people on equal footing versus the
top-down communication of broadcast media and it allows for direct
talkback from the audience.
Michael Rosenblum, CEO of Rosenblumtv,
said in an email interview, that the only reason people used to
differentiate between average person and journalist is that access to
the equipment and the ability to publish was just too complicated and
too expensive. He said that went away with the web, which gave anyone
the ability to write or publish whatever they wanted.
“Now that freedom comes to video — as the cost of cameras goes to next
to nothing and the web carries video with the same fluidity that it
carries text,” he said. “What we are looking at here is the true
democratization of video — a real ‘free press.’ This, I think, is a
very positive thing.
“The move to video blogging, just getting started, is to my mind the
same as the move to writing books post-Gutenberg. It took the printing
press to liberate writing from the few literate monks; now the web will
liberate video from the few ‘video literate’ TV types,” said Rosenblum,
who just launched an online video training site called the New York Video School.
What Makes a Good Video Blog
With lower costs for
equipment and software, anyone with a video camera phone could become a
video blogger. Technical barriers to video production are getting
lower, but the big question is, what makes a good video blog?
Ryanne Hodson, a video blogger, editor, and trainer who, with co-founder Michael Verdi, launched Freevlog.org
in 2005, said the number one tip for video bloggers is to be passionate
and to cover topics they care about. She and Verdi, along with Diane
Weynand and Shirley Craig, wrote the book Secrets of Videoblogging.
“Be excited about something and go out and capture it,” she said. “If
you have something to say and you want to share it, you have a venue.”
Montgomery said that most web video needs to get to the point right
away. “Hit them with your best sound bite and start your story arc
there to pull them in. People make a go or no-go decision usually
within the first 10 seconds. Once you have them, standardizing on story
length becomes less important. The key is to know how to keep the story
moving at a good pace,” he said.
The length of video clips can vary depending on the style of the video created, but always keep your audience in mind.
“We live in a world of rather short attention spans. We find that two
minutes or so is the ’sweet spot’. The whole notion of hours is kind of
an abstraction. Think of music. Most songs are three minutes long and
that works great, and delivers a great story and experience for the
listener,” Rosenblum said.
Josh Leo, who has been video blogging
since 2005 and has four vlogs, said good videos are a mixture of the
basics of good production: editing, good, clear shots, and good
lighting. Beyond that, he adds, it’s an incorporation of one’s
personality. “You can create a copycat video, but you’re contributing
to the noise,” he said. “It’s not about the quantity, but the quality.”
Leo tries to post a video every other week. He said he learned to
improve his videos through trial and error — posting, watching them,
and posting again. “The important thing is to post something and learn
as you go,” Leo said.
Creating a Video Blog
Montgomery said choosing a video
camera depends upon your beat, style, audience and frequency of
posting. “I have seen people be effective with a mobile cam or laptop
camera. At the other end of the spectrum are solo video journalists who
have the chance to make high-quality stories from the field with small
cameras like the Sony A1U and about an equal dollar investment in
microphones and Final Cut,” he said.
The software Montgomery recommends is a mixture of low-cost and
professional applications: Final Cut Studio, GarageBand, iPhoto,
Fission, and Audio Hijack Pro for editing and audio.
Leo said that during his first three years of video blogging, he used a
Sony Handycam for shooting and iMovie for editing. He now uses Final
Cut Pro, an HD camcorder, and an iMac.
Hodson said she likes the Flip cam and Sanyo’s Xacti HD cams. She said
Mac users can use iMovie and PC users can use Windows Movie Maker, and
a step up from those are Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere Elements.
Rosenblum said Flip cams and the JVC HM100u are great, and noted that
shooting in HD is important for certain types of video blogs. “HD is
necessary if you want to sell the content for broadcast, and the market
for that is expanding all the time. So if you are going to buy a
camera, I strongly suggest HDV,” Rosenblum said. He said he loves Final
Cut Pro because it’s simple and accessible, and users can start editing
from the first moment.
But it’s not just about the video — audio also matters, according to
Montgomery. “It is far wiser to invest in microphones and recorders
that capture high-definition sound than it is to go for a camera with
high-definition pictures and a small lens,” he said.
In the end, though, video blogging is exploding because the barriers to
entry are so low. “The bottom line is, if you want to get into video
blogging it is remarkably simple and very, very inexpensive,” Rosenblum
said.
Distributing a Video Blog
Hodson posts her videos on YouTube, Blip.tv, Archive.org and embeds clips on her blog. She also likes using Flickr for video and photos because she can email them from her iPhone 3Gs, then Flickr sends a link out to Twitter. But, she stresses, no matter where you post your videos, you should add your video clips on your own web site or blog as well.
Rosenblum said he loves YouTube because it is simple and so easy to embed, and that quality of Vimeo and Blip.tv is great and fast, while Montgomery said he uses Vimeo for its quality and YouTube for its search.
“It really helps if you engage with your audience in social media. I got 9,000 YouTube views in one day for my ‘Obama in Cairo’
report (second only to Al Jazeera) because I used Twitter, keywords and
other social media to promote the publication at the right moment and
in the right social space,” he said.
Leo posts his clips to Vimeo, YouTube, Facebookand
his blog sites. He points out that people are loyal to their video
providers, so uploading to multiple sites is smart. “It’s just giving
people the opportunity to choose how they want to view your video,” he
said. “Not everyone uses an RSS feed. Find who your audience is and
post it to where they are.”
Video Blogging Tips from Robb Montgomery:
- Only avoid using a tripod when it is impractical
- Be yourself
- Avoid trying to copy TV news formulas
- Film exciting and visually interesting B-roll
- Audio matters for brand identity
Many people think that Blogger lacks in all of the extra goodies you can add to other platforms like WordPress,
but it simply isn’t true. By using widgets you can customize your blog
as much as you like by just adding little snippets of code to the
sidebars.
Allow users to talk to you via IM, see what your most popular posts
are, or even read news from sites such as Mashable. With these 25
widgets, you can create an even more powerful way of communicating with
your visitors, just make sure you don’t overload them with too many!
Google Talk – Give visitors the ability to talk to you via Google Talk directly from your blog sidebar. Jaxtr – Create a widget that allows people to call you on the phone without revealing the phone number to them. Meebo Me – Meebo
Me will allow you to create a chat box that you can install on your
Blogger page, giving you the chance to converse with visitors to your
site. Skype ()
– The official Skype widget allows you to create various buttons that
can show your current status and also allows people to just click it
and give you a call. Tag-Board – Allows you to add a real-time chat board to your blog that your visitors and you can use to converse.
Delicious Linkrolls – Share your Delicious () bookmarks with the world with this easy to install linkroll widget. FriendFeed Widget – Share all of your FriendFeed () activity with the readers of your site. Google Friend Connect ()
– A makeshift social network that runs across any site that has
installed Google Friend Connect. You can join a site, see the other
members, play games and more. LinkedInABox – LinkedInABox retrieves your LinkedIn () profile to display on your blog, allowing people to look through things such as your specialties and experience. MyBlogLog – If
someone visits your blog that is also a member of MyBlogLog, their
avatar and username will appear in the box. You can then click on any
person to check out their profile on the service. Twitter ()
– Add your Twitter stream to your blog and display anywhere from your
last tweet to the last twenty. Also gives a link for people to be able
to follow you. Share on Facebook – A simple widget that allows your readers to share items from your blog on Facebook (). SocialFeed – A miniature lifestreaming widget that broadcasts your activities on sites such as Twitter, StumbleUpon (), Last.fm and so on. Has several different skins you can choose from.
Add This – The popular social bookmarking button is available for Blogger accounts. Easy Comments
– This widget allows you to add commenting to any page of your site by
placing the widget at the bottom of a page. Allows people to say if
they liked the comment, includes comment threading and more. Google Search () – Add an AJAX powered Google ()
search box to your blog that you can allow to search the web and your
blog, or even just restrict it to the contents of your site. Popular Posts
– This widget will take a look at your comments, up to the last 5,000,
and generate a list of which posts had the most conversation around
them. Recent Comments – Display the most recent comments on your blog in this widget so that readers can join in the conversation. Related Posts – Not so much a widget as a hack, this will give you the related post functionality that so many WordPress () powered blogs use. ShareThis
– The highly customizable green button that ShareThis is known for can
be added to your blog. Choose if you want it for social bookmarking,
users emailing your posts and more. Shout List Icons
– Be the king (or queen) of social sharing with this widget that
generates icons for over 30 social sites your blog can be added to. Tag/Label Cloud – Gives you the ability to install a traditional tag cloud in your sidebar so people can see what you write about the most.
Flickr () – You can generate an HTML or Flash based badge of your photo stream to share your images with your visitors. Mashable () – Yes, now you too can share the best web-related news on your blog with the Mashable widget. Picasa Albums – Display your public Picasa albums in your blog sidebar with this handy widget.
