Category: Writing Online

1-So as I'm writing this, I'm at my apartment building in Chicago. It's hazy outside and the Chicago White Sox are playing like crap, which really bugs me. Anyway, I'm hungry for dinner but I've got to write this blog post first.

2-Also my feet hurt. Do you ever wonder if there really is such a thing as an attractive yet comfortable sandal? I do.

3-So anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. I think I'm having cucumber salad for dinner.

4-The salad is made with a seeded cucumber, a sliced red onion, some unsalted peanuts and white balsamic vinegar (which I didn't know existed until recently.) I also like to add salt (because I like salt too much) and a little red pepper.

continued...

Amateur bloggers: sick of toiling your minutes away, updating your blog because you're under the impression that nobody wants to read a blog that nobody posts on? Apparently that's bull. "Daily posts are a legacy of a Web 1.0 mindset and early Web 2.0 days (meaning 12 months ago!). The pressure around posting frequency will ultimately become a significant barrier to the maturity of blogging. Here are 10 reasons why." (from MarketingProfs)

My current provider for my other site is old and rickety, like an about-to-collapse porch swing that somebody is too lazy to take down. I should switch to a fancy new provider, one that automatically provides XML coding for those who want to subscribe to my feed. I haven't, though, because switching seems like too much of a pain. Dina Giolitto at Absolute Write, though, takes away all my excuses by giving me some tips on how to do it with relative ease.

Do you maintain or thinking about starting a blog in order to spotlight yourself and your clips?

The Tlog presents tons of blogging tips, like how to promote yourself, how to choose a good name and how to keep your visitors coming back.

Meanwhile, it may be more about quality than quantity (never heard that one before), says Eric Kintz at Marketing Profs. So don't throw a lot of garbage up on your site just in hopes that more posts=more readers.

I'm not sure how blogging for journalists would be different than blogging for non-journalists. I guess that journo bloggers are expected not to make up spectacular lies, unfairly malign people, steal artwork, swear or be biased. That's probably why nobody wants to read journalist blogs. Anyway, for those of you who want to do both, Sree's newish Blogging for Journalists blog.

I don't suppose the Jonathan Bailey, proprietor of PlagiarismToday would find it funny if I reproduced his entire post below. Anyway, most blogs can't survive without content referenced from other sites. However, there is a fine legal line between referencing and ripping off:

In lieu of a hard and fast rule, much like the fair use provision itself, we begin to seek out a framework for determining if a reuse is ethical or not. This framework would contain the following elements, many of which are found in the standard fair use provision:

1. The amount of reused content compared to the amount of original content.

2. The amount of reused content in relation to the original work.

3. The frequency with which large blocks of text are used.

4. What is gained by the original author.

5. Whether permission was granted in advance, either through a CC license or direct permission.

6. Whether attribution was provided or not.

7. Other indications as to the intent of the one reusing the work, including excessive advertisements, links to one’s own sites and other forms of profiteering or over the top promotion.

Read on if you are interested in copyright law or just have a blog and want to make sure you're walking the line.

Ha ha, silly. There's no such thing as a 'successful' blogger. Every time one is born it quits to go write a book.

But there are successful blogs. Melly at All Kinds of Writing discusses elements--consistency, shyness, laziness, drafts, aesthetics, written language, fresh ideas, vision, absense and diversity--that can make or break a blog.

More on this discussion over at ProBlogger (actually, where the topic originated.)

Richard Hoy at Writers Weekly provides some generous advice on marketing online: I think that this is good for those of you who have a website and would like to get it more attention. However, unless you're Nick Denton, you need to build a web presence, so don't think to yourself, "If I make a website and follow these rules, I'll have clients beating down the door!"

There are really three "core truths" about marketing on the Internet.

1.) The Internet is basically a collection of niches. Just about any subject you can think of has a group of followers. Identifying where those followers hang out online is the first step in any online marketing campaign.

2.) Be a good, honest source of information for the audience you are trying to attract. That garners people's respect online. You should not give a slick sales pitch about how great you and your product/service are. People hate that. And it is dishonest because nobody can guarantee to solve everyone's problems.

3.) Never force yourself on anyone. Treat all interaction just like if you were meeting someone in the real world. You wouldn't start randomly pulling strangers off the street and pitching yourself to them, would you? Likewise, you shouldn't do that online either.

More here.

Serious about making your website seriously reader friendly? USA Today had some revelations about how readers read online, including "Individuals read Web pages in an "F" pattern. They're more inclined to read longer sentences at the top of a page and less and less as they scroll down. That makes the first two words of a sentence very important." So don't bury those leads!

Meanwhile, if the only thing you love more than blogging is making fun of blogs, enjoy this brief, uh, thing about blogging. If you truly don't care for words that start in f-formation, it might not be for your virgin eyes.

Or so says an article from 1997 discussing how readers scan, rather than read the web. 1997? Did they even have color TV back then? However, if you want to be a good web writer, you do need to learn how to write for web readers. (articles via useit)