Any advice on blogging

[TR_GOP]

After 7 or 8 years of posting on message boards I feel ready to take the leap and start a blog on two topics; politics and motorsports.

Any advice on how best to get established, software, sites, generating revenue, and anything I missed is appreciated. While I've done some research there's so many options and claims out there some first hand advice will help weed down the possibilities.

 

[Caligirl]

Huffington is doing the chat circuit now promoting a new book titled something like "how to blog."

The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging : The Editors of the Huffington Post : ISBN 9781439105009 - Buy.com

 

[pegwinn]

After 7 or 8 years of posting on message boards I feel ready to take the leap and start a blog on two topics; politics and motorsports.

Any advice on how best to get established, software, sites, generating revenue, and anything I missed is appreciated. While I've done some research there's so many options and claims out there some first hand advice will help weed down the possibilities.

Hi. I have a blog. The link is in my signature. I use blogger.com because it is easy to learn and is supported by lots of other blog related sites.

First, decide if you want to make money or not. If you do, then I would suggest getting your own domain name. If you are interested more in simply getting your content out there then stick with blogger.com since it is free. Additionally monetising is best done on niche markets. So, you need to stay on topic. Scattered topics lowers search rankings unless you post multiple times per day.

Second, if you want to make money then you need to blog daily. If you don't blog daily you will fall in search rankings. The more topics you cover the more posts per day you will need.

Third, be honest. Every blog is unique. Uniqueness is what causes people to actually read your stuff.

Last. I broke all but rule three with my blog. It is established, but since I don't have time to post daily it isn't easy to find with search engines. If I had to do it over again I would seriously work those first three.

I've tried wordpress and didn't like it. But your results may vary. Try them all. Once you decide on a platform get rid of the test blogs.

Hope this helps, good luck.

Phil

 

[TR_GOP]

Huffington is doing the chat circuit now promoting a new book titled something like "how to blog."

The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging : The Editors of the Huffington Post : ISBN 9781439105009 - Buy.com

Perfect. Thanks!

 

[TR_GOP]

Hi. I have a blog. The link is in my signature. I use blogger.com because it is easy to learn and is supported by lots of other blog related sites.

First, decide if you want to make money or not. If you do, then I would suggest getting your own domain name. If you are interested more in simply getting your content out there then stick with blogger.com since it is free. Additionally monetising is best done on niche markets. So, you need to stay on topic. Scattered topics lowers search rankings unless you post multiple times per day.

Generating income is one of my objectives, going to college (finally) is another. Perhaps my basic plan is unrealistic, but what I'm hoping for is to fill holes in my largely self-taught base of knowledge and correct flaws in my writing skills while simutaneously getting my feet wet in online journalism.

Building a reputation and audience is something I have some experience in, however I went about it the wrong way. My biggest mistake was assuming concepts such as free speech and legitimate criticism were respected by the media establishment. Perhaps in the realm of politics it is, but I can tell you from personal experience when it comes to sports entertainment and marketing that is definitely not the case.

Here's the story. After a few years on the message boards dedicated to a certain segment of professional sports decided to built a YouTube site. It lasted for little over a year, in that period it achieved 970,000+ views and developed a worldwide audience. In order to take this interest to the next level I registered a domain name and began spreading the word. Some of the content was self-produced, some rebroadcast of archives that'll likely never see public distribution again (not deemed commercially viable), but the material that really drew MediaGiant's ire was video evidence of pandered to the interest of one very powerful partner while chocking off growth opportunity among a competing sport on the same network. Essentially from the top of the decisionmaking chain to the production level they did everything possible to kill off a sport who's history with the network stretches back decades. I exposed their agenda while doing what they intentionally failed at - promoting the sport. A deeply entrenched circle of corrupt journalist didn't appreciate my work either. It's amazing what people will do when careers are tied to corporate business agendas.

During a critical point in the contract renewal process between the sport's sanctioning body and the network rumor on the web pointed to serious disagreements between the two sides. The very week talks concluded with the sport taking the majority of their material elsewhere someone inside the MediaGiant stepped on me like a bug. Copyright violation was the excuse, the fact they had no intention of ever attempting to make .01 cent on the video did not play into the decision. I had rights to most of what I had, this one slipped through the cracks. YouTube was non-responsive to my fair use arguement. Many of my fans felt they were disserved. What I took away from the experience; when popularity and influence exceed the capacity to defend against moves to shut you up, well, they shut you up! One last note; the domain name service was involved in the censorship campaign, this I am certain of. Without elaborating in detail I can state with full confidence this assertion is based on more than mere conjecture in this case it was IT security, not YouTube, and the company has ties to all entities involved.

So, if I'm to rejoin the fraw I need to develop some strategy to ensure the same process isn't repeated. Do you have any suggestions to achieving this aim or links to legal resources? I haven't encountered anyone else with a similar experience, but maybe I haven't looked in the right places.

 

[sky dancer]

Hi. I have a blog. The link is in my signature. I use blogger.com because it is easy to learn and is supported by lots of other blog related sites.

First, decide if you want to make money or not. If you do, then I would suggest getting your own domain name. If you are interested more in simply getting your content out there then stick with blogger.com since it is free. Additionally monetising is best done on niche markets. So, you need to stay on topic. Scattered topics lowers search rankings unless you post multiple times per day.

Second, if you want to make money then you need to blog daily. If you don't blog daily you will fall in search rankings. The more topics you cover the more posts per day you will need.

Third, be honest. Every blog is unique. Uniqueness is what causes people to actually read your stuff.

Last. I broke all but rule three with my blog. It is established, but since I don't have time to post daily it isn't easy to find with search engines. If I had to do it over again I would seriously work those first three.

I've tried wordpress and didn't like it. But your results may vary. Try them all. Once you decide on a platform get rid of the test blogs.

Hope this helps, good luck.

Phil

Thanks Phil--

Excellent advice. People have been trying to get me to take the leap from forums to blogs for years. I'm getting closer to doing so.

One of my topics would be 'Compassionate Politics'. Another would be "Healing from the Inside Out".

Generating income would be an interest.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Generating income is one of my objectives, going to college (finally) is another. Perhaps my basic plan is unrealistic, but what I'm hoping for is to fill holes in my largely self-taught base of knowledge and correct flaws in my writing skills while simutaneously getting my feet wet in online journalism.

Building a reputation and audience is something I have some experience in, however I went about it the wrong way. My biggest mistake was assuming concepts such as free speech and legitimate criticism were respected by the media establishment. Perhaps in the realm of politics it is, but I can tell you from personal experience when it comes to sports entertainment and marketing that is definitely not the case.

Here's the story. After a few years on the message boards dedicated to a certain segment of professional sports decided to built a YouTube site. It lasted for little over a year, in that period it achieved 970,000+ views and developed a worldwide audience. In order to take this interest to the next level I registered a domain name and began spreading the word. Some of the content was self-produced, some rebroadcast of archives that'll likely never see public distribution again (not deemed commercially viable), but the material that really drew MediaGiant's ire was video evidence of pandered to the interest of one very powerful partner while chocking off growth opportunity among a competing sport on the same network. Essentially from the top of the decisionmaking chain to the production level they did everything possible to kill off a sport who's history with the network stretches back decades. I exposed their agenda while doing what they intentionally failed at - promoting the sport. A deeply entrenched circle of corrupt journalist didn't appreciate my work either. It's amazing what people will do when careers are tied to corporate business agendas.

During a critical point in the contract renewal process between the sport's sanctioning body and the network rumor on the web pointed to serious disagreements between the two sides. The very week talks concluded with the sport taking the majority of their material elsewhere someone inside the MediaGiant stepped on me like a bug. Copyright violation was the excuse, the fact they had no intention of ever attempting to make .01 cent on the video did not play into the decision. I had rights to most of what I had, this one slipped through the cracks. YouTube was non-responsive to my fair use arguement. Many of my fans felt they were disserved. What I took away from the experience; when popularity and influence exceed the capacity to defend against moves to shut you up, well, they shut you up! One last note; the domain name service was involved in the censorship campaign, this I am certain of. Without elaborating in detail I can state with full confidence this assertion is based on more than mere conjecture in this case it was IT security, not YouTube, and the company has ties to all entities involved.

So, if I'm to rejoin the fraw I need to develop some strategy to ensure the same process isn't repeated. Do you have any suggestions to achieving this aim or links to legal resources? I haven't encountered anyone else with a similar experience, but maybe I haven't looked in the right places.

content is king. worry about money later.

 

[pegwinn]

So, if I'm to rejoin the fraw I need to develop some strategy to ensure the same process isn't repeated. Do you have any suggestions to achieving this aim or links to legal resources? I haven't encountered anyone else with a similar experience, but maybe I haven't looked in the right places.

Afraid not. Your experience with youtube is already over my head. If you look at my blog you will see oped/commentary. I do not claim to be a journalist at all. I started my blog for a lot of reasons and money wasn't one of them at the time.

For SkyDancer: Are you more about exposing the world to your ideas (commentary/oped) or discussing ideas and opposing views? IF the latter then forums are your thing. IF the former, then blogging is a great way to go.

Good luck both of y'all

 

[TR_GOP]

Afraid not. Your experience with youtube is already over my head. If you look at my blog you will see oped/commentary. I do not claim to be a journalist at all. I started my blog for a lot of reasons and money wasn't one of them at the time.

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to start off light with the bells & whistles and just start doing it and go from there.

 

[editec]

I so don't get the whole blogging thing.

Children's Books Online: the Rosetta Project one of the most famous websites (in that area of interest) in the world.

There are tens of thousands of permanent links to it found in college, school and library websites and websites devoted to literature.

We host about a half million unique visitors a year and perhaps a million visits.

But there are blogs which, frankly, I think are total crap, that far exceed our numbers. A cute kitten picture website can blow away 30,000 pages of the world's greatest illustrated literature, for example.

So I SUSPECT that SUBJECT is king as much as content.

Stumbleupon helps a lot, let me tell you, that.

On those months when somebody stumbles onto something they like, and SU puts that page in their SU system, we see our numbers climb very steeply for a while.

So that's about the only advice I can offer.

Find a subject likely to get a lot of interest and make sure somebody stumbles upon it.