Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blog and blogging

How do you write for your blog?

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:17:28 -0800

How do you write for your blog? I'm just starting out and would like to know how others approach writing and editing ...and maybe if there is a secret Bloggers Bible no one's told me about? After hanging around the sidelines for a while I've plunged in and started publishing posts on my very own wordpress blog. It's a personal/individual blog, but will likely be related enough in topic to get linked in to my career identity/professional life (ie: it's not about trolls). I listened to an inspiring little podcast by merlin mann and john gruber which talks about being-your-bestest at your one true thing. I can't say exactly what that thing is yet, but I'm okay with the probability that my blog is going to suck for awhile. So I'm keeping it off the market and not telling anyone (nope, not even my SO) until I'm convinced I can keep it up. I feel like my biggest challenge is getting my once-weekly post done and posted. I'm hoping if I just keeping writing I will hear my "voice" more clearly, and figure out wtf my blog is actually about. Does that sound right?

I'd like hear from some long-term bloggers (I know you lurk around here. I've read your blogs). Extraneous advice is also very welcome, and you can email me at whachameanwhatsablog@gmail.com, but here are my concrete questions:

1. Do you write on the fly, or have an editing process? While there are no doubt people in both camps, did you maybe start out your blog one way and change process? Any thoughts on one way or another? I can't decide if writing on Monday, editing Wednesday and re-editing for the post Friday is going to yield better results or just strangle me into dullsville.

2. What keeps you going? I'm sure there are more reasons for starting than you can swing a cat at, but (assuming you don't make cash-money with your blog) what keeps you at it? Any advice on getting through the slumps that will no doubt assault me? Any big no-nos here (like, maybe: Don't write about writer's block)?

3. Can you recommend a book/blog post/podcast/something that really helped you with blogging? I like reading. If you don't have the answers, please, give me something to read. (And yes, I read blogs ;). And if the aforementioned Secret Blogger's Bible does exist, then an Amazon link would be kindly appreciated.

Thanks.

Politely communicating that your site needs a total makeover

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:29:07 -0800

How does a lowly unpaid blog contributor tell his/her bosses that the whole site needs a major redesign? I've had the privilege of being invited to contribute for my former employer's new blog, and I've been enjoying producing some content on a weekly basis or so as part of a team of 5-6 people. However, their entire content management system is archaic, buggy, and needs a major systematic and aesthetic overhaul. I'm talking no RSS feed, disappearing posts, a comment system that doesn't even allow users to leave their names. Worst of all, I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm the only person involved in this whole project who is tech-savvy enough to be aware of solutions such as Wordpress that could fix this situation (or Drupal, if they wanted to fix their whole site.) And I'm no IT expert myself.

I'm having to balance my distaste (to put it mildly) for the way they're running this new blog with my admiration for the organization in general for allowing me to contribute, as well as my important and delicate professional relationship with them. The main communications/IT person has served as a reference on job applications in the past, and I care very deeply about how these important contacts view me if I end up working in their industry full-time in the future. I just graduated college and lack full-time employment, so I know that having this opportunity is an important privilege and professional and personal relationship I would never want to damage.

I guess this is a question not only as to whether I should or should not say something, but if I should, a question of communication. How can I express that their site, particularly this blog, has such an outdated look and feel that it must be negatively impacting their credibility without sounding like a snooty, ungrateful young upstart? Can I offer to help them redesign their site, or at least get them a Wordpress, without sounding or acting like I know better than they do? Is there a way to avoid the risks and pitfalls of this situation besides shutting up and putting up with this web 0.5 silliness? Similar experiences and suggestions for content management systems or blog hosting sites are also welcome.

throwaway email: helpmefixmyemployersblog@gmail.com

Lightweight blogging software?

Solomon — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:04:47 -0800

Please recommend a small, lightweight blogging software. I'm using Wordpress for my main blog, but I'd like something that has a smaller bandwith & space footprint for my other blogs. I did look into Chyrp, which would have been ideal, apart from the fact it was flashing my MySQL password to the entire internet. For obvious reasons, I don't wish to use that software, but rather something like it.

The features I'm looking for are:

1] Free (as in beer) software.
2] Doesn't take up a lot of space. I'd prefer 1 megabyte to 2.
3] Doesn't use large amounts of bandwidth to serve a page.

The pages I'll be serving are completely text, to cut down on bandwidth usage. All I want/need is a very minimal interface, on the back and front of the blog. No images, certainly nothing like flash.

I have very minimal PHP etc skills, but I'm prepared to get stuck in. I do not want a service like Blogger or Wordpress.com. I want to be completely self hosted.

Am I offering a fair wage to freelance bloggers?

ben242 — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:18:25 -0800

How much do I pay a freelance blogger? The company I work for has four shopping blogs. We're looking to hire freelance bloggers to write 2-3 posts per week. The posts require a minimum of research and no expertise. That is, I don't care if the writer has a college degree as long as they can write 50-150 words about blenders or coffeemakers or home theatre or whatever. This isn't meant to be expert bloggers giving complicated instructions; its more like the advice you get from a friend who knows a bit about whatever product you're shopping for.

I've been told $5 per post is about right for the kind of writing I'm trying to get. Is that an okay rate?

Using other people's pictures in blogs

like_neon — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:58:05 -0800

Related to this question, but beyond Flickr: where it's just random product images, can I or can't I re-host their image with proper credit and a link? So there are loads and loads of blogs out there that are all about finding *stuff*. They can be handmade stuff, they can be mainstream designer stuff. They usually have a picture of the item (not hotlinked) and a link to the source.

Is this legally OK?

The Flickr question advises that the blogger contact the person who took the picture. But jeez, what if you are posting pictures of things from Nordstroms? Amazon? Nike? What's a blogger to do?

Making preparations now to make it easier later

flatluigi — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:20:29 -0800

What free blogging service will let me eventually and easily move over to a domain of my own in the future? What I mean is this: Right now I want to get into blogging, but I don't have the cash to get a domain in the near future. Eventually, I'd want to move my blog from flatluigi.blogger.com to flatluigi.com/blog/ or blog.flatluigi.com (or whatever it ends up being).

Any blog platform recommendations, keeping this in mind?

Should I include a photo of myself on my blog?

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:27:51 -0800

Should I include a photo of myself on my blog? I'm trying to decide if I want a photo of myself on my blog, which gets around 2,000 page views a day. I write it under my own name, and my full name can be found on the blog. Looking it up under whois and then doing a little more research could lead you to my home address. There's nothing controversial about what I write.

The photo would be in the "profile" section. I'm female. The photo I was thinking of using is flattering, but not hot-cha-cha.

Will I get stalkers peering through my windows? Am I being paranoid? What are the pluses and minuses of having a photo of the writer?

Journalist/Political Blogging from, and about, Turkey. Censorship issues?

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:41:18 -0800

I'm re-locating to Turkey in the upcoming months (due to unrelated circumstances), and whilst there, I intend on starting, and keeping, a regular blog about current events, human rights issues, the EU bid, and such. Photojournalism, where appropriate - and available - will also be included. So, I suppose I have a few questions. (long post, my apologies!) Due to current restrictions on freedom of the press, freedom of speech, Article 301, and others, any attempts at accurate journalism will either be censored, or may result in a less than friendly introduction to the Turkish legal system. However, human rights violations can't simply be ignored. The more they're spoken about, the more they're seen, the more can be done.

So, on to my questions:

1} What level of anonymity, if any, should I attempt? Should I go by a pseudonym? Or just leave out undue personal details and contact info?

2} Internet security. Would something like Hotspot Shield (on my personal laptop) be good, unnecessary, or not enough? Current laptop is running OSX.

3} To circumvent the frequent blocking of blogger.com and wordpress.com domains, I was thinking of using Wordpress, but on my own domain, hosted in either France, or North America. The content may still be blocked on an individual basis, but would my identity be protected?

4} Would it be better to access the internet from my home connection, via laptop, go to an internet cafe and use their connection, and their computer, OR, use my personal laptop in an area with WIFI access, such as a restaurant or hotel? [sidenote: At "home" I will be sharing internet with acquaintances, and will be unable to "reconfigure" anything, or whathave you.]

5} I'm not looking to make money out of this. I will be in the country primarily for other reasons. But I do hope to use this as a chance to gain more exposure, and promote dialogue, on daily Turkish life, whatever that happens to entail. It would be nice, though not entirely necessary, if I was able to add this to my journalistic resume in some way, professionally. Is there a way to do this, while keeping a relatively low profile, and avoiding arrest?

Should I just be submitting articles to small, foreign media outlets instead?

Any advice on how to be an online journo in Turkey, while keeping ones integrity, and still maintaining a minimal level of safety, would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps I'm being overly fearful. I hope I am. I realize Turkey isn't China. I would just rather seek out advice in advance, than regret my naivety. Thanks!

________________________________________

I'm certain you're going to be wondering if I have a background in this at all; if I have any idea what I'm doing... I know it certainly doesn't seem like it from re-reading this. Well, I have a background in broadcast media, ENG camera work, docu editing, television script writing, and freelance photography. I have also traveled rather extensively. The general field of work is not new to me. Political/journo human rights blogging, however, is a new endeavor.

*Throwaway email: journoblogger at yahoo.FR*

Can my blog updates appear on facebook?

veggieboy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:38:38 -0800

I'm looking for a facebook application that will update my profile each time I post on my blog, ideally with the first sentence or two of that post included in my profile. I'm looking for something relatively clean and gimmick-free, as well as something that won't spam my friends. Any recommendations? Thanks very much.

Personality-Based Design/Arts/Fashion Blogging - new trend?

divabat — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:02:05 -0800

Is there a specific term/genre that defines bloggers such as Gala Darling, Nubby Twiglet, Queen Gilda, Doe Deere, This is Star, and Agent Lover? Has anyone tracked this? I've noticed a few of those sort of blogs recently, sharing similar things in terms of aesthetics and content:

* Young female, using a glamorous pen name
* A mix between personal life, recommendations of products/people, and how-tos based on everyday life (such as How To Be Fabulous)
* Plenty on design, fashion, style, culture, trends
* Blogger likely to be an artist or other creative person
* Promotes the blogger itself as a brand
* "Things I Love Tuesday" (possibly started by one of those bloggers)
* Similar layouts

A few of these blogs cross-link to each other, but other than that I don't see anything that suggests they're part of a collective or tight group of friends. Rather, it seems to be a growing sub-trend of blogging, and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this and/or done some research on these blogs.

They're like camgirls in the sense that there's quite a bit of voyeurism into their personal lives, but it's not constant. They're seen as icons and inspiration, and have enough followers to even sell products with their branding (AFAIK Gala Darling lives on Adsense income). When I was a teen, random-content-heavy personal sites, often with vector illustrations, were the Big Thing; this seems like an outgrowth of that.

Is there a name for this? Does anyone else fit this aesthetic?

Is there a blog host that won't bogart my Amazon links?

RogerB — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:21:24 -0800

Book-blog hosting: Is there a free and easy blog host that allows me to use my own Amazon affiliate links? I am thinking of starting a personal book and movie blog. It should make it easy to add books (ideally with a cover image and an Amazon link) to my posts – I'm quite enamored of Vox's super-easy interface for this, but they use their own Amazon affiliate links and forbid you to substitute your own. It seems like all the big free blog hosts do this, in fact (or at least Blogger, Wordpress, and Vox), unless I'm missing something.

I would really rather not have to host my own blog, or use a paid blog host like Typepad, just to avoid giving away the three to five bucks a year my blog will probably make off Amazon referrals. Is there a free blog host or social networking site, or whatever else, out there that will do this?

What software should I use for a collaborative blog?

handee — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:21:07 -0800

I want to set up a collaborative blog with some colleagues. What software should we use? I'm not entirely averse to dealing with hosting and so on, but would prefer something that works "out of the box" or even better, is a free service. Needs: Login for specified users, probably less than 10 but maybe a few more. The ability to have specific "about us" pages for each user (although one "about us" page with a load of A NAME refs would do fine). Customisable layout. That's about it.

Any tools for posting to multiple blogs?

randomthoughts — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:40:23 -0800

Are there any tools for posting to multiple WordPress blogs without having to go to each site's control panel? Currently running several WordPress blogs on various hosts and am looking for an easy blogging tool that would allow me to post to these blogs without having to go to each admin page to do so.

Any suggestions?

More Conversation, Less Marketing

DarlingBri — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:44:12 -0800

[DoMyHomeworkFilter] When commercial businesses post comments on a blog, what does "best practice" look like to you? And what companies have this conversational part of "conversational marketing" down to an exemplary science? I need to produce a short guide for PR people and marketers - traditionally aka Satan's Hounds - who are preparing to dip their toes into posting comments on blogs in their niches, whatever they may be.

I have an exhaustive list of Do Nots - no astroturfing, don't try to sell products in comments, don't write or post in boilerplate marketingspeak - but I am so traumatised by seeing this done so badly so often that I'm having a hard time coming up with any Do items.

These people are wading in regardless of what I say, so I'd just like to help them not crap on people's lawns. I'm interested in how people see comments from commercial entities, what makes some comments OK or even positive to you while others are unacceptable - where that line is, and what it looks like to you. And if there's some company or organisation out there doing this really well, I'd love to know who they are so I can study what they're doing right.

Thanks!

Customizing a Wordpress function

adamrice — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:36:19 -0800

Wordpress/PHP question. I'm working on a Wordpress theme and want to use an algorithm to alter some of the HTML it emits. I've got a general idea of how to do this, and could probably manage a brutish implementation on my own, but my PHP-fu is weak and there is probably a better way. Here's what's going on. I'm using the blueprint css approach for a gridded layout. And I've got a "bottom-bar" of widgets, laid out in three columns. With blueprint css, the div for the third column needs class="last" added to it in (in addition to class declarations that apply to all divs) order for everything to line up right.

What I want to do is get the count of widgets each time a widget is emitted, and if count mod 3 = 0, insert 'last' into the class. Barring that, if I could insert class="widget-N" (where N=count) in all divs, I could manage, although it would be less elegant. Ideally, all browsers would magically support CSS3 and obviate this problem, but I'm not holding my breath.

Obviously I don't want to touch the core code. I don't mind inserting an altered version of whatever function is necessary into my functions.php file; but if there's a callback that lets me avoid doing that, so much the better.

Is there a way to show all my blog posts?

jejune — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:46:42 -0800

Is there a script that will show summaries of every post from my blog, using a feed from a Blogger blog? I use this widget to display the first 100 or so characters from each post from a feed of my blog. When you copy & paste the code from that webpage into a Blogger blog post, it displays headings from your blog posts along with a summary for each one.

But the problem is that there's a limit: it only displays your 25 most recent posts. Is there any kind of widget that will show all the posts, with no limit?

It would be sufficient if there were a script that would let me specify: "Display posts #1-25," then separately, "Display #26-50," etc. That way, I could just combine them.

MY EYES MY EYES - help me avoid the WordPress interface and still post to my blog.

jessamyn — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:48:15 -0800

I don't like the WordPress 2.5 look and feel. I am not interested in switching CMSes. What are my options for basic postings to my blog with minimal interaction with the WordPress interface? The suboptimal things include having to scroll to choose categories and add tags, the "3D" look to the buttons, all the extra headings and colors, the small "publish" button and all the nagging (I know 2.5.1 is available, I'd like to dismiss that message). I'd like to not have to scroll to write and publish a short post with tags and categories. I think this must be possible.

I am fairly tech-savvy. I want to post a blog entry with maybe a category and some tags, nothing else fancy (this is for my "work" blog, not my personal blog). I can write my own HTML, don't need WYSIWIG. I'm okay using the admin interface for more complicated things or for editing. I like what WP does, just not how it looks.

I had a nice custom admin section before I upgraded; my fallback plan is just to hack away at the CSS like I did last time. I have tried a few things that have not worked so well.

- ScribeFire and Deepest Sender addons for Firefox both kick back errors that I don't quite understand. (I get through installing/configuring them and see my categories but can't post. DS returns "TypeError: node is null" SF returns "The server returned a malformed response. Please check that your blog and API URLs are correct." If this is a chmod problem, I can chmod). If I could get either of those to work my problem would be solved. I have command line access to my account and a medium level of comfort with command line Unixy stuff.
- I have installed a few plugins that claim to make WP easier on the eyes including Retro-Dashboard Admin Theme, Admin Menus, Dashboard Lite and a few more that I may have already deleted. They are fine but don't solve these specific problems.
- I do not want to install an older version of WP just to fix this.
- I have searched the WP plugins admin section and Google for something that seems to do this and tried many things and didn't find anything that looked good.

I'd be happy to hear if you've found something that works but please don't direct me to the WP site (unless there's really something you think I've missed) or to a Google search. Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks!

What are some good blogs for discovering new blogs? (explanation within)

kingtaj — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:15:24 -0800

What are some good blogs for discovering new blogs? (explanation within) Because great writers come and go in the blogosphere, one must be constantly vigilant to stay abreast of the highest quality blogs (of all genres). Some bloggers have a habit of referring to other good blogs consistently.

Do you know of any? What are the best blogs for discovering new blogs?

Blogger without a blog service

jejune — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:31:20 -0800

Is there a blog service that has all the features I need? I've tried Blogger, Livejournal, and Wordpress.com, but none of them seems like quite the ticket. See inside for the 3 features I'm looking for. I'm trying to start a blog. It seems like every service I try is about 90% of what I need, but missing some key feature.

Here are the features I'm looking for:

1. The ability to have a private blog with well over 100 readers. I could see myself picking up a bunch of readers from my list of Facebook friends, and on top of that I'd like to feel comfortable mentioning the blog to people I meet in the future and casually inviting them to read it without worrying about exceeding the limit. (I'm not willing to have a public blog because I'm paranoid about a prospective employer googling my name one day and being offended by something I say about a controversial issue.)

2. A blogroll that allows well over 50 links. I have over 50 links to put in various categories of my blogroll (not just blogs but also individual articles, favorite Metafilter posts, etc.), and I want to be able to add more as I come across them.

3. Easily customizable templates, or at least a very tasteful default template. I care a lot about the appearance of the blog, and I'd like to have a distinctive combination of greys, blues, and a bit of purple. I don't have programming skills beyond some basic HTML, so I can't create a template from scratch. (I want something sleek and minimal but also with a bit of color and character. Most templates I've seen are either minimal to the point of looking like something from the '90s, or overloaded with color and graphics in a way that seems geared toward 16-year-olds.)

Here's what I've gathered based on trying 3 different services:

- Blogger has nicely customizable templates and plenty of blogroll capacity ... but is limited to 100 private readers.

- Livejournal lets you have 1000 private readers (or more with a paid account) and has so many templates that I can find a palatable one if I really try ... but limits you to 30 with a free account or 50 with a paid account. (I've tried this del.icio.us tool and it doesn't seem to work on LJ)

- Wordpress.com lets you have unlimited private readers for $30 (which I'd gladly pay for), and seems to have good blogroll capabilities ... but there are just a few boringly tasteful templates, they can't be customized at all (nor can you import one from a third party), and the main column is too wide anyway.

I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount of money, but free would be ideal, needless to say.

I've looked through AskMe tags, tried Googling for feature comparisons, and looked at help/FAQ pages from Blogger, Livejournal, and Wordpress. Of course, this turns up tons of information about different features offered by different services, but I'm not seeing a big-picture solution to my problem. (And I'm suspicious of the blog services' official help pages because they seem to try to conceal their limitations.)

Am I missing some way to have everything I want, or is this just not available? If not, then what do you think would be the least-bad option? I realize that the answer might simply be that I'm right -- none of the services work for the above reasons. But I wanted to run this by the hive mind to see if there's either some workaround for the above problems or some other service that offers what I want. I'm honestly on the verge of giving up blogging because there doesn't seem to be a viable service out there.

Posting One Thing to Many Blogs?

davidstandaford — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:56:19 -0800

What is the best way to share my blogging when I have different friends on myspace, livejournal, blogspot, facebook. etc. I currently have a myspace blog, a livejournal, and a blogspot blog where I triple post my content. I also sometimes will write facebook notes with the same post.

I'm wondering if people have advice about how to streamline this process and have one application do this for me. Either XP or OS X is a possibility. Is there an easy (free?) way to write something once and have it show up everywhere?

Secondly, does anyone have any experience with trying to integrate multiple blog services into one location. Ideally, the people who like to read me on facebook or myspace or livejournal would all just visit a single blogspot blog and make things easy for me, but I'm not sure they actually will (and these are people who don't know what RSS readers are). Checking their livejournal friends page is probably easier than clicking over to my own separate blogspot blog once a week (if they remember), so I want to keep all the readers, I just don't like having to triple post what I write in all those places.

I'm having issues with my AddThis button on my blog.

bamassippi — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:13:49 -0800

I'm having issues with my AddThis button on my blog. So I'm trying to add the AddThis button to the front page of my blog so that readers can email/save/send individual blog posts, though it continues to save my homepage and the AddThis.com website is very unclear as to how to adjust the code.

I know that other readers may have experienced the same issues... how did you solve it? How should I adjust my code? (I'm using WordPress by the way.)

Make w.bloggar play nice with Wordpress categories?

freudenschade — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:03:40 -0800

New blog at Wordpress.com. Would like to use w.bloggar as my desktop editor for posts. Everything's configured properly and looking great, except for this error I get when I start up w.bloggar: "w.bloggar: 401 / Your blog server returned the following error message: / Sorry, you must be able to edit posts on this blog in order to view categories." I'm sure there's a simple explanation, but googling and FAQ digging turn up nothing. What gives?

Blogging from the future - forcing wordpress to show future dates

Happy Dave — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:12:49 -0800

How can I get wordpress to show a post as though it had been published in the future? So, in a bid to stimulate both regular writing and generate some ideas for longer form work, I've come up with the idea of writing a blog that appears as though it's coming from twenty or thirty years in the future. Wordpress has a future-dating feature that lets you put a future date on a post, but as far as I can work out, that means it will hold that post until that date and time is reached.

Am I missing something, or is there a simple method (or plugin) that will let me publish a post now, today, but have the calendar and date show as a date in the future? For example, I post an entry today, Sunday 27th Jan, at 5pm GMT, but I want it to show up on the blog as, I dunno, Thursday 27th Jan 2028, 5pm GMT. How would I do that?

How do i enable a javascript widget with Wordpress

Rabulah — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:02:23 -0800

I've set up a self hosted blog. I've got it looking pretty much how I want it, but I want a javascript based "advert" (it's an animated Kiva.org thing) in the sidebar. The blogging platform is Wordpress, which doesn't allow javascript if the blog is hosted on their servers. But it's not hosted on wordpress.com. I'm hosting it on my own servers. I've tried adding the relevant script text into a text widget, and then adding that to the sidebar, but the script text just gets stripped out.

What do I need to do to get this to work? I'm using Wordpress 2.3.2.

Someone must be blogging about blogs, right?

lhl — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:02:39 -0800

Is anyone out there publishing analysis or actively tracking interesting developments/trends in blogging in terms of the emerging patterns in the form and functionality of the blogs themselves? The type of stuff that I'm thinking about is like Luke Wroblewski's Blog Interface Design 2.0 article (2005) or the posts on blog layouts that Jonathan Boutelle was doing (2005-2006) - the examples here are focusing more on the nuts and bolts, although I'm also open to coverage/discussion of more macro-trends (flare, codes, tumblelogs, migration onto social networking sites, etc).

Barring that, if anyone's seen anything really interesting in the past year or two, post away.