Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blogging

Building a better vlog

wcfields — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:01:03 -0800

What is the, ugh, I hate to even type it: best vlogging system? I have scoped out a few possibilities but would like something fully built for it. I have a Wordpress installation and was thinking of using Blip.tv and Vimeo to host with some custom templating but a friend of mine runs a Indexhibit and I really like it but would want something halfway between Wordpress and it. Something that allows me to use off-site hosted videos, tag/categorize them (if it can use an API from a video hosting site that would rule).

My project is a semi-weekly cable access show of in-studio bands and live performances and eventually will have other non-music related shows to host as well.

Romance!

ocherdraco — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:03:54 -0800

I've got some questions about romance novel blogs. Are there good ones that focus on historical romances, or that look at romances from a feminist perspective? What about blogs that are just plain good (on books or otherwise), and whose writers happen to write about romances from time to time? Are there any bloggers who write about romances and about other kinds of books as well? I'm trying to get a handle on this particular corner of the web, and would appreciate any insight. I'm trying to figure out if a book I'm editing would be of any interest to romance bloggers. The book I'm working on is nonfiction, and tells the story of a woman in Victorian England who, after falling in love and getting married in a whirlwind romance, was jilted by her husband for another woman and was forced to prove in court that she was ever married in the first place. It doesn't have, as Wikipedia puts it, an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending" in quite the same way romance novels do, but it is positive (she was vindicated in court, and went on to have an adventurous career as a novelist and travel writer; she's quite a feminist role model).

I have a hunch that there are readers of romance novels who would really go for this; I'm just trying to figure out if they'd like it because of their interest in romance novels or in spite of it, and if, therefore, I ought to approach romance bloggers with it in the first place.

Who do you like to read?

surenoproblem — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:09:06 -0800

What are some chatty, intelligent, funny personal blogs that I should be following? I used to love reading about people's daily lives on Livejournal, as well as knowing what music, books and films they were enjoying, but I haven't been back to LJ in years, and most of my friends have stopped updating. Something like a more regularly updated Defective Yeti is what I'm looking for. I don't mind if the blog is about a specialised field, but I'm hoping for someone who is funny, who has interesting ideas, or can give me a good glimpse into another person's life.

Thanks!

vox clamantis in deserto

Schlimmbesserung — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:04:19 -0800

How the hell do I export a Vox blog to Wordpress? So I used to have a blog on Vox. I've since moved to Wordpress.com, but there was some good stuff on the Vox that I'd like to take with me. However, Six Apart seems to have decided that they don't want to have an easy way to move my content off the site, and their tech support people say that an export tool "isn't in the long-term plan."

This guy seems to have something in the works, but it looks like vapourware from here. Does anyone else have a crafty solution?

Which publishing tool should I use for topic-based blogging?

diogenes — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:36:33 -0800

What tool should I use for publishing extended thoughts that I want to link to from Twitter? I'd like something topic-based, with tagging, that lives in the cloud? Does such a thing exist? I'm a technical writer, and I recently discovered a thriving community of my peers on Twitter (much to my surprise). Now that I've joined the dialog, I find that I often want to say more than I can fit in 140 characters. Obviously I need a blog. I've used various tools (Blogger, WordPress, etc.) for short-lived blogs in the past, so I'm not a complete newbie to the idea.

Basically, I'm wondering what newfangled technologies are out there. I'm not even sure if what I need is a blog. I just want a way to post and organize extended thoughts. I'm starting to use topic-based tools in my technical writing, and I love the idea of building standalone bits of information that can be tagged, sorted, and rearranged. Is there anything like that for "blogging."

Finally! $100 in Adsense!

47triple2 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:44:32 -0800

I broke the $100 mark on Adsense, now what? I've been blogging with Adsense for more than a year and finally broke $100 mark. Do I have to do anything now or are they just going to send me a check at the end of the month?

I've been planning to stop blogging once I broke that magical number, will this cause problems with not getting paid? (My blog will still be there for a couple months, but there will be no new content.)

Does this affect my taxes? (Is it a very small, one time, "gift.")

Finally, what am I actually going to get out of that $100?

Thanks!

Before Etsy: What was that DIY trading community from way back when?

junkbox — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:16:20 -0800

Years ago (2002? 2003?), long before Etsy, there was an online community for DIY/crafty blogger types to trade materials and maybe handmade goods as well. What was it called, and what happened to it? I remember the background was a dark red color, and it might have had the word "thread" in the title or maybe not. It was popular with the personal blogging set, which was in its heyday at the time, with everybody trading knitting yarn for beads or jewelry hooks or homemade lip balm. I only made a couple of trades, then wandered away and lost track of the thing entirely. Anybody else remember this? What was it called?

Does anyone recognize this WordPress plugin? Or know how to effectively the pingbacks it spawns?

arielmeadow — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:50:13 -0800

My blog is getting bombarded by a new kind of pingback spam. The pingbacks are produced by a WordPress plugin that appears to mine the web for links related to blog content, which then triggers a pingback notification. Can anyone help me identify the plugin, so I can possibly work to block the pingbacks? You can see the plugin in action here. (Scroll down to "Related Blogs" under the post.)

The issue isn't that the plugin is bad -- but it appears to be the new standard for use on RSS-feed scraping spam blogs, meaning that the pingbacks produced are always complete crap.

My question: anyone recognize the plugin? I'm thinking that if I can identify the plugin, I may be able to find a technique to block the pingbacks it triggers.

(Note: manually blocking pingbacks from specific URLs doesn't scale -- there are dozens and dozens of them.)

Is including a movie poster image in a blog legal?

t-rex — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:30:14 -0800

Question about copyright of DVD/CD cover images, and movie images/posters, and posting them on a blog. I have a blog, where I discuss movies I see (not necessarily "reviews", but just discussing what was interesting, and linking it back to real life experiences/thoughts).

I'd like to include an image with my posts, such as the DVD cover, or movie poster. However, I would first like to know what the copyright situation of this is, and whether posting these images is legal.

Additionally, what about screencaps from a movie?

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.

Delicious Export

davextreme — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:31:39 -0800

Trying to move all my old del.icio.us bookmarks to a Movable Type blog I exported my del.icio.us bookmarks using its export tool, and then played around with the file in Excel and mail merged it out to something that resembles Movable Type's import format. I've tried importing that file into a test Movable Type blog but it doesn't work.

Here is my file: http://david.ely.fm/mt.txt

If anyone can help me tweak it, I'd appreciate it. Trying to bring everything under one roof instead of being spread out over different web services.

Can I blog about writer's block?

Wordwoman — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:57:01 -0800

Should I blog about writer's block? What will my clients think? I would like to share my perspective on writer's block in a blog, and perhaps later, a book. I have an approach that is successful for me, and I think it could be helpful for others. However, this approach is an ongoing process; that is, I am by no means cured (and willingness to be ok with that is part of the process I would like to share). Here's the rub: I am a freelancer, and I have regular clients that think I'm great. After all, they just see the end results, not my struggles. I don't want them thinking that maybe I won't be able to get it done by the deadline (this is a core fear that I have to overcome anew with every assignment, and one that the blog/book would discuss). Am I right in thinking that public disclosure is risky? Would it be better if I blogged about it pseudonymously, and is that considered ok in the blogging world?

Journal of Inappropriate Articles to Include in a CV (2009) "In Defense of Sex in Public Places" Submitted.

Hwaet — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:46:55 -0800

A former professor and I are meeting tomorrow, as she's writing me a recommendation for getting a PhD. She's requested that I bring a CV along with my writing samples. I've been employed as an editor, freelance writer and blogger for the most of my post-undergrad career. None of my articles are particularly serious or scholarly. What's the best way to format this info in a CV? I'm aiming to get a (very) interdisciplinary degree in English or American Studies, so I feel like my bloggy contributions in the online world of arts and criticism is a bit more noteworthy than if I were going to study Renaissance theater. My professor noted that she's most interested in my papers, but I'd still like to show up with a detailed CV in case my employment history is relevant.

Most of my writing is celebrity interviews, blog posts for online, mainstream political/cultural magazines, movie reviews, and bar reviews. I've been gainfully employed as a freelance editor for many magazines at once, but I've never been, say, an associate editor on a masthead. I'm totally uninitiated in the arts of writing a CV and have no idea if I should mention specific articles I've written even if they're unrelated to my current endeavors. As I've been out of school for maybe 3 years, this is the bulk of my experience, so I'd rather not sweep it under the rug and turn in a 3/4 page CV.

Are there any templates for people in my situation? Am I overthinking a request from a professor who'd just like to familiarize herself with my post-college activities?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

How niche, how personal and how spiritual should a blog intended to brand me be.

jeffreyclong — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:33:27 -0800

How niche, how personal and how spiritual should a blog be that's intent is to brand myself as a unique, and creative professional of distinction. I am working on some ebooks and other internet business projects. My current website www.jeffreyclong.com is currently too broad and includes personal and spiritual writings that I don't think contribute to me marketing myself as a creative professional. I'm going to change it into a static "about me" page that will be an advertisement for my skills, projects and services and link to blogs or static pages that are more niche, including a revamped version of my current blog. I'm still a bit vague on what those are services are, so I'm not able to be specific as I describe what I'm trying to accomplish with my blog.

I am looking to repurpose many of my old posts into different blogs or sites devoted to different markets. And I'm going to delete some that I think were too personal and probably post them in a vox blog that only my closest friends and family can see.

Seth Godin calls a blog that is about personal interests is a "cat blog." See the ebook at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/09/whos_there_the_.html

I want to keep my blog, but tune it up so that it expresses the multiple sides of my skills, projects and services so that people see me as a creative multi-dimensional contractor. While not being a "cat blog" it seems that _some_ personal things humanize a blog like this.

So the question is, how personal should a blog-for-the-purpose-of-branding be. I also have posted sermons and spiritual content on that site. I plan to move those off to a different blog. But assumed I would link to it from my landing page. Do you think that people who are looking at hiring my services would look askance at me linking to the spiritual writings that describe who I am spiritually?

Thanks

Who has been blogging longer than I?

GatorDavid — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:12:40 -0800

BlogFilter: Is there a reliable directory of blogs? My motivation is self-centered, to be sure. Basically I'm interested because I'm quickly approaching my ten-year anniversary and I'm wondering where that places me in the evolutionary chain.

I know that Kottke, Anil, Zannah, and TheBrad have all been blogging (slightly) longer than I've been. But how many others are out there that have blogging since the beginning?

Are there thousands of bloggers approaching their first decade? Hundreds? Dozens?

Hello RIAA, I'd like to give you some money

IanMorr — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 08:11:06 -0800

Is it horribly expensive to license snippets of music for videos that I share on my blog? I have a blog that I use to share pics and videos with my friends and family. I post, at most, 2 videos a month. They're usually about 30 - 40 seconds. Because the audio on these is usually my wife and I encouraging our kid to walk in the stupid tones you use when talking to kids, I want to replace the audio track with music.

I have a large, legal, personal library and can usually think of the right song to use pretty quickly. I'd much rather pay a reasonable fee to be allowed to add a bit of a commercial tune to my video than to spend time searching for an appropriate license free piece of music.

Is this an option? I don't want to do a bunch of paperwork every time I use a different song, I'm looking for some kind of central licensing body that can take, say $20 a year and license me to use bits of songs in my library on videos that are going on the internet where, in theory, anyone in the world could see them, but in practice would only be viewed by my mum and her cat.

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

Is webring technology stuck in 1998?

arielmeadow — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:11:52 -0800

I'm thinking of starting a webring, but the concept feels very 1998. Is there such a thing as Webring 2.0? I'm preparing to launch a new website that will have a distinct community/network component. Rather than include a forum (too much moderation, too much work) I'm considering having a reader webring.

That said, the whole concept of a webring feels outdated, and the tools I've looked at (ringsurf, simplering, PHP-Ring, etc) feel like they haven't really changed much in the last seven or eight years. They all seem to feature clunky interfaces and limited navigation (previous / next / view / join ).

Is there some web 2.0 evolution of the webring that I just don't know about? I'd love a hosted solution, but am exploring PHP options as well.

Pimp My FaceTweet

shallowcenter — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:16:52 -0800

Mid-level Facebook user and low-level Twitterer seeks way to maximize these social media services for networking, information aggregation, and long walks on the beach. Oh, yeah, all while not spending every waking nanosecond online hitting "refresh." The details: I'm a freelance writer and blogger looking to give clients and potential clients a better sense of the scope of my work. Currently I post links to my blog posts to both FB and Twitter, but it just feels as if I'm not using these services to their full potential. On FB I also do the usual posting of daily activities and random thoughts; I don't do that on Twitter.

So how do you resolve the personal-professional Facebook/Twitter dilemma? I looked through answers to this previous AskMefi question, and it has some good thoughts but doesn't quite capture what I'm looking for. What do you think, friends? Thanks in advance!

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.

From Wordpress to Word Document

chrisalbon — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:56:59 -0800

Backup Blog Posts As Word Documents? I have a Wordpress blog (my own hosting / installation) with around 150 entries. I would like to save each of these entries as a .doc (or .odt) document. How can I do this easily?

Thanks!

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?

How can I blog in Italy?

Postroad — Tue, 05 May 2009 04:51:55 -0800

Planning two-week trip to Italy this summer and would like to keep blogging but... I have a heavily trafficked blog I do every morning. I am going away to Italy, a tour guided trip once there, and would like to continue to blog while away. At home, I use an IMac. Can I get, say, a netbook, or IPhone, or laptop and use it while touring? That is will I find WiFi readily available or is it at best random in Italian cities? Which light, small device makes the most sense for ease and weight and use?

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?

Easy, free way to create a single form-editable web page on my static HTML site?

ManInSuit — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:18:44 -0800

Easy, free way to create a single form-editable web page on my static HTML site? I run a pretty simple web site that I edit myself using Dreamweaver.

There’s a single page on the site that I’d like to be able to have a friend update/edit periodically. The page being edited is a really simply page- no fancy layout or anything.

I’d like my friend to be able to do this editing without having to download any tools or learn anything too complicated– just do it through a web page.

Is there some way to do this that’s free, relatively easy to set up, and easy to use?

I’m imagining something like a free online WYSIWYG html editor that can do FTP. Or some sort of free hosting/blogging service that lets you export pages to another site. Or maybe some clever hack I haven't thought of...

Any tips, ideas, much appreciated.