This document provides an overview of blogging, including a brief history, different types of blogs, how to get started, developing a blog strategy, tips for success, building an audience, using analytics, and resources for images and keywords. Key points covered include the evolution of blogs from the 1990s to today, common blogging platforms, the importance of focus, tone, target audience and goals in a blog strategy, and tips for writing engaging blog posts and building readership over time.
7. Short History of Blogging
Blogging Types/Platforms
Getting Started (platforms, writing,
strategy)
Blog strategy exercise
Success Tips
Building an Audience/Analytics
Questions
What we will cover
8. Advent of online diaries = Early 1990s
Weblog coined = 1997
Blog coined =1999
LiveJournal founded = 1999
Advent of niche blogs = 2001
History of Blogs
10. o 6.7 Million people blog on blogging
platforms
o 77% of Internet users read blogs
o 23% of Internet time is spent on blogs
o 14% of bloggers earn a salary through
blogging
o Average annual income = $24,000
o Average blogger salary = $33,000
o 95% of blogs abandoned after 120 days
The Blogosphere today (stats from
Pew, Technorati, Wordpress)
14. o Business/Professional Blogs
(Marketing, Public Relations/Branding)
o Internal/Employee Blogs
o Business to Business blogs
o Business to Consumer blogs
Blogging Types
20. Four Things You Need To Get
Started
Blogging Platform (Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr,
Medium, Squarespace)
Host: (Host Gator, Blue Host)
Domain Name: (GoDaddy, Fat Cow, Web.com)
Analytics: (Google Analytics, Clicky)
22. How to choose the right platform
Are you not super tech-savvy? (Wordpress.com,
Medium)
Do you want to start for free? (Wordpress.com,
Tumblr, Medium)
Do you want/need to host on your own server?
(Wordpress.com, Squarespace)
Do you want to host ads? (Wordpress.com,
Squarespace)
Do you have a specific niche audience you want
to focus on (Medium, Tumblr)
23. Blog Strategy
Its not meant to lock you in, but to keep
you focused, and prevent you from
becoming the 95%
24. Starting A Blog Strategy
Focus: Consider potential blog topics that youre interested
in and keep track of associated topics (also helpful for
figuring out domain name and editorial calendar) What
dont you want write about?
Tone and Voice: Serious, Funny, Snarky, Academic?
Target Audience: (Men, Women, 20-somethings? Where
do they live? What do they like? What else do they read?)
Competition/Affiliates: Research blogs similar to yours or
blogs that you like. Keep an eye on high traffic blogs.
Endgame/Goal: What is it? To build a brand/establish
expertise? Monetization? Promotion for business?
26. A Blog Strategy The Learned
Fangirl (2007- Present)
Focus: A woman-focused blog about pop culture and geek
culture. Not newsy, more essay driven.
Tone and Voice: Smart but irreverent. A slightly academic
tone, slow-read and not newsy.
Target Audience: Gen X/Gen Y Women who went to grad
school in film studies and never use their degree.
Competition/Affiliates: Bitch Magazine, Bust Magazine,
The Mary Sue
Endgame/Goal: Build a platform for women writers doing
smart pop culture criticism. Build a large enough audience
to get ads/sponsorship to pay people.
27. Whats Your Blog Strategy?
Focus:
Tone and Voice:
Target Audience:
Competition/Affiliates:
Endgame/Goal:
28. Anatomy of a Blog Post
Titles MatterTitles Matter
Pick great artPick great art
Link for contextLink for context
Concise, snappy copyConcise, snappy copy
29. Blogging success tips
Write with keywords (the words or phrases that Internet
users search for online) in mind.
Be concise. Meandering sentences and wordy paragraphs
can turn casual readers off (unless your focus is literary)
31. Blogging success tips
Links to source/references are your way of adding
authority" as well as context.
Dont go shorter than 300 words for a post (Youll be
penalized by Google), but if you go longer break up the
text with subheaders for scannability
33. Blogging success tips
Vary content -- some items for "newbies" & some for return
visitors.
Add context to newer blog posts by linking to your own
previous posts -- establish a sense of authority and keep
people reading.
.
34. Blogging success tips
Set up some search engine alerts, follow recent news to
become an expert over time and add value to your postings.
.
Keep a schedule of blog post topics (at least at first) to get
used to making it a habit.
38. Blogging success tips
Share but don't steal (always attribute quotes/pictures to
the original author)
Consider picture quality (original pictures if at all possible)
39. Building an Audience
Find power users and write great content for them to
share
SEO, Ads, Facebook and Twitter are great but to boost
numbers significantly, dont forget:
Stumbleupon
Reddit
Digg
Guest blogging on high-traffic sites
Conferences
Newsletter
40. Analytics
Find out who your visitors are, what they are reading, what
they are responding to.
I do a weekly blog traffic report for my job:
Number of unique visitors
Most read posts
Referrers (what websites our visitors are coming from)
Clicks (what links people are going to most often.
#8: 1. Go over "As we may think" and why the link is important in blogging -- it is like a new part of speech. "Like we think" is what we would say today.
2. Lethem -- in a blog you can create a layered meta document which you author, but it includes contributions of various kinds. Be sure to attribute. Be sure to LINK, don't copy.
3. Quick overview of OS from software to a larger meaning. Tied to transparency, reputation as "currency" & social networks as important.
#9: 1. Go over "As we may think" and why the link is important in blogging -- it is like a new part of speech. "Like we think" is what we would say today.
2. Lethem -- in a blog you can create a layered meta document which you author, but it includes contributions of various kinds. Be sure to attribute. Be sure to LINK, don't copy.
3. Quick overview of OS from software to a larger meaning. Tied to transparency, reputation as "currency" & social networks as important.
#10: 1. Go over "As we may think" and why the link is important in blogging -- it is like a new part of speech. "Like we think" is what we would say today.
2. Lethem -- in a blog you can create a layered meta document which you author, but it includes contributions of various kinds. Be sure to attribute. Be sure to LINK, don't copy.
3. Quick overview of OS from software to a larger meaning. Tied to transparency, reputation as "currency" & social networks as important.
#11: Quick look at a how big blogging is.
Building a community, offering interesting content via links, putting people in touch with news they need--aggregating is a very good aim for a blog
#12: Quick look at a how big blogging is.
Building a community, offering interesting content via links, putting people in touch with news they need--aggregating is a very good aim for a blog
#13: Quick look at a how big blogging is.
Building a community, offering interesting content via links, putting people in touch with news they need--aggregating is a very good aim for a blog
#14: Quick look at a how big blogging is.
Building a community, offering interesting content via links, putting people in touch with news they need--aggregating is a very good aim for a blog
#15: Quick look at a how big blogging is.
Building a community, offering interesting content via links, putting people in touch with news they need--aggregating is a very good aim for a blog
#21: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#22: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#23: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#25: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#27: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#28: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#30: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#31: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#32: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#33: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#34: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#35: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#36: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#37: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#38: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories
#39: Blogging is building a community. It is like a space. Why will readers want to visit your site-- here are some ways to do that.
Try and "write on top of the news."
Give your audience facts, not just opinion and show the facts with links
Give an old idea a new spin
Link to get links
"Perfect is the enemy of done"
Focus on specifics and details -- localize stories