Being A Better Blogger
Looping back to 'blogging about blogs . . .' because I'm not brave enough to talk about other things.
This week, in my inbox, there was an e-mail from TechRepublic, “10 Ways to Become a Better Blogger.”
I am not above trying to improve myself, so I looked at the article. Actually, I downloaded the PDF of the article and read it later. I feel like talking about it now.
Overall the 10 ways are really just generic 'be a better periodical writer.” This is not an attempt to discount the article. It is a realization that most people write like most people read. They don't, unless they have to. So a blog, website or forum may actually be the only writing outlet a particular individual has. And as long as we avoid actually calling it witting, I am sure we can keep them doing it.
The article did get me thinking. Maybe it would be good to go through and see how I am doing against some of it's points. I am not going to quote the whole article, so please follow the link and read it yourself.
#1: Define your purpose
I really do not have a purpose. This is just something that I want to do, more or less as I am doing it.
I have thought about trying to specialize a little. I do content management at work. I am very opinionated. Maybe I should opine about content management.
I like CyanWorlds Uru. And I intend to add content about that game when Myst Online: UruLive launches. Right now, the game is still in beta, and all of us are waiting to see what they are going to do with it now that it is part of GameTap and Turner.
Beyond that, purpose for me is the list of things I really do not want to write about. I have other outlets for some things, or I just really do not want to be bothered.
Politics, Television, Music, general pop culture things, the weather. These are things I really do not want to write about.
I do dream that someday a community will evolve around this site. That would give me something to do. I kind of like setting things up and playing with them.
#2: Create Visual Appeal
I have talked about the layout and design of the site. I have even run polls asking how anyone who bothered to give an opinion felt about this layout of this site. I like the way this site looks. If you do not, may I suggest starting here? Yes, you to can read SysMango without actually being here.
#3: Use the Proper Tools
This part I did not like. I think they are trying to say do not code the whole thing by hand. Personally, I use OpenOffice.org and TinyMCE (and cut-and-paste). That's as tooly as I get. I have tried a couple of different tools, but I find that half the time, either my CMS's and the tools implementation of certain protocols are not really 100% compatible. So I'll stick with the tools I have here.
The site is run via Drupal. I like it. It works for me. I wanted a tool that let me do more than just have a blog that did comments. MovableType gave me that, but what about forums? What about images? What if I get brave and try audio or video?
I used to have the weblog in MT, with a page that looked like the MT theme hosting the webcam. For pictures, I used Picasa's integration with Blogger and Hello to host images, and manually linked images into posts. To have done a forum, I would have needed another authentication source, and I'm not sure what would have or could have been possible.
I want more than just a blog. And I wanted to do it myself.
#4: Make It Easy to Navigate
Natalie has made some suggestions about layout for navigation. I have a set of links that show up on every single page.
User Login used to collapse similar to the other sidebars. Natalie suggested that made it harder to get people to login. It was lost. I hope this makes it easier.
I think the pictures are important, so they also do not collapse.
Drupal is actually pretty good about giving a site usable navigation without a lot of effort. And I might as well repeat the points I made under #3.
#5: Stay in One Place
I haven't gone anywhere. Really.
#6: Engage You Readers
Look at #3 again. The whole reason I'm in Drupal is because I wanted to engage you in a conversation, form a relationship and have both of us get some value.
But I'm not crazy. I understand that there is a lot more going on in your life than you running out here to read me. I want to post interesting content. I do not want to just repackage the evening news, NPR, YouTube and things that there are other sites. Part of me thinks that the world is full of sites that are nothing more than disorganized links done by people who want to strike it rich on the next supposed Internet thing. I just want to be lucky to occasionally amuse you. That and occasionally write something that makes it look like I do have an idea.
Of course this could be the result of not having a specific purpose here.
#7: Establish a Blogging Schedule
Everyday, there are ideas I have that I think would be interesting content for this site. Most of it I forget before I get it out of my head. I do not just want to be another collection of links to what everyone else is talking about. That being said, the 'what did I do this weekend' format I fall into just bothers me. I might make it a forum, with the weather and the roads.
I cannot remember if I bothered to mention it, but I have been posting the various storms that have popped up over in the Forums. There were two reasons for this. Primarily, it was the bit that this is not a site about weather. For that I use The Weather Channel and AccuWeather, in addition to NOAA. Right now, it's been mostly AccuWeather. It is are available via Avantgo.
It is too easy to write about the weather and not say anything meaningful. So I'll leave that to the forums and the experts, unless I think I have something to say.
The other reason is the combination of two statements.
If you don't have anything nice to say, talk about the weather and the roads.
and
Never talk about the weather and the roads.
So, I leave the weather (and the roads) out of this blog, and land them in the forums. If anyone has an interest in saying more about the weather or the roads, please feel free to post something there.
Beyond that, I do feel bad about not posting more than once a week. But I feel worse if what I post just doesn't live up to what I think.
#8: Keep It Concise
Next . . .
Seriously. I”m writing because I want to, and most of these thoughts would never get through a density filter. And now, almost three pages later. . . and some of my formatting and word choices are made to make the posts longer.
#9: Proofreed
See the bit about Tools. OO.o is there because it can check my spelling and grammar.
#10: Syndicate Yourself.
Already doing that here. Check my About page. I even read this site via Bloglines and Avantgo.
Mea Culpa and Resources
To really get this post, one may actually have to follow a link, and read the item that caused me to think about it. I am also going to include another link or two to other bits about the samething.
A List Apart's Gentle Reader, Stay Awhile; I Will Be Faithful
All of ALA's content about writing for the web is useful
