Blog News Watch

Today’s post marks the first in a series of posts on “blogging basics” - the fundamentals of blogging.

Seems everybody’s doing it these days - from huge corporations to politicians running for office to the kid who mows your grass. You read blogs frequently. Maybe you even know your way around a RSS reader. But you don’t have one of your own. And while the thought’s intriguing, perhaps it’s also a bit scary. So, how can you tell when you’re ready for a blog?

Here are a few considerations to keep in mind when making this decision:

• While blogging might not be brain surgery or rocket science, it does pose something of a learning curve. How much of a learning curve depends on several factors: your prior experience with similar technologies, which platform you choose, the purpose of your blog, what elements you choose to include in your blog (such as podcasting, vlogging, images, pure text …) - and so many others. That said, most people find most WYSIWYG blog editors to be fairly intuitive and user-friendly. Bottom line: Do consider the learning curve, but don’t let it drive the decision.
• Any publication of personal facts will remain on the web forever. Ergo, you have to exercise close control over what you write, and how you write it. There really is no erasure of material once it’s hit the web. Thanks to the WayBack Machine, clone sites, and the general power of the ‘net, web-published material has a life span of forever, making personal disclosures and angry rants a dicey proposition at best. Bottom line: Something to be aware of but again, don’t let it drive your decision.
• Close corollary to the previous rule: Whatever you write WILL be seen by the one person you really don’t want to see it. You have to write as if everyone, in fact, will see the post (because it’s possible that your audience will be far broader than you anticipate, and because blogs, unless password-protected or behind some other security measure, will be accessible to anyone with a browser). Think about this carefully. If you’re considering a personal blog, there will be an ongoing dance you’ll have to learn the steps to - how much to disclose, whether to protect someone’s privacy and how far to go, etc. These are issues bloggers face every day. Are you ready to deal with those questions? Bottom line: A question only you can answer, but you should definitely give it good thought.
• What’s your purpose in blogging? That will drive your decision in large part. If you’re looking to market a business, say, there are very different considerations there than in a personal journal-type blog. Bottom line: Think about the purpose, which will also drive the next factor
• The time commitment: the biggest factor of all. It looks deceptively easy - dash off a few lines, click a few buttons, publish. But while the procedural steps to publishing a post might be easy, the process itself definitely isn’t - or shouldn’t be. If you don’t give a fig about things like capitalization, grammar, spelling, good writing - by all means, dive in. Your time commitment will be negligible. But if you have any desire to control your image on the web (something that should be kept in mind for all of us - see the rule above about things never going away), then you’ll want to give some increased effort to ensuring a quality product. That means time - time to research, to properly attribute, to revise the post for grammar and typos, not to mention cohesiveness and coherence. And since blogs are hallmarked by regular publication (although that can mean once a month for some, I’d aim for at least a few times a week), multiply that time by 2 or 3, to get your weekly commitment. Bottom line: Think long and hard about this one; if you can’t commit to the time it takes to publish a quality blog, reconsider. Maybe a different avenue of publication is for you - perhaps one-off articles posted to a static website?

So, to my would-be bloggers out there, I hope this helps frame the debate in your head. I’m sure readers have different suggestions of things to think about, so why not post them in the comments section so we can all benefit?

should I blog, blogging, quality blog posts, blogging basics