A Guide to Blogging for the
Unini2ated
Knowing your RSS from your elbow and other
lessons in the social web
Matt Machell,
Presentation for Library Services
at Birmingham City University June 09

A blog is a website
(but optimised from the lessons learned in ten
years of online publishing)

A blog might have
• Articles in reverse chronological order
• Comments
• Tools like RSS feeds
• None of the above

A blog is an easy to use tool for
ge:ng your content on the web
How easy? Let’s see…

Wri2ng about the actual subject

Some blogs I like
• Seth Godin’s Blog
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
• Mashable
http://mashable.com/
• Signal Vs Noise
http://www.37signals.com/svn/

Some blogs I’m involved with:
• The Mental Health Lecturer's Tea Party
http://blogs.bcu.ac.uk/mentalhealth/
• The Multipack
http://multipack.co.uk/blog
• Newdadsite
http://newdadsite.com/

But you might be more interested in:
• The Blog Worm
http://theblogworm.blogspot.com/
• Confessions of a Science Librarian
http://scienceblogs.com/confessions/
• The Shifted Librarian
http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/

Special Men2on
• Electronic Resources at the Unversity
http://eresource.wordpress.com/

Blogs are about what
interests people
What interests you?
Politics, hobbies, careers, life?

Why blogging works
• Web native platform
• Has an authentic voice
• Interactive
• Takes advantage of the network

RSS/Feeds
• Allow you to follow blogs without visiting
• Included in modern web browsers
Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari
• Best with an aggregator
netvibes.com, google.com/reader

Comments
• Are often more useful than the article itself
• Help you build & improve your content
• Need moderation
Oh, and there’s lots of spam comments,
but we have Akismet

Trackbacks & Pings
• Trackbacks tell you if another blog links to
you
• Pings tell services that you’ve updated
They’re useful for discovery!

The Wider Web
Blogs harness and embed other services like:
• Twitter
twitter.com/shuckle
• Flickr
Flickr.com/shuckle
• Slideshare
Slideshare.net/shuckle

Feedback Loops
• On the internet somebody is always
interested
• Conversations grow your readership
• People who are interested contribute

A blog could be your
base on the web
(What you put in that “your website” field
when you sign up for services)

A good blog is a CV
• Shows your expertise
• Shows your industry awareness
• Shows your personality
This might not be the best thing…

Never say anything online you
wouldn’t want your mother or
employer to read

The Brand of You
(But we get your reflected glory)

Find & Engage Your Tribe
• Decide what you’re passionate about
For me web design, web development, accessibility
• blogsearch.google.com
Look for your favourite subject, blog, area or even your name

Go where people are
Get out there and engage!

DO NOT SPAM

Making a blog “successful”

Q: “Why isn’t my site number one
on Google?”

A: Because a web page is not a
web presence.

The link economy
People find pages via other pages
• Links mean Traffic
• Links mean Pagerank
• Which means more traffic

Linkbait
• Something useful
Whitepapers, how to articles
• Something remarkable
The first article on, top ten lists
• Something people must share
definitive references, reviews

Other Ways of Ge:ng Links
• Bookmark services and directories
delicious.com, top ten X posts, stumbleupon
• Talk to other blogs
post comments on other blogs, link to them
• Use networks
linkedin, facebook, forums, mailing lists, local networks and twitter

Talk About Other People
• Write a review
I wrote about a web accessibility book
• Write about an event
I wrote about conferences I attended
• Write some commentary
I wrote about problems businesses have understanding accessibility’s benefits

Measuring Impact & Engagement
• Stats and Analytics
Where did visitors come from? What did they view?
What did they search for?
• Tools to track impact
Postrank.com , blogsearch.google.com

Example
• Pick two concepts popular in your niche
Jquery and Twitter
• Write a post that combines them
Project Twitter
• Seed the link
delicious.com > Ajaxline > Jquery on Twitter
• Watch as traffic spikes
200+ viewers in 24hrs

All this takes
2me and effort

A blog is not the
solu2on to every problem
• Not article‐based?
• Private information?
• Official information channel?
• Tone?
What problem are you solving?

Need Support or Advice?
• Brum Bloggers and
The Social Media Surgeries
http://www.paradisecircus.com
• School of Media
• CICT and Marketing

Blogs About blogging
• Copyblogger.com
Writing for the web
• problogger.net
Blogging tips and tricks

Q: How do I get to number one on
Google?

A: About 6 months worth of:
• Posting on‐topic articles
• Using the right categories
• Building links and connections
Not stopping…

Bonus Links :
Useful library‐focused material
• Inspiring the iGeneration conference wiki
http://inspiringtheigeneration.wetpaint.com/