Blogging For Beginners

Blogging For Beginners Ken McGuire www.kenmc.com www.eventmedia.ie www.artlinks.ie

Introduction
Ken McGuire
Blogging since 2004
Serial blogger
Irish Blog Awards
Podcasting since 2006

Agenda
Blogging background
What, why, how?
Blogging platforms
Setting up a blog
Blog writing hints and tips
Promoting your blog
RSS, comments, emails etc.

Goals For Today
Learn about blogs, what they are, how they work.
Discover how to set up a blog for free.
Find out how easy it is to make your first blog post.
Discover free ways to promote your blog.

What Is A Blog?
Short for ‘web log’
Collection of blog posts / news items / stories published in a dated order.
Think of it as a diary.
Blogs have posts, and pages.
Versatile - can be about anything

Blog, Blogger, Blogging
Blog: A web log
Blogger: Someone who maintains a blog
Blogging: The process of creating / maintaining a blog

Blogging Platforms
Blogger (requires Google email)
Wordpress (personal favourite)
Leading the way for blogging platforms
Typepad (fee-based)
Blogosphere - The global blog community. Blog O’Sphere.

Blog Ingredients
Blog Posts
About Page
Contact Page
Other relevant details
Sound clips, writing samples, gallery of works.

Blogs vs Web Sites
Are they the same?
Your blog is your website.
Just like older websites, you can have
A photo gallery
A portfolio
Videos, music…
A blog is a social website (interaction)

Some Blog Statistics
Technorati trackings 112.8 million blogs (Feb 2008).
72.82 million blogs in China
17.5m authors 2006, 40m 2007
Several thousand Irish bloggers
93,041 new blogs in day (May 19th 2008)
Source: blogpulse.com
1.6 million posts a day (July 2006)

More Creative Types Blogging
Not just technology bloggers.
Food bloggers (icecreamireland.com)
Photo bloggers (kenmcguirephotography.com)
Patchwork (quiltingandpatchwork.com)
Fashion (iamfashion.blogspot.com/)
Beauty (beaut.ie)

What Can A Blog Do For You?
Connect you with fellow artists.
Showcase your recent works.
Build you an audience for your work.
Establish you as an authority figure.
Land you a book deal… (all in good time!)
TwentyMajor.net / Fiona McPhillips / IceCream Ireland / Darren Rowse…

What Can A Blog Do For You?
“ I now realise how beneficial this blog is. It is almost like a creative diary. It allows me to reflect back on my practice as an artist, it helps me understand my way of approaching new ideas and my way of working creatively.”
Liselott, May 19th 2008

Why Blogs Are Liked
They’re web based
Everything runs from the web, no installing of software.
Access anywhere.
You don’t need to learn a language
HTML, PHP etc.
Blog community constantly growing.

Why Do You Need A Blog?
Build *your* personal brand.
Showcase for your works.
Become visible on the web.
Keep others informed.

Deciding What To Blog
Follow your craft
Music (kilkennymusic.com)
Theatre (devioustheatre.com)
Blogging (profreelanceblogger.com)
The more ‘niche’ the better…
Felt, batik, music therapy, sculpture, sound design…

Deciding What To Blog
As an artist…
Residency at no.72
Recording an album (process)
Building a studio
Preparing for an exhibition
Touring with a band
Preparing to publish a book

Artist Blogs
No72 John Street
http://no72.wordpress.com
Martha Marshall
http://artistsjournal.blogspot.com/
Nancy Standlee
http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com/

Writing Tips

Writing Tips
Be yourself.
It is ok to have an opinion.
“ You can’t be an authority on a topic if you don’t have faith in your own opinion”, SD.
Proper titles.
Cheek you’re sspelling and grammar.

Writing Tips
Pick a topic and stick to it.
The more niche the better.
Support your post with relevant links.
Write Less, Write Often.
Lists are good.
Pick a style and stick to it.

Setting Up A Blog

Creating A Wordpress Blog
Go to www.wordpress.com
Click ‘Sign Up Now’
Enter a username, password, email.
Choose name for blog.
Confirm registration by email.
Get writing!

Your First Blog Post
Title
Be descriptive, be precise
Title will appear in search engine results
Content
Relevant links
Tags
Publish

Your First Blog Page
Additional content to homepage.
Title, content, links as before.
Chance to sell yourself, do it well.
Pages have an order of their own.
Contact details, about you, links, profiles, exhibition dates etc.

Advertising Your Blog

Why Advertise Your Blog?
To be found.
To sell your work.
To increase your readership.
To network with other bloggers and artists.

Where To Advertise
Blog Directories
Blog Flux, IrishBlogs.info, BlogCatalog.com
Social Networks
MySpace / Facebook / Bebo
Microblogging
Twitter / Jaiku
RSS Feeds / Email Feeds

Where To Advertise
Flyers for your blog
Add blog URL to business cards
Email signatures
Press releases

Promoting Individual Posts
StumbleUpon
Great for information-based blogs, tutorials, guides, “how-to” type posts.
Digg.com
Suitable for news-type blogs
Del.icio.us
Sharing bookmarks, public listing.

Measuring Blog Traffic
Wordpress.com stats
Google Analytics
Statcounter
Technorati

RSS Feeds / Email
RSS = Really Simple Syndication.
Web ‘feeds’ used to deliver content.
Allows content to be aggregated.
Works via mobile phone / email or and ‘feed reader’.
Built into most common blog platforms.
Visit once, subscribe for free.

Google Reader

Microblogging
Twitter / Jaiku
Blog via SMS
Message is 140 characters or less
Social network
Immediate, Global.

Earning Blog Revenue
You can make money blogging.
Text ads, affiliate links.
Top 50 blogs earn $500m p/a.
University of Texas study
Google AdSense easiest, most effective.

Blogging Is A Marathon
Marthon, not a sprint
If you build it, they will take their sweet time, but they will come.
Be consistent, or appear consistent

Communication Is Key
Communication builds communities
Reply to your emails
Reply to your comments
Engage your blog readers
Encourage subscriptions

Thank You
Ken McGuire [email_address]
www.kenmc.com
www.eventmedia.ie

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Blogging For Beginners

by Event Media on Jan 08, 2009

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Blogging For Beginners — Presentation Transcript