Get fresh blog entries automatically delivered to your computer
You’ve probably heard the term RSS, but you might not know what it means. In fact there are several different explanations for what RSS stands for, though the most common is “Really Simple Syndication.”
Basically, RSS is a way to “subscribe” to blog. With RSS, you can sit back and have blog entries delivered to you, instead of using your Web browser to visit a blog to see what’s new. In RSS jargon, a subscription is called a “feed,” because it’s a stream of information that your RSS reader “consumes” and displays for you to read. It’s a bit like receiving email messages.
Here’s an example of an RSS feed: I have a blog, called Mad Professor (madprofessor.net), where I review books, tools, toys, software, movies, and music. One way to read the blog is by visiting the Web site, which looks like the screenshot on page 28.
Another way to read Mad Professor is by subscribing to its RSS feed. The image on page 29 shows what Mad Professor looks like in an RSS reader.
I’m a devoted RSS user. I have RSS subscriptions to a couple of hundred different blogs, and I can go through them very quickly using my RSS reader program. Instead of having to visit all those site individually, I can browse a list of headlines from all my subscribed feeds in one window. If I’m not interested in a headline, I don’t bother reading the post. (Most RSS reader also allow you to browse complete posts, but keep in mind that some blogs only publish their headlines to RSS to keep you clicking through to their sites-and bring in some ad revenue while you’re at it.) And I prefer the clean, spare look of RSS to the many over-designed, slow-loading blogs out there. (Why do so many bloggers think yellow text on a purple background is cool?
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Can I Blog Anonymously?
if you want to be heard but not seen, blog anonymously
I always attach my name to anything I write online, because I feel that it’s important to stand behind what I say in public. But I also understand that anonymous speech is sometimes necessary. Corporate whistleblowers and political dissidents living under oppressive regimes have a right to be heard without getting fired or imprisoned.
For example, in 2004, a young Internet journalist from Tunisia, Zouhair Yohyaoui, wrote an entry on his popular TUNeZINE blog asking his readers to vote on whether Tunisia was a “republic, a kingdom, a zoo, or a prison.” Soon after, six Tunisian secret policemen arrested him while he was in a cybercafe. Yahyaoui was held without charges and tortured until he revealed his blog password, after which the Tunisian government removed his blog from the Internet He was held in prison under appalling conditions, and died there in 2005.
That’s one reason I like the idea of anonymous blogging. BlogSafer (anoniblog.pbwiki.com) is a guide for blogging in conntries that frown on free speech. It offers guides for bloggers in Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, and other countries where bloggers must live in fear that they’ll suffer the same fate as Zouhair Yahyaoui.
Does anonymous blogging have a potential for abuse? Sure it does But to me, the benefits of anonymous speech outweigh the dangers
I always attach my name to anything I write online, because I feel that it’s important to stand behind what I say in public. But I also understand that anonymous speech is sometimes necessary. Corporate whistleblowers and political dissidents living under oppressive regimes have a right to be heard without getting fired or imprisoned.
For example, in 2004, a young Internet journalist from Tunisia, Zouhair Yohyaoui, wrote an entry on his popular TUNeZINE blog asking his readers to vote on whether Tunisia was a “republic, a kingdom, a zoo, or a prison.” Soon after, six Tunisian secret policemen arrested him while he was in a cybercafe. Yahyaoui was held without charges and tortured until he revealed his blog password, after which the Tunisian government removed his blog from the Internet He was held in prison under appalling conditions, and died there in 2005.
That’s one reason I like the idea of anonymous blogging. BlogSafer (anoniblog.pbwiki.com) is a guide for blogging in conntries that frown on free speech. It offers guides for bloggers in Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, and other countries where bloggers must live in fear that they’ll suffer the same fate as Zouhair Yahyaoui.
Does anonymous blogging have a potential for abuse? Sure it does But to me, the benefits of anonymous speech outweigh the dangers
What Are Some Tips for Running a Popular Blog?
Follow a few simple rules to ensure your blog gets the readership it deserves
I love blogging. The idea that anyone with a cheap computer and a $20-a-month Internet connection can publish words, pictures, videos, and audio to a potential audience of a billion people never fails to excites me. This kind of media broadcasting power would have cost millions of dollars just a decade or two ago. I wrote an article about blogging for a business magazine called the Industry Standard and fell in love with this form of self-publishing. (The Standard killed the article because the editors thought blogs were a passing fad! The Earth Review ended up publishing the article in its Winter 2000 edition. You can read it here: (kk.org/tools/page52-54.pdf.)
With over half a decade of blogging under my belt, I’ve learned a lot about publishing a successful blog. Today, Boing Boing is the most popular English-language blog in the world, according to the blog-ranking service Technorati (technorati.com). It’s won Webby awards and Bloggy awards for several years running, and has over one million daily readers (including people who subscribe to it via RSS). I edit Boing Boing with three friends: Cory Doctorow (a science fiction author) and Xeni Jardin (a freelance journalist and regular technology contributor to National Public Radio). Boing Boing’s business manager, John Battelle, was the founder and publisher of The Industry Standard-oh, the irony! In all Fairness, though, John didn’t deal with editorial content for the magazine and had no idea I’d written the article. Today, Boing Boing has turned into a profitable business, thanks to advertising revenue.
Through all of this, I’ve thought about what it is that has mad e Boing Boing (and other blogs) successful and interesting. Here are some tips that should come in handy:
1. Write about what you’re interested in. The cardinal rule of blogging is to write about the things that fascinate you. It may sound obvious, but I’m surprised at the number of people who post things just because they think they will attract more readers to their site. Nothing is further from the truth. if you aren’t passionate about the thing you’re writing about, readers will quickly become bored and never return. If you happen to love collecting vintage guitar-string envelopes, then by all means start a blog about it. I promise you that the other thousand people around the world who share interests will find you and become loyal readers. In short, create the kind of blog that you would like to read yourself.
2. Don’t worry about being the first person to post something. Some bloggers think it’s crucial to be the first to blog a story. Casing after scoops is foolish. With literally millions of blogs out there, and thousands of new ones appearing every day, it’s unlikely you’ll be the first one in the blogosphere to cover a news event. Instead, focus on finding things that interest you (rule#1, again) and adding your unique perspective. And re-member, if a piece of new to a lot other people as well.
3. limit the number of links you have in an entry. On Boing boing, we usually try to include just one link per entry, and place it at the bottom of the entry. That’s because each entry should be about one idea, not a bunch of scattered thoughts with links going in all different directions across the Web. there are exception to this rule, of course, and sometimes you really do need to have two or more links in an entry for comparison purpose, but the “one –entry/one link” restriction is a good starting point.
4. Write at least one entry every day (weekends excepted). Think of your readers as laboratory animals in an experimental cage that’s equipped with a bunch of levers. The leavers are blogs. If the lever you control dispenses a tasty morsel each time it’s pushed, the animals’ effort, the animals will stop pressing your lever and look for a more reliable source of nutrition. That’s why it’s good to post at least one blog entry a day, because people will get used to the idea that your blog will deliver a treat each time they visit.
5. Use pictures. If you own the rights (or have the permission from the rights holder) to a photo or illustration that pertains to the subject you’re writing about, by all means use it. Images are the quickest way for people to determine whether or not a blog entry is worth the time to read. I always include the cover of any book, DVD, CD, or comic book I’m reviewing because it makes the blog page look more interesting. (I don’t worry about securing permission to use them in these cases, because I feel confident that my use of them in a critical review constitutes “fair use”). A few good places to find photos that you can see for free are Open Photo (openphoto.net), Flickr (flickr.com/creativecommons), and Creative Commons (search.creativecommons.org).
Another option is paying to use photos on your blog. iStockphoto (istockphoto.com) is a royalty-free stock photograph community where you can buy the rights to use over a million images on your blog for as little as $1 each and videos for $5 and up. The quality of most photos is excellent, and I guarantee that if you use images that illustrate you writing in a creative and appropriate way, it will make you blog more successful. (If you’re a photographer or illustrator, you can upload your work to iStockphoto and collect royalties when other people use your images.)
6. Include a way for people to suggest links for you to write about. Boing Boing has a “Suggest a Link” from to let readers send us ideas for things to write about and link to. Web get lots of good leads from, you can either install a Formmail script (like the one here: nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/scripts.shtml), which requires some technical know-how, or you can use a form service like Formmail. to (which charges $1 a month) to handle everything for you. Of course, you can also include your email address on your site (or use a Gmail address especially for handling link suggestions), but if you go that route, you should “mask” the address from email-harvesting software used by spammers (see page 363 to learn how to foil email-harvesters).
7. Credit your sources. When someone tells you about an interesting link, or you write about something you discovered while reading another blog, credit that source by providing a link to it. Your source will appreciate it, and will repay you in kind the next time they blog something they came across on your blog.
I love blogging. The idea that anyone with a cheap computer and a $20-a-month Internet connection can publish words, pictures, videos, and audio to a potential audience of a billion people never fails to excites me. This kind of media broadcasting power would have cost millions of dollars just a decade or two ago. I wrote an article about blogging for a business magazine called the Industry Standard and fell in love with this form of self-publishing. (The Standard killed the article because the editors thought blogs were a passing fad! The Earth Review ended up publishing the article in its Winter 2000 edition. You can read it here: (kk.org/tools/page52-54.pdf.)
With over half a decade of blogging under my belt, I’ve learned a lot about publishing a successful blog. Today, Boing Boing is the most popular English-language blog in the world, according to the blog-ranking service Technorati (technorati.com). It’s won Webby awards and Bloggy awards for several years running, and has over one million daily readers (including people who subscribe to it via RSS). I edit Boing Boing with three friends: Cory Doctorow (a science fiction author) and Xeni Jardin (a freelance journalist and regular technology contributor to National Public Radio). Boing Boing’s business manager, John Battelle, was the founder and publisher of The Industry Standard-oh, the irony! In all Fairness, though, John didn’t deal with editorial content for the magazine and had no idea I’d written the article. Today, Boing Boing has turned into a profitable business, thanks to advertising revenue.
Through all of this, I’ve thought about what it is that has mad e Boing Boing (and other blogs) successful and interesting. Here are some tips that should come in handy:
1. Write about what you’re interested in. The cardinal rule of blogging is to write about the things that fascinate you. It may sound obvious, but I’m surprised at the number of people who post things just because they think they will attract more readers to their site. Nothing is further from the truth. if you aren’t passionate about the thing you’re writing about, readers will quickly become bored and never return. If you happen to love collecting vintage guitar-string envelopes, then by all means start a blog about it. I promise you that the other thousand people around the world who share interests will find you and become loyal readers. In short, create the kind of blog that you would like to read yourself.
2. Don’t worry about being the first person to post something. Some bloggers think it’s crucial to be the first to blog a story. Casing after scoops is foolish. With literally millions of blogs out there, and thousands of new ones appearing every day, it’s unlikely you’ll be the first one in the blogosphere to cover a news event. Instead, focus on finding things that interest you (rule#1, again) and adding your unique perspective. And re-member, if a piece of new to a lot other people as well.
3. limit the number of links you have in an entry. On Boing boing, we usually try to include just one link per entry, and place it at the bottom of the entry. That’s because each entry should be about one idea, not a bunch of scattered thoughts with links going in all different directions across the Web. there are exception to this rule, of course, and sometimes you really do need to have two or more links in an entry for comparison purpose, but the “one –entry/one link” restriction is a good starting point.
4. Write at least one entry every day (weekends excepted). Think of your readers as laboratory animals in an experimental cage that’s equipped with a bunch of levers. The leavers are blogs. If the lever you control dispenses a tasty morsel each time it’s pushed, the animals’ effort, the animals will stop pressing your lever and look for a more reliable source of nutrition. That’s why it’s good to post at least one blog entry a day, because people will get used to the idea that your blog will deliver a treat each time they visit.
5. Use pictures. If you own the rights (or have the permission from the rights holder) to a photo or illustration that pertains to the subject you’re writing about, by all means use it. Images are the quickest way for people to determine whether or not a blog entry is worth the time to read. I always include the cover of any book, DVD, CD, or comic book I’m reviewing because it makes the blog page look more interesting. (I don’t worry about securing permission to use them in these cases, because I feel confident that my use of them in a critical review constitutes “fair use”). A few good places to find photos that you can see for free are Open Photo (openphoto.net), Flickr (flickr.com/creativecommons), and Creative Commons (search.creativecommons.org).
Another option is paying to use photos on your blog. iStockphoto (istockphoto.com) is a royalty-free stock photograph community where you can buy the rights to use over a million images on your blog for as little as $1 each and videos for $5 and up. The quality of most photos is excellent, and I guarantee that if you use images that illustrate you writing in a creative and appropriate way, it will make you blog more successful. (If you’re a photographer or illustrator, you can upload your work to iStockphoto and collect royalties when other people use your images.)
6. Include a way for people to suggest links for you to write about. Boing Boing has a “Suggest a Link” from to let readers send us ideas for things to write about and link to. Web get lots of good leads from, you can either install a Formmail script (like the one here: nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/scripts.shtml), which requires some technical know-how, or you can use a form service like Formmail. to (which charges $1 a month) to handle everything for you. Of course, you can also include your email address on your site (or use a Gmail address especially for handling link suggestions), but if you go that route, you should “mask” the address from email-harvesting software used by spammers (see page 363 to learn how to foil email-harvesters).
7. Credit your sources. When someone tells you about an interesting link, or you write about something you discovered while reading another blog, credit that source by providing a link to it. Your source will appreciate it, and will repay you in kind the next time they blog something they came across on your blog.
Creating a blog using vox
Vox is a relative newcomer to the “instant blogging” arena. In some ways it’s the easiest blogging service to use, and in others, it’s one of the more confusing-mainly because of all it has to offer. SixApart designed Vox for showcasing audio, photos, and videos, making it easy to incorporate them into your blog entries. Like Blogger, Vox can generate your blog in a matter of minutes.
1. Sign up for a free account at vox.com.
2. Click on “Design” to choose a layout and a theme. You can also edit the name of your blog here (see page 19). Click on “My Vox Blog” at any time to see what the result looks like.
3. In the upper-right corner, you’ll see a silhouette of a head with a question mark in it. Roll your cursor over it and a small menu will appear. Choose “Edit your profile” and enter as much personal information about yourself as you care to share with the public. You can also upload a photo of yourself.
4. If you’d like to post messages to your blog using your mobile phone, click “Mobile Settings.” You’ll be given an email address you can use to send messages from your phone. Be sure to click the “Create Post” Link and choose “Yes (create post for items sent to this email)” from the pull-down menu.
5. Click “Outside Services” if you’d like to integrate your Flick or Photobucket account with you Vox blog, or if you’d like to cross-post with a TypePad account that you already have.
6. Click “Privacy Notifications” and “Posting Defaults” to set defaults for who can visit your blog: friends, family, or the public. You can also fine-tune the privacy of each entry when you post.
7. Now that you’ve designed your blog and finished the other setup details, you can start writing entries. Click on “Compose” and enter text in the window. You can format your text by clicking on the buttons along the top of the text entry window, and add links by clicking on the chain icon. The icon of two people lets you link to other Vox users you’ve added to your list.
Note the row of buttons directly above the formatting buttons. (See above.) These let you insert “items” into your blog entries. You can add photos, books, audio, videos, and something called “collections.” Let’s look at them one by one.
Photos: When you click on the Photo button, Vox gives you the option of adding photos from your computer, your Flickr account, your Photobucket account, or iStockphoto. Click one of the tabs running along the top of the photo window to choose the source. iStockphoto is a stock photography house with thousands of photos that you can use for free on your blog. Search by keyword to find a photo to add some color to your text entry.
Audio: You can add audio from your computer or from Amazon. Actually, when you choose Amazon as your source, it doesn’t add a song link to your site. Instead, it adds an album cover graphic and a link to Amazon. If you choose “My Computer,” you can upload MP3s (or audio in a variety of other formats) when you save the blog entry. Vox posts the audio with an embedded player, so that visitors can listen by clicking a play button. File size for audio is limited to 24MB.
Video: Vox lets you add video from your computer, Amazon, youTube, and iFilm. Again, with Amazon you can’t add actual video-only links to DVDs that Amazon sells. Vox allows you to upload videos up to 50MB.
Books: You can only add books from Amazon and, again, Vox simply inserts a cover image of the book and a link to the Amazon store.
Collections: Before you can insert a “collection” of sounds, images, and videos into a blog entry, you will need to create one. To do that, click “Organize” at the top of the window, and then “Collections” from the list on the left. Click “New” and give your collection a name, such as “Hawaiiania,” or “Hot Rod Hootenanny.” A folder will appear with a small blue button below it. Now you can add items from your Vox library to the collection. To do that, click on one of the item categories, like “Photos.” Roll your mouse cursor over the item you want to add and, when the small arrow appears below it, click it and select “Add to Collection” (see above). Now people will be able to access your entire collection from your blog entry. It’s a fun way to capture the sights and sounds of a vacation or event.
8. Even after you’ve started publishing blog entries, it’s piece of cake to change the layout of your blog. Just click “Design,” select a theme, and apply it to your blog.
1. Sign up for a free account at vox.com.
2. Click on “Design” to choose a layout and a theme. You can also edit the name of your blog here (see page 19). Click on “My Vox Blog” at any time to see what the result looks like.
3. In the upper-right corner, you’ll see a silhouette of a head with a question mark in it. Roll your cursor over it and a small menu will appear. Choose “Edit your profile” and enter as much personal information about yourself as you care to share with the public. You can also upload a photo of yourself.
4. If you’d like to post messages to your blog using your mobile phone, click “Mobile Settings.” You’ll be given an email address you can use to send messages from your phone. Be sure to click the “Create Post” Link and choose “Yes (create post for items sent to this email)” from the pull-down menu.
5. Click “Outside Services” if you’d like to integrate your Flick or Photobucket account with you Vox blog, or if you’d like to cross-post with a TypePad account that you already have.
6. Click “Privacy Notifications” and “Posting Defaults” to set defaults for who can visit your blog: friends, family, or the public. You can also fine-tune the privacy of each entry when you post.
7. Now that you’ve designed your blog and finished the other setup details, you can start writing entries. Click on “Compose” and enter text in the window. You can format your text by clicking on the buttons along the top of the text entry window, and add links by clicking on the chain icon. The icon of two people lets you link to other Vox users you’ve added to your list.
Note the row of buttons directly above the formatting buttons. (See above.) These let you insert “items” into your blog entries. You can add photos, books, audio, videos, and something called “collections.” Let’s look at them one by one.
Photos: When you click on the Photo button, Vox gives you the option of adding photos from your computer, your Flickr account, your Photobucket account, or iStockphoto. Click one of the tabs running along the top of the photo window to choose the source. iStockphoto is a stock photography house with thousands of photos that you can use for free on your blog. Search by keyword to find a photo to add some color to your text entry.
Audio: You can add audio from your computer or from Amazon. Actually, when you choose Amazon as your source, it doesn’t add a song link to your site. Instead, it adds an album cover graphic and a link to Amazon. If you choose “My Computer,” you can upload MP3s (or audio in a variety of other formats) when you save the blog entry. Vox posts the audio with an embedded player, so that visitors can listen by clicking a play button. File size for audio is limited to 24MB.
Video: Vox lets you add video from your computer, Amazon, youTube, and iFilm. Again, with Amazon you can’t add actual video-only links to DVDs that Amazon sells. Vox allows you to upload videos up to 50MB.
Books: You can only add books from Amazon and, again, Vox simply inserts a cover image of the book and a link to the Amazon store.
Collections: Before you can insert a “collection” of sounds, images, and videos into a blog entry, you will need to create one. To do that, click “Organize” at the top of the window, and then “Collections” from the list on the left. Click “New” and give your collection a name, such as “Hawaiiania,” or “Hot Rod Hootenanny.” A folder will appear with a small blue button below it. Now you can add items from your Vox library to the collection. To do that, click on one of the item categories, like “Photos.” Roll your mouse cursor over the item you want to add and, when the small arrow appears below it, click it and select “Add to Collection” (see above). Now people will be able to access your entire collection from your blog entry. It’s a fun way to capture the sights and sounds of a vacation or event.
8. Even after you’ve started publishing blog entries, it’s piece of cake to change the layout of your blog. Just click “Design,” select a theme, and apply it to your blog.
How Do I Create My Own Blog
Building a blog from scratch is a lot easier than you might think
Why would you want to start a blog? Here are a few reasons: 1.) You want to share photos and anecdotes with family members who live far away.2,) You’re an artist and you want to show off your work. 3.) You have a hobby and you want to connect with people who share the same interest. 4.) You want to keep a record of all the cool Web sites you visit so that you and you friends can go back and visit them. 5.) You work in a company that needs to stay on top to research and development news in your industry.6.) You know a lot about a particular other people, and went to engage in debate and conversation with them. 7.) You’re a budding comedian and want to try your jokes out on the public.
Blogs are so popular because they make it easy for anyone to publish on the Web. Before blogging software was developed in the late 1990s, posting fresh material to your Web site was a complex and tedious task. That’s why so many sites read: “Under Construction.” Usually, the sites weren’t really under construction; the person maintaining the site was just tired of the rigmarole required to keep it current, and gave up. (For a funny gallery of “Under Construction” Logos, visit cs.utah.edu/gk.)
The history of blogging can be traced back to 1996, when a site called Xanga.com launched a service that allowed people to maintain online diaries. But blogging didn’t really take off until 1999, when a company called Pyra Labs introduced a service that would change the landscape of the Web. It was called Blogger, and it allowed anyone with an Internet connection to create Web pages that were very easy to update with fresh content. Blogger organized the content in to reverse chronological order (so the most recent content would always be at the top of the page, where it should be), and automatically generated a browsable archive and a searchable database. It was nothing short of a revolution on top of a revolution (the Web) on top of a revolution (the Internet).
Today, there are lots of different ways to make and maintain a blog, but Blogger (now owned by Google) and Vox (owned by SixApart, makers of the venerable Movable Type blogging software) are both excellent places to begin. With either service you can create a blog and start publishing to the Web in under ten minutes flat.
Should you use Vox or Blogger? That depends. Vox is slightly easier to use than Blogger, and with it you can create a very nice looking blog in minutes. It integrates well with Flickr, YouTube, and other media sites .Making it easy to add photos, Videos, and more to your blog. On the other hand, Blogger offers greater customization. You can run your own ads on a Blogger blog, add a visitor counter, and even dig into the guts of the HTML and edit them to your heart’s content. Because I like to twiddle with my blog, and I already know HTML, I prefer Blogger. But for a newcomer who wants to make an attractive blog without having to worry about any technical issues, Vox is the way to go.
Creating a blog using Blogger
1. Go to blogger.com and create a free account. Just enter a user name, a
password, a display name (the name that will appear on your blog posts.,
it can be your real name or a pen name), and your email address. That’s all
you need to create your account. Click “Continue.”
2. Give your blog a name. Provide a blog title, “Mark’s New Blog.” and a address, like marksblog. Blospot.com Blogger will let yu know if the address you want is still available.
3. Choose a template. You don’t need to be a professional designer to make a pretty blog .Blogger offers a bunch of predesigned layouts you can use.
That’s it. you now have a blog and a Website address that you can print on a
business card or email to your friends.
Now that you have your own blog on Blogger, you can start publishing your entries. If you aren’t logged in to your Blogger account, go to blogger
com and sign in.
1. Create a new entry. Click the image of the green cross, labeled “New Post”, and you’ll see a window like the one shown on page17.
2. Give your entry a title. When you title a blog entry, don’t be clever at the expense of clarity. Think like a Newspapers editor and summarize your entry in a single descriptive sentence. people skim blogs the same way they skim Newspapers-they’re on the lookout for something that caches their interest. Also, an RSS newsreader (see page 27 to learn about RSS) may not display anything but your headline, so that may determine whether or not a reader clicks through to the entire entry.
3. Wirte your entry. If your’re writing about another Web page, always summarize whatever is no that page. For instance, if your’re wirting a blog entry about a video of a skateboarding dog, describe the video in your blog entry. The worst thing you can do is write something like: “Check out this amazing video- you’ll be blown away!” you shouldn’t force people to click a link to learn what it is. A much better approach is to say: “Here’s a video clip of a bulldog riding a skateboard. It knows how to steer, push with one leg, and how to jump on any off the board at curbs.” Your readers will really appreciate the effort and come to rely on you as a curator of cool stuff.
4. Add images, links, and formatting to your entry. The icons on the top of the Blogger draft window allow you to add bells and whistles to the text of your entry. You can highlight any portion of the text and make it italicized, boldface, or colored. you can turn any text into a link by highlighting that text and clicking on the icon of the globe with a chain link. If you want to add a picture, click the icon of the photograph. Note that there are two ways to add photos to your blog entry. One is by selecting an image that’s already on your computer. You do this by clicking “Browse” and navigating to the image you want. The other way is by entering the URL of an image already on the Web. The problem with the letter method is that Blogger will simply point to the URL of the image in your blog entry. Why is that a problem? Because the owner of the URL might become angry that you are “hotlinking” to an image on his or her site, which uses some of his or her monthly data transfer allowance. Also, sometimes images become unavailable on other Web site, which will leave an unsightly broken link in your blog post. That’s why I recommend you use the first method-selecting an image on your computer. When you do this, the image is stored on Blogger’s own image server, and it’s perfectly OK to use Blogger’s bandwidth!
5. Preview your entry. Click “Preview” to see what your entry looks like before you publish it. Now would be a good time to proofread your entry for any spelling or grammatical errors.
6. Publish your entry. Click “Publish Post.” Congratulations! You’re now a bona fide blogger.
Why would you want to start a blog? Here are a few reasons: 1.) You want to share photos and anecdotes with family members who live far away.2,) You’re an artist and you want to show off your work. 3.) You have a hobby and you want to connect with people who share the same interest. 4.) You want to keep a record of all the cool Web sites you visit so that you and you friends can go back and visit them. 5.) You work in a company that needs to stay on top to research and development news in your industry.6.) You know a lot about a particular other people, and went to engage in debate and conversation with them. 7.) You’re a budding comedian and want to try your jokes out on the public.
Blogs are so popular because they make it easy for anyone to publish on the Web. Before blogging software was developed in the late 1990s, posting fresh material to your Web site was a complex and tedious task. That’s why so many sites read: “Under Construction.” Usually, the sites weren’t really under construction; the person maintaining the site was just tired of the rigmarole required to keep it current, and gave up. (For a funny gallery of “Under Construction” Logos, visit cs.utah.edu/gk.)
The history of blogging can be traced back to 1996, when a site called Xanga.com launched a service that allowed people to maintain online diaries. But blogging didn’t really take off until 1999, when a company called Pyra Labs introduced a service that would change the landscape of the Web. It was called Blogger, and it allowed anyone with an Internet connection to create Web pages that were very easy to update with fresh content. Blogger organized the content in to reverse chronological order (so the most recent content would always be at the top of the page, where it should be), and automatically generated a browsable archive and a searchable database. It was nothing short of a revolution on top of a revolution (the Web) on top of a revolution (the Internet).
Today, there are lots of different ways to make and maintain a blog, but Blogger (now owned by Google) and Vox (owned by SixApart, makers of the venerable Movable Type blogging software) are both excellent places to begin. With either service you can create a blog and start publishing to the Web in under ten minutes flat.
Should you use Vox or Blogger? That depends. Vox is slightly easier to use than Blogger, and with it you can create a very nice looking blog in minutes. It integrates well with Flickr, YouTube, and other media sites .Making it easy to add photos, Videos, and more to your blog. On the other hand, Blogger offers greater customization. You can run your own ads on a Blogger blog, add a visitor counter, and even dig into the guts of the HTML and edit them to your heart’s content. Because I like to twiddle with my blog, and I already know HTML, I prefer Blogger. But for a newcomer who wants to make an attractive blog without having to worry about any technical issues, Vox is the way to go.
Creating a blog using Blogger
1. Go to blogger.com and create a free account. Just enter a user name, a
password, a display name (the name that will appear on your blog posts.,
it can be your real name or a pen name), and your email address. That’s all
you need to create your account. Click “Continue.”
2. Give your blog a name. Provide a blog title, “Mark’s New Blog.” and a address, like marksblog. Blospot.com Blogger will let yu know if the address you want is still available.
3. Choose a template. You don’t need to be a professional designer to make a pretty blog .Blogger offers a bunch of predesigned layouts you can use.
That’s it. you now have a blog and a Website address that you can print on a
business card or email to your friends.
Now that you have your own blog on Blogger, you can start publishing your entries. If you aren’t logged in to your Blogger account, go to blogger
com and sign in.
1. Create a new entry. Click the image of the green cross, labeled “New Post”, and you’ll see a window like the one shown on page17.
2. Give your entry a title. When you title a blog entry, don’t be clever at the expense of clarity. Think like a Newspapers editor and summarize your entry in a single descriptive sentence. people skim blogs the same way they skim Newspapers-they’re on the lookout for something that caches their interest. Also, an RSS newsreader (see page 27 to learn about RSS) may not display anything but your headline, so that may determine whether or not a reader clicks through to the entire entry.
3. Wirte your entry. If your’re writing about another Web page, always summarize whatever is no that page. For instance, if your’re wirting a blog entry about a video of a skateboarding dog, describe the video in your blog entry. The worst thing you can do is write something like: “Check out this amazing video- you’ll be blown away!” you shouldn’t force people to click a link to learn what it is. A much better approach is to say: “Here’s a video clip of a bulldog riding a skateboard. It knows how to steer, push with one leg, and how to jump on any off the board at curbs.” Your readers will really appreciate the effort and come to rely on you as a curator of cool stuff.
4. Add images, links, and formatting to your entry. The icons on the top of the Blogger draft window allow you to add bells and whistles to the text of your entry. You can highlight any portion of the text and make it italicized, boldface, or colored. you can turn any text into a link by highlighting that text and clicking on the icon of the globe with a chain link. If you want to add a picture, click the icon of the photograph. Note that there are two ways to add photos to your blog entry. One is by selecting an image that’s already on your computer. You do this by clicking “Browse” and navigating to the image you want. The other way is by entering the URL of an image already on the Web. The problem with the letter method is that Blogger will simply point to the URL of the image in your blog entry. Why is that a problem? Because the owner of the URL might become angry that you are “hotlinking” to an image on his or her site, which uses some of his or her monthly data transfer allowance. Also, sometimes images become unavailable on other Web site, which will leave an unsightly broken link in your blog post. That’s why I recommend you use the first method-selecting an image on your computer. When you do this, the image is stored on Blogger’s own image server, and it’s perfectly OK to use Blogger’s bandwidth!
5. Preview your entry. Click “Preview” to see what your entry looks like before you publish it. Now would be a good time to proofread your entry for any spelling or grammatical errors.
6. Publish your entry. Click “Publish Post.” Congratulations! You’re now a bona fide blogger.
BLOGS
What Are Blogs and Why Should I Read Them?
Blogs (short for “web logs”) are regularly updated Web site with entries posted in revere chronological order-in other words, newest entries on top
Web logs are regularly updated Web sites that provide a continuous stream of content, whether that be links to other stuff or just stuff of the author’s own creation. To me, a good blog is a log of “interesting stuff.” I think of a good blogger as a “pre-surfer”-a trusted person who spends a lot of time online looking for interesting things from the Web and the rest of the world to write about.
Technorati.com, a blog indexing site, tracks over 57 million blogs and adds a staggering 100,000 new entries every day.
With this many blogs online, it’s a sure bet that there are many blogs out there that you would be interested in, if you only knew about them. So how do you find out which blogs are a good match for your interests? Start by visiting Technorati’s page of popular blogs at technorati.com/pop (see page 13). Here you can peruse the most linked-to blogs, the top search terms on Technorati (that is, the most common keywords used by readers to find content on the millions of blogs that Technorati indexes), and the favorite blogs of Technorati readers.
Click the “100 Top Favorited Blogs” link to read short descriptions of blogs and visit the ones that pique your interest. Many blogs have something called a “blogroll,” which is a list of recommended blogs. If you like someone’s blog, you’ll probably enjoy some of the ones on their blogroll.
Blogs (short for “web logs”) are regularly updated Web site with entries posted in revere chronological order-in other words, newest entries on top
Web logs are regularly updated Web sites that provide a continuous stream of content, whether that be links to other stuff or just stuff of the author’s own creation. To me, a good blog is a log of “interesting stuff.” I think of a good blogger as a “pre-surfer”-a trusted person who spends a lot of time online looking for interesting things from the Web and the rest of the world to write about.
Technorati.com, a blog indexing site, tracks over 57 million blogs and adds a staggering 100,000 new entries every day.
With this many blogs online, it’s a sure bet that there are many blogs out there that you would be interested in, if you only knew about them. So how do you find out which blogs are a good match for your interests? Start by visiting Technorati’s page of popular blogs at technorati.com/pop (see page 13). Here you can peruse the most linked-to blogs, the top search terms on Technorati (that is, the most common keywords used by readers to find content on the millions of blogs that Technorati indexes), and the favorite blogs of Technorati readers.
Click the “100 Top Favorited Blogs” link to read short descriptions of blogs and visit the ones that pique your interest. Many blogs have something called a “blogroll,” which is a list of recommended blogs. If you like someone’s blog, you’ll probably enjoy some of the ones on their blogroll.
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