I teach a class on Blogging Basics for The Writer’s Center and I have a syllabus for the one-day class and I was just checking to make sure I have everything here; alternately, feel free to steal the course notes for your own and for your own class.
Blogging Basics Course Outline Writer’s Center Workshop
Description
Writing for online consumption is much different from writing for the page. Learn how to write for the Internet and the blogosphere in this one-day class focused on the unique and powerful way the blogosphere communicated and how you can best leverage your own personal passion, your own personal artistic voice, and your unique perception of the world into an online organ that very well could change the world. Instructor
- Chris Abraham
- Blogging since 1999 www.chrisabraham.com
What is a blog?
- An online journal (as in “periodical”)
- A web application (as in “program”)
- Easy to use (as easy as webmail)
- Communicative
- Syndicated (RSS, ATOM)
- Link aware (Trackback)
- Comments
- The “search engine advantage”
- Okay to be subjective and opinionated
- Blogs can influence culture and mainstream media
What isn’t a blog?
- A blog is not “just a website”
- A blog doesn’t require editing or oversight
- A blog is not a personal diary
- True anonymity is a myth
- A blog is not a great American novel
- Be brief and to-the-point
- Keep each post to a single topic
Why is a blog different than a website?
- Ease of publishing
- Discoverability. (Pings weblogs.com or technorati or another ping server).
- Conversationality. (Trackbacks or as-they-happen referer logs, or now being part of Technorati and other blog search engines).
- Linkability. (All posts should have permalinks).
- Syndicatability. (All content should be available in RSS feeds).
- Commentability (All posts should welcome comments).
Where can I blog?
- Free blogging services
- Blogger www.blogger.com
- WordPress www.wordpress.com
- Friendster www.friendster.com
- Yahoo 360 360.yahoo.com
- MSN Spaces spaces.msn.com
- MySpace http://www.myspace.com/
- LiveJournal http://www.livejournal.com/
- Blogster http://blogster.com/
- Subscription blogging services
- Install your own blog software (requires web host)
- WordPress www.wordpress.org
- Movable Type www.movabletype.org
Who is a blogger?
- Everyone
Why blog?
- Zero barrier to entry
- Technology is no longer a restriction to entry
- Blogging is often free but is always “cheap.”
- Any type of blog host makes you a blogger
- Access to a global conversation
- Participate in global conversation
- Influence a global conversation
- “Jump the rails” to mainstream media (MSM)
What is a good blog?
- Short, pithy, entries
- Constantly updated
- Only one long work a week
- Shameless, assertive, opinionated, unapologetic
- Shows respect, dignity, reciprocity
- Give more than it takes
- Assumes good intent
Reputation as a blogger
- Techniques for building prestige and influence
- Reciprocal links and linking
- Blogroll and blogrolling
- Citations
- Comments
- Pinging ping-servers
- Press releases
- Email requests
Important reading
- Naked Conversations by by Shel Israel & Robert Scoble
Blogging Basics Course Outline.doc
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thanks for including Naked Conversations. I really think you should add Cluetrain to the reading list. Without Cluetrain, We the Media and naked Conversations would not have come to pass.