Archive for August, 2007

31 Days to a Better Blog - Day 8: Comment on a New Blog

The 31 Days to a Better Blog challenge continues, and to save repeating what it’s all about every day, I’ve created a handy page for the background information to the project and as to why I am taking part. Also, please do read the full article, your input could help you to win a lovely prize!

Todays given task is to Comment on a Blog that you’ve never Commented Before. It was listed as an easy task which it is, but it does also serve an important purpose of widening not only your presence, but also creating new relationships. You’ll (hopefully!) receive more traffic to your own site and create new contacts.

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Check out Jing!

Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere. Windows or Mac, easy to use and free! Perfect for screenshots and quick screencasts! Find out more at the JingProject.

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Social Bookmarking in plain english

A ‘must see’ - new online video on Social Bookmarking in Plain English by Commoncraft. Spotted on Beth’s Blog.

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Fixing the web

Does the web need fixing? The Web certainly performs adequately as an information source, but how well does Web technology itself work?
Useful article with interviews with tech stakeholders at xhtml.com

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31 Days to a Better Blog - Day 7: Plan a schedule for the week ahead

The 31 Days to a Better Blog challenge is gathering pace and numbers too in the collection of people who have connected together thanks to Michele Martin’s Bamboo Project Blog. At last there is someone else from the UK taking part (there’s 14 in all from across the globe now under Michele’s mini challenge, plus hundreds of others taking part directly at Prologger! It’s not too late to join in either).
Welcome to Tim Davies another fellow UK nptech blogger, who may I add has done a fine job of his task of helping ease new readers into his blog with improved About pages. I really need to make some time to do mine and soon! (if interested about this task, refer to my day 5’s activity of auditing your About page)

Anyway, back to the task, which today is about planning a schedule of posts for the week ahead.
Darren at Problogger suggests that we need to plan ahead. He tells us of his experiences on how he used to post on his blog and how he became a blogger that planned. He gives some really useful tips that can help those especially who want to blog with regularity to be able to plan and focus.

Darren’s process to help him plan involves brainstorming topics, then picks some to develop further, then clarifies what he wants to write about in a sentence to help him to bring the idea to reality. He then brainstorms key points he wishes to use in the article, and also remembers to look over previous posts for interlinking if they have similar themes or topics.
This is really useful, and I’m probably still somewhat at the sporadic posting stage, especially with this project to some extent. I’m using this blog to journey with my thoughts on the process of it all, rather than planning what I’ll write about the daily tasks.

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31 Days to a Better Blog - Day 6: Email an ‘Old Time’ Reader

Today’s task in the 31 Days to a Better Blog project by Prologger, is (thankfully) an easier one.
Darren says:

“Do you have readers that have been reading your blog since the ‘early days’ of your blogging? You know the ones, they’ve been commenting and contributing away to the point where they’ve almost become part of a the scenery on your blog.

These readers play a big part in making your blog what it is. Their comments are actually content that is being added to your blog, their involvement brings a sense of community and makes it a more vibrant place and their input adds to the knowledge base of your blog.

It’s not just new readers that you should be emailing a welcome email - but old ones too.

Shooting these readers a quick email thanking them for sticking with you and for adding value to your blog is something that I’m sure would create a great impression and build the loyalty even further.”

This blog is fairly new, and I decided to import only a few posts from my previous blog that I managed with Modx. Luckily on the backbone of the other site where I had my old blog, I had kept everything there behind the scenes, so I did manage to contact the first person who left a comment on my old blog. They thanked me for contacting and hadn’t realised that this blog had changed into a new format and at a new web address. They said they’d drop in to this site someday soon.

So what is the learning that can be read from today’s task?

Well, I am learning more and more each day, that a blog is much more than the author just posting on the web, your blog will be shaped partly by your readers and you and they will gain satisfaction if you build a good relationship.

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Latest from the Nonprofit Blog Exchange

The Non-Profit Blog Exchange latest post is full of useful links to articles and other sites aimed at non-profit organisations who want to blog or who blog already. Check out their latest round up of resources!

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Some useful links for usable websites, blogs and contented readers

Primarily as a freelance website designer, and becoming more immersed in the role of ‘blogs’, I’ve become more aware of some of the ease in which blogs provide an easier way for communication and can serve a real valid purpose compared to just having a static information site.
I’m receiving an increase in requests from organisations and groups, small and large who all want to blog as a way to tell their story or share their message on the internet. Communicating with users and supporters via the internet is fast becoming a mainstream activity for many organisations.

As mentioned in a previous post, with my frustration of testing a YouTube video on my site only to find that the code provided didn’t adhere to web standards; I was beginning to feel that at times, much of the changing ways in which we are communicating with the web was affecting usability and accessibility and the fact that it often compromised web standards.
So here are two really useful links where you can obtain a wealth of information to help.

The first is about tips for blogging with usability and accessibility in mind, and the second is about better writing through design, and how to create a voice for your text. Both links are really useful for all, whether you have a website or a blog, there are some great pointers to help your site and message work better.

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31 Days to a Better Blog - Day 5: Audit your ‘About’ page

The task set out for day 5 of the 31 Days to a Better Blog project was to run and audit of your About page. Darren comes up with some really useful points which are useful to blogs and websites too, and some helpful quick tips pages on what to include on such a page. Many of these tips have relevance for not only blogs, but also for general websites too, and will work in the non-profit website communications arena too.

When I design standard websites for organisations, I spend alot of time on the ‘About’ page working with a group. I help them work through key areas which help to pull their mission messages, information about their site and who it is aimed at, to enable the page to have clarity and give a clear concise message to help their readers.
There are a lot of organisations that I have helped who originally put their whole constitution on and all their policies in full on one big long page on which to me, puts off potential readers when they use that important about page to establish who the organisation is and what they do.
Remember what if it was a potential funder or supporter reading all of this! Does the reader need to read the full long governing document for that group? What added value does that document, and some of the internal operational policies give and do they even need to be on the site at all? Quite often this streamlining process gains additional value, as when we’ve worked through this part together, the group often begins to look at the rest of their information and communications and it helps them to clarify their purpose and vision.

Anyway, back to the task, Darren quotes the following about the importance of a good About page:

One of the key pages on a blog is the about page. This page is often used by new readers to a blog to gather information about you and your blog and based upon what they find on this page they could be making a decision as to whether they’ll subscribe to your blog or not.

As a result, your About Page is a key conversion page on your blog and it therefore needs to be reworked regularly.

As a result it’s essential that you provide up to date, useful and well written information on this page.

Include compelling reasons for people to keep tracking with your blog and provide them with the means to do so within the content (RSS, newsletter etc).

Take some time today to do an audit of your About Page. What does it communicate? How could you improve it?

My own About page on this blog needs a fair bit of attention paying to it, so how can I make it better?

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31 Days to a Better Blog - Day 4: Interlink your posts

Wow, this challenge is requiring abit more headspace and time than I previously had anticipated. I hope that I can keep up!
For the background as to what this is all about, I was tipped off by Michele Martin’s Bamboo Project Blog who is collecting a growing list of bloggers like myself who are all undertaking and connecting over the challenge set by Problogger Darren Rowse. I’ve found it imensley useful so far, I have a whole new set of readers from the US and Australia who themselves are taking part in this experiment and we’re all commenting on each others observations on the process of it all. The comments they’ve made are really useful as well, exploring new ideas or confirming thoughts.
Another benefit of this experiment is that I’ve also found new blogs, which I may never have seen before thanks to the networking that has come out of this, and interestingly they all are useful in one way or another to me. Since pulling all my feeds together using the fabulous Netvibes, which has made my life so much easier to keep up to date with my favourite blogs and sites, I have become possible abit narrow visioned and forgotten that there are other sites and blogs out there that provide use to me. It’s also inspiring me for new posts (which will come in time, when time allows!) which can only be a good thing. Apologies if me blog seems more of a personal diary currently, but I think it’s a useful project for myself, and hopefully will have some use for others out there, especially within the non-profit arena as my thoughts evolve.

Anyway, back to the task in hand.
The task is to dig back into your archives and do some interlinking of posts.

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