Hi! I've moved to a new address. To jump there, please click on this link.
The Flatland Chronicles for Friday, July 28.
Additional Offerings from Damozel.
-
FLORIDIANA GLORIANA! I posted some photographs of birds on the St. Johns River (Palatka), at Fort Island Gulf Beach, and with an adorable toddler at Flagler Beach. In Floridiana Gloriana.
RELATED LINKS FOR NORTH FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHS [BIRDS]
Flagler Beach---Toddler with gulls
Gulf Coast Birds: “No animals allowed”
Seabirds flying on the St. Johns River
-
VINTAGE JAZZ STORIES from Nick's blog: How a young man of the Seventies eschewed Tull and the Stones in favor of pre-War 78's. In A Gentleman's Domain.
JOURNAL. THE AMATEUR BLOGGER'S AMATEUR CORNER.
This is going to be really boring for anyone who isn't new to blogging, but it's what I've been doing today, so....Because my husband Nick has now taken up blogging, I've been reading advice from people who know more than I do about site promotion and things like that. While I've always been a trial-and-error, seat of the pants sort of learner, Nick likes to have a structure in place before he begins a project. Since I think the time is long overdue for him to start sharing what he knows about vintage jazz, I thought it would be best if I were able to explain things to him in actual words instead of having to say, "Well, you click on this, and then you go like this, and then you log in, and then this happens and it is supposed to do....something."
Which was my initial explanation of pinging. I'd been pinging other sites for months without really understanding how pinging worked or what it was for; I did it based on a recommendation.. But Nick is the sort of guy who wouldn't want to ping anything without knowing what pinging would accomplish.
In the process of getting Nick up to speed, I've learned quite a lot. For example, I know that "pinging" is a way to tell various blog directories that your site has been updated and that blog directories are a way for people to find your blog. In other words, it's a way of getting the word out there that you exist. And I have seen an increase in blog traffic since I first began pinging.
I realize that this is really elementary stuff to an experienced blogger, but there are presumably a hell of a lot of new bloggers out there, what with people starting up blogs every second. My own experience is that it is easy to get discouraged if you don't read up enough to understand a little about how the 'process'---if you can call it a process---works. So I don't think it's amiss to write a little bit more about information that was useful to this amateur blogger.
Nick, for example, was dismayed that google didn't find his blog two seconds after it was online, just for example. Furthermore, his idea was to put up a single article and then wait till all his friends and family had read it (and good luck with that one, because most people's friends and family just aren't all that interested). Thanks to having done a bit of research, I was able to explain to him that one or two entries with infrequent updating is a bad start for a blog; if I looked at a blog with only two entries that hadn't been updated in over a week, I probably wouldn't bother to look again. For a blog to be successful, you need to start establishing a presence on the world wide web, even if that presence isn't always as perfectly polished as you'd wish.
I'm going to publish some links today (for Nick or anyone else) to a couple of resources that helped me a lot with my blogging. Naturally there's a huge amount I still don't know or understand---I can't even do HTML except for just the most elementary processes---but I am beginning to put together a set of links to sites that offer services, tools, and guidance. If I'd done it to start with, it would save me a lot of time.
One site that I've found educational is called Lorelle on Wordpress. While the site is---obviously!--- geared to people who use Wordpress blogs, there is plenty there to interest bloggers in general. I like the plain language approach of this site and the concrete tips it offers to bloggers in general.
For example, this article on how search engines work is full of useful information. For example, the specific advice applies to users of Wordpress, there is plenty of information there on the importance---if you want search engines to find your pages---of building in intrasite links and tags. Just re-reading that one article gave me some tips that I am going to go back and apply. It's vital information if you want people to be able to find your blog.
Today's entry on the importance of identifying the audience for your blog also has plenty of general application for bloggers other than those using Wordpress. I really don't think I have given it a lot of thought. I imagined initially that some of my friends/colleagues might read it, but in reality---as I should have realized---they've all got plenty to read and to do besides keep up to date with my blog. I'm in a field where people have to read ALL THE TIME, so most of them aren't going to sit in front of a computer screen in their down time for anyone. So I need to rethink who my blog audience (eventually) is going to be and I need to think about writing articles that will interest them.
To know WHO is coming to your site, you can get a great free counter from StatCounter.com. It provides all sorts of information about the traffic to your blog (where people are coming from, how long they are hanging around, etc.) Nick is FASCINATED by his. He only has written two articles, so he isn't exactly flooded with traffic yet (for that matter, neither am I), but he is getting some hits.
Finally, in addition to the pinging service through Blogflux.com, I recommend the Pingoat.com, which reaches some different services. Pingoat is incredibly fast (though you may at first have to do some verification of that you're a human being, etc.)
RELATED POSTINGS
Blogging; why?
The Amateur Blogger’s Amateur Corner #1
The Amateur Blogger’s Amateur Corner #2
The Amateur Blogger’s Amateur Corner #3
My Brief Stint at the Top of the Pops.
Searching for Employment in the Too Much Information Age.
Animation © 2006 Jupiterimages Corporation; used under license!
2:25:26 AM 
|
