Beaded Bugs

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INTRODUCTION

Congratulations! If you want to know about blogging, this book will get you started on what could become a lifelong hobby or enterprise.

Why write a book about blogging? Don’t people just Google “how to start blogging” and go from there?

It is true, there is a huge amount of information on the web about blogging. There are blog gurus, blog tutorials, veteran bloggers, expert commentators … you could spend all day, every day reading about how to blog. For several years. And still feel that there is more to learn.

That’s the problem with learning from web sources—yes, it can be done, but who has the time to sift through it all? How do you decide what’s relevant or authoritative? If you read two conflicting pieces of advice, which do you believe? At what point can you say “now I know how to blog”?

You will probably never feel you know everything about blogging, but in this book I aim to give you as much of the nuts and bolts, insights, and inspiration as I can to get you started.

Part of the fun of having a blog is the process of building and maintaining your blog—this will involve learning and discovering as you go along. Trust me, if you’ve chosen the right topic and understand the basics, it won’t feel like a chore.

My own blogging journey started back in 1997, when I first really discovered the internet. Just for fun, I joined a historic-themed online community and soon found myself customizing my homepage, creating banners for other members, and contributing to collaborative games and writing projects. I learned HTML (the basic markup code of web pages) and Adobe Photoshop skills. I experimented and made plenty of mistakes, but I also made friends with other community members through sharing, helping, and competing. I learned how to win and lose friends online, about behavior and etiquette, about acronyms, and web-speak.

With hindsight, what started out as a bit of fun was actually an amazing grounding for me as the web developed into what we now recognize as the “social web”—dominated by social networking, blogging, and sharing the stuff we enjoy.

By the time blogging came around I’d found my niche in online marketing, so that’s what I started blogging about, and still do. (With forays into poetry and costuming along the way!)

Technology moves on very quickly, and blogging technology is no exception to the rule. By the time you read this there will no doubt be new blogging and micro-blogging platforms, some companies will have gone bust and others bought out, and new trends will be vying for our attention.

But the thing to remember is that blogging is basically about people—people who, like you, want to express their creativity, showcase their work with those who are interested, generate new interests in people, talk about what they love, and learn from others. The technology allows us to do this, so let’s go get the best out of it!

CHAPTER ONE:
GETTING STARTED

WHAT IS A BLOG?

A blog (a shortened form of the word “weblog”) is a particular type of website, consisting of articles (or posts) usually time-stamped, and organized in reverse chronology so that the visitor always sees the most recent post first.

Instantly, your words and images appear on your blog, automatically formatted and added to previous posts with the layout and style that you’ve set up.

Of course there’s bit more to it than that, but once you’re all set up, that is basically it. Not too scary, is it?

Blogging has been around in one shape or form since the late 1990s, but really took off around the mid-2000s. The first blogs were kind of internet filters, set up by people who wanted to pass on interesting information they had found on the net, often with their own commentary attached. Bloggers were rather like editors or researchers.

Many blogs still follow this formula, although a growing number are more about expressing and showcasing thoughts, ideas, and creative work, rather than purely commenting on that of others. It’s this kind of creative-minded blogger that this book is designed to help. Your blog might be an online journal or a showcase for what you’re working on, but you will probably also be sharing and talking about things that interest you and other people’s work that you love.

This wonderfully clean and quirky blog is one of three run by Australian illustrator and designer Amy Borrell. The pale colors and uncluttered look are the perfect backdrop to Amy’s illustrations and photos.

Evan Williams is perhaps best known for being one of the founders of Twitter, but years before that he was involved in another blog platform, Blogger. In an interview in 2001 he said this: “To me, the blog concept is about three things: Frequency, Brevity, and Personality.” This is still good advice, and in this book, through examples and expert tips, I’ll show you what it means.

GET FAMILIAR WITH THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF A BLOG

FINDING YOUR NICHE

Jay Mug. http://www.jaymug.com

Jay Mug is the personal blog of an entrepreneur/marketing professional from the Netherlands and Hong Kong, which he describes as “a mash up of everything I like, see, and want to share with you.”

Lunch Bag Art. http://lunchbagart.tumblr.com

Focusing on a very specific niche is one way of standing out and can win you a very loyal audience, as is the case with Lunch Bag Art.

There are so many blogs out there, but YOURS is going to be one of the best! OK, it’s great to have ambition, but how do you turn it into reality?

Firstly, you need real passion for the subject of your blog. It’s going to be something that you wake up in the night thinking about, and when you get out of bed in the morning you can’t wait to blog about it. It’s something that gets you talking animatedly, even to strangers. It’s the thing you love so much you can’t figure out why everyone else doesn’t feel the same!

It might also be related to how you earn your living, but then again it might not. Many top blogs are by amateurs, in the original sense of the word, that is, people who do something for the love of it, rather than to get paid. It’s a shame that the word amateur is now associated with “doing a not very good job” because that’s not what it used to mean at all. In fact, blogging can and does lead to new opportunities and paid work for some people.

The second thing to think about is how much competition is out there, and how your blog will be different enough to catch and maintain people’s attention. Your blog will always be unique, especially if you inject your personality into it. But that alone may not be enough to make your blog stand out.

Do some research. Maybe you already know of some great blogs in your subject area. Perhaps they are the reason you want to blog yourself—you’ve been inspired and have thought, “I could do that!” Visit these blogs, subscribe to them in a feed reader (if you haven’t already), and check out their blog rolls—lists of related blogs, often displayed in a sidebar. Chances are, you will discover many more blogs on the same or similar subjects. Some blog titles will appear again and again, and it is likely they are the most popular and influential.

Before long you will be subscribed to a good number of blogs. What do they do well? What do you like about them? What would you do differently? Don’t worry at this stage about how you can do it, just create a kind of wish list of what you think is going to make your blog really different and exciting.

Feedly. http://feedly.com

Feedly organizes the blogs you subscribe to, so you can read them in a handy magazine format. Although it’s powered by Google Reader it’s much more user-friendly.

Thirdly, imagine your blog as a separate life form. A vibrant blog is much more than the sum of its parts—content, design, personality—it is a mini-community in itself, within a far larger network. What kind of community do you want to create? What kind of people do you imagine visiting and enjoying your blog? It’s going to be up to you to set the tone, manage visitors’ expectations, and shape a vision for your blog.

It’s a sad fact that the majority of blogs are abandoned within three months, usually because people lose heart and lack a proper plan. But if you can identify your passion, know how your blog will be different from all the rest, and have a vision for its future, then you have a better than average chance of long-term success.

TAKE IT FURTHER: BLOG RESEARCH

Researching other blogs isn’t just something to do before you start blogging. Finding, subscribing to, and commenting on other blogs will help you build up a rich network of blogging buddies, as well as provide daily inspiration. To find great blogs, as well as checking out blog rolls and blog search engines like Google Blogs and Technorati, also search Facebook and Twitter for your chosen topics. Get yourself a feed reader: Google Reader is free, and combined with Feedly is a great way of keeping up with blogs. Then, when you find a blog you like, hit the “subscribe” option and there you are.

WHAT TYPE OF BLOGGER ARE YOU?

Darling Clementine. http://dcstudio.tumblr.com

Norwegian designers and illustrators Ingrid Reithaug and Tonje Holand have a Tumblr blog as a companion to their main business website.

The Elegant Variation. http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar

Mark Sarvas’s literary blog is where he interviews writers, reviews books, and shares what he’s working on with his students. The blog has won numerous awards.

Even before you start blogging it’s worth thinking for a moment about the type of blogger you’re going to be. Your motivations for blogging, and the style of blog that suits your creative type, will go a long way in determining the type of blog you may want to create.

It’s all about motivation…

Why do you want to blog? Is it to tell the world about something you feel passionately about? To offer helpful tips? To build your personal “brand?” To make money? To promote your business?

Here are the most common blog types. You may recognize yourself as being in one category, or overlapping more than one.

Hobby Blogger: Do you have a burning interest in something specific—photography, family trees, cookery, anime, parenting …? Hobby bloggers are enthusiasts who love nothing better than to share and discuss with other like-minded individuals. Be careful though: it can be addictive, and for some hobby bloggers it turns into a career.

Authority Blogger: Are you an expert with knowledge to share? In the blogosphere, “authority” status doesn’t come instantly, but if you are committed to staying at the forefront of your subject area, enjoy educating and informing others, and want to enhance your reputation or that of your company, then this may be you.

Pro Blogger: As it sounds, this type of blogger approaches it as a business. If you are looking to make money from your blogging, you are up against some tough competition—but that’s not to say it can’t be done! If you fall into this category, you’re likely to have a thick skin and a willingness to work hard.

Bright, Bold, & Beautiful. http://brightboldbeautiful.blogspot.com

Blogger and artist Laura Trevey of Bright, Bold, & Beautiful at her home office.

Journal Blogger: Do you just want to share your life’s experiences with the world? Journal bloggers write about their lives—family, pets, travels, work, and the like. They blog simply for the fun of sharing and expressing themselves.

… and creative type!

Do you enjoy writing? Then you’ll be happy writing blog posts. But blogging doesn’t have to be about the written word.

Other people are more visual—they are inspired by images, photos, diagrams, video, and are better able to express themselves through visual media.

Or are you more of a speaker and listener? Aural types may be more at home producing an audio blog or regular podcasts.

The better you understand your blogger type the easier it will be to make the right choices in the setting up and planning stages. This, in turn, will increase your chances of building and sustaining a successful blog.

EXPERT TIP: GLENNA HARRIS

Blog: Knitting to Stay Sane

http://crazyknittinglady.wordpress.com

Started: 2006

Topic: Knitting

“Why do I blog? I knit. I like to knit. I like to talk about knitting. The blog is a way to extend this to a wider group of people. And sure, there are the occasional non-knitting posts like, say, when I run a half-marathon and want to tell you about it. (But honestly, if I do something like run a half-marathon, I’m telling everyone I know.) I write posts on my little laptop and submit them to the internet, and if I’m lucky, other people will read them, and if I’m very lucky, other people will read them and find them meaningful in some way.”

Credentials: Canadian blogger Glenna got truly serious about knitting while studying for her PhD, as a form of stress relief and distraction. Since then she has added knitting design and teaching to her repertoire. Her patterns have been featured in Canadian Living Magazine, Knitty, and Magknits, and online through Ravelry and Patternfish. Knitting to Stay Sane is hosted at WordPress.com.

BLOGGING WITH OTHERS

If the thought of blogging is a little daunting or you’re worried you may not always find the time, there are ways to lighten the load.

For example, how about getting together with a friend and starting a blog in partnership with them? Or perhaps you’re part of a ready-made group—people you work alongside in the same studio or building, or people you see regularly at events …

Your motivation for co-blogging might be purely to do with pooling your expertise and sharing the responsibility, or perhaps your vision for the blog goes beyond a simple showcase of your own work and ideas.

Cupcakes Take the Cake. http://www.cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com

Friends Rachel Kramer Bussel, Nichelle Stephens, and Stacie Joy started their blog in 2004 and made NBC News in 2008. They have four “cupcake correspondents.”

Either way, blogging with others can be extremely satisfying. Creatives love to collaborate and bounce off each other!

Blogging with a partner/co-blogging

If you’re thinking of going into blogging with another person, from the start you’ll need to both be honest with each other: are you both equally committed to the project? Do you want the same things, or at least mutually acceptable things for the blog? Are either of you the kind of person who loses interest in things or is more of a “starter” than a “finisher?”

Cairo. http://cairocollection.blogspot.com

Joel Leshefka and Justine Ashbee run Cairo, a Seattle store selling vintage housewares and clothing. Their blog is as eclectic as the store and features interviews, impromptu photoshoots, audio tracks, and a lot more.

It may sound harsh, but it’s only fair that you both think about your answers to these questions now. If one person ends up doing more work than the other it can lead to resentment. If you’re both doing this for fun, rather than business, you may find this kind of advice a little heavy. But given the time and effort you’re about to invest, it’s worth it!

Benefits: If all partners agree how the workload is to be shared (and then stick to it) this is a great solution for those without the time to post regularly and frequently. Two heads are better than one when it comes to generating good content ideas, and when one person may be feeling uninspired the other can step in. If you have complementary skills, for example one person has some technical know-how and the other is great at promotion, even better.

Downsides: As with any partnership, mutual trust and a shared vision is important. Also, be aware that you may have very different styles. This may lead to a variety of content on your blog, but readers will appreciate some elements of consistency also. Both parties must be willing to give and take.

Hipsterfood. http://hipsterfood.tumblr.com

Hipsterfood is a blog “to show you that vegan food isn’t just for hipsters!” It’s run by Bob and Cara, who in 2011 launched a companion quarterly magazine, Chickpea, that’s produced in print form and can also be read online.

GROUP BLOGGING

If you’re new to blogging, or have been blogging for a while but still have only a small readership, one way to gain more exposure is to contribute to a group blog. Group (or collective) blogs are showcases for individuals under the umbrella of a particular topic or theme, and generally come in three forms: invitation-only, curated (or edited), and non-curated.

As it sounds, an invitation-only group blog will feature posts by people who have been asked to contribute. Many top blogs are in this format and the bigger ones may have an editorial team. Getting invited onto a large, successful blog may seem an unattainable goal, but even the humblest blogger, if he or she has something unusual or unique to offer, can catch an editor’s eye.

A curated site will have one or more gatekeepers: people you need to impress with your content in order to get published on the blog. There will be certain standards and criteria for inclusion and you have to submit your posts and hope for the best.

Contributing to a group blog

Benefits: Curated sites can have large and potentially influential audiences so your work may appear alongside that of others you admire. You may get the opportunity to be a featured contributor, or even get discovered as a new talent. If you struggle to get onto curated blogs you could start by contributing to a non-curated site.

Downsides: As is true of much of the edited media, getting exposure on a curated blog can be quite competitive. On the other hand, if a site lets anyone post then the overall standard may not be high, so consider whether you want your work to appear there.

Taste Spotting. http://www.tastespotting.com

Taste Spotting is a “visual potluck of recipes, references, experiences, stories, articles, products, and anything else that inspires exquisite taste.” The blog welcomes contributions and is edited by Jennifer Bartoli.

Light Stalking. http://www.lightstalking.com

Edited by Rob Wood, Light Stalking is a group blog about beautiful photography and “putting great photographers in front of the audience they deserve.”

Creating a group blog

Do you see an opportunity to start a group blog? There is nothing to stop you! If you are known in your field, are good at developing contacts and publicity, and love the work of others and the idea of sharing that love, this could be for you. It doesn’t have to be defined by genre either—plenty of successful blogs are basically personal collections of somebody’s favorite things.

Benefits: You get to pick and choose from other people’s great content and there’s less pressure on you to come up with original content all the time. You can showcase your work alongside that of people you admire and are inspired by.

Downsides: You need to make your blog a desirable place to be seen, in order to attract some great contributions. Some people may only be interested in taking part if you can show you have a large, good-quality audience, and that takes resources and effort to build up.

Lovely Stationery. http://lovelystationery.com

Lovely Stationery reaches over 5,000 people daily from over 150 countries. It’s a curated blog, meaning anyone can submit work but only the best are showcased.

EXPERT TIP: RICKY SALSBERRY

Blog: The Donut Project

http://www.thedonutproject.com

Started: 2009

Topic: Design

“In my opinion, I think people make the best content when they’re writing/posting about something they truly care about. There are times on our blog where we make five posts a day, and other times we don’t post for two weeks. We do this because we don’t want to post something just to post something. That goes against most advice you’ll hear on how to build a consistent readership, but we simply don’t care. We won’t feed bad content to our audience just to hit an imaginary schedule.”

Credentials: The Donut Project is a design inspiration site created by a group of young designers who “aspire to inspire.” The blog focuses on content that’s not strictly to do with graphic design, but is definitely thought-provoking. As they say on the blog, “the design world needs to read more than the same award annuals and list posts, and we hope to be part of the good stuff.”

INTRODUCING THE BLOGOSPHERE

You are about to enter an alien zone! A world that brings out both the best and the worst in people, a haven for citizen journalists and creative souls alike; an Aladdin’s cave of ephemera with something for everyone. Yes folks, welcome to the Blogosphere.

The practice of blogging is fundamentally a 21st-century phenomenon. The first bloggers were techies. They had to be, because in 1999 there was nothing quite like the content management systems of today. Blogging only really took off with the advent of blogging software, making it easy, accessible, and free. The first wave of non-techie bloggers were conspiracy theorists, political commentators, and news pundits. The hyperlinks between one blog and another meant that ideas could fly round the internet and opinions could spread at an amazing pace.

Even now, that’s why brands and organizations spend huge resources identifying and wooing influential bloggers—those whose audience and credibility means that a positive opinion expressed on their blog can have an immediate effect on sales and action.

Nowadays, anybody with access to the internet and nothing more than a smartphone can start a blog or micro-blog, which is both a good and a bad thing!

As the blogosphere grows, more and more blogs are competing for people’s attention, and it’s inevitable that some blogs just will not survive. A blog needs to be connected to other blogs, it needs constant nurturing, and above all it needs an audience. This is true even if your blog is to be simply an online journal.

Despite the rise of social networking, which some predicted would make blogging redundant, the blogosphere is as healthy today as ever. If anything, sites like Facebook and LinkedIn have introduced even more people to the idea of what marketers call “user-generated content”—which is, in other words, posting your own photos, video, commentary, and creative material—and this in turn has fueled a new generation of would-be bloggers.

The number of blogs has grown from a handful in 1999 to an estimated 100 million plus today. Even in 2005, there were an estimated 15,000 blogs being created every single day. According to Technorati, just about half the world’s bloggers are in the US, 65 percent of bloggers are hobbyists, and 21 percent are self-employed or small business owners.

Easy Makes Me Happy. http://easymakesmehappy.blogspot.com

A focal point of Tara Murray’s workspace is the yarn rack made by her husband and wall-mounted above her desk. Tara blogs about crochet, crafts, and design.

So are there just too many blogs? In a 2010 interview with Technorati, Lisa Stone, co-founder and CEO of BlogHer, Inc. said: “It’s a bit like asking are there too many movies. No, I don’t think there are too many blogs—I’m not sure there are enough good ones!”

TAKE IT FURTHER: TECHNORATI

Blog search engine and directory Technorati.com was founded in 2002 to help promote blogs and blogging. It publishes an annual “State of the Blogosphere” report and a “Top 100” list of blogs that’s updated daily. Technorati is a great resource for finding interesting blogs and blog posts as well as a valuable mine of information about blogging.

EXPERT TIP: AMY NG

Blog: Pikaland: The Illustrated Life

http://pikaland.com

Started: 2008

Topic: Illustration and design

“Be careful of burnout when you’re starting a blog—lots of people start up quickly, throwing on lots of content and working hard around the clock to maintain it. But in your rush to start, always remember to pace yourself. Blogging is a slow jog, not a short sprint!”

Credentials: Amy Ng was an editor at a regional architecture and design magazine before realizing that her first love was illustration. Pikaland is a blog about living the illustrated life—a collection of inspirations and beautiful things made/designed by illustrators and artists, updated almost daily.

CHAPTER TWO:
BLOGGING TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

HOW TO CHOOSE A BLOGGING PLATFORM

Do you need to be tech-savvy to set up a blog? Not necessarily—as you will see in this chapter. But you will need to engage with the technology a little, even if just at the beginning, as the choices you make at this stage will affect what you can do with your blog further down the line.

Most new bloggers choose one of a handful of popular blogging platforms (sometimes called blogware or blogging software providers), because they are easy to use and free. I will be focusing on three of them in the next chapter.

However, before making that choice, it’s worth thinking about your plans for the blog. For example:

• Are you going to be blogging for fun, or is it to support a business or professional interest?

• Will you be posting a large number of photos, video, or other content on your blog?

• Do you want to sell advertising space on your blog, or make money from it?

• How quickly do you see the blog growing, and are you planning to attract large numbers of visitors?

• Do you mainly want to blog on the move, from a phone or other mobile device?

• Will there be more than one contributor or blog administrator?

Allsorts. http://allsorts.typepad.com

Allsorts is the blog of illustrator and designer Jenny B Harris, where she shares ideas and inspirations, patterns, freebies, and more. It’s hosted at Typepad.

Some blogging platforms will be more suitable than others-take a look at the kinds of blogs they host and read the small print before committing to anything.

Hosted options: free or almost free

Many of today’s bloggers, even the most experienced and successful, started small with a free or low-cost hosted blog, often using a ready-made template or theme. A provider such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com will set you up with space for your blog, the tools to manage it via a web interface or a mobile application, and plenty of pre-designed templates.

Dottie Angel. http://dottieangel.blogspot.com

Author and blogger Tif Fussell is a Brit living just outside of Seattle. Dottie Angel features her unique style of handmade “granny chic.” Hosted at Blogger.com.

The platform you choose will generally determine where your blog is hosted. For example, if you sign up for Blogger then your blog will sit on Blogger servers and will be called “yourname.blogspot.com.” If you are not keen on the idea of having the host name as part of your blog’s address, you can still have your own domain name for your blog (see here, Take it Further).

CONTENTS