Blogging Issues

Its a piece of cake to setup a blog. Easy to define categories and setup accounts for potential bloggers, but it can be hard to foster the blogging ethic and encourage some folks to embrace blogging and keep the momentum going.

So what are the problems?

Its Too Complicated

None of the popular blogging tools is particularly hard to use. They all pretty much follow the same principle of prompting for a Title, and Abstract, maybe a longer Body entry, and possibly a link to some related resource. You hit 'Publish' and bobs-your-uncle. No linking to worry about, no navigation, no migration from one server to another. It really couldn't be simpler.

Writing for the Web

Authoring content for the web really does need to be a little different to other media or formats you may be used to. Don't get too hung up on traditional style guidelines and grammar. Web content needs to be concise, less wordy, to the point and quickly consumed by the reader. Breaking a page into lots of smaller chunks of content with linking between them is one of the secrets to keeping readers on a website.

Blogging is no different. Web and blog readers are an impatient lot and will be heading off-site or to Google before you know it. In fact blog posts are generally kept to a couple of paragraphs max. If you need to author something larger publish it on a conventional website somewhere and provide an abstract in your blog post and link off to it from there.

Fear of Publishing

Blogging tools aren't overly terrifying but what is terrifying to some folks is actually hitting the 'publish' button and committing something onto the blog for all the world to see, and possibly more frightening to criticise. Sure there'll be others reading your stuff, that's the whole point. But nobody's forcing them to. It may take time but you need to get over it.

Nothing to Publish

If you're not afraid of publishing then maybe the problem is you dont have anything to publish. If you're considering authoring in a blog you probably have plenty of content ideas, and the only problem is getting your A into G and actually authoring. Blogging is very much a point-in-time publishing medium, if you think of a topic write it while the idea is hot in your mind, it will be more relevant and the post will seem more natural. You can always tweak it later, or leave it in a draft state until you're actually ready to publish it. The important thing is to get something down.

Lack of Maintenance

What often happens when a new blog is established is that there's a surge of interest initially, there's some fun to be had seeing your name up in lights, then over time the publishing interest wanes and the frequency of posting drops. Over time the blog dies.

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Wiki Menu: FrontPage Edit References Delete Changes Formatting Index Tags: authoring blog blogging content issues tools	Blogging Issues Its a piece of cake to setup a blog. Easy to define categories and setup accounts for potential bloggers, but it can be hard to foster the blogging ethic and encourage some folks to embrace blogging and keep the momentum going. So what are the problems? Its Too Complicated None of the popular blogging tools is particularly hard to use. They all pretty much follow the same principle of prompting for a Title, and Abstract, maybe a longer Body entry, and possibly a link to some related resource. You hit 'Publish' and bobs-your-uncle. No linking to worry about, no navigation, no migration from one server to another. It really couldn't be simpler. Writing for the Web Authoring content for the web really does need to be a little different to other media or formats you may be used to. Don't get too hung up on traditional style guidelines and grammar. Web content needs to be concise, less wordy, to the point and quickly consumed by the reader. Breaking a page into lots of smaller chunks of content with linking between them is one of the secrets to keeping readers on a website. Blogging is no different. Web and blog readers are an impatient lot and will be heading off-site or to Google before you know it. In fact blog posts are generally kept to a couple of paragraphs max. If you need to author something larger publish it on a conventional website somewhere and provide an abstract in your blog post and link off to it from there. Fear of Publishing Blogging tools aren't overly terrifying but what is terrifying to some folks is actually hitting the 'publish' button and committing something onto the blog for all the world to see, and possibly more frightening to criticise. Sure there'll be others reading your stuff, that's the whole point. But nobody's forcing them to. It may take time but you need to get over it. Nothing to Publish If you're not afraid of publishing then maybe the problem is you dont have anything to publish. If you're considering authoring in a blog you probably have plenty of content ideas, and the only problem is getting your A into G and actually authoring. Blogging is very much a point-in-time publishing medium, if you think of a topic write it while the idea is hot in your mind, it will be more relevant and the post will seem more natural. You can always tweak it later, or leave it in a draft state until you're actually ready to publish it. The important thing is to get something down. Lack of Maintenance What often happens when a new blog is established is that there's a surge of interest initially, there's some fun to be had seeing your name up in lights, then over time the publishing interest wanes and the frequency of posting drops. Over time the blog dies. See Also: Online Writing \| Knowledge Blogs \| Web Publishing \| Notes Index
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