Browsing Category: "Blogging"
The changes are coming. September also seems to be a great month for planning, particularly from a blog point of view.
One team I’m working with are integrating a number of social media services to their blog - the likes of Twitter, Blip.fm, QIK etc.
Another team I’m helping integrate their Wordpress installation with their phpBB installation while assisting them with a redesign of their current Wordpress template. In fact, at present I’m working on five new Wordpress templates for client and personal project releases, including a redesign of my original blog. That, plus a slightly modified layout for Pro Freelance Blogger.
So all this Wordpress theming and scheming that I’ve found myself in for the month of September got me thinking - why not release some of the themes I’ve been developing.
That said, I’m asking you for your input. While I’m considering releasing themes I’ve already developed, I’m looking at releasing a number of new themes and would like your input - what do you look for in a Wordpress theme. Do you prefer the magazine approach? Standard 2-column, 3-column? Plugin-heavy or no-plugins required? Additional theme functionality and options or not?
Feel free to leave a comment or let me know via email.
Popularity: 4% [?]
I’m in the process of launching a new music blog with a number of co-authors. The content will focus around independent (unsigned) acts with news from bands, rated reviews of gigs, CDs, interviews etc.
In order to make the blog “work” for us content-wise, we’re devising an editorial calendar, much in the same way a magazine, newspaper or radio plot out days, weeks and months in advance when they’re content is going to hit and what is going to be published. Sure enough, there’s breathing room in the schedule for daily and flash news updates but for the most part we know that on X day reviews will be published, on Y day interviews will be published and on Z day competitions will be run.
We know this in advance and it gives our authors and blog editors the chance to prepare and release the content, or schedule the content in good time.
The same, however, can be applied to an individual blog, something which brought me back to a bookmarked post from Pureblogging back in May of this year.
The creation of a calendar or publishing timeline both creates and breeds consistency, one of the three points raised by the post.
In summary, an editorial calendar will
- Increase your post quality
- Improve your blogging consistency
- Increase your RSS readers
While the first two speak for themselves (consistency, “practice makes perfect”), the third point is interesting. While there is no guarantee that any amount of posting can increase or decrease the number of RSS readers to your blog, the feeling here is that through anticipation of particular content you will garner subscribers eager to read the news as and when it hits - something we’re hoping will work for us in terms of anticipated reviews and interviews.
While we’ll likely use and sync iCal calendar entries during our weekly meetups, you might consider Google Calendar for yours? You can also sync gCal with your iPhone, iCal, Outlook and other calendar services and you can access it anywhere on the move.
I’ll let Michael Martine take it from here…
Popularity: 4% [?]
If there’s one tip I can give you about scheduling posts to go live in Wordpress it’s this - double-check your dates.
Why would I say that?
Because yesterday’s post, knowing I would be away from the web and out of the county for at least 24 hours, never surfaced though it might well do sometime this December!
That said, it brings a relative end to my ‘post a day’ series for August which has managed to kick me back into the blogging groove. A notepad chock full of ideas, some new clients because of the posting series and some nice introductions via email over the month have created a nice additional direction for the blog.
If you want to check back over the ‘post a day’ series for August simply look through the archives or August specifically right here. I’ll drop in yesterday’s post later tonight but right now, I’m off to live-blog a music event (another post on this coming soon).
Popularity: 4% [?]
While I’ve been thinking of adding a ‘week in review’ of post I’ve been accumulating or marking with interest via Google Reader on a weekly basis, one post I’ll highlight for you today is this one from ProBlogger.
Intellectual Property Law Tips For Bloggers is a guest post by Mark Patterson of the Tough Money Love blog.
It looks at protecting your brand, protecting and licensing your content, the use of third party graphics and third party trademarks with the intention of boosting revenue from your blog.
Hope you enjoy your Saturday! (Or have enjoyed it!)
Popularity: 6% [?]
Wordpress 2.6.1 is out of beta and has been released to the public as a full download. Those of you running Wordpress 2.6 on your own hosting should have seen the admin status message over the weekend revealing the availability of the next version of Wordpress.
To upgrade, simply grab a copy of the latest release and FTP it to your server, replacing the existing Wordpress files. If you’re in doubt about plugin compatibility, a helpful suggestion is to disable each active plugin on your blog BEFORE running the update.
When you have everything uploaded, simply go to www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php to call the upgrade script (where yourdomain.com is your actual domain name).
From the Wordpress blog…
With 2.6.1, we’re continuing our trend of releasing a maintenance release shortly after a major release in order to get fixes for the inevitable “dot zero” bugs into your hands without a long wait. If you’re happy with 2.6, however, keep on using it. You need not upgrade to 2.6.1 if 2.6 is getting the job done.
2.6.1 offers several improvements for international users. Styling of the admin for right-to-left languages is much improved thanks to the efforts of the Farsi and Hebrew translation teams, and a mysterious gettext bug caused by certain PHP configurations is now fixed. For IIS users, 2.6.1 fixes several permalink problems. Image insertion problems in the Press This feature experienced by IE users are also fixed. Of note to everyone is a fix for a performance bug in the admin where those with a lot of plugins would experience slowness on some pages.
Popularity: 11% [?]
I’m quite happy to say I’ve passed the 100-post mark here at profreelanceblogger.com, something which sees me on track for the year.
One thing I did when starting out with Profreelanceblogger.com back in April (technically March) was to set a target for a post count during the year - that post count being 300. Counting April, May, June, July as full months and stepping in to August (while seeing June and July as quiet months due to serious work commitments), I would count myself well on track to reaching the 300-post mark.
I think for a blog to succeed, particularly any new or beginner blog, one needs to have targets for blog. Whether it’s reaching a certain traffic level, reaching a certain post-count, reaching a particular page-rank, building a certain number of RSS subscribers.
A lot of it comes down to numbers. You can’t achieve those numbers unless you know what it is exactly you’re trying to achieve.
So one of my goals is to reach the 300-post mark come next March 30/31. Today’s post brings things to 101 leaving me 199 to go.
Good thing I’ve been keeping a notebook full of posts, titles, ideas and tips for the blog.
What about you - have you certain goals for your blog, levels you want to reach, things you want to achieve? Let me know by leaving a comment or dropping an email here.
Popularity: 8% [?]
I’m just making the update to Wordpress 2.6 this morning here on ProFreelanceBlogger.com, having tested it locally for a week or so.
Just as I get the update set and enjoy the added support for Google Gears to speed up the admin area, I see that they’ve announced and released the beta version for Wordpress 2.6.1 with the full release expected within the next few days.
I’m currently in the process of updating all blogs that I run or am involved in running to Wordpress 2.5 at a minimum, having found at least one blog still running Wordpress 2.0.2 (my how things have come a long way!).
To find more about Wordpress 2.6.1 beta and keep up with bug tracking and the Wordpress 2.6.1 development, click here. If you want to download a copy of the beta release, click here.
Popularity: 11% [?]
One of the bloggers who has taken up my ‘post a day‘ challenge is ArtLinks director Cathy Fitzgerald. Cathy was a recent guest on a podcast show I’m involved with through Blog Talk Radio in the lead up to the second PodCamp to be held in Kilkenny this coming September (I’m one of the organisers).
ArtLinks are slowly but surely opening more doors for artists living in the South East of Ireland to showcase their works online and through a number of professional development courses (see my previous post about Blogging The Arts here) are helping artists to get online, increasing the possibilities of artists sourcing new work and new audiences.
As part of her own ‘post a day’, Cathy outlines her experiences in connecting with new audiences from a beginner blogger’s point of view. Once you start, you can’t seem to stop! Cathy’s post is drawn on experiences gained from attending events like PodCamp and connecting with fellow bloggers and arts practitioners.
As an organiser and contributer to PodCamp and BarCamp-style events, I cannot underline enough how beneficial these free unconference days can be. For a full list of PodCamp events taking place globally see PodCamp.org.
Listen to Cathy’s interview and our thoughts here
Popularity: 11% [?]
I few months ago I ran the first Blogging For Beginners course for Irish artists network, ArtLinks, their main office operating in my home town.
I’ve been holding off on this a while but it’s about time to showcase some of those bloggers who were there on the day, blogging (or improving) their blogging as a direct result of the half-day course as well as other artists in the area that have taken to blogging, indirectly related to the course.
Overall I’ve been delighted with the feedback from the course and have had several emails from those in attendance and I’m quite pleased in watching their blogs and style of blog-writing grow and go from strength to strength.
If you have the time, do stop by and check them out, especially if you’re working in the arts sector in any form.
“No. 72″ (number 72) is the home of the Kilkenny Arts Office which hosts regular artists in residence programmes. The blog is hosted on Wordpress.com and maintained by the Arts Office and ArtLinks staff located in Kilkenny. One great addition is the introduction of regular blogging from the artist in residence at the gallery, one of whom had attended the Blogging For Beginners course during the year, allowing interaction between the artist and the public and a chance for you to track the ongoing progress and development of any of the pieces created during the residency.
Emerging artist Nicola Brown creates sculptural pieces and wearable art using a variety of felting techniques. From a non artistic background, Nicola finds the immediacy and fluidity of felting with natural fibers very appealing. Inspired by nature and the beauty of the Irish landscape Nicola finds that ideas develop very quickly. Recycled and found items are incorporated into some pieces and renowned felt maker Sheila Smith, author of ‘Felt to Stitch’ provides the inspiration to experiment with new materials and techniques.
Nicola blogs on a regular basis about her felt making, providing a great insight into the industry and stepping through the felt-making process. Since the course, Nicola’s blogging has become more focused, resulting in an increase in both traffic and user interaction on her blog, including receiving commissions for works.
Lisellote Oloffson
Lisellete Oloffson had just finished her residency at No. 72 when the course came around and had used the residency blog to map out thoughts and photographs of works carried out during her residency.
Having blogged 3 times a week during her residency, Lisellote has just started a new blog (linked above, about 2 weeks ago-ish) having been encouraged “to create this new blog as a way to allow people to see my work in progress”.
Martin has recently started into blogging his works (hopefully with more to come over the year) and using his Wordpress.com hosted blog to host his CV and details of works completed to date.
Martin is a stone sculptor and engineering geologist who has always been fascinated by rocks, soil and the physical landscape. I’ve met Martin on a few occasions and hope to see more of his works appearing online in time to come.
Cathy Fitzgerald
A visual artist in her own right, Cathy Fitzgerald is also the director for ArtLinks, a five county body embracing and supporting the arts in the south east of Ireland. Cathy’s blog is her “artists’ notebook - part ongoing notes on an ongoing Irish tree ecology project that I am involved with ‘the Local Project’, part eco art news and partly links to other people’s work that inspires me; bits and pieces of ideas and thoughts that I collect for my own practice and in turn”.
Cathy is a terrific example of someone embracing the power of blogging, podcasting and social media to promote the arts, particularly through her work with ArtLinks.
Blogging also through Wordpress, Michael Lee looks at opera news and views through The Opera Page. Michael has an interest in opera, theatre, art and music and has also given public courses in opera while expanding his operatic work into into the world of radio.
Local musician and Green Party councillor for Kilkenny, Malcolm Noonan is also blogging away on Wordpress, using his blog to promote local political and council matters as well as raising awareness on Green Party issues. I’m keeping an eye out online to see when Malcolm embraces the power of blogging to promote his own music locally.
These are just some of the blogs of those who have started since the course or been able to implement some of the points raised over the day.
Have you made your post a day?
Popularity: 22% [?]
I like blogging challenges. They encourage thought, get you up off your arse and get you writing. As June and July have been exceedingly busy months for me in both a personal and professional manner in the offline world, I’m setting myself a simple blogging challenge for the month of August.
As today marks the first of the month, I’m issuing myself with a ‘post a day’ challenge and you’re welcome to join me if you want. In fact, if you want to join in, send me your blog URL and I’ll add a link to your ‘post a day’ post when making my own.
It becomes more of a challenge for myself as I’m just about to hit the road (with my new mobile broadband connection in tow) for four days over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Locally we’ve got an arts festival and music festival starting next weekend. I’ve a gig this weekend, next weekend (9th), the following weekend (16th) and then start into a week long theatre production before possibly wrapping with yet another music festival on the final weekend in August.
I freelance and work six days a week while keeping more of my blogs in check.
And I’ve just started a really interesting freelance project in the tourism sector. So finding the time to make those posts per day and provide you with a good thought stream is going to be interesting. But there’s the fun in the challenge.
Join in with me if you like, take up the challenge, leave me a comment with your name and URL and let’s get going! (BTW, I’m using the tag ‘postaday’ to mark my posts, why not add it to yours).
Popularity: 9% [?]
