Collide Magazine

What could be better than blogging about a breakout session on blogging? Nothing, I say. Below you’ll find my notes from this morning’s breakout session led by Kem Meyer, Daryl McMullen, and Jason Powell from Granger Community Church. The notes are lengthy, but oh so informative. Enjoy!

Got Blog? Breakout session with Kem Meyer (kemmeyer.com) and Daryl McMullen (webdrivenchurch.com) and Jason Powell (jasonpowell.net)

• Most webpages are static, but blogs are interactive and social
• Blogs allow people who aren’t developers to publish on the Web
• Granger has embraced blogs & RSS technology
• Blogging something is a means of accountability—if you say it publicly, you’d better do it
• Blogs help you get to know people because they may write things they wouldn’t necessarily say
• Kinds of blogs: personal, hobbies & interests, and professional
• Blog aggregators have made Kem smart and cool (coolfinder.com)
• Blog jargon to know:
-    Blogosphere – the universe of blogs
-    blovel – a seriously long post
-    blogworthy – worth blogging about
-    blahg – not worth blogging about
-    dooce – when you get fired because of what you post on your blog (dooce.com – warning: sometimes raunchy blog)
-    lurker – reads a blog but doesn’t participate in it
-    post – a blog entry
-    doppelblogger – someone who plagiarizes the content of another blogger for personal gain or recognition
-    trackback – lets a blog know that another blog know is linking to one of its posts
-    ping – lets blogreaders know you have a new post
-    blogroll – a list of blogs you’re currently reading
-    moblogging – blogging from your mobile phone (Kem took a picture of the crowd using her cameraphone and can then post it on her blog)
-    link love  – when some links to your blog unsolicited
-    troll – leaves comments on blogs solely to antagonize the author
-    flamer – someone who is inappropriate in their comment responses
-    blogna sandwich – employees who spend their lunch hour reading blogs

• A quick introduction to blog aggregators (Google Reader and Bloglines) – some people are confused by this
• Blog tools of choice: Blogger (free), WordPress (free), TypePad (paid)
• A demo of how to create a Blogger blog using a Google account in two minutes

Best practices:
• Be yourself, don’t try to imitate someone else
• Provide value (you have to know your audience to do that)
• A blog is personal, but it’s not private
• Use common sense and respect (tell the truth, but don’t gossip or reveal too much)
• Blog when you can, but don’t apologize for a lag of posting
• Watching stats can be fun, but it can make you forget why you started blogging
• Being active in your comments or other blog’s comments is great, but it takes time
• A blog is not a place to pick a fight, to have a tough conversation with someone, take it offline
• Don’t ask other people to link to your blog, it’s just not cool
• Check your spelling and your links
• Make sure you’re linking to things that will be there long term
• The more you send people away from your blogs through good links, the more they will come back – this completely conflicts with most website philosophies; traditionally people try keep readers on their site and their site only!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 9:59 am and is filed under Conferences, The Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.