Blogging

Screenshot of Blogger.com from 1999

Blogging (Web+log) is perhaps the most established form of social media publishing. Blogging is now a mainstream part of news journalism, research, journals and group publishing. On 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. On 13 October 2012, there were around 77 million Tumblr and 56.6 million WordPress blogs in existence worldwide.

Blogging is a flexible and stable platform for publishing online. A blog can be published and run by a group of authors, such as Crooked Timber, or by a single author such as Henry Jenkins. No matter what the format, a blog requires an author’s attention and a clear identity. Updates, checking links, images and videos are up to date, making regular entries and publicizing the blog are important elements. A blog has its own domain on the Internet, with individual posts getting sub-domains. Therefore it is possible to link to them. On the Index Page (the first page of the blog) there can be a archive of blog entries, links to other sites, presentation of the author/s, plus elements of the online profile/s to which the blog contributes. In this way the blog functions as a node to coordinate social media online as well as a publishing platform that is part of the blogging network, or ‘blogosphere’. If the blog is to be the centerpiece of an online professional profile then this should dictate the content of the blog posts. Family holiday photos, recipes or private confessions will confuse and alienate readers who are expecting (and probably hoping for) your professional work.

The secret to low-cost academic blogging is to make blogging a natural byproduct of all the things that academics already do.

• Doing an interesting lecture? Put your lecture notes in a blog post.
• Writing a detailed email reply? “Reply to public” with a blog post.
• Answering the same question a second time? Put it in a blog post.
• Writing interesting code? Comment a snippet into a post.
• Doing something geeky at home? Blog about what you learned.

More tips for academic blogging from Matt Might

• Don’t blog before a deadline.
• Don’t post too frequently.
• Don’t feel pressure to post with regularity. Twitter and RSS can alert your readers.
• Don’t spend too much time on a post. It doesn’t have to be as polished as something you submit for peer review. I don’t even spell-check.
• Do store up posts if you have free time. Release when you’re busy.
• Don’t submit your own work to social news sites. If you write well enough, others will do it for you.
• Don’t feel the need to have comments. I get plenty of constructive, meaningful interaction with my readers over twitter and email.

From My Own Blogging Experience

• Desk piling up with drafts and unused notes? Possible inspiration for blog posts.
• Creative Writing a hobby? If it is related to your professional work consider it for the blog.
• Create multiple blogs; use one for teaching, one for media and one for writing – blog intermittently.
• Participate in a group blog, perhaps from you institution or research group.
• Attending seminar, conference or training? These are opportunities for blog posts.
• Take photos, screenshots, videos and post them to your blog.

 

A blog is also a conversation. It is social media with links and comments placing it in relation to a broader discourse. In blogging you are placing your work in relation to an international audience.

Platforms

• Tumblr – This simple and intuitive platform is a favorite of visual bloggers.
• Overblog – This blog gets fed every time you put a morsel on your social networks.
• Feathers – This site is currently invite only, but it’s so distraction-free and no-frills that the emphasis is put squarely on the writing.
• SquareSpace – It’s overkill if you only want to blog, but this will give you room to grow a site, and even turn it into an ecommerce store. After a free trial, it costs $10 per month or $64 a year to start.
• Typepad – This site is essentially a hosted version of Movable Type. After a free trial, service starts at $8.95 a month.
• WordPress.com – Not to be confused with WordPress.org, where you get the software to install; the .com site provides hosting and other services.
• Blogger –  The original free blogging service. Now owned by Google. Has a lot of functionality, a simple visual interface and lots of features.