Professional Blogging
Chris Hoffman
The relatively inexpensive start-up cost of publishing on the Web has given rise to many alternatives to mainstream media. Technology has managed to turn entertainment and news into a truly consumable product. Customers can get what they want when they want it. Not home when your favorite show is on? “Just Tivo it.”In fact you can Tivo the entire season and watch at your leisure;have football scores and stock prices sent to your cell phone. Virtually anything you want all under the auspices of ease and convenience. Along side this phenomenon of media being so convenient are audiences growing distrust of mainstream media and their desire for programming that’s narrowly specific to their particular interests. These converging movements are getting people to explore and buy into the emerging alternative media that the internet provides.
Actually, you may have already heard the buzzwords “weblog”, “blog” and “podcasting” tossed around the evening news. So what are these terms and what do they mean? Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English Preview Editionv 0.9.6(Kipfer) defines a Blog like this:
Main Entry:weblog
Part of Speech:noun
Definition:a personal Web site that provides updated headlines and news articles of other sites that are of interest to the user, also may include journal entries, commentaries and recommendations compiled by the user; also written web log, Weblog; also called blog
While that definition is accurate, it doesn’t illustrate the power of a well written and popular blog. In today’s society of instant information, people are less likely to wait for the following day’s paper to read an analysis of a political debate. Why should they when they could log onto a political blog and get commentary as the debate is happening?
Are Blogs a Viable Writing Medium?
Many are dismissing blogs as nothing more than a place for people to write about their dog or post pictures of their family reunions. Although blogs do serve that purpose as well, it would be mistaken to believe that blogs shouldn’t be taken seriously as a professional writer’s medium. Recent politics have the best documented events to the rise of a blog’s influence. The first well-documented example of blogs affecting the political landscape was in 2003. Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo Blog and Glenn Reynold’s Instapundant uncovered and reported on a speech given by Senator Trent Lott about former senator Strom Thurmond in which he praised Thurmond’s pro segregation views. The mainstream media largely ignored this subject. Bloggers continued to write about the story until it was finally picked up on the TV show Meet the Press. Lott, who was slated to become senate majority leader in 2003, stepped down from the leadership position(Hewitt 7). From there many more “scoops” have been broken by blogs. TheMemoryHole.com was the first to publish pictures of caskets of soldiers that were killed in Iraq – photos that the Bush Administration tried to keep out of the media(Kline10).
We also saw the potential of blogs in the 2004 presidential campaign. Howard Dean used his blog to raise more money than any Democrat in history ($45 million). His blog also continued to maintain thousands of hits a day even months after he pulled out of the race(Kline35).
Positions within the Industry
Because of the nature of blogs they’re structure is very free form. Your position in a Blog largely depends on the type of Blog you’re running. If you’re starting out on your own it’s likely you will fill all of these positions yourself.
Professional Blogger
A professional blogger would be in charge of updating and posting new articles on a blog. If the blog is a personal one then the content would be personal experience, the basic “online diary” mentioned in the definition. If the site is a blog than links to other blogs and sites then the blogger would surf the net for interesting and unusual articles to feature on the site. If the blog is of a substantial size the blogging may be done by a team of bloggers all updating the site.
PostScreener
Some blogs allow their readership submit articles and websites for posting on the blog. In this case a screener would check the content of the submissions to see if they are relevant to the site.
Webmaster
Someone has to maintain the site itself. A webmaster checks the site for updates, security vulnerabilities, responds to technical issues, and designs and presents the layout of the site.This position requires some knowledge of internet technologies like HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Education, Skills, & Experience
There are no education requirements to starting a blog. You could be anyone from a well educated law professor to a raving lunatic. There are no tests to pass. On the otherhand there are some skills that are very helpful when maintaining a blog.
Writing Skills
Writing is the cornerstone of a blog. It’s a good idea for a blogger to enjoy writing quickly and often. Successful blogs update constantly. Blogs don’t have any expectations as far as formatting goes so you can be your own boss in that department. Readers will frequent entertaining and informative blogs. Giving the reader something they can’t get elsewhere makes the difference.
HTML/CSS
HTML is the programming language that makes the web tick. The more you understand how to manipulate your blog at a language level, the better prepared you will be to deal with technical issues.Also, knowledge of HTML and CSS will allow you to present your website with a design of your choosing rather than a template.
Additional Information
There are many resources on the internet that will help you start and maintain your blog.
Free Full Service Blog Sites
Blogger.com & LiveJournal.com are full service blog sites. All you need to do is create an account and you’re off and running. You have no need for a webmaster since it’s all done for you. The main downside is that free sites have their own advertising that shows up on your site and you don’t see any of that money.
Subscription Blog Sites
Movabletype.com & Typepad.com offer the same services as the free ones minus the built-in ads plus better bandwidth and more personalized service.
Mambo/Joomla
Joomla is a free open-source CMS (Content management System) that uses PHP and MySQL to deliver a dynamic website, perfect for blogs. A CMS uses a database (MySQL) to store all the updates you write for your site. With a huge community working on the project there’s a ton of support to help “newbies” get online. This required you having your own server and domain name (anywhere from $4.95 to $500 per year). These services can be provided by companies like Stargate.com or Godaddy.com or any of the other thousands of hosting companies on the net.
FAQ
Q: How does a blog make money?
Now I’ve told you about how blogs are changing politics, reshaping business, and exploding on the internet. While that’s all well and good the bottom line for most will be just that – the bottom line! So how does your blog go from a labor of love to a full blown daytime job? There are many income streams available to bloggers and more popping up everyday. These are just a few examples:
A: Advertising
Good old fashioned ads with a twist. These advertising programs are specially designed for blogs.
Google Adsense – Google looks at you page and what people are looking for then presents non-obtrusive ads based on the results. For instance if you have a blog about model airplanes, when someone comes to your site looking for model engines Adsense will present ads for model airplane stores. You are paid based on weather the ads a re paying for the ad to be shown or on a ‘per-click’ basis. The fact that google makes the ads so relevant to your users interests makes this program much more successful than the random banner ads of the past.
Blogads – This affiliate program is by invitation only. You need a current member to sponsor your blog to get the ads on your site. “Advertisers order, manage and renew fixed-period ads or sponsorships on your blog. Only ads you approve run. Blogads.com focuses on marketing and advertiser hand-holding so you don't need to.” Blogads claim that the average blog make $50 - $3000 a month on ads.
Sponsorship – Savvy businesses are coming around to the idea of sponsoring blogs. Many other traditional mediums have many sponsors so the gradual move to sponsoring blogs was largely inevitable. This can be done in a campaign sense where a sponsor pays for ads over several posts or sponsors the entire blog.
Affiliate Programs – Amazon and Linkshare are two of the more prominent affiliate programs. Your blog shows a number of ads and when a customer clicks the ad and purchases an item you get a cut or a finder’s fee. Some programs pay on a pay-per-click basis. There are as many ways of being paid as there are programs, which number in the thousands.
Digital Assets
Bloggers are now selling self published books in PDF format, e-seminars, and classes on the blog’s subject. This trend will increase as the costs to facilitate any of these avenues are extremely low.
Blog Networks
Big blogs are very difficult to keep updated by one person alone. Browse most of the big name blogs and you’ll usually see a bloggers wanted sign. Like the affiliate programs, there are a number of different ways the blog might pay you; per post, per word, after several posts, etc.
Donations
Start a fund raiser on your site with a prominently featured PAYPAL donate button on your page. You’ll be surprised how much people will pay for information and entertainment they feel is worthwhile. Jason Kottke of kottke.org actually quit his day job to become a full-time blogger due to donations.
Flipping Blogs
Having a built in audience is very attractive to businesses and advertisers. Many blogs are building up a readership then selling to the highest bidder.
Merchandising
Selling branded products has become very easy for online merchants by sites like Cafepress.com. Cafepress makes merchandise on a per order basis. T-shirts, mugs, Frisbees, etc. with whatever logo you send them. You set the price (relative to cafeepress’ production charges) so the profit margin is totally up to you. They also handle all the credit card transactions so you don’t need to setup an e-commerce site of your own.
Hopefully this information has been useful to your interest in blogs. No one knows if this technology is here to stay but one thing is for sure; It’s here now and having a working knowledge of the technology couldn’t hurt.
Works Cited
Hewitt, Hugh. Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation that's Changing Your World. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2005.
Kline, David, and Dan Burstein. Blog!:How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Bussiness, and Culture. Ed. de Keijzer, Arne J. and Paul Berger. New York: Squibnocket Partners LLC., 2005.
Kipfer, Barbara Ann Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, Preview Edition Long Beach: Lexico Publishing Group, LLC 2002-2005 <