Category Archives: On Blogging

Some thoughts about blogging.

Web Site vs. Blog

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What’s the Difference?

Today I got a phone call from our local newspaper’s “business advocate” — the guy who writes stories about business. He was researching an article about blogging and figured that I was the most active blogger — if not the only blogger — in town, so I might be able to to provide some information about it. He wasn’t aware that I’d co-authored a book about WordPress blogging software (WordPress 2: Visual QuickStart Guide) in 2006 and he probably wasn’t aware that I wrote Putting Your Small Business on the Web back in 2000. He probably also doesn’t know that I’ve written four books about Web authoring software (various versions of PageMill, now defunct) and that I’ve been building and managing Web sites since 1994 (although I’m not crazy enough to do it for a living).

We stumbled a bit in our conversation. He referred to my Web site, wickenburg-az.com, as a blog. (The site has been around since 1999, predating the blogging phenomena by at least 3 to 4 years.) I responded that it wasn’t a blog, that it was a Web site built with blogging software. And then he asked me what the difference was.

I had to think about it. What is the difference between a Web site and a blog?

They’re very much alike.

Let’s take a look at the similarities.

  • Web sites and blogs are both published on the Web and can be read with any Web browser. This gives them the same basic look and feel and similar user experiences. Web sites built with blogging software can look and feel just like a blog, even if that’s not what they are intended to be.
  • They depend on good, useful content. Web site visitors and blog readers come to read content. If the content is good and meets their needs, they’ll be back for more. If the content sucks, they won’t.

But they are different.

Of course, I needed to explain how they were different — not how they were the same. The response I came up with centered around the purpose of visitors coming to to the site, but there are more differences.

  • Web site visitors come to a site to look for specific information. That information does not need to be new. It just needs to be what the visitor is looking for. For example, I visit the HP Web site when I need a new driver for one of my printers. I know it’ll be there and I don’t care if it’s been there for five years. People visit wickenburg-az.com to get basic information about Wickenburg: what it’s like, what to do there, etc. But blog readers visit or subscribe to blogs to get fresh information or insight on topics that are important to them. I read ProBlogger, for example, because it has timely articles that can help me understand how to be a better blogger. People visit aneclecticmind.com to read articles like this one about blogging, or other articles about flying, or even other articles about what it’s like to live in a place like Wickenburg — all from my point of view.
  • Blogs tend to be more opinion-based than Web sites. Sure, HP is going to tell you on their Web site that their printers are the best, but what would you expect? On my blog, I’ll tell you what I think about my HP printer and compare it to other printers I might own or have experience with. I’ll also tell you what I think of Apple Geniuses or local restaurants or life revolving around the Internet. (Although some locals might find this hard to believe, I keep most of my negative opinions of Wickenburg out of wickenburg-az.com. Most.) The opinion aspect makes blogs more personal than a Web site.
  • Blogs rely on fresh content. It’s commonly accepted that a blogger should post at least 3 to 5 new entries a week. Web sites, on the other hand, are more static and don’t require as much updating. Their visitors don’t expect it, either.

Does it matter?

Who knows? But it’s made me think about blogging a bit more than usual lately. And I’m sure it will lead to a few more articles here about what makes a blog a blog in the near future.

Blogger's Block

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Sometimes there just isn’t anything you feel like blogging about.

Those of you who follow this blog or its individual categories may have noticed a dip in new entries earlier this week. I normally try to get at least one new entry out per day. But early this week, that was difficult to do. In fact, I went three consecutive days without posting anything at all.

Why? I think I was suffering from blogger’s block.

Is there such a thing? Well, apparently there is. I just Googled the phrase and got a list of blog entries that reference it. More on that in a moment.

First, I want to talk about why it’s important to blog regularly. Simply said, your regular readers expect it. When they visit your site each day (or every two or three days, perhaps), they expect to see new content. Disappoint a visitor a few times and he might not come back. If your goal is to attract and keep visitors, it’s vital that you give them something new and interesting to read each time they visit.

The problem with that — other than the problem of being interesting in the first place — is coming up with fresh topics that you want to write about. And that’s where I was earlier this week. Bummed out by my sick computer, not happy about surfing the Web for ideas on my little laptop, busy completing my office move, occupied with Web server modifications and setting up new gigs for Flying M Air. Without input from the Web or time to think of topics, I was short on inspiration and unable (or perhaps unwilling?) to write anything new.

This is something I need to cope with. Fortunately, Darren at ProBlogger has written a series of articles on the subject of blogger’s block that has lots ideas for defeating it: “Battling Bloggers Block.” As usual, Darren has a bunch of really good tips. I recommend checking them out if you find yourself short on ideas for your blog.

Link Bait?

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Unintentional, perhaps, but very effective.

I’m getting ready to upgrade my blog-based Web sites to WordPress 2.1 from WordPress 2.0.4. It’s a big task for some sites and the biggest hurdle I have to jump is the plugin compatibility hurdle. This site and wickenburg-az.com rely on plugins for many of their features. If a plugin were to unexpectedly stop working, the sites could be brought down by PHP errors. This is not something I want to deal with, so I started thinking about the plugin situation. And, as I often do when I’m thinking of something that might benefit other people, I wrote an article about it and published it here.

Does that make the article “linkbait”? I suppose it does. But I’m willing to accept that label if it’s used in the context of “simply compelling content.”

It took me about an hour to write the article. (Those of you who know me and my work know that I can produce original material at often alarming rates.) It was all fresh, out-of-my-brain stuff, inspired by the WordPress upgrade instructions and compatible plugins list, which I linked to in the article. It was better organized that a lot of the posts here — especially the long, rambling ones about flying and the things that go on in my life — and it included headings and lists to make it easier to read.

It hit the site at 7:24 AM MST. Within two hours, it had been linked to by Weblog Tools Collection (thanks!) and the article with the link just happened to appear in the Dashboard for all WordPress users. That’s when all hell broke loose. Visitors swarmed over. The article collected 10 comments and pingbacks in a matter of hours. The pingbacks, in several languages, brought even more visitors. At one point, I had 29 visitors (including bots) online and 19 of them were reading that one article.

Now that might not seem like a big deal to many of you, but it’s a huge deal here. My daily visitor count, which averages about 250 per day, jumped to almost 900. And my page hit count soared to over 1250 from a daily average of 400-500. Whew! And the trend is carrying over to today; at 8 AM, I’ve already reached my daily average counts.

What’s So Special about This Article?

So the question remains: why has this one article been such a boon to the site?

In looking at the article and how it differs from other site content, I’ve come up with the following:

  • The article was 95% original. I based it on my own experience and knowledge rather than material I’d found elsewhere. This was new content — not something I read and regurgitated here. And given the 1/9/90 rule discussed earlier today, only 1% of what’s in blogs is original content.
  • The article was timely. WordPress 2.1 had been out for less than 3 days when I wrote it. (Oddly enough, two commenters said they wished I’d written the article sooner. Sadly, I have neither the time nor the inclination to work with software under development these days, especially when that software is based on a computer language I hardly know.)
  • The article provided valuable information. Anyone who jumps blindly into a major WordPress upgrade deserves all the grief he gets. To me (and apparently others), the plugin issue is serious business. My article explained why it was serious and listed things that should be done for a less troublesome upgrade.
  • The article was well organized and well written. Sure, it’s easy for me to say — I wrote it. But I can look at all of my work objectively and I can say without a doubt that among my blog posts, this article was one of my better efforts. In fact, if this post wasn’t so time-sensitive, I would have submitted it to Informit.com, which pays me to write for them. (If I had, however, it would not have reached the Web for at least a month. So yes, I gave up a few hundred bucks, but WordPress users need this information now and I didn’t want them to wait.)
  • The article was well presented. I’m talking here about readability, which I discussed in another blog post earlier this month. This post included headings and lists, which help break text into bite sized pieces and make it more scannable.

It’s gratifying that the article was found by a “WordPress authority” who found it worthy to link to. I wouldn’t be writing this post if I didn’t get the support of the folks who linked to it. They brought visitors to the article, pumping up my daily numbers accordingly.

Is it Linkbait?

Does that make the article “linkbait“? I suppose it does. But I’m willing to accept that label if it’s used in the context of “simply compelling content.” After all, I didn’t write it with the goal of getting lots of links and readers. I wrote it because it was on my mind, is a topic my readers claim they’re interested in (33% of those who took the poll said they’re interested in blogging), and is related to a topic I co-authored a book about. The article was forming in my brain — why would I keep it there if others might find it useful?

That said, I’m not one bit sorry that it has attracted all the attention it has. It’s given me a lot to think about — and more to write about here.

Understanding the Rules of Great Content

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Somewhat related to my Three Types of Blog Entries post…

In trying to catch up with the RSS feeds I subscribe to, I ran across an article titled “Understanding The Rules of Great Content” on ProBlogger Blog Tips, which says, in part:

In your quest for creating excellent content, you may have come across the following dilemma: I would love to create something important for my blog, but how do I, as a “mere” blogger contribute to that conversation at large? If I don’t create something de novo, will it be worth posting?

To answer that question, let me tell you about the 1 / 9 / 90 rule — and, in my humble opinion, its a rule that every blogger ought to live (and subsequently), die by.

In a way, the three types of blog posts I wrote about correspond to each part of the “rule” discussed in the article. The 1 is for 1% creating content — that’s where my “full-length articles” come in. The 9 is for 9% enriching content — that’s my “analysis of Web content.” And finally, the 90 is the 90% consuming content — that’s my “link lists.”

Although I’m not quite sure if I agree with the percentages — I’d rather see a 10 / 30 / 60 rule — I find it interesting that Tony Hung over at Problogger.net should come up with the same basic idea that I did, right around the same time. It’s as if we were both thinking about the kinds of entries a blogger could write but came up with different ways to say the same thing.

If you found my post interesting, I highly recommend that you read Tony’s. He goes into more detail about how to stay in that 9 percent.

As for this post, it falls into the 9 percent category. (Or at least I hope it does.)

Publish & Prosper: Blogging for your Business

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A brief book review.

I just got a copy of Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business by DL Byron, Steve Broback. This 200-page book is a good beginners’ guide for business blogging that starts with the basics and expands from there. For example, some questions that are answered include:

  • What is a blog?
  • Why should you blog?
  • Why shouldn’t you blog?
  • What should the focus of your blog be?
  • What does it take to start and maintain a blog?
  • What features should your blog include?
  • Should you include ads on your blog?
  • How do you monitor your blog’s usage?

Keep in mind that the book isn’t written for the average blogger. It’s written for business bloggers — people who want to use a blog to promote or otherwise market their business, products, or services.

Oddly enough, the book reminds me of one of my old titles, Putting Your Small Business on the Web. (Although I’m providing a link here, I’m not suggesting that you buy the book; it’s horribly out of date and of little value at this point.) Both books take a very basic approach, explaining how a new technology (blogging in this book; the Web in my book) can benefit a business and how to get started. Both books appeal more to business people then tech-saavy people — in fact, if you have experience with the technology, you already know half the book’s content.

Overall, I think the book is a good read for any business person who isn’t already a blogger — or perhaps one who has just gotten started and isn’t quite sure of what he or she is doing. Although there are lots of tips between its covers for all bloggers, it’s the newbies that will get the most of this book.