Three Types of Blog Entries

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And how they can make your blog succeed.

Every blogger has his own style of blogging which combines writing style, voice, and entry type. While writing style and voice are primarily dependent on the blogger and his writing skills, entry type is something that can be easily changed.

The way I see it, there are several different types of blog entries. Each type has its own pros and cons. In this article, I want to take a closer look at the three types I use and explain why I think they’re useful.

Daily or Weekly Link Lists

If you maintain a blog, you probably also read other blogs and visit Web sites. Along the way, you might find articles you want to share with your blog’s readers. That’s what link list entries are all about. They offer a quick list of links to articles and blog entries on the Web with or without brief comments.

Pros
The benefit of this type of entry is that it’s quick and easy to create. It offers value to readers in that it tells them about Web-based content that they might find useful or interesting. But it doesn’t usually add much in the way of content. Sure, your comments can explain what the link is all about, but they’re not usually a major part of the entry. The links themselves are the content.

Cons
The drawback of this type of entry is that there simply isn’t much “meat” in it. Your list of links might not provide anything new for folks who spend much of their time on the Web — as many blog readers do. Links you find today may have been found by others who listed them yesterday or last week or last year. I’ve often read link lists and found links I’m already familiar with — and that’s saying a lot because I don’t spend a lot of time on the Web. Still, to many blog visitors, old news is better than no news. If you’re one of the few sources of links for some of your visitors, they’re likely to find a lot of value in the links you share.

Note
A side note here: I create my daily link list as I visit Web sites and blogs by using the Daily Blog Posting feature of Del.icio.us and a Del.icio.us bookmarklet. This system is extremely easy to use, although formatting is preset and limited. As I find interesting sites, articles, or pages, I use the bookmarklet to add them to my Del.icio.us Bookmarks. At the end of the day, the Daily Blog Posting feature automatically compiles all the bookmarks I added that day and turns them into a links list and posts it to my WordPress-based blog. The result is the Links posts you can find in the This just in… topic on my site. Oddly enough, this is the only reason I use Del.icio.us. (I maintain my bookmarks list in Firefox, synchronized automatically on all my computers using Foxmark Bookmark Syncrhonizer.) You can access this Del.icio.us feature for yourself. Log into your Del.icio.us account and, from your settings page, click Daily Blog Posting. You can find instructions for using this feature in “How to back up del.icio.us bookmarks on your blog” and elsewhere on the Web.

Analysis of Web Content

From the very beginning, blogs have included analysis or commentary about other content on the Web. A Web site or another blog would publish an article about something — anything! — and a blogger would quote it, link to it, and write up some commentary. There’s still a huge amount of that going on today — in fact, I’d bet that 80% or more of blog entries fall into this type of entry.

This is, in effect, one step beyond a simple link with a summary sentence or two. An entry like this includes a link to and quote from someone else’s original material, but analyzes it and offers the blogger’s take on it. Fox News does an article on President Bush’s most recent speech and a blogger picks out a choice quote or two and tear it to shreds. (Or, as the case may be, praises the reporter for his insightful commentary.) Microsoft issues a press release about the latest Windows security problem and fix and a blogger quotes a summary paragraph and explains how the problem may or may not affect most users. People magazine does a story about celebrities adopting African orphans and a blogger quotes the piece and explains why she thinks they should be adopting American orphans. Or, in a recent example from my site, I discover an online Internet connection speed testing utility, link to it and quote the introduction for its use, and explain why I think it’s a good tool. Get the idea?

When you create entries like this, there’s a certain amount of value added: your commentary. The value, of course, depends on your expertise (do you know what you’re talking about?), your thoughts about the topic (are your thoughts positive, negative, or critically useful in any way?), and your writing skills (can you communicate your thoughts in a way that’s clear, concise, or at least entertaining?). The goal is to consistently create entries that your audience finds interesting. But be warned! If you disappoint your audience one too many times, they won’t keep checking in for the latest.

Pros
The main benefit of this kind of entry is that it’s relatively quick and easy to create. Can be timely (if based on current events) or long-lasting (if based on information that’s useful for a good, long while). The commentary helps readers make conclusions based on an “expert” opinion, so it’s valuable to them and they’ll come back for more.

Cons
There’s a lot of this stuff out there. If your commentary is the same old thing that can be found on other blogs, there may be no reason for visitors to come to your blog. It’s hard to set your blog apart from the others with this type of entry unless your good at it and your commentary is worth reading. And timely content has a limited “shelf life,” thus requiring that you constantly add new content — several entries a day! — to keep readers coming back for more.

Full-length Articles

Full-length articles are just that: original articles that cover a specific topic. Although they may quote and reference other Web sources, most of the information and conclusions are yours. These are the articles that most readers are looking for. When you link to and/or quote other writers’ original articles on your site, all you’re doing is sending readers to those sites or blogs. But when you create original material on your blog, other bloggers will send readers to you. And that’s the goal, isn’t it?

Full-length articles are what can set your blog apart from others. These articles represent your thoughts and ideas, your opinions and viewpoints. They can provide instructions for completing tasks (as many of my articles do here for various computer software programs), provide news and opinion about current events locally or worldwide, or tell a story about the weird thing that happened to you on your last day off. A full-length article can be all original material or can combine bits and pieces of other material, drawn together solely to provide background information or strengthen your viewpoint. (One of my favorite opinion pieces is by John Aabbott, who occasionally writes for wickenburg-az.com; in “Just Say No to Wal-Mart in Wickenburg“, he argues about why Wickenburg should not have a Wal-Mart, using lots of quotes and online references to make his point.)

Pros
The full-length articles you write can only be found in one place: on your blog. If you write something useful and/or interesting, other bloggers may send readers to your blog, helping to increase your blog’s readership. Articles can help establish you as knowledgeable about a topic — perhaps even an expert.

Cons
Not everyone is cut out to write full-length articles of value to readers. You need a well thought-out topic, the ability to organize your thoughts, writing skills, and, most of all, time. (I don’t know anyone who can knock off a 1500-word article in 30 minutes.) Your topic must appeal to your blog’s readers — or the readers you want to attract. Sure, you might be able to write 2,000 words about that weird thing that happened to you on your last day off from work, but do people really want to read it? Do they care? There’s a lot of dull stuff out there (and I’ll admit, in this blog, too) that simply won’t get read.

Developing a Strategy

It’s up to you to develop a strategy for your blog. My advice is to mix these three types of blog entries as time allows. That’s what I do and I’ve had relatively good success.

If you have a good technique for creating link lists, you should add links to your list each time you visit other sites/blogs and find content of interest to your readers. This is quick and easy to to do and has some value to your site’s visitors.

When time allows, take the links the next step by including some useful commentary about the sites or articles you link to. This makes your entries more valuable to readers.

If you can consistently come up with informative and interesting full-length articles for your blog, by all means, write them! If your blogging software supports scheduled entries, you might want to use a trick I use: write several articles in a day — or a long article broken down into logical segments — and schedule them to be published over several days or weeks. This ensures a steady stream of good, fresh content for readers rather than bunching articles up on the days you have time to write them. Multi-part articles also give readers a reason to come back for more.

Of course, your strategy will depend on your blog and your blogging style. What works best for you? Use the comments link to share your thoughts with the rest of us.

Speakeasy Speed Test

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See your real bandwidth.

When you set up your Internet connection with an ISP, you don’t need to believe what they tell you about bandwidth speeds. You can check it for yourself.

Although there are many bandwidth testers on the Web — your ISP probably provides one — I use one called Speakeasy Speed Test:

Take the Speakeasy Speed Test and test your connection speed! By measuring the download and upload rate from the following locations you are able to accurately judge your current line throughput or internet connection speed. To take the speed test, choose the server nearest you.

Speakeasy Speed TestThe Speed Test displays your results graphically using a speedometer-like meter. Here’s an example of what my terrible home Internet connection looks like with the upload test in progress. (Now you can see why I don’t want to move my office back home. I can just about pin the speed needle with my DSL connection at the office.) At the end of the test, Speakeasy plays a little advertisement and offers access to a search feature where you can see if their service is available in your area. (It’s not in my area, but then again, there’s only one non-dialup option available for my home and you’ve seen the results.)

While I’m not recommending Speakeasy — I know nothing about it — I do recommend this test. If you know of any others, don’t be shy. Use the Comments link to share them with the rest of us.

The Grass is Outside

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At University of Phoenix/Cardinals football stadium, that is.

I did a Phoenix tour today, taking two Florida Gators fans on a scenic flight around the city from Scottsdale Airport. One of the highlights of the flight was a flyby of Glendale’s University of Phoenix football stadium, where the Gators trounced Ohio State the other day.

The University of Phoenix football stadium is unique in that the entire playing field, which is grass, is on rollers. After a game, the field is rolled out of the stadium into the sun so the grass can recover. There’s also a field of sod out there that can be used to replace bits and pieces of the main field that are too badly damaged during a game for a regular recovery.

When we flew by this afternoon, we were all quite pleased to see the grass outside on the southeast side of the stadium. The end zones were still marked Florida and Ohio. My passengers took quite a few photos of the sight. I, of course, was flying, and didn’t get a chance to take any photos at all.

Maybe next time.

Cows in the Landing Zone

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Yes, cows.

One of Flying M Air’s clients is a local business that has a remote ranch along the Hassayampa River. I occasionally take their VIPs out to the ranch, turning a 45-minute (each way) car ride on washboarded dirt roads into a 6-minute scenic helicopter flight.

The landing zone is near a few of the ranch buildings, on a patch of sparse grass near a road. My approach route takes me along the road past large pens holding horses, cows, and calves.

On all of my previous flights, the cows were in the pens. But today, they were out and about. As I approached my landing zone, I was rather surprised to see a 2-month-old calf standing on the road, obviously mooing its little brains out. The recipient of this mooing was on the other side of the landing zone: a cow that might have been its mother.

Of course, I noted all this as I was coming in for a landing with three passengers on board. I’ve landed there so many times that I don’t normally do any kind of reconnoissance anymore. I know the landing zone very well and, if things aren’t as expected, I know the quick escape route I can use if I need to abort.

I didn’t need to abort. I set down where I usually do while my passengers debated whether they could walk past the cow about 100 feet away. The cow had horns — as all the cows at that ranch do — and they thought it might be a bull. Many people who don’t check an animal’s privates think horns are the indication of animal gender. I saw udders and I knew it was a cow.

While I descended to the ground, my rotor wash blew up a bunch of dried cow patties and dust. It all flew into the air and I wondered about the possibility of one of those smaller cow patties flying up into the tail rotor when it was time to take off.

I throttled down to cool-down RPM (68% on an R44) and let my passengers disembark, reminding them again of the tail rotor. I always park facing where my passengers need to go, so there’s no reason for them to walk behind the helicopter. As I cooled the helicopter down, I watched a cowboy greet them. They walked away to take a tour of the ranch. Routine stuff.

What wasn’t routine was the cows. They were all over the place. Cows and calves in every direction. There had to be at least twenty of them.

I shut down, watching the cows and wondering whether they were tall enough to interfere with the tail rotor. Those horns were pretty high up. They were watching me. All of them. Just standing around, with their cow faces looking my way. It was very weird.

I stopped the blades with the rotor brake and got out to survey my position on the landing zone. There was certainly a lot more cow patties than the last time I’d landed there. I’d landed in a patch of short, dry grass, surrounded by dirt. There was a shallow ditch off the front end of the right skid. No big rocks near the skids. Just a bunch of dried cow patties in all sizes. So dry that I could kick them away from the tail rotor area without getting cow poop on my shoes. But not dry enough that I to touch them with my hands.

I looked at the cows and their calves. They were still watching me. The closest one was about 100 feet away. One of them was mooing insistently.

I took out my Hobbs book and caught up with some paperwork. I knew my passengers would be at least 30 minutes. I’d forgotten my iPod at home and figured I’d use the time to catch up with some of the log stuff the FAA required for my Part 135 certificate.

When I looked up, a few of the cows were closer.

This was not good. I put away the book and got out. I made a big show of cleaning the cockpit bubble. The cows watched.

I finished and decided it was time to chase the cows away. I’d told my passengers that I’d start the engine when I saw them coming, but I wasn’t prepared to start the engine when a cow might walk into the tail rotor. I had to get them away.

Unfortunately, persistent “shooing” sounds with waving hands didn’t do the job.

I started walking toward the closest cow. Other cows and calves nearby immediately moved away. One of them stopped periodically to moo at me. But soon most of them were a bit farther off.

Except one. She was an older cow with horns that had the tips sawn off. I got the idea that she was a troublemaker who used her horns one too many times to bully another cow or maybe a horse or cowboy. She seemed fascinated with either me or (more likely) the red helicopter I’d arrived in. When I walked toward her, she walked away. When I stopped, she stopped and looked at me.

It was getting chilly; the wind was picking up. I climbed back into the helicopter and closed the doors on my side.

That’s when the ranch guy showed up. He was driving a blue New Holland tractor with a front-end loader on it. The tractor was pulling a matching blue water tank. He drove noisily down the road and carefully backed the tank into a spot near a horse corral. Two dogs were walking alongside his rig; I realized that two more were riding on the tank trailer. He stopped and a guy rode up on an ATV. I turned my attention to the cows. I think they were getting closer again. The guy with the ATV rode off. The ranch guy disconnected the water trailer and pulled the tractor away. He parked a short distance from me and called to the dogs.

There were four dogs and they all looked to be mutts. Three of them had some border collie or Australian shepherd or heeler in them. The other one looked like it might have some hound in it. But when the ranch guy hollered whatever it is he hollered, the dogs took off toward the closest group of cows.

The next ten minutes was an incredible show. The dogs, listening to a few simple commands from the ranch guy, proceeded to round up groups of 3 to 6 cows and move them toward the horse corrals 50 yards away from my helicopter. The cows didn’t want to be moved. The older ones turned their horns toward the dogs and even kicked at them, but the dogs were always faster and managed to stay safe. They barked and the cows mooed and the calves ran around in a panic. But eventually the pack was moved to the fence near the horse corral. Then the dogs got a short rest before the ranch guy would set them on another group of cows. I watched in amazement until all the cows except one had been moved to the side of the horse corral.

The whole time, the ranch guy just sat in the blue tractor, watching the dogs. Every once in a while, he’d yell out a command that I couldn’t quite hear. When the dogs were finished, they came back to the tractor and just lay down in the dirt. They stayed there for about five minutes. Then the ranch guy issued another command I couldn’t quite catch and motioned to the one cow that was still nearby. The dogs took off after it.

The cow ran into the bushes. The dogs ran after it. “Bring ’em back!” the ranch guy yelled. I saw the cow run back and forth through the bushes. The dogs split up and worked it as a team. Soon, the cow was running back across the clearing. It ran past the front of the helicopter toward the other cows. Finally it was among them. The dogs relaxed.

The ranch guy started the tractor and headed off back up the road. The dogs followed him. He rounded a bend in the road and moved out of sight.

The cows stood in a group near the horse corral. A few of them mooed angrily. One or two scratched their front hooves in the dirt like a bull at a bullfight in the movies.

A few minutes later, three of the dogs returned. They stared at the cows for a few minutes, then lay down in the dirt 50 feet away, watching them.

The cows didn’t move, although the mooing ones never really shut up.

My passengers returned a while later. I didn’t have to worry much about the cows and the tail rotor. The dogs had them under control.

This is one of the few times I didn’t have a camera with me. If I did, I’d have used the movie feature to get video of the dogs in action.

My total flight time was 0.3 hours, but I’ll get paid for 0.5 because of my half-hour minimum. I was on the ground waiting for nearly 50 minutes.

But that’s okay. I had a really good show.

Flying for Bowl Games

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And keeping very busy.

My cell phone started ringing on Saturday and it didn’t stop. By Sunday afternoon, I was booked with a Grand Canyon day trip (from Phoenix Sky Harbor) on Monday, a one-hour Phoenix Tour from Scottsdale on Tuesday morning, and a 1-hour charter from Wickenburg on Wednesday. On Monday afternoon, while I was at the Grand Canyon with my passengers, the Phoenix tour turned into another Grand Canyon Charter. I turned down four Grand Canyon day trips and two Sedona day trips from the Phoenix area for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday because I was already booked. I couldn’t keep up with the messages that came in while I was airborne on Monday and Tuesday and on Tuesday morning, while at the Grand Canyon, I had to shut my phone off because my battery was nearly dead.

Why all the sudden interest in helicopter day trips and charters?

The bowl game that was held in Glendale on Monday night. Don’t ask me which Bowl game it was — I don’t follow football. I only know who played (Florida Gators and Ohio State) and who won (Florida) because my Monday passengers were Gators fans and my Tuesday passengers were disappointed Ohio fans.

Like so many Phoenix area businesses, I feasted on the influx of big budget tourists, folks who think nothing of dropping $2K for a day’s entertainment. In the case of the Grand Canyon day trips, both parties wanted to get to and see the Grand Canyon but had limited time for the visit. They simply didn’t want to make the 4-hour (each way) car ride from Phoenix. So they hired me to take them by helicopter — 1-1/2 hour from Scottsdale (each way) and 1-3/4 hour from Sky Harbor

Yesterday’s group didn’t have much time to spend at the canyon. We left Sky Harbor at 9 AM and arrived at Grand Canyon Airport barely in time for them to hop on a Papillon helicopter for a canyon overflight. Afterwards, we had an hour before we had to leave the Grand Canyon to get them back to the Phoenix area in time for their pre-game parties. They spent about 3/4 of that in Papillon’s gift shop. We did have time for a quick burger at Susy’s restaurant at Prescott Airport. I think they enjoyed that meal at a typical airport restaurant almost as much as the rest of their day. Of course, they probably enjoyed the game a lot more, since their team won.

Today’s group is just a father and his 10-year-old son who are here from Ohio for the game. They spent Sunday at Sedona and decided to fly with me to Grand Canyon for the day. I set them up with a Papillon tour and they got bumped up and upgraded to fly with Grand Canyon Helicopters (Papillon’s sister company), which flies much nicer equipment (EC130s). Although they were supposed to be on the short tour, they were put on the long tour and they apparently loved every minute of it. (What’s not to like?) We took the Xantera “taxi” to the park and I set them loose in front of El Tovar so they could walk the rim and have lunch on their own.

Now, at 1:30 PM, I’m sitting in the upper lounge (hotel guests only!), trying to produce something for my blog. There’s no wireless Internet here — and that’s a good thing. After all, I ‘m less than 300 feet from the rim of the canyon and shouldn’t even be looking at a computer. I’m meeting my passengers right outside at 3 PM for the return flight. I’ll have them back in Scottsdale by 5 PM and I’ll be shutting down on the ramp in Wickenburg before 6.

Yesterday’s flight was the first time I flew to the Grand Canyon from downtown Phoenix. It isn’t a particularly interesting flight. Not if you do a straight line, anyway. So I take little side trips. The highlight was probably the red rocks tour of Sedona about an hour into the flight. I flew my passengers past the airport and over town, then headed up the canyon where the tour operators there take their passengers. Near the end of the canyon, I pulled up, climbing at about 1,000 feet per minute to get over the edge of the Mongollon Rim. My front seat passenger was nervous, but he did okay. Then more relatively uninteresting stuff to the canyon. On the way back, I took them west of Bill Williams Mountain with a stop in Prescott, then down the east side of the Bradshaws. I showed them the ruins on Indian Mesa on Lake Pleasant before heading into Phoenix.

Got jets?Cutter Aviation, my FBO of choice at Sky Harbor, was a complete mob scene when I got there at around 3PM. Jets and other large aircraft were coming in for the game — last-minute folks who hadn’t come days before to enjoy the weekend. My helicopter was an insignificant speck on the ramp among all the jets. They started leading me to parking in a “Follow Me” car, then just drove away, leaving me to set down wherever I wanted to. I found a spot in the corner of their ramp with the Swift FBO jets parked behind me. I was only planning on being there for a few minutes, so I didn’t think it mattered too much where I parked. I escorted my passengers into the terminal there, pocketed a generous tip, said goodbye, and placed my fuel order for 20 gallons. The next guy asked for 1,680 gallons. It took a long time to fuel me, probably because the idiot with the truck was trying to fit it all in one tank. Meanwhile, big planes kept coming in and the FBO person in charge was getting more and more nervous by the minute. There were at least 50 people — pilots, national guard guys, police, limo drivers — you name it — in the Cutter terminal. The place was crazed and I wanted out. It was a pleasure to get clearance from Sky Harbor tower to follow the “river bottom” and head northwest once I’d passed Central Avenue. I logged 4.3 hours yesterday, which is more than I budget for those flights. Not a loss, but certainly not the kind of hourly rate I like to earn. My fault. I charged them my north valley rate; I should have charged for south valley, which is $200 more. The tip helped.

Today, I flew my passengers from Scottsdale, which is a shorter flight. We went past Jerome instead of Sedona on our way up. I’ll overfly Sedona with a Red Rocks tour on the way back. Scottsdale was also full of jets this morning, but I expect most of them to be gone by the time we return. At least I hope so.

It’s been nice visiting the GC these past two days. I got a chance to chat with a few old friends from Papillon yesterday: Tiny, who is now a lead pilot (he started the same season I did in 2004); Mark D, who wasn’t particularly chatty; Chuck R, who seemed embarrassed to see me; Borden, who is also friends with our good friends Elizabeth and Matt; and Evelyn. I was hoping to talk to Brenda about HAI, but she didn’t seem to be in. Today, I ran into Tom (who once rescued Mike and I from Indians — long story) at GC Helicopters, where he’s a pilot.

I had lunch at El Tovar today. It feels good to sit down and relax. Things are pretty quiet here and, if I had more time, I would have attempted a nap. Last night I had trouble staying awake until 8 PM — I was so exhausted. I’ll probably sleep well again tonight.

But the good news is, Flying M Air could shut down for the rest of the month and still be in good financial shape.

As for my blog…it’s being neglected. But I’ll get back to it soon.