Pro blogging
Dec. 6th, 2008 04:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringI'm looking to expand and professionalise my blog(s) and I've come to the point of realising that iWeb/MobileMe and LiveJournal aren't supplying the environment I want.
What I need:
RSS feeds that work. I need buttons to allow people to subscribe, add a feed to Bloglines etc. make it easy for readers to subscribe.
A community that has its own life, and that I can manage. Livejournal has the ability for readers to comment and participate in a richer fashion than iWeb/MobileMe (which is essentially linear and difficult to manage). Often the discussions are richer than the original posting.
Trackbacks and links and things to fix my position withing the wider blogosphere. There are other blogs I want to be close to, to be able to comment on them and for those bloggers and readers to visit my blog.
Income generation through Google Adsense. LiveJournal doesn't do this, iWeb/MobileMe does, though it doesn't seem to do pay per view.
A "dashboard" to let me see what works, what doesn't.
Ability to set and customise themes.
Ability to upload entries easily, including multiple photographs.
A page/subpage sructure so the blog is a site rather than a page. There's material that I want upfront on every page, other stuff that doesn't need to be so prominent, but should be around.
Easy archive searching and browsing.
A site-wide search.
Integration with other sites such as FaceBook, Flickr etc.
I don't want to be a nasty money grubbing professional blogger with SEO tricks and one eye on the rankings and a site full of ads, but neither do I want to keep bumping along the bottom, pleasant though it is to entertain an audience of family and friends. I feel that I can expand my horizon a fair bit without too much effort, and while the current skyring.com.au site has a nice look to it, I'm running into limitations.
I'm passionate about taxis and travel. I need to stop rambling and become more focussed, and my writing needs to improve a fair bit. I can write well when I've the heart and mind for it. I take some reasonably decent photographs, and all told, I think I can produce a quality blogsite that will attract hundreds or thousands of readers.
But I need tools that will work on a Mac, preferably integrated with the software I already use, and I need a host that will give me the support I want.
I'm finding any number of ideas via Google, but it's hard to know what is hyperbole and what is solid. Any suggestions and advice from my all-knowing friends gratefully received.
What I need:
RSS feeds that work. I need buttons to allow people to subscribe, add a feed to Bloglines etc. make it easy for readers to subscribe.
A community that has its own life, and that I can manage. Livejournal has the ability for readers to comment and participate in a richer fashion than iWeb/MobileMe (which is essentially linear and difficult to manage). Often the discussions are richer than the original posting.
Trackbacks and links and things to fix my position withing the wider blogosphere. There are other blogs I want to be close to, to be able to comment on them and for those bloggers and readers to visit my blog.
Income generation through Google Adsense. LiveJournal doesn't do this, iWeb/MobileMe does, though it doesn't seem to do pay per view.
A "dashboard" to let me see what works, what doesn't.
Ability to set and customise themes.
Ability to upload entries easily, including multiple photographs.
A page/subpage sructure so the blog is a site rather than a page. There's material that I want upfront on every page, other stuff that doesn't need to be so prominent, but should be around.
Easy archive searching and browsing.
A site-wide search.
Integration with other sites such as FaceBook, Flickr etc.
I don't want to be a nasty money grubbing professional blogger with SEO tricks and one eye on the rankings and a site full of ads, but neither do I want to keep bumping along the bottom, pleasant though it is to entertain an audience of family and friends. I feel that I can expand my horizon a fair bit without too much effort, and while the current skyring.com.au site has a nice look to it, I'm running into limitations.
I'm passionate about taxis and travel. I need to stop rambling and become more focussed, and my writing needs to improve a fair bit. I can write well when I've the heart and mind for it. I take some reasonably decent photographs, and all told, I think I can produce a quality blogsite that will attract hundreds or thousands of readers.
But I need tools that will work on a Mac, preferably integrated with the software I already use, and I need a host that will give me the support I want.
I'm finding any number of ideas via Google, but it's hard to know what is hyperbole and what is solid. Any suggestions and advice from my all-knowing friends gratefully received.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-06 06:40 am (UTC)"Thinking about launching your own blog? Here's some friendly advice: Don't. And if you've already got one, pull the plug.
Writing a weblog today isn't the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It's almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.
If you quit now, you're in good company. Notorious chatterbox Jason Calacanis made millions from his Weblogs network. But he flat-out retired his own blog in July. "Blogging is simply too big, too impersonal, and lacks the intimacy that drew me to it," he wrote in his final post."
no subject
Date: 2008-12-06 05:06 pm (UTC)And I'm not looking to make a million blogging - just to go one step further than iWeb or LJ will let me. I like blogging, and I like the interaction.
Naturally the top blogs are professional efforts, written by teams spanning time-zones, constantly trawling for news. But my taxi and travel tales aren't ever likely to reach that point. Getting high on a page rank isn't what I'm about. I just want to tell my stories and have people say, "that's funny!" or "that totally sucks!"
no subject
Date: 2008-12-06 05:30 pm (UTC)