A blog (which is short for web log) is an easy to maintain website with regular postings. It’s kind of like an online diary or news page providing commentary and info on things of interest. Adding content to a blog is called ‘blogging’ and the more fresh content you post the better. New entries are found at the top and older posts move further down the page.
There are different types of blogs –
Personal blog (an ongoing diary by an individual), Topical blog (this would focus on a particular subject) and a Marketing blog (promoting a company or product).
To start off you need to choose what you want to talk about then start to think about what your audience would like to hear on that certain topic. A typical blog will have pictures and links to other blogs so think about those things as well. And you can also ask people to comment on your blog – so if you’ve got a particular issue you want opinion on it’s a good way of getting people talking. Then once you’ve come up with all that you need to find somewhere to post your blog.
There are different types of blogging software applications to choose from. The most popular ones are WordPress and Blogger (formally known as BlogSpot). These are both open source publishing applications so are free to use. You don’t need to pay for a domain name – just sign up and start blogging.
For some top tips to get you started check out our expert advice from Manchester bloggers Chris and Kate. Both blog about what’s going on in and around the city of Manchester. They offer advice on design and content as well as tips on using WordPress and Blogger.
So why start a blog at your station?
Well you could use it to let your audience know about local events. You could also use it to encourage your audience to discuss issues in your local community by focusing on community news. Blogging about anything from recycling bins to the latest transport plans in your area could encourage people to add their comments and interact with the station. This ability for people to leave comments is an important part of many blogs, and is a key difference between most station websites. Also if your station is linked up to other local blogs, readers of those blogs might stumble across the station and want to know more about what you do. Therefore you gain further exposure.
Here are some examples of stations who have mastered the art of blogging-
Blogging Advice
A blog is probably the simplest way to enhance the relationship between listener and either station or show. It can give an insight to the workings of the station or keep listeners ‘involved’ between e.g. weekly shows. As you’ll realise if you read this, it’s a doddle, and as for what to put in it? Hell – you’re in the media business so surely that’s the easy bit.
Manchizzle and Manubist are two of Manchester’s best bloggers and here they reveal all you need to know about what it takes to blog. And while they’d be too modest to say it – do have a look at their blogs and see why they get the awards that they do.
Chris Horkan and Kate Feld
Blogging is one of the easiest ways to publish your own content online, whether that be playlists, in-studio audio and video, or competitions. It’s also one of the most addictive. Here’s our guide to setting up and maintaining a fresh, insightful and worthwhile blog:
PLATFORMS: Choose your blogging platform carefully (as you may be stuck with it for years). Two popular options you could consider are:
Blogger.com – This Google-owned site is probably the best-known and most common platform. It’s very user-friendly so it’s a good choice if you’re not particularly tech-savvy.
WordPress.com – This open-source (read: community-developed) platform is a younger upstart, favoured by the geekier bloggers due to its high level of customisation.
Both have their pros and cons – and both are free – so you might want to set up an account with each and decide which you prefer. And plenty of other platforms are out there, too, including ones targeted especially at photo bloggers, mp3 bloggers, professional bloggers, to name a few, with more popping up all the time.
DOMAINS: While you get used to the world of blogging, it’s best to take advantage of the free subdomain (e.g. yourname.blogger.com or yourname.wordpress.com) you automatically get. If you enjoy yourself and want to upgrade, however, consider getting your own domain. Registration can cost as little as £2.50 per year (see www.123-reg.co.uk, for example) and you can either point it at your existing blog, or host your blog yourself. A basic level of technical knowledge is needed to set your blog up on its own domain – so ask your local friendly IT professional to help if required. Benefits of owning a domain include: having a short, snappy URL to tell people; your blog, and its content, being taken more seriously by others; and feeling real ‘ownership’ of your blog.
PLUGINS: One of the highlights of blogging is integrating myriad other online technologies. Your blog can include news headlines, other people’s blog entries, photos from Flickr.com, videos from YouTube.com, Google maps, and your latest Twitter posts. These plugins – often called ‘widgets’ – can be easily added to your blog and customised to suit your needs. Both Blogger and WordPress come with many of the most popular plugins pre-installed, while directories offer thousands more.
STATISTICS: You can include one or several statistics packages in your blog, with Sitemeter and Google Analytics among the most popular. Stats can tell you all sorts of useful things – from simply how many people visit your blog and when, to which other sites are linking to you. You can even see what people are searching for to find you, which could encourage you to cover certain popular subjects in greater depth.
MULTIMEDIA: Many websites like YouTube.com make it easy for you to embed their multimedia content in your blog, and are worth taking full advantage of. There are several benefits to using these third-party hosts, including opening your content up to a huge global audience, and taking advantage of their ultra-fast servers. You may choose to offer your audio content as podcasts through services such as www.libsyn.com and www.jellycast.com.
IDENTITY: Before you start up your blog, try to get a good sense of what its identity will be. What will you be posting about? The content of your blog may dictate what kind of name you choose. But be warned: once you pick a name, you’re stuck with it (unless you want to start over from scratch). It’s also a good idea to have a one-sentence subheading near the top of your blog to let visitors know what you generally post about. Try to be consistent… if you always post about computer games, regular readers might be confused if you suddenly decide to write about environmental issues.
STYLE: A blog is made up of “posts” – entries of text and/or images that are usually presented in backwards chronological order. People reading on a computer screen get tired and bored faster than folks reading stuff offline, so try to keep most posts roughly 500 words or less. Use images and paragraph breaks to break up big blocks of text. Keep sentences shorter and less complicated than you might for a formal piece of writing, and shoot for a personal, colloquial tone. Read other blogs first and try to imitate the voice of the ones you like.
LINKS: The main thing that makes a blog different from any other piece of writing is hyperlinks, the highlighted bits of text that take you to another website when you click on them. Use links as much as you can; they represent a service to your readers. You’re offering them the opportunity to get more background information on whatever it is you’re writing about, be it an article that you want to comment on, the website of a band you’re excited about, or a map of the walking route you’re reporting on.
COMMENTS: You can decide whether or not you want to have comments on your blog or not. Most people these days decide to allow comments only after they are approved by the blog’s moderator (that’s you) to help crack down on comments spam. Allowing comments on your blog is strongly recommended. It turns your blog into a two-way conversation and offers your readers the chance to get actively involved in what you’re doing.
COMMUNITY: So, now you’ve set it up, how do you get people to actually read your blog? Well, get out there and read other blogs. Leave comments on other folks’ sites, get involved in conversations online, and exchange links with other people’s blogs on your blogroll (a list of suggested blogs that usually appears on the sidebar of your blog.) Find out if there are any local blog directories or bloghubs that your site could be added to, and consider going along to a blogmeet – an informal gathering of bloggers in your area. Doing all these things will increase the visibility of your site, and you might meet some nice people, too.
Chris Horkan and Kate Feld
http://www.mancubist.co.uk/ http://manchizzle.blogspot.com/
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