Intro To Blogging

What is a blog?

blog/blôg/Noun: A Web site on which an individual or group of users record opinions,

information, etc. on a regular basis. (wikipedia)

Why Blog?•Low cost or free•Easy to update•Make connections and network•Develop a relationship with your readers–Readers who come to the ACHLS site from the blog spend more time there and visit more pages than users who find us thru search.

•Become a thought leader•Great SEO value (we’ll get to that later)

•Bring more people to your website – websites with blogs get 55% more traffic•Credibility – people trust sources where they find the most credible answers

How to Access Your Blog

• Logging in: – http://

kevinm.americanhistorynewsnetwork.org/wp-admin/

Your Blog Dashboard

Step One: Create a New Post

Blog Away!

Blog Tool Bar

•The tool bar works just like a Word toolbar – allowing you to bold, center, spell check, underline etc. •Unless you know HTML- make sure you are using the “Visual” panel.

•If you are using the visual panel, as you type the input box will show you exactly what your blog will look like when it is published (almost!)

•If you prefer you can write your blog

posts in another editing program like word and then cut and paste it into your blog, but in order to preserve your formatting• click on the appropriate

icon – t for text file, w for word file• copy your text into the

panel provided

•If you do not see the T and W options in your toolbar, click on the “show/hide kitchen sink” icon on the top right hand side of the top row

Publish!

What Does Your Blog Look Like?

Note the opportunity for readers to subscribe to your blog via RSS or email – every ACHLS student blog has its own RSS feed.

Readers can share your post to Facebook, Twitter, Linked and more, and can print or email it directly from the post.

Combined Student Blog

RSS feed

• An Rss feed lets you syndicate content• …often dubbed Really Simple

Syndication) RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. (wikipedia)

Google Reader is a very popular rss feed

Blogging Basics

Adding Links and Images

Adding Links

• Why add links?– a great way to add value to your reader– A great way to build better SEO (get your blog found by search

engines)– At it’s essence the internet is made up of linked data

• When do you add a link?– When you are referring to another source of information like an

article or another blog– To provide context– To further illustrate your point or story– To link back to a previous post that you wrote

How To Add A Link

1. Highlight the text you want to link2. Click on the icon that looks like a chain link

How To Add A Link Cont.

1. Fill in the url2. Give the link a title, the

words you are linking is usually perfect

3. Check “open link in a new window”

Or

4. To link to your own blog post use the search box or choose from the list provided.

Completed Link

Add Images

Why use images? • Makes your content more visually appealing to

readers.• Breaks up blocks of text• Blog posts that include pictures typically see

more traffic and more engagement than blog posts that are pure text

Where Do I find images

• Images should be either owned by you, Creative Commons Images or images in the Public Domain

“Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators.” –

CreativeCommons.org

• Two great places to find Creative Commons pictures and public domain images– Flickr.com– Wikimedia.com

How To Find Creative Commons On Flickr.Com

How To Find Creative Commons On Flickr.Com –Step 2

Scroll to the bottom of the page….

Download Your Great Picture

Remember to note the name of the author

Upload Your Picture To Your Blog Post

Select The Picture From Your Hard-drive

Add Image Information And Insert It Into Your Blog

1. Give the Picture an appropriate title2. Fill in the alternate text (this describes

the picture)3. Add the authors name and source in the

caption (you can add other appropriate text here as well

4. Fill in the description if you like (similar to alt text)

5. Link to the images source 6. Choose where you want your image to

appear 7. Choose the size you want8. Click Insert

And There It Is!

Wikimedia Commons Works Much The Same Way…

http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Share Your Blog!

• Let everyone know – post it on facebook, and/or Twitter

How Do I Increase My SEO?

• What is SEO? – SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a

way to organically increase the traffic to your site by speaking to search engines in the language that they understand (meta, tag, category, title tag)

Basic Important SEO elements

• Categories and Tags help your blog get found by readers and search engines alike. – Categories are broader than tags. A category is a

general topic ie. George Washington– Tags are terms that are specific to a particular post

ie. portraits, Gilbert Stuart,

Categories and Tags

Your Blog Has A Number Of SEO Elements Built Into It

Scroll down below your edit pane to find SEO options:• Custom Title Tag• Meta Description• Meta Keywords

What It Looks Like

Code view….

Browser View…

One Last SEO Tip

• Change the permalink– Every blog post has its own personal address or url. In

blogging this is called a permalink. It will pre-populate with the title of your post. By editing the permalink using slightly different language than the post’s title you are giving yourself one more opportunity to tell search engines about the content of your post.

SEO Review

• Assign a category to every blog post• Add tags to every blog post• Create a custom title tag• Write a meta description• Insert meta-tags• Edit your permalink

Best Practices

• Blog often – people who blog 20 or more times a month see the most traffic

• Blog posts should be at least 300 words.• Concentrate on providing value to your reader• Use links and images• Be authentic. • Be controversial (authentically)

What should I blog about

•Have a differing opinion with someone in class? Blog about it?•Loved a book? Blog about it!•Did something fun over the weekend? Blog about it!•Political issue that is really getting your goat? Blog about it!

What happens to my blog when I leave ACHLS?

•Easily export all of your posts to your new blog•Forward your personal feed address, so you don’t lose any subscribers