Archive for February 9th, 2008

Tips and tweaks for a better blog

Published by Dock on February 9, 2008 in General. 15 Comments

Hi everybody-

 

I know that as a blogger, you’re busy searching out the best information you can, in order to bring your readers (and our publishers) the most authoritative information possible. However, I would like to ask that you check on a few things that will make life easier for the Blogburst editors, and perhaps yield benefits for your readers.  

 

Archive!

 

It surprises me how many blogs I see that don’t have visible archives available from the front page. I have a specific need to find archives quickly - but I have no doubt that your blog’s readership would also appreciate the ability to get to all your previous posts in an easy way. Speaking simply as a reader, if there’s a blog I really like, I’ll read the entire blog beginning with its first post, and proceed in chronological order. Visible archives make this possible. 

 

Most blog platforms give you the ability to display archives in the sidebar - usually as a list, graduated monthly. I find those to be the most effective. There’s also the calendar-style ones, which I don’t find to be as handy - but anything beats paging through “previous post” links alone. Please consider activating your archive widget in your sidebar, if you haven’t already. 

 

Full Feeds

 

Much has been written on the philosophies and strategies behind partial feeds versus full feeds (here’s one small sample) but in Blogburst, we do need your full feeds. I have, in the past, seen major blog platforms flip everyone back to partial post output upon making platform-wide software upgrades. So, if you proceed with a software upgrade in your blog’s software (or your blog’s provider does it for you) I’d ask you to please check your settings and see if you still have a full feed output.

 

Be the main attraction

 

Think about your favorite blogs for just a second. Hold them in your mind. I’m willing to bet that these blogs that you’re holding in your mind right now are strong, and memorable, because of the strong voice of the blogger - the color and life that they breathe into the facts that they gathered for your perusal. I’m also willing to bet that they do not simply give you a link to someone else’s story, with a throwaway paragraph attached that simply describes what the story links to. 

 

I realize that it requires much more effort to create your own voice, but I would encourage you to try. I truly believe that the “authority blogging” path is the most rewarding way to go, and your readers will certainly appreciate it. Is it hard? Well, it does take more effort, and you might not be good at it right away. However, most things worth doing take effort - and as my voice teacher used to say, “You don’t get better at singing by not singing!” This goes for “authority blogging” too. 

 

Thanks!   

Wordpress has upgraded - have you?

Published by Dock on February 9, 2008 in Blog Tools & Technology and General. 6 Comments

Looks like Wordpress has upgraded their platform again - 2.3.3 is available. As this is a “point release” (2.3.2 to 2.3.3) then this release is meant to fix bugs, and security issues in particular.

 

Wordpress has this to say about it:

 

WordPress 2.3.3 is an urgent security release. If you have registration enabled a flaw was found in the XML-RPC implementation such that a specially crafted request would allow a user to edit posts of other users on that blog. In addition to fixing this security flaw, 2.3.3 fixes a few minor bugs.

You can find more information about the upgrade at the Wordpress download site for your convenience.

 

If you’re curious as to the benefits of upgrading (or the pitfalls of not upgrading) you can find that at the Blogger Resource Center.