Blogging for Dollars Blog

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I love Technorati and the other blog searchers, but they’re slow and unwieldy, and their search query results are smothered in noise.

For a while, I used Google Blog Search, but it was woeful.

TechCrunch has a tip that Google Blog Search may become part of the main Google search engine, but notes that:

Obviously real estate even on the very bottom of the first page of Google results would be great for the blogosphere. If Google Blogsearch can’t get rid of all the splogs in its search results though, it could lead to some level of backlash against blogs in general.

Let’s hope that Google has the measure of splogs (spam blogs). They shouldn’t be that difficult for Google to detect, since splogs have been a menace for at least a year - by now, Google should be able to detect splogs via its algorithm. Google owns Blogger.com, a prime splog haven, after all.

Technorati Tags: blog search, Google, splogs

My writing blog

Blogs are Web sites. However, because of the way in which blogs are structured - in reverse chronological format - they can become unwieldy fast. When you’ve been posting to a blog for a year or less, this doesn’t matter much. However, as time goes on, your blog becomes confusing for new readers. Of course, the structure becomes just as confusing for you, as it does for your readers.

This presents a dilemma. If you have constant readers, who follow the blog every day or week, you don’t want to cover too much old ground. Your faithful readers know your blog. However new readers can see the mass of information that you provide and may become intimidated.

You can reconcile this dilemma in a couple of ways. You can provide “related” links at the end of posts to older material in the blog. This older information will provide a context for a new post.

Or, you can provide static site pages, to develop some structure for the blog. WordPress lets you create pages, as well as posts, which is excellent. However blogging services like Typepad don’t offer this option.

“Too much information” became a concern for me on my writing blog. The blog’s been live for a couple of years, and while I enjoy Typepad (someone else handles the maintenance headaches), I became frustrated because I couldn’t create pages for readers in order to provide content pathways.

My solution was to split the blog. I know that many readers are aspiring or professional freelance writers, so I created my new Fab Freelance Writing site, with a WordPress Fab Freelance Writing Blog. This has worked brilliantly. I may yet split the Typepad blog again. Allowing the blog to “calve” like an iceberg means that as the blog grows, I can seed new blogs.

The same solution may work for you, as a blog becomes hard to manage, however don’t calve a new blog too soon. Wait until your primary blog is well established, has good Page Rank, and is indexed in all the major search engines. I’m not a fan of the “multiple blog” idea when a blog is very new - you can damage your primary blog if you split your attention and readership too soon.

Technorati Tags: blogs, blogging, structure blog, information pathway, content pathway

If you’re a teacher, consider creating a blog. Not only can you post classroom material online, but you can also answer students’ questions. I noticed that some teachers are monetizing their blogs, which is a great idea - the profits can go towards buying classroom necessities.

Here’s an article: “Blogs keep students involved - Web improves class communication”:

Colleen Epperson, a chemistry teacher for 14 years, … allows her students to post comments, ask questions, share ideas and get help with class work…

She can post homework assignments and general information, give links to other Web sites to help with class projects and save on paper and copying costs.

The blog also saves time by allowing students to ask questions about homework assignments online instead of during class.

Technorati Tags: blogging, how to blog, uses for blogs