Blogging Basics 101» Definitions

Blog Traffic Magic: Is a Blog Carnival Right for Your Blog?

Melanie Nelson — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:05:46 +0000

As bloggers we like to know that people are reading what we write and that we’re connecting on some level with our audience. The more people that come to our site, the happier we are. Maybe you’re happy simply because people are coming or maybe you’re happy because more traffic means more revenue (especially if you’re in an ad network or selling a product). Either way, what if you could host a party that increased your traffic, but also gave back to your community? You can. And that party is called a blog carnival.

What is a blog carnival? A blog carnival is when a blog owner hosts a party online and invites other bloggers to participate by writing on the same topic and linking back to the main host site. For example, when I was running BloggyGiveaways.com I held a Quarterly Giveaway Carnival. Every three months I invited other bloggers to host giveaways at their own sites, then come to BloggyGiveaways and list their giveaway with a link to their site (I’ll get to the mechanics of how you do that in a moment). So what we ended up with was a central blog (BloggyGiveaways.com) hosting a list of links to blogs with other giveaways. We were sharing link love (I was linking to them, they were linking to me) and people could find everything in a central place and didn’t get lost surfing from one blog to another. That carnival regularly generated over 1,000 links and my traffic increased by 300% during carnival weeks.

Which sounds like magic, doesn’t it? And I wish it were. Unfortunately, while a carnival can be a terrific traffic generator, it’s really hard to come up with an original idea that spreads like wildfire. It’s much easier to simply participate in carnivals and soak up the link love that way; you’ll still probably see a spike in traffic.

How to do you run a blog carnival?

What’s that? You’re not deterred? You’re set on hosting your own carnival? I say go for it! The carnival itself is fairly easy to run, it’s coming up with the idea that works that takes the most time. Once you’ve decided on the topic, here are some things to get you started on your way to hosting a successful carnival.

Establish rules and guidelines. You have to have guidelines or everyone and their dog is going to just come and link up at your site whether what their linking to is relevant or not. Then, when you delete them for not being relevant, they may be upset. It’s easier for you down the road if you know what you expect and convey those expectations to your participants.

Promote your carnival. You need to tell people you’re hosting a carnival, what the topic is, how they can participate, and what the rules are. So make yourself a pretty button and post it in your sidebar (include the name and dates of your carnival, your URL, etc.). Write up a post about what you’re doing and ask your readers to help spread the word via their social media outlets (and offer them the code for your button in case they’d like to use it in their own promotions). Give your readers about two weeks notice and remind them a week before and again two or three days before the carnival. Once your carnival is established, you might just need to remind them the day before or not at all once you really get going.

Use the right list-generating tool. Since a carnival is all about linking up together, you need a way to generate a list of blogs that are participating and have each one link to its respective post. There are several widgets you can use to achieve this:

Mr. Linky used to be the only game in town. Unfortunately, the widget wasn’t always stable and it’s not much to look at so people started making new options. The Bloggy Giveaways Carnival used Mr. Linky.
Linky Tools (formerly MckLinky) also creates a basic linked list of participating blogs. You can see an example at Works-for-Me Wednesday.
Inlinkz is a really cool option because it posts a photo related to the person who leaves the link (h/t to Linda Sellers for alerting me to this tool). You can see it in action at Sweet Shot Tuesdays.

Monitor the links. This is the most time-consuming part of any carnival. In order for the carnival to be useful, you’ll need to keep an eye on who is participating. You’ll more than likely get a few spammers who are linking to irrelevant sites (delete them). You may also get a few people who aren’t using a permalink (the link to an actual article, not the main page of a blog). You’ll want to ask these participants to change the link because if readers click the link and don’t see what they expect to see (i.e., they see the main page of a blog that doesn’t have an article relevant to the carnival), they are confused and frustrated. The down side here is that you’ll need to delete the original link and ask the participant to re-submit her site with the permalink. She’s going to lose her spot in the list of links and be further down the list when she re-submits (which is another reason to ask your readers to use permalinks when you’re explaining the guidelines; if they do, they won’t lose their place on the list). If you find a link that doesn’t fit your carnival for some reason, you can delete it. If the blogger contacts you to ask why her link is down, you can point to your guidelines and explain why you deleted her link. I want to point out, though, that most people are happy to play by the rules if they know what they are. Once participants are used to how you run your carnival, you’ll see fewer and fewer issues.

photo credit: CatDancing

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Twitter Glossary

Melanie Nelson — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:30:12 +0000

This week I’m introducing you to some common Twitter terms. Twitter is pretty popular, but not everyone is well-versed in the lingo and it’s a little daunting if you don’t know your DM from your RT. As always, I welcome your additional Twitter terms and definitions in the comments on this post. I’ll integrate them into the actual post.

Twitter: A social media tool that allows you to share thoughts using 140 characters or less. What kinds of thoughts, you ask? Well, everything from what you’re doing to performing Shakespeare to promoting your own products and links as well as those of others. Be careful, though, and remember that nothing on the internet dies. The Library of Congress has acquired all Twitter archives. Helpful article: Twitter Tools to Save You Time

Tweet: A message, up to 140 characters long, sharing information with or asking a question of the Twittersphere. Helpful article: What Women Do with Twitter

@: The @ symbol precedes all Twitter usernames. My Twitter username is chilihead, but if you want me to see that you’ve tweeted about me, you’ll need to type @chilihead.

DM: Stands for Direct Message. This is a private message sent to a particular Twitter user, not the entire Twittersphere. To create a DM you must use the following notation (you’re still limited to 140 characters):

d @username Your message

The ‘d’ tells Twitter you’re creating a personal (or direct) message and not to display it to the public Twitterstream. The ‘@username’ would be the Twitter username of the person you want to contact (e.g., @chilihead). Then you just type your message and click Send. Note that in order to send a direct message to someone, they must be following you. If you aren’t sure if they’re following you, try to send the DM. If they’re following you, the message will go through, if they aren’t, you’ll receive a note that the user isn’t following you so you can’t send the message. Helpful article: Twitter Best Practices: Three Things You Can Do Right Now to Make Twitter Better

Hashtag: A tag that describes or links a tweet to a specific topic. The tag is preceded by the # symbol. The # is referred to as a hash, hence the name hashtag. A sample hashtag would be #blogher. Hashtags make your tweets easier to search and group if you’re trying to find people discussing the same topic. Helpful articles: Utilizing Twitter Hashtags to Market Your Business

Twitter Follower: Someone who subscribes to (i.e., follows) the tweets of another Twitter user. Helpful article: Use Twitter and Facebook to Grow Your Community

Twitter search: You can find tweets on specific topics by going to http://search.twitter.com. You can search for keywords, hashtags, or even your own name.

Twittersphere: The network of Twitter users and their tweets. Sometimes called the Twitterverse.

Twitterstream: Your updates from the Twitter users you follow. Whether you use the Twitter.com interface or a third-party Twitter client (like TweetDeck), the updates you see from others comprise your Twitterstream. Your Twitterstream also includes your own tweets. Helpful articles: Twitter Tools Part 1 and Part 2

RT: Stands for Re-Tweet which is to re-submit something someone has tweeted via Twitter. The re-tweet is usually preceded by RT. For example:

Original tweet: I’m giving away 5 copies of WordPress in Depth this week! Come enter to win. http://is.gd/bzj2o
Re-Tweet by another person: RT @chilihead: I’m giving away 5 copies of WordPress in Depth this week! Come enter to win. http://is.gd/bzj2o

photo credit: ~Ilse

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Social Media Glossary

Melanie Nelson — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:30:29 +0000

Social media is how we connect with each other — and with companies and brands — online. These days every marketing plan includes social media; to ignore it would be to ignore a significant portion of your audience. But what is social media? How do you use it? Where do you start? The first step is understanding the terms associated with social media. Here are some of the common terms of social media. This list is by no means exhaustive and I would love to have your suggestions or questions about these and other terms in the comments of this post.

Crowdsource: A combination of the words crowd and outsourcing. To ask a question via social media and collect answers from your various communities and users. Wikipedia explains crowdsourcing as “a distributed problem-solving and production model. Problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. Users—also known as the crowd—typically form into online communities, and the crowd submits solutions. The crowd also sorts through the solutions, finding the best ones. These best solutions are then owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place…”

Facebook: One of the most popular social networking options, Facebook allows you to connect with current friends and those from your past. You can share links, photos, video, notes (similar to blog posts), and status updates. You can also make a fan page for your business so enthusiastic users can show their support for your product(s). Helpful articles:

Flickr: A popular web-based photo and video storage site owned by Yahoo!. You can tag your photos with keywords, join groups with similar interests and photos, and create slideshows from your own photo pool. Flickr offer features too numerous to list here. I suggest you take a tour of Flickr to see all of the features (and there are many!). Helpful article: Flickr Posts Photos to Your Blog

Friend: (verb) To add someone to your social network; “I friended Denise on Facebook because she shares useful information.”

Friend Request: A request from someone to connect via a social network. Some networks require you to accept a friend request (i.e., Facebook), others do not (i.e., Twitter).

Hyper-local: Also referred to as placeblogging. A blog or network about a specific community or location. Examples of hyper-local blogs:

Our PDX Network (Portland, OR)
Tasha Does Tulsa (Tulsa, OK)
Placeblogger (helps you find blogs in your area)

LinkedIn: A professional social networking site that allows you to post your work experience and current projects. Helpful articles:

Social Bookmarking: A means of sharing interesting articles with others. Examples of social bookmarking sites include Kirtsy, StumbleUpon, Delicious, and Digg. Helpful articles:

Social Media: Any form of interactive media (e.g., blogs, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon) that allow people to gather online to share ideas, start conversations, ask questions, or crowdsource.

Social Network: Your contacts within all of your social media outlets.

Status Update: In it’s simplest form, the status update is a report of what you’re doing right now. However, your status update can be a question, a link to a video or blog post, or a photo. On Twitter you’re limited to 140 characters for your status update, but in an application like Facebook, you can use more (though brevity is your friend; if you have something longer to write, you may want to consider a Facebook note which is available under the Applications list in your Facebook navigation).

Twitter: A micro-blog tool that allows you to interact with others using up to 140 characters for status updates. (Next week I’ll have more about Twitter and common Twitter terms.)

Melanie Nelson writes tips and instructions at Blogging Basics 101 and shares daily links to technology articles at the BB101 Tumblr blog. She is also the co-author of TypePad for Dummies.

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Defining Basic Blogging Terms, Part 3

Melanie Nelson — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:37:46 +0000

Thank you for sticking with me as I’ve defined basic blogging terms over the last three weeks. This is the last week for the blogging glossary; next week I’ll be defining and discussing social media terms.

CAPTCHA: stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart. You’ll recognize captcha as those words you have to type to verify yourself as human when you leave a comment at some blogs or make changes to some online accounts. Article for more help: The Official CAPTCHA Site

Favicon: Favicons are the small 16 pixel by 16 pixel pictures you see beside some URLs in your browser’s address bar. You also see them in your list of bookmarked sites. They are fairly easy to construct or generate online. Article for more help: What is a favicon and how do I make and install one on my blog?

Hexadecimal value: The six-digit code used within HTML to determine what color to display for a page element. For example, if you want a word to be green you could use this HTML code and hexadecimal value: orange which looks like this — orange — in your browser. The #ff6600 is the hexadecimal value of that particular orange color. For your reference, white is #ffffff and black is #000000. It’s handy to know the hexadecimal values of your blog design so you can be sure to use the same colors each time you add a design element to your blog (you can change your link colors to match or be complimentary, add lines between posts in specific colors, etc.). Here’s a handy chart that provides hexadecimal values for many colors.

Lurker: Someone who visits a blog, but rarely, if ever, comments. Is it rude to lurk? Not at all. As a blogger, I appreciate that comments can make your day, but it’s important to remember that not everyone is comfortable joining an online conversation. Your lurker(s) may love what you write, but don’t feel that they have anything to contribute. Or maybe they were looking for specific information, found it, and are off implementing your advice or tutorial. There are a million reasons why someone may lurk, but don’t let it ruffle your feathers.

Troll: A commentor (usually anonymous, but not always) who leaves hurtful and rude comments at your blog. A troll is different from spam because spam is usually an advertisement of some sort. A troll’s sole purpose is to stir up trouble on your site. What can you do? Ignore them as much as possible, or, if it escalates, block their IP address (most blogging platforms have a way to do this, ask the help desk). My advice, and it’s easier said than done, is to try ignore the troll as much as you can. Do not engage in a conversation with him or her. It won’t end well.

Please feel free to leave some ideas for other terms you’d like to see defined or add your own definitions in the comments section.

Melanie Nelson writes tips and instructions at Blogging Basics 101 and shares daily links to fascinating and helpful tech links at the BB101 Tumblr blog.

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Defining Basic Blogging Terms, Part 2

Melanie Nelson — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:35:50 +0000

This week I’m continuing to define basic blogging terms. My goal is to compile a glossary of key terms that will help new bloggers navigate their way through the blogosphere. Every time I think I’ve defined all the basic terms, I come up with a few more that have stumped my readers in the past. Once I’ve finished with basic blogging terms (maybe one more post), then I’ll start on social media and Twitter terms. (And yes, I know that Twitter is technically social media, but it has it’s own set of terms that warrant it’s own list.)

tags Article for more help: Category: A blog category is a topic you address on your blog; your list of categories is like the table of contents for your blog. Categories are broad and can encompass smaller, more defined topics (i.e., tags). A category title should be descriptive and can be several words long. Categories go hand-in-hand with Understanding and Using Blog Categories and Tags Effectively

Hosted: Refers to a blog that resides on the host’s server (e.g., Blogger, TypePad, or WordPress.com blogs). A hosted platform is housed on the platform’s server — in other words, if you have a Blogger blog, your blog is hosted on the Blogger server; if you have a TypePad blog, it’s hosted on the TypePad server. Articles for more help: How We Communicate: FAQs for Beginning Bloggers, WordPress? Blogger? TypePad? How to Choose a Blogging Platform

Meme: First things first: the pronunciation of this word rhymes with dream and theme. According to Top 10 Internet Memes, a meme is “an [online] image, video, phrase or simply an idea that spreads from one person to another seemingly for no logical reason at all.” A few years ago, the most popular memes were lists of questions that people answered about themselves. These days memes include everything from LOLCats to viral videos to Facebook statuses (e.g., the ones that ask you to post specific information in your FB status as a show of solidarity for a specific cause). If you invite someone to play along with a specific meme, that invitation is called a tag, as in “Tag! You’re It!” When you first start blogging, memes are an easy way to overcome writer’s block and share information about yourself. However, it’s important that you don’t get your feelings hurt if you tag someone for a meme and they choose not to play. Many bloggers don’t dig the meme. Article for more help: The Daily Meme

Non-hosted: Also referred to as self-hosted. A self-hosted blog is hosted on your own server or web host, usually a third party you pay to host your site. You can use WordPress.org or Moveable Type as a self-hosted blogging platform if you set up an account with a web hosting company. Articles for more help: How We Communicate: FAQs for Beginning Bloggers, WordPress? Blogger? TypePad? How to Choose a Blogging Platform

categories are your blog’s table of contents, tags are your blog’s index. Tags go hand-in-hand with categories. Article for more help: Tag: 1. A tag is a word or short phrase attached to your post that helps make the post findable. It addresses items you discuss in a particular blog post and is usually only a word or two and reflects the keywords or points of your article. If Understanding and Using Blog Categories and Tags Effectively. 2. An invitation to participate in a meme.

Please feel free to leave some ideas for other terms you’d like to see defined or add your own definitions in the comments section.

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What is a favicon and how do I make and install one on my blog?

Melanie Nelson — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Favicons are the small 16 pixel by 16 pixel pictures you see beside some URLs in your browser’s address bar.

There are several tutorials online that will walk you through how to make a favicon and install it on your blog, so we’ll just point you in the right direction!

How to Make a Favicon: This is an easy-to-follow tutorial with lots of screen shots to help you through.
Mysteries of the Favicon.ic0 — How to Create a Favicon in Photoshop: This tutorial is specifically for Photoshop, but I think I followed these directions (oh so many years ago) using Elements. You could probably also use Gimp, which is free.

There are also places online that allow you to upload an image and they’ll make into a favicon for you. There are two things to keep in mind, though: 1.) You’ll still have to insert it into your blog’s template; see the links above for instructions and 2) You should start with a square image for best results.

As you are deciding what picture or graphic to use for your favicon, remember that it needs to be recognizable at a small (16×16) size. My opinion is that a line drawing or cartoon is usually better for a favicon than a photograph.

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Blogging Glossary: Defining Basic Blogging Terms

Melanie Nelson — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:00:45 +0000

If you’re new to blogging, you may be overwhelmed by the jargon tossed around effortlessly online. I started this article thinking I could define a few key blogging terms that may help beginning bloggers find their footing. What I ended up with was an epically long post that needs to be separated into several categorical posts. As I started defining terms, I realized that it would be easier to have separate posts for blogging terms, social media terms, and Twitter terms (though Twitter is part of social media, it has its own vocabulary that will fill a post). But even my list of blogging terms is too long for a single post, so I’m offering you a partial list now and I’ll be back with more in the coming weeks. Then we’ll tackle social media terms, then Twitter terms.

In the list below, I’ve included the term, a definition, and a link to an article that provides further explanation or a tutorial. I’d love to know if this is helpful to you or if you prefer just the term and definition.

Blog: Short for weblog. A blog is collection of thoughts, media, links, etc. shared with others online. Most blogs

are public, though blogs can be password protected
post newest content at the top of the page (in reverse chronological order)
allow comments so readers can give feedback to the blog’s author and continue the conversation

Article for more help: Just What Is a Blog, Anyway?

Blogosphere: The entire network of blogs. It’s sort of like the universe in that it’s infinite.

CSS: Stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS defines how a web page displays HTML elements. By using a cascading style sheet you can define the page elements of an entire site (e.g., link color, heading color, font, etc.) in a single place. Then, each page created on the site will reference that style sheet and display accordingly. The advantage of this is that, by making a change to a single style sheet, you can change one element throughout an entire site instead of having to open each page and change the element. For example, imagine if BlogHer wanted to change the color of every heading on every article to a darker green. It would be a nightmare to open each document and change every single heading markup. Instead, using a stylesheet that defines the elements of the entire site’s pages (including the color of headers), you have all the style definitions in one place and only have to change the style in that place because the sub-pages (or articles) all reference that one stylesheet.
Article for more help: Blogging Tutorial Links: Learn HTML, CSS, and WordPress

HTML: Stands for HyperText Markup Language and defines how text elements are displayed on a web page. Article for more help: Learning HTML Can Help You Take Control of Your Blog

NoFollow / DoFollow: How a blog treats links. If a site is DoFollow, then links to external sites are acknowledged by search engines and get credit for being linked to (which helps search engine ranking and authority). If a site uses NoFollow tags within links, search engines do not acknowledge the links to the external site. Article for more help: SEO: What Are NoFollow and DoFollow Links?

Permalink: The specific link for a blog post or article. A blog’s main URL would be, for example, http://www.blogher.com and would link to the main page of the blog that’s updated regularly. A permalink links directly to an article on the blog. For instance, the permalink for this article is http://www.blogher.com/basic-blog-defintions. Article for more help: What Is a Permalink and Why Do I Need It?

Platform: Refers to your blogging software. There are many different platforms (all housed online, not on your computer) available for blogging, but the most popular are Blogger, TypePad, or WordPress. Article for more help: WordPress? Blogger? TypePad? How to Choose a Blogging Platform

RSS Feed: RSS stands for Real Simply Syndication. The easiest way to explain it is to ask you to watch this video:

Articles for more help:

RSS Series Part 1: How do I burn my blog’s RSS feed with Feedburner?
Part 2: How do I set up my blog’s RSS feed via e-mail?
Part 3: How do I find and install a custom RSS button on my blog?
Part 4: Should I offer a full or partial RSS feed to my readers?
Part 5: How do I include advertisements in my RSS feed?

SEO: Stands for Search Engine Optimization and refers to how your blog ranks when someone searches a keyword relevant to your blog. There are many factors that go into SEO, some of which include keywords in your headings and article text, who is linking to you, relevant content, etc. Articles for more help:

Theme: A blog’s design or template. The major blogging platforms provide many free themes you can apply as your blog’s design or you can hire a designer to create a custom theme for you. Most themes allow you to do some basic customization (e.g., use your own banner graphic). Article for more help: 10 Important Traits of a Great Blog Design

Please feel free to leave some ideas for other terms you’d like to see defined or add your own definitions in the comments section. I will continue updating the glossary in the coming weeks.

A version of this article was posted at BlogHer.com.

photo credit: Wordle.net

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What is the difference between blog categories and blog tags?

Melanie Nelson — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:46:59 +0000

When I talk to beginning bloggers, I’m asked all sorts of questions. One I received this week was what is the difference between tags and categories? The obvious way to answer this is to define both, of course, but beyond that, I want to explain why you need both, how to name them, and how to display them.

Understanding the Difference Between Categories and Tags

Categories and tags help you organize your web site or blog and help your users find the information they want. A blog category is a topic you address on your blog. Your category list is like the table of contents for your blog. Categories are broad and can encompass smaller, more defined topics (i.e., tags). A category title should be descriptive and can be several words long.

A tag is more specific and addresses items you discuss in a particular blog post. A tag is usually only a word or two and reflects the keywords or points of your article. If categories are your blog’s table of contents, tags are your blog’s index. For example, the categories for this post are Content/Writing, Definitions, and FAQ, but I’ve also tagged it with words that describe my content: define blog categories, define blog tags, blog organization, SEO, and blogging advice.

When you come to Blogging Basics 101, you can click on the category (e.g., Content/Writing) to see all the articles written under that category. If you want to find an article pertaining to a specific topic, though, you may opt to do a search for keywords. That’s where the article tags come in. By tagging an article with relevant key words, I help you find the information you’re searching for.

Tips for Choosing Categories and Tags

When you decide to implement categories and tags, it’s a good idea to consider how you want to label or title them. Here are some things to consider:

Organization is key. The main reason to use categories and tags is so your readers can easily find the information they want. As you choose names for your categories and/or add tags to posts, consider how you’d find the information if it weren’t your blog. What terms would you search for if you wanted to find this article? Use those terms in your categories and tags.
Category titles can be long(ish). Since categories reflect the topics your articles cover, make them as descriptive as possible. Your category titles can reflect the tone of your blog or be succinct. For example, if you have a conversational blog and want a category for funny stories, you could call that category I think it’s funny to keep with the personal aspect of your blog. If, on the other hand, you want to be more SEO friendly or succinct, you could call the category Funny stories about my cat. The former is vague, but readers know what to expect; the latter is more precise. Either is fine — you know what’s right for your blog.
Know when to stop. Your categories should be broad enough that you won’t need to have a list of 50. Figure out what you write about the most and create categories for those topics. Everything else can go in a catch-all category of Miscellaneous.
Tags are short. You should use tags that are up to three words long, but no more. Tags should also be the keywords related to your blog post because they will aid search engines in finding your content. (They aren’t the only thing the search engines look for though, so don’t go overboard. What else do search engines look at? Titles, headings, links, etc. Tags are just a little extra.)
Avoid duplication. Try not to use names for tags that are the same as the names of your categories. It’s redundant and it can confuse your readers.

How to Display Categories and Tags

Displaying your category lists and tags is easy enough. Since your category list is part of the navigation of your blog or web site, it’s best to display a list of categories within your sidebar. From there readers can click on a category of interest and see a list of all the articles related to that category. Since each of your posts will likely have more than one tag, your list of tags may be exponentially larger than your list of categories. The result is that it’s not really necessary to list your tags in your sidebar. If you have a search widget for your blog (and you should; if you don’t, head over to Widgetbox and get one), when a reader searches for a keyword, your relevant tagged posts will come up in the results. Or, if you want to show off the popular tags you’re using, you can use a tag cloud in your sidebar. A tag cloud is an image that reflects the tags you use throughout your blog. Tags that are more popular or used more often in your posts are bigger than less popular tags. You can make your own tag cloud at Wordle.net.

If you aren’t using categories and tags right now, I encourage you to do so. It’s an easy organizational tool to implement and it will help your readers (and search engines) find your content quickly and easily.

A version of this article was posted at BlogHer.com.

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What is HARO and How Does It Work?

Melanie Nelson — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:00:55 +0000

Finding sources for a news article is hard when you don’t know where to look or if you don’t have contacts within an industry. It’s also hard to contribute your knowledge on a given subject when you don’t know who needs your help. Enter HARO, which stands for Help A Reporter Out and is a source for news people (traditional and new media) to find sources for their stories quickly.

If you’re chosen as a source, you have the opportunity to ask the reporter to include information about you and your blog. As you can imagine, it’s a popular site both for reporters and would-be sources because everyone is winning in that formula. The one rule of HARO is that you must not waste people’s time; if you aren’t an expert in a field, you should never respond to a query (not that any of you would, but it’s an integral part of the site and worth mentioning to be clear).

When you respond to a request from HARO or any other news source, you have to convince them that you’re the best person to ask for answers to their questions. The way to do that is to knock their socks off when you query back with your bio.

You can subscribe to HARO via their web site and you’ll receive three e-mails every day with requests for sources in specific areas (e.g., travel, tech, general). If you see something you can speak to, you respond directly to the reporter making the query.

Here are some tips for writing a successful response to queries:

Keep it short, two paragraphs is sufficient. Introduce yourself, address the necessary information the reporter asked for (e.g., any questions from the query), and why you’d be a good source. This is where it gets tricky–you should be short and to the point, but not so much so that the reporter doesn’t really know why she should work with you. To help make your point, give a short overview of your expertise and links to back it up. Be sure to tell the reporter how you can help them.
Answer the questions, if any, in the original query. You’re more
apt to be chosen if you’re responding to the reporter’s actual request rather than something close, but not quite the same. She’s under a deadline and is asking for what she needs–don’t give her something else. Speaking of which…
Pay attention to the deadline. Most of the HARO queries have a deadline for submitting yourself as a source. Be mindful of those.

More advice on writing responses to HARO (and other other) queries:

How to Respond to ProfNet, PRLeads, and Helpareporter.com Queries, Part 1:
Provides actual responses to queries and discusses why they don’t work or weren’t chosen as sources. Excellent information here.
How to Respond to ProfNet, PRLeads, and Helpareporter.com Queries, Part 2:
More info on responding to queries. This woman knows her stuff and
she’s sharing it. Love that. Youcan learn a lot from these two articles.
6 Tips to Responding to HARO Queries: These are similar to the ones I mention above, but she builds on them and offers a few more.
Ten Essential Tips For Getting The Most Out Of HARO & ProfNet : This article offers excellent advice on how to be chosen as a source (e.g., be quotable, help them help themselves).
Help a Reporter (and Yourself) Out: A great explanation of why you’d even want to be involved with HARO.
Interview with Peter Shankman at SmallBiz Marketing Tips:
Love the quote from Peter Shankman (founder of HARO) from this story: “Word. Of. Mouth. End of story. Create something beneficial to people, and they’ll tell everyone about it for you.”

This article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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Should I choose a hosted or non-hosted blogging platform?

Melanie Nelson — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:00:11 +0000

If you’ve thought about starting a blog, you’ve most likely come across the terms hosted and non-hosted. This article will explain each of those terms and the pros and cons associated with both.

Hosted: A blog that resides on the host’s (your blogging platform’s) server (e.g., Blogger, TypePad, or WordPress.com).

Pros of Hosted Sites: Easy to start and maintain a blog.

Cons of Hosted Sites:

Blogger blogs can appear to be less professional. (I find this to be a non-issue if you are a new blogger. I believe trying out blogging and becoming comfortable is more important than how your blog is perceived. You will be changing many things in the first few months and Blogger is a great place to learn. In addition, many bloggers are finding that this rule simply doesn’t apply to them because they have been able to take several steps to design their blogs in such a way it’s hard to tell it’s a Blogger blog. For example, they remove the navigation bar and use a domain name instead of the YOURBLOGNAME.blogspot.com URL.)
Less control over CSS and HTML.
WordPress.com does not allow advertisements.

Non-hosted: A blog that resides on the user’s (your) server (e.g., WordPress.org or Moveable Type). When using a non-hosted blogging platform, you must pay a third-party to host your blog.

Pros of Non-Hosted Sites:

Control over CSS and HTML.
Control over permalink names (which can help with SEO).
Control over how archives are managed.

Cons of Non-Hosted Sites: Can be intimidating to new bloggers because they must discover how to set up a server via a third party.

I would suggest that anyone just starting out with a new blog should start with Blogger (also called Blogspot). It is free and it is hosted so you can start blogging with minimal hassle and no cost.

For more information on choosing a blogging platform, please read

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