Blogging Networking 2011 - Guest Posting

It's always good to keep up with what is going on in your topic area online. You can do topic searches or can sign up to follow favorite blogs or sign up for email notifications.

Students in class should be posting online in their various topic areas. This can be a guest post on another blog with similar content or other options mentioned in class.

Once you publish outside your personal blog (with a backlink if possible), be sure to post your link in the comment section below. Use your initials or first name etc so that I'll know to give you credit for the assignment.

Can I Use Book Covers or CD/DVD Cover Art in a Blog?

This topic area is pretty tricky. There are no landmark cases pertaining to the use of book covers or CD/DVD covers.

Fair Use - Maybe or Maybe Not

Some people argue that the covers are "fair use." The issue here is that the cover art work and design is generally created by someone other than the content producer of the enclosed materials. In other words, the writer of the book likely did not do the cover art work for the book.

Generally, those who produce and sell product like books, CDs, and DVDs are happy to have the covers shown so that people will be aware of the titles and will hopefully purchase the items. This is not always the case though as you can read about in this article about a court case pertaining to cover art:

Court Case on Cover Art and Blogs

Want to be on the Safe Side?

Often you can find media materials related to books, movies, video games and so on. Check the official site and see if such materials are offered for use.If so, you're fine.

If you can't find media materials related to the content covers or art you want to use, try emailing the author, musical group, publicist etc. Often artists or companies will email art work on request.  

Blogging Can Come Back and Bite You - Teacher Suspended Over Blog

 If It's Posted Online - Then People Can Find and See It

Bloggers often consider posts to be private, and it is possible to password protect a blog. Anything posted online can, however, become public fodder. Even if you write over a page with new material, the cache is still there. You can visit the Way Back Machine and find the old content that many thought had gone POOF when they made changes to their online content.

Teacher Suspended After Blogging About Students

In a recent case, a high school teacher has been suspended, because she blogged about her job and students.

Natalie Munroe did not use her last name on her blog, did not name the school, and she did not specifically name students; however, she has been put on leave with pay pending an investigation concerning her blog.

Alexandra Petri checks in on this story and also mentions Nir Rosen (who resigned his NYU job after tweeting inappropriate comments) in What Happens Online . . .

Take Home Message

If you don't want others to see it or read, then buy a paper journal and lock it up. Don't post things online that you don't want others to see.

Adding a Photo to a Blog

Remember first that photographs (and other graphics) are protected by copyright. Don't steal art from others.

You may use:

• Original Photos You Have Taken
• Photos Made by Friends (with permission)
• Photos from morguefile (nice to list a credit at the bottom of the post)
• Photos from stock.xchng (do note that the photos at the top are "premium" and involve a cost while the ones below are free)
• "Commons" Photos (Be careful though, because some people upload shots to Commons which are not in the public domain.)

Don't steal materials online (including photographs) and end up in a law suit like a young blogger from North Carolina.

How to Upload a Photo

Edit Your Photo First If Necessary:

Have your photo in a format where you can upload. I typically save pictures as JPEG files after I edit them in PhotoShop Elements which is a fairly inexpensive photo editing software package.

Another option (which is free) is Picnik. The students on the college newspaper use Picnik for the photos for the newspaper and find it easy to work with. 

For online photos:


1. Right click on the copyright clear photo that you'd like to copy.

2. Press "Save Picture As."

3. Add a new name for the photo including good search word terms (SEO).

4. Save to a thumb drive or the computer. (I usually save online photos to the desk top and then delete after I upload.)

Then:


5. Sign in to Blogger.

6. Open a new post (or an old post to edit).

7. Put the cursor in the edit field.

8. Press the photo icon (and a pop up editing box appears). I prefer to be in HTML edit mode rather than compose when doing photos.

9. There are options for different sizes and for placement (right or left etc).

10. Press browse to find your photo (after clicking the photo icon on the Blogger toolbar).

11. Double click the photo. You will see the information in the field box.

12. Press upload at the bottom of the pop up photo edit box.

13. Save your work (Publish Post at bottom - orange button).

14. Go back and make sure that your post is visually appealing and that all elements are there.

Can You Use Your Regular Email and Still Blog at Blogger?

If you go to Blogger, then you'll see that they require a log in that is Google based. Blogger is, after all, a Google product.

If you are currently using or have a gmail account, then you can sign in through that account (email and password) and start setting up your blog.

Blogger Set Up with an Eamil Other Than Gmail

Some of you may prefer to use your usual email address and sign in to get to your blog. If so, then you can sign up for a Google account using your Hotmail, Yahoo or other email adress and password by going to the following sign up form for a Google account and putting in your usual sign up information.

Google Account Sign Up

Feel Free to Try Gmail - It's Free and a Nice Email Platform

You can also sign up for a free Gmail account which is well integrated with Blogger and the tools, since they all fall under the G company name. This can be used directly for sign in at the blog and, in effect establishes your Google identity or account.

The main benefit with Gmail (besides the tight integration) is that it has a great search function. I have over 10,000 emails (yikes - yes I do). I can use the eamil search and put in a student name or topic or certain keywords and find things from years back.

Email Alerts About Blogger Comments (be sure to set comments on "moderated")

One other note as far as emails and your Blogger account, you can go into settings and put a different email. You might, for example opt to set up the blogger blog with a Gmail account but prefer to be notified about comments on your blog at another email account. You can just plug in where you want your commnet alerts sent.

To set the alert email function to an email other than the one that use to sign in with, go to Settings (to the right of where you press Posts to add a new post on the dashboar). Click on Settings. Another row of topics will appear below including Comments. Click on Comments and go down the page several fields to Comment Moderation. Under Comment Moderation, you will see a field for Email Address. Simply type in the email where you'd like to get notices of comments from friends and fans.

Blogging Class Blogs 2011

Here are the student blogs for Online Publication (Spring 2011). Each student came up with a topic proposal and posts weekly (or more often) on the selected topic.

There are some really terrific blogs here. Check them out and be sure to leave comments for these new bloggers.

DO A Spot Check

All About Fish

Classy with a Twist

Becoming a Girly Girl

Tinseltown Tirade

Stencil Anything

BEaYOUtiful You

Whitney's Adventures in Dogland

Man United Fans 4 Life

C is for Create

Guide to Tokyo

The Big Fly

Loco Parenthood with Mama-B

The Dugout

Casual Gamer Reviews

Weather with Whitley

The Holy Report: A Journey through the Scriptures

Photo Venue

Yellow Jackets Tennis

Crazy Can't Describe This

Wheel Talk ACC

Extreme Measures

Selecting a Topic for Your New Blog

Deciding on a blog topic or focus can be one of the most difficult decisions for beginning bloggers (and long term bloggers as well).

Avoid the Urge to Set Up a Blab Blog

Often, new bloggers will click in and begin a “blab” blog. These are basically online journals. You simply attempt to share your entire life in little blurbs and snippets.

I hate to tell you this. You’re just not THAT interesting. I’m not either. Very few people can draw a following by posting up mundane daily activities. Even your Momma likely will get tired of hearing that you got up, took a shower, went to class, ate lunch . . . You get the picture. That kind of information is not great fodder for building a blog.

Day to day notes work better on Facebook or Twitter. If you like to keep a running log of your activities, then check out other social media outlets. Your friends and family members are much more likely to see the data than if they have to search out a blog where you run down a trip to the grocery store.

Follow Your Passion When Blogging

While many bloggers hope to have a blog that draws large visitor numbers and/or will eventually generate good income, it’s not a great idea to research and invest time and energy into a blog topic simply because you find that a certain topic is popular or pays well. What’s “hot” today does, after all, change.

Blogging is more fun (and ultimately does pay off - if that’s the goal) when you select a topic that you’re excited about. You’re much more likely to stay on top of your true interest area and share information on a regular basis if you’re excited about what you’re covering. You’re also more likely to have readers, because onliners can recognize knowledge, passion, and quality materials.

Deciding on Scope When it Comes to Blogging

A blog focus is a balancing act. You want a topic that is broad enough to serve you well for months or years. But, you don’t want a topic so broad that you never find your niche audience, and most blogs do draw niche audiences.

A general cooking blog is too BROAD (in most cases). You’re not likely to attract a regular following if you range from crock pot recipes to decorated cupcakes to gourmet salts. You’re simply not “speaking” to any specific cook, and blogs really need to have that focus. When I blog, I often pick one “real” person from my life, and I write materials with that person in the back of my mind.

On the other hand, you can get too specific. I could blog on grilling chicken. Yes. There are a number of ways I could go with that. But, I would have a hard time keeping a stream of grilled chicken materials posted. In addition, I would personally get bored if I limited my blogging to only one food – no matter how much I might like that food.

Ideas for Blogs

There are limitless topics you could cover in a blog. In fact, some people have numerous blogs, because they have so many ideas and find that they need multiple blogs to share all the information they’d like to share. Others may find honing in on an idea more difficult. That’s when brainstorming can be helpful.

A good way to brainstorm is to sit down with a pencil and piece of paper and just begin writing down things you enjoy doing and things that matter in your life. These ideas may revolve around your hobbies, your part-time job, or your college major. Don’t censor yourself initially. Just get some ideas down on paper. Then, you have something to work with.