Blogs Offer Communication, Information, and Connections During Disasters

Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today just called me from Northern Louisiana to report that he and his family have survived the evacuation from their home in Shreveport, Louisiana, though Hurricane Gustav appears to have done more damage where they evacuated to rather than where they left from. Jonathan and I were both victims of Hurricane […]

Microformats and WordPress Themes

By Otto of Nothing to See Here Question: What are Microformats? The short answer: Microformats are a way to make your web pages readable by more than just people. The idea is that you put special forms of HTML in your page, around the stuff you already have in your page. This special code lets […]

More Information and Resources on Copyright Than You Can Imagine

Smashing Magazine offers “Copyright Explained: I May Copy It, Right?”, a mind staggering collection of more than you could ever imagine or want to know on copyrights, especially as it pertains to bloggers. I’m honored that they included my article, What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content, in their list. They’ve also included […]

WordPress Plugins for Blog Layout, Formating, and CSS Designs

If you want to change the look of your WordPress Theme, you can edit the Theme’s stylesheet. There are a variety of tools to help you. I’ve featured a lot of them in this Month of WordPress Plugins series, including: WordPress Plugins for Images, Photographs, and Graphics WordPress Plugins That Play With Paper and Documents […]

JPG, PNG, or GIF – When and How to Use Different Web Graphic Formats

While it isn’t pretty and a bit rude, this tutorial on when and how to use internet image formats via email or web page is helpful for learning about which image or graphic format to choose. For a basic understanding, and visual examples, of the differences between GIF, JPEG, and PNG, it does the job. […]

Reporting on Your Blog: Get Information Online, Fast, and Accurate

Al Tompkins reports on Poynter Online about “How to Get Online and Get Information Fast” with tips and techniques you can use for your blog posts, stories and articles. He tracks a news story he was a part of it step-by-step through the process of how he and his team found information on a nearby […]

Research: Tips for Surfing the Net for Information on a Deadline

Surfing the Net on Deadline – Staci D. Kramer’s Tips for Reporters, Editors and News Directors is a great checklist and how-to steps for bloggers as well as reporters. Here are some highlights: * Rule #1: Troubleshoot your software when you aren’t on deadline. * Build — and maintain — a bookmark file for your […]

More Than You Want to Know – Search Engine Articles, Information, and Resources

Our Articles on Search Engines How Search Engines See, Search, and Visit Your Website How People Search the Web and How They Can Find Your Blog Google Page Ranks, Google News, Google Gossip, Google Blues Website Development – Search Engine Submission Preparation Blog Site Search Engine Submissions RSSTop55 – Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission […]

Bloggers Provide Storm Evacuees With Local Information About Their Homes

According to a story in the Washington Post, “Blogs Provide Storm Evacuees With Neighborhood-Specific News” to help victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita see and read about what is going on with their homes, businesses and properties. As the world’s news media show the big picture of the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina, some […]

Blog Exercises: How to Write about Something Someone Else Wrote

In the early development of the web, blogs were classified as echo chambers, vessels of redundant content as every original idea was shared, reshared, quoted, and spread across the web at rapid speed. Some estimates state that less than 2% of all the content on the web is original. It’s mostly regurgitation of the same […]

Blog Exercises: How Long Are Your Paragraphs?

How long are your paragraphs? Have you measured them lately? One of the telling differences between traditional writing and writing for the web is the length of the paragraph. Look at the example below. Which is easier to read? On the left, the paragraphs are huge, long blocks of text. On the right, the paragraphs […]

Blog Exercises: Dissecting Post Categories

In a recent article, Noah Weiss shared his struggle to figure out categories and tags on his personal site. I know many of you following these Blog Exercises have also struggled to figure out your categories, so I thought Noah’s site would be a perfect example, He has gratefully given me permission to rip his […]

WordPress Anniversary: Comment Spam Lessons

It’s hard to believe that I’ve learned much from comment spammers over the years. I’ve learned that they are among the most hated folks in the world, yet you have to respect them as well. As I look back on ten years of blogging with WordPress on this 10th Anniversary year, I realized that comment […]

Blog Exercises: List Your Resources

In “Blog Exercises: What Are Your Reference Articles” your blog exercise was to identify your reference articles from within your site and list them on a Page or in a post as a reference list. Today’s blog exercise is to identify and publish your resources beyond your site, the reference material and sources you count […]

Blog Exercises: Current Events for May

Been watching the news lately? It’s time to blog the news and current events for May in our Blog Exercises. Have you enjoyed blogging the news? I’ve only asked for one newsworthy blog post a month. Some of you have gone a bit overboard, while others still struggle to find something from the news to […]