Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Blogging 101

Whether you are a 'mainstream journalist' being asked to contribute to your company's web site, or an independent journalist trying to carve a nitche, a blog is the basic publishing tool for simply and quickly getting information out.

Compared to a traditional reported story, a blog entry should be:
- shorter in length
- more conversational in style
- more personal in content

The best blogs are updated frequently, ideally several times daily.

Blogs should also be set up to also allow comments, as this feature often enables in-the-know readers to contribute to advancing a story or topic.

This article on EchoDitto.com has many more 'best practices' tips. More tips here at Poynter.org.

Popular blogging tools include blogger, Word Press, and Moveable Type. Even a beginner can create a free blog and begin posting within minutes. It took less than 15 minutes to make this New Media blog.

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