Lecture four – meet the reader

 

Remember the water cycle from elementary-school science? How rain creates snow that melts into streams, feeding the oceans, which evaporate into clouds that rain and so forth? Bloggers, website publishers and the mainstream media are all bound together in a similar circuit. And readers too play a key role...

As Greg Ruggiero of the Immediast Underground says: "Media is a corporate possession... You cannot participate in the media. Bringing that into the foreground is the first step. The second step is to define the difference between public and audience. An audience is passive; a public is participatory. We need a definition of media that is public in its orientation."

This week we'll explore some bells and whistles to engage the reader, as well as tech and tactics to convert casual skimmers into a dedicated audience.

1. Profile tactics – Look Who's Talking
2. Single author versus group submissions
3. Dynamic Sidebars
4. Widgets Away!
5. Widget wisely and well...
6. Comments: More than the sound of one hand clapping
7. Building community – or not...
8. Exposure – yours, interviewees' and readers'
9. Who's reading?
10. Your mission, week four

Unusually, we've broken key homework components into Tips & Tricks this week. That's because some of you are on WordPress and others don't get a geek buzz off advanced html wizardry. Given all that, it seemed more sensible to quarantine the codey bits. But you can read 'em here:

1. Tips & Tricks: Tell Google About Your Blog
2. Tips & Tricks: Adding Google Analytics to your Blogger blog

Some of you expressed frustration with links. Just a quick reminder: these serve like footnotes – opportunities to dig deeper, but not obligations. And you can open them in another tab by clicking and holding down the apple-splat key (Mac) or control-click on a PC.

Assignment: Add Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, and make two posts
Feedback: (Mike) Q&A, tech troubleshooting

Profile tactics – Look Who's Talking

As we mentioned in the first lecture, the Internet has grown from read-only mode into Web 2.0, a veritable mosh pit of participation. From wikis to Twitter and user-generated-content sites like TripAdvisor, the line between storyteller and audience has flown right out the window. Those old roles are litter on the side of the information superhighway.

So too, the best blogs are more than soap boxes, they are conversations ... and sometimes even Fight-Club-style debates.

Some of you may prefer to fight masked like luchadores, Mexican wrestlers. That can work wonderfully, as proved by blogs like Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl, repeatedly voted best UK blog. (The author maintained her anonymity from 2003 to 2009, when she unveiled her identity, fearing exposure by a big-mouthed ex-boyfriend. Research Scientist Brooke Magnanti finally claimed the site and two memoirs, which inspired a popular British TV show.) From Mark Twain to George Orwell and Isak Dinesen, the nom de plume is a time-honored literary tradition.

Should you take that route, don't turn your back on an authorial persona. You can still construct a character via tone, topic and – most immediately – a prominent "About this blog" section with a profile link.

Readers are naturally curious about the people behind compelling posts. Give them a chance to understand you and find points of commonality, then they're more likely to become repeat customers. The "About" section and profile are also fine places to emphasize your qualifications for pontificating on a given topic – the basis for your authority.

Some authors, like the esteemed Tim Footman, rely on detailed "favorite" lists to flesh out their online persona. Others, like LC and Iain, provide only the barest outline, while the writer behind Crying All the Way to the Chip Shop shares little. The "about" area simply declares: "The sentimental musings of an ageing British expat in words, music, and pictures. Files are only up for a limited time so drink them while they're hot."

My profile is minimalist for several reasons: laziness being prime among them. But I also feel plenty exposed and explained on my website ... and I'd rather funnel traffic to that professional space anyway. Finally, my profile has to do double-duty, representing me as a writer and an instructor. In the latter capacity, my cinematic tastes don't factor in much. So I keep things sparse.

I've also edited the blogs visible from this page, hiding scratch pads and students' sites where I have admin privileges. To control this, go to Dashboard –> Edit Profile (second link, top left) –> Show my blogs (the fourth line down under Privacy). On this panel, you can also adjust other details.

Profiles have no right and wrong, of course, so decide what suits your goals – and comfort level. But remember that people really are curious. Since December 2005, for example, 3,100 readers have viewed my profile. Blogger displays this info at the bottom left of each profile page. Have a look at your own stats: chances are they might surprise you already.

Single author versus group submissions

You can share the risks, burdens and excitement by co-authoring. Many blogs, like the venerable BoingBoing, rely on a handful of posters, rather than a single voice. The advantages are obvious: more entries, more often and from more perspectives ... not to mention the camaraderie of a shared project. But that breadth can also dissolve the focus of a site, unless an "editor" figure runs herd over the bloggers. Posts can ramble off topic or vary wildly in tone, giving a ragged impression. As one blogger commented: "it can all go Lord of the Flies very quickly."

Make a strategic decision. Road Remedies, an author-promotion platform, is naturally a one-woman show. Mike co-chairs the class blog, so we can all plunder his tech mojo. Sites such as the Travelling Mammas have a select number of writers, each with a nuanced persona. Others like Gizmodo have a larger cast of characters, detailed in a hierarchy similar to a magazine or newspaper's masthead (black background sidebar on the left, listing the various editors, reporters, etc.). The Huffington Post has hundreds – including founder Arianna, singer Barbra Streisand and comedian Bill Maher – but hasn't yet found a way of paying them...

To add comrades in Blogger, go to Settings --> Permissions --> then Blog Authors (up to 100 potentially). Below this, you'll see the Blog Readers section. The radio dial buttons there control privacy.

Dynamic sidebars

A powerful way to draw readers into your material is via the sidebar, i.e; the skinny column(s) beside the main post field (review Anatomy of a Blog, if need be). Elements that give context, build community, provide revenue and highlight original content include:

• About – as noted earlier, readers respond more strongly to bloggers with authority or character. Give your audience a chance to connect with you ... or, in some cases, with your nom de plume's persona. Either way, traction = good.
• Ads – we'll delve into this week nine.
• Archive – give readers a portal to your past material.
• Blogroll – reach out to similar writers ... and help your readers connect with them too. Such "link love" can have a powerful cumulative effect, boosting SEO and Google PageRank. But more on this week six...
• Greatest hits – a list of your favorite or most popular entries provides another "point of entry" for readers into your sea of original content. Insert your posts' permalinks into a blogroll-style gadget.
• Subscription box – more on this week six.
• Syndicated content via RSS feeds (headlines, tweets, and so on) – ditto on the week six thang.
• Widgets, aka "gadgets" (embedded programlets, often interactive, like clocks, calendars, Flickr slideshows, etc.) – read on...

Widgets away!

A widget – or "gadget" as Blogger calls 'em – is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page. An end user can install these without requiring additional compilation.

In other words, they're free mini-programs, which plug n' play on blogs, as well as websites, wikis and social networking sites. Classic examples include world clocks and weather reports. But widgets can stretch to baby-birth countdowns, Super Mario games and Amazon Affiliate referral boxes, all embedded on your site with a little cutting and pasting. Ace!

Browser-based tools for creating and hosting widgets include Microsoft Popfly, Widgetbox, and zembly. Widget-distribution platforms such as Clearspring and Gigya are now used to seed and distribute widgets as rich media advertisement units.

WordPress hosts more widgets than Blogger, thanks to its open-sourcy goodness. But we prefer Blogger for its free template-tinkering, so, as usual, our advice will revolve around that platform.

Blogger hosts a certain number of widgets on its servers. To add an element, go to Layout --> then click the blue text link "Add a Gadget" at the top of your sidebar(s). A popup box then displays a host of options, including polls, slideshows and RSS feeds, handy for streaming select headlines, adding fresh news content effortlessly.

To freestyle a bit more, you can add third-party programlets, like the class blog's recent comments widget. First, find reliable source code online. Vet it carefully by searching on its name. Then back up your Blogger template before you tinker.

From the Layout wireframe, click "Add a Gadget," then choose the HTML/JavaScript option. Click the blue plus-sign button, which leads to another popup window, containing fields for a title and content. Paste the embed code in the larger data field. Once you've saved, the element will appear on the layout page. You can then drag and drop it into an appropriate spot.

As we discussed earlier in the course, think carefully about what appears "above the fold." This newspaper term denotes the content visible on a front page when a broadsheet is doubled up. For a blog, that translates to "stuff visible without scrolling". The header and "about me/contributors" sections are obvious candidates: context helps readers – new ones especially – evaluate the site.

Widget wisely and well...

So why widget? For fun ... for borrowed programming glory ... to add texture and customized character. But don't overdo the bells and whistles: too many can distract from your content, the point of the whole enterprise. And a whole mess of widgets can bog down a blog, as feeds and data stream off the various mother sites.

As Timethief pointed out at One Cool Site: a common mistake beginner bloggers make is the overuse widgets as sidebar decorations, methods of bragging, and as space fillers, because they fail to consider the following:

1. the impact of the amount of script they have running on their blogs on their readers experience;

2. the collection of reader information (computer IP, location, browser type and version) that some widget use results in; and
   

3. how all those widgets clutter the 12-inch screen of laptops.

So widge away, but judiciously. As Mike points out, they introduce a lot of third-party reliance. "Widgets not hosted by Blogger – that is, not on the gadget menu list – are probably running on their creator's server, somewhere out there in the world, which may or may not be robust. You're also relying on them being a good citizen, like not drinking beer and coding."

A wonky widget might create a blank patch. Or – worse scenario – it could crash the page or load hella-slowly, dinging your PageRank. Google is revamping its 200-point algorithm to determine how the search engine features pages at the moment, as the company's Matt Cutts discusses here. The ongoing, super-secret (as always) update – nicknamed Caffeine – may factor site speed more heavily, rumors claim. Later in the course, we'll talk about how to monitor such things closely. For now, just be judicious about how many ornaments you hang on the tree...

More than the sound of one hand clapping

No device is more powerful in gaining – and maintaining – an audience than the comment fields: yours and others. People like to be heard and acknowledged. Engaging that spirit of conversation elsewhere brings readers home, via profile links and URLs. And it encourages those on your site

When a reader leaves a message on your site, respond to it promptly. A good tool here is the alert function: Blogger can issue an email for each new piece of feedback. Go to Settings --> Comments --> Comment notification email at the bottom. This page also controls who can sound off and how the comments appear (full page, pop up, embedded below post). Here too are the radio buttons for backlinks, which show other webpages linking to your post. This promotes "discussions" between blogs – a fine functionality. Bloggers with older or custom templates should look here for the install code.

Comment moderation allows you to vet reader missives before they go live. This permits an author to filter out spam, trolls and sulky exes. But it slows down the dialogue considerably, so I keep this function turned off and rely on word verification – a type of CAPTCHA – to fight spambots (this requires readers to retype distorted text before posting a comment: only humans can manage this, not automated systems).

In several years of blogging, I've only deleted a dozen or so comments, so this system suits my needs. Then again, I don't court controversy. My buddy Candace Dempsey – another Writers.com instructor – landed a book deal: Murder in Italy: The Shocking Slaying of a British Student, the Accused American Girl, and an International Scandal. Her blog coverage of the tabloid-headliner case led to death threats and entire other blogs devoted to flaming Candace. After months struggling to moderate the tempest in a teapot – almost a full-time job – she often simply turned the comments off, so she could concentrate on writing. But, happy news: a Penguin imprint will publish the nonfiction book in late April, 2010!

Nightmares like that aside, comments generally build community in a more positive fashion. Remember to leave your calling card in return with observations on others' sites. Most allow you to post a URL, which can draw traffic to your blog. The best "bait" is generally a two-to-three line note offering some relevant insight, anecdote or even a question. While everyone appreciates fan mail, it's less likely to lure fresh eyes.

Week six we'll explore more traffic generating and multimedia tricks, including links (internal and external); page rankings; search engine optimization; keywords; stunts; Technorati and other portals; blog review sites; syndication (including RSS feeds); Twitter; social networking; developing a presence in the blogosphere.

Building community – or not...

The comment field makes a blog a two-way conversation, turning it from a collection of pages into a community. You present your point of view, and people comment on it. Often this garners feedback, new ideas and constructive criticism. Other times it turns into a spigot for spam. If your blog is private or not that popular, you can probably get away without restrictions on comments. But the evil spam robots will eventually find you (often before your real audience does) and start posting comments like "Great post! Love your blog! Buy Viagra here!"

Actually, you'll be lucky if the spelling and grammar are that good...

A few options exist:

1. Turn off comments. That may be a bit extreme, but if you don't have the time to react to comments on your blog, it won't be much of a two-way conversation anyhow.
2. Limit comments to registered users. This doesn't really stop the spammers as they have accounts on all the major blogging engines. As fast as those accounts get deleted, they make a new ones. Not recommended without one of the following options.
3. Require a CAPTCHA, a Completely Automated Public Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. This is the least intrusive, most spam-deterring method available and I highly recommend it for any public blog. A CAPTCHA presents a distorted picture of several letters to the user and requires them to be identified before the comment is accepted. More complicated versions, such as reCAPTCHA, use the human interaction to do cool things like converting ancient New York Times print articles into digital format.
4. Require comment moderation. This is the best option for very popular public blogs. While the Viagra spam-bots will be deterred by a CAPTCHA, some humans are nearly as hideous. These "trolls" live to stir the pot with inflammatory or derogatory comments. Perhaps that's the kind of conversation your blog was meant to have. If not, one or more administrators will be required to approve comments before they appear on the site.

All of these options can be set by following the "Dashboard" link, followed by "Settings," then "Comments". The CAPTCHA settings is called "Show word verification for comments" on that screen. Until your blog gets so popular that your Inbox is flooded every morning, it's a good idea to add your email address to the "Comment Notification Email" box so you know when the world talks to you.

Exposure – yours, interviewees' and readers'

Earlier, we touched upon the risks and rewards of publicly "owning" your site. As you develop a blog – and perhaps even a blogger persona – consider the cumulative effect of all those small details. "A good rule of thumb: if you wouldn't share the info on your blog with a strange guy on a dark street, don't post it for the public," advises the Internet Safety Expert Linda Criddle, author of Look Both Ways. "Think of each piece of information as a drop of water in a bucket. In the past, there was no bucket to store the information and though information was shared, it vanished from memory quickly. Online, however, it collects one drop at a time in a place where it can be recalled and you become more discoverable as the bucket fills." "Talk to your family and friends about the kinds of information you’re willing make public and what you’d rather keep private.

Everyone you interact with online needs to respect your safety boundaries, and you need to respect theirs. Posting information about others is not okay—in comments, photos, and so on—unless they agree to share that information. And not only should you ask permission, but you should also make it clear who can see your site. In the case of minors, you might need to get their parents’ permission as well."

The consequences can be far-reaching, as Heather B. Armstrong can attest. Her site's name inspired a new word, "dooced," meaning to be sacked for indiscreet web chatter. And some bloggers don't even make it to the employment starting blocks, it emerges. A 2008 Career Builder survey reveals that one-in-five employers use blogs and social networking sites to do research on their job applicants. One-third of those hiring managers have found content that caused them to dismiss the candidates from consideration. The two top areas of concern: info about drinking or illegal drugs, and provocative or inappropriate photographs. Poor communication skills followed. So spellcheck, spellcheck, spellcheck! Here's a quickie solution to block Google from archiving your blog. Insert this code into the

<head>of your blog:
<META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE">

If you'd like to block other search engines from saving your pages try this one:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="PRAGMA" CONTENT="NO-CACHE">

To stop it from indexing your blog altogether, insert this code as well:

<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noindex,nofollow">

Who's reading?

The internet has some powerful tools for determining readership. Platforms like WordPress have simple statistics built into the user accounts. We'll explore the pros and cons of two other free services: Sitemeter and Google's Analytics. Both supply you with code, which then should be pasted into your blog's template. To place either in the sidebar:

1. Click the "Add a Gadget" link in the footer area of your blog's layout. (screenshot)
2. Select the "HTML/JavaScript" gadget. (screenshot)
3. Leave the title field blank and paste the code you copied above into the content area. Click Save. (screenshot)
4. Back in your blog's Layout page, click the Preview button just to make sure nothing got completely messed up. If not, click Save.

(Tips & Tricks has more details about Analytics, as well as an alternate installation method, directly on to the template.)

Sitemeter's free service is more stripped down than Analytics. It shows a week's worth of reader data: location, computer type, browser version, referrals (how the reader found you), outbound clicks (where they left from and to) and what search terms land users on the site. It has just two advantages over Analytics: simplicity and IP-revelation.

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a 32-bit number that identifies an entry point to the web. Analytics doesn't display this information: Google considers it an invasion of privacy.

Why should you care, really? Well, some obsessive types can triangulate their scoundrel exes reading from all this data. Others use it to block brute force attacks or for censorship. In July 2003, techfocus.org banned the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) due to content-pirating issues. Many Nigerian IPs are wholesale shut out, due to the number of scams that originate in that country.

Mac users can determine theirs by clicking on the top left apple icon, then selecting location>network preferences. PC-fans should click the the two little computer icons in the system tray on the bottom right (next to the clock). Select status, then the support tab. As long as you're connected to the Internet, the IP address will display. If you are behind a firewall or proxy server, you can use any number of services such as IP-Adress.com and WhatIsMyIPAddress.com.

A universal quick, easy way to escape IP-detection is through proxies like HideMyAss.com.

We've included a detailed breakdown of Google's tools under Tips & Tricks:

• Tell Google About Your Blog
• Adding Google Analytics to your Blogger blog

We "quarantined" this information as it got way nerdy way quickly. These tools are amazing – and much advised for anyone serious about blogging. But we didn't want to bore folks on WordPress or those more interested in content, than new-media savvy.

Your mission, week four

Add Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools – see Mike's tips here and here –  and make two posts. This task is by no means mandatory. Tackle it, should the idea appeal. Skip it if code-hacking doesn't... Either way, please leave Mike tech questions in Forums>Assignments>Stats and two posts.