During this workshop, we'll explore how to "monetize" – to indulge in some vile jargon – blogs. AdSense plays a role in that, so we've decided to demo it: practicing what we preach... Earnings will go into source materials and the instructors' IPA (India Pale Ale) fund. Teaching, after all, is thirsty work.
Assignment: Comment on at least five newly discovered blogs and respond to all feedback left on your site. Make at least two posts, one with an image, the other with a video
Proper photography demands a large amount of specialized knowledge, expensive and heavy equipment, and chutzpah (can you bribe an amputee beggar in Delhi? Approach fierce fur-swathed babushka in Moscow? A Buddhist monk?). “Hone your photographic skills until they become second nature,” wrote Susan McCartney, author of Travel Photography: A Complete Guide to Shoot and Sell. This permits concentration on “the important things, which are aesthetics and logistics.”
Yet she acknowledged that almost anyone “with luck” could take the odd brilliant picture or two. And fortune flows easier and easier, thanks to technology. Thus any intelligent and dedicated blogger can produce original images to accompany their text. Granted, the photographs may not be Ansel Adams or Walker Evans quality, but even a functional snap adds color, texture and context (a picture's worth 1,000 words...).
Photojournalism, called "reportage photography" in Europe, pushes beyond snapshots and illustrations. An image – or carefully-chosen series – tells a story about a place and its people. Interpret the scenes, don't just photocopy Uluru or Angkor Wat. Make the tale compelling; the viewer has no obligation to examine the photo (or proceed on to the headline, captions and … finally … to the blog text itself).
Here's the difference: a hiking tour company wins an award. The jaded hack photographer herds the employees together with their plaque, producing a hideous “grip and grin” shot. A dynamic photojournalist shoots them camping by a lake or cresting a mountain in full outdoor regalia. She's gone to more trouble, but the active image captures the essence of the company, rather than a tired lineup.
Try to think like a photojournalist. Vary your images – horizontal and vertical, interesting crops – so that six or seven could be used on a spread. Take overview shots that set the scene, workplaces, landmarks, food bazaars, houses and signs and flags. Capture groups of locals, faces close-up (or other details, like hands, feet or one aspect of ceremonial costume), piles of souvenirs and plates of food. Consider how the images work together. What do they convey?
Sunsets, small furry animals and postcard views aren't the goal, stressed David Hurn in On Being a Photographer. “Most great photographs displaying beauty reveal a sensation of strangeness, not predictability … They are the opposite of clichés; they have a quality beyond the visually obvious.”
Such storytelling often involves contrast. This stretches far beyond light and shadow, however. Look for contextual friction, which adds emotional depth. For example, shoot a solemn person's portrait with gregarious diners behind. The bubbly background adds information: the subject is withdrawn even in a boisterous environment. Similarly, some of the most poignant developing-world illustrations may not depict poverty per se, but of the persistence of human spirit despite it, like a child building a rope swing in a refuge camp. Link the familiar and unfamiliar to help viewers connect.
As in writing, seek the universal theme. Can you evoke an emotion – nostalgia, awe or tenderness – from a single image or series? A well-composed photograph captures a time and place, conveying a message. You don't illustrate a story, you tell it, Peter Turnley once urged his colleagues. This photojournalist – with 40 Newsweek covers to his credit – sees his mission as even larger: “an on-going photographic expression of the key moments of history and a humanistic view of the 'Family of Man'”.
Such craft requires talent and honed skills (in Outliers, science writer Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes 10,000 hours to reach "genius" mastery...). Be patient with yourself. Even National Geographic photographers take 2,000 images for each image printed. Bloggers rarely have the time to amass such a stockpile. But permit yourself a margin of error, say a 1:10 ratio of published images to discards. The ironclad rule here is: Snap a lot. Don't hold back, don't skimp. You may never return to that place, retry that activity or recapture that moment.
Reams of books have been written on the subtle art of photography, which can't possibly be summarized in one lecture. However, here are ten simple steps for improving images.
1. Get close. Then get closer.
Strong, bold images catch the eye, so charge right in the middle of the action. The traditional advice is “go as close as you dare, then advance three more feet”. Portraits especially benefit from this intimate approach. What's more striking: a snapshot of granny on the couch with her dog, the molting Christmas tree and a tepid cup of tea – or a full frame of her noble, wrinkled face?
Shy shooters fret over the “invasion of space”, especially when the language barrier makes explanation impossible. Politely ask anyway, advised McCartney, who often talks and photographs for half an hour before reaching her favorite setup: three or four feet away with a 28mm lens. Approach cautiously and monitor the subject's expressions, gestures and posture.
“Approach slowly, as though they were small frightened animals (which most of us are, deep inside),” she joked. The camera can erode inhibitions on both sides. “It's rather like wearing a mask – and with the camera's protection you can approach, talk to and photograph most people quite easily.”
As war photographer Robert Capa famously put it: “If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough.” He followed this advice to the end: the 40-year-old stepped on a land mine while covering the French Indochina War in 1954. So get close, but tread softly and safely.
“Open the other eye occasionally,” recommended Photographer and Visual Storytelling Instructor Marcus Donner. “Maybe you're missing some interesting element … or maybe you're about to be whacked with a croquet ball. Don't let the camera give you a false sense of invulnerability.”
2. Dominant element
Your photo should clearly be about something. Direct the observer's eye – and don't distract them with too much clutter (like the poodle and the gift wrap). A useful trick here is the “rule of thirds”. Imagine a tic tac toe grid over an image. Good pictures have a “center of interest” where the lines meet.
When photographing people with objects, place the person in the extreme foreground, the thing far in the background (this works well with large objects, like St. Peter's and the Washington Monument. Otherwise you wind up with a camel driver against a biscuit-colored wall, instead of a camel driver with the Sphinx). Add even more depth with a relevant or interesting element in the middle ground too. Make the viewer's eye move in the frame, transforming a two-dimensional object into a three dimensional-one.
Landscapes pose a particular problem, according to Michael Busselle, author ofTravel and Vacation Photography and fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. “There is often a temptation to include too much in the frame,” he observed. The image “has no immediate focus of attention and too many conflicting details.”
3. Prime time
Early morning and early evening light are warmer (the syrupy gold hue before sunset is nicknamed the “magic hour”, much exploited by catalogue designers). Looking at a magnificent sunset? Without filters, the splendor is hard to capture. But spin around; all that gorgeous light may illuminate a more intriguing scene.
Avoid shooting at midday, when the sun throws harsh shadows. Eye sockets, in particular, recede into gothic gloom. The human brow really serves a purpose: it shades the eye. A fill flash softens the contrast. Slightly overcast days provide nice, soft tones for portraits (while landscape photographers gnash their teeth).
Take notice of the shadows in a composition. Is there a better time to return and try again? Ansel Adams was famous for stalking light, returning time and time again in different seasons, until the conditions optimized. Much of good photography is patience: composing a frame, then waiting for conditions to perfect (for the purple light of dusk, a flock of birds in a certain quadrant, for the hunter-gather to pry open the trap or the Indonesian washerwoman to collect the linens).
This time-consuming process can clash with a reporter's restless quest for information. National Geographic staffer Jodi Cobb recommends that teams touch base – say, be in the same country and region – but not dog each others' footsteps. Travel writers doing double duty should expect conflicted loyalties … and even compromised coverage at times, sad to say.
4. Work the angles
Search out unusual angles. Climb up a column and shoot down. Lie on the cobbles and shoot up. Tilt the camera. Vary your perspective to produce an unusual effect. Also, look for natural 'frames', which add depth and interest to an image. Try shooting through a doorway or an archway of branches. Place a palm-leaf umbrella in a corner, then photograph the sandy beach and surfline. Finally, compose with “leading lines”, elements that draw in the eye (like a woman standing on the center line of a road, along a fence line or atop a staircase).
5. Avoid posing
“Photo faces” make for poor images generally. The artificial stiffness doesn't convey the sense of scene (professionals call this unnatural look “camera-conscious”). Shoot real people doing real things. Put subjects at ease by chatting – or shoot them unaware with a telephoto lens. Another technique is to “blow film”: keep the shutter firing until they grow accustomed to the experience and relax. Digital technology makes this option more affordable now.
6. Pound the pavement
Remember those boots were made for walking. A common amateur mistake is monotony; dozens of shots where the people and backgrounds remain in the same ratio. Gathered together, the images are dull. Mix it up. Vary the distance between the subject and camera. Change lenses. Zoom in and out. No flashy technology? Wear down the shoe leather and simply walk closer to avoid visual redundancy.
7. Outside the box
Get one in the can, to borrow some Hollywood lingo. Take a middle-of-the-road, good-enough “safety shot”, then push for more risky, artistic compositions. The subject needn't be dead center in the frame – as long as it's still clearly the subject. A runner, for example, could race into the right side of a photograph, giving a sense of movement and speed. A portrait might emphasize someone's soulful eyes, by eliminating their hair and chin. Likewise, not all photographs need to be the classic rectangle shape. Crop images into squares, panoramic strips or thin columns.
8. Silhouettes
Play around with shapes, especially distinctive ones (a pregnant woman, a child in a cowboy hat, a man with an Afro). Place the shadowy figure against a bright background (a person standing in a doorway on a sunny day does the trick). Adjust the exposure for the light area.
9. Avoid distractions
Don't let unwanted elements destroy your images. Is a tree behind the shaman? That palm will sprout from his head in the photograph. Try to minimize signs, telephone wires, garbage cans and other clutter. Shooting from a higher or lower angle often hides the mess. Blurring the background helps too (on an SLR, limit the depth-of-field with a large aperture like f-2.8).
10. Bracket exposures
Fancier cameras allow the photographer to set the exposure. The light meter displays the optimum setting. Take a shot at the recommended f-stop, then one above and one below (some models have auto-bracketing now). And don't hesitate to take multiple pictures of the same scene. Professionals use a rapid-fire function – and easily blast through several rolls or hundreds of digital frames perfecting one image. If in doubt, underexposure is always preferable, as it richens the color slightly.
Watch where you aim the camera – or rather, where you upload those memories of little Gertrude squeezing her Jabba the Hut doll. Even a photograph of a temporary art installation in Italy or Paraguay could land you in trouble. Yes, you pushed the shutter and thus own the copyright on the image. But make sure no one else holds rights on a creative work within it: then you need permission.
Before you panic, check out Wikimedia's great breakdown. Down the page, its casebook walks you through various scenarios, from sculptures to cave paintings and souvenir replicas of the Venus de Milo.
US law – and most first-world nations' – permits artists and photographers to sell representations of structures permanently in the public view. Egypt, however, recently tried to copyright the Sphinx and Giza's pyramids in a move that sparked much hilarity. Even the bill's author – Ashraf El Ashmawi, legal consultant to the antiquities council – finally admitted he wouldn't take the global witch-hunt to a micro level. "If you have a small shop and your trade is very limited, I will not take money from you," he told National Geographic.
"But if you are a big company, like some of these Chinese companies that make a lot of money from the replicas of antiquities ... according to the law, I can take the fees."
Thanks, fella. I'm glad to know blogger Marie Javins won't be extradited for posting her obligatory sightseeing snaps...
Some areas, like Peleliu (one of Palau's 16 states), may try to levy a commercial photography license on anyone associated with the media, however vaguely. On my last trip there, I was presented with a surprise $50 permit, instead of the usual $3 day-visitor one. I explained I wasn't shooting art for my Sport Diver article – or, indeed, any other at that rate. I offered to leave my cameras in the government office even. The bureaucrat insisted all journalists had to pay, but couldn't accept my credit card on site (the island's pretty rough and ready). Would I swing by the office in Koror?
Like hell.
(I did make a deal with Des, my local guide, that he would email me if his company might be fined for this, then I'd pay the tab. So far, so good.)
Anyway, as a blogger, you may wish to fly under the radar in some areas to avoid these hassles. An official on a five-square-mile state like Peleliu (pop 700) may not understand the nuances of "diary-style blog" versus, say, shooting stock for Getty.
Derivative works also stir up plenty of migraines among the geekerati. These are creations that include major, copyright-protected elements from another work.
Read here about a case lost by the artist Jeff Koons, who told artisans to transform a greeting card into four sculptures, which sold for $367,000. Unfortunately, he didn't gain permission from Photographer Art Rogers, who'd snapped the couple holding eight puppies.
So what does this mean for bloggers? Mainly be careful when compositing together illustrations – and vigilant when your material is thus remixed. Fair use allows you to write a Buffy the Vampire Slayer spoof and publish a collage of images ripped from newspapers, if you can find any these days ... The exemption also permits Google to run thumbnails of your images in its search engine, thanks to the Perfect 10 ruling. Judges deemed this "transformative because it provides an added benefit to the public, which was not previously available and might remain unavailable without the derivative or secondary use."
The most famous example of this is Marcel Duchamp's parody of the Mona Lisa. He added facial hair and the caption L.H.O.O.Q, also the work's title (it translates as "she has a hot tail"). He transformed a cult icon into an object of ridicule to critique the bourgeoisie.
For a something to be derivative and kosher, it must display originality of its own, containing sufficient new expression over and above the earlier work's. As Judge Pierre N. Leval noted in a landmark Harvard Law Review article: "Transformative uses may include criticizing the quoted work, exposing the character of the original author, proving a fact, or summarizing an idea argued in the original in order to defend or rebut it. They also may include parody, symbolism, aesthetic declarations, and innumerable other uses."
We'll talk more about piracy, copyright and protection week ten.
The green-light to use a person's image is called a “model release” or "photo release". Advertising gigs – and some editorial ones – often demand this paperwork and now some uber-careful bloggers are following suit. Especially those who hope to sell images to stock or microstock agencies.
Here's a very barebones example:
Date
Photographer's name
I give to ______________ the irrevocable right to use my name and any photographic or illustrative depiction of me in all forms and for all purposes associated with the publication or transmission of works, including advertising and promotion. I waive the right to inspect or approve the finished version(s) and any requirement for payment.
Name:
Address:
Phone:
Signature:
Guardian Signature for minors:
Sample forms – and translations – are available online from Getty, among other agencies.
Mike has already detailed some Tools for Writing Posts. Following are few more software recommendations...
Photoshop remains the best program for electronic manipulation. It's sold as part of the the Creative Suite 4 family, alongside Flash, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and other goodies. But the price – $999 to $2,499 – can induce sticker shock, so many bloggers turn to its little sister: Adobe Photoshop Elements (free trial, US$139, often bundled). Two other favorites are Google's Picasa download (this dovetails with Blogger's web albums) and the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP).
This freely distributed piece of software is nifty for retouching, composition and image authoring (see this handy post about gimping a header and also notes about modification for Blogger's Minima template. This is the best option for folks who want to create a stylish banner and then not bother with photo-manipulating).
These programs offer deity-like power. Zit begone! Turn grey skies blue! Erase your ex from the family portrait! But give some thought to ethics. A photographer already interprets the world, choosing what to shoot and how to present it (via filters, lighting, focal planes, even special effects in programs like Photoshop, etc.). When does that subjective slice of reality become fiction, though?
Most professionals draw the line at distortions of the truth. Hard-core news shooters even include staged photos in that category. If they can't capture a moment as it unfolds, given the light and elements at hand, the result is a lie.
Digital alterations are a step more verboten for pros. As in "due cause for firing". A landmark 1989 case involved removing a Coke can from, ironically, a snap of amateur photographer Ron Olshwanger celebrating in his Pulitzer for spot-news photography. Twenty years later, Microsoft replaced a black man's head with a white one, leaving the darker hand, for a Polish version of its website. Classy. Technologically and culturally.
And yes, both incidents caused as much flap as you might expect.
Attitudes are shifting. As John Long of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) told ABC: now people "don't look at pictures as though they were historical documents, but as things that they want them to be. It's so easy, it's so pervasive, that the nature of photography has become liquid." Still, professionals fight to maintain standards, especially as DIY publishing and user-generated content threatens the mainstream media's dominance – maybe even its existence... Long, once the ethics co-chair for the NPPA, exhorted his colleagues: "Journalists have only one thing to offer the public and that is CREDIBILITY. Without credibility we have nothing. We might as well go sell widgets door to door since without
the trust of the public we cannot exist as a profession."
The blogosphere has yet to develop such cohesion and ethics codes. And perhaps it never will, as much of its charm and strength lies in its Wild West freedoms. So you need to decide where your comfort level lies – and how much of that you want to communicate.
Happily, a simple solution exists for pros and bloggers alike: if you alter an image, label it as an illustration.
Why mislead your readers, when an admission builds trust through transparency?
(Please note, this entry originally appeared in Tips & Tricks. But we're concerned folks aren't interacting with material there as much, so we've folded these components into the lecture.)
The Internet deals best with certain types of images. JPGs (pronounced "jay-pegs") are optimal for items that contain photography or large gradients. For text and line-art, like ink-sketches, use PNGs and GIFs (pronounced "ping" and "gif," as in "gift" but without the "t"). Read about the techniques' differences on Webopedia.
Digital cameras typically shoot in RAW, high-resolution JPG or a proprietary format. So you'll need to resave photos in a web-friendly fashion – JPG, GIF or PNG – and bite-size them to suit the net. Most bloggers also compress images, so they download quickly. A slow-loading page, after all, alienates readers and ups the bounce rate (how quickly folks depart the site)...
When image-editing programs squish artworks, they simplify them. Depending on the process, they either remove or compress detail (JPG) or reduce the color palette (PNG/GIF). Thus things get blurry or blocky when you go too low. And yes, that's the cyber equivalent of pancaking on your back during the limbo: Very Very Embarrassing...
No more rum punch for you!
You can tailor PNGs for better results via algorithms, but those controls are only available on more expensive image-editing tools such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. Also, the files produced are larger – and unreadable on Internet Explorer 6. That's a generation or two back, browser-wise, and thus not a huge problem, unless your target audience might not have the latest software (silver surfers, readers in developing nations or places with limited Internet access, etc.).
Answers to frequently asked questions:
How do I compress an image for the Web?
Most image editing programs offer some sort of "Save As," "Save For Web" or "Export" functionality. Each one has the controls in a different place, so check your software's help files for details.
Picasa is a photo cataloging and editing tool from Google available for both Windows and Mac. Use Picasa's "Export to Folder" function to resize and compress photos as JPGs all in one step. By selecting several photos, you can perform the same operation in a batch. Picasa's especially groovy because its web albums sync with Blogger uploads – handy if you want to reuse images.
How much to compress? Two ways exist to streamline a file: reduce the physical size of the photo or increase the level of compression (or both). Making the image smaller is a good first step for the web, since most monitors can't display an image more than 1,200 pixels wide. These days, even cheap digital point-and-shoots take photos that are 3,000+ pixels.
Many programs allow you to preview compression levels, as you experiment with different intensities via a slider bar. When you start to see a loss of detail or blockiness, ease the slider back a notch or two and you'll be fine.
Otherwise, a compression level of 70 – 85 (out of 100) works well: files retain clarity but still download briskly on most connections.
Some bloggers, myself included (Amanda), size photographs to specific widths, then upload. That method offers more control and also helps when embedding the captions in Photoshop, old-school style... However, it doesn't allow readers to click on an image and examine a larger version. Nor does it allow reuse in different sizes: The shot you ran full-width in a January post could be a great thumbnail in a related July entry.
Programs like Picasa save an original image, then produce three clones: small (144 pixels), medium (288px) and large (400px). Like Goldilocks, you decide which is just right for the task at hand.
You can then grab the embed code off your Picasa web album: click "Link to this Photo" in the right-hand sidebar. We recommend checking "hide the album link" as that eliminates some formatting drama. Then select a size, and cut and paste the "embed image" code into the photo uploader's URL field.
What about images like line-art, screenshots, icons, etc.? For art with heavy gradients – elaborately inked comics, for example – your best bet is the JPG format. Shorter gradients – as you might find in a site's header image or logo – compress best with GIF or PNG.
Transparency requires a GIF or PNG: helpful for a logo that repeats across various pages with different-colored backgrounds. PNGs rock when you need to fade into transparency and GIFs when you have sharp lines.
Having trouble?
Check out these trouble-shooting tips.
Blurry or blocky: Try decreasing the compression. A percentage of 70-85 usually works best for photos.
Color-smudged text: Boost up the text's font size and strength (bold). This will make the original pixel-chunks thicker, so they're less likely to bleed color when compressed. You may need to experiment with increasing the leading (space between lines) and kerning (space between letters) to make the bulkier text look good.
This problem can also be the result of resizing an image after letter additions. Keep original versions of all art, as well as a master file with the text and image layers unflattened (i.e.; both elements can still be edited and aren't yet fused into a unit). Employ "save as" and "save for web" functions to create new, uploadable files. Your digital closet will be more full, but your options will stay open...
Blurry text: some image editing programs, like Photoshop, allow you to choose text parameters: crisp, smooth, sharp, strong, etc. These options define how letters blend with the background. Use these as you see fit for the situation. In general, larger fonts look better with smooth aliasing, while smaller fonts need crispness to prevent blurring.
As we mentioned earlier, always copy your art before making any changes. Many compression formats use lossy algorithms: they ditch data. Each time you re-save, the file sheds more and more quality. Opt for TIFFs when possible: they're better at conservation. Some image editors, such as Picasa, only permit JPGs, however, so minimize the number of resaves there.
Do you hold copyright or have permission to use the image (including its components)?
Have you respected Creative Commons or other licenses? And acknowledged the content creator, ideally with a link?
Is the caption info ready to post, as part of the text or via an embed program like Flickr's?
Save a copy of your original. Never tinker with your backup.
Reduce the size of your image to a max of 1,200 pixels across.
Convert to a web-friendly format: JPG (photos), GIF or PNG (line art, graphics).
Compress 70–85% (if that didn't already occur in step 3).
The file size (not image size: file) should be 12-50k for graphics, less than 100k for photos, unless they are extremely large and detailed (full-post beauties on, say, a pro-photog's site). In that case, 500k is an acceptable cap.
Either upload directly or via a sharing site. All these services allow you to select small, medium or large options and align the image. Cut and paste the appropriate embed code to your blog.
Remember: you can caption photos with Blogger’s built-in tools or you can get fancy by importing images from Flickr. Keep in mind that Flickr defaults to creating a live entry, so post first to your test blog, then copy/paste the code into your real site. That’s also a good technique if you have more than one photo to import from Flickr.
Art brings a blog alive and rivets readers: humans are very visual creatures, after all. So give your audience a dose of eye candy, but strategically...
DO: Start posts with an image. Should you want it to run the full post-width, go for a horizontal photo. This lets readers see some text without scrolling, drawing them into your original content.
DO: Dot images into the text, drawing the eye down the page and breaking up large "grey" chunks of text.
DON'T: Roadblock readers with full-width images in the middle of a post. This interrupts the continuity and flow. Place these at the top or bottom. Save small and medium photos for the body. (An obvious exception is when the text comments upon the image, such as a screen grab for the class blog.)
DON'T: Drop in elaborate background images (or worse yet, elaborate tiling ones). These make text difficult to read.
DON'T: Try to shoehorn a vertical image into a horizontal design space (the header, for example). Grief will ensue. An html whiz could customize a template around this, but the average blogger probably doesn't have the time to acquire chops like that. Two options: hire a designer with a proven track record on your platform or create a horizontal collage incorporating the vertical image.
Blogging can channel traffic to a website wonderfully. But for a company, a "business.blogspot.com" web address can look a little ... well, cheap. Registering a domain name is easy and inexpensive, but should you tackle that just yet?
For those on a tight budget or steep learning curve, we vote "no". Start with free services, then get fancier as your skills grow – and you know the blogging wasn't just a flash-in-the-pan enthusiasm like that Thighmaster or pet rock.
Think of the web as Madonna, an endless font of reinvention. As Mike stresses, "things don't have to be perfect to be published online, because it is easy to correct them as you move forward."
That said, following is some information for when it comes time to register a domain name.
Photo: Madonna at the premiere of "I Am Because We Are" at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, courtesy of David Shankbone and Wikimedia Commons.
ICANN is a non-profit that oversees domain-names and charges $15/year for most. A higher price tag means that your registrar is padding the bill or that you're tapping a restricted top-level domain, like those ending in .jobs, .biz, .pro, .coop and a few others.
Many domain-name registrars lurk out there (accredited list here). We recommend GoDaddy.com with reservations: it baits in customers with the lowest rates, then tries to up-sell additional services they generally don't need. But it's a good option, if you have the gumption to wade through the sales pitches and find the "no, just let me pay you and get on with my life" button.
Google owns Blogger.com, so users can register a domain name from the administration interface. Select the "Settings" tab near the dashboard's top, then click on "Publishing" followed by "Custom Domain". Check the availability of a given domain name and register desired ones for $10/year each. Bargain! Google partners with both GoDaddy.com and eNom.com to provide this service.
Tread carefully, though. Companies that discount the $15/year ICANN rate hope to sell you lotsa stuff. Registration is their loss leader or "key value item": the peanut butter in the rat trap. So, be careful where you click.
The ".com" top-level domain has been available for registration since 1984. Unsurprisingly, many of the best names are sewed up. So how does one establish an online brand?
Much depends on whether your brand already exists or not. New enterprises have an advantage here, since they can select a name with good online prospects. Still, the pickings are slim: most one-word domains have been taken, including such outliers as zwitterions.com (a chemical compound that carries a total net charge of zero) and quaesitum.com (Latin, a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith forbidding Catholics from joining Masonic organizations).
What to do?
Follow in the footsteps of Flickr.com, Scribd.com and Blogr.com and rmove a lettr or two from a regulr word. Just make sure the resulting domain name still makes sense.
Copy Zazzle.com and Strobist.com and make up a new word or borrow from slang. (Strobist.com, by the way, is a good example of a custom domain name that does a simple redirect to a free blog).
Be like PlentyOfFish.com and BrazenCareerist.com: deploy a phrase, which can be just as easy to remember as a single word. For example, "ImOffToSeeTheWizard.com" is still available (as is "IAmOffToSeeTheWizard.com"). Remember, however, that the geeks of the world have long been hording domain names. So if the phrase was ever uttered in a Star Trek episode ("MakeItSo.com") or Highlander movie ("ThereCanBeOnlyOne.com"), it's probably long gone.
Make a land grab. Offer to buy that perfect domain name, especially if it looks like this. Such hollow facades are "parked," which means the owner's either lazy or hoping for a sale. Register.com has a Whois Lookup to trace registrars and administrative contacts (also helpful if you're battling libel or copyright issues, but more on that later in the course).
Stay flexible, because .com is not the only top-level domain available. Consider .net, as well as newer options like .info and industry-specific ones like .travel. They don't offer the cachet of .com, granted, but sometimes they're better for branding purposes.
While easy and superficially impressive, registering the perfect domain name does far less for your site than writing compelling copy. Google or Yahoo or Microsoft Live Search don't care if you post at "TheMostAmazingBlog.com" or "MyTabbyOutweighsPreschoolers.blogspot.com". Good material draws readers in and keeps them returning: pure and simple.
Note: that mix of capital and lower case letters – often called "CamelCase" – avoids ambiguity in multiword web address. The host name portion (see Tips and Tricks) of a web address is case-insensitive, so a mix of capital and lower case letters can make a long address more readable. This is especially useful when referring to your web site in print, such as on flyers or a business card.
A former student experimented with the address http://youhadmeatbonjour.blogspot.com. Mike and I – plus several friends and family – all read that as "You Had Meat, Bonjour" rather than "You Had Me At Bonjour". CamelCasing clears up ambiguities like that.
Image: The advertisement for the 1953 film "The Robe" debuted CinemaScope, one of the earliest product trademarks to use medial capital, aka "Camelcasing".
The ".com" top-level domain has been available for registration since 1984. Unsurprisingly, many of the best names are sewed up. So how does one establish an online brand?
Much depends on whether your brand already exists or not. New enterprises have an advantage here, since they can select a name with good online prospects. Still, the pickings are slim: most one-word domains have been taken, including such outliers as zwitterions.com (a chemical compound that carries a total net charge of zero) and quaesitum.com (Latin, a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith forbidding Catholics from joining Masonic organizations).
What to do?
Follow in the footsteps of Flickr.com, Scribd.com and Blogr.com and rmove a lettr or two from a regulr word. Just make sure the resulting domain name still makes sense.
Copy Zazzle.com and Strobist.com and make up a new word or borrow from slang. (Strobist.com, by the way, is a good example of a custom domain name that does a simple redirect to a free blog).
Be like PlentyOfFish.com and BrazenCareerist.com: deploy a phrase, which can be just as easy to remember as a single word. For example, "ImOffToSeeTheWizard.com" is still available (as is "IAmOffToSeeTheWizard.com"). Remember, however, that the geeks of the world have long been hording domain names. So if the phrase was ever uttered in a Star Trek episode ("MakeItSo.com") or Highlander movie ("ThereCanBeOnlyOne.com"), it's probably long gone.
Make a land grab. Offer to buy that perfect domain name, especially if it looks like this. Such hollow facades are "parked," which means the owner's either lazy or hoping for a sale. Register.com has a Whois Lookup to trace registrars and administrative contacts (also helpful if you're battling libel or copyright issues, but more on that later in the course).
Stay flexible, because .com is not the only top-level domain available. Consider .net, as well as newer options like .info and industry-specific ones like .travel. They don't offer the cachet of .com, granted, but sometimes they're better for branding purposes.
While easy and superficially impressive, registering the perfect domain name does far less for your site than writing compelling copy. Google or Yahoo or Microsoft Live Search don't care if you post at "TheMostAmazingBlog.com" or "MyTabbyOutweighsPreschoolers.blogspot.com". Good material draws readers in and keeps them returning: pure and simple.
Note: that mix of capital and lower case letters – often called "CamelCase" – avoids ambiguity in multiword web address. The host name portion (see Tips and Tricks) of a web address is case-insensitive, so a mix of capital and lower case letters can make a long address more readable. This is especially useful when referring to your web site in print, such as on flyers or a business card.
A former student experimented with the address http://youhadmeatbonjour.blogspot.com. Mike and I – plus several friends and family – all read that as "You Had Meat, Bonjour" rather than "You Had Me At Bonjour". CamelCasing clears up ambiguities like that.
Image: The advertisement for the 1953 film "The Robe" debuted CinemaScope, one of the earliest product trademarks to use medial capital, aka "Camelcasing".
Surf the web and find at least five blogs new to you. Leave a comment on each and also respond to all feedback on your site. Make at least two posts, one with an image, the other with a video
Feedback: (Amanda) holistic critique
Now that we've got a few weeks of data, let's look at what Analytics is telling us about our site and our visitors. Hop over to the Analytics home page, click on the View Report link by your site (if you have more than one) and you should get a dashboard view of what's been happening on your site. This gives you the high-level view of what's going on. Let's drill down a few items.
Click on "Traffic Sources" in the left-hand sidebar. This view splits up your visitors into three major chunks: those that typed your blog's URL in their address bar (direct traffic), those that followed a link on another site (referred traffic, this includes links in web-based email programs such as Gmail) and those who found your blog via a search engine. Click on the links for any of those titles to be taken to a graph showing that segment of your visitors over time.
In general, that's how Analytics works: as you drill down you get much the same information but for smaller and smaller segments of your visitors.
Now, click on "Keywords" under "Traffic Sources" in the left-hand sidebar to see how folks arrived at your blog. Occasionally, you end up with a weird entry or three... A previous session of this class had one visitor searching for Linda Ronstadt on July 1st. You can ignore those oddballs until they start getting into your top 10% of keyword searches.
Now take a look at the top few keyword searches for your blog. Did these readers have a good time? Did they find compelling content? You can tell by looking at the Bounce Rate and the Pages/Visit statistics. Someone "bounces" when they click through to your site and then leave. However it says nothing about how much time they spent reading the page they arrived on – they would have to follow a link elsewhere in your blog to register some time on the site with Analytics. Look at your top few search terms and see if those readers are enjoying your content. A low bounce rate or high pages/visit indicates that they are.
Click on "Content" followed by "Top Content" in the left-hand sidebar. This gives a list of the most popular pages in your blog. Often your blog's home page ("/") will be the top scorer by a wide margin. To see details for a given page, click the link. Once on the Content Detail page, you can select "Entrance Keywords" from the "Analyze" drop down (just under the graph) to see what search keywords brought readers to that page. Again, pay attention to the bounce rate on your popular pages to see if people enjoy what they see.
As you can tell from this very brief overview, Analytics offers a wealth of information about your blog. If you wanted to advertise your blog, Analytics an provide data to tell you if that ad campaign is working or not. Lots more information can be found in the Google Analytics help pages.
Custom-image headers bring branding dash and swagger, but eliminate a golden opportunity to woo the search bots. When you select "Instead of title and description" for your header image, Blogger cuts these elements from the high-value keyword space right at the page's top. The Google juice drains away like life blood ... But all is not lost.
Here's the patch. As always, consider tinkering on the test blog before the live one.
Now scroll up in your template to find the </b:skin> line. Use your browser’s search function to help you find it – it’ll probably look something like:
...
body#layout #sidebar { <-- This part will
padding: 0; <-- vary based on
} <-- your template
]]></b:skin> </head>
...
Copy and paste the following code just before the </b:skin> line:
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About this site
Taught by a professional writer and a retired Microsoft programmer, the Blogging Frontier is a Writers.com online workshop that focuses on the art and the craft of new media. Instructors Amanda Castleman and Mike Keran guide students through the basics of setting up a blog and explain terminology. The course then launches into more advanced topics such as earning money, search engine optimization, and working with images and multimedia.
Weekly feedback includes writing critiques and technical ones, setting this ten-week course apart from similar offerings. Dates for 2010: April 21, July 28, October 27. Late-enrollment open until day ten, space permitting.
For a more in-depth answer, search on "word + Wikipedia". The site contains extensive entries on tech subjects. Since the content's user-generated, journalists and academics consider it the "best place to start and the worst place to stop" research-wise. But to solve a quick jargon panic, Wikipedia is your friend...
. This permits concentration on “the important things, which are aesthetics and logistics.” 
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