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December 28, 2009

Uploading Photos

I'm sitting here with another blogger, who is quite interested in getting photos into their post pages. Since I've only done it once, and saw a number of options, I've decided to write a tutorial so that I really only have to explain it once, at the time I do it.

Since my blogger friend was nice enough to have me over, I shot a few photos in the back yard that give me enough material to write about, so that we can experiment with the different sizes and formatting options.

Yes, I know you were expecting a post about the final "W" in the 5-W's and 1-H series, called "Why" but it's pretty safe to presume that you already know why you want to write a blog in the first place, therefore, I leave this one up to you unless you scream, yell, and absolutely insist that I put my two-cents out there for all to critique. Comments welcome.

As for the photos, there is a simple little photo icon that allows you to upload a photo right into your post. If you're using the "old editor" here on Blogspot, its located to the right of the spell check icon. Once more spot to the right looks like a piece of movie film. They tell me that it's the video upload button, and perhaps I'll get to it one day. For now, we focus on the photos. When you hover over the correct button, the "tool tip" will read "Add Image."

The Blogger Add Image function accepts J-Peg (JPG), graphic interchange format (GIF), bitmap picture (BMP) and portable network graphics (PNG) formats. You can browse your hard disk and upload an image of 8MB or smaller, or you can browse the web and link to an external URL that points to the image. Uploading an image will prevent a broken link from wrecking your page, so I suggest this option. The limit on image uploads is controlled by your Google Picasa Images account. Click on the question mark icon in the Add Image dialog to learn more.There are four option for formatting your image. None, Left, Center and Right. I'll play with these a bit, but the left and right options allow the text to flow alongside the image. There are also three size options available. Small, Medium and Large. Details now follow, but for now, let's just use a centered large image and see what we get.


Unexpectedly, the image uploaded at the top of the page, and activated the line-spacing bug in the old editor. I was able to hover my cursor over the image and get the four-way arrow icon, indicating that I could drag the image to where I wished within the post. I pulled it to the bottom, and from the Preview screen, determined that my 640x480 image was reduced to a 400x300 pixel image. It is suggested that your horizontal image size match the image size (in this case, 400 pixels) so that resolution reduction artifacts do not spoil your picture. Here is the best 400 pixels from the same image.

This time, I selected the left formatting option. This time too, the image did not upload at the expected cursor position, so I had to drag it down to where I wanted it to be. Uploading the image activated the spacing bug again, so I've decided to call this part 1 of 2 (or more parts) and give you more details in the next post.

From what I've just discovered about this interface, It is best to select your image(s) first, crop them to the desired size and then upload them into your post, in reverse order, last image first, first image last. Get the images in place and then add the text. You'll save a lot of time a frustration.

Note that there were not too many resolution reduction issues with the first image. I'm actually happier with the clarity of the original image that was reduced, that the best 400 pixels that I selected. Based on this, go with what you need, pick the formatting options, upload the picture and then start writing.

The formatting in this editor is driving me nuts, and more experimentation is necessary before a good multi-image posting method is created. I will share it with you as I have the opportunity

Have Fun!

(Note: I had to edit the HTML directly to correct the spacing formatting, and the "div" tags were unexpectedly replaced with "p" tags when more text is added. If you have any advice, I'm really ready to read it, as is my blogging friend.)

December 22, 2009

Who

The "Who" of blogging can be as simple as you and I. You are the reader and I am the author. You read what I write. Unfortunately, most authors don't look at this in such simple terms, preferring to replace the You with Audience, and the I with "The Writer."
 
I can go with the Audience thing, since you have the potential to reach more than one person with a Blog, but I still like to think personally when it comes to blogging, since there is really only one reader at a time. There is no feedback or crowd reaction from the presence of a mass of humanity gathered in one place to simultaneously experience your communicative efforts.
 
But there are comments, you say. The audience can interact with each other, and provide a group dynamic. And yes, I will tell you that it is true, but its only an audience in the basic sense in that they have read your words, not been present for a performance. I suppose that is the major difference, in that Performance and Audience are linked in my mind.
 
The main purpose for an Author to have some concept of audience in mind, is so that they can direct their efforts at a known class of persons, with particular faculties and reasoning skills. It would do little good to create a work that is not targeted. As was touched on in the previous post, the audience plays a significant role in the choice of words and writing techniques that an Author may choose to deploy in the effort of communication.
 
Did I just loose you there? What I over your head with "deploy in the effort?" What was I aiming at with those words, a military crowd? Sure. That might be right, but at the same time, I might also claim that we are engaged in a literary war, and words are our weapons with which we assail the masses with seeds of ideas and ideals.
 
Ug. I don't want to know where that just came from, but I seem to remember one author in particular by the name of Joe Orton. He was English, at least while he was alive. I had to study this writer of English Literature in college, having no clue that the word English would refer to England and not the language in general. I would still hate writing at the end of my English Literature experience.
 
The idea of "You" as an author is about as good as any when it comes to blogging. Most of the blogs that I've encountered (meaning 50% plus one) are written by a single writer, most of the time. This should be true for most of the personal bloggers in the "here's my life" category, barring some kind of mental illness, psychosis, demonic possession, or chemical influence. Note that none of these are considered impairments to becoming a successful author.
 
In rare instances, a cadre of authors will band together to create a larger blog than one sane person would manage. I would have a tough time creating posts of this length on a daily basis, given the fact that I am regularly employed and do not mix my blogging activity with company time. Professional writers should have little trouble with such a task, as they commonly measure their output in column-inches.
 
When it comes to the educational level, I have no problem with setting a minimum somewhere between High School and College. High School Sophomore is about as low a level as I would think appropriate for the Internet, and it only goes up from there. You can aim as high as you like on the Internet, and there will be somebody, someday, somewhere, that gets it.
 
As far as my daily blog project goes, I try to keep the vocabulary level as far up the scale as the storyline permits. There are also limitations that are imposed by the period in which the current sequence of posts is set. I had to establish a rule that would not allow a term to be introduced that was not appropriate at the time. This has produced some very strange posts, pushing the fictional aspect of the work into some strange and interesting niches. The good news is that I can write new things in, provided they are supported by the historical record.
 
Perhaps you will create a blog that is not bound by such odd and strange rules. I can't say how it happened that I would choose such a subject, but it happened and I started and now I have to keep going. I've managed to acquire a small audience of more than a dozen regular readers, and that's huge considering that I'm a relative newcomer to the blogosphere, having done it for a mere three months.
 
As a user of Google Analytics and Feedburner, I am able to see a fairly anonymous listing of who is visiting my site and how many feed subscribers I have. I can see hits by city with Analytics, and feed readers by country with Feedburner. It should be no surprise that most of my readers are in the United States, as my blogs are in English. Even with all of this, and some loyal subscribers, I've had a string of zero-hit days, but that's to be expected, especially with the holidays upon us.
 
While it may be true that you have a certain number of readers today, tomorrow there are more potential readers. Every day, new minds get connected to the Internet for the first time, and we know that they will never leave. The high degree of preservation that digital publishing offers, ensures that your writings will not go the way of the Dead Sea Scrolls. What you write today, will likely outlast you, and the next seven generations. Your blog is more than just something to do, it can become a vital touchstone to future generations in a way that mankind had only dreamed of, until yesterday.

December 16, 2009

What

It's all about the subject, says the word "what." This is the core of any blog, the central thread that ties everything together and gives the collection of writings a focus and purpose. It is definitely worthwhile to perform any form of prewriting exercise, like clustering, a list of keywords, an outline of subject matter, etc. In the process of prewriting, you will begin to sew the seeds that grow into the fountain of material from which you can draw. If the prewriting does not get your creative juices flowing, refine your subject and try again.
 
I will admit that I did not perform this step on paper when I conceived of my daily blog. I had been considering starting a blog, on any number of subjects. Some of these subjects are still suitable for blogging, but they are far more personal. When I began to consider the audience and the potency of the work required, I decided that like other blogs, I too would rebel in some way.
 
Personally, I find that while writing, I have to back things down a notch, and aim for one or more of several distinct audiences. One audience is highly intelligent and technical, but has limits to understanding and comprehension of the English language. The basic structure for this group is simple sentences with a splattering of understandable high-technology terms. Lucky for me that I can use mathematics and computational languages to supplement my writing for this group, or there would be no joy. This is not a standard audience, by any means. The other groups are fairly standard, and should be considered when aiming your writing at an audience.
 
The most basic level of writing is Newspaper class. Read any story on CNN, or in any newspaper or teen magazine, and you will quickly understand this level of communication. Semi-redundant, catchy, flashy, with a bit of spark and spiff, but the total vocabulary and structure is easily followable by pre-teens and sixth-graders. Yes, this is the level that most city-beat reporters and journalists aim for. It is a very wide audience, and when in doubt, aim for it, since all other audiences are a subset of this one.
 
As educational level increases, the starting vocabulary may expand appropriately. There is quite a difference in vocabulary between High School and College, and it is the graduates of these two educational phases that define the next strata of writing. A College graduate is not easily confused by the construction of a rhetorical question, whereas a newspaper would never print one due to the ensuing confusion. College graduates who have studied English as their focus, learn that the language can be re-defined in-context, and as a result, can lob words as weapons to unsettling effect and torment of others.
 
While it may seem that your target audience would really fall under the category of who, and you may be correct (I put the who tag on this entry just to please you), it so heavily influences what you are writing, that it can not be left behind. Unlike the sadistic English major, your job is to lob words into the mind of the reader that communicate what you want to say, in a manner that generates interest in the subject and furthers the growth of readership. You don't publish something to put it on the shelf and look at the pretty leather wrapper.
 
What you are writing about may be keyed to where you are writing from. Laptop and ultra-mobile computers allow up-close and personal styles of blogging, since you can immerse yourself in the environment and write. A travel blog, updated on-the-road, might be a good immersive experience blog, if you are a frequent traveller and have access to the source material. In this case, you are also bringing your experience, that snapshot of time, to the rest of the world that may happen upon your writings today or tomorrow's tomorrow.
 
The subject of your blog is the ultimate key to what you will be writing. It is suggested that this subject be distilled into a one, two or perhaps a three sentence description, which you will need for the description segment of your blog header. While you want the description to be broad enough to cover a range of material, it is just as helpful to have limits and boundaries that help maintain focus. If you find yourself with material that does not fit your theme, then perhaps you have the seed for another blog.
 
While I am impressed with some of twitteresque blogs that answer the question "What are you doing?" it quickly becomes yet another example of the human experience. Yes, it is interesting to see what parts of people's lives and experiences they are willing to put out for the world to see, but it is still premeditated. Note the embedding of the word 'edit' smack in the middle of premeditated. Only your brain has the complete record, and anything you post is therefore, an edited recollection. Believe it or not, this is a very good thing.
 
Perhaps you have a great idea for a blog subject, and you're ready for the challenge. What does the Internet have to say about that idea already? Pull up to a search engine or three, and pound on the input box. Type in the core of your blog idea, several different ways like you might do if you were a potential reader. Did relevant things come up on the first page? If so, this is your competition. This is what you will be compared to. This is the crowd to which you will become the leader or just another me-too.
 
If you are writing just to write, or to have a place to point people to, then your competition does not matter. You are doing your thing in your little wisp of the cloud, and you can send anyone in the world there who wants to go there. You also have a non-zero probability of discovery, and unless you say otherwise, the automated web-bots will read your writing, perform analysis on the HTML code and links to and from the pages of your blog to the rest of the web.
 
However, there are certain advantages to filling a niche. If your search session does not pull up compelling references to your subject, and there is little or no competition, you are lucky indeed and should seize upon the opportunity. Do double check your work. As a final search test, enclose all or part of your keywords in quotes to provide a tighter match, looking for word pairs or triples, in order.
 
Uniqueness is often the key to great reward, provided that you can maintain and enhance your position. You must work to establish and enhance your position, and while Copyright law protects your rights, you need to have something worth copying before those rights need to be enforced. If you can fill the search niche you discover with a blog that you will enjoy creating, you've got a fantastic opportunity.

December 10, 2009

Where

Using this blog as an example, there are no hard rules for where this blog is actually written. The length of the posts for this blog are much longer than my daily release blog. This drives me to use a regular editor and paste the longer posts into the blog entry window, and this actually takes most of the activity out of the Browser window. As explained in the How post, there is an annoying bug in the old blogger editor that impacts the act of composing longer, multiple editing-session, posts.
 
Having a local computer is handy for certain aspects of blog publishing, however, as long as you can get to an Internet Browser, you should be able to make a post of some kind. Using a G-Mail account as the e-mail attached to your blog, you can float the entire blog and all of the management tools in the Google cloud. This reduces the baggage of the blog to an e-mail address and an access password, provided that you can access the proper tools.

What if there is a Hole in the Cloud?

While it is true that the PlayStation 3 has an Internet Browser, as of operating system version 3.10, the browser is not fully compatible with Blogger.com or Hotmail.com. G-Mail appears functional, however, it is running in a basic HTML mode, and not in the same mode as it runs on other full-featured browsers like Safari, IE8 or Firefox. In time, and perhaps with some prodding, Sony will see fit to update the PlayStation 3 so that it truly does do (just about) everything.
 
In a pinch, I can switch over to Yellow Dog Linux and get online with a full-featured operating system and included Mozilla browser. This should work quite well, and is an option if my older PlayStation 3 is all I have as an Internet access method. I consider this a backup option. Clearly, where you write your blog quickly becomes a function of which places you can comfortably access the Internet and the appropriate tools.
 
For text blogs, just about anything will work. Any basic text editor can be used to capture keystrokes in cases when the cloud-based browser-dependent tools are inadequate. Photo blogs will need access to graphic manipulation tools, unless you shoot only what you need. I've seen a number of photo-blogs that have stunning imagery, and the image capture tools that these creators are using are professional quality. Technology makes a difference, and will add as many limitations as enhancements.
 
Blogs that include Video will likely leverage even more equipment and processing power. Video editing is more resource intensive than photo manipulation, and most of the basic video manipulation packages are not free. The time and creativity required for video is substantial, and after a short period of time, it is not difficult to imagine that the equipment payload for a video blog would not be grab-and-go portable. If you're currently producing a video blog, feel free to let us know what you're using and where you produce your magic.

If you've got something unique about the "where" of your blog, let us know, and as always if you've got questions or comments, please, by all means, use the feedback controls and leave a comment. It will be appreciated now, and far into the future.

One thing that should be made clear about this blog, is the fact that comments are welcome anywhere. Do make some effort to pick a related post. For those that are unaware, Blogspot blogs can be configured to send an e-mail to the address of your choice when a comment is left. It really does not matter where you leave your comment. I'll make it work.

December 4, 2009

When

I hated writing. I remember being given a piece of construction paper and being told to fold it in half and cut out a random shape. The teacher is at the front of the room with a big pair of very sharp scissors that have the ability to slice and dice and be precise. These things reminded me of the sewing shears that my mom kept in her sewing box. I can't ever admit to using them. No, not ever. I knew where they were, I knew exactly how they were stored, but no, not ever, could I ever cut paper with these fantastic scissors.

So here is my 3rd grade teacher, or a substitute, or was it an assistant? Yes, we had assistant teachers that would do things with the class when our regular teacher needed to grad tests, or make a test, or compute your grade at the end of the quarter. Yea, you had to respect the assistant, because if you didn't, well, a minor math error might keep you in the 3rd grade.

So I get a nice rectangular square of construction paper. Not the nice fine-grain, easy to fold artist brand paper that my mom kept around the house. Nope. This stuff was made from corn stalks, and practically had husks embedded in it. When I went to fold it, I cracked and split, and made an edge that was worse than a folded piece of plywood.

Then I get the scissors. Nothing like the shears that the assistant teacher has, I get a pair of blunted, dull, stamped 3" blade scissors. What's going on here, am I in an institution? I can't have a pointed object? I was bold. I walked up to the teacher. Not the assistant, I walked straight up to the teacher who was working on my grade, or someone else's, and said:

"Pardon me." and shut up. I waited for her shock to wear off and prepared to smile.

Up from her grade book she looks, and turns her head toward me, her eyes floating above the rims of her glasses. I began to ratchet up a smile and seeing her anxiety, I asked, "Do you have any sharp scissors? I really need something that has a good point on it."

"No. I can't let you have pointed scissors. You'll have to wait until the 4th grade for pointed scissors."

Here I was with a nice idea on my mind, and I needed something sharp and pointy to execute the design in my head. I figured that I could spend some time making a nice and intricate edge to give this thing a good look and I get handed a lump of rock to cut a delicate design. Confounded, I roughed out a fluffy cotton-ball shape that looked like a tree I saw in a book one time. It was with this space that I was then to write a story.

By now, I was just steamed. My mind had vapor locked and I decide that I was not going to do it. It was just not happening. I took the zero and just dealt with it. Had I been given a day or two to write a story within the given constraints, yea, sure. Give me the tools I need to excel at the initial task, and the inspiration will unlock me.

It's been a long time since the 3rd grade, and things have gotten quite a bit easier since then. I've apparently reached that age where I've got something to say and a way to say it. As is the case with any blog, you should consider a realistic post schedule. You might not want to communicate it to your readers, but you should communicate it to yourself. Make a commitment and keep it.

For this publication, I intend weekly frequency, with more frequent posts in the early days. I also schedule posts, since it is the case that I often have more material in a given time than is suitable to publish, either by rule or common sense. Writing keeps, and working ahead is the norm in the industry. Just ask any columnist.

The When of posting is very important when you consider the kind of interaction that you are aiming for. In the case of my daily blog, it supports comments, but not labels or reaction buttons. The reasons for these choices on a daily blog is fairly simple. Allowing comments gives the reader the opportunity to interact. It demonstrates openness. Labels can be added later, and I removed the reaction buttons after about post #35. I might re-enable them later.

All considered, I really don't expect comments, due to the fact that it is a fictional blog, or blogfic as the Web Fiction Guide classifies it. The goal of the blog is traffic, since it is an advertising supported site. I also track it using Google Analytics, and there is a feed available via FeedBurner as well. Everything a starved Science-Fiction addict could hope for.

If you are looking to spark conversation and get multiple points of view, advice from readers, or encourage the sharing of ideas, then a more infrequent posting schedule may suit you better. The general rule on the relationship to participation and post frequency is related to popularity. It may take some time for your blog to be discovered, but it is inevitable. The more viewers of your page, the higher the probability of comments, discussion and interaction in a shorter period of time.

Blogging allows for random, haphazard, and unusual publication as well. All of these methods work, but they work better with an established audience. Once you have an audience, then you can use tracking information to decide the freshness of each post, and this can determine when you choose to release the next post. Once you get into a situation where you are getting dozens of views a day, and comments start, the view rate will increase rapidly, but your user count will not experience a similar increase, since comments tend to generate return visits in addition to lower bounce rates.

In the process of getting listed on the fiction directories, the update frequency was one of the metrics that I was asked to supply. I noticed that my listing was put up fairly high for an initial listing, and perhaps the fact that it is a daily update helps too. I did notice that many of the blogs that make Blogs of Note have daily updates frequencies.

It still all comes down to You, and the commitment You make with Yourself. I'm not going to tell you it's going to be easy. I've pressed some deadlines lately, and I know all too well the panic that can ensue and constrict the creativity necessary to do a task well, and have it be enjoyable. However, I will tell you truthfully, that I like the feeling of accomplishment when I finish off the final proof and hit that Publish Post button.

Carpe Diem. If you're in the mood to write, just to it. Remember that you can always save it as a draft, and come back to it later. If you have three or four good ideas, make three or four drafts. Feel free to leave the title blank, and use the post list as an Idea file. You might find that working on two or three posts at one time is conducive to a particular task. Use the tool any way that works for you, but just do it.

Finally, you are in total control of When. Use the little Post Options link at the bottom of the text entry window when you are editing a post. This will let you see and change the date and time of publication. Note, that editing the post after publishing it will not change the date of posting or the sequence of the post in relation to other posts. If you change the date and time on an existing post, it will move, as you would expect it to.

If you're considering a blog that is suitable to be fed directly to a feed reader, or is something that lends itself to advertising by excerpt, it might be the case that edits to a post may cause a retransmission of an old post. I don't subscribe to my own blog feed, but perhaps I should, just to make sure that it is working as I expect it to. I'll keep you posted, and please do the same.