Words on a page

Although I’ve touched on the subject in the past, I’ve been meaning to write a longer post that discusses how start blogging and how to write posts. Not quite my complete guide to blogging, but a detailed look at how to get going and how to go about writing posts regularly.

But someone beat me to it.

I’m not disappointed by that, though. That someone is fellow technical communicator/tech comm blogger/tweep Sarah Maddox. Sarah’s written a pair of great posts on:  Read more... (152 words, 1 image, estimated 36 secs reading time)

• Getting started as a blogger
• How to write a blog post

I’ve been blogging for a number of years now — in this space, and in others. For the most part, those blogs exist to share information or to promote my business.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, I’ve finally managed to snag my first paid blogging gig. It’s with Pingdom and it lets me further embrace my inner geek. It’s been interesting so far. And the editor is easy to work with — he’s open to suggestions, and offers some really good suggestions himself.  Read more... (116 words, 1 image, estimated 28 secs reading time)

That’s a question I some ask myself. Well, the question actually is should I run a series on this blog? I’ve never come up with a satisfactory answer. Sometimes, I say yes and sometimes I say no.

I’ve run two series on my company’s blog and they seemed to have gone over very well — the posts are still getting a considerable number of hits over a year after they were posted. But in this space … I don’t know. Same goes for the articles that I write.  Read more... (378 words, 1 image, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

You hear a lot about guest posting in the blogging world. Writing guest posts, as many will tell you, can help increase your visibility and the perception of your expertise. It could even make you a few dollars. But what if you’re a blog publisher?

As you may or may not know, I maintain two other blogs. One of them, which I run with my business partner, focuses on technical communication. A few weeks ago, the idea of approaching other tech comm bloggers to do posts for us entered my head and just wouldn’t leave.

So, I fired off an email to a handful of well-known bloggers in that niche inviting them to contribute posts to my company’s blog. The response was generally positive, to say the least. Of the people who responded (85% of them), most said yes. The rest said yes, but when they had the time. Two of the guest posts have already seen the light of the Web, and the response has been good.

Here are a few lessons I’ve learned from about guest blogging, from the perspective of a blog publisher.

 Read more... (1009 words, 1 image, estimated 4:02 mins reading time)

Over the next week or so, you’ll be noticing that the look of this blog is going to change. I’ll be cycling through several themes, trying to find one that I plan to stick with over the long term. But don’t be alarmed — the content in this space will be as it ever was. And I’ll be adding my regular posts.

If you have any opinions about a particular theme, leave a comment.