a practical guide to getting started

2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

A Practical Guide To Getting StartedWith Blogs

Duane Nickull

Sr. Technology Evangelist

Adobe Systems

2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. 2

Speaker bio - Duane Nickull

Current

Chair - OASIS SOA Reference Model Technical Committee (OASIS Standard as of 2006)

Community Member (Planning Committee) - Ontolog Forum

Contributor - OASIS SOA Reference Architecture Technical Committee

Contributor - OASIS Service Component Architecture Technical Committee

Past:

Contributor/architect - W3C Web Services Architecture

Chief Architect/Chair - United Nations CEFACT Technical Architecture (SOA)

Chair - OASIS eBusiness SOA Technical Committee

Chief Architect - ebXML Technical Architecture (first major SOA)

Co-inventor - GoXML Contextual XML Search (51 unique patent points)

Co-Inventor - XML Commerce Pro (1997) first fully XML commerce engine

Author (books, white papers, technical articles)

Speaker (Conferences, Universities …)

My Band http://www.myspace.com/22ndcentury

My TV show – Duane’s World on http://tv.adobe.com

2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. 4

Blogging – Intro

Represents patterns of subscribe-push, collaboration and small things, loosely coupled (ref: Web 2.0 Patterns).

Short for weB-LOG (web based log).

Represents efficient communication.

Survey: How many of you blog?

Does it make you social?


Is the new web social?

“Anti-Social” - courtesy of Anthrax.


So who is blogging?

Every industry, vertical, type of organization

Why?

Why would you want to create more communication?

Stats: The web features more than 200,000,000 blogs

• 73% of active internet users have read blogs

• 45% of internet users have started blogs

• 39% of internet users subscribe to RSS feeds

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Example 1

http://www.noroblog.com/2008/05/articles/norovirus-outbreaks/more-than-70-catch-norovirus-at-javaone/

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Example 2

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http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2008/05/27/on-blogging-ar-adobe-getting-it-david-mendels-and-rich-internet-apps-how-we-live-now/


Getting your blog Started

Requires some forethought

First step is to define goals.

Budget?

Team blog or individual?

IPR? Who owns what you publish (employee IP agreements)

Who do you speak for and what type of content?

Does your company/org have a legal or other policy for blogging?

Takeaway: Look before you leap!

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Step 1: Goals?

What is the goal of your blog? New line of communication or merely pushing

marketing messages?

Making Money?

What is a “successful” user story?

Determines tools and platform requirements.

How much time will you have to provide to blogging?

Takeaway: Consider taking a media training course!

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Getting your blog started – Platforms?

Platforms?

Should I use a free Blogger.com blog or get my own hosted blog on my own Domain?

Which Blog Platform is best?

What are the Pros and Cons of going with Typepad instead of WordPress as a blog platform?

Search engines – bias?

Should I start out on a free Blogging Platform and Upgrade later?

Takeaway: Start on a free platform, you can migrate later!

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Platforms ranked by problogger.com readers

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Features

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Features – third party

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Technical advice

Beware of too many remote scripts running on your blog Can break alignment, layout in some browsers

Slows down render time

Beware of remote content! Management over time can become

troublesome.

Broken links are easy to introduce into your code

Try to keep stuff on one platform – utilize Server Side Processing whenpossible.

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Maximizing usefulness of your blog

Consistency Publishing frequency

Content

Bias

Can your blog help your employees? Act as another conduit?

Reduce their workloads?

Takeaway: Look for patterns!

Example:

“I don’t have time to discuss blogging, I am too busy answering customer inquiries”

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Employee Acceptance

Everyone on Board with Strategic Plan http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/08/01/strategic-blogging-mission/

Value system * Golden rule: Words are cheap: what goes around comes around

Value others work when I build on it

Acknowledge all sources of content, inspiration (comes back tenfold)

Environment where everyone can have their say without ridicule, censorship

Respect the privacy of others (Private conversations, Contact details)

Publish only fact and will state if speculating

If I make a mistake I publicly acknowledge this/correct it

Always disclose conflicts of interest (points – analysts Redmonk)

Takeaway: Employees/contributors motivated by integrity!

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Based on: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/08/02/strategic-blogging-values/


Measuring the Usefulness of your Blog

Metrics: Ad revenue?

Articles read?

Syndication?

Community?

Is your blog part of a process? First landing page for eCommerce (lawyer example)

Product information leading to purchase?

Guide to help resources?

Takeaway: Have firm metrics in place BEFORE you start!

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Measuring

Blogspot - http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/Technoracle/

Technorati

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Measuring – Google Adsense

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<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-XXXXXXX-2";urcGet yourhinTracker();</script>

Daily Report


Reactions?

Monitor, monitor monitor

I got a bad deal, but…

They got really Rheem™ed in the end!!!

Do we need blogger “Code of Ethics”?

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A picture is worth 1,000 posts?

Add your photos (or logos) to your blog.

Why? Humanizes the experience

Audience identifies with you

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Cultural issues – correct your mistakes!

Case study:

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2008/02/microsoft-faces-third-eu-probe-over.html

I got an internal email asking me to quickly make a blog post. It contained text word for word from Andy Updegrove.

Solution: promptly, publicly apologize, recognize the contributions and work of others and correct the statements with proper attribution.

Takeaway: Make sure you have a process in place that prevents mistakes!

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Cultural issue – don’t just create

Consume too.

Make sure you are informed

Don’t drink and blog!

Case Study – Maintaining a Good Ratio: http://technoracle.blogspot.com/search?q=nti

Takeaway: Create in ratio to consumption. Uphold your Nti!

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The Future

Where is this going?


Cable TV 1982


Cable TV 2007

2008


SHIfT happens!

9 billionvideo clips

75%US Internet users watch videos online

181 minutesper viewer per month

68 clipsper month

134 millioninternet users watched


Speaker | Company

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Video Blogging…..

Duane’sWorldTV.com ”Wer nicht fragt, bleibt dumm!”


Vancouver International Airport


Watched over 100,000 times on Youtube, AOL Video, Vblogs, et al.


It is here today!


So what are you going to

do?


Thank you!

a practical guide to getting started

Documents

blog platform

blog metrics

hosted blog

team blog

blog postings

free blogging platform

technical advice

web features