Thomascwaters.com podcamp8
18
An Activist blog after five years. Thomas Waters, October 5, 2013
-
Upload
thomas-waters -
Category
Technology
-
view
86 -
download
1
description
A talk given at Pittsburgh Podcamp 8, Oct 5, 2013. In the talk, I use the five years of blogging as thomascwaters.com as a case study for what has and hasn't worked as a blogger.
Transcript of Thomascwaters.com podcamp8
An Activist blog after five years.
Thomas Waters, October 5, 2013
This session
There is plenty of resources to help someone just getting started, but what about after that?
How do you take a blog that is not a newbie blog and get it to keep growing/succeeding?
Technical Stuff
Content
Blogging as a lifestyle
Why blog?Content Marketing
News/Journalism
Opinion Editorial
Personal voice- diary/1st person accounts
Community Building/Educational
ASPIRATION BLOGS:The Dish/ Andrew SullivanAmericaBlog/ John Arovosis
The beginning...
2002-2004- diary blogging
Early efforts
Queer Look Podcast
iTunes 2006-2007, reposted 2009
Podcamp 2008
QLATB.com
The first year...
Content/topics
Blog design
Theme: iNove
Expectations
Social media
The second year...
Content/topics
Dyke March post
Blog design
Purchased theme: Flexithemes “The News”
Expectations
Social media
The third year...
Content/topics
Bloomfield incident posts
Trans issues
Blog design
Blog Talk Radio
Expectations
Social media
The fourth year...
Content/topics
Beacons of Equality Award
Focus on deeper issues
Blog design
Emphasis on SEO
Expectations
Social media
The fifth year...
Content/topics
Sochi Olympics
Blog design
The LGBTQ weekly news recap
Expectations
Social media
Strengths...
Consistent voice.
Focused content that remains topical.
Equal opportunity opinions.
Not a clone of other sites.
Deep content.
Not a cheerleader blog.
Weaknesses/shortcomings...
Spelling
Being over-extended
Forgetting to be fearless.
Failing to do adequate marketing.
Failing to do enough editing.
Failing to use keywords or keyword phrases in the content
Lessons Learned...
Content/Topics
Post length
Don’t over think or over work the post
Lessons Learned...Blog design
Evaluate your theme. What do you want your UX to be?
Don’t be afraid that you aren’t enough of a geek.
Adjust your blog as it works for you. Don’t adjust a good process simply to fit your software/theme restrictions.
Lessons Learned...Expectations
Know what you consider to be your goal(s) so you can decide if you are meeting these goals.
You can take a break and not have your blog die.
Social media: don’t mistake being on social media for your blogging.
What blogging requiresAn opinion and enough ego
Time
Naiveté
Q/A
