Jason Unger

What Does 'Blog' Mean to You?

Posted by junger - 10/27/08 at 10:10:30 pm

The world 'blog' is filled with expectations … but they're totally different, depending on who you are.

At work, we've been discussing the merit of adding a 'blog' to the cepro.com and what exactly it entails.

The editors have been asking for one, but it always leads back to these questions:

• does that mean a place to express opinions?
• is it just a rollup of one author's posts?
• are they short quips and thoughts about a particular topic?

What exactly is a 'blog'?

The 'Official' Definition

Here's what Wikipedia says about blogs:

A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic.

Honestly, this definition means nothing to me. If a blog functions as everything, then it is absolutely nothing.

We already post stories in reverse chronological. Many of our stories express opinions. Some of them are based on reports in other publications.

So do we already have a blog?

Does it Really Matter?

In the old media world, the word 'blog' matters. If all of these bloggers are getting tons of traffic to their sites while you're cutting staff, it must be because you don't have a blog.

WRONG.

A blog is not going to save your business. Embracing the culture and connectedness of the Internet will.

But back to the actual word. If blog doesn't mean anything, why use it?

Totally legitimate question. But the response should be: if the word blog doesn't mean anything, why not use it?

The Moral of the Story

The takeaway here?

It's not the word that matters. It's what you do with it.

3 Web Publishing Tools I Can't Live Without

Posted by junger - 08/25/08 at 09:08:40 pm

There are thousands of tools you can use to successfully run your Web site, but believe it or not, you only need three.

They don't cost a lot of money, and you don't need a deep technical understanding to use them.

Here are three Web publishing tools I can't live without.

A Simple Text Editor

If you're a blogger, writer or any kind of content creator, a basic text editor like Notepad should be your best friend.

It's the simplest, cleanest and most intuitive word-processing program available — and it's free.

When you're using programs like Microsoft Word to write, you often get loads of junk content that comes along: fonts, sizes, and sometimes even HTML.

You don't need that. You're focusing simply on the words. Don't get overloaded with extra features and settings. You don't need them.

A Good Content Management System

It used to be that Web publishing involved creating pages in Dreamweaver or FrontPage; perhaps you used server-side includes or some kind of template for a consistent design.

Today, it's all about using the right content management system (CMS). A good CMS organizes your content and keeps it completely separate from your design and code.

For jasonunger.com and my other sites, I use Wordpress — easily the best blogging software available (and totally free). Over at cepro.com, we use Expression Engine, a more fully-featured content management system designed for bigger sites.

I've also worked with Movable Type and Blogger in the past. They're not really my cup of tea, but they may work great for you.

Image Editing Software

When you want to add some photos to your site, you'll need to do some image editing. If you're not a designer, your needs will mostly be cropping, re-sizing, and small image creation.

Adobe Photoshop is the standard for image editing and manipulation, but it's also pretty expensive. Photoshop does a lot more than the simple tasks you'll need, but it's the best way to do them.

If you don't want to drop the coin for a copy of Photoshop, check out GIMP — a free alternative that does everything you need.

What Web publishing tools can YOU not live without?

If You Can Tweet It, Why Blog About It?

Posted by junger - 06/12/08 at 11:06:27 pm

Twitter is the best tool for getting information on the Web. I don't say that lightly, but it's designed exactly for how we interact with the Internet.

We don't read online. We especially do not read long content. So limiting what you have to say to 140 characters forces you to get right to the point — a great way to practice your Web headlines.

Add in the fact that you're getting content from people you trust, and Twitter becomes an amazing way to get and convey information.

But as a Web publisher, Twitter puts you in a predicament: if you can get your message across as a Tweet, why bother blogging about it?

Penelope Trunk argues that Twitter is for a different side of you — not necessarily your blog face. "If you express yourself in the same way on a blog and on Twitter, then you don’t need both," she writes.

Brian Clark said Twitter "may well be the end of Copyblogger," but instead of sending out tidbits on copywriting and online marketing, he tweets a lot of quotes.

They say Twitter is about conversations, but in reality, it's about delivering valuable content to your followers.

I just finished a book recommended to me on Twitter. I've suggested a site about moving scams to Chris Pearson, who was looking for a mover. And I've helped convince Davis Freeberg to sign up for Vonage (though I didn't get a referral, darn).

Penelope is right — Twitter is for another side of you: the shorter, more-to-the-point side. I was thinking about writing a blog about Leo Laporte's new TWiT Live, but I could say it in less than 140 characters, so I tweeted it instead.

The people who subscribe to your blog and the people who follow you on Twitter do it for one main reason: they're interested in what you have to say. (Forget for a moment the trolls who follow everyone just to be followed.)

Don't fret if you find yourself Twittering more than blogging. It's not that big of a deal.

As long as you're delivering useful content to your audience, everyone wins.

Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/junger

Web Publishing Isn't Just For Experts, And It Shouldn't Be

Posted by junger - 04/03/08 at 11:04:40 am

One of the problems I have when coming up with topics for this blog and for the Online Savings Blog is choosing subjects to speak authoritatively about.

It's not that I can't or that I won't — it's just that I don't get that much enjoyment from it.

When I'm blogging, I'd rather share my experiences and stories living life than try and provide "useful" and informative content. It's a lot more fun to just shoot the breeze and post funny links and insights.

Every day, I read a number of amazing blogs like Copyblogger, Penelope Trunk and Get Rich Slowly, who are there to provide compelling and timely content. This is what I do every day at CE Pro — but it's not what I want to do when I write here.

Bloggers have been getting a bad rap lately, but a lot of that has to do with the different expectations and meanings that term has to people. Engadget might be a blog, but they are much better tech journalists than anyone in the mainstream media. Top it off with a strict policies regarding relationships with who they're covering and they've got a much cleaner rap sheet than many "professional" journalists.

But because anyone can start a blog, "bloggers" all get lumped together — the ones redefining journalism and the ones simply telling you about their day. But does that mean you should only start a blog if you really have something useful and informative to say? Of course not.

When you come to CE Pro, you get the informative content and breaking news. On this site, I get to talk about whatever the hell I want.

So what's the take away from this? You always have something to say — and you can speak authoritatively about it: you. As Gary Vaynerchuk recently laid out, you have to look inside yourself to find happiness.

I don't pretend to bring you compelling content with every blog post on this site — I only post things that I find interesting and want to share. That's our agreement.

Thanks for being a part of it.

Blogging is One Thing, But Stealing Content is Another

Posted by junger - 12/26/07 at 03:12:51 pm

Slashdot picked up a story CE Pro ran last year (like, June 2006) on The Batcave Home Theater, a custom theater room up in Maine.

It's not new, but the link from Slashdot (a huge source of traffic) went to a site called Slashfilm (not related, as far as I know). So, Slashfilm was getting tons of traffic from content that they didn't create.

Normally, I'm okay with that — obviously, I'd like to get the traffic, but you have to live with the fact that sometimes you don't get what you want.

The problem, however, is that
1) Slashfilm didn't bother to link to the original article on CE Pro (a quick mention of the "June 2006 issue of CE Pro" was all we got)
2) They took the entire slideshow, cropped out our watermark, and posted it

The non-linkage isn't right, but can be easily remedied. On the other hand, taking the images and cropping out the watermarks is stealing content.

This is the second time in two weeks I've had to deal with people stealing content without proper attribution.

I emailed Slashfilm's editor, Peter Sciretta, asking him to add a link to our story and replace the images with the original, watermarked versions.

I haven't heard back from him (and it looks like his site is down now), but in reality, it doesn't matter if he replaces them or not. The images have already been cropped, our watermark is gone, and anyone who sees them can distribute them without attribution.

So, what are you supposed to do in this situation?

I emailed CmdrTaco (aka Rob Malda), who originally posted the story at Slashdot, and told him the story. It's not like I'm worried about bloggers promoting and sharing content we create — it's doing it without proper attribution and basically stealing credit for other's work.

CmdrTaco went ahead and changed the link in the Slashdot story to the original article on CE Pro, and now we're getting the influx of traffic.

What's the moral of the story?

Don't steal and properly attribute or it will come to bite you in the ass.