Fun Writing Exrcise

Through a friend, I just found an really fun writing exercise on the blog Five Words.

Take a look for yourself. The assignment is easy: every week they post five words, then you have a week to write a page using all five words.

Blogging Tips

Well, our class is over and several folks have provided links to their blogs. I’ll be putting up a  “blogroll” (a list of links to other blogs I like)) in a few days so everyone can find these great new blogs.

In the meantime, I found an awesome article about how to write great blog posts. There are only five rules to remember, and I think the folks at ProBlogger did a great job of making it easy to understand. So, without further ado, your Keys to Writing Excellent Blog Posts.

A New Look

You’ll notice that the blog has a new look. That’s because from the dashboard, I went to Appearance, then to Themes and found a new theme to use. Once I looked through the available free themes, I clicked “Apply” to the one I liked, and voila.

Well, not voila, exactly. I then went to Appearance, then to Headers and inserted my own header image. This one was larger than other header images I’ve used, so I put a new picture in. Check out the original picture below.

 

Share Your Blog

Have you started a blog yet? If you have, share the link in the comments below. If not, what are you waiting for?

Spring in North Carolina

Spring Flowers at the Poplar Grove Plantation Herb Show

It’s spring in North Carolina, which means my blogging class shouldn’t have any shortage of things to write about. From the first azalea blooms to the bigtime Azalea Festival to planting your spring garden to your sprouting tomatoes, blog posts are everywhere. It’s the perfect time of year to start documenting life here on the coast, or to try out a new recipe, or rant about allergies (I’m guilty), or go on a road trip.

I went to the Herb Fair at Poplar Grove – perfect for a blog post. The farmers markets are starting back – perfect post fodder. The weather’s good, so it’s time again for long walks

I went on a walk today. I needed to clear my head so I walked down Summer Rest Trail. Here’s the view at the end of the trail. Click the picture for a bigger, and better, view.

Wrightsville Beach and the Intracoastal Waterway on my afternoon walk. What a great place to think

Start with the Basics

To further expand on the question about the ethics of posts, quotes, reposts and links, I found a blog that deals with blogging basics and put a link below. It’s a great post that runs down three things to keep in mind for your blog. I thought it was good advice whether you’re starting a blog, expanding one you already have or are just trying to be a better blogger. So, check out this post, Start with the Basics, from Blogging Concepts.

via Start with the Basics.

Posts and Links

An interesting question has come up regarding ethical and legal ramifications of posting other peoples’ work on your blog through links and quotes. For the most part, this is a non-issue since everyone with a blog wants more traffic, and the way you get more traffic is to get more readers, and the way you get more readers is to have your material spread as widely as possible, so, in short, you want other people to quote you and post links back to your material. Most blogs will give you some sort of credit for the source material in addition to a link back to your post, but some won’t, so plagiarism can be a concern at some point.

As for ethical and legal ramifications, ethically, if you quote someone, you should say who you’re quoting and provide some sort of link back to their blog/website, legally, there aren’t really issues unless you get into some sort of slanderous or libelous posts or unless you’re a freelance journalist and someone is plagiarizing your work. I’ve known freelance journalists who have published stories about destinations, then those destinations have “reprinted” (read: put up a blog post that was the full text of their article) the piece online. The journalist contacted the destination as asked for one of two things: compensation or take it down. The destination gladly paid a nominal fee for the rights to publish the story on their blog. Only in the most rare instances does anything of this note become a real issue.

If you’re reading other blogs, you’ll see they cannibalize one another quite frequently. Gizmodo will write a paragraph or two about a story from Mashable and link to the original piece, Mashable will write a story expanding on something from a newspaper’s blog and link back to that, and so on and so on.

 

Ready Any Good Blogs Lately?

One of our first assignments was to find blogs we like. They can have content we enjoy, design we love or be a sort of ideal to work towards. I have my favorites and I’ve put links to a few below. What blogs have you found that you love? Put them in the comments so everyone can see.

I read Gizmodo several times a day because I enjoy the way they deal with technology, pop culture as it relates to technology, and design.

Lifehacker is a sister site to Gizmodo, and I find a lot of great productivity tips, interviews with writers and tech personalities where they detail their work processes and their essential gear, and I find posts like this one that help me be a better person.

I also read Mashable, Danger Room (Wired magazine’s blog devoted to defense technologies), GalleyCat and several other blogs from MediaBistro.

Travel and Food blogs top my list of favorites as well. National Geographic has some fantastic blogs, like their Adventure Travel blog.The New York Times Travel Blog is a must-read for me. As is Cork and Rind, a food blog; White on Rice Couple, a blog by a professional food writing/photographing couple; Smitten Kitchen, a great place for recipes and food photography; and Garden & Gun magazine’s blog, which covers food, culture and travel in the south and is a great extension of their print content.

And since I love Death Valley, I follow a fellow named Death Valley Jim. He runs a 4×4 desert guide service and takes people to see ghost towns and natural sites in the mountains in and around Death Valley.

This is the First Post!!!

This is our first post. There will be many more to come.