So You Want to be a Blogger?

Posted by narrowband - 20/05/07 at 05:05:43 pm

More and more people are setting up their own blogs to write and share their thoughts, opinions, experiences and even skills with their readers. There are a number of things that I wish I could tell all new bloggers when setting up a blog. Here are 11 things I have in my mind:-

1. Get a Hit-counter!

One of the first things you might want to do when you first set up your blog is to get a hit-counter to monitor your traffic. The earlier you install your counter, the better. This is so that you won’t miss the first few visitors who visit your blog.

Personal tip: Stay away from Webstats4u.com (aka Motigo webstats, formerly known as nedstats), because your visitors will be annoyed by ilead.track.it popups.

2. Use a Nickname

I personally know many bloggers who choose to use their own real name or initials when they blog, which is fine, really. Short, given names are okay but full names? I would suggest to use your full name only when you understand what you’re doing – because it takes away your anonymity online and that’s irreversible unless you start afresh again. On the other hand, if you start off by using a nickname, you could gradually shed away your cloak of anonymity whenever you’re comfortable.

3. Blog Selectively

Think carefully before publishing an entry, because (and I always stress this) no matter how personal or private you claim your blog to be, it is always accessible to virtually anyone in the world who has an internet access. Whether it is something very personal, controversial, or offensive, be aware that in the cyberspace, you’re never alone. Your contents could be indexed and cached by search engines, or reproduced in forums, other blogs, or heck, even newspapers! So you think removing an entry solves everything? Not really. Unless you understand and do not mind the consequences, think twice before you write.

Related example: Last year, a teenage Singaporean blogger, Wee Shu Min had to remove an offensive entry just one day after publishing, because it drew a flak from thousands of people worldwide. She admitted that she didn’t expect to receive so many readers overnight. Indeed, her average daily hits was never that high. (It’s a long story but if you’re interested, Wikipedia could help you out. And yes, her original text is there too.)

4. Fight Spam!

Most modern blog publishing tools have a comment spam filter. Additionally, you could also use a Word Verification system (for Blogspot users, for example), whereby commentors would need to key in characters displayed in a randomly-generated image when leaving a comment. WordPress, in addition to the standard Akismet Spam Filter, also has an anti-spam plugin that requires commentors to answer a simple math question. It’s an extra-step for your commentors who wish to leave a comment but they’ll understand it.

Personal tip: When you come across a WordPress blog that requires you to answer a simple math question when submitting a comment, beware of time-outs. That’s because sometimes that particular math question expires before you’re done typing your comment. Always copy your comments before submitting, as even the ‘back’ button in your browser can’t help you recover what you’ve typed! Personally, I think the Akismet Spam Filter that comes standard in all WordPress is sufficient for most use.

5. Ensure Compatibility

Try viewing your blog using another browser to ensure that it displays nicely, especially after you’ve modified its layout. Most default layouts are compatible with almost all browsers but once you want to modify something, you gotta do it at your own risk. I once (while using Firefox) came across a site that was really messy and the ‘Post a Comment’ link was hidden. I couldn’t leave a comment! I then switched to IE and everything appeared perfectly fine.

Personal tip: This can get a little technical. Well anyway, if you’re interested, try validating your site using the W3C Markup Validation Service. Here’s why.

6. Provide an Email Address

It’s useful to provide your email address somewhere on your site (eg. in your profile or sidebar), especially if you’ve turned off commenting in your blog. However, don’t provide your complete email address in text. Replace the alias with something like [at] or .at., or use spaces. If you have your email address provided in full (like me@me.com), web crawlers/spiders/robots (strictly speaking, they’re scripts) could index your email address and pick it up for spam purposes. So come up with a way to ‘fool’ these web crawlers. The best way is to display your email address as an image (check out my About page). You can generate your email image here.

7. Personal Photos

This is a no-brainer. From (3), you know that your blog is accessible to virtually anyone who has internet access. Even though you have never provided your URL to anyone, people can still reach your site via search engines. Understand what you’re getting yourself into when posting up pictures of yourself, friends, family members, your car (with the vehicle registration number visible), your house, etc.. Attracting stalkers is the last thing you’d want to do online. I would say that children (since anyone could set up a blog these days) should be extra careful when posting up photos of themselves.

Technical note: I don’t know if there’s a way to prevent indexing by search engines. The ‘noindex, nofollow’ for robots meta does not work all the time.

8. The Statement “I Blog for Myself” is Codswallop

Don’t bother setting up a blog if you’re not expecting any readers. However, there are instances when you might want to make a particular entry private. I don’t know about other blog-publishing tools, but WordPress allows you to do this. When enabled, that blog entry becomes password-protected. (Maybe someone could shed some light about Blogspot, MT, LiveJournal, Xanga, Vox, etc).

9. Go Easy on the Advertisements

If you’re gonna monetize your blog, you gotta remember to keep a balance. Unless you’re running a corporate/commercial blog in support of a product or brand, go easy on the ads. The very reason why advertisements exist in the first place is traffic. Your contents, not the adverts, is what drives your traffic. So start by focusing on your contents before anything else.

10. Turn On Comment Notifications

A reader may drop by your site and leave a comment in one of your older entries (say, a few months old in your archives). It could be a compliment or even a question – whatever it is, you most likely wouldn’t want to miss it. Turn on comments notification (which is sent to you via email) so that you know there is a new comment left in your blog. Alternatively, you could also display all recent comments on your sidebar.

Personal tip: I’ve found the ‘Recent Comments’ section in my sidebar useful in drawing traffic to my entries. Try it and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

11. Credit Your Sources

Don’t be a thief. Credit your sources. If you publish photos, texts or anything that do not belong to you, the least you can do is provide a hyperlink to the original source. Watermarks in photos are there for a reason (especially if taken from another blog). So if you intend to use that photo, don’t crop away the watermark – it’s one way of crediting your source.

Personal tip: Have you ever suspected that someone might have plagiarised your work? Try http://www.copyscape.com/, and weed out the copycat!

Footnote: Everything provided here in this entry is based on my personal opinion, experiences and observations. They are in no way affiliated with or endorsed by any organizations, companies, or associations.

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38 Comments »

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  1. gosh! i did everything wrong!

    Comment by wuching — May 20, 2007 #

  2. 1 – I use my own server’s stats. When I first started out, I didn’t put any ststs to avoid myself from checking the traffic too much. You know how “proud” to see the number increases gradually.

    2 and 7 – I TOTALLY violated these. Although moderation is done for my friends’ part. LOL.

    The rest are all the basics.

    Nice one!

    Comment by Jason — May 20, 2007 #

  3. Hey narrowband, great tips you’ve got there! Thanks for sharing, I certainly learnt a lot. Well, I’m kinda considered a new blogger. =D Still, great tips!

    Comment by Josette — May 20, 2007 #

  4. No, Wuching you did not.

    Jason – I didn’t know about pride and stuff like that when I first started. I was just plain curious, so I installed a counter.

    LOL I violated 7 as well. Haha. And I’m like, even worse cos I don’t moderate my friend’s part… But until and unless they request for their faces to be covered (which is rare), I’ll just leave things as they are.

    Josette – Hey there! Thanks for popping by! Glad you learnt some stuff… But hey, you’re not ‘new’ anymore :p It’s been 5 months! Narrowband.org is about 6 months old, although I used to have two other blogs since 2004. Well, do come back often, hehe! :p

    Comment by narrowband — May 20, 2007 #

  5. I;m not as bad as Wuching *points up* but I’d like to discuss about the “math comment spam protection” function. I’ve got a reader who recently told me that she had trouble counting. Serious. I guess we have to take into consideration people who aren’t good in math too, no? :)

    Comment by pelf — May 20, 2007 #

  6. *two thumbs up*

    I think I’ve covered most of everything on your list, but I have to admit that I grab other people’s pics off the Net for my posts as I don’t have pics of my own. I wish Blogspot had post-protection though so that I can put private stuff up.

    Comment by rinnah — May 20, 2007 #

  7. wahhhh…. so many rules eh? when i started… i just register and blog… getting a nick was easy cos i have been using this nick as my msn since the longest time… :)

    hey, must thank you for your splendid translation of ‘sam jiu’…. :)

    Comment by zewt — May 20, 2007 #

  8. Haha pelf, you gotta be kidding me. I think the hardest question I’ve come across was 7+5, which equals to a double-digit figure. But a few times I was greeted with “It seems like you didn’t pass your math!”. The equation had timed out. Frustrating – cos my long comment was gone, lazy to retype.

    Rinnah – Those general pics nvm ler… My Jobseeker entry also had one small image whose source I didn’t acknowledge. Haha. But those photographs of events, people, or places… better credit lor. Ooo Blogspot still doesn’t have that password-protect feature eh? Bring it up to their support team – they will consider your feedback!

    Zewt – Like that only ar… Teh Tarik la… ;p

    Comment by narrowband — May 20, 2007 #

  9. Let’s see…

    1. Checked.
    2. Checked.
    3. Have always done that. Sometimes a bit ‘grrr’ cos I ‘cannot’ blog what I really wanna say…
    4. Fighting it with spampoison.com
    5. Don’t really care… Just use FF!
    6. Chatbox can do.
    7. That’s why u don’t see pics of me nor friends’ pics in my blog.
    8. Ditto to this.
    9. I.hate.em.
    10. Checked.
    11. Guilty at times… due to laziness… :p

    Comment by angel — May 21, 2007 #

  10. mamak ah… u sure u free? haha!

    Comment by zewt — May 21, 2007 #

  11. very nice tips. Should be useful to newbies.

    Comment by Adam — May 21, 2007 #

  12. i must say i am “super enthusiastic” on number #7.

    if you know what i mean ;P

    Comment by pinksterz — May 21, 2007 #

  13. Guilty as charged. But still survive. I agree, create a brandname like Narrowband, or 5xmom.

    Comment by lilian — May 21, 2007 #

  14. ooh thanks!

    great pointers.
    and very friendly delivery. (;

    Comment by moyzie — May 21, 2007 #

  15. Angel – Ya I don’t blurt out every single thing I want to say also, hehe. Some things are best kept offline. I’m guilty of some of the things in the list also, hehe. Just gotta understand what I’m doing lar.

    Zewt- Why not?!! Weekends are when I’m free as a bird!

    Adam – Yippe. Hope they find my blog early. LOL.

    Pinkie – Haha… Tell me about it! :p

    Lilian – You’re extraordinary! In the ‘problogger’ category – from one blogspot site to self hosting and multiple blogs and earning lots from them! Your presence is greatly felt in the M’sian blogosphere. Those stuff in the list are not rules – just tips and some word on what to expect if you do like this, or otherwise. I myself don’t follow them all the time.

    Moyzie – You’re welcome. ‘Friendly’? How friendly? :p

    Comment by narrowband — May 21, 2007 #

  16. That’s why I’ve deactivated the math question plug-in. I’ll have to think about other ways to combat spam now, LOL.

    Comment by pelf — May 21, 2007 #

  17. Good one… now that the ‘end’ is nearing, I have more time to read blogs…so all the best yea…and…..keep up the good posts :D

    Comment by BLuEaPpLE — May 21, 2007 #

  18. woah. detailed. =) nice read, this one. i finally know what all i haven’t been doing. =))

    Comment by Jasmyin — May 21, 2007 #

  19. You’ve been tagged! *grin*

    Comment by rinnah — May 21, 2007 #

  20. Pelf – Heh. But seriously, I think the Akismet Spam Filter in all standard WordPress is good enough, no? I still get some spam comments sometimes but it’s not a big problem.

    Alicia – Yea drop by often ya… Recommend your aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc etc too le ;p

    Jasmyin – Glad you liked it!

    Rinnah – Aha, yes… I know, my tracker told me. I left a comment too! Will need some time for that… Thanks for tagging!

    Comment by narrowband — May 21, 2007 #

  21. Did you change your blog? Nice blog! =)

    I always wondered how to put on those recent comments things.

    I had a hit counter immediately after I started to blog and I was crazy about the stats. But I forced myself to not blog for the audience or else it would change the way I write! But no denying the number is still important to me! haha.

    Comment by -Princess Shin- — May 22, 2007 #

  22. gooodie. I even read up the wee shu min incident you mentioned in your post. :D I didn’t know it happened. hehe

    Comment by xin — May 22, 2007 #

  23. Good advice to the novice blogger. I had to learn from my mistakes. hehehe….

    By the way, I cannot buy the race cars because I can’t seem to be able to buy RM$40 worth of petrol becos of the 3/4 tank rule. haiz….

    Comment by eastcoastlife — May 22, 2007 #

  24. Your Highness (!!) – Changed my blog? From which? I changed twice – but quite long ago. Haha, number obsession… I can understand why :p But after a while the hype and excitement will subside…

    Xin – Interesting huh? Macam-macam can happen in the blogosphere. Let’s not forget, closer to home, 2 of our country’s most influential bloggers were also sued, couple of months back.

    ECL – Ahh, yaa… I forgot about that! Then you probably need to get someone to help you buy already – Some people fill more than RM40 but choose not to buy also.

    Comment by narrowband — May 22, 2007 #

  25. good info u have here dude.. i particularly got some attention on #3, cuz at times, u know ur readers (some of them) and kinda restrict ur postings to not mention bout them.. even though it’s really something worth remembering yet.. well u know.

    Comment by Jian — May 23, 2007 #

  26. Oh Dei! ASK them 1st le see how they react to your intentions… They may be more than happy to give some opinions or suggestions, or even more information related to the subject. :p But you have been a good and responsible and ethical and understanding and nice and… *catches breath*… diplomatic and considerate blogger all along… hehehe….

    Comment by narrowband — May 23, 2007 #

  27. i never post any personal photo on my blog too, except photos when i was few months old :P

    Comment by Chen — May 23, 2007 #

  28. well written, dude. even I have been blogging for over 3 months but then I realized that I have so much to learn about blogging.

    P.S. I really hate copycat, their just copy your entire article and make it as their own.

    Comment by Steve Yu — May 23, 2007 #

  29. really need some guidance from you…i know totally nothing bout blogging…any web site to recommend for beginners? appreciate that…Thx… ^^

    Comment by babelearner — May 24, 2007 #

  30. Ha bro, u are making me blushing like pinky pinky pumpkin man. Every single compliment u had for me, i’ll double it up and add in another for u – sweet, hope this won’t make me a gay, i seriously mean it.. :)

    Comment by Jian — May 25, 2007 #

  31. Chen – I know what you mean… my baby photos all in our family archives (read: the album rack), lazy to scan them :p

    Thanks for dropping by, Steve ;)

    You’ll pick things up as you go along, Babelearner… It’s only some of the things that you probably should know in the beginning are listed here in my entry :)

    Jian – Yaya we all know you’re straight…

    Comment by narrowband — May 25, 2007 #

  32. [...] Narrowband asks the question – So You Want to be a Blogger?, with 11 useful tips if your new to [...]

    Pingback by Community Links #1 - 11 useful tips if your new to blogging,How To Make $100 Per Day and more at WPThemesPlugin.com - Wordpress Themes | Plugins | Blog Tools | Interviews | Make Money Online — June 3, 2007 #

  33. I guessed if I manage to get at least 10/11 out of the list right means I am on the right track. :)

    P/s: Thanks for the visit :)

    Comment by Criz Lai — June 4, 2007 #

  34. [...] out as a blogger? Here’s some good tips. The first one discusses getting a “hit-counter”. The one I recommend above all is [...]

    Pingback by So you want to be a blogger at Blogger’s Blog — June 4, 2007 #

  35. Thanks for dropping by, Criz. There’s no right or wrong, only ‘what to expect’, and some things are ‘good to know’. At the end of the day, the choice is ultimately the blogger’s. I’m no blog-police (in fact, I hate them)! :)

    Comment by narrowband — June 4, 2007 #

  36. My stats are powered by:
    1. Google Analytics
    2. WP Global stats

    With the two powers combined, I am…the blogger. :P

    Comment by Danny Foo — August 22, 2007 #

  37. good one, i’ve stumbleuponed this post

    Comment by WTJ — August 22, 2007 #

  38. Danny – I have Google Analytics lurking in my site too ;), in addition to Statcounter. I started using Statcounter from Day 1 I blogged here, and Google Analytics was added only a few weeks later. I must say, though, Statcounter is more than enough for my needs. Google Analytics is abit of an overkill.

    WTJ – Thank you for the SU. Hopefully these tips will be able to reach out to and benefit as many new bloggers as possible :)

    Comment by narrowband — August 22, 2007 #

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