Blogging Tips &

Who knew, when I started searching that there was much written about the etiquette of blogging? Now is blogging the same as news reporting?

In dailyblogs.com there are 10 tips for blogging. Of course, this is aimed at those who have something to market, or those who simply want to be popular. Blogs seem to be divided up into profit and not-for-profit sites. There are:

• those with a product to sell: artists, artisans, entrepreneurs
  
• some who are paid to blog their opinions,
• others who want to network,
• thinkers who like discourse,
• pundits and or lobbyists,
• family members who keep in touch,
• writers honing their craft.
  

Unfortunately, many of the nonprofit sites are coloured by those ubiquitous Google ads that clutter, distract from the issues, increase load times and generally piss me off! Some ads are just offensive.

You must clearly establish your purpose for writing. Personally, I like to examine various viewpoints, and provide an analysis of facts which lead to personal opinions. So often the TV media features 'man-in-the-street' interviews*, which really bore me, since I am not sure their expertise on the matter; their bias, their socioeconomic background, political views that lead them to catch 15 seconds of fame.

The hugely popular Comments sections on e-news sites, which appear to have replaced the edited and culled letter-to-the-editor, feature bizarre rants, racist, sexist and otherwise socially inappropriate comments. I have simply stopped reading them. It is hard enough, apparently, for journalists to get things right. Why do they bother giving publicity to uninformed and biased users who provide little credible information?

I have been giving advice to some bloggers, as they repost entire news articles on their sites, totally violating copyright laws. This blog post gives the writer some guidelines. Both images, and text are copywritten. What amuses me is that often the worst offenders are writers whose own works are copywritten. For the most part, to review a book, and post an image of the cover page, seems a fair ad for a book, but be aware of copyright laws. They are there to protect all of us.


Click on the icon to read about other points of view.
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*For example, during a airline transportation crisis, a 3-day power outage, with travellers who were totally stuck in an airport. The media trolled the lines and aisles looking for someone they could feature who was angry and upset. A cry from one TV journalist rang out, "There's someone over there who's crying. Let's go!" Off that was the person they featured on the news.