Who Makes The Rules For Blogging??

Ever wondered, there are billions of bloggers with zillions of blogs in the blogosphere. Every person connected to the virtual world of world wide web, ends up owning a ‘blog‘. But, what should people write in these blogs? Is there someone who tells you what and what not to write? What is to be done to maintain a blog or may I say ‘a quality blog‘? Are there any ‘rules for blogging‘?

No one is around to settle our curiosity. All the questions remain unanswered. All the doubts unrequited. I tried to answer my queries myself. I thought and thought about the facts on blogging and hardships bloggers face to succeed in maintaining  ‘a quality blog‘. I came up with a few enthical to dos and related them to the ‘blogosphere‘. So, here is the first draft of what I call rules for a blog to be called as ‘A Quality Blog‘. 

1. Post blog entries regularly.
2. Always have a title for each blog entry.
3. Associate blog entries with labels and categories.
4. Do not post material that is obscene, defamatory, harassing, abusive, hateful or embarrassing to another person or entity.
5. Provide each post with its own URL called as a ‘permalink’.
6. Allow full access to archived posts.
7. Allow comments on your posts and pages.
8. Respect the opinion of the visitors.
9. Identify updated/ corrected content with appropriate label.
10. Provide a feed like RSS, Atom etc.
11. Respond to the comments.
12. Do not post copied content without quoting the source.
13. Do not post entries with harmful computer routines like viruses, trojan horses, worms etc.
14. Assume full responsibility and liability for all the content you posted on the blog.

 It goes without saying that on one hand knowing the rules helps to understand better the constraints on blogging and responsiblity of our actions. On the other hand, knowing the rules helps in knowing which might need to be broken. 

Page Rank – Complexity And Importance To Blogging

Definition:

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of “measuring” its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E). In a simple way, it is number assigned to each page on world wide web, the more the number, the more chances of the page to appear in the Google search.

Google describes PageRank:

“ PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”. ”

History:

PageRank was developed at Stanford University by Larry Page and later Sergey Brin as part of a research project about a new kind of search engine. The project started in 1995 and led to a functional prototype, named Google, in 1998. Shortly after, Page and Brin founded Google Inc., the company behind the Google search engine. While just one of many factors which determine the ranking of Google search results, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of Google’s web search tools. The name PageRank is a trademark of Google.

Impact on Blogging:

The more the pages refer to your blog, the greater is your PageRank and more are chances to be picked up by the visitors. If you want to be well known in blog town, your PageRank is the quickest way someone will be able to tell if what you’re saying is worth their reading. It has now become a global criteria to judge you blogs by PageRank. The higher the PageRank, the popular your blog is.

Tips to improve your PageRank:

• The easiest way is to increase your PageRank is to get as many links from quality websites.
• If you have multiple blogs, refer each blog in your other blogs.
• Always have niche topic, the lesser the pages on that topic, the better your PageRank.
• Allow trackbacks from your site.
• The better the blog, the more the referrals to your blog.

Blog Definitions: Common Terms of the Blogosphere

BLOGGING – THE WHAT

These are probably the simplest terms to understand. To garner a full grasp of the terms you should start at the beginning.

Bloggeries: The term used to refer to the posts within a blog. You write bloggeries and post them on your blog. Also commonly called posts or entries.

Blogosphere: The blogging community at large. It is the internets version of a biosphere. (No I am not referring to that movie with Paulie Shore)

Weblog: A journal or sorts or a diary. Dated and filled with stories, events, opinions and other such things.

Blogging: The act thereof.

Blog: Literally a shorter version of a web log. A teaser.

Blogger: A blogger is the term used to describe the person who is actually writing the blog.

BLOGGING – THE HOW

Photoblogging: Pretty straight forward. These are blogs that utilize photos and images to convey a story or intent.

Podcasting: Blogging’s audio cousin; very similar to a blog but in audio format.

Mobblogging: Mobile phone blogging.

Vlogging: The use of video instead of text to blog.

Audioblogging: Think of vlogging but with MP3’s.

Autocasting: This goes hand in hand with podcasting making the task automated.

Blogcasting: The combining of the blog and pod cast into a single web site.

Blogging: can be fun but it can also be very daunting. There are software programs and sites which make this a less annoying and aggravating task.

Blogger: Google has created this free platform to simplify blogging activity.

Blogspot: A web host that specifically hosts blogs. Typical addresses would be blog.blogspot.com and the like.

Livejournal: Livejournal, like MySpace, is a free site where people meet to talk and write blogs.

Movable Type: Paid tool.

Typepad: Another paid tool.

WordPress.org: You can upload to this site easily. Customizing and upgrading your blogs are easy.

WordPress.com: Another free host site.

Radio Userland: Publishing software for bloggers.

BLOGGING – THE GUTS

The innards of a blog are important. What are the things that the majority of blogs consist of? This is where it starts getting technical. Some of these terms will seem familiar to you as some are common place within the confines of the internet or computers in general.

Header: Also the title. Found at the top most portion of the website. A lot of keywords get hidden here as a lot of search engines go from top to bottom and they don’t see as we do so any text that is placed at the top of the site that is the same color as the background will be read and used to generate positioning.

Footer: Typically the very last thing on the web page and will typically list the same things as the header.

Index: The first page we see of any site is the index.

Navbar: Also sometimes called a sidebar. These can be positioned left or right of the main pages contents. This is where the categories and subjects are listed.

Post(s): Also known as entry. These are the individual entries of a blog.

Comments: Readers are able to post comments to a blog, adding onto the popularity and keyword base.

Ping: A standard net term short for Packet Internet Grouper that is used to track IP addresses as well as to notify automatic services of updates.

Trackback: A ping is sent to another blog thru a trackback system to alert a blogger to the mentioning of their blog. This is also sometimes known as a pingback.

Tags: Placing of keywords as a way to collect similar posts.

Tag Cloud: The display of keywords.

Captcha: Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. Captcha�s are small image boxes containing letters, number or words that you have to re-type in order to verify you are a human.

Link: An access point to specific articles.

Blogroll: Links to other blogs and the nav or sidebar.

Sideblog: A mini blog or blurb on the sidebar.

Template: A generic web site where you just have to fill in the information and post.

Blogthis: An added function that allows a blogger to add to an entry.

Plugins: Mini files you download to your computer that works with your browser to give you added features.

Dashboard: Like that of a car it is where your controls are. Editing and moving files etc.

Archives: Like those found in your library but for the internet. It’s a collection of all things blog related and placed in reverse order by date.

Post Summaries: An expandable teaser of a larger blog.

Continue: Also referred to as a jump this is a link to continue on to another section of a blog in order to save space and load times.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol. It is also a type of program. All used to upload content.

BLOGGING – THE FEEDING

In order get your information out to the general public you need to make it so that it can be seen by them. This is called feeding or web feeds. This is how a blog is seen by a user.

Web Feed: Subscriptions. Typically you join a site to read a blog.

RSS: A series of web feeds for syndication purposes.

XML: A sort of HTML but meaning Extensible Markup Language making it a more advanced form of what we know to be HTML. It is usually used to help syndicate a site.

Photofeed: A feed like the others but using images.

OPML: This is an XML format specifically used for outlines. You can easily import multiple subscriptions.

ATOM: Very blog specific feed and most blogs are of this type.

BLOGGER – WHO

There are as many kinds of blogs as there are bloggers. Bloggers usually fit into one subset of the culture as a whole.

Problogger: Someone who spends hours a day just posting blogs. They’re paid and usually work for ad companies.

Blognoscenti: Or blog snob. Someone who is incredibly knowledgeable about blogs and their inner workings.

Blogebrity: Someone who everyone else knows. Could be a real celebrity who blogs or someone who’s a pro who everyone knows to blog.

Blogerati: The paparazzi of blogging.

Commentariat: This is someone who leaves comments to blogs on a regular basis.

Dooced: Getting dooced or to dooce. This is someone who was fired for blogging excessively during work hours.

Blogther: Someone else who blogs.

A-List: Another type of Blogebrity.

Blogstar: Popular blogger.

BLOGGING – THE HABIT

Bloggers have their own idiosyncrasies while blogging. The method in which an individual blogs helps set them apart.

Metablogging: Blogs and articles about blogging.

Blogstipation: Blog block.

Blogathy: The act of loathing blogging and thusly taking a break from it.

Blogopotamus: A rambling blog that continues, seemingly without end.

Blogorrhea: Someone who posts often and usually has been dooced.

Bleg: A self pandering blog to beg.

Hitnosis: The act of repeatedly refreshing your blog to see if anything has changed.

Blogroach: Someone who enjoys flaming a blogger.

Blogaholic: A person who can’t enough writing or reading blogs.

Blogorific: A word used to describe a blog as terrific.

Blogvert: The act of advertising within a blog.

Blogger Bash: A party where bloggers get together online and comment back and forth in real time.

Blogathon: Blogging every thirty minutes for an entire day.

Blogsnob: Someone who refuses to comment to someone who is not a friend.

Blogostorm: Controversy drives revenue. This can also be known as a Blog Swarm.

Doppelblog: Copying some other bloggers work and reposting as your own.

BLOGGING – TYPES

For every type of blogger and blog there is a certain niche of where that particular item will fit. Professional bloggers wouldn’t do dark posts, for example as they want to be seen.

The types of blogs you post define, sometimes, who you are in the blogosphere. And that determines your strengths and weaknesses.

Celebriblog: A blog that is run by a celebrity.

Kittyblogger: This is someone who spends time writing about their cats.

Celeblog: The act of blogging about celebrities.

Group Blog: Multiple contributions to multiple blogs.

Event Blog: Blogs used to talk about one event on one date.

Clog Blog: The Dutch do a tremendous amount of blogging and this term is used to set them apart from others.

Movlogs: Video blogs on the mobile.

Metablog: The act of writing blogs about blogging.

CEOBlog: A blog that is run by a corporate executive.

Splog: Spreading spam through blogs.

Tech Blog: Blogs about technical items.

Anonoblog: These are blogs where the poster remains anonymous.

Plog: A blog about a project.

Milblog: Blogging by our men and women in the military.

Blawg: Usually written by lawyers these blogs cover topics of law.

Edublog: Educating the masses using blogs.

Shockblog: The Stern version of blogging.

Progblog: Something that is written in a progressive manner.

Dark Blog: A blog that is private.

Photocast: Photoblogging that updates as soon as you add new photos to it.

As many definitions and translations as listed here there are many, many more but these are enough to keep you from guessing and to make your forward into blogging all that much better.