July 2009

  • The Importance of Outbound Links

    By lisala on 7/29/09 12:10pm
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    Linking to good resources and providing citations helps your readers and thus helps you.

    Outbound links are links from your post, blog, or Web site to someone else's content. Outbound links encourage surfing to other quality sites based on the link selection practices of the writer responsible for the page with the outbound link. In a sense, outbound links are the most important aspect of a page; they create the Web. They're a service to your readers, and a courtesy to other writers whose sites you've used in your post. Simply put, it's good netiquette to link to your sources, and to related resources for readers who want more information.

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  • On Top Posting

    By lisala on 7/27/09 9:44pm
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    As a courtesy to other writers, wait a day before posting "on top" to allow the current post to be spidered and linked.

    The phrase "top posting" was initially used to refer to old style Usenet "threaded" discussions, and email clients that repeated the entire thread of emails regarding a particular subject, and positioned the cursor for a reply at the top. Top posting in email and Usenet is still a bit of a religious issue, but the phrase was hijacked to refer to blog posts as well, where the posting mechanism and style are slightly different.

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  • Where to Host Your Blog

    By sarajean on 7/8/09 12:23pm
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    If you’ve decided to host your own blog—whether it be for profit, for fun, for networking or promoting your work—there are a variety of free resources right at your fingertips. As long as you’ve got a good computer connection, you can blog from just about anywhere.

    There are plenty of domains you may want to purchase if you want a branded, high-traffic webpage. But if your goal is simply to keep an online diary, a record of your life or work (or both), or just to be able to get out there and be heard, you’ll probably want something that’s free and accessible.

    Below are a few blogging sites to consider. Each has its good points and bad points, so you’ll want to peruse and play before you decide which one you want to use. Most of these also have premium features you can pay to use, but all are free to use for basic features.

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