“What is a Google?” and Other Internet-Related Questions Answered

From time to time, people ask me questions about how to start blogs, how to promote themselves, etc. Other times, I find people should be asking questions instead of taking certain actions. I’m not an authority on any of this, but I have been on the internet forever and have written on blogs/websites for about a decade, so I’ve had the benefit of experience. Here, I’m going to answer some of the questions that are being or should be asked:

How Do I Make a Blog/Website? – I’m not interested in talking about the technical end of things, like domain names, programs, and code. That information is widely available. I’m thinking more about those who have this idea of starting something and they are not really sure what to do with it. My first advice would be to figure out what type of blog content you want (blogging about your cat, interviews with local politicians, reviews of trendy restaurants, etc.) and then to see if something like that already exists. If it does, then you need to ask yourself what you are going to do differently that would make you creating this worth the time, effort, and money. Why is anyone going to view your creation if established websites/blogs on same topic already exist? If you are going to go ahead and do this anyway, you need to have either a unique writing style or a different perspective, or both.

While you are checking out what people are already doing, it’s worth reviewing things like titles, series, and categories to make sure that you are not going to snag something already in use. You do not want to create a legal issue for yourself, nor change the blog/website name after you’ve announced it, nor create confusion between your product/good/service and someone else’s product/good/service. I know of several cases where titles were taken, and that’s never cool. These problems are easy to prevent by just doing a quick web search with possible names. (On a non-blog related note, I’d also suggest people do searches for potential children’s names to avoid sticking their baby with a name that has really bad associations or means something negative in other languages.)

If you do see something like a series that is close to an idea you had, you can probably make it distinct enough to not create a problem. Here’s an example. The idea of mystery photos is not exactly a new one. I saw that Tolland Patch was doing this with areas in the town of Tolland and felt inspired, but I had a few things different in mind. For one, I would focus just on Hartford, and I would be taking more close up shots than landscapes. The first difference was natural, since my blog is focused on Hartford, and the latter difference was an easy choice because an urban landscape is seen, well, differently. I needed to select a name that would be unique for this series. As a courtesy, I sent Tolland Patch an email in advance, letting the editor know what I planned to do and asked for her blessing. Recently, Connecticut Museum Quest began a similar type of contest, which is unique in that it shows images of places around the entire state. This is a case where the basic idea was the same, but the execution of it was unique enough for three separate entities to not step on one another’s toes.

Another question to ask yourself when starting a blog/website is if you are going to be out or closeted about it. In other words, are you going to use a pseudonym, just part of your name, or your full name? If you are uncertain, you might start with the pseudonym and then change to your real name later. What you want to do with your blog, I think, determines the use of a pseudonym. If you want your content to be trusted, it’s going to be harder to achieve that with a pseudonym. This might not matter if you want to write a very personal blog. In those, the reader is usually looking at the truth of someone’s experience, but not necessarily the facts. If you want to write about news in the community, I think that using one’s actual name is a way of taking responsibility as a writer. I understand there are times when people might worry about losing their jobs, and in those cases, I would suggest they either be anonymous sources in someone else’s story, or wait until they have better job security. The downside to using your full name is that if anyone actually reads your blog/website, you will find yourself having conversations about this part of your life quite a bit. These are usually, in my experience, positive conversations; however, it is somewhat disarming to be perpetually “outed.” The other part of this is that even if you don’t think your Great Aunt Beatrice from Topeka will ever read your blog because she does not know what the Internet is, she will. Relatives that you met once will contact you, or even better, contact other relatives to discuss the work you do online. Family visits will go something like, “Aunt Beatrice found your blog. She doesn’t like how often you use certain words,” “Okay,” “Well, she found it,” “Well, it’s on the Internet. It’s public. Everyone can find it.” On the bright side, you don’t have to worry about creating a holiday newsletter to send to the relatives who stalk you on the internet. It probably does not need to be said, since we already discussed doing basic research to see if anyone else is using the title you had in mind, but do the same if you plan to use a pseudonym. If you want to pick something plain, like “Jim,” this doesn’t really matter, but you probably should not claim you are “Banksy” unless you actually are that person.

A few other pointers for starting to blog: aim for regularity. If I post very frequently, I receive more blog traffic; at the same time, I don’t want to overwhelm readers by posting ten times every day. That might be fine for sites with many authors, but for just one or two people, it’s not really the norm, content is going to get diluted, and chances are, you are aggregating more than blogging. If you post once every three months, you are probably not going to get a lot of blog traffic, unless you pour all of your effort into major exposés. It used to be that people would ease up blogging on weekends, assuming that nobody reads blogs on the weekends. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. With “smartphones” and less conventional work schedules, plenty of people are still online on the weekend. On a recent Sunday, this blog received more traffic than on any other day of the preceding week. Tonight, a Saturday, my blog received more traffic than this past Tuesday and Thursday. This was unusual, but the norm for Real Hartford is to get about the same number of hits during the week as on the weekend. I only notice lags in viewers when the following occurs: (1) there is a major holiday like Easter, Christmas, or Thanksgiving, (2) I have posted nothing new for two or more days in a row, (3) there is a major technical disruption, like a popular browser being down. Maybe some people do take technology vacations on the weekend, but the percentage of people doing this seems smaller and smaller.

Finally, plan what you want to do and refresh that plan as needed. One of the most helpful things that I have done is to actually brainstorm possible topics to write about. Most, I do nothing with, and usually, I have more to write about than I have time to dedicate to doing so. But, by simply having an ongoing list, I feel like I have the upperhand over writers’ block. There are times when I ask people what they want to read about. If this were a personal blog, I would not ask that, but since this is created as a service to others, I do like to know what readers want to hear more about. I also read what others are writing. I can not say it enough: pay attention to what others have done and what they are doing. You don’t have to watch what everyone is doing, but show some awareness of what’s going on around you.

Introduce Yourself when You Move into the Neighborhood: This does not come naturally to everyone. Chances are, if you have trouble doing this face-to-face, you are going to feel odd doing this online. You don’t have to introduce yourself to everyone, maybe just those closest to you, whether that is geographically or in content.

Given the nature of this blog — news, commentary, reviews, and information about Hartford — it makes sense for me to introduce myself in some way to others in the area who are doing something similar. I don’t search out new sites necessarily, but when I find them, I do try to leave a few comments or write an email. Besides that you would be acknowledging others (their work, their existence), these little introductions make future interactions less awkward.

If we go back to the actual neighborhood scenario, imagine that you need something (cup of sugar, someone to feed your cat, a second opinion on placement of flowers, whatever) from someone. If you want it badly enough, you’ll probably go ahead and ask anyone, but it’s less awkward if you have established a kind of relationship first. There are four people within fifteen seconds of my front door who I would feel comfortable asking a simple favor from.

Now, go back to the internet world. If you have a question about where a person found a certain widget, you could be random and ask, but if you have at least established yourself as an acquaintance, the request for information will not seem as weird. If someone approaches me with that type of request out of the blue, I may take awhile to respond, if I choose to at all, but if we’ve chatted a little, I’ll respond at my earliest convenience. At same time, if you notice something really messed up about a site (photos are all missing, site is down, etc.) it’s good to want to tell them, but just leaving a comment can be mistaken as spam, since a lot of the spam that’s blocked reads like “I can’t see your site on my Blackberry.” If you’ve established some kind of relationship first, the comment won’t be random or sucked into the spam vortex. In real life, if a neighbor I’ve talked with a bit notices that I’ve been away for a few days, this feels like someone looking out for me. If someone I’ve never spoken to makes the same observation, I wonder if this person is stalking me, staking out my property, or someone to be suspicious of for other reasons.

Anyway, introductions are polite and a way to get word out that you exist. Here is one right way of doing this: a few years ago Julie from Live in Hartford sent me an email to tell me about her new blog. In it, she basically outlined where we had similar interests. We’ve since collaborated on a few items. Win, win, and win.

No Comment: Spam is not just for email anymore. The computer-generated spam is easy to spot and easy to block. You can usually play with comment settings to block comments that include pharmaceutical names and sexual language, or at least have these put aside to be moderated. Maybe two or three times since 2007 have I had legitimate comments be put on hold because the computer thought they were spam; however, in that same time, thousands of spam comments have been blocked.

If you are reading this blog, you are not a spambot, but an actual person who might accidentally leave spam comments. Sometimes, how this happens is that a new blogger (or person with new online presence) gets overzealous with self-promotion and does not think carefully about how to get the word out about his site. Instead of sending an introductory email, he leaves comments on websites and blogs (and everywhere else on the Internet) telling people to check out his site/blogger/product. Sometimes he won’t mention the product/site/blog outright, but will leave a generic comment (“Great site!”) and make sure his link is included. It’s not very personal. When this happens, I find myself asking, “Why should I care about your website/product/blog?” This is not the same, though, as someone who points to a specific post he has written about a topic similar to the one he is commenting on. Look, I generally do not view other local blogs as competition. In fact, there is a Hartford Bloggers Alliance. Most of us support each others’ work. We understand the time and effort that goes into producing interesting and informative blogs and websites. I have a blogroll on my site (look to your right) of blogs and websites that I think are generally good, and while I may not agree with every perspective in every post, I overall support what they are doing. I also do not add every site out there to the blogroll. Not a single site/blog made it to the blogroll by leaving self-promotional comments on Real Hartford, though several authors alerted me of their sites through personal emails.

…But the photo was on Google Images:  Chances are, if you are reading this blog, you already understand that Google finds things, it doesn’t create them. Well, it creates some, but it’s more appropriate to compare search engines (like Google) to a map and the websites it returns to the places. The map did not create those places, it just shows you where they are. You could find them without the map, but generally, it’s easier to get a little help. Not everyone realizes this. Not everyone understands that photographs and artwork on the Internet usually belong to people. This is strange to me, because most people do understand that they could not walk into a museum, grab a painting, and then hang it on their wall. The artwork would have to be purchased, given, or loaned. Put the same people in front of a computer, and many grab photographs from various websites without paying for them or requesting permission to use them. Here is a very simple rule to follow: unless the website explicitly states that artwork may be reprinted without permission, do not do it!

There are free image sites that allow users to take and reprint images, but in almost all cases, people are still expected to give credit by providing a link or a photo credit caption. If finding artwork that is not on a free image site, look at the website’s FAQ page. Most sites have one of these. If there is no information one way or another about image use, send an email (tweet, Facebook message, whatever) to the site’s author requesting permission and explain how the image will be used. Do not republish the image until permission has been granted. Most amateur or semi-professional photographers that I know, myself included, will usually give permission as long as we are asked first and the image won’t be used to promote disgusting viewpoints.

I have seen one of my photographs used without permission. I have friends who have had their work taken without permission. I’ve never heard any of them say, “well, that was good exposure I got.” What I have heard them say is, “this sucks.”

Quoting versus Theft: In my day job (career, whatever you want to call it) I spend significant time teaching students the difference between acceptable use and plagiarism. We generally begin with what’s obviously plagiarism (re: theft)– taking someone else’s language, slapping your own name on it, and attempting to take ownership of it. This is the most recognizable form to almost everyone, and we can call it the same or use the language “copyright infringement” when talking about the internet. Believe it or not, people do this. Maybe they will change the title of an article, but the content is the same.

After this, it gets fuzzy. I have had some experience with a news outlet (professional, so they should know better) choosing to take sections of a blog post, verbatim, and publish it as their own. While they had named the blog previously in the article, they did not include any quotation marks; thus, an unknowing reader would assume that they had paraphrased my blog post, which they did not. After pointing out that this was unacceptable, they rectified the situation within minutes. There are a few things to be learned from this (1) those who are considered credible also make mistakes (2) these mistakes literally take less than five minutes to fix, so there’s no excuse for even those on deadlines to do so, (3) poor judgment can be forgiven if the offending party takes swift action to make things right. The problem is that not every person or organization will admit when they have erred, nor will they correct the problem without legal intervention.

Still, most people know better than to just grab other writers’ words and not attribute them correctly. The question then becomes, “How much can I quote before this becomes a problem?” Here, by quote, I mean quotation marks or block quoting is used and the material is attributed to the author. In this case, I think it depends on how it is being used. If the writer is critiquing, let’s say, President Obama’s State of the Union Address, then it is not out of the norm to dissect the work line-by-line. The person would be analyzing each bit, commenting, and have a reason for including the quoted material.

If the purpose is not to review or critique, but to just share information, then this becomes more of a problem. If the information is a press release, then those are sent with the understanding that the material will be published as is or edited at the publisher’s discretion.

If the material is not a press release, but content from another website/blog, then the question to ask is why you would want to replicate what already exists. Where can you paraphrase? Where can you create new content that would make your piece of writing interesting and different from what is already out there? We see this happen often when a major news story breaks. All of the local mainstream news media outlets will have nearly identical stories. Sometimes, this is technically fine, as they have developed agreements or are using a news wire. Sometimes, they are plagiarizing each other. In recent years, this became an issue locally. Again, when the “trusted sources” lift material, it sends the message to amateur writers or those not recognized as journalists that such a practice is fine, unless serious public consequences result. Besides stealing material that someone actually worked to create, there are two other side effects. The first is that if any information is wrong in one, it’s going to be wrong where it was reprinted. This is an ongoing irritation of mine, when I see the news opting for speed over accuracy. The other non-ethical issue with stealing material is that it’s boring to do so. There is no new perspective offered. The reader’s understanding of a story can benefit when multiple writers have looked at it from multiple angles. Simply republishing a piece of writing flattens the story.

Promoting product versus developing a relationship: When entities leave comments on websites and blogs that are purely self-promotional, they can be easily marked as spam. When a business or organization creates an account on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it’s not as cut and dry. I have seen this go one of two ways. The organization might ask everyone with a vague similar interest to follow/join its page or feed, without giving anything back. Advertisement is not the same as giving back. I have also seen businesses and organizations take the same initial step, but then engage with its followers/fans.  Knox Parks is one example of an organization using social media pretty well. Its Twitter feed is not just self-advertisement. They post some quick gardening tips and thank followers, in between alerting people to their upcoming events. Real Art Ways also handles social media well by interacting with followers, promoting other arts/cultural organizations, and basically acknowledging that while it has cool arts’ happenings, a world also exists outside of it. TheWadsworth is one more organization that does social media well. The museum responds to questions on Twitter quickly and takes part in “Follow Friday,” which is a way for people on Twitter to give props to others who do interesting things on the site. Each one of those examples — Knox Parks, Real Art Ways, and the Wadsworth Atheneum — are undoubtedly using social media to promote themselves, but how they go about it makes all the difference.

Save time by spending time: It’s not just people starting projects who should do a little research. If you want a writer to review your product, performance, child’s science project, spend a few minutes actually reading work by that author. Start with the “about” or “FAQ” page to learn how to spell the author’s name, get a clue as to the writer’s gender/gender identity (Do you know how many lazy publicists refer to me as “Mr. Provost”? I ignore every single one who does this.), and a sense for whether or not the author even deals with the type of thing you want her to. For instance, if a writer has shown commitment to the environment and vegetarian lifestyle, she probably is not going to review your hamburger chain that obtains its meat from cattle raised in CAFOs. By proposing that she do just wasted your time and hers. It generally does not take too long to get a sense of what a writer might be interested in.

Finding the Time: I will preface this by saying that I chose to work in a field that would not require me to punch a clock. I am able to shift my hours around every so often. I work every single day for most of the year, but usually have shorter work days. I also have made choices about other things to have or not have in my life that would squeeze my time. For me, it’s not at all a matter of finding the time (except for about five days out of the year), but of prioritizing. Even those who claim to be extremely busy could probably create time in their schedules for writing (if that’s what they want to do) if they removed time wasters, like zoning out in front of the television or checking email/phone a billion times a day. This is not about judgment, but about deciding what things a person really wants in his/her life, to what extent. Even those with traditional work schedules and family obligations can have the time. They might not have the energy and their schedules might not allow them to attend certain events, but time, they have it.

How Do You Know Who Reads Your Blog? I don’t entirely know who reads Real Hartford. With a statistics tracker, I can see IP addresses and which regions people are from. If a person comments, I can match that name up with an IP address. That’s time intensive and generally not something I do.

Others tell me that they read, and I take them on their word.

Because of feeds, like Google Reader, I don’t see those statistics reflected, though I can sometimes see how many people subscribe to certain feeds. Some of my work is also archived on Hartford Info, so I have no idea how many people read content there.

Personally, I try not to obsess about statistics. I know that my readership has grown. I know that most of my readers are from the United States, which makes sense given that it is a hyperlocal blog. If there is a spike in traffic, I check it out to see why. Mostly, I look at what keywords people searched and consequently landed on my blog with for entertainment. I know that some people take blog traffic very seriously. For them, I can give the same advice again and build on it. If you want consistent traffic, blog consistently. If you want a disrespectful readership, then create a climate that enables this. That doesn’t mean a few bad eggs won’t manage to slip through. They will. But you don’t get toxic reader comments as the norm unless you refuse to moderate anything or set reasonable ground rules. Another readership question to ask yourself is how to get the types of readers you want. Obnoxious, pandering shock jock material might capture a lot of attention, but it probably will not be taken seriously by the movers and shakers.

Dealing with Haters: Some of the questions in this post are ones I’ve been asked, and others are questions that ought to be. This final point is one that I have been asked by a few people. I have a few different ways to respond to what is to be done when criticism (if it’s even that fine-tuned) comes knocking. The first response is one that I’ve seen in all sorts of blogging/website creation advice pieces:

Develop a thick skin

If you can’t develop a thick skin, then at least keep a solid front. Not every single annoyance needs to turn into drama. You do not publicly need to announce your weakest points. Save the griping for inner circles friends and loved ones. I would also suggest this:

Make the distinction between business and personal

There are some who can not separate these, and they won’t, even if I have said that a particular critique is of a professional action and not of them personally. It goes both ways. If you are using a pseudonym and nobody critiquing you knows your real identity, it’s much easier, I think, to make this division. And in some cases, the haters are not critiquing anything; they really are hatin’. This is apparent with snide comments and personal remarks that move away from the issue at hand. Having a gut reaction to this is natural, right, but it doesn’t have to lead to any actual verbal response. Will engaging with that person have any positive outcome? Probably not.

Ignore it.

Again, you might not be ignoring this inside of your head, but nobody needs to know that. Or, nobody needs to hear about it on your blog/website.

A colleague told me of this quote:

“To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” — Elbert Hubbard

If you want to avoid criticism, then play it safe. Stay away from anything controversial. Take the popular stance, regardless of ethics, at all times. Be moderate, always. Take no risks. Provide no new perspective. Do what the cool kids are doing. Question nothing. Be unremarkable.

More than developing a thick skin, I think that if you are acting in accordance with your own ethical guidelines, then the quote attributed to Hubbard has a lot of power.