Content Archives - Page 6 of 6

Imitation

April 9, 2009 by Guest Author

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Coined by Charles Caleb Colton in 1820 in his ‘Lacon.’

“Imitation” happens all the time on the web and is the source of much frustration for newspaper and other print media. The concept of “fair use” and “scraping the web” are terms mostly used when talking about copyright infringements for print media producers. The idea that citizen journalists can now report on news and other happenings with information taken from news sites it a disturbing phenomenon for many journalists to deal with, not to mention print media in general.

But is this type of imitation really flattering? Is this plagiarism? You’ve worked hard on your post. You’ve taken the time to think about it and possibly, do some research. You’ve carefully written and posted it on your blog. It’s your content based on your idea. Later , you discover through Twitter, or a friend that the very same content has been taken, copied and posted on someone else’s site! Sound incredible? It happens.

I’ve even seen it happen even on Twitter! We all know, or learn quickly (there is a LOT of twitter advice out there) the idea of the RT. You see something of value from someone else and you share. The RT is the attribution, the link back. Twitter has been called micro blogging – when you see something you’ve found and shared go by two seconds later from one of your followers with no RT, do you feel flattered by the “imitation”? I don’t.

I think it’s important to protect you work, your ideas, your content. The very idea of taking the time to think about, write and post your ideas deserves respect. That respect should allow you the right to not have your work copied without permission. Creative Commons is an excellent resource to help you with this. There are different licenses you can apply to your work that will protect it. A great resource for questions regarding this issue is Jonanthan Bailey, @plagiarismtoday on Twitter. He would be happy to discuss anything related to “imitation” with you.

Have you had experience with this and your writing? Do you see this as a problem?

from Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

photo credit: The Green Album

Design, Function or Content — Which Is More Important?

February 19, 2009 by Guest Author

I asked a question the other day on Twitter: What would you respond to the comment, “Content is more important than design.” The first response I usually get is content – content is king. If you go to a site and there isn’t any content to engage with or provide value, and it doesn’t get you thinking, there’s really no point or purpose to it. Content that changes, gets updated frequently and is genuine is usually the first element in any order of importance in relation to what people want to see when they visit your site.

Kyle Placy, a friend and designer responded, “Hmmm, content is more important than design… I think that is a relative statement. You can have great content and a terribly designed blog and the content is moot. I would say on a sliding scale content is more important but there is a fine line to draw between clean and easy design to terrible design.”

Vicky Hennegan said that content is more important but a good design can affect how long you stay on a site.

I read a lot of blogs and visit a lot of websites. We all do. Sometimes it’s part of my job to go find information from a website and sometimes that is all I’m there to do. If I like the look of the site I might spend a little more time and read some posts. If the site is appealing either because of its design or function capabilities I might click through and check out some features. I will definitely return if I like the content but I will also return if I liked the look (design) and feel (function) of the site. Things to consider:

1. Does everything your site/blog “say” it can do work? For example, links, pages, signup for RSS feeds, newsletters etc.? Do all the functions work the way they were intended to?

2. Do you have your contact info somewhere easy to find? You may not want people emailing you; that’s fine but chances are at some point someone is going to want to reach you. Will they easily be able to find this information? I sometimes have to collect contact info from websites and am so surprised when I have to hunt to find it. Home page is best if you want to be found.

3. Do you have all your social platforms listed on your site somewhere?

4. Not everyone has a designer. Not everyone needs one, in fact. WordPress, Blogger and Thesis have made it really quite easy and painless to customize your site. Twitter is a great resource as well – ask for help and you’ll get it!

Design, function, or content, which is more for you?

from Kathryn Jennex aka northernchick

photocredit – Anna Hape

Reluctant Readers: Content Is King, But . . . I’m Too Tired to Read

January 9, 2007 by Liz

What This Is Not: This is NOT a design critique. It doesn’t take into account, the elegance, usability, great content, SEO, or revenue values of the fabulous blog discussed here: Read/WriteWeb, which is one of my favorite reads.

What This Is: It’s an exercise in point of view, how readers look at things. It also only addresses one value — how folks read. I choose a great blog to illustrate that even the greatest blog can challenge the patience of a tired, reluctant reader.

We’re All Reluctant Readers

In literacy education, there’s a euphemism, RELUCTANT READERS. That term is meant to name adults and children who come to print after having failed at learning to read. They come with specific needs. It’s hard to catch and keep their attention. Most educators use the term to identify folks who read below the level of the average population.

I use the term more literally. I think, at times we’re all reluctant readers — no matter how strong our skills are. Any time we have to read when we’re out of steam, we become reluctant readers — even if it’s our favorite topic. Then there are the times when we just aren’t interested. we’re definitely reluctant readers at those times too.

If you question that you’re ever been a reluctant reader, try this — pick up a legal document you don’t care about, and dig in for entertainment. . . . Bet you’ll wish for some pictures and some subheads.

Serving and Being a Reluctant Reader

Last night I was a reluctant reader. I decided to go with it. I looked at pages as an a naive, intelligent customer. My quest was to see when the page made it hard for me to read the content. What I found was that the question of supporting reluctant readers is only one value.

Beautiful blogs have many values.

Here’s a page from Read/WriteWeb, a blog I read regularly. This particular page features a post on Web Previews. The screen shots that follow tell the story.

Read/WriteWeb: the page full width.

Read/WriteWeb: same page main text only.

To get the fullest effect, visit the Read/WriteWeb page itself.

Feeds are a moot point in this discussion. Readers can’t see the ads, but they also can’t respond to them. Some questions to consider about folks who see the whole page:

Where does your eye want to spend it’s time?
Would you call this choosing for the reader?
Could design tweaks increase readership, without sacrificing revenues?
Is content king on this page? How would you order the elements by importance as you take the page in visually?

Read/WriteWeb is an excellent blog. with great content, great design, and a loyal readerhip. They’re in a business that is sponsored by advertising. That’s what lead me to realize that accessing the content has to be a partnership between the blog and the reader. Each has a part to make the experience work effectively.

What do you see that supports a reluctant reader? What might you do to draw that reader into the content?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOB Business Cafe 10-20-06

October 20, 2006 by Liz

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Brain Based Business wants everyone to know migraine isn’t about stress.

Nektros wants the emperor to wear decent clothes.

Tech Buzz reports on a clever scheme that mashes a click exchange with the 80/20 rule to game the traffic at Digg.

TechZonline didn’t miss a step in getting to know his way around.

Writing, Clear and Simple explains how some reporters only offer half of the information they should.

Shards of Consciousness answers a question as basic as day and night.

Small Dogs Paradise offers sound advice — perfect information for sharing with kids who will be out this Halloween.

Related ala carte selections include

Christine Kane offers 10 ways to stop choosing disaster.

Success CREEations is letting the world know the past doesn’t have to predict the future.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like.
No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blog Design Checklist

December 8, 2005 by Liz

A successful blogger is always asking the question, How does this serve my readers?

To many of us design is the fun and “creative” part of building our blog, talking and tweaking design can take up more time than writing content–if we let it. A checklist can help keep my creativity at uptimum levels and keep my focus on how my choices will ensure my readers enjoy their stay well enough to return again and again.

Blog Design Checklist.

1. Title and Subtitle:

2. Bio:

3. Fonts/Text:

4. Comments/Permalinks/Trackbacks/Email:

5. Navigation:

6. Sound/Gadgets/Plug-ins:

7. Technical Issues:

8. Images:

9. Organization:

10. Marketing:

Use this checklist to remind yourself not to let too much design creativity take the “fun” out of reading your blog. Then get started. Have fun tweaking.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

And don’t forget the other checklists in the set:
Blog Review Checklist
Editing for Quality and a Content EditorÃ¢â¬â¢s Checklist
Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs
A BloggerÃ¢â¬â¢s Personal Narrative Checklist
Checklist for Starting a Directory Listing

SEO–Five Traits of Relevant Content

November 23, 2005 by Liz

Practical SEO for Every Blogger

Five Traits of Relevant Content

Relevant is the keyword. Content without “relevant” is less than content. Who would want to post something irrelevant? Here are five traits of relevant content.

Relevant content is text.
Search Engines love quality relevant content. They love quality content because readers do. Content here means text, not graphics or photos. That’s where search engines and readers see pages differently. Readers “read” photos and graphics; search engine spiders crawl right past them. So under that photo or graphic include a caption explaining what’s in it.

Relevant content is fresh and free-flowing.
Search engine spiders are demanding creatures. They want original, relevant content to list for their readers–and lots of it. Provide original content with accuracy and frequency about topics readers search for, and your posts will be born relevant.

Relevant content is formatted.
When your document follows a structured format, a search engine can follow how topics relate. Relationships between topics establish that keywords aren’t just mentioned–they are connected and relevant.

title
h1–subhead that relates
paragraph(s)
h2–subhead that relates
paragraph(s)

Relevant content is linked–Links in, links out, and links to yourself are relevant.
Spiders crawl the web by following links. Links draw spiders to related pages from blog to blog and within your blog. Connections in content are inherently relevant.

Relevant content is error free and accessible.
Open HTML tags, gross errors in spelling, and unnecessary plugins trip spiders. Enough said.

Relevant content is what readers are searching for, what spiders are crawling for, what bloggers are blogging for–right?

I’d rather not blog than be irrelevant.

I think there’s a t-shirt in that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss