Private Blogs

One of the neat functions of WordPress.com is the ability to have private, password-protected blogs for only those people you invite.

I have developed a couple of these private blogs, so this post on my public blog is intended to give a step-by-step guide to getting a WordPress.com account so I can add you as a user. If you want to create your own private blog, you can go to the WordPress.com documentation to learn about that.
One way to get access is to go to WordPress.com and sign up for a new blog, as described here. If you get a blog, all you need to do is send me an email telling me you now have a WordPress.com username, and I can add you to the private blog, too.

Another option is to click on the private blog URL I sent you via email, which will bring up a screen like this:


Click the link on the left that says “you can get one in seconds” and you will see a screen like this:


Use your own email address and pick a different username, of course…and if you don’t want a blog of your own, but only want a username, check the boxes as above and then hit the Next button.

Then you will get an email message with a link to click to validate your account (which makes sure you didn’t enter a fake address.) Once you have clicked that link, you will be presented a screen with your wordpress.com password. I would suggest you then log in to wordpress.com and proceed to immediately change the password to something you will remember.

Then you need to send a message to me (or the administrator of whatever other private WordPress.com blog you’re wanting to join), asking to be added.

If you’re one of the chosen blog members, you’ll get an email back saying you have been added and that you will now enjoy the bliss of blogging.

I hope this visual tour is helpful.

A Septuagenarian Blogger

The Washington Post has an article about hotel CEO J.W. “Bill” Marriott and his new blog.

Right now, his is the only Marriott blog, and he dictates his posts into a tape recorder for transcribing. But it’s pretty clearly not just PR spin; you can also listen to the audio version, and these are his thoughts and reflections that are being converted to text.

So if a blog with video is called a vlog, what’s a blog with audio? An alog?

It will be interesting to see where they take this, and whether other employees such as hotel managers start blogging.

They seem to have thought through some of the implications of having a public blog, as indicated in their terms of use when you add a comment. Comments are moderated, and they say that just as they would ask someone to leave if they were shouting at the top of his lungs in their hotel lobby, they are going to expect decorum in the blog.

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Joining the Persons of the Year

When I presented at the Wisconsin Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Society meeting in October, I concluded with some recommendations on how to get started exploring social media. For people in communications-related fields, if you haven’t yet taken those steps, now is a good time.

With more than 65,000 videos being uploaded to YouTube each day, and more than 100 million videos served there daily, and with Technorati tracking more than 57 million blogs, communications professionals of all people should be participating and understanding the implications.

Some reports have indicated that the rapid growth of the blogosphere has slowed, and it’s clear the number of blogs can’t keep doubling every six months…but as Time has noted, critical mass already has been reached.

Traditional media will continue to be highly important for communication, and will be particularly cost-effective if you are participating as a newsmaker rather than as an advertiser. They are staking their claim in the on-line world too, but they have lots of company. And with lots of company means smaller communities gathered in their spaces, which has definite economic implications.

Unless you’re Coke or Pepsi and are trying to get someone to buy your product almost every day, the world of tags and links will be increasingly important. When people have a problem and want to check out their options, they will find their solution-providers on the web. And in a Long Tail world, it doesn’t matter how specialized your niche is; in some ways, narrower is better…as long as you are able to serve a geographically scattered population.

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Blip.TV vs. YouTube

I’ve been experimenting a bit with Blip.TV over the weekend. At first blush it seems to have some significant benefits as compared to YouTube.

Unlike YouTube, Blip.TV doesn’t have its own graphic identity or “bug” inserted into your video when you link to it from your blog. For example, here’s how the video I produced from the Austin, Minn. girls basketball team’s win over Rochester Mayo Friday night appears in YouTube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiN2dTq_EB4]

For organizations that may not want to be tied with the YouTube brand, that little “bug” in the lower right corner may be less than desirable.

I do want to stress, as I have earlier, that YouTube is ridiculously easy to use and has a great interface. For individuals who want to just share their fun and quirky video, it’s a great place for self-expression. And CBS has found it a worthwhile place to post clips, and that it has increased broadcast viewership for featured programs.

Clearly the potential traffic that can come to clips from being on YouTube, with its huge daily traffic, also is an advantage, although a file I recently uploaded to both services has gotten more views on Blip.TV. Maybe the larger volume of available clips on YouTube means those on Blip.TV get more exposure because the field isn’t as crowded.

Blip.TV, on the other hand, lets clip owners maintain all of their ownership rights, and share 50/50 in any advertising revenue. It also seems to have lots of options for posting video in different formats. The progress bar on uploads also is more helpful than what you see in YouTube. YouTube never lets you know how much longer the upload will take, until it suddenly is completed.

Blip.TV seems a lot more complicated than YouTube. That’s probably as it should be. If your main goal is to quickly and easily get your video to the web to share it, YouTube is easier (although uploading through Blip.TV is just a one-screen simple entry.) For people who want to clearly and unambiguously retain rights in their video creations, the added complexity of more options will likely be worth it.

As I said, I need to explore some more with Blip.TV to better understand its power and how it works. One good place for more info is the company’s blog.

For example, I haven’t yet figured out how to incorporate Blip.TV videos directly within this WordPress.com blog. The best I can do right now is link to it. You need to click to see it instead of it being an in-line graphic. I do like the higher quality of the QuickTime, though.

I just remembered that Jeff Jarvis did a post a while ago comparing various on-line video services. It seems his observations are similar to mine, that Blip.TV has respectable traffic and better quality, but YouTube is really easy. He also reviewed some other services that I haven’t yet tried.

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Blog Marketing Tips

Sean Johnson has an interesting post on how to get a successful blog up and running in six weeks. I don’t know whether the six-week timeframe is realistic; Technorati’s most recent state-of-the-blogosphere report outlined some differences between what it classifies as blogs with low, middle and high authority:

The Low Authority Group (3-9 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

The average blog age (the number of days that the blog has been in existence) is about 228 days, which shows a real commitment to blogging. However, bloggers of this type average only 12 posts per month, meaning that their posting habits are generally dedicated but infrequent.

The Middle Authority Group (10-99 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

This contrasts somewhat with the second group, which enjoys an average age not much older than the first at 260 days and which posts 50% more frequently than the first. There is a clear correlation between posting volume and Technorati authority ranking.

The High Authority Group (100-499 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

The third group represents a decided shift in blog age while not blogging much more frequently than the last. In keeping with the theme of the maturation of the blogosphere, it seems evident that many of these bloggers were previously in category two and have grown in authority organically over time. In other words, sheer dedication pays off over time.

Beyond that is the elite group with the highest authority. Interestingly 42 days, or six weeks, doesn’t seem to be a long enough time to even get to the “middle authority” group. I agree you can get a good start at six weeks, but as the Technorati report says, sheer dedication over time is what makes the difference between the middle and high authority blogs.

I’m not sure what Sean would define as “successful” but he does have a good list of potential blogging benefits. I guess you could be successful in achieving some of those goals without reaching a higher authority level, and within a relatively short time, but I see the six-week figure as helpful mainly because it’s long enough to create a blogging habit which, if continued, can lead to longer-term success. Steve Rubel’s list of tips says much the same; keep at it and bank on the Long Tail to get results over time.

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