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The Chicago Manual of Style

If you are a professional, you should know that one of the most common style guides used in writing used by professional authors, journalists, and bloggers is The Chicago Manual of Style by the University of Chicago Press. It is the style I utilize when writing about, well, everything.

If you want to learn more about The Chicago Manual of Style, there are three official ways to go about accomplishing this: (1) you could purchase The Chicago Manual of Style book from most retail book stores; (2) you could visit The Chicago Manual of Style Online website, and (3) you learn by using both.

I must admit, I have never been one to buy that many books, but things are changing—I have decided to purchase The Chicago Manual of Style (it will be arriving soon). It has received hundreds of five-star reviews, and for good reason, it is the quintessential guide to writing. It is a must-have if you are going to take your writing skills to the next level.

Still, I have, for the most part, utilized The Chicago Manual of Style Online to do my research on writing. I constantly have that website open. It is always the first tab on my Firefox browser. Now, when I first started using the site, I didn’t really think it was going to be as interesting, but I find myself always going back to it. Maybe I’m a hardcore wordsmith or something, but I just find it amazing that all this information is available online for free. (As a matter of fact, I used it just a few moments ago while making the list presented above. I couldn’t recall if list items were supposed to have a following period or surrounded by parenthesis. I know that I have a horrible memory!)

Well, I should mention that The Chicago Manual of Style Online is not free per se. It is free for 30 days—you sign up for an account on The Chicago Manual of Style Online website, and you are given unlimited access to it for 30 days. After that, you are required to pay $30 per year. Now, those clever enough to outsmart the system could find a way around this, but I will leave that up to your ethical values. Regardless, the $30 annual fee is well-spent if you decide to use this site as a reference for your future writing.

Anyways, if you want to improve your writing, check out The Chicago Manual of Style book or The Chicago Manual of Style Online website.

You and your readers will be be glad you did.

Do You Effectively Use That Sidebar?

VandelayDesign has published an extensive article (Effective Use of Blog Sidebars) detailing the effective use of blog sidebars. Sidebars are known as areas on a blog that stretch vertically where things such as widgets, or snippets of code can be placed. Sidebars are prime real estate to highlight various sections of your blog. The types of content most commonly seen within sidebars is, RSS subscription information, recent comments, most popular posts, recent posts and third party widgets.

After reading this article, it’s made me rethink my use of sidebars. I used to place anything of misc. origin into the sidebar as I didn’t know where else to put it. But now I think I’ll go through my blog and give my sidebar a purpose and make it more usable to visitors, especially those new to the site.

In what ways have you used your own blogs sidebar? Do you use it to highlight content or do you use it to house third party widgets/services? Which sidebar configuration do you use/prefer? I typically enjoy using a large column for content along with a large column at least 300 pixels wide for the sidebar. But the VandelayDesign website showcases how two columns for sidebars can be pulled off effectively.

BoingBoing Extinguishes The Flames

Not long ago, I wrote a post which commented on the BoingBoing/Violet Blue situation where Violet Blue, a one time contributor to BoingBoing discovered that all of her posts on the site had been unpublished. Today, the NYTimes has an in depth piece which continues the story and the backlash which has come from fans of the site.

After reading the article, it’s worth noting that the unpublishing of Violet’s posts had taken place over one year ago. Only recently has it been discovered that all of her posts were unpublished. Because BoingBoing did not properly address this issue at the time of it taking place, this recent development spurred rumors and conspiracy theories up the ying yang. The backlash of comments have given BoingBoing a chance to reassess their decision to unpublish her posts but so far, her posts have yet to be reinstated on the blog.

By the way, BoingBoing did publish a post back on July 1st which has seemingly cleared the muddy waters.

Here is a quote from the NYTimes article by Jardin who is one of the contributors to Boing Boing.

“Any unpublishing of a statement,” Ms. Jardin said, “can become a really big thing. We are no longer just a small personal blog, obviously, and the way I think about the blog has changed.”

This is the subject that I wanted to discuss with you. They are few and far between, but have any of you been able to turn a mediocre blog into something much bigger? So big in fact that you had to reassess the way you make decisions in relation to the blog? For a small personal blog, you can easily make the decision to just delete someone’s comment or to delete a guest post. But, once you become a big player in the blogosphere with a dedicated following, if you screw up, there is that possibility that if you are not transparent about the situation, your readers will pile on like a mob and let you know about it. Thus, I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who has managed a blog that has had to go through an experience similar to the one BoingBoing has gone through. How did you handle the pressure, the constant barrage of conspiracies and rumors from your audience?

What Keeps You Going?

Lorelle Van Fossen over at the BlogHerald asks, “What Fuels Your Blog“?

There are a few things which keep me blogging. The first is, having my say. I use my blog as a soapbox as well as a conversation starter. Blogs give everyone a unique voice and despite the noise that is generated on an hourly basis in the blogosphere, it’s great to have a place to openly share thoughts and ideas.

The second thing that fuels me are the comments. I love receiving comments which add on to something I started. I love getting involved in conversations centered around a particular post because I never know where I’ll end up when the conversation ends. It’s like a continuation of education.

The third thing that fuels me is community. I am big into community and I love the community atmosphere. I have this drive within me to either create a passionate community or be a leader within an existing community. Communities are places where I can get along with most other people, agree to disagree, and call a home away from home. Communities are special places which are painstakingly hard to create which is why I place so much value into them in the first place.

So, those are three things which fuel my blog/blogging. Why not share with us what fuels your blogging?

Do Posting Schedules Really Matter

Out of all of the blogs I read concerning tips for blogging, I’ve found at least one tip that is consistent among all of the others, and that is ‘abiding by a post schedule‘. The tip usually goes a little something like this:

Create a posting schedule and abide by it so your readers get a sense of consistency and they are not left wondering what’s next.

In this day in age, is a posting schedule really necessary? Sure, a posting schedule would let readers know when to expect something to be posted on the blog. But, with the advent of RSS, readers can be notified when you update your blog with new content, which means they will see it, whenever you decide to publish it. Unlike most other bloggers, I only seem to be able to blog and publish in the same session, rather than writing posts for future dates. I might have one post today, three tomorrow, none the next day and one the day after. But with RSS, people will always be up to date without having to constantly visit the website to look for new content.

I do have an argument in mind that one could use in relation to a posting schedule, but I’ll see if one of you bring it up first in the comments. So, with that being said, how many of you have actually created a posting schedule and then followed it to a T?

As a follow up, what would that posting schedule be? For example, do you publish a post once a day, once a week or once a month?

Controversy—Fast Results with, Potentially, Big Consequences

Controversy is a tactic bloggers use to generate a buzz about their blog. Think of it like getting into a fight with your sibling or best friend, but within the blogosphere, everyone can read how you approached the situation. You could generate controversy aimed towards an important or noticeable topic, but you could also create controversy with another blogger. I would prefer the former option, but that is completely up to you. Regardless, it should be used sparingly (unless your blog is focused on this type of material).

There are both good and bad points to using controversy, but it is up to you to weigh the risks and rewards.

Pros

  • Lots of traffic in a short amount of time
  • Can bring you many subscribers
  • Gets you in the spotlight
  • Can make you seem like a genius if you come out on top
  • Can instantly make you a reputable source
  • Can make you an overnight star within the blogosphere

Cons

  • Can harm your reputation
  • Can cost you subscribers and viewers
  • Can come back to haunt you later on
  • Might earn yourself some haters (people who love to disapprove of your blog and/or name on the internet)
  • Could forever hurt your chances of reaching success

Be Careful

I must again reiterate my advice of only playing the controversy card sparingly. It can quickly become annoying. It will also lose its effect if it is done often. Also, I find it difficult to seriously follow someone who appears to always be making drama for the sake of being in the spotlight.

So tell me, what has been your most controversial article? Also, do you believe controversy is a worthy thing to manufacture for the sake of being noticed?

What Is Social Media

So what the heck IS social media? If you don’t know the answer to that question, this SlideShare presentation will do a good job answering it for you. This presentation was created by Marta Kagan, a self acclaimed social media evangelist + online marketing pro. Special thanks to her for uploading this to SlideShare and allowing people to pass it along.

I’ve gone through most of the presentation myself and although I already had a good idea as to what Social Media was all about, this presentation gives you a ton of numbers to think about and it just makes sense.

Let me know what you learned from the slideshow in the comments.