Archive for September, 2007

Following on from the article Ten Writing Errors That Makes Your Blog Less Good, I want to look at some more writing tips.

Writingclasses.com lists George Orwell’s 12 Writing Tips, some key points include:

What am I trying to say?
Could I put it more shortly?
Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

10 Grammar Mistakes That Make You Look Stupid has some great examples of common grammatical errors including:

Using i.e or e.g correctly - The term i.e. means “that is”; e.g. means “for example.” And a comma follows both of them.

Words Words Words looks at The Top Ten Tips for Improving Your Writing, some of the highlights include:

Before you can be a writer, you must be a reader.
Know your audience.
Simple is better.
Don’t…

Learning how to design using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can be a little tricky for the beginner if you don’t figure out a few of the basics. One of the basic concepts in CSS is the box model.

CSS is the code that is used to define design in most modern web pages. Wordpress Blogs and Myspace layouts both require CSS.

The above diagram explains how The Box Model works. The entire diagram represents a single Div element in CSS. So if the div was the main text of a page, the width and height would define the area which text will fill. The padding would define the area between the text and the border. And the margin would define the area between the border and the next div element on the page. I hope this basic tutorial helps.

Pre dating your blog posts is rather simple, basically, you set the date of a post your are publishing to a date that will bury your post in your blog archive. Why? Well the idea of having a pre dated post would be to get content onto your site that may be considered less desirable to your core readers, but some how still useful to your blog as a whole. Before I go too far here, I want to state that I have never done this, and have no plans to do it in the immediate future, however, I do see some merits in the idea, which is why I think it is worthy of a post.

Some situations where predating your posts may be a useful idea:

People who use search engines can’t spell

There is large growth on the Internet based around the idea that people can’t spell. There are sites…

 
Every blogger loves getting new comments. Comments are blogging gold. Comments create 2 way conversation. Sometimes they add to the content of your posts. They create a community around your blog. So how do you get more of them?

Ask Questions - Ask questions in the writing of your articles that may prompt readers to answer them in the comment section. 
Invite Comments - Have a small remark above your comment form inviting users to add to your topic. Ask readers to respond to points in the body of the article.
Interact With Comments Left - Make sure you answer questions left in your comments section. Thank people who leave thoughtful comments.
Be Open Ended - Try and leave areas of the topic uncovered, so that users can add their thoughts. Theoretically if you covered every possible aspect of a topic, there would be no points for readers to jump in and add.
Have A Comments Policy…

Publishing video on your website or blog is now easier than ever, however there are some common mistake which should be avoided. With sites like YouTube seeding over 100 millions videos to users every day, video content is everywhere and there’s something for everyone. Here are some points to set you on the right path towards producing better video content for your site.

Use an appropriate codec. Codec stands for Compression decompression. Xvid, Mpeg4, DivX, Flv, Mov and Mpeg, are some common examples of codecs. Once you have selected your codec make sure you use it correctly. For the best quality and smallest file size you will want a codec that uses a 2-pass VBR (Variable Bit Rate).

Work with files that are as close to the original video source as possible. Even if you are compressing the video content down to a miniature size, editing it using the original source…