billso.com

I’m spending some time this week importing some of the better articles from my old blogs. Before I installed WordPress here on billso.com in January 2007, I used Bloglines.com.

The blogging tools that Bloglines provided left a lot to be desired, however. In fact, that user interface hasn’t changed very much in the last 2 years. It is very difficult to export these old articles to other systems.

My old articles were posted to Bloglines during 2005 and 2006, and I’m tired of supporting links to a legacy system. But I didn’t want to lose my articles from the October 2006 earthquake.

I am keeping the time-date stamps for these old articles, and I am adding an imported category to my content management system (CMS) here at billso.com. Each of these old articles includes a link to the original Bloglines URL, so that Google and other search engines can find the new locations.

I completed some tweaks to the blog Thursday evening, and they’re worth mentioning.

It’s easy to update articles in WordPress, the server software I use for this blog. Sometimes I edit an article to include new links or updated information.

The 3 September article on ad blocking is a good example. I updated that article today, and now the article’s header looks like this:

Notice the text that says “Updated” – this indicates when I changed this article.

I’ve also made it easier to see blog articles that have comments by adding a visible hyperlink after the article’s title. Sometimes I add comments to an article instead of updating the article itself, and sometimes user have added their own comments:

This screenshot also shows the new format I’m using to display articles on the home page and in search results.
An excerpt of the articles first words will appear, followed by the relevant hyperlinked tags. Just click the article title or the (more…) link to see the entire article. This is a good way to get additional clicks from readers, and to pull them deeper into a web site.

The excerpt isn’t a summary or abstract of the article. It’s just enough text to show the reader how the article begins.

I display excerpts on the home page and in search results to keep these pages small. This helps keep the site responsive and usable for readers with mobile device or limited bandwidth. Google Analytics has shown me that most users access this site at broadband speeds, but I want to accommodate all users, as discussed here.

Of course, the RSS feeds on this site will always display the entire article, including tags. Most RSS readers will also retrieve the updated version of each article.

I’ve found a tool that lets me embed streaming videos in my blog articles.

I used it yesterday to add a 1994 industrial film about the Web to a post I had written earlier in the day.

Here’s a CBC report from the same era. It’s about Videotron, which wasn’t the Web. It was just butt ugly.

From the New York Times: Robert Scoble, who doesn’t think much of my web host, Dreamhost, does think there’s a future for professional bloggers.

Blog about something you love or know well. The readers will follow.

As Chris Pearson points out, anyone who wants to write a successful blog needs to be passionate about their subject matter, and willing to find good tools like WordPress and a good template. Chris claims that a blog can attract a core audience with as few as 10 authoritative, well-written articles.

I’d argue that authority has become a key success factor for blogs.

There are more than a few bloggers who don’t need another job. They earn enough revenue from the ads and subscriptions in their blog. Malia Zimmerman maintains that HawaiiReporter.com isn’t a blog, but the site produces enough income to let her do what she wants.

There are also people who make their living running other people’s blogs, but that’s a story for another day.

HELP PAGES AND TOPICS

• About Bill Sodeman and billso.com
• Academic honesty
• APA formatting and style
• Article titles
• Categories for articles and pages
• Comments about articles and pages on this blog
• Courses that I teach at Hawaii Pacific University
• Finding references for papers and assignments
• Mobile support for PDAs, smartphones, mobile phones, iPhones and iPods
• Privacy
• RSS feeds that readers can use to receive new posts automatically in a feedreader or email application
• Tags displayed in a cloud, with links to archive pages for each tag.

SITE NAVIGATION

If you have a suggestion for a new service, email me.

The menu at the top of the site has links to several landing pages and features.

Almost every page, post and article on this blog is available through several landing pages:

• site search – available at the top of the right sidebar, along with a Google search field.
• sitemap – a list of every page and the most recent articles on the site, along with a list of monthly archives.
• direct access through URLs - students do not need to log into Campus Pipeline to access this blog.
• lists of related posts or articles, appearing on some articles and pages.

I use the terms “posts” and “articles” interchangeably – they mean the same thing. These pages are linked to specific dates on the site calendar, and they’ll appear on the home page, as well as the daily, monthly and annual archive pages.

I also maintain dedicated pages for my courses and specific topics. Pages are not linked to a specific date, but they do display the most recent date they were edited.

USABILITY

I’ve added print-friendly links on the pages and articles. The print-friendly links had been removed on 5 April 2008 because of a software bug. (Added 16 May 2008)

Mobile and PDA users are automatically directed to a specially formatted version of the site at m.billso.com. Our server detects and supports most mobile web browsers. (added March 2007, updated February 2008)

There’s a calendar on most pages of this site. Links display the posts for specific days. I also list assignment due dates on the calendar for my courses.

Our favicon appears in the address bar of most web browsers. This is a miniature version of the mighty billso logo. Look for this icon in your bookmarks, favorites, newsreader and address bar.

BILLSO.COM FEATURES THAT HAVE BEEN DEPRECATED OR REMOVED

I was using reCAPTCHA as a spam deterrent in the comments boxes. I added the feature on 6 June 2007, and disabled it on 5 May 2008.

I used to repost my articles on Facebook but I stopped that service in Janaury 2008, because Facebook doesn’t provide efficient tools for managing comments on its site.

Our custom button allows users to search the entire site within the Google Toolbar. Free software required. Supports Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows and the Mac. (added 6 June 2007)