Change in Posting Schedule

Well, I guess it's time to hang it up (not totally). While I enjoy writing topics for this blog, it looks like I will have to put it on the back burner. I've changed jobs and am spending an extra 2 - 2.5 hours per day in traffic; that's better than 10 hours per week. If I had access to mass transportation, those would be some very productive hours. Unfortunately, that's not the case and I need to concentrate on my tech blogs (and I've shut down a few of those also).

I will continue to post here when I have something interesting to say but I won't be able to post regularly.

If anyone would like to post a guest entry, send me an email with the entry topic. It will be good for a link to your site and let people see what kind of content you write.

LewisC

Technorati : job, posting

Blog Editors

How To Make a Blog

I am a blog editor convert. If you aren't sure what a blog editor is, it's a graphical editor that makes it easy for you to write, save drafts and post blog entries. Have you ever been typing a blog entry and had the browser crash? Argh! Many of the blog editors have autosave so that you don't have to worry about that.

They also make including links, adding graphics, block quotes, etc very easy with a visual preview. Have you ever hand coded an HTML table for tabular data display? I hate doing that. With a blog editor, it's a couple of button clicks and then you just enter your data.

I've used several to see how they perform. I narrowed it down to two editors: Windows Live Writer and Zoundry Raven.

Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Writer (WLW) is a free offering from Microsoft. I'm not an MS basher. I think MS tends to write very usable software. WLW is a very good looking, very functional tool.

WLW has a graphical UI and follows along with most other MS GUI tools. It has plenty of features

Zoundry Raven

Even though WLW is a good tool, I have settled on Zoundry Raven. I've used the support forums and I have to say I am very happy with them. The tool itself fits the way I work. It's easy to configure and run.

Some of the better features are:

• A true WYSIWYG editor. When I post a blog entry, it looks on my blog exactly like it does on the editor.


• Multiple blog support. I write about 15 blogs now. I can easily select the blog I am working on, post to multiple blogs at once and view previously published blog entries at any time.


• Great trackback, ping and tag support. Global and blog configurations make these painless.


• It can run from a USB drive. Go on the road and take your blog editors (and your blog posts) on the road with you.

Depending on how you write and what you're looking for in an editor, I would recommend either of these editors. Both are free so you won't lose anything more than a little time by trying either (or both).

Technorati : blogging, editor, raven, zoundry

Del.icio.us : blogging, editor, raven, zoundry

How often should I post?

One of the golden rules of blogging (if you want to grow readership) is that you have to post frequently. That's doesn't mean multiple times per day but it does mean multiple times per week. It doesn't have to be long (I will talk about content and quality in a post later on) but it should be more than just, "I don't have time to post today".

If nothing else, do a google search on an interesting topic and post some links on that. For example, I can search on "blog frequency" and see what pops up.

Interestingly enough, I find a few good links such as, "Why blog post frequency does not matter anymore" and "Optimal blog posting frequency". I just both of these and they are very good.

Also, if you are posting for your own enjoyment, post as often, or as rarely, as you like.

That leads me to make the point that if you aren't having fun, it's just not worth it.

Take care,

LewisC

blog blogging frequency posting