Amber Smith

Today I’m handing my blog over to veteran journalist and blogger Amber Smith, a friend and former colleague of mine at The Post-Standard in Syracuse. In her free time, she blogs about dementia at DementiAwareness. She offers some thoughtful lessons for journalists trying to navigate the changing world of media.

It’s a new world “out there” on the Internet, they say, a wide open space, untamed and unlimited, a perfect spot for journalists (and anyone else) to carve out a niche and have a say. For many folks that means blogging.
With a quarter century of newspapering under my belt, mostly as a health writer at The Post-Standard in Syracuse, I launched a blog called DementiAwareness  earlier this year. What freedom! I could choose the stories I want to write, and how to write them. I could write as long as I wanted. My deadline could be whatever I choose.
 For someone who has only worked within the grind of a daily newspaper, such freedom can be enticing. But freedom without discipline is, well, sort of a lost opportunity.

As an independent blogger, I am a sole proprietor. I write the articles, edit them and present them graphically. I handle any advertising that goes on the blog, and I market the blog. If I slack off in any of those roles, everything suffers. If my content isn’t engaging, no one will read it. If no one is reading, even fewer people will advertise. If no one can find my content because the headlines are not search-optimized or because the copy contains too few words or too few relevant links, same thing, no one will read, no one will advertise. If I do nothing to market my blog, same thing. You get the idea. That sought-after “freedom” quickly reveals itself as another ball-and-chain.

Lucky for me—and for many of my fellow bloggers and would-be bloggers—I like what I do. (Even though it’s changing. See “How Journalism Can Change.”) Journalism is a calling. No matter the format of print, web or audio, it’s got ethics and “rules” and standard ways of doing things. The more I blog, the more I realize how many of those credos of journalism apply (and a few that don’t) to the new world of blogging. See if you agree.
(And come back tomorrow, when I’ll discuss how some of the standard practices of newspaper journalists apply—or don’t—to blogging journalists.)
 
1. If your mother says she loves you, check it out.

 Maybe only the most cynical newspaper reporters abide by this line, but I think it’s even more prudent for bloggers to follow. It just means to double check everything, which is probably more important in the Internet age when  rumors and “tweets” get passed around as fact. Take the time to verify with credible sources before hitting “publish.”
 
When an independent panel of the National Institutes of Health issued a lengthy statement about Alzheimer’s disease at the end of April, I believed all the headlines I read online that said Alzheimer’s preventives showed no promise – until I interviewed Alzheimer’s researchers. I should have realized that a 21-page report can’t be summed up in a headline. There are preventive methods that are showing plenty of promise — which will make a nice blog post for DementiAwareness. 
 
2. Just the facts, ma’am.

The quintessential reporter’s statement of “just the facts, ma’am” may work well for someone on deadline, covering breaking news for a newspaper or news website.  But it proclaims a lack of interest in context.
 
Most blogs aren’t competing to break news on deadline. Therefore, blogging journalists are the perfect people to scoop up everything else after the facts are disseminated. Let the news organization write about the accident at the intersection. Bloggers can focus on the bigger picture — how this was the third accident in as many months, how the driver who caused the accident was texting at the time, how neighbors had been petitioning for traffic lighting at the intersection. This is nothing more than thorough reporting, but with news organizations so thinly staffed, some of this work goes undone.
 
3. If it bleeds, it leads.

Many newsrooms, particularly television, followed this mantra for the better part of the 1980s and 1990s as a way to boost ratings. (Some still do!) Now that news organizations are chasing “hits” on line, their staff pay attention to trending topics on Google and Twitter and other social media platforms. This information can dictate coverage. Indeed, some web sites are shaped almost entirely by topics that rank high with search engines.
 
While it’s tempting to blog about what’s trending — and sometimes it makes imminent sense to — bear in mind that that is generally the easy way out. Many blogs regurgitate the news of the day, often without adding anything, and many simply comment on the news of the day. Some succeed at this, but many do not. Decide what you want your blog to be, what makes sense for your topic area, what will be most useful to your readers, most gratifying for you — and don’t sway from your strategy just because you think it will generate hits.
 
4. What have you got for me today?

Crusty old city editors (as well as brand new ones) in newsrooms of all sizes bark this daily question to beat reporters, who invariably strive to have something to offer. This is a good practice. For bloggers who don’t have editors breathing down our necks, we must use our imaginations. 
 
Is this a way of saying the blog needs new material every day? Well, yes,  just about every day, if possible. This is not iron clad. But it’s a good goal. Think about your readers. Ideally, every time they visit your blog, they’ll find a reason to be glad they came.
 
5. A reporter is only as good as his/her sources.

This is true of newspaper reporters and bloggers. You set the standards for your blog by quoting and linking to quality sources. Are you happy with linking to other news outlets? Or do you want to link to the sources to which those news outlets are linking? This is your credibility we’re talking about here.  Take some extra time to do some digging (i.e. reporting) on your own, and you boost your credibility. The lazy way is to skip links altogether, or to link to predictable sites with which everyone is already familiar.
 
When a study comes out about Alzheimer’s disease, I have three options: 1. I could paraphrase a couple of paragraphs that I read on WedMD. 2. I could create a post about the study that links to WebMD. 3. I could locate a news release about the study from the university where it was conducted and/or locate the abstract of the study from the journal in which it was published, and then create a post that links to those primary sources. You might be surprised how often news outlets fail to tell the complete story, miss the main point, or — yes — even get something wrong. Checking it out yourself helps make sure you don’t make the same mistake.
 
6. You’re only as good as your last story.

No newspaper journalist can rest on his or her laurels for too long. The big front page story of Tuesday begins to fade as soon as the big front page story of Wednesday rolls off the presses. The take-away for bloggers is about staying on top of your game. However, unlike newspaper reporters of the 20th century, bloggers have their whole body of work just a Google search away. Bloggers’ best work continues to generate page views long after they post.
 
What becomes extra important for the blogger isn’t just a choice subject matter but also a search-engine-optimized headline and post full of relevant links and images. These may seem like tedious details, but they are the very steps that will give your stories staying power.

Be sure to stop back here tomorrow to read Amber’s follow-up post. Follower her on Twitter.

 I’d say the Syracuse BizBuzz Social Media Conference this week was a great success.

The buzz was about 325 people showed up. The whole experience was pretty exciting — to be around so many people who want to get more connected and engaged online.

A few hiccups, of course: WiFi was really spotty in the main conference area, especially if you use Verizon, as I do. I wanted to live-tweet keynoter Dave Evans,  author of “Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day,” but to do that I had to borrow a friend’s Mac to do so. (The conference offered a login to get free Wi-Fi from the Oncenter, but it didn’t work that well for phones.)

That aside, I met some great people. Shared ideas. Learned some technical tips, especially during the Linked-In seminar. But for me the best takeaway is that we’re part of a something new and exciting. The tips on how to tweet or blog or connect on Linked-In matter less than the energy that spurs us to do it.

If you couldn’t make it to Biz Buzz, here is the power point from my speech on blogging for business. It was aimed to business professionals, but the tips are really relevants for anyone who wants to use their blog to engage. Enjoy.

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Time for some short-takes, my version of cool stuff you should read from around the journo/techie blogosphere:

Measuring your site’s value: With all the tools available to measure the worth of  your blog or news site, it can get confusing. Are page views more important than unique visitors? Would you rather have fewer visitors who spend more time on your site or more who spend less time? What about the traffic burst your get if a VIP tweets your post? Does that help you long term?

All good questions without easy answers. Like many things on the Web, the answer is: It depends.

Brian Cubbison (full disclosure a friend and former colleague) makes a good argument on his new Future News Blog that a time spent on the site metric doesn’t tell the whole story of a site’s worth.  Cubbison notes that the very way we use online media can impact — or corrupt — what this metric is measuring. Good read.

Dear journalism students: Ryan Sholin has some great tips for student journalists. The first among them is both simple and vital: Blog. I require my news writing students to blog not because they are likely to make money off blogging. But because blogging is part of the new journalism. You get better at things as you do regularly, and one of the best ways to learn is by doing. What the future of journalism will look like, none of us really knows.  So it makes sense to be prepared on all fronts.

Blogging is personal: One of the aspects of blogging that many in the traditional journalism world can’t seem to embrace is that blogging is personal. It’s not a news story. It’s not meant to be a news story, and there’s really nothing wrong with that.

The traditional distance that journalists put between themselves and the readers didn’t guarantee their stories were more fair or objective or balanced. But in some cases it made the news seem more disconnected from the reader.

ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse writes a powerful  post about the connection between blogger and reader. Now Rowse is a super-star, but even I can attest on my lowly blog here that I felt that kind of connection with some of you, my readers. And, honestly, that’s nothing like what I felt writing traditional news stories for 20 years.

What would Newmark do? Interesting interview on InternetNews with Craig Newmark, the founder of the wildly popular Craigslist. He asserts that people are relying “more and more on critics they trust and their friends” for information. The message for newspapers in that, Newmark says, is they must gain readers’ trust.  “I would say that trust is the new black,” he says in the piece.

Catch the Wave: OK, so you get that Google Wave invite but then what. I’m among the many folks who are thrilled to be on Google Wave but don’t yet quite know what the heck to do on it. Robert Quigley,  of New Media, Old Tricks,  is light-years ahead of me and explains how he used Google Wave to discuss the news. Cool stuff. Much to learn. Suggest you read it and another piece by Quigley explaining potential journalistic uses of Wave.

And if you’re on Google Wave and know how to add me as a contact, please do so. Want to start connecting!

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Time for short-takes: interesting posts from my travels around the blogosphere.

Branding yourself: No, I’m not talking cattle branding here. I’m talking about branding yourself as a journalist, as in getting your name out there. Journalists today need to market themselves. People need to be able to find your name, your blog, your Linked-In profile as they assess whether to talk to you, hire your, write about you. The goal, I think, is that when you Google your own name, you come up as the first listing. Try it. Type your own name into Google, and see what comes up. If it’s you, great; if it’s not, you need to focus more on branding. Mindy McAdams has a thorough list of why you need to self-brand, and she also pulls together what other bloggers have said on the topic. Alfred Hermida, writing at MediaShift, explains the why of the personal brand, including a suggestion that you buy your own name as a domain. Now. (You can check if your name is already taken here.) Both posts are really worth reading.

Start commenting already: One of the best ways to let people in your topic niche know about your blog is to comment on their blogs. Bloggers will often check out the blogs of people who comment on their blogs, and then, voila, they may keep coming back if they like what they see. This is particularly true of blogs that don’t get tons of traffic. (The A-listers get so many comments they likely don’t have time to check out every site, but that doesn’t mean other readers on their sites won’t check out your blog if you comment on an A-list blog.)

Blogging is virtual networking — you must connected to feel connected. Linkers Blog offers a simple step-by-step on how to get commenting. By the way, I know it’s hard to find the time to do this. I struggle with that as well. My best advice: Set up a time each week — even just 30 minutes — to comment on other blogs you read. Make comments relevant, and say something. (No, “Good post, dude.”)

Plus, as Yan Susanto points out at Thou Shall Blog, some blogs are set up so that when you comment, you get an automatic link back to your site. That helps increase the inbound links to your blog, which boosts your relevance in Google’s search algorithm. And that elevates your chances of coming up higher in a search.

The Frustrated Journalist: A few weeks ago, I came upon a new blog, The Frustrated Journalist. I just loved the name, as there is sure a lot to be frustrated about related to journalism these days. It appears the unidentified blogger was looking for a forum for a group vent on the state of this industry we love. While I’m usually opposed to anonymous journo blogs, I’d make an exception in this case, as I’d hate to see the frustrated journalist turn into the frustrated and unemployed journalist.

The debut post bemoans the lack of innovation going on in some corners of the journalism world today. The second was called open mic and solicited observations from others. Then, that was it. I fear frustrated journalist has become even more frustrated with the lack of response from the blogosphere, so check out the blog and give him or her some input. We can all use some group therapy once in a while. (And frustrated journalist, keep writing!)

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Some big news here at the Save the Media blog. Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab has asked me to throw some blog posts their way. I’m quite excited about it. The blog is a compilation of a variety of bloggers — one of whom now will be me — who write about the transformation in journalism, the quest for new business models, how to improve the industry. The blog is a bit like a dynamic think tank in real time.

I’ve been reading Nieman for a while and find it a useful place for finding out the latest buzz in the journalism world and what solutions for the industry’s woes others have. I’m truly honored to be part of it.

But it is important to know:

• I’ll still be blogging at Save the Media. Any post I write for Nieman will start here, too, so you can read me either place. I’ll be saving some blog posts just for my Save the Media readers. So be sure to check this blog.

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A few short-takes of interesting finds around the blogosphere. Hope you find them useful.

Be authentic: Sure, news organizations try to be authoritative, reliable and popular. But Ryan Sholin, director of news innovation at Publish2, writes at Invisible Inkling that authenticity is vital as news organizations try to engage their community in the social media world. He offers five ways to be authentic, including “be human” and “be everywhere.”

Today, he expanded on his authenticity post and explained how to teach it to young journalists during a live chat at P0ynterOnline. Really good, specific suggestions for j-profs or anyone trying to understand how to make social media work in a professional sense.

I like the whole concept of authenticity on the Web because I think it deals with the concern of ethical breaches as journalists engage readers. If you’re authentic — which includes honesty and forthrightness and decency in my mind — you’re not going to have a problem with breaching anything. To me, authenticity would makes it needless to impose cumbersome rules for journalists’ social media use.

A newsroom from scratch: I talk a lot on this blog about what an online-first newsroom might look like, but that talk is about converting an existing newsroom. What if you had the luxury of gutting the place and creating your dream newsroom? That’s just what Martin Langeveld did in his post at Nieman Journalism Lab. He offers some simple tips, such as realize you have a global audience and mention the name of your community on your Web site.  Good read all around.

What would Winnie the Pooh say? Copyblogger has an entertaining and thoughtful post channeling everyone’s favorite honey-loving bear with tips for bloggers. A sample: “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” Just pretend “Forest” is “Web,” and you’ll have an important example of  the mindset news organizations need to adopt online.  Read the rest of the tips, which are equally charming and useful.

Improving journalism: I always love when bloggers pull together a bunch of resources in one place, so it makes it easy for readers like me. Jeremy Porter at Journalistics has done that, compiling 30 organizations dedicated to  journalism, and commenters suggested additional groups. It’s worth reading and bookmarking for future reference.

A colleague and friend, Darren Sanefski, has started a new design blog, called Blogging Gestalt Design, and he was asking for some advice on how to get started, what to do on his blog, how to get it noticed.

I thought I’d answer him in the form of a blog post because his questions are ones any new blogger or blogger/journalist would ask.

One note before I get started: Don’t feel like you need to do all this in one day. Don’t be overwhelmed. It’s a checklist, but the world won’t end if you spread it out over time.

You’ve started you blog … now what?

• Introduce yourself: I advocate a first post that explains who you are, why you are blogging, and what qualifies you to blog on that topic.  That may include your education or work history or interests, depending on your blog topic. Think of it this way: When you meet a new person, you explain a bit about yourself. You’re meeting your readers (or potential readers) in this post.

• Set up an “About Me” page: This should include your name (real ones, please) where you’re from (town or community; we don’t need your street address), why you’re blogging and what qualifies you to blog on this topic. Yes, this may seem to duplicate your introductory blog post. That’s OK. The way blogs work, that introductory post will soon fade from sight, but your “About Me” page will stay. My preference is to have a truncated about me blurb on the main blog page that links to a separate “About Me” page. This way you give every reader a taste of who you are, but those who want more can get it, without clogging up your front page.  Include a real picture.

• Contact me: Set up a separate page (blogging platforms such as Word Press or Blogger should allow you to do this) for contact information. Some platforms may allow this to come in a form that pops up and allows people to e-mail you. I’d advise setting up a free e-mail account through Google or Yahoo or your blogging host and using that just for your blog. That way you’re not giving the whole world your personal e-mail.

• Read other blogs in your niche: Early on, perhaps even before posting on item, I’d suggest reading blogs in your niche topic area. You want to know what’s out there, who is writing about your topic and what they are saying. Blogging is a conversation, so reading other blogs in your niche is a way to ease into the conversation without seeming like the dork who jumps in with the awkward aside. To find blogs in your niche, do a simple Google search for your topic. When you find a blog you like, click on the blogs in that person’s blog roll (the list of blogs usually on the right side of the blog.) When you reach one you  like, check out that person’s blogroll, and so on. I’d suggest setting up an RSS feed to the blogs you like through a service such as Google reader. Here’s how to set it up, and some more tips for finding blogs in your niche.

• Set up a blogroll: This is a list, usually on the right sidebar of your blog, of blogs that your read or like or recommend. It gives your readers a sense of what you find worthy in a blog, and it can help your blog get noticed. If someone lists me in his or her blogroll, I always check out his or her blog. (I find out because it comes up as an “incoming link” in the back end of my blog where I view the traffic stats.) By listing a blogger in your roll, he or she may check out your blog and even blog about your blog. But do be choosy with your blogroll. You want it to be blogs that you really value because you’re giving them a stamp of approval.

• Claim your blog in Technorati: Technorati is part search engine, part blog-ranking tool. If you join and “claim your blog,” you’ll end up on its list, so people can find you there. It also gives you a list of your “interactions” — the number of times other blogs link to your blog. The more interactions, the better because the assumption is your content must be good if lots of blogs are linking to it. Unique interactions (links from different blogs) is best, compared to a bunch of links from the same blog. (A higher number of unique interactions can boost how your blog indexes in Google searches, meaning how close to first it comes up in a search for a particular word. Claiming a blog is just a fancy way of saying you grant Technorati access to examine your blog for new content. It entails letting spiders crawl on your blog, which may sound odd, but don’t fret. They are virtual spiders.  Get more details on the benefits of claiming your blog and how to do it here.

• Join social media: If you’re not on social media yet, join. My favorites are Twitter and Facebook. Social media are a way to expand your readership, tap into the community of readers in your niche and give people a heads-up that you’re blogging. Here are specific tips on how to use Facebook and  Twitter to promote your blog. For whatever social media you use, be sure to set up a profile and include your blog link and bio information. Many people, including me, won’t follow folks on Twitter whose profile isn’t filled out. When you post on your blog, tweet a link to your that post. Post the link on Facebook. That way you’re bringing your news to the readership, rather than making them come to you. You’ll also want to friend or follow people interested in your topic. Here are ways to find liked-minded people to follow on Twitter. I’d also suggest putting a Twitter badge on your blog that displays your tweets in real time, and creating a blogroll of your social media links (Facebook, Linked In, etc.) if you’re open to connecting with people through them.

• Think SEO: SEO, or search-engine optimization, is a way to help your blog come up in search, such as a Google search. It’s a way of making a computer, which handles searches, understand what your blog is about, so your posts will show up when people put relevant keywords into a search. This means writing headlines that say what you mean, so a computer can understand them. (A computer won’t get clever stuff like puns or alliteration or irony.) This also means using keywords relevant to your topic in the headline and first graphs when possible. (Don’t go overboard; remember, you want humans to understand your blog, too.) If your blog is really about your keywords, using those words should come naturally. For example, my blog is about journalism, media, newspapers and news, so I tend to use those keywords a lot without much effort. More SEO tips.

• Start writing: If you haven’t started blogging, start now. Don’t wait until everything is perfect about your blog. Unless you have unlimited time to spend on it, your blog won’t be perfect — ever. It’s a work in progress. Improve as you go, learn, discover. Sure, read over posts, spell check them and watch for errors and clunky writing. But don’t obsess. It’s a blog post, not a novel.
• Link to other blogs: When you’re writing a post, link to other bloggers who are writing about your topic. Build on what they are saying, debate it, applaud it, expand on it. Linking to other blogs inserts you into the community of your niche, and bloggers whose blogs you link to will likely check out yours. If they like what they see, maybe they’ll link to one of your posts. Here are more tips on linking and getting inbound links. Remember: The more unique inbound links — that’s the number of different blogs linking to your blog — the higher your blog will index in Google. This is especially true if the blogs that link to yours  are quality blogs with a lot of unique inbound links of their own.
• Respond to comments: Once you get comments (and it may take a while — don’t sweat it), respond to them. Blogging is a conversation with your readers. It’s not broadcasting like TV or even newspapers. You say something; readers talk back; you respond and so on. If you respond to comments early and often, you’ll likely get more comments and deter the trolls who just aim to stir up trouble. More advice on responding to comments on your blog.
• Have fun: Blogging should be fun. Unless you end up some type of blogging rock star, you likely won’t make tons (or any) money. But it’s a great way to help figure out what you think and express it to the world (or at least a few dozens friends).  Don’t worry about traffic at first. When I started this blog in December, I was jumping up and down if I got 30 pages views a day. In time, page views grew. But the real value of blogging, at least to me, is connecting with other people and getting to “talk” with them about a topic I love.

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Time for some short-takes, thoughtful ideas from across the blogosphere:

Media companies of the future: Chris Brogan, a new media marketing consultant, came up with his idea of what the next media company would look like, starting from scratch. I like his ideas, especially:

• Everything is modular and linkable. Everything is fluid. Meaning, if I want the publication to be a business periodical, then I don’t want to have to read a piece about sports. (Similar to my hyperinterest idea.)
• Curators and editors rule, and creators aren’t necessarily on staff.
• Paper isn’t dead: it’s on demand.
• Collaboration rules. Why should I pick the next cover? Why should my picture of the car crash be the best?

Be sure to read his whole list as well as Globe and Mail communities editor Mathew Ingram’s take on Brogan’s ideas. (And kudos to Ingram for tipping me off to Brogan’s lsit.)

How to save newspapers: MediaShift Executive Editor Mark Glaser offers 10 steps to saving newspapers on the Knight Foundation-funded blog. It’s a list worth reading. His best points, in my opinion:

• Create a bottom-up organization where innovation is encouraged and rewarded at the edges. Use good ideas from anyone.
• Replace circulation, printing, print production staff with tech, SEO, community managers.
• Find out what the community wants in real face-to-face meetings, not focus groups. Then do what they want.
• Produce mapping and database projects. Employ or train hacker-journalists

Social media rules: More on the continuing saga of news organizations coming up with rules that suck all the social out of social media. (If you’re late to this topic, get up to speed on The New York Times’ and The Wall Street Journal’s ill-advised social media policies.) The latest culprit is Bloomberg News’ policy, which forbids staffers from communicating on social media about any topic covered by Bloomberg News, according to Gawker. Patrick Thornton at Beat Blogging offers some commentary and links to a better approach for journalists using social media.

Social media is just conversation: Social media won’t save journalism; it’s just a tool to help journalists connect with readers. But it’s also not such a mystery. It’s really just a virtual version of what normal human beings have been doing for centuries — talking to each other, getting to know one another, sharing ideas.  Dave Fleet, a marketing, communications professional, explains this well in his post, “There’s Nothing Magical About Social Media Principles.” He’s not writing for journalists, but I think his message has much for journalists who are over-thinking social media, fearing it or seeing it as complicated or cumbersome. His best takeaways: target your audience, tailor your approach and remember, you rise and fall on relationships.

First,  a personal note. Sorry, I haven’t been blogging for a while. I’ve been quite ill, with a suspected case of swine flu. (I say “suspected” because at least in my community, doctors are only giving the “swine flu” test to hospitalized patients, which, thankfully, I was not.) I am starting to feel better now. I have much to share with you. (One thing being sick is good for — lots of time to think.) Here goes.

Following is a list of my top five six blogging mistakes. I admit, I’ve made each of them, as I’ve learned “on the job” so the speak. I’m not judging here; just sharing what I’ve learned. I see these mistakes frequently on my jogs around the blogosphere. The list is important for journalist bloggers, but I think it makes sense for most other bloggers, too. If I’ve missed a mistake on your “top five” list, please share and post a comment.

Mystery blogger: I hate when I have to hunt around on a blog to find out who the blogger is. I don’t want to have to click on your Google profile or your FriendFeed link to find out who you are. Just tell me. Thanks. Every blog should have an “About Me” page to tell readers about the blogger. Even better: A place on the main page that explains who you are. (Regular readers will notice I’ve taken my own advice and added this to my blog.)

Fake names: I know it’s fun to come up with some neat pen name for your blogging career, but I’d suggest you use your real name. Why? It helps me believe you more. It enhances your credibility. And it enables me or other readers to verify who you are? Plus, I just lose a bit of respect for someone who feels comfortable sounding off on a subject without letting people know who he or she is. A real name also helps you brand yourself as your name, which will be increasingly important as journalism becomes more entrepreneurial. And, as Penelope Trunk at Brazen Careerist, points out: It’s easier to network online using your real name. (By the way, Penelope apparently also committed the “fake name” sin. Penelope isn’t her real name, and she explains why here.)

(Now, I know fake names are common in some blogging genres, such as moms who write about their kids. The nom de plume is meant to protect the children’s privacy, so the whole world won’t know “Oh, you’re the one who wasn’t potty trained until age 5.” That’s a bit of a different case in my mind than a journalistic blog, and I’m less troubled by fake names on truly personal blogs like these.)

But for just about everyone else, use your real name. And while you’re at it, use a real picture, too. I love those cartoon avatars as much as anyone, but a real picture is, well, really you.

No links: If you’re updating a post, please link to the background. If you’re writing about an issue covered elsewhere, link to stories or blog posts about that issue. If you use a technical or medical term I might not understand, link to a definition. If you mention an organization or agency, link to it, so I can easily find out more information. If you’re commenting on a buzz across the Twitterverse, link to the tweets. If other bloggers are writing about your topic, link to their posts.

When I read a blog post that ignores the Web’s ability to link, I just see it as a missed opportunity. Linking makes things easier for your readers, and it offers journalists many other benefits, including making their jobs easier, says Ryan Sholin, director of news innovation at Publish2, in a great list of why to link at Beat Blogging. Here’s my own philosophy on why journalists should link, including: It will encourage other blogs to link to your blog, which helps you index higher in Google.

There’s no there, there: If you love what I’ve written, and you copy my first graph, paste it on your blog and say, “Gina Chen has a great post” and then link to it, I’ll be eternally grateful because you’ve expanded my audience and you’ve added an inbound link that will help me index higher in Google. But I’d be even happier if you read what I wrote, thought about it, digested it, and then blogged about what you think of the issue and linked to my post for context. The best blogs, I think, add to the conversation, by adding value, by saying something. Disagree. Agree. Expand. Dispute. Debate. Compare.

There certainly is a place for aggregator blogs, which summarize posts and link to them. Jim Romenesko’s blog at Poynter Online aggregates thoughtful posts and news stories related to journalism, and it’s on my must-read list every day. But not every blog can do that as well and comprehensively as he does. Blogging is a conversation, so a blogger must say something to have someone else say something back. That’s what really makes it a dynamic medium.

No response to comments: You read a blog post and find it insightful, so you post a comment, adding to what the blogger said and expanding the idea. You come to the blog a few hours or even days later. Nothing. No response. Your comment hangs out there like a failed joke told at a party, but even worse because now there’s an online record of you virtually talking to yourself. I strongly believe bloggers should respond to comments on their blogs. Being a blogger is a bit like being a host: You need to keep the conversation flowing, engage the guests and make it clear to the flaming idiots that their ilk won’t be tolerated.

When you respond to comments, you’ll likely get more comments, create a more interesting site (sometimes the banter in the comments can be the best part of a blog) and forestall the development of ”comment ghettos,” where commenters just hurl barbs at each other. Plus, it’s one of the fun parts of blogging — to be able to “talk” to your readers in real time. Old Media New Tricks offers a comprehensive list of how to navigate responding to comments on your blog.

No contact form: The thing about blogs is, if you want to say something to the blogger, you can always post a comment (unless, of course, that feature is turned off, which it shouldn’t be.) But what if you want to say something a bit more general, that isn’t related to a post. Or you want to invite the blogger to do a guest blog or speak at a panel discussion. That’s why a “contact me” form is vital. It’s an easy way for readers to reach the blogger. Adding an e-mail address is also a good idea. You can get free e-mail address through Yahoo or Google, so there’s no excuse not to set one up just for your blog. That way you’re not giving the whole world your personal e-mail. You can always e-mail me at savethemedia@yahoo.com.

What’s your blogging pet peeve? Share it. Post a comment. (I promise I’ll answer you back.)

Imagine a news Web site that’s a portal to everything people used to read in newspapers plus a bunch of things that newspapers were never able to provide. A cool idea, I think, but first it requires newspapers to embrace two provocative ideas:

1. The mass audience is dead.
2. The product of newspaper Web sites is not news.

No more mass audience

Radio lost the mass audience first when TV proliferated. Gone were the days when a large swathe of the American audience was listening to “Gunsmoke” or the “Avenger” on radio. TV started as a mass medium because there were few channels, so again, everybody seemed to watch “Laugh-In” or The Ed Sullivan Show.” But then as more and more TV networks started, people fell into niches. They could watch networks about just food or gardening or do-it-your-selfing or history. Few shows could garner the huge audiences of the past, but collectively, networks developed tight groups of devoted fans.

The same is happening now with the transition of newspapers to the Web. The old newspaper thinking was to reach a large, broad audience, which was often not highly invested in the news. That meant editors picked story topics that would appeal to the many, not the few. The Web, however, gives news organizations a chance to reach a lot of small but highly interested niches. New thinking is needed.

BuzzMachine blogger Jeff Jarvis called this the “mass of niches” in his recent book, “What Would Google Do?”

A colleague of mine, graphic artist Darren Sanefski, coined the word “hyperinterest” to explain how newspaper Web sites could cater to this “mass of niches” on the Web. He was playing on the term hyperlocal, which has come to mean a news Web site that is tailored specifically to a geographic area, such as a town, a city or even a neighborhood.

The thing is, people don’t always or only define themselves geographically. Some define themselves by their interests — skeet shooter, video gamer, foodie. Others define themselves by their needs — person in search of a baby sitter, newcomer to a community, job hunter. Still others define themselves by political interests, or personal agendas or avocation –  Democrat, tree hugger, soup kitchen volunteer. At different times, people may define themselves through any of these criteria or other ones, depending on what they need at that moment.

What if newspapers’ Web site helps these readers find what they wanted. To do that, news organizations must figure out what their product is.

What is a news organization’s product?

I’m guessing most in the newspaper industry think they sell news. I’d argue news was never the product even in the halcyon days when multiple newspapers competed in one city. In those days, newspapers delivered ads wrapped in news to readers. The product was really the ads, not the news.

Today, as newspapers try to transition to the Web, part of the product may still be ads. But part could be convenience.

Last week, I blogged about Tim Windsor’s question on the Nieman Journalism Lab blog about whether online news content is like bottled water. He asked how bottled water companies could essentially sell something most people in industrialized world can get for free. My answer: Bottled water companies aren’t selling the water; they’re selling convenience.

So what if newspaper Web sites offered convenience.  People read newspapers for lots of reasons that have nothing to do with news. Some like the coupons, the lottery numbers, the comics, the crossword puzzle. Anyone who has worked at a daily newspaper for any length of time knows that a quick way to elicit hundreds of angry phone calls is to repeat the same Jumble two days in a row.

A portal Web site

Imagine if a newspaper’s Web site didn’t look like a news Web site at all. Instead, when you entered the site, you faced a question: What do you want to do?  (I’m picturing it almost like Facebook’s “What’s on Your Mind?”)

You could pick from a pull-down  list of choices — find out the weather, read the top story, find the movie reviews, do a crossword puzzle, post a video game review, view today’s front page.

You’d also be able to type in what you wanted if none of the options met your needs. And you could bypass this search option, and navigate the site yourself if you desired. It would be like a typical news Web site search feature, but on steroids.

You also could still reach the site in traditional ways: through Google searches or by selecting from topical menus. But these menus wouldn’t mimic newspaper sections — features, sports, news. They would include a whole world of options.

The newspaper wouldn’t create all these options. It would link to them, creating this rich one-stop-shopping for everything a person in your community needs to make life easier.  Remember, we’re selling convenience.

A few examples of what I mean:

• A new at-home mom moves into the community, so she types in “find other moms” into the newspaper’s Web page search feature. She’s directed to a parenting topic page that includes a link to the Meetup.com list of moms groups for that locality; a list of recent parenting stories from the wires and that newspaper; a list of all the local moms’ groups.
• A crossword puzzle junkie can’t get his fix with just one a day in print. So he accesses the gaming portal on the newspaper’s Web site and reaches multiple puzzles to confound him plus chances to play Scrabble or Sudoku. The newspapers doesn’t create the games; it finds a way to curate them or link to them.
• A video gaming enthusiast wants to sound off on this great game she just played. She can reach not only a video gaming blog, which offers reviews from readers, staffers and others, but a portal to an already-existing video gaming community. Plus she’ll find aggregation of a variety of the best video-gaming blogs and sites from around the world.
• A member of the community happens onto the site and wants to know what’s the top story, based on what other readers’ think. He is connected to a list of stories that are getting the most comments as well as a list of stories that other readers have picked as the top reads in a Digg-like “most popular in last 24 hours” fashion. (A bit like the way it works on Times People at The New York Times.)

The news Web site becomes not just about news — but about everything. The news site isn’t selling news or ads; it’s selling convenience.  Gems on the Web site aren’t hidden but easy to reach. Depending on what the user clicks on, the site suggests other sites, links, blogs, news stories in much the same way that Amazon.com suggests books or videos or Facebook suggests “people you may know.”

All this would need a very robust search function, much more robust than I’ve found on many newspaper Web sites. But it’s possible.  I use Google like this all the time, by typing in questions of what I want. I usually get great results. (For example, I just typed “Where to find tax forms” into Google and reached more than 60 million results in .50 seconds, the first of which was the IRS tax forms.)

One final point: Each of these “hyperinterest” pages will have limited, but highly interested appeal. In other words, newspapers can’t expect huge traffic to each. The idea is to create highly interested small groups of readers. One thousand highly interested readers are better than 5,000 who care only a bit.

The impact is cumulative. In a way, it’s like saving money. The easy way to slash your budget is to stop paying your mortgage, likely your biggest expense. But then you’d lose your home. So the only realistic way to cut costs is to trim small amounts of many expenses.  In the end it adds up.

That’s how hyperinterest pages would work. Each might have a relatively small but growing following, but collectively they would contribute to a large readership. And because these readers are highly interested, they would spread the word about your site for free.  That’s just how it works on Twitter, where one friend tells two people, who tell two more people and so on.