To Blog or Not To Blog [Archive] - Simple Living Forums

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Alan

4-13-12, 1:49pm

That is the question!

Are you a blogger? Or do you want to become one?

What do you think of the idea that we could provide blogging and article space for our members to use, right here, on our site? I'd like to kick the idea around and see what the community thinks.

Personally, I like the idea of creating an article repository consisting of good, common sense, simple living oriented subjects, as well as providing a space for members to blog about their frugality, their hobbies and their creative ways of living their values. We have the means to do it here, but do we have the desire?

Let's discuss the pro's and con's and see if we can achieve a consensus!

Sissy

4-13-12, 2:08pm

I personally would love to know about the people on this site. A blog seems to be a responsibility to me. I have tried twice and just don't seem able to keep it up on a regular basis. Besides, I doubt I could add anything any more helpful than most of the people on here. But that is just me.

I think the idea is pretty neat, tho.

ETA: my vote is yes

bae

4-13-12, 2:11pm

Perhaps simply a thread discussing "how to become a blogger", and helping people get started with the tools and blog hosting enterprises that are already out there?

And then an index here people could add pointers to their blogs to?

I can imagine some people might be happy blogging, but not hosting their content/effort here, for a variety of reasons.

Bastelmutti

4-13-12, 2:11pm

Alan

4-13-12, 2:13pm

I can imagine some people might be happy blogging, but not hosting their content/effort here, for a variety of reasons.
That's a valid point, but to play devils advocate, I can also imagine some people may be quite pleased with the opportunity to do so.

bae

4-13-12, 2:15pm

That's a valid point, but to play devils advocate, I can also imagine some people may be quite pleased with the opportunity to do so.

My particular issues would revolve around data integrity. If I was going to go to the trouble of writing stuff of any substance up, I'd like to know that a random server failure wasn't going to cause loss of my data, or that a random organization change wouldn't result in the data/service no longer being available.

Alan

4-13-12, 2:39pm

I use Facebook sort of as a mini-blog about some of my crafts and homemade food and household experiments, and I might be interested in doing the same on a blog here. What I would not want to do is blog much about my family or personal life. Would there be a selection process or would this be open to all members?

I guess that's one of the issues we'd need to work out. I can see it eventually being open to all members, although we may need to tie it to a member status, maybe something along the lines of 'Senior Members', or something similar.

Alan

4-13-12, 2:42pm

My particular issues would revolve around data integrity. If I was going to go to the trouble of writing stuff of any substance up, I'd like to know that a random server failure wasn't going to cause loss of my data, or that a random organization change wouldn't result in the data/service no longer being available.
Good points! I can tell you that we are currently enjoying hourly backups, although I'm not sure where the backups reside at our hosting site. As for random organizational changes, I don't think that would be a problem. The good folks at NRM have tentatively approved this if that is the community's wish.

fidgiegirl

4-13-12, 5:33pm

I would like it, because I know all of you and so you are the built-in audience. I quite took to the "journal" thread idea, but then I kind of backed off because no one else was really doing it, just kind of starting new threads for each new thought.

For me, the issue with a blog is that then to get any readers I have to really build up the content, put the link all over the place, etc. and read tons of other blogs, etc. If it were here, it wouldn't feel like as much pressure. Sometimes I Just want to offer up some thoughts but not start a full-blown thread about it.

As far as the article repository, how would this be the same or different from the NRF Wiki?

Alan

4-13-12, 5:40pm

As far as the article repository, how would this be the same or different from the NRF Wiki?
It wouldn't. It would just provide the opportunity for a distinctive brand. Articles on the Simple Living Forums as opposed to the same on NRM, although we could also share content if we wanted.

If we did this, we could set up the site as a full featured Content Management System, meaning we could promote articles or blog or forum posts to a front page and allow people to navigate to specific features, blogs, forums or other areas of interest from there.

We could also configure it in such a way that a blog post could generate a thread in an appropriate forum, or simply allow others to comment on the blog. Lots of possibilities.

Spartana

4-14-12, 1:48pm

I don't blog but enjoy reading/viewing other's blog sites (and read most of the blogs by the members here who have them) so would like to see a SLF one. Would it be one big blog or many small ones devoted to individual topics? I vote for the one big one with sub catagories for varied topics.

Alan

4-14-12, 2:34pm

Mrs-M

4-15-12, 9:54pm

I think it's a great idea! I really enjoyed the Journal (thread entries segment) while it lasted.

By the way, I don't blog. Time constraints and family obligations all but tie me up, limiting what little wiggle room I already have...

fidgiegirl

4-15-12, 9:59pm

I do worry a bit, though, about the forums getting too big. Not big in the sense of too many people, but too many bells and whistles. Our volunteers are stretched awfully thin, and Alan, you are infusing new energy, but we wouldn't want the whole operation to become unsustainable when you eventually move on from the position, which naturally happens in all volunteer posts. Just something to think about . . .

Alan

4-15-12, 10:21pm

That's the great thing about some of the CMS systems out there such as vBulletin's Publishing Suite, after a few days of initial setup, they pretty much run themselves.

Granted, we may have to add another layer of moderation on the blog/article side, but it shouldn't add to individual workloads. Things are actually getting easier with the current site, as far as I can tell. Adding an additional layer of human verification to the sign up process seems to have stymied the bots and we're down to about 5 to 10 human spammers a day attempting to register. We had 4 overnight and 1 today. That's less than 10 minutes of work for one person.

I think we'd all be pleasantly surprised at the additional dimension a change would make for our community.

Bastelmutti

4-16-12, 9:22am

So, if I understand correctly, this would be in the vein of the blogs at Dollar Stretcher or Allrecipes (if you've seen those - they are kind of like journals integrated into the site)?

Alan

4-16-12, 10:16am

Yes, the Dollar Stretcher was very similar, although it's site is powered by a very different application. To see the vBulletin Publishing Suite in action, try http://forums.digitalpoint.com/

HKPassey

4-16-12, 4:17pm

I believe it would be individual blogs, although posts could be aggregated to a 'latest posts' sort of page.

I guess the relevant question is: what do the members of the community want? What's easiest to use/maintain, and what provides the best platform for members to communicate? Individual? Community with regular contributors and guest posters? Formally "assigned" "beats" or informal "pot luck" content? Separate blogs with links? Some combination of the above? I don't think there's really any preconceived idea of what it will look like, so explore away!

One advantage to consider of setting this up as a community effort is that we thought there might be members who would like to contribute posts, but perhaps not be ready to commit time and energy to maintaining their own personal blogs, or just welcome a chance to try it out without making any ongoing commitment. One line of thinking was that it would take the place of a newsletter in many ways, without having to have one person manage and write one.

So... what sounds good?

Helen

fidgiegirl

4-16-12, 5:34pm

The Digital Point example was helpful. I have learned in my work this year that it is helpful to provide people with an example when it comes to tech, otherwise they just can't imagine what it might be :)

It looks like Digital Point's articles are curated by one person, or could any member of the forum put up links to articles? Often we end up discussing articles in threads anyway, this could be a different way of categorizing them and having them available for future reference.

I really do like the blog feature . . . would it be cool to cross-post stuff? Would we need some kind of etiquette training? Like if I had a post on a Wordpress blog of my own that I think would be interesting to the SLN folk, could I put it in both places? Maybe that's a dumb question . . .

razz

4-17-12, 7:09am

steve s

4-17-12, 12:47pm

I've blogged on and off for years. I would imagine if this SNL blog had a decent text editor interface, you could attract some articles. Bloggers like to post their work in different places, to attact different groups of readers.

A blog aggregator that gets viewed by more than about 50 people runs the risk of attracting trolls and spam -adding some babysitting time for whomever is responsible.

My favorite blogging anecdote; One of my posts (http://open.salon.com/blog/another_steve_s/2011/09/16/you_are_old_my_employee_the_young_boss_said) on Open Salon was picked up by a popular websight and viewed by 53,000. That earned about $6 from Google Ads. woohoo.

Spartana

4-17-12, 12:55pm

Not a blogger but i like HKPassey's view of giving each a chance to explore blogging - that I might try doing for the fun of it. Imagine a blog about learning to train a dog and its psychology or watching some robins hatch etc. I'm game to do this.

Yeah I liked HK Passeys suggestion too as I have also thought of doing an ultra low budget travel blog of some of my trips but have no idea how to even start. This might be a good forum in which to practice. You guys will be my guinea pigs :-)! Of course then I'll be able to tell you how I skiied in Mammoth mountain (Sierras) and only paid $15/night for lodging - the same place goes for $5/night in summers! It's a dorm style chalet belonging to a ski club. Sweet!!!!!!!

Mighty Frugal

5-3-12, 1:58pm

Yeah I liked HK Passeys suggestion too as I have also thought of doing an ultra low budget travel blog of some of my trips but have no idea how to even start. This might be a good forum in which to practice. You guys will be my guinea pigs :-)! Of course then I'll be able to tell you how I skiied in Mammoth mountain (Sierras) and only paid $15/night for lodging - the same place goes for $5/night in summers! It's a dorm style chalet belonging to a ski club. Sweet!!!!!!!

I think you should absolutely go for it! This is something many people will be interested in!!! And you have such a strong voice and a lot of character! Besides, you know how to handle a gun...you is one cool ladeeee

catherine

5-3-12, 2:11pm

I agree that it's a great way for "maybe bloggers" to try it out--and I'd love to hear Spartana's insights on her experiences!

At a very basic level, how about an annotated blogroll? We could all list our blogs and the listings could include a description of the blog so that people could just choose to read the blogs that interest them. Maybe the bloggers could index their best 5 "simple living" articles or something like that.

Spartana

5-21-12, 10:08pm

Thanks Mighty Frugal and Catherine. I might give blogging a try on my next long trip (and if I get a tablet computer). But just something simple to keep family and friends updated on my whereabouts and some photos and little tidbits of info about budget travel. Probably pretty boring to anyone here ("This is a picture of a rock. This is a picture of a flower. This is a lizard. I slept at this campground and only paid $5/night") kind of thing. If they do put up something on this site where people can list their blogs (maybe under the "community" section like we have albums) then I'll list it there.

ETA: Mighty Frugal, I just read your blog and it totally cracked me up!! Frogs and snails and rotweiller tails :-)!

Wildflower

5-22-12, 3:48am

I would enjoy reading others' blogs here, but I personally would not want to blog.

ljevtich

6-1-12, 1:44am

I blog and have been doing it for at least 6 years. I have my own website, my own domain, and tons of pages. I have tried many different avenues before I came to the conclusion that having my own would work better for me rather than having it hosted by someone else, some other company etc. It is about control. The trouble with having a blog on a FORUM site is just that you do not get the same number of folks coming to see your blog. I typically get at least 300-500 hits a day, and at least $100 a year in Google ads and usually ~ $100 in Amazon (if folks buy off of Amazon). That would not happen on a site hosted by another company. IF people had to be members to blog or had to be members to see the blog, then that would not work as you would not get many hits. A blog usually languishes too, if the blogger is not active. There are 1000s of blogs that people may have posted one or two posts and then that was it. Or they did that last year.

It usually means hard work to keep blogging day after day. I know a guy that does it, pretty much puts up a paragraph and a picture and gets tons of hits. But he has been doing it for over 11 years! He wrote articles (hasn't lately) has ads on every page (to give him money) has a donate page (again, don't think that has earned him much). Trouble is, most folks think that blogging will earn lots of money but it just does not. People do not click on Ads as much as they used to, and you do not earn as much from each click. And trying to sell on a blog is tough too, tried it with T-shirts and other sundries, and that was a mess. I didn't even buy the stuff.

Anyway, I like the forums, I think they are really good. I like learning what other people talk about, and try to learn from them.

But if my words showed up in someone else's blog post, I think I would NOT be happy.