In continuation of our series on blogging we are going to look at how to structure the articles of a blog about a band or musical artist. Hopefully the article will help others with similar interests and those that would like to show off their extensive vinyl or CD library. For this example I’m going to use aspiring blogger Mr Nowhere Man, an avid Beatles fan and memorabilia collector, with his almost complete Beatles music library.Content: Originality is paramount when writing articles for your blog. Even though the Beatles are very well documented across all forms of media, it is still possible to create original content. This can be achieved by researching your facts like dates, names, and places, and then writing your version of events in your words and in your chosen prose. For his content, Mr Nowhere Man could simply review each of his albums in chronological order of release or any other order he chooses. He could also write memoir of the how he amassed his collection. By describing each track or item in his own words, he instantly has an enormous source of original content. Provenance can be added by including personal stories, memories and emotions from when the tracks and albums were released.
Photos, music and videos: Media content will keep your readers engaged. Always try to take your own photos and ensure the quality is good however, there are millions both free and paid for stock images, video and audio tracks available. People always want to see things that are not available elsewhere so original media is best. Size matters! When using your own photos there is a trade off between physical size (dimensions) and memory size (megabytes). The trick is to keep the memory size as small as possible, while at the same time keeping images large enough to be fully appreciated.
Serialisation: Unlike a typical website, a blog is a diary and you only need to write one article at time. This is great for the beginner because you can start with any content you want and build it up article by article. The blogging software will put all your articles in order of date automatically. As the blog grows you may choose to categorise your content into different sections. The key to successful serialisation is to keep posting and updating your articles regularly.
Links: You are also free to add content from other websites, books, journals etc as long as you give them credit and, where possible create hyperlinks to the original sources. You can also use hyperlinks to cross reference your content and provide more information on aspects that you have not covered in depth.
Copyright: Always find out the copyright restrictions of any content or media placed directly into your articles. This is very important especially if your blog earns you money.
Basic Search Engine Optimisation – SEO: In order to attract readers to your blog, you need to make it possible for your articles to be found by search engines. It is therefore important to submit your website address or URL to all the major search engines so that it can be indexed or added to their databases. Once it is indexed, search engines will regularly go through it, (crawl) and update the database. The more you update your blog with new and original content the better.
Be inspired and start a blog today by contacting us at;
techtalk@yorkshirereporter.co.uk
