sasassafrass

Testing out the new interface.  Looks good to me.

Originally Posted September 19, 2007.

Because some people forget common courtesy when interacting with others online, I will post this up again as a reminder.  We encourage healthy debate of all issues within the boundaries of respect and courtesy. 

Note: We get thousands of comment each day.  When a comment is removed, or an account is blaclisted, we are simply not able to notify each us.er  If you keep your emotions under control, and follow common courtesy when interacting with others, I assure you that you will have no problems.

***

Our moderation policy is rather simple:

1.) No personal attacks, no name calling.  Just stick to the issues.

2.) No use of foul or sexual language, no attempts to circumvent our language filters (for example, f*ck would be a violation of our moderation rules), no inappropriate references to bodily functions.

3.) No overt commercial advertising of products, services, or websites.

4.) No advocating of illegal activities, violence or racism.

5.) No abusively repetitive, off-topic, or overtly disruptive posts.  Just the convsersation, don't disrupt it.

6.) No full reprinting of articles or content in its entirety by other authors or content under copyright without prior written approval from the original author or copyright holder.  This is a legal issue.  If you have permission to reprint an article or post by another author, just make sure to note it somewhere in the post (and perhaps link back to the original site).  You are certainly free to quote someone, though proper attribution is always recommended for your own credibility and integrity.

These are enforced according to the discretion of the moderator, and no notice will be served.  We welcome all points of view - liberal included.  I realize that in the heat of debate on issues of great importance, it is easy to lose one's temper, but we are managing a large community with thousands of comments each day.

Please help us out - be courteous and self-controlled.

We know you support certain candidates of your choice, so feel free to promote them and their views.  But excessive, repetitive, and abusive posts promoting an issue or candidate may be removed at the moderator's discretion.  Take efforts to be respectful when making argument against other's points of view or candidates of choice.

We are really working hard to maintain a respectful and decorous tone in the comments are so individuals of all perspectives and opinions can engage in constructive conversation.

Feel free to post questions on this blog.

Originally posted May 1, 2007.

How do you embed PowerPoint presentations?  For that matter, how do you post a jpeg or other picture?  Or a YouTube screen rather than a link?

Step 1: Decide what you want to embed.  If it's a JPG, you are going to want to upload it to PhotoBucket, Flickr, or other photo hosting site, and then link to it from your Townhall.com blog.  If you want to display a PowerPoint, you can go to SlideShare.net and upload a regular MS PowerPoint file.  I'll let you all figure out that part on your own.

Step 2: Start your new Townhall.com blog post by going to your "Create New Post" tab.  You might want to have your YouTube or SlideShare open on a separate browser tab or window.

Step 3: Copy the embed code found on the YouTube or SlideShare website.  Alternatively, if you want to show a picture, locate the image location.  You can usually do this by right-clicking on the image and selection "Properties" to find the image URL.

In YouTube, it will look like this:

 

Step 4: Paste the image, video, or presentation code into your new blog post.  You do this by selecting the "Paste Plain Text" icon on your Townhall blog controls.  The icon is circled in red on the image below.  You will want to paste your code into that window and hit "ok."  That's it!



For an image, you will need the following HTML code:


<img src=http://imagehost.com/yourimagefilenameurlhere.jpg>

Replace the image location within the quotes with the URL location for your picture.

Step 4: Publish!

Note: some of the links in this blog post will point to past entries.  Some of these entries have already been reposted on this blog.

If you are pretty new to Townhall.com blogging, or found this post becuase you are looking into starting a blog, this is the right place to start.

If you haven't done so already, you'll want to start by setting up your own blog - it's as easy as clicking on the "Create Your Own Blog" banner to the right, and following the three easy steps.  By the way, once you have already set up your blog, clicking on the same banner on the left when you are logged in will take you to the blog post editing page.  It's an easy and quick way to get your blog publishing tool when you find an interesting post from any of our other great Townhall.com bloggers to write about.

Once you have set it up, to get started with your first blog post, you will want to login to Townhall.com (if you were not already logged in) at http://townhall.com/secure/.  Make sure your browser allows cookies.  If you have found yourself having any sort of login difficulties, you might find this post helpful - Townhall.com account sign-in or log-in help.

Once you are logged in (you'll know you're logged in when you see a local radio call letters in the top right box on Townhall.com, or top left on your home page), you can browse the Create/Maintain your own blog oage where you can create new posts, edit old posts and manage your blog. 

Below are links to articles you might find helpful in blogging at Townhall.com, including tips on posting YouTube videos, writing headlines, and much more.  You'll want to check them out.

Attracting More Readers to your Townhall.com Blog

How To Attract More Readers - Part II

Most Common Blogging Mistakes

Writing Creative and Catchy Headlines

How To Get on the What's Hot List

Posting Videos and Pictures on Your Townhall.com Blog

If there is a topic or issue I haven't covered, please leave a comment and let me know.  I am sure other Townhall.com bloggers won't mind offering their own advice. 

Blogging is a powerful medium with the ponteiutal to increase your voice and influence in your community, as well as among other conservatives who frequent Townhall.com!

Happy blogging!

Originally posted on July 25, 2006

Every blogger's secret - or not so secret - desire to know that many people are reading one;s opinions.  One of the many advantages of starting your own Townhall.com blog is the various features we have incorporated into the site that facilitate increased readers for your blog.  Let me tell you about one.

Each time you leave a comment on a news story, audio clip, or columnist, your comment is recorded with your screen name, and a link is automatically inserted that points to your blog.

So after posting your latest and greatest blog post, make sure to spend some time reading through the daily columns and news articles for related content.  Now, the key word here is related - we will not allow unrelated comments that are 100% self-promotion and irrelevant to the colum or articles it was posted under. 

Feel free to leave controversial or discussion-starting comments, as long as you stay away from insults, personal ttacks and bad language.  Passion and convinction in your comments will attract attention of readers and make them curious to read more.  Poor manners and immature wording will only communicate shallowness of thinking and will not be enticing to other readers,

You can brose through the What's Hot page - these are going to be the articles, columns or blg posts that are getting the most readers at the moment - and if something matches your blog post, you can share a short thought, and conclude with "you can read more of my thought on this by visiting my blog at ..."  Now, you want to avoid annoying readers by copying your entire blog post into a comment post.  So, the best approach is to give a key point - tantalize - then invite to read more on your blog.

Some of our columns get thousands of readers each day, and by joining in respectful discussion, you can highlight your contribution to the conversation, and potentially influence the minds of those readers.

Of course, don't forget that each time you post on your blog, your headline and link shows up on the man Blog page where Mary Katharine and Hugh Hewitt blog, so the more you blog, the more often other readers will see your headlines and potentially click over and check out your work.

Originally Posted July 27, 2006.

I've had several of you email me asking about ways to get more readers to your blog.  My last post was about increasing your readership through commenting, but I thought I would provide some specific ideas and more details on how to get more readers to your Townhall.com blog.

First of all, to get readers, you must have a compelling product to offer - good writing.  And while you want your blog to be passionate and at time hard-hitting, if you allow your emotions to carry you off, you will end up with a Kos-like ranting blog that no one will care to read.  So, lesson number one is "keeping your cool."  It will keep you out of trouble. 

For a great blog and to bring in more readers, you need to:

        1.) Write well.  Work at it.  Spell check every time.  Bad spelling will cause you to lose credibility.  (I knnow..it happens to me).

        2.) Write often and consistently.  It shows a commitment to the readers.  They want to know that when they come back, you will be expecting them and will have provided new material to read.  Consistent writing (once a day in the evenings, for example) will send a clear message to your readers that they casn come back and expect to see fresh content.  

        3.) Leave comments in other Townhall.com blogs.  They will notice and appreciate that you dropped in on their blog and will probably do the same for you.  Make sure your comments are on topic and add value to that user's blog.  The idea with commenting on someone's blog is to add value.  This is done by either providing more information about the topic, or respectfully disagree with solid arguments that encourage readers to think more about the issue.

        4.) Write about and link to other blogs.  Same as #3, this will bring appreciative readers who may also link back to you.  

        5.) You can do blogroll link exchanges.  Email your favorite townhall.com bloggers and ask them to exchange blogroll links wiht you.  I would send link exchange requests to regular bloggers, not the big-time famous ones.  Those guys tend to be more exclusive as to who they put on their blogroll. 

An additional way to get more readers is to write somehting that the big-shot bloggers will want to link to.  Now, you have to balance your interest in more readers, with your commitment to the issues you care about, so what you want to do is find other large-traffic bloggers that are writing about the issues you are writing about.  Use www.Technorati.com or www.TruthLaidBear.com to find other related blogs. 

When you find the large traffic blog that is covering issues you are, leave a comment either disagreeing or providing further support through arguments and evidence.  It CAN be a disagreement (I happen to know that Hugh - and most bloggers - likes a good, smart, respectful and compelling disagreement) or just extra information about the topic they wrote about that they are missing.  Make sure to leave a link to your related blog post in the comment.  They read the comments, and many times, will also do a search on the Townhall.com user blogs to see what you guys are all writing about.  If you have written something that is compelling, they will link back to you.

If the blogger does not allow commenting (like Instapundit) then, send a short, to the point, non-sales email to them saying:

"Hi, read your post about...subject.  I agreed/disagreed and wrote more about it. Thought you might want to check out my post at ..."

Make sure to send the direct link to the post tself, so they don't have to hunt for it.  Also remember that large traffic bloggers get hundreds of emails a day - you want your email to be to the point. 

Do feel free to offer a compliment about a particular post, if you have one - it never hurts to be nice.  Now, be warned - if you email a blogger to many times, they may have annoyed with you and the effort will have the complete opposite effect.  I happen to know of a very popular blogger who has a rule that is someone emails him asking to be linked, he effectively "bans" the requesting site from his blog for 3 months, before considering it again.  So, you want to be sensitive to feedback.

Finally, make sure you take the opportunities they give.  For example, Hugh Hewitt features blogger contests all the time.  Sometimes it's a Photoshop contest through radioblogger.com.  Sometimes it's right on his home page.  Just last week Hugh started The Blogger's Middle Earth, 2006 Edition contest.  This is an open invitation to participate and possibly get linked!  A few days later, Sheepdog - one of our great Townhall.com user blogs - post his entry for the contest and got linked.  Sometimes its that easy, but like I said before, you do need to have a compelling product - good quality writing that's fun to read.

Notice how Sheepdog made sure to mention that he is military.  Don't be afraid to make your blog a part of who you are - whether you are a teacher, doctgor, lawyer, at-home mom, salesman, or plumber.  This will help your readers relate to you and connect, improving the chances they will come back again. 

Try these out, and see how well it works.  Be patient - it takes time and consistency to get ntoiced.  Be respectful, and don't set your expectations too high.  If you don't get a link, don't get upset.  Just keep writing, and keep making your blog better.

Originally Post July 24, 2006

I've been offering tips and tricks on what m akes a great blog, but now, if you readers will endure, I would like to offer the most common blogging mistakes I have seen out there.

        1.) Copy and Paste entire articles from other sites into your blog post.  Besides that this is a copyright infringement, the whole idea of a blog is to share your opinion.  Keep the quotes to no more than 2 or 3 sentences, and like I have said before, make sure to add your perspective.  Summarize.  Don't be afraid to say "I'm not sure what to think about it, but it caught my attention."  Some of your readers may be able to articulate some feedback and the article might be a good discussion starter.  But, just make sure to highlight the important or provocative part of the article.

        2.) Pasing real long URLs right into your blog post.  There are few times where this is necessary.  First, most readers won't remember the whole address, so what's the point.  Second, this may cause your blog layout to stretch out and look bad.  So, what you want to do is select a relevant word - try to find a verb or phrase - and create a hyperlink using the top right link icon on your blog editing tool.  For example, ...this is the must-read article for today.  You can check it out here.

        3.) Using italics for quotes instead of the blockquote control.  Italics is difficult to read when used in a full paragraph.  So, use it with restraint when you are trying to highlight a phrase or word.  For quoting, use the blockquote control above.  (It looks like a small blue arrow pointing to the right, just like in Word.)

        4.) Shading or selecting a different background color for yhour blog posts.  This makes reading your post difficult.  Other than on one blog, most of the Townhall.com blogs have a white background.  It's done that way to make your work easy to read.  If you are going to experiment with text backgrounds, make sure there is a good reason (highlighting something) and do it minimally.

        5.) Not using links to references or other blogs.  The power of blogging is in sharing the traffic as much as possible.  The research has shown that linking to other blogs only helps create more traffic, becuase other bloggers will like you more (for the links) and link back to you.  Of course, you still need to have something good to link back, so work on making your posts intelligent, focused, and passionate. 

So, I'll leave you with five.  Can you think of other common mistakes?  Leave me a comment. 

Originally posted on August 8, 2006 at Red Hispanic

I wanted to share a real creative and catchy headline as an example of how youw ant to write these in order to catch more attention and bring in more readers.

Remember: Each time you post a blog, your blog post headline will show up on the main blog page (over 20,000 views per day) and on the Your Opinion main page.  That means that you get just a few seconds to peek someone's interest, then feed their curiosity just enough  to get them to click on the headline and read your blog.

The secret: short and to the point, catchy, and tempting headlines.

Check this one out:

Does a Piglet Live in Your State Capitol?

SPN Blog did two things right.  First, they used a question.  People like giving their opinion, and answer poll-type questions.  So, if you can phrase your headline as a question, this can be helpful.  Second, the headline is short and memorable because of the use of the word "piglet." 

By the way, this is a piece on porkbusting.  Make sure to check it out.

Orginally posted on November 29, 2006


If you are a regular Townhall.com blogger, you might have been wondering just how a blog gets on the What's Hot List that is linked from the header banner throughout the entire site.  I have some tips and tricks for you that should help you get your blog on the list, and get your blog a few more readers.

The What's Hot List, as you might have noticed, is based on a combination of these three factors:

1.) How many times a blog post is forwarded.
2.) How many comments it has received.
3.) How many people are linking to it from other blogs (the link must be to the unique blog post, not the blog in general).

Of the three, #3 is probably the hardest becuase its out of your control.  But, it is not impossible.  One way I have seen other bloggers link to a blog post is to make sure to let them know you are linking to them.  So if you blog about another blogger's comments (or are giving a Hat Tip), make sure to leave a comment n that other blogger's post letting them know that you have blogged about their post.  Most bloggers will link back letting their readers know about your post, assuming its news-worthy or adds value to the story of discussion.

As for the comments, the best way to get other bloggers to leave comments on your blog is for you to leave comments on their blogs.  Also, make sure you include questions in your blog posts, asking for reader's opinions.  This will encourage discussion and interaction, increasing your comments.  One final tip: when someone leaves a comment, make sure to interact.  In other words, leave comments on your own blog post affirming or debating other reader's comments.  It acknowledges their contribution, and gets them to come back and stay in the conversation.

As for the forwards rank, you should know that its not about how many times your blog post is emailed, but how many emails its sent to.  So, if you forward your blog posts to say 10 coworkers, and invite them to check it out, this will give your blog post "10" forwards.  The great thing is that Townhall.com will remember the emails of the people you forward blog posts, so you can send them interesting stuff again and again. 

A word of warning:  If you plan on sharing your words of wisdom with coworkers, family or friends, make sure to have their permission first.  Also, don't abuse the use of their friendship and time -- forward only your best work, and keep it as infrequent as possible.  This way, when your friends get your emails inviting them to read your most recent blog post, they will be assured that its only your best work and will be glad to drop in and read your thoughts. 

Well, I hope you find these thoughts helpful as you blog.  As I always say, make sure to continually work at sharpening your craft -- writing.  I highly recommend you read the Wall Street Journal, or your best local newspaper -- they always have great stories to blog about, react to, and comment on.  Also, check out our Books and Movies section for the latest book recommendations.  There is nothing like reading a good book to gain perspective and insight into the events and issues affecting our country and culture.  Reading will sharpen your ability to discern, and increase your ability to communicate with clarity in a way that can impact and affect your readers. 

Happy Blogging!

This is going to be the community blog for TownHall.com.  We will share guidelines for blogging as well as tips and tricks to get noticed more easily.  Please use this forum as a means of discussing Townhall matters.