Welcome to the new theme for Teach42.com! This is something that’s been in the works for quite a while now (far too long), but I’m thrilled to finally switch over to it today. I’d been thinking about getting myself a new theme since I started seeing other blogs using the same one I’d be using. I’ve always wanted to have something completely original, but in the past must of the custom ones I’ve used have had issues on the backend. I finally decided to take the plunge when I saw the EFL Geek’s new theme which completely blew me away. So I emailed Sean and asked him if he’d be interested in creating a custom theme for me and he mentioned that he was creating his own design company and would love to work together.

Heh, I have to give him major credit. Between conferences and family and this that and the other thing, I haven’t been the easiest person to work with. But he’s always been a true professional and fit the development around my crazy schedule. From brainstorming ideas out, to graphic design to creating a complete custom wordpress theme with all the features I wanted, he did an absolutely phenomenal job.

I have to admit, at first I balked a little bit about paying someone to create a theme for me. After all, it’s just a blog… But then again, it’s also something I’ve invested five years of my life on. It’s gotten me my current job, and introduced me to thousands of educators world wide. It’s my identify online, my resume, my cv and my permanent record. And once I started thinking along these lines it seemed almost odd to me that I hadn’t invested more in it already. So I took some of the money this blog generates from Google Ads and I set it aside to have the new theme created. I wanted something somewhat whimsical, and yet geeky. I love the computer cables strewn about everywhere in the sidebar widgets and such. Usual web 2.0 tools are integrated in as well. Gravatar user images are thrown in for commentors and so on. I also have a few plans that we didn’t stick in yet but may be added in the future.

I hope you like it! It’s funny but this theme has been ready to switch over to for a few weeks now, but I kept putting off making hte change because I wanted to do a proper introduction for it. However, in the meantime, I kept putting off blog posts because I wanted to wait to post them until the new theme was ready! And while waiting for that to happen, I just didn’t post anything. I should have taken the advice I always give to other new bloggers. JUST DO IT. Don’t wait for bigger and better, don’t waste time with things to come. Do it now, as you can always add more and improve later.

So with that, I hope you like the new digs! Leave a comment and let me know what you think. And if you decide to do something along these lines yourself, I personally recommend you reach out to Sean. He was a true professional and great to work with.

Related Reading on Teach42

• UNDER CONSTRUCTION
• Real world art
• This new theme is SoDelicious
• ShoutEm is to Twitter as Ning is to Facebook
• Choose your own email through AOL

Image via WikipediaA legal blogger I’m friends with, Dennis Kennedy, once stated that within 18 months of getting a blog, most people will have a new job (here’s the link to Dennis’s actual blog post on the topic).Sort of a spoof on Moore’s law, but I haven’t found it to be too far off. I landed a new job within a couple of years of starting Teach42, and owe the blog 100% of the credit for me being hired. I’ve seen many many fantastic educators transition to technology facilitator positions, or go off into consulting, and more often than not it’s because of the exposure they received from their blog. Bigger and better is a wonderful thing.

There’s a flip side to that though. I also know quite a few educators that are becoming more and more disillusioned with their jobs and are leaving teaching, and I can’t help but wonder how much of the blame falls on being part of an open network. Allow me to explain.

Example #1. Teacher A works in a decent district. It isn’t a dream job, but nor is it a slum. She does her job, does it well and loves working with the kids. Then she joins Classroom 2.0 and Twitter and other related sites. She reads about Chris Lehmann and SLA, she hears the great things that Eric Langhorst is doing with students in Missouri, she watches the amazing projects that Vicki Davis comes up with in Georgia… Then all of a sudden her school doesn’t look so great anymore. Why isn’t her school as tech savvy and ‘with it’ as those other schools? Why aren’t her administrators more on the cutting edge of educational theory, and why aren’t more teachers upset by this? Gradually, she starts to realize that her school is just behind and always will be. It’s not worth the time and effort to make the change there, perhaps she’d be better off trying to find a new school to teach at that ‘gets it’. A school where she can really spread her wings with like minded colleagues. Time to dust off the resume.

Example #2. Teacher B goes to a conference and attends a session about forming a personal learning network. He loves the idea and jumps on board. He registers for Twitter, joins a few communities, creates his own blog. He starts getting all these crazy ideas for doing things differently with his students. However, whenever he brings up an idea to his department head, he gets shot down. The DH is ok with blogging, but wants it to be behind the firewall. He doesn’t understand that you miss out on the ‘magic’ if you don’t do it publicly. Podcasts get shot down entirely, and most Web 2.0 sites that he wants to try are blocked. He requests that some get unblocked but nothing seems to happen for days. Gradually he gets more and more upset that most educators are able to take advantage of these great tools, but he isn’t. He is frustrated with his department head’s lack of support, the IT departments lack of response, and can’t figure out why more teachers won’t raise their voice at the injustice of it all. He feels like he has a better grasp of the needs of technology in education than anyone else he works with. Consequently, when a position opens up for a technology integration specialist, he starts giving it some serious thought…

Those are just two examples cobbled together from several conversations I’ve had with people over the past few months. In a nutshell, the newly-gone-natives are getting restless. Being close to people who are amazing examples of the best integration success stories in the world has led to mountain sized feelings of the grass being greener elsewhere. It’s leading to a great many people to think to themselves either, “Surely other schools are more ‘with it’ than mine” or even worse, “Education is doomed because nobody gets it besides we few.”

These are people that were happy, productive, and doing right by students before they got connected. Could it be that the PLN like the Matrix? Once you’re connected, you can never go back. And education is a lot dirtier than most people realized.

Image by dullhunk via FlickrTake the red pill if you want, but once you go down that rabbit hole, you may wind up depressed, disillusioned, and with a strong desire to seek greener pastures. Is being hyper-connected bad for morale?

Related Reading on Teach42

• California ‘geek’ing
• Today’s news, from SMS Live
• What I learned from Twitter today
• Podcast: The Wide World of Warlick
• Schools lagging behind in tech.

I was debating whether to share that I’ve been nominated for a couple of EduBlog Awards or not. I hate bragging and I certainly don’t want it to look like I’m begging for votes. But I finally decided to mention it because ya know what? I’m pretty darn proud of those nominations. I’ve spent a lot of time lately trying to convince teachers that don’t believe they have much of a reason to jump in and contribute to the conversation that they’re actually Rock Stars. I’ve preached that they need to take pride in their accomplishments major or minor and share their experiences with other people. So with that in mind, to heck with being modest!

This year I’ve been nominated for two EduBlog Awards. I’ve never been nominated for an ‘Eddie’ before, and To be completely honest, I’m pretty stoked. Win or lose, I consider it an honor and privileged to be listed with so many people that I consider to be some of the best EduBloggers out there. I’m proud to be able to call many of those people friends and colleagues, and would be absolutely thrilled for them if they won. Of course, I’d prefer to win myself, but that’s the competitive streak I have in me doesn’t even get turned off when I’m playing Candyland with kids!

Regardless, I greatly appreciate everybody that nominated me for the awards. I’ll be proud to add the badges into my sidebar regardless of what happens. If you’ve enjoyed learning with me here at Teach42, then swing by the EduBlog Awards and toss a vote my way in the two categories I’m nominated for: Best Individual Blog and Best EdTech Support Blog. If you look at those lists and find someone more deserving, then vote for them in good conscience. There are no unworthy nominees on that list. And then spend some time on the site exploring the various nominees in the different categories. I’ve often found it to be one of the best ways to discover new blogs for the ol’ aggregator!

Now get over there and vote!

Related Reading on Teach42

• Education blog awards and Edublogs awards. Nominate and vote now!
• It is your Democratic duty to vote!
• Bloggers Choice Awards
• Edublog Awards 2004 – The results are in!
• EduBlog Awards 2K7

Thirty challenges in thirty days. It all sounded so simple when we first got started. I never would have expected that there would be multiple days when I’m typing furiously at the 11th hour to try to squeeze the entry in before the clock ticks over! Or that nearly 60 people would list themselves on the wiki as participating in the challenge. Additionally, there has been a grand total of nearly 700 comments and trackbacks on challenge posts throughout the last 30 days. It really is pretty humbling to have had so many people participate together. And the best thing about it is that while today is the final post of the challenge, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be ending. Anybody can pick up and start the challenge at any time! People who just learned about the challenge yesterday could very easily start themselves back on Day 1 and work through it. And if they do, they’ll have the benefit of all of your comments and links to learn from.

So how to wrap up a project like this? I think the only proper way is to turn it over to the participants. So today’s challenge, final one in the series, is for you to choose your own adventure. I saw Alec Couros mention the old adventure series in a recent blog post, and so many things clicked in my head. To me the idea, and challenge, really takes on two meanings.

Image by mediafury via FlickrThe first meaning is that this last challenge is completely up to you. At some point, you’ve probably thought to yourself, “Hey, is he going to cover this or that?” Have you had an idea for a challenge that just never got addressed in the last 30 days? Do you have a challenge that you think would help make participants a better blogger that you want to share? Well, this is your chance. What is your challenge for the other participants? Share your ideas as comments. After some time has passed, I’ll feed through them and repost them all in the body of this final blog post. So if you have more than one idea, make it very clear that it’s a separate one or even submit it as a second comment. But think about your own tips and ideas for each other and post them here.

The other meaning of ‘choose your own adventure’ is more of a suggestion than a challenge I suppose. And that’s simply this: Ignore any and all advice that anybody has ever given you about blogging… if it doesn’t feel right to you. There are no hard and fast rules about blogging. It’s still a new frontier much like the wild west expansion, except in this case the coast is still nowhere in site. We are still learning what works and what doesn’t. What is ethical and what isn’t, what makes for good pedagogy and what doesn’t pass muster.

So what IS the best way to blog? I can tell you what I’ve done before, along with what’s been successful and what has failed. I can share with you my ideas, my theories, and my speculations, but in the end it all comes down to my own gut instinct based on my experiences. And at the end of the day, I’m no more an expert than anybody else who chooses to share their thoughts. If my ideas seem to vibe with you, then I say run with them. But if there’s a shadow of doubt, don’t squelch it, explore it. Your blog is exactly that… yours. Only you are going to know what the right voice will be, what the right tone will be, and what the right look and feel will be.

I’ve been very happy to share with you my ideas for how to be a better blogger, but in the end you’ll be the one traveling on down the path. So be assertive and take control of your own journey. Heed the advice of others, but don’t follow it just because you respect them. Evaluate it for yourself, and so long as you are true to yourself, your blog will be a success, regardless of how you define it.

So with that, consider this the conclusion of the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger challenge! Thank you to everyone that participated in it. I’d like to add a special thank you to John, Jenny, and Jason who put together and maintained the 30D2BBB Wiki. Major kudos to them for taking that on!

And now, I’ll leave the challenge into your very capable hands. Throw down the gauntlet and issue a challenge of your own for the group. And once you’ve done that, return to your own blog and choose your own adventure!

Related Reading on Teach42

• Day 7: Invite Somebody to Be a Guest Blogger
• Be a Better Blogger in just 30 Days
• Day 8: Comment unto others
• Crazy about commenting
• Day 22: Why do you blog?

With only two days to go, I’ve been struggling with how to wrap this challenge up. The closer I get to the end, the more I realize how much more I’d like to share. Part of the dilemma for me is that this challenge has not really discussed the ’spiritual’ side of blogging very much. I’ve tried very hard to make each of these challenges an actionable item, something concrete that you can actually DO to improve your blog, your blogging toolbox, and your skills as a blogger. However, there’s certainly more to blogging than widgets, feeds, links and comments. I was very thankful that the tips shared by other bloggers on Day 27 hit on so many other pieces that I thought ought to be covered. However, there’s just a few points that I wanted to share my own spin on.

For lack of a better way to describe it, today’s challenge is to go out there and be a rock star! What’s the difference between a rock star performing in their garage and a rock star performing in a stadium filled to capacity? Absolutely nothing… in their own mind. A true rock star puts as much effort into every rehearsal and every show, regardless of the size of the audience. They do so because they love performing and they want to share it with anyone and everyone.

Blogging is very similar to this. Every blog starts off with an audience of zero. We all started out talking to ourselves. We all tried to figure out how to draw an audience. We were all thrilled and amazed the first time we realized that a few people had visited our blog. We all get a smile on our face when we see that someone has taken the time to leave a comment, and a scowl if we learn that it was spam! But if you were to compare yesterday’s blog posts to many people’s very first blog posts, I don’t think you’d find them all that different.

So with that in mind, consider this carte blanche to go ahead and blog as though you already have an audience of thousands. Go ahead and promote the blog posts you’re proud of in full confidence that they’re worth sharing with anyone and everyone. Be bold enough to ask other people to participate in your surveys, polls and memes, regardless of whether you feel you’re ‘on the same level’ as them. Rankings be damned, we’re all educators who are linked together by our common desire to share and learn with each other.

Educators are not marketers, and I’ve found that more often than not most budding bloggers are almost embarrassed by their blogs. When they tell me about their blogs, they add to their descriptions phrases like, “well, it’s just a first effort” or “it doesn’t have any readers yet” or “I’m just playing around” or “I’m just trying to catch up to everyone else.” I can’t help but think to myself that anybody who is putting themselves out there and blogging should be nothing but proud of their own efforts! It takes time, commitment and confidence to stand up and share your thoughts with the world, and anybody who does so should be applauded.

With that in mind, I truly think you should take pride in your efforts. Don’t be shy about listing it as your URL on social sites. Add it to your signature in emails. Create yourself a set of Moo cards for when you meet other educators. Let your colleagues at school know about it, as well as your administrators (if you don’t feel comfortable sharing it with them, you might want to spend some time thinking about why). Let your parents, friends and relatives know about it so they can check it out too! Announce your blog posts in places like Twitter, Plurk and Ning. If you think somebody specific ought to see a post, email them a link. Share comments linking back to your blog on pertinent posts from other people.

I truly feel that even if you are the 1,000th person to chime in on a specific topic, your thoughts, ideas and opinions are just as valuable as the first person to chime in. Nobody else has your specific set of experience. The lenses through which you see things are completely unique to you and you may have a spin on things that are pertinent to people. Let’s face it, even if there’s only 2 people out there that would benefit from what you have to say, isn’t that worth the time spent sharing it??

Image by AdamNF via FlickrJust as a concrete example of this, think about this 30 Day Challenge in itself. It’s based on Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog challenge. I had the challenge flagged for about a year and a half as something that I was interested in. It took me nearly 18 months to finally be ready to act on it. His challenge has had hundreds of participants along with an immense amount of spin off challenges created from it. I could very easily have just taken his challenge and followed through it step by step and added my name to the list of participants, which was my original intention. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would be more valuable to ME to create my own mashup of it, focusing on challenges that would be pertinent to educators. There are plenty of other places to get blogging advce or challenges to participate in, but I was hoping that there might be a few people who would get some benefit from joining me for this one. I’ve been stunned by the turnout.

Point being, this could have been a month long fiasco! Some of my other endeavors have been spectacular failures before. But you have to put yourself out there and give yourself a chance at success. It’s all a learning experience, regardless of the result.

When you get right down to it, the best way to be a successful blogger… is to be one. To put yourself out there, to be bold and promote yourself, to be confident in your worth and quite simply to be the Rock Star you truly are.

So today’s challenge is to give yourself the rock star treatment. The details are entirely up to you. Maybe you’ll direct message a few people on Twitter and ask them to take a look at a recent blog post of yours. Maybe you’ll add your blog to your email signature. Maybe you’ll give some friends a call and ask them to check out your blog. Maybe it’ll just be leaving a comment here and asking people to come visit it and leave a comment. Only you can know what kind of Rock Star you are, so do what feels right for you.

Then take the time to share what being a Rock Star means to you.

And tomorrow, we wrap the whole thing up! Anybody else getting misty eyed?

30d2bbb image by Jason Robertshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

Related Reading on Teach42

• Day 7: Invite Somebody to Be a Guest Blogger
• Day 22: Why do you blog?
• Day 21: Give a comment a promotion
• Day 16: Your Greatest Hits
• Day 30: Choose Your Own Adventure

One of the most significant things about the internet is the able to connect different pieces of it through hyperlinking. In fact, it is often said that hyperlinks are the glue that hold the entire internet together. Can you even imagine an internet without hyperlinks? You’d have to memorize every site you want to visit and type them all in one at a time when you wanted to switch between sites. However, in blogging they have a slew of other purposes.

If you think of blogging as a conversation, it is hyperlinks that allow us to connect the voices together. It is a means for citing information, recognizing original ideas, and giving credit where it’s due. It also allows us to make subtle recommendations for further reading and directs traffic between like minded individuals. Additionally, it provides a reference for the people being linked to, in order to see who has taken their material and spun off of it. There are thousands of plugins, widgets, and snippets of code that are designed to take embedded hyperlinks and add functionality. Some provide previews of the page being linked to, others recognize if it’s media and provide a means for consuming it, while others simple tally the links and aggregate them together.

So what’s the point? If you ain’t linking, then you ain’t thinking. One of the most common questions I get asked is “How do I get people to visit my blog?” Pure and simple, the easiest way is to simply link to others. And not just once either, again and again and again. I may be more egotistical than your average bear, but I certainly don’t think I’m alone amongst bloggers to be keeping an eye on every person who links to me. More often than not, I’m following those links back to see exactly what is being written in reference to my own material. I want to know who is linking to me and why. That has often become the first step to a much more personal relationship. It’s the easiest way to get people’s attention and make them aware of your blog.

So long as we’re on the ego part, let’s just flat out say, most bloggers want a larger audience. Whether you’re willing to make that a priority or not is a whole different conversation. But nobody would mind terribly if more people knew about them and read their work. Google is a big piece of this, and one way that Google determines your page rank is links. Being religious about linking is always something that makes Google happy. Especially if that link winds up being returned.

Image via WikipediaOne thing to keep in mind is that when you’re linking to a blog, there are two ways to do it. There is the general link and the link to the specific post, or permalink. For example, if I wanted to talk about Scott McLeod’s recent blog post regarding how various EduBlogger’s rate according to Technorati, I could do so in three different ways. The first is to refer to Scott McLeod and his blog in general. For this, I would just highlight his name and/or blog and link directly to it, as I did. This allows readers to follow back to Scott, AND if Scott has any sort of EgoFeed created, that link will show up.

However, since I’m referring to a specific post of his, I should also be sure to link directly to the permalink. The permalink usually is available in one of three places: the title of the blog post, the date/time of the post (if it’s hyperlinked) or at the end, referenced by the word Permalink or sometimes Trackback. Copying any of those links and then providing a direct link to them, will not only allow readers to follow through and alert the original author (Scott) of the connection, but it will also send a signal to the BLOG ENGINE, letting it know that I’m linking to it. Some blog engines will then be smart enough to list information about that link as a special comment known as a trackback or pingback.

Finally, the last type of link is linking to a specific comment. Many blog engines assign a different permalink to each individual comment, so if you happen to be referring to one, you can link directly to it. This level of linking is really more of a service to your readers than anything else, as it prevents them from having to search through the post to find what you’re referring to.

And of course, you may find yourself needing to combine all three in a single post, or even a single sentence. For example:

In Scott McLeod’s recent blog post about the Top 50 EduBlogs, Miguel makes a great point about the impact moving your blog to a new URL can have on your ranking.

While that may seem like a little overkill, trust me it isn’t. Each link there serves a very specific purpose and is useful to your readers.

So long as I’m in full disclosure mode, I’ll ‘fess up to the fact that I have one really poor habit I’m trying to break. I tend to write my blog posts in one fell swoop, and then going back and linking everything in. Unfortunately, when I do that, I tend to gloss over some links and rush things, often missing significant links. Case in point, when I missed the link to Lee Kolbert’s Meme on Day 27. Thankfully, she pointed out the error to me and I corrected it. For that reason though, I do recommend that you link as you go. Yes, that’s a personal preference, but I find it to be more efficient. And don’t forget, mo’ links is mo’ better.

So today’s challenge is twofold:
1) Go back through your last few posts and hunt for links that you may have missed. Could you have done a better job? Are there any things that you should have linked that you might have missed? Any places you could have added value by inserting more links?
2) The next blog post you write, go crazy on the linking. Every paragraph, think to yourself… Should this be linked up to something providing more information? Should I include a link to a definition for people that may not know the term? Should I share a few examples via links? It’s OK if it looks silly, it’s just about retraining the brain a little. And sometimes you just gotta dive in headfirst to get some quality swim time in.

What have your own experiences with linking been? Do bother? Are you religious about it? And don’t forget, when you create your blog post, share a link to it here!

One other thing, if you haven’t already listed yourself on the Wiki, please do so! Don’t worry if you haven’t ‘kept up’. This is an ongoing challenge, so even if you’ve only done one day, or have just followed along vicariously, share your own information on the wiki so people can find, visit and support your own efforts to be a better blogger!

Related Reading on Teach42

• Day 3: Write a thank you note
• Day 20: Go on a dead link hunt
• Day 15: Find Thyself
• Day 21: Give a comment a promotion
• Day 16: Your Greatest Hits

Today’s challenge revolves around one of those concepts in blogging that is often misunderstood: tags. Tagging is more of an art than a science, but it does serve a few very specific purposes. Not every blog employs tagging, nor would I say that it’s absolutely required, but understanding how tags work and what they can do for you is certainly knowledge that every blogger should possess.

At it’s most basic level, a tag is a keyword that you create that serves as an identifier or link for the purposes of searching and/or filtering. By strategically tagging your posts, you provide visitors yet another way to filter through your entries without creating 100’s of categories. For example, while you may put a blog post in the Web 2.0 category, you might tag it with each individual tool and technology mentioned or referred to. Categories are generally higher level and more strategic, tags are typically used in a ‘the more the merrier’ type of approach. You’d never get criticized for using too many tags, unless you’re applying tags that have nothing to do with your post.

One of my early experiences that really drove home the power of tags was when I was doing a search on technorati for “education” and found out that the related tags were Policies, News and…. Warlick? Yes, Warlick was clearly identified as a related tag whenever somebody did a search for “education”. Why? Because he was diligent about tagging every blog post of his with the keywords “education” and “Warlick”. Look up education and you’ll find Warlick. Makes sense, doesn’t it? If you blog regularly about mobile devices in education, by adding those tags along with your name and your blog name to your posts you create ways for you to be associated with those topics in searches.

Another purpose for tagging is to add in the keywords that you may not have mentioned in your post. For example, if you’re discussing a new report about social networking, it’s entirely possible that you may not have included some words which might be pertinent to people searching for such information. You may have mentioned that the report covered common social networking sites, but never mentioned any specifics. With this in mind, you might be interested in tagging the post with Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and other social sites. That way, if people search for “education” and “Facebook” they have a chance to find your post, even if you didn’t specifically mention Facebook in your text.

One last purpose that I’d mention is it has become common practice for people to use unique tags to track posts revolving around an event or topic. A perfect example of this is Warlick’s Hitchhikr site. Look up any conference there and you’ll find suggested tags to use. So long as everybody that posts about that conference includes that tag, then sites like Hitchhikr will be able to aggregate them together. It’s becoming increasingly common on microblogging sites, as more and more posts are being created with hashtags.

Some people have much more eloquent explanations of what a tag is and how it’s used. For example, Sue Waters (have I referred to her enough during this challenge?) has an excellent post comparing categories and tags. If you look at the comments on that post, you’lll also find a real gem there. Also, it seems a little cliche, but Wikipedia can always be counted on for some good information.

So what’s the challenge? Simply this, KNOW thy tagging system. Most blogging engines have a way to tag posts. Different versions of Wordpress (and Edublogs) have a Tags field below the main content box. Other sites, have it off to the side or down near the bottom of the page. However, just because you add tags to a post, doesn’t mean that they’ll show up there. My current template was not set up to display the tags I added to a post through Wordpress. When I realized that none of my tags were showing up, I went into the code of the template and added them in. Take a good close look at your blog engine, determine where the tags go, and start using them in your posts. Remember, you won’t get fined if you use too many tags. But if you use too few, then you may be preventing people from finding your content in searches.

One last related tip. Not all blog engines do have a way to add tags to a post. If not, that’s ok. Just type them in yourself:

Tags: toys, slinky, metal, spring, stairs, fun, cat

Technically, that’ll be enough for search engines to pick up on them. However, you can get bonus points by linking them up to Technorati searches for those keywords. It’s pretty easy to do and Technorati does have instructions. But basically, you put the tag into your post in the following format: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/TAGNAME" rel="tag">TAGNAME</a> Copy that into your blog post as many times as you need, and then just substitute in your tags for the TAGNAME slots. Consider that the poor man’s tagging method!

Ok, one more idea, just because I thought it was pretty novel. While doing some searches on tagging, I found a post describing how he put a tag cloud onto his site’s 404 page. So whenever somebody found a dead link (we don’t have any of those anymore though, do we?), instead of just getting a “The page you are looking for could not be found” error, they get a little paragraph explaining things and a tag cloud of all the content on his blog. That encourages people to dig a little deeper to find your potentially missing content, instead of just getting turned away. Love the idea. Just may have to try that one myself!

Do you tag your posts? How do you decide what tags to use? Have you ever found particular benefit to tagging, or is it just a habit at this point? When you visit somebody’s blog and want to explore, do you head off to the categories or the tags first?

Tag image by Amergioland

Related Reading on Teach42

• Tags related to Education: Politices, News and Warlick
• Day 15: Find Thyself
• Podcast N: Tag, you’re it.
• Hey, leave my feed out of it.
• Day 13: Declutter Your Sidebar Part 2

Some people are shamelessly into blogging for the money. Other people could care less if they ever make a buck, but their credibility and reputation mean the world to them. Some people are paid to blog on behalf of their employer and others do it semi-officially on a volunteer basis. Regardless of what flavor blogger you are, I think that for the most people will agree that if a blogger doesn’t have their integrity, they don’t have a stool to stand on. With that in mind, people often want to know where a specific blogger stands. If they recommend a site or product, are they doing so because they are being paid to? Or is it because they genuinely think it’s worth while?

Additionally, if visitors know where you work, people may want to know whether you are writing as a representative of the company, or just on your own. It’s a fine line that is often fraught with ambiguity. For that reason, today’s challenge involves the crafting of a Disclosure Statement. I’ve been thinking that I’ve needed one for almost three years now, but it was never a pressing need so it just kept sliding to the bottom of the todo list. That gets rectified today.

When you boil it all down, the Disclosure Statement is intended to let your readers know where your loyalties lay, who is receiving benefits from your posts, and what outside forces may be influencing your posts. If you have received free hardware, software licenses, or registrations in exchange for your opinions and/or publicity, it should be disclosed. Your employer (in general or specific) should be mentioned, as well as whether you are representing them in any sort of official capacity. If you make money from any parts of your blog, then it should probably be mentioned, as well as any funds you may receive from affiliate programs. Pure and simple, we need to be able to distinguish between when you’re a fan of something, and when you may be sharing about it because you are getting something in return.

You may not think that you need a statement like that. I never did, until my integrity was called into question a few months ago. While I addressed that specific issue at the time, I have thought that I should probably create and post a formal disclosure statement ever since.

I won’t pretend to be an expert in them, but I have found a few different styles for you to consider.

Wesley Fryer keeps it about as simple as you can get. In his sidebar he has the statement “DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are my own and not necessarily those of my employer.” Simple, and to the point. Miguel Guhlin has a pretty similar statement, sharing that “MGuhlin.net–blog, wikis, other writings–Publications (unless specifically labelled with another copyright notice) are licensed under a Creative Commons License and they do not reflect my employer’s views, only my own. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, or to my employer, is purely coincidental.” There’s nothing actually wrong with the minimalist approach, but depending on what you write about you may want to include a bit more. In particular, if you are making a point of testing and reviewing hardware and software, I think you really need to. UPDATE: Miguel left a comment letting me know that he actually has a much more comprehensive disclosure statement here . Very well written and includes even more than I would expect most people to include. Heh, I don’t think you need to feel obligated to disclose how much you make for any side gigs you do! Regardless, it’s definitely worth checking out.

I browsed around looking for other good examples of more detailed disclosure statements, and the best one that I was able to find happens to be from David Weinberger. His statement does a great job of identifying any potential areas that may call his motives into question. In fact, if anything he errs on the side of caution and discloses far more than I think most would need to. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, he uses very casual language, but there’s no worries about that so long as the message comes through loud and clear. Despite your best intentions, this statement will probably never hold up in court unless you are an attorney. So just do your best to make sure your audience knows where you stand.

A few selections from his disclosure statement that I like:

No one pays me to write this blog or to say particular things in it. That includes all forms of compensation, including offering to shovel my walk or tell me that I look like I’ve lost some weight.

I’m not going to list the companies I’m currently working for because that’s between them and me. There aren’t many of them. I will disclose them (and have disclosed them in the past) if I talk about them on my blog. (None of them has ever asked me to mention them, btw.)

Authors sometimes send me free copies of their books. Often, explicitly or implicitly, they are looking for a mention. If I like the book, I may indeed mention it. If the author is a friend of mine, I’m pretty likely to mention it — because that’s what friends do — and I’m also much more likely to like it than some book that arrives from a PR agent. I’m probably not going to tell you that I got a free copy. Why? Because it doesn’t matter and because it makes me feel like I’m boasting. Also, it reads funny.

All I can promise is that I will be honest with you and never write something I don’t believe in because someone is paying me as part of a relationship you don’t know about. Put differently: All I’ll hide are the irrelevancies.

I like the frankness, the honesty in there. When you finish reading it, you have a great baseline for understanding where his motivations and interests lie.

Last thing I’m going to mention before going off to work on my own, is to point out that you also have some options for where this one should sit. While I’ve seen some people put a link to it in their footer, I think it should get a little better placement than that. More than likely the statement or a link to it belongs in your sidebar, or if not there then as part of your About page. Pure and simple, somebody who’s looking for it should be able to find it pretty easily. If you go for the minimalist method, then you could easily put the entire thing in your sidebar. Perhaps do what Miguel did and lump it in with your Creative Commons statement.

Do you have a Disclosure Statement on your blog already? If so, what does it include? Do you know of any other good examples amongst educators? Or non-educators for that matter! If you are creating one as part of this challenge, share a link to it in the comments below so we can learn from it as well.

Related Reading on Teach42

• Day 28: Link It Up
• For the record…
• Day 22: Why do you blog?
• Day 1: All about the “About” page
• Day 27 Thanksgiving Special: With a little help from my friends

This isn’t exactly the ideal time for this post, but I just realized that we’re one week away from the end of our 30 day challenge! So let me say a quick ‘hurrah!’ to everyone that is keeping up. Maybe you aren’t doing every challenge every day, but if you’re still tuned in and intent on improving your blogging ‘chops’, then major kudos to you! As I was saying, this isn’t the best time to be doing this, mostly because Thanksgiving is coming up this week, but since we’re running out of time we’ll step up anyway.

Today’s Challenge has to do with basic planning. I have to admit, I do most of my blogging spur of the moment. I’m not so good at planning in advance, but I do think many great bloggers do. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say even if the great ones don’t plan each post in advance, they at least HAVE a plan for making sure that their have frequent postings on their blog and ensure that things don’t go stale.

It’s a constant challenge for every blogger, especially when you feel like nobody is reading. When you don’t have a big community responding often, it’s easy to think nobody is reading, and when you feel like nobody is reading, you may not feel like writing. But if your blog isn’t showing regular signs of life, with posts coming at least once or twice a week minimum, then when people do visit they often just come and go. Not only that, but until you get into a routine, it’s hard to make the time in the day needed to blog. It takes a commitment for it to become habit and creating a posting plan can be a big part of that.

When everybody first starts blogging, they overestimate their blog-stamina. EVERYONE thinks they’ll be the one to blog every single day, or at least every other day. Some people even keep it up for a week or more. But for most people. especially with those who have a job, family or life, blogging day in and day out is simply unrealistic. So let’s step back for just a omment and think things through.

How often will you realistically be able to blog? Don’t think about how often you’ll post in an ideal world, be realistic and try to think what’s the minimum number of posts that you’ll do in a given week. I say week because if you really intend to be a better blogger, you should be posting at least once a week. And perhaps that’s all you want to commit to! There’s nothing wrong with that. If you feel up to two times or three times a week, even better, but don’t fool yourself into setting an unrealistic goal.

Once you’ve figured out your magic number, plan out how you’re going to hit that number for the week. What days do you want to make sure you’ve got your posts up by? Don’t let them build up so you cram them all in at the end of the week. Pick dates and stick to it.

In fact, if you want to take it a next step, you can even get them started right now. Create drafts with potential titles and save them. That way you can come back to them throughout the week and already have some of the work done. Instead of just flagging items in your aggregator to write about, or keeping browser tabs/windows open, grab the link and create a new blog post for it, even if you don’t have time to finish it just yet. Then save it and plan out in your own head when you’ll be posting it. That way when you realize that it’s the day you promised yourself you’d get a post up, you’ll already have your inspirations right there in front of you, ready to be fleshed out.

So even though it’s Thanksgiving week, plan out your blog schedule for the week and some ideas for what you’ll be posting. Obviously with the holiday and all, it’s a great time to look around and share what you’re thankful for, whether it be online or offline.

Are any of you ‘planners’ already? If so, share a few tips for how you organize your blogging schedule. It’s something that I’ve never been very good about but really want to improve myself!

30d2bbb image by Jason Robertshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

Related Reading on Teach42

• As a blogger, how do you define success?
• Day 22: Why do you blog?
• Day 16: Your Greatest Hits
• Day 7: Invite Somebody to Be a Guest Blogger
• Day 30: Choose Your Own Adventure

This is another one of those challenges that really drew me to ProBlogger’s challenge initially, and made me decide to create my own mashup of it. Darren challenged his participants to define a mission statement for their blog, a challenge that I now present to you. You know your blog is important to you. You’ve invested quite a bit of time into it. Heck, if you’re at this point in the challenge, you’ve committed the last 21 days to becoming a better blogger! But have you ever really spent much time sitting down and analyzing exactly why you’re doing it? Why have you committed such a significant chunk of life to sharing via your blog online?

That’s what we’re thinking about during today’s challenge. The critical question being, “Why do you blog?” Darren suggested that people boil it down to simple statements, like,

* ‘I blog to make a living’
* ‘I blog for recreational purposes – to help me relax’
* ‘I blog as part of my plan for world domination’
* ‘I blog to keep a record of the life and times of me’
* ‘I blog because I want to help others’
* ‘I blog to because I’m lonely and want to connect with others’
* ‘I blog to pick up cute girls/guys’
* ‘I blog because it’s fun’
* ‘I blog because I want to build profile – I want to be known’

While all of these are worthy pursuits, some more so than others, I’m thinking that you can probably dig a little deeper than that as well.

Start off with the surface ideas. Think about what drew you to blogging in the first place and why you started blogging. Then think about why you’re continuing to do it today. Do you blog for the same reason now that you did when you started? Is your blog professional, personal or both? Is it a place to share unbiased, impartial information or are you posting your thoughts and opinions? Are you restraining yourself to specific topics on your blog, or is it wide open?

As Darren says in this post:

This is not a question about measurable goals or strategies and your answer probably shouldn’t be too blog specific… rather get at your motivations and big picture hopes for your blogging.

Be honest with yourself too. No deluding yourself into listing more altruistic motivations Call it like it is. If some of your motivations are shallow, so be it. Accept that, embrace it and see how that fits in with the rest. I’ve never been shy about letting people know that I have the ego of a middle schooler, and one of the reasons I blog is because getting recognition for the work and writing that I do is very motivating to me. I have plenty other reasons for blogging too, but without a doubt public recognition is on the list.

With all that in mind, today’s challenge is to list out “Why do you blog?” You can do so publicly on your blog, publicly as a comment here or just do it as an exercise in private. I suggest you share it on your blog though. It let’s readers know what sort of lens they’ll be peering through when they read your content. And I think it’s very cathartic to share your thoughts publicly. It really forces you to define things.

So, why do I blog?

• I want to celebrate my successes with people who understand.
• I want to share my failures with people who can learn from them.
• My job requires me to.
• I feel like it’s an important part of the learning process, although I’m still trying to pin down exactly why.
• Because I get angry at things that people say or write and want to respond… publicly.
• Knowing that people enjoy reading what I write is a major ego boost.
• I feel that if I recommend other people blog, I have to be doing so myself.
• As much time and effort goes into each post, clicking ‘Publish’ feels really good.
• Trying to put my ideas into written form helps me solidify my own thinking.
• I find sharing my ideas to be very rewarding, intrinsically and extrinsically.
• Yes, it’s all part of my master plan to take over the world.

That’s it for me… for now. I think i may have to return to this one later and do some editing. Until then though, share your mission statement, here or on your own blog. Either way, leave a comment below and link us up so we can find it!

Related Reading on Teach42

• Day 21: Give a comment a promotion
• Day 29: Be a Rock Star
• It’s sort of like hitting the wall.
• Day 30: Choose Your Own Adventure
• Day 8: Comment unto others