General tips
- The word “blog” is a shortening of the phrase “web log,” because the first blogs were like online journals—people used them to provide periodic updates about a particular subject.
I find it helpful to think of a blog as an online version of a newspaper column, for these reasons:
- The writing style is more personal than a typical news article, because the writer is expressing a personal opinion and doesn’t have to be “objective.”
- The name and photo of the writer are commonly included with each post, again because the writer is expressing a personal opinion.
- People choose to follow a particular blogger or columnist because they are interested in the topic, or they like the writing style, or they want to be able to join in the water cooler conversation at work.
- Good bloggers, like good columnists, don’t simply write the same things everyone else is writing. They look for a fresh angle, or take a controversial stance, or research the story behind the story. They are trying to communicate, not just disseminate.
Technical tips
1. If you are subscribed to this blog via email, you might notice two different links in the email you receive. The first link (usually in gray) begins with “LifeLines, by Melanie Jongsma,” followed by the title of the post. Clicking that link will take you to the home page of my blog. The second link (usually in blue) is just the title of the post. Clicking that link will take you directly to that week’s blog post. These two pages are often similar, because the home page features the most recent post. But the home page also has links to other posts, and you can’t post a comment directly from the home page.
2. You can also read the blog when I post it on Facebook, but depending on how active your Facebook news feed is, LifeLines might have dropped out of sight by the time you get to it. If you want to make sure you don’t miss a post, it’s better to subscribe.
Participation tips
- Whether you are a subscriber or a Facebooker, it’s nice when you leave comments on the blog itself, rather than posting them on Facebook or emailing me directly. The “core” conversation is happening on the blog, and when you add a comment to a particular post, it will stay with that post. That means, months later, when someone finds the blog about “3 Reasons Christians Don’t Read the Bible,” they can read all the comments that were posted as well, and they can add a comment too. That’s harder to do on Facebook.
- Not sure how to post a comment? If you click on the title of a post, then scroll down to the end of the post, and keep scrolling past any other comments that have been posted, you’ll see a header that says “Leave a Comment.” You’ll need to type your name and email address in the appropriate fields. (Don’t worry, your email address won’t become public.) You can also include a link to your own website if you want. Then add your comment in the large gray box. Underneath the gray box, you’ll see a check box and “Please send me an email if someone else makes a comment!” Check that box before you click the Submit button. That way you’ll receive an email when someone replies to the comment you made.
Navigation tips
- If you like a particular post and you want to read more posts that deal with the same topic, you can use Categories. I have five main categories that I blog about: Faith, Writing, Diversity, Reviews, and Story Breaks. Under the title of each post, you can see the category (or categories) that post is filed under. If you want to see other posts in that category, click the name of the category under the title. You can also use the Categories tab at the top of the page, above the LifeLines logo.
- Just so you know, any blue, underlined text within a post is a link, usually to a previous post with additional information. I set up these links so they will open in a new window. That way, you can click the link if you’re interested in the additional information, but you can keep reading the current blog.
In most cases, when you hover your mouse over the link without clicking, you’ll see an explanation of where that link will take you. You can hover over pictures too. Go ahead and try it! - If you’re looking for something specific, use the Search field in the right column. Type in a word or phrase and hit Return, and you’ll be taken to a page with all the blog posts that use that word or phrase.
Other tips?
Are there other things that confuse you about blogging, commenting, linking, searching, or life in general? Leave a comment about it, and we’ll get you an answer! (Refer to Item #2 under Participation tips if you need help leaving a comment.)
And here’s a related post with a clever video about blogging in general and some compelling text about LifeLines in particular: Why (do I) blog?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the helpful info. I follow a few blogs, yours being one of them, and learned a few things. Question: some blogs I want to sign up for allow me to enter my email address to automatically receive the blog and some just have an area where you click “follow” and it goes to a favorites bar on your screen…am I missing something on the “follow” ones?
Good question, Julie. I think the difference depends on how you’ve set up your own reading preferences. If you “follow” a blog, I think you are notified about new posts only if you use a dashboard. You’ll see the new posts there, and that reminds you to go to the blog to check them out. If you “subscribe” to a blog, new posts are delivered to you, either through email or through an RSS feed (whatever you choose). My personal preference is to subscribe, because then everything is delivered right to my email, and I can hang on to the email as long as I need to.