Blogging, Images, and Copyrights

A Guide to Happy (and Legal) Tumblr-ing - Blogging without 'stealing' is much easier than you think

Excerpt:

Posting a photograph that belongs to someone else, for example, even with attribution and a link is illegal if done without the author's authorization. I know, really scary right? No, the Internet police probably aren't going to be kicking down your door to ask questions about that copyrighted photo of Ke$ha you just posted, but when it's almost as easy to do things the right way, why not at least try?

...

If you're looking for the right photo to match an essay on your blog, take the extra step to enable a customized Creative Commons search. From Google.com select "advanced search." From there, click "usage rights." Searches can then be further narrowed down with options like "free to use or share." Or simply go to search.creativecommons.org where you can find content that's been approved for commercial use or further modification and tweaking. Yes, this is the Internet, where suffering through five extra seconds is an eternity, but like anything else that's good for you, once you get in the habit, it will become second nature.

Comment: For the above image:

Flickr: MikeBlogs' photostream ... creativecommons.org

95 percent of blogs abandoned

Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest

Excerpt:

“HI, I’m Judy Nichols. Welcome to my rant.”

Thus was born Rantings of a Crazed Soccer Mom, the blog of a stay-at-home mother and murder-mystery writer from Wilmington, N.C. Mrs. Nichols, 52, put up her first post in late 2004, serving up a litany of gripes about the Bush administration and people who thought they had “a monopoly on morality.” After urging her readers to vote for John Kerry, she closed with a flourish: “Practice compassionate regime change.”

The post generated no comments.

Today, Mrs. Nichols speaks about her blog as if it were a diet or half-finished novel. “I’m going to get back to it,” she swears. Her last entry, in December of last year, was curt and none too profound. “Books make great gifts,” she began, breaking a silence of nearly a month.

Like Mrs. Nichols, many people start blogs with lofty aspirations — to build an audience and leave their day job, to land a book deal, or simply to share their genius with the world. Getting started is easy, since all it takes to maintain a blog is a little time and inspiration. So why do blogs have a higher failure rate than restaurants?

According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled.

Comment: I did not start this blog with "lofty aspirations"! I sense that Facebook has supplanted "ordinary guy" blogging. My favorite blog types: Pastors and autos.

Add this button

http://www.addthis.com/


Comment: Looks worthwhile

MarsEdit (for bloggers)

Red Sweater

Comment: If you are a blogger, I recommend that you get an off-line editor. I've been using MarsEdit (sorry for Mac only!). I have this blog and then another on Wordpress: www.4bya.info.

If you have every tired of the little editing box, you'll enjoy the benefits of MarsEdit. I appreciate several things about MarsEdit: off line editing, ease of connection to multiple blogs, and the nice Mac interface.

By the way ... this post was not done on MarsEdit (I'm not on my MacBook at this time)

Blogging as group therapy

Your blog can be group therapy

Excerpt:

John Suler, a psychology professor at Rider University in New Jersey, has studied the overlap of psychology and cyberspace. Blog audiences are usually small, he says, but "going public with one's thoughts and experiences can be a self-affirming process."

He and other experts say blogging shouldn't replace face-to-face counseling -- although it can complement sessions when a patient shares their writing with the therapist.

"Some psychologists take special interest in any activities that their clients may undertake online," Suler says, "because such activities often reveal a lot about how they express their identity and relate to other people."

Kim did start psychotherapy, but kept blogging. "My therapist will give me little assignments and I'll blog about them," she says. "If I come home (after a session) and write about it, it solidifies it."

One Chicago licensed social worker and therapist in her 50s encourages patients to release bottled emotions through blogging. Leah, who asked that her last name not be used because of the nature of her profession, started EveryoneNeedsTherapy.blogspot.com to share professional insights.

Soon, however, she was talking about her own feelings -- and her husband told her it seemed to lift her mood.

"It's a form of group therapy," says Leah. "Not only can you express your feelings, but you can get comments, and that creates a dialogue."


Comment: Interesting!

The stresses of blogging

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop

Excerpt:

Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

Comment: I am sooooo stressed!

New MWC blog

Metro Womens Center blog


Comment: Authored by Lindsay T. of the Metro Womens Center board.

What does “ht” mean?

What does “ht” mean?

Excerpt:

It means a Hat Tip. Like to tip your hat to someone as a means of acknowledgement or recognition. So, for anyone who wonderd what ht means, now you know it means a Hat Tip.

HT: What does “ht” mean?

Comment: I had wondered!

Dan Stahl's new blog: Jade Ramblings

Jade Ramblings

Comment: Jade Ramblings is Dan Stahl's new blog. Dan and his wife Jennifer are members of Parkers Lake Baptist. Dan works for General Mills and works with me on the Metro Womens Center website.

Dan in his first post said: "Probably the only person who will read this is Jim.". I'm sure, Dan, that a lot of folk will read your blog.

Dan, we are praying for you that you get hired on full time at General Mills!

10 ways to become a better blogger

10 ways to become a better blogger

Comment: I have a lot to learn! Perhaps I should revert to the "cocktail napkin"!

Excerpt:

Takeaway: If nobody bothers to read your blog posts, you might as well just scribble your thoughts on a cocktail napkin. But if you truly want to share your ideas and opinions, check out these pointers for crafting an engaging blog and building a loyal following.