Hi Readers;
I have 2 favors to ask. First, if you subscribe to this blog with a blog reader, can you let me know if I have broken anything. I am putting together a class all about how to start a blog and I was double checking all of my settings and I want to make sure I didn’t break anything.
And then, please send me your favorite links! I need examples of blogs used in many different ways – used as a journal, a shop, a portfolio, a tool – anything really! I would like to have several good examples of specific ways blogs can be used to do different things.
AND, by way of a bribe to encourage your assistance, if you leave a link in the comments or email it to me by the end of the day Saturday March 8, I will put your names in a hat and draw some fibery art prizes and give them to you! (note: I edited this to extend the deadline because Chris @ Stumbling Over Chaos is going to help spread the word.)
Love, Becka
Hi Becka,
I read your blog using Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) and the feed seems to be working.
Some of my favorite reads:
Ask Moxie (http://www.askmoxie.org/)
She posts a question and the people reading her blog post their answers
Yarn Harlot (http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/)
A knitter and writer posts about her latest projects and etc.
Cool Mom Picks
(http://www.coolmompicks.com)
Product site. Giveaways every day.
kelli
another few sites:
Prizey (http://prizey.blogspot.com/)
A list of giveaways on the web
Craftsanity (http://www.craftsanity.com/)
Project journal + interview podcast
kelli
I read
http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/
You may have heard of this gal. She had a post on ebay for a pack of pokemon cards her kids (she has 6) snuck into her grocery cart. The post was super funny, and the cards sold for, I think, $300. (She insists she didn’t cash the winner’s check, but still gave her the cards.)The post lead to 100,000 hits on her blog, which lead to the start of a new business for her and a book deal.
Hi Becka,
For one of my sites I used a blog application (Movable Type) to build a photo gallery. There are probably much easier ways to do this now. But at the time (early 2005), it was the easiest way (for me–learning as I went) to keep the same look and feel as the rest of the site.
http://www.litzsinger.org/photos/
Details: the entry body contains the regular size photo which links to a high-resolution version. The descriptive text was put in as the extended entry. I used the excerpt feature to put in the thumbnails, and then set the main page to just show excerpts.
The blog application automatically indexes the entries by subject matter, and there is a keyword search.
That site also has a regular blog (www.litzsinger.org/weblog/) updated by a variety of staff, volunteers, and teachers. A section of the site’s index page (www.litzsinger.org)is populated automatically with the title of the most recent post.
Other interesting sites:
Dooce (http://www.dooce.com/) updates three different photo sections every weekday plus the regular blog a few times per week.
Secret Agent Josephine (http://www.secret-agent-josephine.com/blog/) includes a twitter feed.
Curbly (http://www.curbly.com/) gives directions for a myriad of diy projects, from constructing a greenhouse from old cd cases, to making your own “Swiffer”, to ribbon roses. Kind of a re-purposing blog.
Jennifer
These are great suggestions! Thank you!
You will include Julie Zickefoose and the Birdchick as “good read” blogs. Julie’s is remarkable because she is as skilled a writer as she is a painter, I always learn something.
mother of the artist.
The Walker Treasury Project is an interesting use – they’re putting up color swatches for the Barbara Walker stitch pattern books (all in black and white).
TECHknitting(tm) is a very, very good knitting instruction blog.
The Uptown Mpls Blog is a photoblog devoted to the Uptown area.
Okay, I’ve got two NON-fibery ones for you:
Punctuality Rules, which is all about writing, grammar, and basic civility.
, Booking Through Thursday, which is a blog that doubles as a weekly meme about reading.
(And, yes, they’re both my blogs–because my other blog, Chappysmom, is more or less a standard knitting-and-life blog.)
I love your doggie in your header, he is just too cute.
My blog, FuzzyBritches (http://fuzzybritches.wordpress.com) , is used to document and catalog my knitting as well as some of the daily things that happen in my life.
I also use lj (live journal) as a more private blog to journal about some of the more serious things that don’t really fit in on the lighter theme of FuzzyBritches.
One of my favorite blogs, http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com you already know about. Great for adorable kitty pics, book reviews, and fibery contest updates! It’s teh first blog I check each morning.
Here’s another non-fibery one for you: http://www.rollingdogranch.typepad.com/
The Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary, which takes in disabled and sick animals and cares for them to the end of their lives. Their blog is heartwarming, full of stories and photos of the animals, but also sad with the harsh realities of losing animals, etc. They rarely mention the need for money on this blog, yet I have no doubt it’s a great fundraiser for them–I’ve donated money on several occasions because of a story that touched me.
I guess I use my blog just to make people laugh, and talk a bit about knitting. I really don’t know what my blog is!!!! I did it cuz it sounded fun and I’ve met alot of imagineary friends through this ‘net. One blog I really like to read is Say La Vee at
blackbird17.blogspot.com
She just writes about her life but what wit and style! I love her posts.
Hope this helps you out!
I surfed over from Chris’ blog. In addition to all of the things people have already said, blogs are great to use as travelogues and also as (private) family reunion planning sites.
Good luck!
I’ll share a link to one of my favourite cooking blogs: smittenkitchen.com. It has good recipes and good pictures, and it shares just enough personal stories and information to make it an interesting read without (to me) turning it into a personal blog.
This one is a site where you can put the plotline of a favorite book you vaguely remember from childhood. It’s called Stump the Bookseller.
http://www.loganberrybooks.com/blog/
This one is for my friend’s new yarn store. She uses it as her business website because blogs are so much easier to update then websites.
http://purlsofwisdomyarn.com/
One of my favorites is Marilyn Scott-Waters’ site, “The Toymaker”: http://www.thetoymaker.com/
She has TONS of beautiful paper toys you can just print out and make, and if you click on “Jornal” it’s her blog about being an Illustrator (and lover) of children’s books. (She answers e-mail too).
OOPS…that’s “click on JOURNAL”…that’s what I get for not proofing.