7 Tips for launching a successful blog

My friend Ray sent me a link to the blog, the evangelical outpost, where there is a series on launching successful blogs. There's a lot of information there and the parts I reviewed seem very strong. Here are the main topics covered:

• Part I - Before You Begin


• Part II - The Beginning Bloggers Toolbox


• Part III - How to Become an A-List Blogger


• Part IV – The Art of Marketing Your Blog


• Part V - Owning a Micro-Niche


• Part VI – Three Essential Elements of Blog Design


• Part VII The 5/150 Principle

PS - Ray just got mentioned by Seth Godin today. Congratulations Ray!! It's truly a thrill when Seth gives you a little publicity.

Vimeo Makes Video Integration on Blogs a Snap

A friend asked me today to recommend a video hosting website to him to use for a family blog he keeps. The first one I suggested was Vimeo.com because I've heard some good things about it. He reported that it was easy to load the video onto Vimeo but wasn't sure how to get the video onto his Blogger blog. Vimeo provided him with a video embed link and he sent it to me to get onto his blog. At first I wasn't sure how difficult this was going to be because I had a terrible time getting a You Tube video to work for me a few months ago. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the link Vimeo provided just had to be plugged into Blogger's new post field and it published to the blog without a hitch or glitch. I spent at least 30 minutes the day I tried to get You Tube video on this blog so the 30 seconds it took to get the Vimeo video on my friend's site today was a breeze. I know where I'll go when I have a choice for video from now on. Also, if I ever start a video blog, Vimeo will be my first option to host the video...it was just that easy!

Church Blog Guidelines: Two Examples

My post a few days ago asked the question: Can blogging be a bad thing in ministry? The answer was, "yes, if used incorrectly." It is always my hope that any church or ministry will not let the bad overshadow the good. The "bad" would be to let a fear of blogging (or some unknown consequence) prevent a church from ever diving into the blogosphere. The good is obviously to use blogs as a great communication tool to reach more people more quickly. Tonight I found a couple of churches who have put together some staff blogging guidelines that seem to be the perfect mix of blogging freedom, awareness, and parameters.

• Granger Community Church has a list of blogging suggestions for their staff. I really like the tone and entire approach they took with this. It communicates that the church trusts their staff but also wants them to be aware of a few things too.

• Fellowship Church takes a little more time to discuss the potential repercussions for a blog gone wild but their guidelines also clearly communicate the church's official position on blogs without limiting a blogging staff member's freedom. They extend this same policy to personal staff websites.