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Why Should You Blog?

January 29, 2008 at 9:10 pm | In blogs, e-marketing | Leave a Comment

Blog. It wasn’t long ago that the word did not exist. I heard that when it first appeared and for some time after that the word “blog” was the most searched for word or term on the Internet. I have already posted on what a blog is (see this) so I won’t repeat that here, but let me share with you why a blog is useful by answering a few common questions.

Question: If I have a web site, do I need to have a blog?
Answer: Well, that depends. If your web site is a large one chocked full of information, it may be difficult for your visitors to always see what they want to see AND difficult for you to make sure they see what you want them to see. If you have frequent updates or news pieces you want your constituents to be aware of, a blog can be very helpful and a good companion for your web site. That is because a blog posts your pieces in chronological order, with the latest news appearing first on the blog’s home page. By making use of blog publishers (see our links) these written pieces can be archived automatically by month and can also be sorted by themes or categories like I have done on this blog. What is so powerful about that is this: you can tag a written piece with more than one theme or category. You can’t do that on a web site without spending quite a bit of money on development costs. Click on a category to the left and see what happens.

More Questions and Answers> Continue reading Why Should You Blog?…

free online virus checkers

January 28, 2008 at 2:42 pm | In protection | Leave a Comment

If your current virus protection software is not working correctly or out of date OR if you want to compare it to others, you can scan and fix your computer free through trusted providers of virus protection software. Trend Micro has Housecall. I have used it and was pleased with its preformance. It also found a virus that MacAfee missed. Symantec has a similar free service (they make Norton Anti Virus). If you want to see a list of others to choose from, I did a google search for you and you can see the results here.
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viruses and email

January 27, 2008 at 10:46 pm | In protection | Leave a Comment

Having virus protection software on your computer(s) is really no longer an option. It is mandatory. However, viruses still sneak through. Most likely, you use Outlook as your email program. One way you can add strength to your virus protection is to make sure you update Outlook whenever prompted to do so by Microsoft. The latest updates will include the latest patches created to fight emerging virus threats that could be transmitted through your email.

As well, be careful about opening attachments to emails from people you don’t know. Often your virus protection software or spam filters (if you have them) will keep such emails from impacting you. But the best protection is when you are keeping a vigilant eye on the attachments you open.

Of course, always keep your virus protection software up to date as well. If you don’t, you increase your vulnerability with each passing day that you don’t down load the latest update.
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your web presence

January 25, 2008 at 5:10 pm | In web sites | Leave a Comment

You probably have a web site. Many non-profits have good web sites, but more tend to have sites that are not necessarily well designed or well maintained. Sometimes web sites are built on grant money, but when the money is gone, resources to maintain it are slim. Often, a non-profit lacks the technical expertise to maintain even the most basic of sites. Even those who have fairly elaborate sites are likely unable to stay up with the latest innovations in web design, not to mention the World Wide Web itself.
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net lingo

January 22, 2008 at 11:24 pm | In Definitions | Leave a Comment

Are you concerned about “bruised rationals” or are you really just a “bullet clicker”? Likely your organization doesn’t have a “nerd rustler” but my guess is you have a lot of “muggles.” Ok. I never knew what those terms meant either until I went to NetLingo which has thousands of definitions that easily explain the Internet and the online world of business, technology, and communication. It’s basically a glossary. Good stuff there.
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is blogging for you?

March 22, 2007 at 11:16 pm | In blogs | 1 Comment

First, what is a blog? Here’s what Wikipedia has to say

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.

The term “blog” is a portmanteau, or, in other words, a blend of the words web and log (Web log). “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

This article provides a good overview of “corporate blogging” which offers insights that are applicable in large part to non-profits.

What does it cost?

There are many free blog sites. Two of the most popular are BlogSpot and WordPress - the latter being the host of tapacity. Each provides with many templates to choose from and a whole bunch of features (some times called “widgets”) at no cost to you. There are paid services of course at places like Typepad, Go Daddy, and the like, but no need to start there. Try the free stuff first.

Think about using a blog to communicate regularily with your membership or constituency about the work of your organization. Many CEOs now have blogs (even if they don’t write them themselves). It can be an onerous task to write regularily. The key to a successful blog is that it is updated frequently. But a blog is much easier to update than a web site. You just log in, click on “post” and write your stuff and publish it. Simple. Ok. Not always totally simple but you can put up a blog in a short time without having to know any HTML.
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tech soup

March 22, 2007 at 4:49 pm | In Definitions, resources | Leave a Comment

If you are looking for technology resources that can help your organization, get familiar with this site. The information there can range from basic to quite technical, so depending on your comfort level with techno speak, you might find some of the site hard to understand. That being said, you can read tips about what makes or breaks a web site, learn about virus protection, and begin to discover what things like “RSS” are. This site should be one of your major technology resources as a non profit.

http://www.techsoup.org
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