Meta-Blogging: How to Maintain an Academic Blog…Tell your secrets?
When I posted the other day on George Clooney, my friend Colleen, who studies Japanese Film at UO, posted the following on my Facebook page:
Annie - I’ve been going back through the history of your blog and I have a question: how long do you spend writing your posts? I’m amazed at your loquacious and detailed narratives and although I imagine it gets easier as time goes by, you both inspire and daunt me. Particularly, regarding your very first post, I found myself thinking, “Yeah! The blogs in my field are COMPLETELY dominated by men…why the hell don’t I do something about it?!” So, could you talk about the process a little?
Now, the purpose of publishing Colleen’s comment for the world to see is not to prove that someone besides my mom and best friends read the blog. Or find me by turns daunting and inspiring. But I think that Colleen brings up a good point — and one that I’d like to discuss more with other academic bloggers — as to how best to start and sustain an (academically rooted) blog.
My Tactics:
- Figure out what kind of blog you want to have. I wanted to have an academic blog — but something that dealt specifically with my own research interests and was accessible to a general reading audience. I knew that my posts wouldn’t elaborately or perfectly researched, but they’d touch on things that had caught my attention. I also knew that I wanted the blog to be something regular — a living document, as opposed to one that comes to life a once a month. I wanted a readership. As such, I had to….
- Set a goal for posts a week. And try and stick to it. I think most bloggers try and do this; most also feel guilty when they fail. I don’t feel ‘guilty’ so much as pressed. If I indeed wanted the blog to perform as described above, I’d need to provide that many posts. I’d need to put it on my to-do list — and not necessarily last. If, as so many of us in the academic community are attempting to advocate, our ‘accomplishments’ as scholars are beginning to expand to include well-maintained blogs, columns at FlowTV.org, and ‘proctoring’ clips at inMediasRes, then I had to treat it as just as important as other things on the to-do list. This wasn’t just for fun or amusement — it’s part of my development as a scholar. But to make that tenable, I had to….
- Really like blogging. If you don’t like working through your ideas in writing, if you don’t like bouncing them off people or risking putting yourself out for critique, if you don’t like typing or working with something like WordPress, if you feel you don’t have enough to say but that you should have blog because other people do….it’s going to be tough to motivate, and you’re probably going to feel bad.
- More specifically: I ask my friends to write guest posts, which means that I can ‘provide content’ even when I don’t have as much time to write. I’ve also posted a few posts that draw heavily on things I’ve written in other contexts — in part to receive feedback, but also because it’s automatic content. I also write when I’m not on my ‘A-Game’: one thing I’ve learned in my years in grad school is to protect my ‘prime productivity hours’ as much as possible. When I’m most concentrated and alert, I do my ‘real’ writing. When I’m a little tired after dinner and can’t motivate to do any other work — that’s when I blog. Finally, I publicize it. At first, I felt really self-conscious about announcing new posts at Twitter or Facebook. But the best way to feel excited about your blog = other people reading your blog. And commenting, and making you think about what you’ve written, and what you’d like to write in the future. I’m curious about how other people feel about this — I, for one, feel oddly validated when a post generates readership (which you can track via your host’s dashboard) and/or comments.
For those of you who regularly blog, either ‘academically’ or on a more personal level, I’d really like to hear your own strategies — and I’m sure many others would like to as well.
9 Responses to “Meta-Blogging: How to Maintain an Academic Blog…Tell your secrets?”
For me, maintaining my blog is practicing what I preach. As an advocate of independent/DIY/non-mainstream means of production, it’s a way for me to be a producer as well as a critical consumer. Also, as an MA who has not yet made it into a PhD program, it’s a great way to do independent research and stay critically limber.
Annie’s points are great and things I try to uphold for my blog as well. In addition, here are some of my abiding rules.
1. Write for yourself about things that interest you in your own voice. I can’t stress this enough. Don’t worry about whether people will read your posts and, if they do, what they’ll think/say. Don’t worry so much about your stats either (though do keep an eye on it). Once you publish, public reception is all fair game, but while you’re drafting, just enjoy the process of putting your thoughts into words. This is the best part, so make sure to enjoy it.
2. Be honest. Don’t be diplomatic if you have an opinion. Don’t couch your words in theory to the point that they become dulled. Again, don’t worry what other people think. If you hated “(500) Days of Summer” (or loved it!) don’t be afraid to own that opinion.
3. Come up with a good name that distills *exactly* what you’ll be covering and from what angle. To come up with it, I’ll borrow from what Don Draper tells Peggy Olson in season one of “Mad Men” — think really hard about it and then forget about it. Also Google ideas to make sure no one has come up with your idea. I found my blog name by typing “feminist” and “music geek” — terms I feel define me — and the first thing that came up was my old MySpace page. Delightful!
4. Bouncing off Annie’s point, do set up post goals. Sometimes weeks are crazy, but try to get in at least one post a week.
5. If you have a good idea for a post, but haven’t written the post, write a title out and save it as a draft. That way, you won’t forget it later when the words come to you.
6. Include search terms. Basically, I put in any proper noun mentioned in a post, along with related thematic terms (i.e., art vs. commerce, post-feminism, queer). It’s a good way to get people to find you if they’re using a search engine. Plus, you can chuckle at some of the more popular search terms — my favorite is still “Lady Gaga penis?”
7. Echoing Annie again, I’d say in addition to getting your friends to guest-post (I do this too; perhaps Annie and I share a feminist impulse in why we like doing this), be receptive to any ideas for things they’re interested in. It might help you come up with potential blog posts. My friend Kristen is a boon of information and enthusiasm. Always appreciate a friend who believes in your work enough to share their ideas with you.
8. But always attribute where you got those ideas from if you didn’t come to them entirely on your own.
And then there’s the promotional side, which I think isn’t as high a priority, but is necessary if you want other people to read your words. There’s a lot of blogs out there, after all.
1. Make sure that all of your links open in a new page. That way, the non-linear Internet surfer comes back to your blog instead of going down a rabbit hole.
2. Let your friends know about your blog. They can tell their friends, who can tell their friends, who can tell their friends . . . It was through my friends that I knew there’d be an audience for a blog focusing on music culture from a feminist perspective in the first place.
3. Participate in ongoing discussions with the blogs you like. Make sure to include your Web site in all interactions so that other readers can click on your blog name.
4. Take advantage of social networking sites to get some free advertising. We aren’t all tenured professors and we can’t all work for NPR. I post links to Twitter and have a Facebook fan group for my blog where I update regularly. With Twitter, I also tend to follow scholars, cultural figures, and media outlets I like. Some of them follow me and read my blog.
Hope this helps! Happy blogging!
Another bit I picked up from Prof. Hacker: use a ‘Gravatar’ that streamlines the way you’re represented (on Twitter, WordPress, etc.). It’s almost like self-branding. If that’s the case, Clara Bow is my brand.
Academic blogging is great, and I’m impressed with your frequently updated and very interesting blog, Annie, but I am against the idea that an academic blogger should be expected to provide content on a regular basis when, let’s face it, writing for peer reviewed publication is still way more important than blogging (and writing for Flow and IMR) and we are all busy people with more stuff to do than time to do it. With RSS, Twitter, FB, etc., it’s possible for devoted readers to be alerted when new content appears, and we shouldn’t feel like people are constantly checking in on our sites for new content. Bloggers should publish their work online when they feel like it and not feel bad if this is only sporadic. I blog because I like to, and lately I only like to do it every once in a while. I used to blog links more frequently but lately I prefer to use Twitter or FB for that. Why not keep a quarterly blog, or even an annual one?
On your final point — yes, attention is intoxicating. I know this feeling. Of course part of it is vanity, and I fear sometimes it has distracted me from the reality that a blog (as of now, maybe this will change later) is not a highly valued form of academic work.
I hope these comments don’t sound too crabby. Sometimes I resent blogging for taking my time, and for not rewarding me as much as I wish it would. I admire academics who manage to blog a lot in addition to getting all kinds of other stuff done. Not everyone can manage that, or wants to.
Annie-I always enjoy reading your blog and I too am continually amazed with how frequently you post thoughtful entries.
I am glad you brought up these questions. I too have struggled with the “how often do I post” issue since I launched my blog. I initially began my own blog partially to serve as a resource for my media industries classes and partially because there didn’t seem to be many similar sites (by academics, at least) on the business of entertainment. The limited number of female academics blogging relative to men also motivated me to start typing. Also, I enjoyed my time writing for Flow and wanted to continue to have the type of interactive “real time-ish” experience.
I certainly began with the best of intentions (“I am going to post at least once a week!”) but have not been the most devoted poster of late. Like Mike, blogging simply can’t be at the top of my list of priorities right now. When other forms of publications are more valued, and the tenure clock ticks ever more loudly, it is hard to justify taking the time to post new blog entries. Often I find myself feeling an inclination to write something on my blog only to “talk myself out of it” because I really shouldn’t be taking the time right now. Also, whereas at first I started to post “links of the week” that I found of interest, now I too now use other platforms (Diigo, Facebook and Twitter) as alternative means of directing people to stories I find of interest.
It does seem that — based on the current reward system in academia — scholar-blogs have to be written with lesser frequency than blogs by journalists, critics, etc. That said, I look forward to returning to my blog once my current writing projects are done. I can imagine it becoming MUCH more useful as I initiate my next book, perhaps serving as a means to engage in more of a dialogue about ideas, possible directions to pursue, etc. Right now, though, as I am finishing up a big project, getting feedback or initiating a discussion isn’t as desirable (or possible) for me.
PS-the biggest lesson learned so far? don’t hastily name your blog! I launched mine quickly without much consideration, and now wish wish wish I could change the name to something much more fun and inspired…maybe some day I will. Oh well.
I really appreciate all of the insight offered above — and hope that I didn’t come off as critical of blogs that are not frequently updated. If I did, that I wasn’t my intention. As Mike suggests, I think a once-a-year blog can be just as useful and insightful as a once-a-week or once-a-day blog. They simply serve different purposes — and different audiences, in some cases.
But I do want to suggest that blogging has different stakes for graduate students. We have our share our pressure — to publish, pass comps, write a dissertation, but we have nothing like tenure.
We also need to network, and, as Alyx suggests, keep academically limber. While I’ve published several articles, I’ve found that *nothing* has provided greater connections, feedback, and exchange of ideas that starting and maintaining this blog. Making myself visible in the academic community as a mere Ph.D. student is by no means the only reason I started the blog — but it’s one of them.
This is a great topic! I was just wondering this myself-how much time do other academics devote to their blogs? How much time should I devote? Am I wasting my time? Am I narcissist?
I just started my blog about 3 weeks ago and from the beginning I decided it was going to be a forum in which I could do the kind of writing that I can’t do in articles, conference papers, etc. Basically, rather than yelling at my television or boring my husband with the details of why an episode of Mad Men was particularly well-crafted or why the Melrose Place premiere displayed lazy writing, I can now just blog about it. I have also been writing about the course on Trash Cinema cinema that I’m currently teaching because I am enjoying my students so much this semester, I imagine some of this stuff might make its way into my academic work, but most of it will not.
As to frequency of posts: I just handed in a manuscript-a project which has haunted me for the last 2 years (or really 5 years since it was originally my dissertation)-so I planned to use this semester to relax a little and as my “blog semester.” As a result, I have the time to post at least 3 times/ week. I imagine this will slow down after this semester (especially since my son arrives in January) but I plan to borrow your idea of the guest blogger when that happens.
The only problem with posting so frequently is the problem of when to announce my posts. I have only announced my blog posts once on Facebook and I have done it sporadically on Twitter. I don’t want to appear “spammy” but of course when I announce posts I get much higher traffic on my site. What is the etiquette here?
One final note-Annie I truly enjoy your blog and I am impressed with the large readership you amassed in such a sort time period.
Lots of great points here! Personally, I use http://twitterfeed.com/ and Facebook’s notes to automatically promote new posts - it’s a great way to get quick readers and potentially launch a conversation. I think there’s nothing to be ashamed of in self-promoting a post (or publication or whathaveyou) for an academic: in nearly every other sphere of content-creation, there’s a marketing apparatus whose full-time job is to promote your work. In academia, all we’ve got is ourselves. And I’m always surprised that some of the most read items on my blogs are my drafts of long academic essays, not the shorter one-offs.
One addition to the frequency issue is to recognize that blogs have different seasons and life cycles - sometimes I’m prolific, while other times I let it lie dormant while I’m working on other things (much of which might end up on the blog eventually). Having a weekly quota is a nice goal, but it’s just not realistic when you have a pile of grading or a publishing deadline - and that’s ok. With RSS readers and other tools to promote a post, I don’t think you lose readers if you’re not a steady publisher, but if you’ve explicitly said that you’ll be posting on a frequent schedule you can set yourself unreasonable expectations. But starting a new blog with a flurry of content is definitely a good strategy to gain subscribers.
This is a great discussion, and I’ll throw in my $.02. Like Jason, I feel like my blog may have seasons and cycles related to my ability to devote energy to blogging. Some of this has to do with the academic calendar and, quite often, it is connected to my other writing goals. I certainly wrote less often (and wrote far more links posts) when I was putting the finishing touches on my book.
I’ve actually avoided quantifying blog posts or setting goals, other than a general sense that I’d like to post if I haven’t written anything new in a few days. I had the good luck of allowing my blog to evolve organically (as an “experiment”) before academic blogging was a widely recognized genre, so I could soon see that my early “political” posts weren’t where I wanted to spend my energy.
I also feel comfortable now tossing up a couple of links posts, even if they don’t offer a coherent argument, simply because I feel like it can help me to quickly process ideas (essentially a more public version of social bookmarking) and allow others to find relevant readings and videos.
[...] been planning to write a response here to Annie Petersen’s query for suggestions on how to maintain an academic blog, mostly because of the wide number f comments [...]