Blogging questions

Hieromonk Joined : 20 May 2008 Posts : 154

I posted this question over at macnn, but I am curious as to what the visitors/members of theologer think.

How many of you have the automatic comments turned off. In other words you need to approve all the comments unless they're from trusted individuals. I found early on by allowing unapproved comments, I was getting a lot of spam.

Second question, how many of you have multiple blogs? I was thinking of this a while back. Being the geek that I am, I'm interested in technology and such but my theologynow blog is focused Christian living and various theology concepts. Since I'm writing about Christian topics, I tend not to include subject matter outside of that intended purpose though I have in the past let one or two slip through A second blog for other topics and subject matter would seem like a natural move however the work required to maintain two blogs would outweigh the benefit IMO. I am curious to know if others maintain multiple blogs and why.

Mike
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My Blog - http://www.theologynow.net

Novice Age : 44 Joined : 04 Jun 2008 Posts : 49

New commenters need to be approved but once they are approved the first time there isn't a restriction. This keeps trolls out in addition to semi-spammers. Otherwise I have spam protection in place.

I have a second Christian blog mainly for quotes and short items and I only post once a week or less.

I'm going to start a blog related to Windows freeware, XP tips and tricks and wallpaper. I'm doing this one mainly to try to get some income from Google Adsense. I have some original wallpaper and I can do short reviews of freeware.
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http://www.scripturezealot.com

Subject: Re: Blogging questions Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:53 am

I keep several different ones actually. Theologer.com remains my main one, but i spend a good amount of time at sieveandsand.com.
also, I twitter, I keep a blog with just pictures of my daughter (for the family), and I have one other blog that is details about my daily life. But it again is under a pseudonym. A good one too.

All of them are so focused that sometimes I want to let things slip through. People like nick at rdtwot.wordpress.com let everything through and some people like it. others dont. I don't want my blog to have things like that on it, but I do enjoy reading his. so... thats my take..

you can always have another blog... there are sooooo many great blogging tools out there good for different things. I've REALLY enjoyed tumblr lately... its totally flexable, easy to use, and beautiful (and they map to any domain for free).

thats just my thoughts.
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"sometimes a little more than you think you want is still a little less than you actually need"
"brilliance seems too often masked by stupid people"

Hieromonk Joined : 20 May 2008 Posts : 154

I have some friends that use their blogs in a general sense. Some spiritual stuff, some family stuff and some other stuff. Since for me theologynow is purely a blog about various issues of Christian living and/or Bible passages, I've for the most part refrained from adding non-core stuff.

Time and energy is in short supply so I'm not sure if I add a second, I'll have the wherewithal to properly maintain both. I may be changing jobs which will impact my free time significantly so I'll be hard pressed to bang out articles at the pace that I'm doing now.

I did two articles for my blog today, one on patience, and the other on the foreknowledge of God vs. openness theology (see my other post here) I just haven't marked the second article to published, that will be next week.

My current job has some significant slow downs from time to time, affording me the ability to write a lot of my stuff during the day. The downside of that is, not being so busy in a slow economy. That's why I'm looking for a job, I'd rather find one that will keep me busy on my own terms instead of them asking me to leave when its not as convenient Very Happy

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My Blog - http://www.theologynow.net

Xenophile Joined : 09 May 2008 Posts : 147

I don't have time for more than one blog. I can't even keep up with my reading, much less contribute worthwhile content to another blog. As far as comments, I permit everything and have only had around 500 spam comments this year, all but one caught by the spam filter. If it ever gets bad then I will limit comments more, but so far I haven't needed to.
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\_ My blog: Discipulus Scripturae

Subject: Re: Blogging questions Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:04 am

the trick is to dedicate one big block of time to setting it up the way to you want... then you dont need but 5 minutes or so a day to commit to writing (my theologer one takes more like 15 minutes but the others are short).

about a month ago i hit some kind of breakthrough and now about 90% of the traffic i get comes straight from google instead of from other folks sites... which is encouraging... it keeps me wanting to create more content and knowing that my other blogs might someday hit the same sort of dealio.
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"sometimes a little more than you think you want is still a little less than you actually need"
"brilliance seems too often masked by stupid people"

Hieromonk Joined : 20 May 2008 Posts : 154

How do you tell where your traffic is coming from?

I spend about an hour, sometimes two or three hours producing my blogs which is why I'm wondering about the time and energy. Admittedly, if I do another more generalized one the odds of spending hours on it are slim. I'll probably just jot down various things that strike me.

The blog that I produce is not the end but rather the means. It provides the avenue for me to study the Bible, increase my knowledge of the Lord and hopefully aide my maturity as a Christian. I also fear that I'll take a passage out of context and the Lord is pretty harsh on teachers that lead others astray. Whatever I write, I try to back up with a number of verses and consider the context of the passage, not just one verse pulled out to make or force my point. That also can be time consuming.
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My Blog - http://www.theologynow.net

Xenophile Joined : 09 May 2008 Posts : 147

I'm thinking of only doing 1-2 major scripture-type posts on my blog a month, and fill in the week with short posts from my life, or things I find interesting. Still mulling it over really.
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\_ My blog: Discipulus Scripturae

Subject: Re: Blogging questions Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:49 am

nathan - a good idea i think...

maflynn... - sitemeter.com - plop one of these babies on your site and you'll know WAY more about the people who visit your site than you ever wanted to or thought possible.
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"sometimes a little more than you think you want is still a little less than you actually need"
"brilliance seems too often masked by stupid people"

Novice Joined : 11 May 2008 Posts : 26

You might want to reconsider that sitemeter thing. Wink

Hieromonk Joined : 20 May 2008 Posts : 154

Hieromonk Joined : 20 May 2008 Posts : 154

Subject: Re: Blogging questions Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:36 am

Hieromonk Joined : 20 May 2008 Posts : 154

Nah, I hit the wrong button and didn't notice Smile

I wanted to edit my post not quite Embarassed

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My Blog - http://www.theologynow.net

Novice Joined : 11 May 2008 Posts : 26

Why not sitemeter?

1)Too much a commercial tool, definite privacy issues

2) Do you really want to know that much about people?

3) A recent update blocked access to blogs for users of IE for half a day or more