http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/716/thirty-tools-for-writers/

In line with our ministry vision to “declare God’s glory among the nations”, the videos we produce are intended for broad distribution.

You may share these videos by sharing the link to the portfolio pages in this site. However, if you would like to embed them in another website, or download them to view offline on a computer, you will need to go to the actual hosting site.

All the OFM videos are hosted at vimeo.com/ofm

Each video has an embed link in the upper right right corner.

In order to download a video, you will first need to set up your own personal Vimeo login (free). Once that is set up, log in and navigate to the OFM video you want to download. You will see a download link about half way down the page on the right side.

If you’re still having trouble, feel free to contact us.

The first step is to find the syndicated “feed” from your blog.  For an Aimsites blog, your feed should simply be hhtp://youraimsitesname.aimsites.org/feed

Copy that link and click here to navigate to Facebook. This link will take you to a page where you can add the RSS feed. Once it’s set up, anything you post to your blog will automatically be posted to your Facebook wall.

Your camera may have several different quality and resolution settings available. Resolution describes how big the picture will be (measured in pixels) and the Quality refers to how much the image data is compressed. The more it is compressed, the smaller the file size will be, but also the more detail you will lose. It’s possible to have the option for different compression settings (quality settings) for the same resolution settings. For example, your camera may offer a setting for 6-megapixel Normal, and a 6-megapixel Fine. The “Fine” setting would give you the same exact size image, but it will have less compression, and thus, a clearer picture. These days, memory cards and storage space on your computer are so cheap that there’s no good reason not to select the highest quality picture you can.

2- Turn off the digital zoom… never look back.

Digital zoom is a sham. It’s meaningless except for promotional purposes. The reach of your camera’s optics (its lens) is the only meaningful thing you need to know. A 10x lens is a good thing. The only thing the digital zoom function does is “zoom in” on the maximum optical reach of the camera – something you can easily do to any picture by simply cropping it on your computer. The use of digital zoom gives you nothing you cannot already do, but it does take away. It throws away valuable image data from the rest of the frame in order to crop in on one part. You will never get a clear image with the digital zoom selected, and you might regret it later. Turn it off.

3- Take lots of shots. Preview between shots and take more. Take several shots of the same subject while adjusting the composition of the picture and trying different settings on your camera

You should have more than one memory card for your camera. Generally, it’s better to have two smaller cards than one large one. Memory cards are volatile media. They have a limited life span. They will die one day. Best not to have 400 pictures all in one “egg basket” when that happens. This is also a good reason to clear your cards regularly. Your computer is the proper place to store your photos, not your camera. Download your pictures often. That said, having more memory lets you take more pictures. Probably the single biggest benefit of a digital camera over a film camera is the ability to take essentially endless shots. And they are free. Don’t treat your camera like it has film in it. You should never feel like you have to “conserve” your shots. If you feel that way, you probably need another memory card and a spare battery. Get in the habit of taking more than one shot of the same thing. People blink sometimes. And different angles and zooms on a single subject will improve your chances of getting a really great picture. You have the ability to preview your pictures on the fly, which should help you learn your camera’s settings better. Try several pictures with different settings and see what happens between shots. This is a great way to learn how to use your camera. What’s composition? It’s how you frame the shot. There’s another tutorial here about that. But the habit of taking multiple frames when you take a picture will encourage you to play around with the composition of the shot. Truly great pictures are made with skilled composition.

4- Master the “half push.” Holding down the shutter button half-way will lock the exposure and focus of your shot. This is the key to well composed photos.

Your camera has a feature that allows you to take some control over the shot before you release the shutter and actually take it. If you press the shutter button (the silvery-right-finger-push-to-take-the-picture button) half way down, you will “meter” and “focus” the shot. If you press the button all the way down, you will take the picture. The beauty of the half-push is this: you can push that button down half way and hold it there. Then, you can move the camera all around (re-compose the shot) and the settings for focus and metering will stick to the original composition. What does that mean? It mens you can frame my face in the middle of your screen and half-push. Hold that button half-down and recompose so I am (artistically) off center in the frame, and then take the shot. The picture will be focused on me even though I’m way off to the side in the frame. And it will be metered (my face won’t be too dark or too light, but just right) for me as well. And if that wasn’t enough, using this technique will make your camera respond quicker to the shutter release. Have you ever gotten the shot you wanted half a second too late? Pre-metering and pre-focusing the shot will dramatically speed up the shutter release and you will get your picture when you want it. Mastering the half-push is essential to good pictures. It introduces a human brain into the taking of a picture.

5- Learn how to get more control of your pictures by selecting Spot Metering and Spot Focus in the menu – YOU decide what the camera sets the exposure for… you decide what point in the picture is in sharpest focus.

To go a step further in taking some more control over your pictures, you can select the “spot” feature of your camera’s focus and metering modes. Typically, the default setting for these two important variables is some kind of compromise. You will find that your camera is set to some “grid” or “matrix” metering or focusing mode. It means that the camera averages what it sees and guesses the best focus and metering settings. Most of the time this works pretty well. But what’s the average when you have a dark face against a bright sky? Spot metering will let you pick the exact “spot” that you want properly exposed by putting it in the center of the frame and giving it the aforementioned half-push. Whether you re-compose the shot or not, at least that dark face will be properly exposed. The sky behind it will likely be washed out white, but that’s OK. If you want the dark silhouette of a person or a tree against the vibrant blue sky, use the same technique, but “spot meter” for the sky instead of the face. You are in control, and that’s the point. Get familiar with your camera’s options here, and get some practice by taking lots of shots. Try metering to subtle differences on a subject – different places on someone’s face or clothing for example. See what happens.

6- Use the Exposure Compensation setting for terribly backlit subjects. Dark faces, bright sky… not uncommon in Africa.

Another way to get the exposure where you want it is to leave the metering in an “averaging” kind of setting like “matrix metering” or whatever your camera calls it, and then just adjust the exposure brighter or darker for the entire frame. Your can do this with a feature called “exposure compensation.” It looks like a symbol with a little plus and minus in your camera menu. It allows you to tell your camera… “OK, you can average the exposure for this shot, BUT I want you to then make it two steps brighter because we are inside of a church and all those bright windows around us are going to make you average to darkly.” Hey, there’s nothing wrong with talking to your camera as long as you don’t do it aloud. With both the exposure compensation settings and the spot metering, you have to take care to remember that you have them selected. You will need to un-select them as the shooting environment changes.

7- Take control of your Flash! Disable it or Force it… don’t let the camera decide. Whenever possible, lose the flash altogether. Try taking pictures with natural light, even if you have to get creative.

Yes, I want you to take even more control over your “automatic” camera. With your camera’s flash set on “auto” it will fire or not fire, you don’t really know. But you should know that a flash does things to pictures. Generally, it makes things look less real. For people, it flattens their faces and throws shadows around behind them. For other objects, it can wash out the colors. And I won’t even go into what happens when a person makes the ultimate rookie-photographer mistake… firing a flash into glass. You don’t always need a flash for pictures that your camera thinks you do. Remember, your camera’s little brain is, by default, trying to meter for the average light in the frame. Maybe there’s already enough light on your subject. Maybe you want to emphasize the rich contrast brought about by a beam of sunlight spilling into a dark room. If there’s remotely enough light, you will almost always get better pictures without the flash. However, when you need it, for very dark subjects or to “fill” in shadows, then force it. Your camera will let you select your flash for auto (lighting bolt with an “A”), off (Lightning bolt with a slash through it), or force (just a plain lightning bolt). Look for those symbols, and try your camera with the flash turned off for awhile.

8- Low light? If the camera selects a shutter speed below 1/60… hold on! Find a way to steady the shot or bring a little more light into the scene. Beware of high ISOs and the grainy pictures they will produce.

Somewhere on your little LCD screen on the back of the camera, you will see a variety of symbols telling you of different settings that are active. On many cameras, there’s also a readout of the “shutter speed” there. It usually looks like a fraction of some sort: 1/100, 1/500, 1/30. The number is telling you what fraction of a second the shutter will be open during the picture… how long the light in front of you will be burning into the camera’s chip (its digital “film). The longer the shutter is open, the more light spills in. Shorter means less light. There’s all kinds of things related to the shutter speed at which a picture is taken, but the one thing you should be aware of is that it can easily be too slow – especially of you have the flash turned off. As a general rule, if the speed displayed is lower than 1/60 (for example 1/30 or 1/15) then it is probably too slow to hold the camera in your hands. Also, anything in motion in the frame will begin to blur. A camera will automatically slow down it’s shutter speed when there isn’t enough light available for the picture. So some ways to compensate are these: get more light into the shot (or get the shot into more light). Another option is to steady your camera on a tripod or a table or something like that. And lastly, you can increase the “sensitivity” of your “film” by raising the ISO to a higher value. Your camera will automatically try these things first… it will try to fire the flash, then if it can’t it will raise the ISO up. What you should know about ISO is that as the numbers get higher, your pictures get grainy or “noisy”. They just don’t look good anymore. So beware of high ISO, grainy pictures. You may have a readout of the ISO there with your shutter speed. Numbers like 100, 200, 400 are low and good. Numbers like 800 and higher are bad enough that you might not want the picture at all. Better to use the flash than accept too high of an ISO. But better yet to get more natural light into your shot.

9- Experiment with the Program Modes on your camera. Portrait mode is a winner!

Your camera probably has a few (or a bunch) of program modes you can choose from. Modes for pictures of flowers or landscapes. Modes for fireworks, or even skiing. One that is worth using is the “portrait mode.” It adjusts the camera’s shutter speed and aperture in order to get a shallow depth of field in the picture. What that means is the ability to capture the subject’s face in sharp focus with the background out of focus. It’s an effect that makes for a great portrait. Try it. The “ski” mode might work well for the desert. It’s worth your time to experiment with these setting in your camera. Just remember if you have one selected before going off to take other pictures of other things.

10- Take care of your pictures. Back them up. Don’t produce too many “generations” of the same picture where the Jpeg will re-compress and degrade the quality of your photo.

Did I mention that your memory card is volatile? And that if you go off to have pictures printed from it at a local studio in Africa, you will likely get a virus on the card? And that while your inside getting your virus, your laptop will be stolen from you car? As a general rule, keep your pictures in two places, and your memory card should not be not one of them. You will likely keep pictures locally on your computer. But you need to have a backup of those. Either to disk or another hard drive. When you make copies of Jpegs (which is most likely the file type that your pictures are) don’t re-name them. Every time you rename a Jpeg outside of a photo editing program, the compression algorithm will run anew. Making many generations of the same photo by using the “save-as” command is like making photocopies of photocopies… you loose information and clarity with each generation. “Copy” and “Save” are OK. But beware of “Save As” when making backups of your pictures. And be sure to make those backups.

11- Delete more than you keep! Take lots and lots of shots… keep the best.

Once you’ve got your camera and computer and hard drives and dozen other accessories… your pictures are free. It doesn’t cost much of anything to be a prolific picture-taker. You’ll get better pictures simply by increasing the odds, and it will help you learn to be a better photographer too.

(This information was originally presented as a workshop at the Kenya missionary conference in 2007)

Putting video on your website is a great way to talk to supporters/friends/family and show them what your life and ministry look like, in a way that photos can’t. For some examples of how our family uses video, hop on over here.

Putting your video on your website is easier than you think. A couple of things you’ll need:

1. a digital video camera (most cameras purchased in the past 5 years will be digital)
2. a computer
3. a cable to plug your video camera into your computer (most likely called a “firewire” or “1394″ cable, but USB could work as well)
4. an internet connection and some patience.
   • Podcast-quality video will be around 4mb/minute, so a 3 minute video will require you to be able to upload around 12mb
   • On a standard dial-up connection, it should take you 3-4 minutes to upload each mb, so a 3 minute video (12mb) will take you approximately 40 minutes to upload
   • In other words, on a standard dial-up connection, plan on spending 12-16 minutes uploading for every minute of video you want to post online

1. Plug camera into computer

The first step is to get your computer and your camera talking together. Power on your camera, put it in playback or VTR mode (the mode where you can watch what you’ve recorded). Power on your computer, and locate the cable that probably came with your camera that is for plugging your camera and computer into each other. It’s probably called a “Firewire” or “1394″ cable. If you are using a USB cable, you will probably need to install some drivers (look for a CD that came with your camera) before using it on your computer. Firewire is better, use that if you have one!

2. Capture and edit video

If you’re on a Windows computer, open up “Windows Movie Maker“. This is free software that comes with your computer expressly for the purpose of easily creating video!

If you’re on a Mac, you’re also in luck. Find iMovie in your applications folder and launch it.

How to use these applications is beyond the scope of this quick tutorial. Play around with it, read the help screens in your application (Movie Maker or iMovie) and learn to use it.

The gist of what you need to do is this:

• Capture footage from your camera to your computer.
• Edit footage to show the parts of the video you want, trying to keep the overall length as short as possible
• Export your movie in a web-sized format.

Furthering reading:

for iMovie (http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie)

for Windows Movie Maker (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/getstarted/default.mspx)

4. Choose a video hosting service

Next thing you need is a place to upload your videos to. Your AIMsites website isn’t a really good place to do this for a couple of reasons: it’s not a video server and you have a limited amount of upload space.

The best thing is to sign up for a free account at one of these places:

Blip.tv

Google video

YouTube

Vimeo

I like blip because it gives people the option of subscribing to your videos through a podcast, like iTunes. It also organizes your videos into a “show”, so you can kind of think of each video you upload as another episode in your show. It’s also where AIM hosts its videos, which you can find here and here and here.

Once you’ve signed up for a video hosting account, and probably had to confirm your email address, proceed to the next step.

5. Uploading your video

The best way for you to get your video uploaded would be to find a client application that will do it for you. This is much better than sitting on a web-page for 40 minutes trying to send a file.

If you’re using blip, you can download their tools to upload here. I use Upperblip, but if you are using Windows Movie Maker there’s even a plugin that will let you send your videos to Blip straight from Movie Maker.

If you’re using Google Video, check out the Google Desktop Uploader.

If you’re using Vimeo, try the Desktop Uploader.

Once you’ve uploaded your video to your site, you can proceed with the next step

6. Embedding your video on your website

This is the easiest part. You can embed your own video in your pages and posts as well as video from almost anywhere else on the internet.

Just follow these easy steps:

1. log in to your aimsites.org backend
2. Start writing a new post (Write tab -> Posts link)
3. Find your newly uploaded video on your video hosting site
   • ex: I use blip.tv, and the URL of my “show” is brownfamily.blip.tv.
   • Find the URL to your video. When I visit my “episode archive” and choose a show on blip, the URL changes to http://brownfamily.blip.tv/file/2801358/
4. In the body of your post, paste the url. Not a link, just the url like you were putting plain text in there.
5. Publish your post, et voila! You’ll see your video embedded inside of the page or post. Much better than directing your family/friends/supporters to YouTube to search for your video, or have your video shown alongside questionable content from elsewhere on the internet!
6. To adjust the size of the embedded video, go to Settings -> Media
   • Enter a value for the “Maximum embed size” width: somewhere between 800 and 1000 should do it. Make the height blank. Save your changes.

Questions?

We’re here to help! AIMsites is a ministry of the On-Field Media team, and we make it our mission to help missionaries with media. We built this site for you, and we are here to support it and train you in using it!

• Large amounts of storage (1GB free on Picasa, 100Mb/month on Flickr)
• Allows your friends/family to order prints

There are some differences between these 2 popular services. We recommend Picasa for several reasons:

• More free upload space
• Unlimited # of photos that can be uploaded/accessed (Flickr limited to 200 most recent photos)
• Great free photo editing/archiving application for mac and pc

If you’re on a PC, download and install the Picasa application from http://picasa.google.com. You’ll also want to create an account on Picasa/Google if you don’t have one already. This is where your photos will be stored when you publish your “web album”.

If you’re on a Mac, you can also use the Picasa application for mac, or if you use iPhoto already, like me, download the Picasa Web Albums Uploader (http://picasa.google.com/mac_tools.html). You’ll also need to create an account on Picasa/Google if don’t have one already for the web album storage.

Explaining how to use Picasa or iPhoto is beyond the scope of this tutorial, as is uploading the photos to your Web Album. Once the photos are in your Web Album, follow these easy steps to integrate the photos here into your blog:

On the left side of your AIMsites blog admin, you’ll see a Plugins link. Expand that section by clicking the grey triangle so you see the “installed” link. Click that link.

Find “Picasa Image Express” in the plugins list, and click the Activate link underneath it.

Now, on the left side of the screen, find your “settings” link and expand that box so you see “Picasa Image Express” link. Click that link.

There are many settings on this page. The only real important one is your “Picasa User”. This is your google account that you’ve created and have uploaded your web albums to. The other settings you probably won’t need to change. Fill in your Picasa User and click “Update Settings”.

Now when writing a page or post, you’ll see a new button by the “Add media” section at the top. Clicking the Flickr icon will let you browse through all your web albums and photos and insert one or multiple photos into your page or post. Easy!

Questions? Problems? The OFM team is here to help, and built AIMsites to help, the AIM missionary, communicate with your friends, family, supporters!

There was a day when I filed the prayer letters I received. I considered them history in the making, a living testament of God at work through His Church, a vital link with the Body in faraway places.

No more. My files were toppling with trivia. Some random excerpts: “Suzy grew six inches last year and John is as tall as his mother.” “The roses are doing beautifully this year. George sprayed them with DDT.” “We had a great vacation in June, almost the whole banana plantation to ourselves.”

Obviously, the missionary prayer letter has fallen on bad times. Whatever the cause—perhaps preoccupation, or a malaise in the art of letter writing—the sad state of prayer letters does little to elevate the high calling of the missionary or motivate a deepening prayer life.

A good letter requires time and a lot of thought. A missionary cannot spend 20 minutes at the typewriter, concoct a clever opening, whiz through a month’s activities, pepper them with four prayer requests, then draw back and expect the home church to fall on its knees.

If Christians are to pray effectively, they must be drawn by substance. They need dimension, depth, perspective, completeness, insight.

Prayer requests are constant offenders. Some stand alone, stark, leaving the reader in puzzled ignorance. “Pray for Tomotique and Zedalita,” one letter exhorted. I bowed my head and wondered if I wasn’t interceding for a garden vegetable, a flower, or the family pet.

Other requests are the anecdotal type, grabbing one angle and leaving the essence a vague blur. “Pray for Kiko,” a letter pleaded. “His wife beat him severely last week.” Enough to arouse my curiosity to be sure but little to pray about.

Tell me, how am I to pray effectively for Tomotique and Zedalita without knowing what they are like or what they would like to be. What are they afraid of? What do they wish they could do over again? What pleases them most? What illusions were broken? What vague yearnings remain?

Give me the extraordinary and give me the ordinary. Does the rich industrialist in Zaire have everything he wants? Does he bother to look at the prices on the menu? Don’t tell me about the vultures and the boiling sun. Tell me, friend, how do they get a suit cleaned there?

Tell me the small by telling me the large. Identify with me. Come in loud and clear. Don’t give me abstractions.

And whatever, be honest. Don’t tell me the situation was dramatic, a “rousing success.” Show me how it was a success. I’ll supply the adjectives. You say your work is growing. Why, when, where and how? Give me the evidence. I’ll write the headlines.

A prayer letter is a powerful vehicle. Clearly it hasn’t had its day. Give a little more thought and substance, I may even start filing again. And do a lot more praying.

Tips for Writing Prayer Letters

Everyone likes to read good missionary prayer letters. No one likes to write them. Why? Because, like all other good writing, they require creative thinking and planning, and this is very difficult for all of us. Yet the potential results of good prayer letters are so tremendous for the future of missionary work that we dare not miss the opportunities we have. The information in [your] letter can be added to the reservoir of missionary material which will inspire and challenge both present and future generations. It can make its contribution to the total impression of missionary work.

Your letters must win and keep attention. Two basic factors are involved: appearance and content. Appearance is important for only one reason: to gain attention for the content. If your letter does not look interesting, it simply will not be read except by a few favored friends who know you very well. However, it must not only look interesting, it must be interesting.

An interesting, attractive layout will get the reader started. From then on, you must hold him with the interest and significance of what you are saying. Good design and good copy must walk hand in hand. One is never a substitute for the other.

Plan in advance. A good letter is rarely achieved by sitting in front of a typewriter and writing the first things that come to your mind.

Think first, second, and always of your reader. Choose a somewhat typical reader-maybe an auto mechanic in Keokuk, Iowa-and write every line with him in mind. Thinking of your reader will help you realize how important identification and details are. Don’t assume that your reader remembers your previous letters. Be sure that everything can be understood without reference to previous letters. Remember that it will be read by an individual in the privacy of his own home. You are not addressing a “congregation,” but you are writing a letter to a person.

Have one major thing to say in each letter. Decide first what one idea you want to share with your readers in this letter. Think it through before you begin to write. Lack of basic unity is probably the biggest fault of the average missionary letter.

Unity through subject matter. This simply means that you limit yourself to one subject and treat it with some completeness. Don’t worry about the subject being too deep or too hard for your reader to understand providing you supply him with the background and facts he needs in order to understand it. Far more letters err on the side of being shallow and superficial than on the side of being too deep for the reader.

What kind of subjects can you treat?
the religious fears of your people and what they mean to your work
the problems of raising a family in a foreign culture
the growth of nationalism in your area and its effect on the work of the church
a case history of a man or woman and his or her growth in the Lord
steps and heartaches involved in planting a local church in a pagan culture
if you are in a specialized work (education, medicine, agriculture, radio, literature, etc.), how that work contributes to the growth of the church
typical problems faced by converts in your area the history of missionary work in your area
The list could go on and on.

Unity through theme. Use of a theme gives one dominant idea through which a number of separate ideas can be brought together. Don’t depend on feeling or intuition for this. Keep your readers in touch with your family and its progress, but don’t let your family dominate your letters. Show the threats of communism, Romanism, nationalism, or Islam in your area, but don’t make all your letters historical or sociological treatises. Assume for your purposes that your letters are the only contact your reader has with missions. Is he getting a fairly comprehensive, well balanced picture of what missionary work is its plans, disappointments, victories, future possibilities?

Be generous with your use of stories about your people. We want to see them as people with the same feelings and sorrows and joys which we experience. Only then are we truly compelled to pray for them. Often missionaries fail to see the essential drama around them. In telling of a happening, give strong emphasis to sensory perceptions to how things looked, sounded, tasted, felt, and smelled. This makes it possible for the reader to enter more fully Into the actual experience.

Make use of humor when possible. Missionary work is difficult, but it is not grim. Yet many letters leave that feeling with the reader. Funny stories about the people with whom you work are fine. But even better are the stories of funny things which happen to you, which make you the butt of the joke instead of the national. Your life is full of such things language errors, misunderstanding with the culture in which you live, etc. When the reader sees that you are able to laugh at yourself, he’ll like you better. The deeper his feeling for you, the more natural it becomes for him to pray for you.

Treat nationals with respect and sympathy in your letters. One missionary said he never wrote anything in his letters that he wouldn’t be willing to have his nationals read.

Translate all terminology which may not be understood by all your readers. In many foreign countries, distance is measured in kilometers instead of miles. But the average American has no idea how far 50 kilometers is. There are many other terms which constantly appear in missionary letters-all such terms either should be explained or a substitution made.

Identify people and places. Steer clear of vague generalities such as “Pray for a very real need we face at present,” or “I’m much stronger after my long illness.” Such statements are maddening to the reader. Either tell us more or don’t tell us at all. This sort of thing makes the reader feel left out as though you must be writing to someone other than him someone who knows the answers to “what need?” and what illness?”

Use dialogue whenever possible. Few things spark up a letter (or any written material) as well as a few lines of good dialogue.

Don’t use pious phraseology in the effort to “sound like a missionary.” Use the kind of language which comes naturally to you.

Aim for simple, uncluttered sentences. The subject predicate order is still the easiest to read and understand. Any sentence which is more than 30 words should have a second look to see if it can’t be cut or divided into two sentences. Some missionaries write a whole paragraph of several lines with only one sentence. Short paragraphs are usually easier to read than long paragraphs. They also make a letter look more interesting.

Don’t send the first draft of your letter. Professional writers usually rewrite two or more times. After your first draft is finished, lay it aside for a day. Then pick it up and imagine that you are that mechanic in Keokuk and read it through his eyes. You’ll see the places which are not clear, which give a wrong impression, etc. You’ll also be able to recognize irrelevant material.

Steer clear of rambling accounts. An appalling number of letters seem composed primarily of “last week we had a meeting in village ‘A’ with 20 people there; then we drove home and got a night’s sleep and the next day we visited the schools around village ‘B’ and that night we had a meeting in village ‘C’.” And on and on and on. Don’t let your letters sound like a condensation of your diary.

Give an honest picture of your work. Don’t try to give glowing pictures of work which doesn’t really glow. Write of victories and progress whenever you can, but don’t hesitate to show the other side of the coin too: the discouragements, the hard problems, and defeats.

Don’t write sermons, not even short ones.

You don’t need a salutation (“Dear One Who Prays,” etc.) but if you feel more comfortable with one, use it.

The first sentence in your letter is the most important. It sets the tone, the mood, and the pace of what is to follow. Work hard on that opening sentence.

Don’t try to ease into your letter with such things as “It’s been a long time since I’ve written you, but. . . .” Start right in with the main idea.

Begin with an anecdote or story which sets the pace for the rest of the letter.
Begin with a startling statement which will jar the reader into attention.
Begin with a summary statement of the subject you plan to use.
There are many other ways to open a letter, but whatever opening you choose, be sure it properly reflects the subject and mood of what is to follow.

When the letter is finished, just stop. Many letters give the feeling that the writer is groping for a graceful way to close. As a result, the letter just “runs down.”

Ten Commandments of Simple Writing
Keep words, sentences and paragraphs short. Sentences should vary in structure and length.
Prefer simple to the complex. If there is a simpler way to express a thought, use it.
Use familiar words.
Avoid unnecessary words-cut and eliminate as if you were the editor.
Put action into verbs. Avoid passive verbs.
Write like you talk.
Tie in with your reader’s experience. Proceed from the known to the unknown.
Use terms your reader can picture. Avoid abstract terms.
Have variety. Develop your own personal style.
Write to express-not to impress.

Generally speaking (although there are exceptions), blogs tend to have a few things in common:

• A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into categories.
• An archive of older articles.
• A way for people to leave comments about the articles.
• A list of links to other related sites, sometimes called a “blogroll”.
• One or more “feeds” like RSS, Atom or RDF files.

Some blogs may have additional features beyond these.

The Blog Content

On a blog, the content consists of articles (also sometimes called “posts” or “entries”) that the author(s) writes. Yes, some blogs have multiple authors, each writing his/her own articles. Typically, blog authors compose their articles in a web-based interface, built into the blogging system itself.

Comments

Want an interactive website? Wouldn’t it be nice if the readers of a website could leave comments, tips or impressions about the site or a specific article? With blogs, they can! Posting comments is one of the most exciting features of blogs.

Most blogs have a method to allow visitors to leave comments. There are also nifty ways for authors of other blogs to leave comments without even visiting the blog! Called “pingbacks” or “trackbacks“, they can inform other bloggers whenever they cite an article from another site in their own articles. All this ensures that online conversations can be maintained painlessly among various site users and websites.

Things Bloggers Need to Know

In addition to understanding how your specific blogging software works, such as WordPress, there are some terms and concepts you need to know.

Archives

A blog is also a good way to keep track of articles on a site. A lot of blogs feature an archive based on dates (like a monthly or yearly archive). The front page of a blog may feature a calendar of dates linked to daily archives. Archives can also be based on categories featuring all the articles related to a specific category.

It does not stop there; you can also archive your posts by author or alphabetically. The possibilities are endless. This ability to organize and present articles in a composed fashion is much of what makes blogging a popular personal publishing tool.

Feeds

A Feed is a function of special software that allows “Feedreaders” to access a site automatically looking for new content and then post updates about that new content to another site. This provides a way for users to keep up with the latest and hottest information posted on different blogging sites. Some Feeds include RSS (alternately defined as “Rich Site Summary” or “Really Simple Syndication”), Atom or RDF files.

Blogrolls

A blogroll is a list, sometimes categorized, of links to webpages the author of a blog finds worthwhile or interesting. The links in a blogroll are usually to other blogs with similar interests. The blogroll is often in a “sidebar” on the page or featured as a dedicated separate web page.

Comment Moderation

Comment Moderation is a feature which allows the website owner and author to monitor and control the comments on the different article posts, and can help in tackling comment spam. It lets you moderate comments, & you can delete unwanted comments, approve cool comments and make other decisions about the comments.

Comment Spam

Comment Spam refers to useless comments (or trackbacks, or pingbacks) to posts on a blog. These are often irrelevant to the context value of the post. They can contain one or more links to other websites or domains. Spammers use Comment Spam as a medium to get higher page rank for their domains in Google, so that they can sell those domains at a higher price sometime in future or to obtain a high ranking in search results for an existing website.

There are solutions, though, to avoiding Comment Spam. WordPress includes many tools for combating Comment Spam. With a little up front effort, Comment Spam can be manageable, and certainly no reason to give up weblogging.

Blog by email

Some blogging tools offer the ability to email your posts directly to your blog, all without direct interaction through the blogging tool interface. WordPress offers this cool feature. Using email, you can now send in your post content to a pre-determined email address & voila! Your post is published!

Excerpt

Excerpts are condensed summaries of your blog posts, with blogging tools being able to handle these in various ways. In WordPress, Excerpts can be specifically written to summarize the post, or generated automatically by using the first few paragraphs of a post or using the post up to a specific point, assigned by you.

Plugins

Plugins are cool bits of programming scripts that add additional functionality to your blog. These are often features which either enhance already available features or add them to your site.

WordPress offers simple and easy ways of adding Plugins to your blog. From the Administraton Panel, there is a Plugin Page.

Basics-A Few Blogging Tips

Starting a new blog is difficult and this can put many people off, there are then other people who have blogs with no comments or visits. You want to stand out from this crowd of millions of bloggers, you want to be one of the few hundred thousand blogs that are actually visited. So here are some simple tips to help you on your way to blogging mastery:

1. Post regularly, but don’t post if you have nothing worth posting about.
2. Stick with only a few specific genres to talk about.
3. Don’t put ‘subscribe’ and ‘vote me’ links all over the front page until you have people that like your blog enough to ignore them (they’re usually just in the way).
4. Use a clean and simple theme if at all possible.
5. Enjoy, blog for fun, comment on other peoples’ blogs (as they normally visit back).

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