This weekend sees the unofficial launch of my new project, Harry Yack’s News Network.

Said blog will contain the usual news stories and opinion pieces you see over at Retro Yakking only in an ad-free and more aesthetically pleasing manner. I’ve got some big ideas for YNN, which is effectively just a parody of generic news outlets including BBC News and especially The Daily Mail. The name is a play on CNN, the American news channel, and also that news programme off Family Guy. You know the one I’m talking about.

Content-wise, it won’t be too much different from the stuff going on at Retro Yakking – the only difference is that news will be brought to you live from a new home on the interwebs. Well, kind of new, because it’ll be hosted at the same server as Illarterate until further notice, but I hope it’ll grow large enough to move to yaknews.co.uk or something similar. We’ll see what happens with that.

It’s all a bit ramshackle at the moment, with only one or two stories to tide you over for now. Hopefully things will begin to pad out sooner or later, though, and I won’t keep abandoning it like I do with certain other projects. But what can you do, eh? You try and get motivated enough to update four blogs all the time.

Anyhow, I plan to start sharing my time between RY and YNN and take a more loose approach to the former. Perhaps.

Go to YNN now!

Harry Yack’s had a Teletext makeover! Get down to the Retro Yakking Today blog and check out its new, tweaked header. The change marks a wider revamp for the site, which will start to focus on the retro subjects promised in the title as well as a variety of new topics including opinions and such thinly disguised as parody news stories. Currently updated with two posts per day, but I don’t know how long this will last for.

Go there now.

EntreCard is a great way of improving traffic flow on your blog by leaving (or ‘dropping’) virtual ‘business cards’ on other participants’ blogs. By doing this, you earn credits which can be exchanged for advertising and promotion for your blog within the EntreCard network.

EntreCard got me 250 visitors in the first three days I used it. So how did I manage it? Here are some tips for effective use of EntreCard.

• Create a banner as the standard text links are largely unappealing. Take the time to construct your own custom banner ad (125 x 125px) to be striking and effectively depict your blog’s theme. Remember, this will represent your blog within the whole EntreCard network.
• Place your own EntreCard quite high up on your page. People surfing quickly will be able to swiftly drop their card and it makes your blog more appealing to potential advertisers.
• Download the Entrecard Toolbar for Firefox. With a fast computer, you can scroll through 300 blogs in around 1 and a half hours. The favourites feature also makes creating a droplist much easier.

Method

• Begin with blogs in your inbox, then move onto your droplist (favourites). These represent your core followers.
• Next, go through the newest blogs (All categories) as they are likely to have new, active droppers
• Then, scroll through the most popular blogs in your category, and finally the most popular in similar categories/all categories.

Purchasing ads

• As you build up credits, you will be able to advertise on the more popular blogs. Place an emphasis on blogs in your own category and advertise on both cheap and expensive blogs 50%-50%
• Alternatively, you can save up your credits to exchange them for real cash. See here for more details.
  

Ideas Bin

There will come a time when you feel you have writer’s block, when you feel like everything you write is rubbish and nothing is working for you. I find the best posts happen when you are trying not to be funny, trying not to be too informative. Just write about what you know, what you see in everyday life, as it’s likely that many people will have had similar experiences.

• Blog posts aren’t newspaper articles, but bear in mind the similarities. Who is your favourite newspaper columnist? I’m not suggesting you steal their ideas, but remember the old adage:

“A good author borrows, a great author steals”

• Try and copy the basic structure of a good story/column and insert your own topic. If you do this often enough you will soon learn good practice and maybe pick up some fans along the way.
• Really good bloggers are constantly learning about their field, even if they aren’t writing. Take the time to fill your brain with Internet articles, magazines and television programmes on the subject. Heck, even go to the local library if you’re feeling in the mood – a good twenty minutes’ research is bound to yield a good post or two.
• Mind, there’s a lot to be said for stream-of consciousness rants and journeys into the subconscious. Be sure to copyedit at a later date, though, and don’t rely too heavily on the spur-of-the-moment stuff, but it’s always there as a backup.
• Current events and trends tend to be Googled for heavily. A good current interests post will appeal to a wider audience, too, but don’t forget the usefulness of the good old geeky blog once in a while. What are your secret loves, your guilty pleasures? If you write about them, the chances are someone else will emphasise with you.
• Don’t be too exclusive, though; try and relate your experiences in as broad a way as possible. For example, it’s unlikely people will have heard of “Clunan’s” – just say “my local butcher’s”.
• Use artistic and literary license. Cheat the rules of grammar and spelling for the sake of making a point.
• If you are really stuck, go to this site and click away.