Hey, you!

You should be a blogger. It's really easy. Share your opinion with the wide world, as well as your Jordan neighbors.

This Web site is the perfect place for your blog, because people actually read it. 

To start your blog, just register for free, log in, and click on Add A Blog Post. Then, write away right away. Ha, get it?

The baseball hall of fame inductions for 2008 will be announced on Tuesday. With Jordan being such a baseball town, I was wondering, who do people in the city think is deserving of being inducted into Cooperstown.

 Armand Peterson, one of the authors of "Town Ball: Glory Days of Minnesota Amateur Baseball," will speak at 7 p.m

Do you flickr?
I do. Well I recently began to anyways.
Flickr is a photo sharing Web site for amateurs and professionals alike.
Check it out at www.flickr.com/.
It’s a lot of fun.

Why not make a regular online habit of checking the topics of the day in the Forums section of this Web site?

The Webmaster for www.jordannews.com is constantly tweaking and changing things to make it easier for you to find news, to have discussions, and to have fun on this Web site.

The other day, I was looking up the words "candy cane" to see if it was one or two words, and there was no entry for it in the dictionary. (That means it's two words.)

The last five days have been stressful.

This is funny, but not so funny. I've been checking out your Web sites, as well as reading and writing a lot on the JI's.

The Jordan Independent has the best Web site in the state, among newspapers in its class.

Try posting mp3's online.

Find a local band that is willing to provide a song or two in exchange for a Web link at the bottom of a super short story.

It's time to try some really cool stuff, Southwesters.

Life isn't the same as it used to be. Technology changes us.

People working in professions that once required continuous in-person interaction with other people now find themselves sitting at a computer desk all day long, using electronics to interact with people. It's not a bad thing, just progress.

If the Jordan Independent Web site had a door, I'd post a big sign on it, saying "Come back again soon."

Like every day.

Your local newspaper Web site offers constant updates on stories, blogs, and events about which you care.

If you’re writing a blog:

If you’re posting news:

-          Use whatever you’re posting as a way to get started on your stories for the paper. For example, sports coverage on the Web forces you to look for scores and highlights, as well as sports news.

Some tips for writing on the Web:

- Read what’s on the Web. (See a list of similar Web sites and blogs worth reading that Steve Delmont and the Internet/SW Saturday committee put together.)

I noticed that someone on the SVN web site posted an item about a downtown party that had a gray box on it. So, I inquired with web guru Steve Delmont, who shared his knowledge:

"They clicked the "Sticky" check box in the Publishing options. Frankly, it's not recommended because that functionality is not used, but in our set up I'm not sure it has any consquences beside making the box colored. In its native setup, the software would keep that item at the top of the page."

Things to do to get started

1. Register for an account on your newspaper’s Web site.
2. Learn everything about the Web site. Check out every corner of the Web site, and participate in discussions.
   
   

With the launch of our new web sites, we've all peppered Steve Delmont with questions that aren't covered in his handy-dandy web site manual. My recent post about how to link a story to a forum is one such example.

Have you ever had a controversial story simmering in your town? Once the story is written and posted on the web, you can solicit more comments by creating a forum on the topic. But the story is in one category and the forum is in another -- so what's a writer to do? According to Steve Delmont, the two can be married, you just have to know how.

The soft launch of the Southwest Newspapers’ eight newspaper Web sites has allowed us to try some things that are not traditional for newspaper print editions. We hope to reach out to young people. Offering online content that is different than the newspaper encourages college kids, young businesspeople, and parents to get involved with the paper in ways they never have before. You are writing for some people who don’t read newspapers.

Joanna Miller did a nice job combining personal comments and feelings with information from another source. Notice the regional approach to the sidebar list of scuba schools as well as multiple entry points into the story.

What's Things That Blink? What are Armchair Interviews? What kind of stuff can I write for Let's Go! besides feature stories? Here's a list to familiarize you with the content in Let's Go! and give yo

We can tackle an election story from 25 different angles. But when presented with the assignment of writing a restaurant review or profile, many of us feel lost. Here's a simple guide.

We should be writing good, creative stories regardless of the topic or medium. But try as we might, sometimes a street assessment story just isn't sexy. But our readers need it, just like broccoli. Stories in Let's Go! and Southwest Saturday should be like dessert for our readers, a hot fudge sundae.

A quick guide for writing for the Web