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writing blog posts for Galasa #787

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199 changes: 199 additions & 0 deletions src/markdown-pages/docs/blogs/galasa-blogging.md
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---
path: "/hub/blog/category/galasa-blogging"
title: "Blogging about Galasa"
---

Galasa-related blogs are hosted on the <a href="https://openmainframeproject.org/category/galasa/" target="_blank"> Open Mainframe Project</a> (OMP) website. Use the following information to find out how to check the status of blog posts, how to write a Galasa blog post, and best practices for writing blogs.

[Tracking blog status](#tracking)<br>
[Blog preparation](#preparing)<br>
[Pre-publishing steps](#publishing)<br>
[Review Process](#reviewing)<br>
[Content Guidelines](#guidelines)<br>
[Promotion](#promoting)<br>
[Best practices](#bestpractice)<br>



## <a name="tracking"></a>Tracking blog status

The pipeline of blogs for Galasa is available for viewing on a publicly accessible <a href="https://github.com/orgs/galasa-dev/projects/3/views/1" target="_blank"> GitHub board</a>. You can access the board to view what future articles are in plan, and to track the status of any blogs that are in progress. You can assign yourself to a blog issue if you want to, or create a new issue for a blog that you want to write.

## <a name="preparing"></a>Preparing your blog post

- Go to the `Media Backlog` column in the <a href="https://github.com/orgs/galasa-dev/projects/3/views/1" target="_blank"> GitHub board</a> to see what other blogs are being worked on in case there is a blog already being authored/prepared on the same topic.
- If no similar issue exists, create one and assign it to yourself along with a description of the blog article that you want to write. Use existing issues as templates. As a minimum the issue must include a Story, Background, and Tasks section.


## <a name="publishing"></a>Writing your blog

You can write your blog as a Word document and attach it to your issue. Remember to read the information provided about [best practices](#bestpractice) for writing your blogs.

Include the following sentences as a call to action at the end of your blog, shown below as it should appear.
"To find out more about Galasa visit the [Galasa website](https://galasa.dev), or join the community in our [Galasa Slack](https://openmainframeproject.slack.com/archives/C05TCCQDE65) workspace. [Register to join](https://openmainframeproject.slack.com/signup#/domain-signup) first if you're not yet a member."

You can also link to relevant topics in the Galasa website that support the content of your blog post.


### Checking your blog

After writing your blog, remember to check that you have
- compelling title and opening paragraph (discoverability is critical!)
- featured image and visuals in place
- appropriate links and tags, including a call to action


### Pre-publishing steps

- Attach your blog article in Word format to the relevant blog issue.
- Assign `galasa-team` as a reviewer to your issue.
- Move your issue into the `Review` column of the GitHub board.


## <a name="reviewing"></a>Review process

- One or more members of the Galasa team will review the blog post
- The reviewers will work with the author for any updates or changes required
- OMP will schedule it and promote via social media
- OMP team will let author know publication date and share via social media
- To check on the status of your blog check the <a href="https://github.com/orgs/galasa-dev/projects/3/views/1" target="_blank"> GitHub board</a>. This lets you see the reviewers of your blog as well as enable you to read and add any Github comments about its publication. See the [Tracking blog status](#tracking) section for more information. .


## <a name="guidelines"></a>Content guidelines

As a blog writer you can write about any topic that you're interested in and that will provide value to the Galasa community. The content on our blog consists of:

- Articles about Galasa features and functions
- Technical content and how-to's
- Stories about Galasa deployments
- Use cases and success stories
- Reports from Galasa events

Other topics are welcome, but it needs to have a direct link to the Galasa community


## <a name="promoting"></a>Promotion

Your blog will be shared on the Open Mainframe Project's [X](https://twitter.com/OpenMFProject) and [linkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-open-mainframe-project/) channels.


## <a name="bestpractice"></a>Best practices

When writing your blog, review the top tips in the following sections to make sure that you are following best practices.

### About the title

A strong title clearly conveys the value that someone going to get out of the post and exactly what topics/concepts/ideas are covered. Review the following key points on best practices for writing good titles:

- Avoid vague titles as these discourage people from clicking. 

- Be concise - never use three words when one will do.

- Establish the topic/keyword on which the post focuses. Keyword(s) should be at the front of the title. Keyword stuffing is not good, but one or two keywords works well so long as the title makes sense.

- Create a working title - Google only displays the first 50-60 characters of the title, and cuts the rest. You can have a title that’s longer than 60 characters, but fit the important information before the cut-off point.

- Use no more than 8 words ideally. (15 max)

After you finish the post, go back to the title to check that it accurately reflects the content of the post. You can include `Galasa` in the title if it makes sense to do so.

### About the short description

A brief summary of the blog, including primary keyword(s).

- Watch the length -  Google keeps the first 150-160 characters (including spaces) of your short description, and cuts the rest. Ensure that the important aspects are included early on to maximize searcher interest.​

- Write good copy -  The better the description, the more likely someone will click through to the blog post.


### About headers

Heading tags are used to structure your pages for both the reader and search engines.

From the perspective of the reader, subheaders to break up the text into logical sections, and quickly and clearly tell them what each section is about.

From the perspective of the search engine, header tags help search crawler bots understand what the page is about, and improve SEO.

<b>Header 1 tags:</b>

An H1 heading stands apart from other headings because it’s treated by search engines as the title of the page. 

Include the primary keyword in Header 1 (H1) and don’t use more than one H1. 


<b>Header 2 and 3 tags:</b>

Internal headers help to break up content and improve the reading experience for users. Like the title, the subheaders should clearly tell the reader the value they will get from reading the section. Avoid generic subheaders like "Introduction," "Conclusion," or "Next steps."

Review the following key points on best practices for writing good subheadings:

- Use a subheader to introduce each unique subtopic/task/idea/concept in a post. You should be able to skim only the title and subheaders and have an idea of what the post is about.

- Keep the subheader concise and descriptive.

- Include keywords and other important words at the beginning of the subheader.

- Use sentence case (capitalize only the first word and proper nouns).

- Maintain shallow structure - don't go below H3. Anything more gets confusing.​

- Form query-like headings - Treat each heading as an additional opportunity to rank in search. To this end, each heading should sound either like a query or an answer to a query - keywords included.


- Be consistent with all headings - all headings should be written in such a way that if you were to remove all the text and keep only the headings, they would read like a list.

### About images: 

Including images in your blog is an excellent way to break up text, catch your reader’s eye, and back up points you make in the article. Include an alt text for your image. The text helps visually impaired readers and allows search engines to index your image properly. The alt text should describe the image – only use focus keywords if appropriate.

### About links:

It is important to provide links that will help readers understand the concepts in the post, provide further information, and give them the opportunity to move from the blog page to, for example, a galasa.dev page.

Link anchor text should be descriptive. Don't link the word "here" when you can name or describe the resource you are linking to. For example,

Yes: Learn more about Galasa by reading the [Getting started](https://galasa.dev/docs) documentation.

No: Learn more about Galasa [here](https://galasa.dev/docs).

### Call to action links (CTAs):

Every blog post you write should include at least one CTA. CTAs are the ultimate action that you want someone to take after reading the post , providing a clear next step to follow. Make sure to include descriptive text on the link.

CTAs may include the following:

- Link to a page on galasa.dev

- Link to another blog post/web page for more info or as part of a series of blog posts

- Link to documentation, samples, code etc  for example in GitHub

- Link to a public Slack channel, or somewhere to raise issues eg project management repo in GitHub

### About keywords:

Determine which Google search keywords are best suited for your content and target audience (i.e., what are you communicating and to whom? What keywords are they likely to use?). Include these keywords in your title and related words in the body, especially the first paragraph. A long-tail focus keyword that is used naturally throughout your blog and describes your content will maximise SEO.

- Be sure your title, opening paragraph (and featured image) will stand out in a search by your target audience (i.e., will it get people to click your entry over all the other Google results?)

- Use focus keywords 2-3 times in the post, including once in the first paragraph.

- Avoid "keyword stuffing". Don't put in too many keywords or force keywords in where they do not make sense.

### Post length: 

Research suggests the ideal blog post length is between 1,500 - 2,500 words, but this depends on the type of post as different topics require different depths of content. For example, some “how to” posts will need to be longer that some more “conceptual” ones. 


Posts that are too short (less than 500 words) won’t rank highly. 

- 800 - 1,700 words: Typical length for “What is ...” blog posts

- 1,000 - 2,100 words: Typical length for “How to ...” posts.

- 1,500 - 2,500 words: Ideal length for high ranking by search engines.

- 4,000 words: extremely detailed, authoritative post



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Expand Up @@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ title: "Ecosystem Architecture"

The following diagram provides a high-level representation of the Galasa Ecosystem architecture:<br><br> ![Galasa ecosystem architecture:](ecosystem-overview-new.svg)


<br>The Ecosystem is made up of a collection of microservices for orchestrating runtimes, monitoring tests and resources, and providing clean-up of those resources if required. The Ecosystem provides a centralized store for run configurations, a single location for storing all test results and test artifacts, and utilizes a REST endpoint that can be called from any IDE or pipeline.


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