For the next few months, we’ll be featuring some of our best posts from the

BlogWritingCourse.com wants to help you get started in the big, wide open world of blogging.  We know it is daunting to chart new territory, so we would like to be your free guide.  The main things that keep people from blogging are:

Time Constraints – “I hardly have time to put on socks in the morning.  How can I possibly add blogging to my list of to-dos?”

Perfectionism – “What if I’m not good at blogging?”  “What if nobody reads my blog?”

Lack of Know-How – “Where in the world do I start?” 

As far as time goes, it is true that blogs don’t write themselves, but you might be surprised at the way blogging begins to blend in with your schedule.  I find that it takes the place of some of my aimless web surfing, and wasted channel surfing.  Instead, I am focusing my energies onto something I actually want to be doing – – sharing my thoughts. Blogging can be therapeutic, as well, and just might take the place of that useless “worry time” you have built into your daily schedule!

If you have read any blogs lately, you will also come to realize that no one is a perfect blogger.  Even the most successful bloggers with huge audiences have off days where almost no one visits their blog or leaves gushing comments.  And you can’t become a successful blogger without plenty of practice and plenty of mistakes.  So if fear of failure is keeping you from blogging, just go back and check the beginning posts of some your favorite blogs.  You will probably be surprised at how far they have come since their first blogging attempts.

With all the information on the world wide web about blogging, lack of know-how shouldn’t keep anyone from stepping into the ring.  There are blogs about blogging, articles galore, and step by step guides to getting started.  And thanks to BlogWritingCourse.com, there is even a free blog writing course that will guide you gently and easily into the blogosphere, and help you figure out exactly how to begin. 

Starting a blog is a worthwhile goal, and we’d like to help you achieve it, so why not sign up today?

So, you have somehow managed to exit the rat race, eh?  No more rush hour traffic.  No more rushed lunch hours.  No more rushing home after work to spend a few quality moments with the family before dropping exhausted into bed.  No more rushing…period. 

So what are you going to do with all that extra time?  Well, if you are a smart home businessperson, you will want to spend a large part of that time marketing your product or service.  Word doesn’t always travel quickly or easily about a dedicated home business, especially if it is in its fledgling stages.  So one of the best ways to speed along the process is by trading in your rat race for a good mouse (connected, of course, to a good computer). 

Internet marketing is something anyone with basic computer and internet skills can succeed at.  Your first job, of course, is to create a web site that is well designed – – meaning it it pleasing to the eye, easy to navigate, and clearly describes the products and/or services you offer.  Unfortunately, most home business owners go this far, and then stop.  Their website is a static placeholder in cyberspace, with little if any regular updates. 

A frequently updated website can be the key to making your home business stand out above the rest.  Website updates tell potential customers that you are engaged with them, and are interested in helping your business evolve to meet their needs.

One of the best ways to keep your website relevant and engaging is by writing a blog.  Not only can a blog update your actual and potential customers of news and information about your home business, but it also provides an easy avenue for customer feedback via the blog comments feature. When customers are able to not just read, but interact with promotional content, they are more likely to spend more time on your site, which is exactly what you want them to do!

Another important feature to include with your blog is the ability for subscribers to receive updates by email.  This way, you don’t wait for customers to come to you – – you go to them!  In this way, your blog can become an ongoing promotional effort for virtually no cost. 

If the idea of blogging your home business sounds a little “far out” and unachievable, we would like to help. We are offering a free blogging course for anyone who wants to familiarize themselves with blogging before jumping in with both feet.  Then, when you are ready to take the plunge, we invite you to sign up for our eight-week Blogging 101 course, which will guide you every step of the way through creating and designing your blog, writing your first content, and growing your audience. 

By taking one or both of our blogging courses, you will be doing all the groundwork necessary to create a blog that will make your home business stand out, and keep you out of the rat race for as long as you want to be!

Have you ever wasted valuable time reading a poorly written blog?  Maybe the title was catchy, or had a tag word that pulled you in, and you took time from your very busy life to read what was essentially virtual birdcage liner.  I’m thinking that there should be an official complaint service for that.   When people get gypped out of their money, they have recourse.  But time is money, right?  So if I put my hard-earned time into reading a boring blog, I want to be able to protest my loss.

I mean, what if there really were a "Better Bloggers Bureau?"  Don’t you think people would put a little more thought into what they blogged about?   If they knew that they could be reported for a dull business dinner story, a useless list of links, a regurgitated TV show review…would they write it?  Probably not.

Unfortunately, as bloggers, we’ve all had posts that could probably get us on the BBB radar, but there are specific things we can do to help us not waste our reader’s precious time:

• Know our audience.  Who is your blog aimed at?  Although we may envision the whole world wide web as our oyster, realistically our scope has to be narrower, especially in the beginning.  By understanding our target reader, we are able to cater our writing to their interests, and keep them around for the long haul.
• Know what makes good writing.  Doesn’t matter the medium – - books, magazines, newspapers, or blogs – - good writing is good writing.  We all recognize it, but we don’t all exercise it. But the good news is you don’t have to have a Ph.D in literature to be a successful blogger.  You just have to read a lot of blogs, and find out which ones you enjoy, and which ones made you fall asleep on your keyboard.  What is it about each of the interesting blogs that brings you back for more?  What do they have in common?  Those common threads of interest are the keys to helping you keep your blog off the BBB list.
• Know your limits.  If you haven’t taken a single course in botany, you probably aren’t the key candidate for an informational blog about gardening.  The blogiverse is savvy…they know an imposter when they see one.  Even if you adore Japanese culture, you probably shouldn’t dedicate a whole blog to it if you’ve never even set foot in Japan.  It’s cliche, but true – - WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW.

One of they key ways to keep yourself off the Better Bloggers Bureau database is to find out everything you can about blogging.  Do your research, and avail yourself of the wonderful courses Getting Ready To Blog and Blogging 101. Your blog doesn’t ever have to be a waste of anyone’s time – - especially yours!

When I was a little girl, there were few things that could make my pigtails bounce with joy more than getting a letter in the mail addressed to me.  It made me feel so important and valuable.  It didn’t even really matter what it was, or what it said – - it just mattered that someone had thought of me enough to write.  (Although I’ll admit there was an extra little pigtail bounce when I saw the letter was from my grandmother, because that usually meant there was a crisp new dollar bill inside.) Years of junk mail have dampened my excitement over heading to the mailbox, but I still get a little thrill when I open the mailbox door and find an honest-to-goodness letter with my name on it.

Come to think of it, bloggers have a lot in common with little pigtailed girls. The biggest part of the excitement of writing a blog, is knowing that others are going to read it.  And the only way to know what other people think of your writing is when they take the time to leave a comment.  Do you remember on Andy Griffith when Barney would finally  do something right, like remember to lock the jail door, or remember to put his bullet in his pocket?  Andy would get this proud look on his face and tell Barney he was doing "fine" work.  Barney would hike up his pants grin and nearly knock his ear out of joint with that sideways grin of delight.   That is pretty much the sum total of how a blogger feels when a reader leaves a comment on his blog. He or  she is not only proud that what they wrote mattered to someone, but is inspired to continue writing.

Commenting on a blog can be sort of like rolling a snowball down a hill.  It motivates the writer to interact with his readers and write more blogs, which in turn, brings about more comments.  Even more importantly, when a blogger knows she has readers, she is apt to raise the bar in terms of her content.  Posts get better, and more readers are drawn in.

For new bloggers, commenting on someone else’s blog has an additional benefit.  It gets you noticed.  Let’s say you are starting a blog about 80′s music, and you are also a regular reader of the Bangles Buff blog, the Duran Duran Devotee blog, and the Aerosmith Aficianado blog. By commenting on these blogs often, and using your blog url in your comment, you are making the writers aware of your similar interests, and hopefully they will stop by your blog to check it out, and maybe, if your blog hits the right 80′s "chord" with them, they will even add you to their blogroll!  And so on, and so on, and so on….the snowball keeps rolling.

Commenting is just one of the many things you can do to grow your blog readership.  To find out more information on starting a new blog or building a better blog, sign up for one of our blog courses today.  There is no better time to get the blog rolling!

Until Next Time,

As a perk, though, it is also really encouraging to read how much our students have enjoyed the course.  I thought today I would share with you some of the supportive things our alumni have said about Blogging 101.

I learned a lot in eight weeks. A lot more then I expected. Not once did I get bored of the weekly assignments or think it was a waste of time. I am the person who at times loses interest quickly and that did not happen with this course

I would recommend this to absolutely anyone. I really felt the pace was just right and I got WAY more out of it than I expected. I am VERY pleased with my blog and all of the help getting going. It was truly a bargain

The course was easily explained and understood

I’ve already recommended it to two friends. I was impressed with the progressive format and the helpful information

I learned all I needed to know and more about setting up a new blog. I had very little knowledge on the subject and had done a lot of reading online before I started this course. But I got even more information that was not readily available elsewhere.

We are so proud of this course and delighted that those who sign up are getting a quality blog writing course for an incredibly reasonable price.  If you have been thinking about blogging, this may be exactly the course you’ve been looking for.  And thanks to our students, you don’t just have to take my word for it!

Sign up today!!

A lot of times, in fact, when you want to create a widget or button for your sidebar, you don’t even NEED to know code.  Both Blogger and WordPress have dozens of sidebar gadgets that are already coded for you.  All you have to do is click and choose which one(s) you want, then decide where you want it situated on your sidebar, and voila!  Instant widget.

Other times, you want to add an off-site button or widget, though.  For instance, you might want to add your Facebook profile badge to your blog sidebar.  Or maybe you have a favorite forum you visit and you want to share it with your blog readers.  Chances are, most of the sites or networks you want to promote already have their buttons and badges pre-coded for you!  All you have to do is copy the code, create an HTML gadget in your blog sidebar, paste the code there, and click “Save”.  Voila again!

There ARE a few instances where you might want to create text or image links on your sidebar, but don’t have the built in code handy.  Our Blogging 101 course includes a handy resource for guiding you through the basics of HTML coding for blogs, if you ever need it. 

See?  That wasn’t so scary, was it?   In fact, it’s almost too peaceful around here.

That’s much better.

If you are feeling especially overwhelmed right now, maybe all you need to get those fingers back on the keyboard is a little inspiration.  I thought I would help out with that by sharing a few of my favorite quotes about writing.  Reading any of these often gives me that little extra “push” I need to square my shoulders back and start spilling out words again.

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.  The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.  ~Sylvia Plath

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.  ~William Wordsworth

Writing, I think, is not apart from living.  Writing is a kind of double living.  The writer experiences everything twice.  Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.  ~Catherine Drinker Bowen

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you.  And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.  ~Arthur Polotnik

It is impossible to discourage the real writers – they don’t give a damn what you say, they’re going to write.  ~Sinclair Lewis

Life can’t ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer’s lover until death – fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant.  ~Edna Ferber

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.  ~Samuel Johnson

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.  ~Hart Crane

You have things to say, but you aren’t sure how much.  And you aren’t sure you can write enough interesting things or ground-breaking content to make people actually want to stick around. 

So what is a wannabe blogger to do?  One great idea is to test the blogging waters with one of the many “Light Blogging” platforms out there.  The important thing, though is to remember that blogs and light-blogs usually have very different goals. If you are trying to build search engine optimization for your business or to create brand identity, you probably won’t be turning to a light-blogging platform.

Light-blogging is for those people who want to share things quickly – - whether it be quotes, video, images, links, or music.   If you don’t care whether or not you have navigational tools, menus, static pages, or widgets, then light-blogging may be for you.

Tumblr is by far the most popular of these media-rich but free ways to express yourself.  Other light-blogging platforms include:

• Posterous
• Floort
• DailyBooth
• Kontain
• Rememble

If you feel like you may not be quite ready to commit to a blog, a light-blog may be just the way to ease into the blogosphere.  But if you want the customization, sophistication, and focus of a full blog, there are plenty of ways to ease into that as well – - starting with our Blogging 101 course for new bloggers.  This eight-week course will guide you every step of the way through starting up your own blog, creating content, and drawing traffic. 

Whether you are just testing the waters of blogging, or ready to plunge in, we at BlogWritingCourse.com are cheering you on!!

But maybe you’ve noticed that the visits are a little sporadic.  Or you wish that the comments were coming more consistently.  The question to ask yourself now is….”what do I need to do to make sure my visitors come back again?”  And the best answer to that question is: MAKE SURE YOU MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM!

The most important way to make sure that visitors find your blog again is by double-checking that you have a blog feed enabled.   A feed is kind of like what it sounds like – - a way to give your hungry readers exactly what they want…your blog! 

If you create a way for readers to subscribe to your blog feed, then they can be automatically notified anytime you create a new post.  It is their choice of how to receive that feed – - by email or in a feed reader.  But the nice thing is they don’t have to DO anything to find you.  Your blog comes to THEM!!

For more information on how to create feeds in the different blog hosts and how to display your feed in your blog sidebar,  be sure to sign up for our beginning blogging course, Blogging 101.  There, you will find all the information you need about blog feeds and many, many other ways of ensuring your blog visitors come back again and again.

But the world of blogging can be intimidating – - especially if you have never written anything online before.  Where do you start?  What tools do you need?  Is it even safe???

For people asking themselves those kinds of questions, BlogWritingCourse.com has created an introductory blogging course.  Intro to Blogging is a free, automated, online course that will teach you the basics of blogging at your own pace and from the comfort of your own computer. 

There are a series of videos, short readings, and interactive exercises which you can take over a week or so, taking perhaps a total of two hours.  During this time, you’ll discover:

- how easy it is to blog

- what the basic lingo (vocabulary) is

- some basics about online safety

- whether blogging is something for you or not

Don’t let a lack of knowledge intimidate you from starting a blog or even taking a blog writing course. We’ve laid out all the basics for you in our free course. And, if you complete the course and decide that you really want to do more than think about writing your own blog, we have a subscription-based, 8-week follow up course, Blogging 101,  that will guide you every step of the way through setting up a new blog, writing quality posts, and drawing traffic to your blog.

If you have something to say to the world, don’t settle for being a blog reader.  Now is your time to sound off and share your voice with the rest of the world!  Time to start blogging!!