BlogWritingCourse

I was looking this morning at the recent comments from students who have taken our eight-week online blog writing course, Blogging 101.  We offer a survey to those who have completed the course, and we use the results to help us make the course even better and more helpful to future enrollees.

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!!

Have you ever noticed that when life gets busy, the first thing to suffer is your blog?  Fall time can be such an active season for people that we start to feel like our blog writing is just “one more thing on our to-do list.”  That is too bad. Why? Because fall is such a beautifully inspirational time of year! 

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 want to start a blog. You really do.  But it seems so complex.  So time-consuming.  Maybe even a little bit boring. 

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!!

We all read blogs.  They give us instant access to information, insight into other people, and provide multiple viewpoints on specific subjects. But sometimes, reading a blog just doesn’t cut it.  Sometimes, you realize YOU are the one who has something relevant to add to the online conversation.  In those cases, starting your own blog may be exactly the thing to do.

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!!

One of the most daunting parts of the blog creation process – - and the point in the process where many a man or woman have thrown up their hands and given up – - is the choosing of the THEME or TEMPLATE. 

One of the problems is that there are simply too many choices.  Whether you go with WordPress, Blogger, or even a simple generic blog writing program, there are often hundreds, if not thousands, of backgrounds, fonts, sidebars, color schemes, and headers to consider.  The single most important thing to remember in order to keep your anxiety level low at this stage in the game is that your choices are NOT permanent.  In fact, it is almost certain that you will change your theme once you start writing and discover that the template you’ve chosen doesn’t really mesh with where you are going with your blog.

But it never hurts to have a few tried and true guidelines to follow when first faced with that intimidating “themes” page….

Cost

Depending on what you really want out of your blog, and whether or not you envision a strong future for it, you must choose between the free or premium template options. Those blogs out there that all look alike?  They have chosen a default theme provided by their blog host.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a free blog theme, though, and it might even be a smart choice for those who are unsure about how much energy they really want to put into their blog.

For those who crave customization and individuality, however, a paid, or “premium” blog template may be a wiser choice.  There are thousands of premium themes available for under $100 which can be simply imported into your blog, OR you can pay different amounts to have your blog specifically customized for you.

Features

If you are brand new to blogging and are creating your first ever blog, it is very difficult to know exactly what features you will want a blog to have.  It is hard to predict whether you will need more than one sidebar, the ability to add specific widgets, or how much customization of fonts you prefer until you’ve actually been blogging for a while.  But don’t be afraid to experiment with some completely different themes and test out their specific feature-set during the first few weeks you are writing your blog.  And definitely try out several free blog templates with various features before settling on a premium one so that you can be sure you will have exactly the right mix.

Appearance

Although less important than features, the “look” of your blog makes a big impression on visitors.  Therefore, it’s especially important to choose a theme that has plenty of eye-appeal and a pleasant color-scheme.  Your header is usually completely customizable, and isn’t necessarily theme-dependent, but even so, you want to make sure that your header and your blog theme complement each other well.

Don’t hesitate to inquire with blog owners about their design if you come across one that you like.  Find out if theirs is a theme you can use, or if they had their blog custom designed, ask them for their designers contact info.  Blog design is a lot like house design…sometimes you don’t know what you want for yourself until you see it done well somewhere else!

For more info on blog design and creation and all the other important aspects of creating and writing a new blog, sign up today for our eight-week Blogging 101 course!

Sometimes, it’s just refreshing to hear why people blog.  Occasionally here at BWC.com, we’re going to peek into the motivations of bloggers far and wide because there is nothing that “refills the blogging tank” more than hearing what inspires others to blog!

The following post is reprinted with permission by TaderDoodles at Chaos Appreciation:

This is not my original blog. This isn’t even my second or third blog.  I’ve had Too Busy 2 Clean, I’m not crazy I’m homeschooling, Valley Walkers, Turtle Doodling, and a variety of bizarre random posts on mommy social sites.  I keep going off on tangents, posting certain topics for a week or so thinking that is what my readers want to read. It is like my blog has multiple personalities.

I finally decided last year to stop with all the posting here and there and consolidate everything here. The posts are still pretty random in topic but my wonderful readers have hung around to see what comes out of the chaos next. I became disenchanted with blogging shortly after the New Year because I realized I was “pumping” out posts rather than writing to my readers. I had lost my blogs main purpose!

I want to share ideas with my readers. I want to share reviews with my readers. I will always want to make things to give to my readers! The purpose, however, of my blog….deeeeep down…is to give me GROWN children (in the future ya’ll) a peek inside my head- in real time.

I talk to my family ‘elders’ now and listen to them retell stories of what it was like when they had little kids. It all seems filtered. If I’m having a bad day then they tell me a fluffy version of their bad day and quickly end with a “but it all turned out okay”. That’s all fine and dandy dearies but what I need as a mom is to know that there were days where Nana burnt the chicken because she was cleaning up a puking baby while my mom and aunt jumped on her sofa.

Ok, well THAT probably never happened but you know what I mean.

I have three girls. One day they may be moms. One day I want them to be able to read my blog (or a printed version of it) and see what mom used, what she liked, what worked , what didn’t. I want them to know that it was hard and I cried and it was good and I laughed.

Twenty years from now I will be past the urgency, the exhaustion, the drama, the fears, and the anxiety that accompanies being the mom of little ones. Twenty years from now I will retell the stories with the confidence of a mom who knows it gets easier and better. I want my girls to know how I felt BEFORE I knew it would all be okay.

I want my son to have a deeper understanding of where his wife is coming from. I want him to see that she is going to be so very very frustrated with him and yet love him with the deepest of loves.

And when I start getting all “this isn’t that hard just do it this way” on them….they can hand me my blog.

For my kids so they will see what it was really like inside my head. rather than the fluffy happen versions of my life i’ll be exaggerating when I’m old.

One of the most common complaints I hear from wannabe bloggers is…”I want to start a blog, but I just don’t know what to write about.” 

Do you want to know what my response is?  “Then DON’T start a blog.” 

That may sound strange from a person involved in a blog writing course, but it is true.  If you don’t know what to blog about, you probably shouldn’t be blogging.  That’s because the best blogs stem out of people’s passions.  In some ways, blogs sort of start themselves when people have something to say, and they know they want to express it, so they kind of have to start a blog to get their words out.

If there is something that brings you constant enjoyment, something that your friends are sick of hearing you talk about, something that is constantly on your mind, or something that you have been through (or are going through) and you wish you could share the journey – - then you already have a blog theme!  All that’s left to do is to get the technicalities out of the way and start writing!!

Even business bloggers need to rekindle the passion they feel for their company or product to be effective in the blogosphere.  It doesn’t matter if you are a mom who happens to think her kids are the most fascinating human beings on the planet, or a man whose wife is in the first stages of Alzheimer’s disease – - if you live it, and you have strong feelings about it – - it’s probably good blog fodder!

If you still aren’t completely sure about your passions, and whether they would make a good blog or not, go ahead and sign up for our Blogging 101 course, where you can work through every step of deciding on a theme, setting up your blog, and writing quality posts.  Sign up today!!

EVERYONE has something to say….. That’s why a subscription to our Blogging 101 course makes the PERFECT gift idea for almost anyone on your list!! Think of all the people in your life who seem to always have something to say:

• parents
• spouses
• co-workers
• teens
• neighbors
• in-laws
• friends

They have all bent your ear plenty of times, right? Well, why not give them a new outlet for all their chatter?? They may not need a new tie, or another set of dishtowels, but your friends and family can all benefit from a new skill. Anyone can become a blogger – - no matter their age, background, or education. Blogging 101 is the perfect introduction to blogging, and is a gift that will keep on giving throughout 2011 and beyond!

If you would like to send someone on your list the "gift of blog", just head over to our Gift Page, and register your gift subscription.  We will send your recipient a personalized certificate via email with instructions on how to get started.  You don’t even have to fight the crowds at the mall!!! What other incentive could you possibly need???

So you have been thinking about starting a blog.  Everyone is doing it, right? So why shouldn’t you??

Well, maybe you should, and maybe you shouldn’t.  Here are some questions to ask yourself if you have been considering joining the blogosphere lately…

1. Do you enjoy writing?  If the first answer that comes to mind is…”I’d rather have bamboo shoots stuck under my fingernails!!”, then possibly blogging is not for you.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.  Maybe you don’t enjoy writing because you haven’t found something you enjoy writing about yet. If that is the case, see the next question…
2. Do you have something you are passionate about?  If there is a subject, concept, idea, or hobby that you just can’t get enough of, then you just might be the next big blogger.  That’s because having a deep interest in a particular subject is one of the key ingredients of being able to write a blog that others will enjoy reading.  People can “catch” passion.  Even if you aren’t the best writer in the world, but you are passionate about what you are writing about, you can often create a successful blog.
3. Are you willing to take risks?  Are you willing to try new things?  Experiment?  Learn?  Even more importantly…are you willing to fail?  If the answer to these things is a resounding “yes”, then you might be ready to jump headlong into the exciting and uncertain world of blogging!
4. Do you enjoy networking?  One important thing to remember about a blog is that it is NOT a diary.  A blog is meant for viewing and interacting with.  That means that in order to build a readership for your blog, you have to do more than just write it and hope people will come.  You have to network with other bloggers and online personalities in the field you are blogging about.  If you like to keep pretty much to yourself on the world wide web, then blogging may not be for you, but if you are a natural chatter, commenter, and messager, then you already are halfway there to creating a community around your blog!

If you answered each of the above questions with a resounding, “YES”, then you could be a strong candidate for starting your very own blog.  I would suggest that you take our free pre-course, “Intro to Blogging” to help you get your feet wet and help you make the final decision about whether blogging is for you.