BlogWritingCourse

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.

One of the great ways to build traffic for your fledgling blog is by both BECOMING a guest blogger and HOSTING a guest blogger.  If you have already made connections with bloggers in your genre, or have been reading a blog with a theme similar to yours for some time now, this may not be too difficult to set up. 

The first thing would be to send an inquiry to someone you would like to have as a guest writer.  You could have them write just one post, a whole week, or a series of posts.  The person should be someone whose blog has a decently strong following, because your hope is that that person’s readers will follow them over to YOUR blog, and be introduced to you in turn.  When you contact the author, you might want to explain to them why you think they would make a good guest poster for your blog (a little flattery never hurts!).  You also will want to ask them to announce their guest post status on their own blog, so you will get a direct link to your blog.

This technique for traffic building will probably have at least a modest effect on your blog.  But an even BIGGER traffic-building strategy is for you to guest post on someone ELSE’S blog.  So how in the world do you go about that?

Well, it requires some tact and some good writing, for sure!  Before offering your guest blogging services to anyone, you need to make sure that your blog is in tip-top shape.  Has your writing been stellar lately?  Is your design up-to-date and eye-catching?  These are the things another blogger will be looking for as they make the decision whether you are guest blogger material!  So before you make even the first inquiry about becoming a guest blogger, do an objective analysis of your recent content to see if it is up to guest blogger standards.

Then, when you feel confident that you have produced some pretty awesome content, go ahead and send your blog link and a request to five of your favorite blogs in your genre, asking them to take a look at your blog and consider you as a fill-in for the next time they are out of town or have hit writer’s block.  Hopefully, if they like what they see, they will keep your info on file, and will contact you with your first ever guest blogger opportunity! 

Then, when you take them up on their offer, be sure to link back to your blog somewhere in your post, so that when (not if) their readers enjoy your writing, they will be able to easily make their way over to your blog and become your next biggest fans!!

Yes.  Yes, in fact I did say a FREE blogging course.  BlogWritingCourse.com is proud to offer new or potential bloggers a free introductory course into the world of blogging.  That means that if you have been entertaining the idea of starting a blog, but felt that you really didn’t know where to begin, then we have a course for you!!

Intro to Blogging is a fun and interactive automated course to help you get your feet wet in the blogosphere.  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.  By signing up for and taking our free pre-course you know what it’s all about. You’ll understand the lingo. You’ll know how to stay safe online and you’ll know how to create and promote your own blog.

Join the growing number of bonified bloggers who have gotten their start in blogging right here - - at BlogWritingCourse.com! 

This week, I only blogged twice on my personal blog, but I happened to notice that traffic - - especially new visitor traffic was way up.  I looked at my statistics a little more closely to see what might have created the boost, and couldn’t find any huge surge in backlinks or referrals.  There was no big Google search trend for anything I had posted about.  The only thing different that I could see was that I had used a couple particularly clever titles for my posts this week.

This got me intrigued, so I pulled up some older statistics and compared it to other weeks where my titles had been particularly interesting, and sure enough, there was a spike definite traffic/title correlation going on.

I guess this shouldn’t have been a real revelation, but of all the things about my blog, my titles are usually only given an afterthought.  Usually they just make me laugh, so I’ve always been good with that.

But now, I’m considering putting a little more thought into my blog post titles. Based on my short investigation, this is what I have come to conclude are the best choices for blog titles:

• Titillating words or phrases - - throw in a “Viagra” anywhere within a title, and you are bound to get a few extra clicks that week
• Things that make you go awwww - - some of my most traffic-inducing titles sound like they came from the inside of a Hallmark card.  Obviously we’re suckers for sap.
• Rhyming Words - - I’ll admit I’m still stumped by this one, but for some reason people simply can’t resist a good “Junk in the Trunk” story.  Must go back to all those “Hop on Pop” moments we shared with our mothers as toddlers.
• All Caps - - I beg you to use this one WITH CAUTION, but if you are desperate for a little bloggy action on a particular day, go ahead and give us the cyber shout.  We’re gluttons for punishment, it would seem.

Those are my simple, yet weirdly profound conclusions as far as titles go.  Granted, I didn’t give you the skinny on keywords, SEO, and other stuff that professional bloggers would wax eloquently about, but if you want real (albeit, temporary) results, then I’m telling you…add in your favorite E.D. drug of choice in your next post title and watch those stats surge! 

Until next time,

Many schools and classrooms are setting up specific blogs for their students and teachers.  Some are designed only for teachers or administrators as communication tools - - to post updates, news, or even assignment lists.  Others are of a more collaborative style, with requests that students add their own thoughts to the blog.

There are so many great ways for schools and teachers to integrate blogs into the educational framework.  They could be used as part of a collaborative writing assignment,  as a way to inform parents of school-related events and activities, or as a way to provide students with additional information about a specific subject or research project.

Anytime the internet is integrated into education, however, there are safety issues to be taken into consideration.  To avoid any potential problems, keep in mind the following advice:

• Be sure that parents are notified of all blogs that their children may be participating in or receiving regularly.  (Depending on the situation, parental permission might even be advisable)
• Check all comment and spam settings on school and classroom blogs.  Comments might be best restricted to students only or at least have Akismet spam detector enabled.
• If privacy is an issue, for instance if a few students are using a blog to create a competitive class assignment, privacy settings on the blog can be set so that only the blog contributors are allowed access.  This can also be helpful if you have a classroom blog that you want to restrict access to.
• Take the opportunity when opening a classroom or student blog to teach students about online safety. 
• Check out Edublogs for an unique and safe option for educational blogging.

To get even more insights about blogging and blogging safety, check out our blog writing courses.

  Wow.  We are almost done??!! 

That’s right.  This session of the Blogging 101 course will be over tomorrow, just in time for me to jump into holiday busyness.  ((sigh))  But it has been fun looking back over the new blogs and seeing how far they have come!

In Week Seven, we explored the possibilities of earning money from our blogs.  Since we now have lured some readers to our blog, we discussed how we could turn those clicks into CASH, and how our blog could finally “give back” after all we have put into it!

Week Eight, our final week of the course, has been somewhat of a retrospective.  We took a look at how far our blogs have come since the first days of the course where we were just settling on our themes.  And we are also looking forward - - checking out some of the cool blogging tools and trends that we might want to take advantage of to make our blogging endeavors even more exciting.

With this session of Blogging 101 almost kaput, it is time to be thinking about the NEXT round, which hopefully will begin in early January, if we get enough sign-ups by then.  If you’d like to get in on our next session, be sure to register now, or at least put your name on the waiting list.

I can’t wait to see what the next eight weeks of Blogging 101 has up its sleeve!!!

Week six of the Blogging 101 course is all about building community.  Starting with the simplest of things - - like commenting on blogs that are similar to yours and getting noticed - - to more involved techniques, such as starting up a Twitter account, we looked at many different ways to make your blog feel more like someone’s front porch than just a rest stop along the journey.

It is important that readers see your blog as a “hub” that they can go to for support, encouragement, advice, etc.  This is one of the biggest ways to draw traffic and keep it! 

Of course, with the Blogging 101 course, you have a built-in community from the get-go.  Your fellow classmates visit your blog and give both positive feedback and constructive criticism that will help you make your blog the best it can possibly be. 

We’ve had a few more students add their blog addresses this week, so here is an updated list of course blogs…drop by and leave a comment if you can!

• Lifting My Eyes to the Hills
• Faith and a Full House
• Blog of a Free-Form Scholar
• Never Just a Housewife
• Pansy Colored Glasses
• Seeing Through the Illusion
• Moment by Moment
• Black Belt Breakfast of Champions
• Stay at Home / Work at Home

The last two weeks have been a blur!  Many of our students have been incredibly busy in their personal lives, so many of them have been playing “catch-up” with their course assignments.  That’s the great thing about a course like this one, though…it is flexible enough to bend and flow with even the busiest of schedules!

The most exciting thing has been seeing the blogs start to fill with content.  The course “winner” for most prolific writer definitely goes to the blogger of Lifting My Eyes to the Hills, who took on a daily meme right from the get-go!  That’s a way to shoot right out of the starting gates!

But other blogs have started to fill with content as well, and the bloggers have been looking at ways to get inspired, to fight writer’s block, and how to add a little “pizzazz” to their posts to keep things interesting. 

Week Five has been focused on the “little things” that can be added to your blog to give it that extra “something.”  And they are also dutifully attempting to visit each of their classmates’ new blogs in order to leave comments of encouragement and constructive criticism.

If you’d like to check out the different approaches of some of our blogging students, take a minute to visit these blogs:

• Pansy Colored Glasses
• Never Just a Housewife
• Blog of a Free-Form Scholar
• Faith and a Full House
• Moment by Moment

Next week our Blogging 101 students will start building community around their blogs.  This is probably the single most important component of traffic-building, and we will be looking at several different ways to create that sense of community.

Our new class of bloggers has now completed their second week of the Blogging 101 course at BlogWritingCourse.com.  Not only have they begun to understand what blogging is, but now they have begun to personalize the experience by creating a theme, a title, and even a tagline for their new blogs!

Here is a list of the blogs that have been created so far…of  course they don’t all have content in them, but we will get there. Oh yes, we will get there…

• Tales of a Southern Fried Mind
• Knitty by Nature
• Never Just a Housewife
• Ajamel’s Blog
• Lifting My Eyes
• Pansy Colored Glasses
• Free Form Scholar
• Faith and a Full House

It is so exciting to see these blogs actually take shape and become part of the thread of the blogosphere!  I can’t wait to see the “before and after” versions of each of these blogs from this week to the end of the eighth week of the course.  It is always an amazing transformation!

We have completed our first week of the Blogging 101 blog writing course, and it is looking to be an exciting term!  This time around we have 18 students - - with a wide variety of blogging interests. 

Themes of this round of bloggers include:

• Things that matter
• Personal faith
• The characters in our life
• Books and writers
• Unschooling
• Homeschooling
• Knitting
• Labradoodles
• Single-motherhood
• Healthy living
• Managing a home
• Modern artists
• Musings on life
• …and more

That is one of the most exciting parts of this course for me…seeing, firsthand, some of  the diversity of ideas and styles that make up the blogosphere!  If you would like to keep up with what is happening with the course, be sure to subscribe to this blog.  Or if you already know that you would like to be part of the fun experience of creating your own blog, why not sign up for our next round of Blogging 101?

We’d love to help you turn your personal passions into a blog, as well!