BlogWritingCourse

We are completing the 8th and final week of our most recent Blog Writing Course.  It has been such a fun process to see the new blogs go from just ideas to blog outlines to full-fledged weblogs with sidebar content, fun headers, a growing archive of posts, and even the occasional comment feedback! 

One of the most successful parts of the course is always the collaborative aspect of blog-building.  Through each step of the way, the course-mates are ready and willing to provide constructive criticism that prods the newbie bloggers on to building the best possible blog.  And once their blogs are in place, these fellow students then become each other’s instant blogroll, providing comments on new posts and encouragement on any changes or updates they may make.

At the end of the course, the students receive their certificate of completion, along with a chicklet they may proudly display on their new blog signifying that they have successfully completed the Blogging 101 blog writing course. 

The following are a sampling of the blogs that recently earned this distinction:

Homeschool on the Edge of Nowhere

Traveling Jones

KickAss Sue C

Mary’s Musings

Homeschooler Cafe

Natural Health Explained

Jewelers Fast Forward

Linda’s Long View

Go Teach It On The Mountain

Cool To Homeschool

K-12 Online Teachers

Decisions, Decisions

Choosing Our Global Destiny

If you would like to learn how to create your own blog in a supportive, collaborative atmosphere, Blogging 101 might be just the class for you!  Sign up today, and you too will be able to say you are a Blog Writing Course Alumnae!

Here at BWC, we have just successfully completed week two of the  Blogging 101 course.  This time around we have 18 students enrolled, and this is an eager and diverse bunch of learners!

Some of the students are absolute newbies to blogging.  This course is their first attempt to cast their line into the waters of the blogosphere, and they are doing swimmingly!  In two weeks time, many of them have decided on their theme, settled on a title and a tagline, and even have their new blog registered with a blogging host.

Others in the course have been around the block a time or two, and have already created and set up blogs on their own, but are looking to make improvements to the look and feel of their blog.  They also want to know more about how to build their readership and possibly even make money with their hobby.

The great thing about both groups is that they are willing to learn from one another.  The course members are quick to provide support, advice, and positive criticism to each of their classmates as they work through the process of creating or improving their blogs.  The collaborative aspects of the Blogging 101 course are what sets it apart.  No amount of blogging books or websites can substitute for the one on one interaction and feedback you receive in a course such as this one. 

If you have been considering starting up a new blog, or improving on one you already have, why not try out our free pre-course or go ahead and sign up for our next 8-week session of Blogging 101.  If you are going to blog, you might as well learn the fun way!

Stay tuned for more updates on our current session of Blogging 101 and other info on starting and maintaining a blog.

I’m not exactly a MySpace kinda gal, so the idea of using social networks to draw traffic to my blog has been something I “would get around to one day.”  But when that day never came,  I decided it was time to figure out how to come to terms with the whole social network phenomenon. 

Fortunately, MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster aren’t the only games in town, and in fact have spawned a whole new generation of social networks.  Sometimes it feels like everyone is starting their own social network.  But the upside of that is that social networks are much more specialized now.

So, if you are writing a mom blog, for instance, you can join a mom blog social network (of which there are many!).  With these smaller networks it is easier to get to know folks better, and to find other people with similar interests who might be interested in following your blog, and visa versa.  The more specific the social network, the more likely you will be to find like-minded blog readers, and you are off and running…

Granted, just belonging to a social network doesn’t guarantee that you will automatically grow your blog readership.  But there are some things you can do to encourage fellow networkers to drop by your blog.

1. Form a relationship.  Take time to get to know specific people within the network.  Find a few people you feel a connection with, and show your interest in them by messaging them, commenting on any posts they make, and visiting their blogs, if they have one.  Social network friendships often lead to reciprocal blog buddies as well.
2. Get involved in discussion boards.  Becoming a familiar presence on the boards can go a long way toward getting people interested in knowing more about you, especially if you have interesting things to add to the discussion.  And don’t forget to add your blog address to your signature so that it shows up on each board post.
3. Talk about your blog on your profile page.  This is the place of first (and sometimes last) impressions in a social network, and people aren’t going to spend more than a minute on your profile page, so make sure that your blog gets good advertising here, and that you make it easy to link to.
4. Display your RSS feed on your profile page.  Most social networking sites have built in RSS widgets that will allow you to display blurbs from your most recent blog posts on your main page, so definitely take advantage of this feature.  One of your post titles or subjects might instantly capture a visitor to your page and then you have an instant blog visitor as well. 

For more great advice on starting a blog and building traffic, why not sign up for our free blogging course?  This online course will help you go from blogging newbie to confident blogger in no time flat.  So what are you waiting for??

In tough economic times, every penny counts, right?  Some of you may have been wondering if you could make money from blog writing.  It is definitely possible to make money blogging, and one of the most popular ways is through affiliate marketing.

At its most basic, affiliate marketing is simply promoting a product or service on the web using a special link.  For a blog, this would involve either direct advertising, reviews, or posts about this product that readers would click on. 

Some affiliate programs pay you just for that click.  Others require that those readers purchase the product through your link, and then you receive a percentage of commission off of that sale.

Amazon.com is probably one of the best known affiliate programs.  They have a multitude of ways to promote themselves via your blog.  One is by simply creating customized links to their products on your site.  Another is by displaying Amazon banners on your blog. Amazon has also created many different widgets that you can highlight in your blog sidebar.  They even have recently created the ability to embed a professional looking online store right within your blog.

But if you are thinking of blogging about a particular topic, it might be more applicable to choose affiliates that are relevant to your blog theme.  For this you might want to search through some of the many online affiliate directories to discover affiliate programs you are interested in.

No matter what type of affiliate you choose, the important thing is drawing traffic to your blog.  No matter how many affiliate links you have within your blog, if there is no one to click them, they won’t be doing you any good.  So creating a quality blog that has a steady readership is a must.

If you would like to find out more about creating a blog, and growing an audience, sign up today for our free online blogging course.  This course will give you valuable information on designing a blog, writing quality content, and building traffic. 

You can make money with affiliate marketing, and we would like to help you get started, so sign up today!

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?

One of the first questions new bloggers usually have is about which blogging platform they should use.  I went round and round with this one when I was first starting up my Topsy-Techie blog.  More about that later.  But if you have read any blogs at all, you begin to become familiar with the addresses where most of them reside…”blogspot.com” “wordpress.com”  or “typepad.com”.  These addresses correspond to the Blogger, Wordpress, and Typepad platforms - - the big three.  There are many other smaller platforms as well, and you might have a specific reason to choose one of them, but for now, let’s focus on the threesome.

Blogger

Blogger is a free blogging platform that has been around since 1999, and is currently owned by Google.  As with most of the big blogging platforms, blogs on Blogger can be hosted on the Blogger server or at individually owned domains.  If you are a big Google user, the Blogger platform might be a natural choice for you, because you can integrate your blog with your Google toolbar, easily add pictures with Picasa, or use Google’s Adsense program to earn money from your blog site.  If you aren’t a Google person, you might find Blogger slightly annoying in that you must create a Google ID in order to open a blog account.  On a personal note, I started out with Blogger, and got my whole page up and going when it suddenly disappeared into some deep dark Blogger Black Hole, never to reappear again.  I doubt this happens very often, or Blogger wouldn’t be such a popular platform, but it did happen to me, and I wasn’t exactly super happy about Blogger for quite some time.

Wordpress 

Wordpress is also a free blogging platform, built a few years after Blogger.  Wordpress seems to be a continually updating software, with over four upgrades in the last couple of years.  Like Blogger, Wordpress blogs can be hosted at Wordpress.com or on your own domain.  Wordpress’ focus is on being aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly, and easy to track statistically.  Wordpress has a very informative stats page, that gives good insight into who is visiting your blog and where they came from. On the downside, blogs hosted at wordpress.com cannot be ad-supported, and any upgrades you want, such as the ability to tinker with your CSS code or customizing your theme, must be purchased as an upgrade.  After my own Blogger debacle, I landed on two feet at Wordpress, and have been there ever since.  I can’t say that there aren’t things about Wordpress that irk me, because the lack of customization can be very irksome, but overall I have been happy.

Typepad  

Typepad is the largest paid blogging service out there, but before you roll your eyes and move on, there are several reasons that people are willing to pay to blog there.  Typepad enthusiasts swear by its dependability - - it almost never goes down.  It has a lot of help files to keep you on track, and real live customer service agents to help you when you get off track.  You can easily display advertising on your blog, and integrate easily with 3rd party ecommerce sites like Amazon and Ebay.  Typepad has also received a recent boost by becoming integrated with the Apple iPhone.  I admit I don’t have personal experience at all with Typepad, so I can’t advise you one way or the other on this one, but if I compare the features, it seems to me that Wordpress and Blogger have nearly as much to offer for free.

There are many other platform choices besides the trio listed above, and depending on your blog focus, and what you want to do with it, you might find that they are more applicable to your interests.  Other well known blogging platform names include: Moveable Type, TextPattern, Serendipity, LiveJournal, and Drupal. 

Whatever platform you decide on, we’d like to help you get started.  Blogwritingcourse.com is offering a free blogging course, that you can sign up for today.  You will familiarize yourself with what a blog is, and what it takes to start one, how to keep yourself safe in the blogosphere, and what all those weird blogging terms really mean.  So take the plunge!  Sign up today, and start blogging!

So the thought has crossed your mind a few times, but now you are ready to take the plunge.  To start your very own blog!  This is such an exciting possibility, but where in the world do you begin?  Of course you can throw caution to the wind, and sign up with a blog host, and figure things out as you go along.  But then all those words are going to start hitting you at rapid speed.  “Carnival.”  “Feed.”  “Permalink.”  “Pingback.”   And on, and on. 

You can hit the panic button OR you can backtrack and start back at the beginning.  And we’d like to help!  At blogwritingcourse.com we are offering a free blog writing course for brand new bloggers.  This course, called Get Ready to Blog covers everything from blog lingo to blog safety to blog promotion.  This is a fast and easy sweep through the world of blogging, and when you finish the course, besides having your very own “Ready to Blog” certificate, you will have the foundational knowledge you need to become a real live blog writer. 

If you are ready to blog, then we are ready to help you get started.  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 is an instructor-led course that 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!

This slogan, sassy as it might be, is a popular one on homeschool t-shirts and bumper stickers.  It speaks volumes of the attitude and importance these families give to schooling their children at home.  It also shows that they can be an opinionated lot. I’m not passing judgment, because I happen to be one of those homeschoolers with a lot to say. 

I’m not sure why homeschoolers have so much to say.  Maybe it is because we are continually in “learning mode.”  We are always learning…and it doesn’t stop at 3:00, either.  Maybe it is because we are so enthusiastic about getting to watch firsthand as our children become the people they are going to be.  There just isn’t anything more exciting than watching your son or daughter develop their individual personality.  Or maybe it is because we never get a word in edgewise.  The flies on the wall in our house had to buy earplugs. 

Whatever the reason, we are a wordy lot.

But thankfully, there is a tremendous outlet for all those words….blogging!  So far, I am finding enough verbiage to fill four blogs, and I still haven’t run out of things to say.  But I’m not the only one.  Homeschool blogging is a niche that is growing daily, and now includes entire social networking sites devoted to it.  Homeschoolblogger.com is a host site specifically for homeschool bloggers. Homeschoolblogbuzz is a great homeschool blog registry site where you can see the most recent homeschool blog posts across the net. And there are some wonderful homeschool blog carnivals taking place on a continual basis.

Homeschoolers blog about an incredible variety of things.  Of course, many of them talk about what is going on in their homeschool and with their children.  Others offer up advice and resources they think will be helpful to other homeschoolers.  Some homeschool bloggers closely follow the politics of homeschooling and report news of laws and controversies related to a family’s right to school at home.  There are also homeschoolers dealing with unique homeschooling issues, such as teaching special needs children, or handling families who are entirely unsupportive of their choice to homeschool.

One of the most wonderful thing about homeschool blogging is the community.  Sometimes homeschoolers can feel a bit marginalized, even in a homeschool-friendly area.  But similar-minded homeschoolers have a way of finding each other across the blogosphere, and connecting in a powerful way.  I have found some great new friends as a result of my homeschool blog - - ones I might have never gotten to know if I had just read their messages on a forum or mailing list.  Blogging breaks down barriers and allows you to truly feel acquainted with your fellow bloggers.

If you are a homeschooler who has been thinking about writing a blog, but didn’t know where to begin, I’d like to suggest a terrific course for newbies.  Blogwritingcourse.com is an eight-week online teacher-led class.  There is someone holding your hand every step of the way from creating and designing your blog, to learning about blogging safety, to writing quality content, to building your readership.  This fun and easy course lit the blogging fires underneath me, and I know it could do the same for you.  So sign up today, and get started blogging!  Come on..you know you have something to say!

Until next time,

This post is reprinted by permission from the blog of Renee Ollis, It Happens To Be.  I thought it was a terrifically insightful look at how and why people start blogging.  Enjoy!!

Origin…beginning…inception…introduction…

Whatever word you choose, they all mean the same – the start of something new. This blog is the beginning of a new adventure for me. Not that I’m the real adventurous type but I definitely consider this an adventure. Sure, I had heard of blogs but in my mind they were some type of resource for techies – boy, was I wrong! Let me tell you of my unexpected discovery of what blogs really are. In mid February my dear husband and I snuck off in the middle of the week for a “date night”. We were really missing each others company so we went to our favorite little Italian restaurant. You know the kind – dim lights, warm, inviting tuscan-esque décor, a portrait of Da Vinci (hence the restaurants name) and Pavarotti mesmerizing me with ‘O Sole Mio in the background. Romantic! Yes, but also perfect for conversation. As we savored the deliciousness of the food and the quiet we engaged in some much needed adult conversation. Conversation about - get this, the children we had left at home. Curious how we had needed an escape but once there, we found ourselves laughing and talking about the thing we were escaping. The din of constant noise that hangs over our home, the dirty piles of laundry, the tears of stubbed toes and the reverberating sound of “mama, mama, mama”. As the hours slipped on and we sipped our coffee our patient server had captured bits and pieces of our conversation and asked how we happened to get a night away. He said he didn’t have children but had nieces and nephews and knew it was hard for his sister to get a night out. You know, he said, “You should take a look at my sister’s blog www.justpurelovely.typepad.com sometime, I really think you would like it”. As we paid our check and polished off the last swirls of coffee, I promised him I would take a look at her blog.

Wow, everything DOES happen for a reason!! It was several days before I got around to looking at the blog but when I did…there was an instant lure. This was the life of someone very much like you and me being shared with the world: to learn from, to be inspired by or simply for pleasure. I was totally amazed, what I thought blogs were – dull, boring, technical was so WRONG! A blog could be anything you wanted it to be – limited only by your time, patience and imagination. To Lori Seaborg and the rest of the blogging world, thank you for your inspiration to embark on a new adventure. So, here goes………..the origin, beginning, inception, introduction of “It Happens to Be”. Welcome to my world and my adventure. (And, as with most adventures that are filled with surprises and unknowns, be patient with me as I find my niche. There will be plenty of surprises so please visit often and feel free to share your comments, ideas and thoughts!)

~ Renee