BlogWritingCourse

So you are starting a new blog, and you want to have more than Aunt Erma and Cousin Grover reading it.  So you begin to explore all the different ways of increasing blog traffic (including taking our terrific Blog Writing Course!!) and yet you still feel like there is something else you could do to get the word out about your site.

And there is!!  It is called Twitter, and unless you have lived in a cave for the past five years you have probably heard of it.  You might have even looked into it, but weren’t sure how it could really benefit you.  Well, if you are a blogger, Twitter might have several benefits for you…

• Twitter can introduce your blog to a whole different set of readers.  Those who follow Twitter aren’t always the same ones who follow blogs, so if you create a Twitter account that is focused on the same subject as your blog, you might garner a whole new audience!
• You can have your new posts automatically post to Twitter!  That’s right…using a service such as Twitterfeed, you can link up your blog to Twitter and let TF do all the work!  Then, your Twitter followers will be immediately notified anytime you add a new post.
• You can get more mileage out of your blog.  Blog posts are very different from Tweets…they are longer, more indepth, and usually have more substance than the average Tweet.  But that doesn’t mean that you stop having things to say about your blog subject after you have posted.  If you want to add to the conversation, post additional remarks, or ask for opinions about what you have posted, Twitter is the perfect outlet!
• You can supplement your blog.  By posting additional information, links, and resources that have to do with your blog theme, you can use your Twitter account to be an all-in-one reference source for your particular subject.  This helps potential readers understand that you are serious about making your blog the Go-To place for info.

To utilize these strategies, you will also want to be sure to include a scrolling feed of your Tweets on your blog sidebar as well.  That way, your blog visitors can quickly view your between-posts information!

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.

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! 

Image by melop via Flickr

I consider myself a relatively non-judgmental person.  I try to look at issues from both sides.  I try to evaluate a person’s motives, as well as their actions.  I understand that people have good days and bad days.

But when it comes to blogs, I’m a complete snob.  As are most people.

We give a blog about 15 seconds - - TOPS! - - to impress us, and then we move on.  Why?  Because there are several million other blogs to choose from.  So what does that tell us?  That first impressions matter - - A LOT.

For that reason, it is of the highest importance when creating a blog to focus on the overall visual imprint your blog is going to have on a visitor.

• Are the color schemes inviting?
• Is the template you are using unique?
• Does the header clearly express what the blog is about?
• Is the title catchy and interesting?
• Have you made the blog easy to navigate and find the most important information?
• Are your sidebars easy on the eye, or cluttered with excess?
• Are there enough graphics to keep visual people engaged?

These are all terrific questions to ask yourself when you are in the process of building a new blog.  If the answer to even ONE of these questions is negative, you may have just lost a potential reader.

It would be ideal if everyone in the blogosphere was willing to look past the “externals” of your blog in order to see the truth of what you have to say, but we’re usually far too fickle and too pressed for time to be that understanding.  So, give some serious thought to what your readers’ first impressions of your blog should be, and take the time and effort to make sure they stick around long enough to find out just what it is you have to say.

If you’d like to find out more about blog design, and how to create the right “look” for your new blog, consider signing up for our next session of Blogging 101 - - a comprehensive eight week, instructor-led course for new bloggers!

Until next time,

If you haven’t registered for our next Blogging 101 course, now is the time, because we are starting up the next 8-week series on January 11.  If you have been on the waiting list, we appreciate your patience - - I know it will be worth your wait!

Blogging 101 is an instructor-led course that will guide you through all the basics of creating and establishing a new blog.  Subjects covered in the Blogging 101 curriculum include:

• What Makes A Good Blog
• Developing Your Blog Identity
• Creating Your Blog
• “About Me” Pages
• Getting Started Writing
• Building Quality Content
• Hooking Your Readers
• Blogging Etiquette and Safety
• Promoting Your Blog

With Blogging 101, you will even have a built-in audience for your first posts - - your fellow classmates!  You will have fun learning with them and from them, and getting honest feedback and comments on your blog content.  Plus, your instructor, experienced blogger and writer, Topsy Techie will hold your hand as you go step by step through the process of creating and starting your new blog.  The Blogging 101 course is more than just a class - - it is a community of people who want to see you succeed in the world of blogging.

This is going to be a terrific course, so register today and don’t miss out on your chance to start a New Blog for the New Year!!

  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!