BlogWritingCourse

I did NOT jump on the bandwagon of the Julie and Julia craze during the book stage of the process.  I was one of those pop culture Cinderellas who arrived VERY late to the ball and didn’t know anything about this story until I saw it on a movie trailer.  But WHAT a trailer!  I was immediately hooked and simply knew I HAD to see this movie when it came out.

I’m a movie theater snob, however, so I did not go see it at the multiplex, but rather waited until it was showing at my favorite fine arts theatre where you can order wine and dinner with your movie and enjoy every last delicious morsel in the most leisurely of ways.  What better way to watch Meryl Streep and Amy Adams create on-screen magic??

What is really interesting is that even though I had the general idea that this movie was about blogging, I in no way realized just exactly how blog-centric it was going to be! It was a delightful surprise - - especially because the story seemed to take place during the germinal stages of blogging when growing a blog audience was probably even more exciting than it is today.

But the best thing about the movie?

It reminded me that there is no subject too specific - - too specialized to blog about.  And that is great news because it means that ANYONE can start a blog. 

That’s right.  You have a rubber band collection?  Blog about it.  You dream of becoming an opera singer and you are tone deaf?  There’s a blog in that.  You are Jimmy Hoffa’s biggest fan?  Go for it!  You knit booties for kittens?  Hey, so maybe it’s not my thing, but I’m sure there are plenty of kitty-lovin knitters that are anxious to hear about your exploits.

Bloggers aren’t born, they are made.  From the diversity of the human spirit.  From the melting pot of ideas that swirl around our heads and are aching to get out.  Maybe you don’t need to blog through Julia’s entire cookbook, but I’d wager there is something on your mind. 

Today could be the day that YOU become a blogger.  Why not???

Until next time,

If you would like information on how to start your own blog, check out the free online blogging course at BlogWritingCourse.com.

I read the most interesting article today!  Over at WebProNews, Chris Crum writes that: Blogs Can Still Drive Big Traffic

Here is what Chris said:

You would almost think blogging was dead, the way headlines are dominated by Twitter, Facebook, and social media in general. I’ve always considered blogging to be a part of social media anyway, as the commenting factor lends to engagement between author and user. But blogging is so five years ago right? It’s all about microblogging and status updates now isn’t it?

If you think that’s the case, think again, because blogs can still drive big-time traffic to websites. An example of this has been illustrated by the launch of e-commerce site Alice.com. How much traffic are you getting from blogs? Let us know. If you are not familiar with Alice.com, it is a site where consumers can buy everyday household items like toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry detergent, diapers, etc., right from the manufacturers, rather than through middleman retailers. It launched in June, and by July it had doubled its traffic to 387,000 unique visitors, according to Compete. Alice.com Guess where the majority of that traffic came from. According to Compete, it came from word-of-mouth from blogs. In fact, its number one traffic source was Blogger.com. Not Twitter. Not Facebook. Not search. Although each of these no doubt played valuable roles as well., Blogger.com has been the biggest factor in driving traffic for this site, and from the looks of things, that traffic is showing no signs of slowing down.

So that got me thinking about the differences between Twitter/Facebook and blogs.  Twitter and Facebook, I think, are probably more useful for fluid content.  In other words:  promotionals, sales, site updates, new product additions and news.  Whereas blogs are perfect for highlighting static information.  Product details, explanations, human interest stories, behind-the-scenes info, letters from the president, and editorials.

That might possibly mean that Twitter/FB has more appeal to bargain-hunters and promotion-junkies, but that true potential, long-term customers might be more persuaded by the more substantial content of a blog post.  It also might be true that blogs have more weight for SEO purposes.  After all, tweets generally link BACK to blogs!

So if you are a business owner, and are trying to decide how to best integrate blogs, Twitter, and Facebook into your marketing scheme, remember to save your in-depth copy and strongest content for your blog, and then drive traffic to that copy via the microblogging avenues.

For more information on blogging, and how to start a blog, check out our course offerings at BlogWritingCourse.com.

Until next time…

One of the coolest aspects of blogging is the creativity it inspires. 

The shift toward Web 2.0 has made each person with computer access an active participant in this changing world.  We have things to say.  We have opinions and ideas on how things are, and how they ought to be.  And we have the ability to network with other people who share our same worldview.

This immediacy can be the perfect birthplace for incredible inspiration! 

For instance, a blogger who is passionate about local food may start a blog about his favorite farmer’s markets and tailgate markets.  Another local foodie may be blogging about the best restaurants in the region.  And yet another blogger is busy posting all the great family-owned businesses in the area.  These bloggers, who will probably quickly happen upon each others blogs, and begin networking, may soon come upon the idea of helping local farmers link up with local restaurants and markets in order to distribute the freshest foods at the most reasonable prices.  It is a win/win situation for everyone - - thanks to some forward-thinking bloggers!

Other examples of this type of positive blogging include the SochiReporter project.  Sochi, Russia is slated to host the Winter Olympics in 2014.  In preparation for this event,  a seminar was created for some of the top journalism and IT students from local universities.  The focus of the seminar was helping these young men and women, many of whom had never blogged before, to cover all different aspects of the preparation that goes into readying a city for the Olympic stage.  The students will be reporting on the changes in their city from their own unique perspectives.  It is likely to be a one-of-a-kind project with fascinating results!

Then you may have also heard the story of a missing teenager from Denver, who was reconnected with her family this past April thanks largely to the efforts of bloggers and twitterers.  Notifications of the Amber Alert connected with the teen went out far and wide across the World Wide Web to help locate the missing girl. 

These are all just examples of how blogging can draw people together for a common cause.  If you have been thinking of blogging as a solitary activity taking place in one room from one computer, and going out to the faceless abyss, it is time to reconsider!  Every person sitting behind that keyboard and screen is interwoven in a complicated and beguiling mesh of thoughts, ideas, and potential for positive change.

Wouldn’t you like to become part of something like that??

Until Next Time,

Most of the articles online today are about blogging “BIG.”  Writing for the masses.  Building traffic.  Networking with other bloggers.  But sometimes, bigger isn’t better.

Sometimes you just want an easy way to let your family and friends keep up with what  is going on in your lives.  And blogging is the perfect vehicle for that.  Sometimes you simply don’t need a complicated website with all the bells and whistles.  You just need a place to share the highlights of your life with your family.

Writing a family blog has a lot of advantages…

• It is a place to keep all your memories in one place.  No more traveling to one place for photos, another place for videos, and yetanother place for journaling your experiences.  A blog lets you do ALL that - - in one simple posting.
• It is an easy way for your loved ones to keep up with what is going on with you.  Long gone are the days of sending a yearly “newsletter” with your holiday card each year.  People who care about you want to hear from you more often than at births, deaths, and weddings.  They want to feel like they are part of your lives.  A family blog provides just that.
• It serves as a multimedia family album.  Trying to remember when Joey lost his first tooth?  Or the name of Kaitlyn’s first friend in preschool?  By blogging those memories, they are permanently weaved into the world wide web - - ready for instant access anytime you need them.

The great news is that you don’t have to be a professional blogger to start a  family blog.  Just by familiarizing yourself with the basics of blogging, like the information you can learn in our free blogging pre-course.  Some blog hosts are even designed particularly for family blogs, with easy tools for adding text, pictures, and video. 

If you have been dreaming of an easy way to archive your precious family memories, then blogging may be just what you have been dreaming about!

Until next time,

If you are a relative newbie to the world of blogging, you may or may not know much about Twitter.  I tend to find that a lot of Twitterers are bloggers.  I became kind of curious about the relationship between the two.  Here are some of my thoughts about the Twitter/blogging connection.

1. Bloggers are often told that Twitter is a good way to grow their blog readership.  First of all, you can easily feed your blog to Twitter, so that each time you blog, your new post is announced as a Tweet.  If discussion builds around either your post, or your tags, then you can quickly add a follower or two.  Also, your website or blog is prominently displayed in your Twitter profile, so that your followers can find out about it if they stop in. 
2. Twitter is kind of an in-between-blog-posts vehicle for some people.  Blogs are generally at least a couple of paragraphs long.  You have something to say, and you take a few minutes (or in my case, occasionally a whole darn hour) to compose your thoughts and put them down in your blog.  But what about when something comes to mind that you may not have time to write a whole post about, but you still want to share?  You tweet it.  140 little characters of burning info that just can’t wait until the next post?  You tweet it. 
3. Twitter is the ultimate networking tool.  Whether or not we quite accept it, blogging is about building networks.  But in most cases, network building for bloggers can take a long time.  Network building on Twitter, however, is much faster, and there are multiple ways to push it forward even more quickly: TwittGroups has a seemingly unending list of ways to network with people of similar interests, backgrounds, work affiliations, geographic locations, etc.  And building a network on Twitter is a highly effective way of getting new people to find out about your blog.

If you have a blog, or are thinking about starting a blog, you might want to give Twitter a chance.  It is an effective jump-start for building blog traffic, and networking with other like-minded bloggers.

Until next time,

One of the students I had the pleasure to teach in our most recent blog writing course was a dear lady across the pond who has a penchant for karate.  Sue was an enthusiastic student who quickly caught the blogging “bug” and has been consistently writing and growing her blog.  You can find her martial arts themed blog at Kick Ass SueC.

The following is a recent interview that I did with Sue to follow up with her and see what her experience with blogging has been like since the completion of the course.

First of all, tell us a little bit about your blog, and the types of things you write about.

I write a martial arts blog. This is very much a student’s perspective of learning a martial art as I am still working my way up the coloured belts towards black belt. However, I try to avoid it being merely a training log as this would be boring – even to other martial artists!  Some of my posts may focus on a particular technique I am learning or have difficulties with, or I may talk about some wider issues in martial arts such as problems with women’s self-defence courses or whether women should train with men. Occasionally I write articles about some aspect of Japanese culture or on some historical aspect of karate. I’m basically looking for meaning in what I am doing and trying to put my martial arts training into a wider historical or philosophical context. I hope that doesn’t make it sound too heavy and serious – I try to touch on some of these subjects with a bit of humility and humour.

What got you interested in blogging?

I originally got interested in blogging as a means to self-publishing my creative writing efforts, which is my other hobby. I write short stories and poems. However, having looked into how blogging works and the fact that successful blogs usually require you to post regularly (3-4 times a week) I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep it supplied with new and original material. I decided to test the waters out with a martial arts blog instead – not much different hey! I love writing my martial arts blog so much that I don’t now intend to start a creative writing one. However, I still like creative writing so as a compromise I have just recently added a new feature to my side bar called ‘Hooked on Haiku’, in which I am attempting to write a daily haiku poem (on a martial arts theme of course!)

Now that you have been blogging for a few months, how about looking back on the Blog Writing Course, and tell us how it did (or didn’t) prepare you for the world of blog writing?

I stumbled on the Blog Writing Course by accident. I had just set up my blog the week before and came across a post from an ex-BWC student who said the course was enrolling again. I enrolled immediately because I had realised that I was out of my depth a bit and needed some help to develop my blog. I wish now I’d started the course first – then I may have chosen a different name and URL for my blog! The course though has given me numerous tips and advice on how to improve the appearance of my blog, how to make the side bar an interesting adjunct, how to collect stats, how to publicise my blog and bring in traffic. I’ve learnt the importance of illustrating posts with pictures or videos and how to keep safe whilst blogging.

What was your favorite part of the course?

My favourite part of the course was communicating with the other course members – giving and receiving comments on each other’s assignments.  As bloggers we were all natural communicators and so we all tended to bend over backwards to be helpful to each other. We managed to develop the sense of community that we all hoped to experience through our own individual blogging experiences. So in that sense communicating with each other through the course was like a trial run for learning to communicate with our fellow bloggers in the blogosphere.

How do you think the experience you are having now with your blog would have been different, if you had tried the process from scratch on your own?

Well to be honest I did start the process from scratch on my own but soon realised a bit of help and guidance would be useful! If I hadn’t then enrolled on the course I think my blog may be less well organised, probably less aesthetic and much harder for people to find. The information provided on the course is out there on the web if you look for it but you would have to make the time and effort to find it yourself. The advantage of this course is that everything you need to know is all in one place and includes links to all sorts of other useful websites that you can continue to use well after the course has finished.

What has your experience been so far with drawing traffic to your blog?  Have you put any of the traffic-building suggestions from the BWC to use?

I have a small core of people who visit my blog often and have put me in their blog roll and regularly leave me comments.  Some of them have registered on my site as ‘followers’ but not all of them. However I also know that I have a much larger group of people who visit less frequently but do return from time to time. I also know that hundreds of people have just read a specific post that they found via a search engine. I know that 75% of my readers have come back more than once and I know which town and country they have come from. How do I know? I have registered with statcounter who record this information for me to see. I have also registered with about 6 ‘blog register’ sites and I know people have found me through this route. I also installed a visitor map in my side bar which enables me to see at an instant where all my traffic comes from and I’ve had visitors from every continent (except Antarctica) which is amazing!

Has the blogging experience been positive so far?  Do you see yourself continuing to blog, at least into the near future?

The blogging experience has been very positive for me so far. As well as writing my blog I love reading other peoples blogs as well. I think it is fascinating to discuss topics with other like-minded people from around the world. I often leave people comments and love receiving comments from other people which I always follow up or leave a thank you. I have come to see my blog as part of my martial arts training, broadening my horizons but at the same time providing me with a tool with which to think and analyse my training efforts. So for me it is a way of looking both inwards at myself and reaching out to the wider martial arts community. I will definitely be continuing blogging in the near future.

A big thanks to Sue for participating in this interview!  If you would like to follow Sue, or any of our other blog writing graduates, check out our list of BWC Alumni on BlogWritingCourse.com.    And if you would like to find out more about our Blog Writing Course, click here to see how our eight-week course can help you get your new blog up and running. 

I have been following one of our recent Blog Writing Course graduates very closely since we kicked her out of the nest and asked her to fly on her own.  For one thing, we have a lot in common, so it was easy to add her new blog to my ever-lengthening blogroll.  But also, I was interested to see how she did with the information and experience she got during the 8-week training.

I’m thrilled to say she is doing superbly - - often far out-doing myself in terms of weekly posts!  So I asked her if she would consent to an interview so that I could present to our readers what a real-life graduate of the Blog Writing Course might be like.

Today, I present to you: Sarah, author of the blog: Homeschool On The Edge of Nowhere.

(My questions are in bold print)

Sarah, I’ve been following your blog closely since your graduation from the blog writing course, and it looks like you are doing great!  Tell us a little bit about what your blog is about, and the types of things you write about.

Homeschool on the Edge of Nowhere is about the things we accidentally learn while we are enjoying real life adventure. I include funny and true stories about rural life, frugality, gardening, "school", baking and making, discipline; basically if it happens in our lives it’s fair game for the blog.

What got you interested in blogging?

It started as an outlet for myself as a stay-at-homeschooler mom. I needed something that would somehow be both exclusive from and inclusive to my daily roles as mom, teacher, master organizer, and disciplinarian. Blogging fit the bill very well.

Now that you have been blogging for a couple months, how about looking back for a minute.  Would you say that the Blog Writing Course adequately prepared you for the world of blog writing?

Yes.
Oh, you wanted more than that?
The Blog Writing Course helped most with blog creation and start up. I was able to jump off and write from an informed position and a solidly built structure. Brainstorming practice during the course helped immensely with finding something to write about after the course was finished. I’ve felt ready to deal with potential problems (haven’t had any!) as well as being able to come up with subject material on the fly.

What was your favorite part of the course?

I really enjoyed the camaraderie of participating in a course with other folks interested in blogging. It was great to get their constructive feedback before my blog was even online. I also really enjoyed the breakdown of lessons; they were easy enough to complete and built steadily on one another toward the "finished" blog.

How do you think the experience you are having now with your blog would have been different, if you had tried the process from scratch on your own?

I’ve actually had both experiences and while it’s possible to create your own blog from scratch and enjoy it,  I liked this much better. I now understand terminology I didn’t before, I know about more resources and tools (and how to find them!) for blogging than I did previously. I think the course is especially helpful if you want to eventually make money from your blog. It’s also been easier to keep my blog somewhat more anonymously written than before. I understand more about the blogging community and how to respond appropriately to others in the community, as well. There’s a whole set of manners and rules of conduct that I didn’t fully understand before!

What has your experience been so far with drawing traffic to your blog?  Have you put any of the traffic-building suggestions from the BWC to use?

Traffic has been pretty good, actually. BWC suggested many different ways of building traffic, some of which I’ve used and have found to work for me and my blog type. One challenge I’m currently facing is getting readers to comment! While the traffic is pretty nice, it’s really the icing on the cake to see loads of comments too. Part of the challenge is to write in a way (and on a topic) that folks *want* to comment while not straying too far from what your core blog is about, another fine BWC lesson.

Has the blogging experience been positive so far?  Do you see yourself continuing to blog, at least into the near future?

Blogging has been a fabulous thing for me. It’s allowed me to stretch my horizons and gain support as a homeschooler. I’ve "met" some pretty terrific people though blogging who come from all walks of life and learned neat things from them. I see myself blogging for as long as my fingertips hold out.

A big thanks to Sarah for taking the time to fill us in on what has been going on with her blog since her recent graduation.  I hope you will take the opportunity to head over to Homeschool On The Edge of Nowhere and check out her blog for yourself!

If you would be interested in signing up for the 8-week course that helped Sarah on the road to becoming a blogger, then sign up today to be included in the next Blog Writing Course! 

Until Next Time,

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??