I'm giving a lecture tonight at the public library on personal blogging, as a means of self-expression and community building. I've been told by the organizers to expect a crowd of 10-30 women, mostly around 60 years old or so. I'm imagining they're newbies who might be interested in starting blogs.
Got any fast advice for someone interested in starting a blog?
(And by all means, keep laughing at my buffoonish day yesterday, in the post below ...)
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Quick question, if you've got an answer ...
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8 comments:
I think knowing your purpose is important. Some people blog to keep their family up to date, some blog to have a personal outlet, some prefer to generate traffic and make money. Identifying that initially is important, because then you have a better idea of the audience you do or do not want. I needed an outlet, therefore I didn't tell anyone I know in real life about it. If I hadn't established that on the front side it would have been problematic.
Learn how to upload photos or illustrations. It makes posts more interesting to read. I would also suggest writing about something you know about. There are a lot of blogs out there about being a mom, sports, knitting, photography, etc. Pick your niche and visit other peoples sites that are blogging about the same things you are. Oh -- and don't forget to SPELL CHECK!
Post regularly.
Read and comment on other people's blogs.
Funny and personal always wins over informative and boring (at least for me, it does!)
If you're hoping someone you care about doesn't read the post - you might not want to publish that post. (Or write anonymously, as a previous commenter suggested!)
I think for me finding people who were just starting to blog helped me along. We evolved together somehow. I wish I was less tired and had more to say...but both you and Kyla covered the important stuff I think.
Think about privacy and know what your rules will be. In my case, I also discussed it with my Hubby, because while I use a pseudonym, anyone who knows me in real life and stumbles across my blog will recognize me. That's fine, but that means there are some posts I won't write, and I needed to know that up front.
Don't tell people you know in real life about your blog until you've been doing it for at least six months and you've found your community and your voice (or started to). Even if you think you're not a private person and have no need or interest in blogging anonymously, you might find - very quickly - that in fact there are things you really want to blog about but can't because your mom, or your mother-in-law or your boss [insert relationship here] reads it.
And now i've just read the other commenters and discovered it's already been said. Oh well, what hasn't, really?
I think one of the most important things to emphasize for new bloggers is NOT to make the mistake I've seen so MANY new bloggers make - do not make a cheery comment on the comment page about how you "appreciate each comment even if you're unlikely to comment back." I mean, REALLY.
Beck, teehee -- I did in fact talk about that and I did in fact roll my eyes. Please, I mean, who are you, Erma Bombeck?
Thank you all for your comments -- I quoted most of you directly during my talk, which at least demonstrated the power of crowdsourcing in addition to the smarts and savvy of seasoned bloggers :-)
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