Top 10 Tips for Beginner Bloggers

The Tips You Need to Successfully Start a Blog

1. Define Your Goals

Before you start a new blog, it's essential that you define your goals for it. Your blog has a greater chance of success if you know from the beginning what you hope to accomplish with it. Are you trying to establish yourself as an expert in your field? Are you trying to promote your business? Are you simply blogging for fun and to share your ideas and opinions? Your short and long term goals for your blog are dependent on the reason why you're starting your blog. Think ahead to what you'd like to gain from your blog in six months, one year and three years. Then design, write and market your blog to meet those goals.

2. Know Your Audience

Your blog's design and content should reflect the expectations of your audience. For example, if your intended audience is teenagers, the design and content would be quite different than a blog targeted to corporate professionals. Your audience will have inherent expectations for your blog. Don't confuse them but rather meet and exceed those expectations to gain reader loyalty.

3. Be Consistent

Your blog is a brand. Just like popular brands such as Coke or Nike, your blog represents a specific message and image to your audience, which is your brand. Your blog's design and content should consistently communicate your blog's overall brand image and message. Being consistent allows you to meet your audience's expectations and create a secure place for them to visit again and again. That consistency will be rewarded with reader loyalty.

4. Be Persistent

A busy blog is a useful blog. Blogs that are not updated frequently are perceived by their audiences as static web pages. The usefulness of blogs comes from their timeliness. While it's important not to publish meaningless posts else you may bore your audience, it's essential that you update your blog frequently. The best way to keep readers coming back is to always have something new (and meaningful) for them to see.

5. Be Inviting

One of the most unique aspects of blogging is its social impact. Therefore, it's essential that your blog welcomes readers and invites them to join a two-way conversation. Ask your readers to leave comments by posing questions than respond to comments from your readers. Doing so will show your readers that you value them, and it will keep the conversation going. Continue the conversation by leaving comments on other blogs inviting new readers to visit your blog for more lively discussions. Your blog's success is partially dependent on your readers' loyalties to it. Make sure they understand how much you appreciate them by involving them and recognizing them through meaningful two-way conversation.

6. Be Visible

Much of your blog's success relies on your efforts outside your blog. Those efforts include finding like-minded bloggers and commenting on their blogs, participating in social bookmarking through sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon, and joining social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Blogging is not a demonstration of, "if you build it, they will come." Instead, developing a successful blog requires hard work by creating compelling content on your blog as well as working outside of your blog to promote it and develop a community around it.

7. Take Risks

Beginner bloggers are often afraid of the new blogging tools and features available to them. Don't be afraid to take risks and try new things on your blog. From adding a new plug-in to holding your first blog contest, it's important that you keep your blog fresh by implementing changes that will enhance your blog. Alternatively, don't fall prey to every new bell and whistle that becomes available for your blog. Instead, review each potential enhancement in terms of how it will help you reach your goals for your blog and how your audience will respond to it.

8. Ask for Help

Even the most experienced bloggers understand the blogosphere is an ever-changing place and no one knows everything there is to know about blogging. Most importantly, bloggers are part of a close-knit community, and the majority of bloggers understand that everyone is a beginner at some point. In fact, bloggers are some of the most approachable and helpful people you can find. Don't be afraid to reach out to fellow bloggers for help. Remember, the success of the blogosphere relies on networking, and most bloggers are always willing to expand their networks regardless of whether you're a beginner blogger or seasoned pro.

9. Keep Learning

It seems like everyday there are new tools available to bloggers. The Internet changes quickly, and the blogosphere is not an exception to that rule. As you develop your blog, take the time to research new tools and features, and keep an eye on the latest news from the blogosphere. You never know when a new tool will roll out that can make your life easier or enhance your readers' experiences on your blog.

10. Be Yourself

Remember, your blog is an extension of you and your brand, and your loyal readers will keep coming back to hear what you have to say. Inject your personality into your blog and adapt a consistent tone for your posts. Determine whether your blog and brand will be more effective with a corporate tone, a youthful tone or a snarky tone. Then stay consistent with that tone in all your blog communications. People don't read blogs simply to get the news. They could read a newspaper for news reports. Instead, people read blogs to get bloggers' opinions on the news, the world, life and more. Don't blog like a reporter. Blog like you're having a conversation with each of your readers. Blog from your heart.

3D writing

Writing for the web is a profoundly different skill than writing for other disciplines. Composing an article in MS Word or with pencil and paper is a two-dimensional process. What you write on the paper is all there is.

Writing on the web is in three dimensions. You not only see what is on the screen but there are infinite layers behind it that you link to.

Click here: two dimensions.

Click here: three dimensions.

None of you go home and read MS Word documents. All of you go home and read documents on the web with text, images, links, animations, etc... Writing and reading in three dimensions is an essential skill now for any field you plan to pursue. That is what you must practice on your blog. Many of you have rich, multi-faceted entries with links to important information. This is writing in three dimensions. Some of you have paragraphs with no links, images, or anything that is beyond two dimension writing.

Is there a place for 2 dimensional writing? Of course. If you are writing for yourself (journal, diary, etc..) there is little need for writing in 2D. But if you are writing on the web it is inherently a conversation not a lecture/speech. You should make this as rich a conversation as possible.

Go back and look at your last few entries. Resubmit anything you feel can be improved and become more three dimensional. Don't get left behind as the world switches to 3D writing. Work on this skill!! Your blog is your website. People from around the world read it. Make it the BEST example you can of your writing, coding, and web design skills.

2D: I am Brandt Schneider. I have a daughter named Claudia and I teach Web Design at Seymour High School.

3D: I am Brandt Schneider. I have a daughter named Claudia and I teach Web Design at Seymour High School.

Blogging

Your recent blogs about Ayiti were picked up by the makers of the game. Click here to see the post.

A reminder that you are part of a global community. People read what you are writing and this information gets connected through the web. Write well, write something of value, and write often and you will build readers. I believe you all have something to share.

We will work on tagging your posts so these entries can be found. Tagging is how the web software searches for information.

After checking technorati.com 75 blogs link to the Ayiti entry about our students. You have a voice! Use it!!

I can also help you put a clustrmap on your blog so you can see where people are reading your blogs. Ask for help if you need it.

On Monday please go through the practice test a number of times. Remember, you will not be able to use notes during the quiz. Please let me know if there are any questions that you have trouble with. Sometimes the questions are kind of awkward.

Technorati Tags: Ayiti blogging K12

Day2

Today we will take a tour of several items. For students who took my Web1 class much of this will look familiar, but I ask that you look at everything with new eyes.

Blogs:
This is a blog. A blog is read/write web device that allows a writer to communicate directly with his/her audience. The blog can incorporate pictures, video, sound and many "widgets" that are Web 2.0 based. Myspace is a blog. In addition to your classmates blogs on blogmeister please look at the following blogs:

Senator Blog
TV News Blog
MTV Blog

Wikis:
A wiki is a program that allows collaboration on the web. Members are allowed to create, edit, and improve information in real time. The classic example is wikipedia which is updated constantly. How wikis are better? For example, your science textbook still says there are 9 planets, even though Pluto was declared to NOT be a planet in August. One minute after that announcement the entry on wikipedia was changed. In a world that moves at incredible speed, can we afford to still be textbook based?

Wikis incorporate video, images, and sound as well. But the most important aspect is that they are collaborative.

These examples were created by Web1 students:

Ballet Wiki
Cheerleading Wiki
Obesity Wiki

Web 2.0 Stuff:
Take a moment to look through these sites. Put the ones you like in your favorites. We will explore throughout the class. Each website has something "new" to offer.

Newsmap
Daylife
Tall Buildings
Typing Test

You will now create an HTML website using notepad. You can use the HTML book or any of your old files. This is a pre-assessment for this class. I want to see what you can do.

Your website should:
--Summarize the Web 2.0 applications you looked at. Include links to at least 4 websites. Include all aspects of the web site design (title, heading, frames, links, etc...) that you feel are needed to summarize the information. You are basically recreating this blog entry in notepad using HTML.
--Include at least one clipart image (use link from this page).
--Show evidence that you understand todays discussion of accessability, usability and bias.
--Save your file as web.htm in your "other" folder in the WDrive.

This should take you maybe 15-20 minutes. I'm just looking to check that you have basic computer/HTML skills. I will grade complete as long as you give a strong effort.

Good news

Check out the attention we got about the Ayiti game. Blogging is a powerful tool. Excellent post, Rachel.

A few notes about the project so far:

For all:

Check the rubrics! They include a lot of the details about what you should include.

HTML:

• On project 8, the java script is blocked by internet explorer. When you make the funwith phonics page it will be a white screen with a picture. It is important to understand WHY we use java scripts before you move on.
• Project 7 should work fine now.
• Some of you still insist on not reading the chapter and making this a typing class. Remember, you must be able to orally explain each project/concept and be ready for a quiz.

Movies:

• Remember, to tell a story. Beginning, middle, end.
• You can't use copyrighted images.
• PLEASE tell a story, dont just string images together.
• Make sure you talk about the essential question about the topic. What do people need to know?
• I'm working on finding open-source music. Take some time to search. You probably need creative common licensed music. You cannot use copyrighted music.
• CITE YOUR SOURCES PROPERLY OR NO CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN

Wiki:

• These seem to be developing. The collaboration seems to be working. I encourage all of you to check the pages out and add comments on the discussion page or make edits yourself.
• You might need to do some work from home where youtube or google video isn't blocked. You are expected to include some multimedia in your wiki.
• CITE YOUR SOURCES PROPERLY OR NO CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN

Online Gaming and Simulations

We worked yesterday on the typing test, the Dig Here! program, and the Ayiti Unicef game. Each showed us an aspect of online simulation learning. You were each to make a blogmeister entry based on that experience. I'm still working on the super-cool science site.

Today I will ask you to look at several more sites and then make a reflective entry in your blog. Remember, we are grading the depth of your blog entries now, not just that you have made one. The ONLY grade for this week is the quality of your blog.

So for today (some of the 3D work might not work in school)....
3D Farming: Can you succeed as a farmer?
3D Architecture: Can you build a successful house.
Tall Buildings: Super-cool site about tall buildings
Power Play: Can you build a better mousetrap?
Margaret River Senior High School: This is the school on the opposite side of the earth. Its amazing how similar they are to us.

Be sure to leave time to visit the questions on blogmeister.


Listen to this article

Technorati Tags: k12education gaming simulations 3DFarmer

Technorati

What are people blogging about? How could you use this as a tool in assignments for other classes? If a teacher asks you to "internet search for an article" do you think this might be a good tool to use? The spike for this word is obvious. Try other words.

Posts that contain Election per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!