Blogging Seminar

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

I'm teaching a seminar today entitled "Sucessful Blogging".   Below are the seminar notes.

Successful Blogging

Thousands millions of people find it easy to start a blog, then quit after only a few postings.  They failed.

To count yourself as successful, either:

You make a lot of money or gain professional status.
Hint: 10,000+ readers needed to make money.

Or:

You enjoy writing and don’t burn yourself out.

And:

Your readers enjoy reading, and keep coming back.

Dick’s Blog

~2500 posts

~500 readers/~20 archival readers

dickandlibby.blogspot.com

This Seminar

Part 1: What to blog

Part 2: How to blog

Choose the Right Media

Status for concerned family & friends --- “Arrived safely Bimini”

·         Use Twitter or texting

Pictures and short descriptions. Sharing experiences with friends.   “Enjoying cocktails at sunset.”

·         Use Facebook or Pinterest

Email newsletter (old fashioned)

Transient Value

Archival Value

Varied content things you enjoy writing and readers enjoy reading.  e.g. compare to a newspaper daily column

·         Use a blog.

Substantial content regarding a single theme or story.

·         Write a book.

How To Bore Readers

·         We are here having a wonderful time (and you’re not)

·         Too narrow ideas of what to blog, leading to repetition and predictability with regard to comment.

·         Too loose ideas regarding frequency of publication.

·         Failure to put yourself in the reader’s shoes.

o   Non-real-time readers

o   Skimmers & Cherry Pickers

o   Hurried readers

o   Leisure readers

o   Fans

Writer’s tip: Visualize the target audience for each piece.

How To Burn Yourself Out

·         Writing as a chore rather than a labor of love.

·         Rewriting/reformatting for Blog + Facebook + Twitter

·         Too narrow ideas of what to blog, leading to repetition and predictability.

·         Expectations over and above having fun.

Hosting Choice

1.   Blogger (Google)  ß Dick’s choice & experience

2.   Wordpress ß Very popular

3.   Others ß Fragmented & maybe insecure

Important Host Considerations

1.   Editing/submission

a.   Email submission (such as via SSB radio)

b.   WYSIWYG, scheduled date/time, save drafts

c.      Supports pictures/videos

2.   Allow comments

a.   Spam filter

b.   No approval needed

3.   Templates/desktop-mobile templates

4.   Statistics and reports

5.   Gadgets

a.   Polls, lists, follow email,     popular, search, archive, …

6.   Archive/backup

a.   Export/import   (migrate hosts)

b.   Export to book.

c.       Save your own backups

7.   Security & Attack immunity

Unimportant Ideas/Bad Ideas

1.   Your own domain name

2.   DIY hosting

3.   Web site rather than blog

4.   Time invested in formatting text or pictures

5.   Hyperlink circles

6.   Non-original content

a.   Facebook/reddit/buzzfeed… zillion competitors

7.   Things you may regret

a.   Personal info

b.   Dear diary

c.      Complaints/insults

d.   Use of people’s full names

e.   If your grandchildren read it.

f.       If your post becomes a news item

Making a Book From Your Blog

Google “blogger book publisher”.  You will find numerous sites that do it at a reasonable price and with minimal work.

Length of the book is critical. 

·         150 pages is optimal

·         dickandlibby.blogspot.com crashes all know blog-to-book tools because of far too many pages.

·         Separating the wheat from the chaff may be your biggest challenge.

Beware! Spelling and grammar standards are higher for books than for blogs.

Making Kindle Books is also easy