In his articles
Nine Lessons for Would-Be Bloggers and
Nine More Lessons for Would-Be Bloggers, veteran blogger Joshua Porter offers advice and encouragement to aspiring bloggers.
What are some things to keep in mind when writing a blog for your nonprofit? Is writing a blog for a nonprofit any different than writing one on any other subject? Share your thoughts here.
I think Joshua offers some really useful tips in this article, but I personally disagree with tip #7, about foregoing proper grammar, punctunation, sentence structure, etc.
For informal everyday bloggers, this tip might hold up, but if you're blogging on behalf of your nonprofit, my guess is that you'd want to appear as professional as possible, which requires solid writing.
Just one man's opinion though...
Joined on 07-06-2006
TechSoup Member
These were great tips, and it was great to have a concise, easy to read deal rather than the multiple "101 blogger ideas..." blah blah blah.. I was pleased to read that not being a veteran blogger that my thoughts and ideas about blogging seemed to flow like the author stated. I agree with the spell check thing, but also get the point about being "real" when you post...
http://mncc.wordpress.com
One of the challenges, in my opinion, is balancing concise, easy to read blog posts, with posts that have substance. I think it is never a good idea to abandon good spelling, punctuation, and so forth. It may sound real--but not in an informed way.
Joined on 11-04-2002
TechSoup Member
Just want to say I agree that using good grammar and punctuation is important. There is a big difference between a relaxed, casual style of writing and sloppy. You can be relaxed and still be grammatically correct. I think it sends a message to readers that you aren't serious if your blog is too casual (aka sloppy).
Seems like 9 is a popular number for tips about blogging. I just recently came across this article that describes 9 different genres of blog posts. I found this very useful to vary my style and avoid a writing rut.
Nine Type of Blog Posts
The article Beth mentions in the previous post was so good we decided to reprint it here on TechSoup! You can check it out at
Essential Posts that Every Blogger Should Know.
Know of any other easy fallback posts? Share them here.
Joined on 08-20-2001
San Francisco, CA and the web
That's great! A recent
TechSoup blog post also gives some helpful blogging suggestions, especially on how to keep your blogging momentum going. I mention a few of my own
here.
I think varying your style as the article describes can also be helpful in keeping yourself interested and motivated to blog. It's also nice to keep this in mind, particular on days where you don't necessarily have a lot of your own commentary, but have seen information elsewhere, you'd like to blog about or quickly comment on. It's another way to keep your blog entries coming, even if you don't have a lot of time on a particular day to invest in it.
--Megan
This is really useful! I'm doing a workshop in Cambodia at the end of the month for new bloggers -- titled "How to Keep Your Blog Alive" -- I'll include that in the links.
What I like about doing intro workshops is a change to reflect back over the last five years and think about what I might do if I was just starting.
So, I'd like to throw out to folks on this thread. What's your blogging wisdom that you've gleaned from doing it over time?
Joined on 09-23-2005
TechSoup Member
Handy little article. Every blogger runs out of inspiration at some point or just doesn't have the time to write an insightful mini-masterpost. At which point these ideas will be helpful.
Anyone seen a book called
No One Cares What You Had for Lunch? It's similar to this article but has 100 blogging suggestions.
Jason King
Nonprofit Web Design Blog
Joined on 08-20-2001
San Francisco, CA and the web
Hi Jason--
Thanks for the book suggestion--it's one I hadn't heard of before, so I'll have to check it out.
I know for me just reminding myself that each blog post doesn't have to be a mini-masterpiece makes just sitting down and writing a post a lot less daunting.
Hey Beth, is there a link to your workshop? How'd it go?
--Megan
Joined on 09-19-2007
TechSoup Member
Good stuff as always. I am looking forward to digging into blogging a little more. I'd like to start one soon, and all the advice one can get is great. Thanks.
Joined on 08-20-2001
San Francisco, CA and the web
Telephone_Guru, glad to hear you are considering blogging too! Keep us posted and let us know how it goes.
--Megan