Emerging Technologies

RE: Blogging inspiration

MeganKeane — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:25:00 GMT

Telephone_Guru, glad to hear you are considering blogging too! Keep us posted and let us know how it goes.

--Megan

RE: Blogging inspiration

Telephone_Guru — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:47:00 GMT

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.

RE: Blogging inspiration

MeganKeane — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:00:00 GMT

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

Blogging inspiration

jasonking — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:11:00 GMT

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

RE: Blog-writing tips

tsfbeth — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:13:00 GMT

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?

RE: Blog-writing tips

MeganKeane — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:13:00 GMT

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

RE: Blog-writing tips

wcook — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:36:00 GMT

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.

RE: Blog-writing tips

tsfbeth — Sun, 06 May 2007 17:26:00 GMT

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

RE: Blog-writing tips

lhaderlein — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:44:00 GMT

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).

RE: Blog-writing tips

matthewart — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 13:53:00 GMT

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.

RE: Blog-writing tips

eph61820 — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 01:14:00 GMT

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

RE: Blog-writing tips

bsatterfield — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 21:53:00 GMT

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...

Blog-writing tips

wcook — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 18:29:00 GMT

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.