Introduction to Blogging

digital workshop with Stephanie Booth

Blog?

• collection of posts
• time-organized
• easy technically

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• personal voice
• permalinks
• comments

Use?

• share expertise
• be useful to others
• writing makes you think
• increase your digital footprint
• connect with like-minded people

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blogs connect the blogger and the readers

Blog writing

• “conversational”
• informal
• personal
• transparent
• authentic
• storytelling
• hypertextual

Should I blog?

• do you care?
• are you passionate?
• do you know stuff?
• do you like sharing with others?

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...do you like writing?

Some blogs

• http://openears.phonak.com
• http://www.englishcut.com/blog/
• http://www.briankellett.net
• http://hungrypipelette.wordpress.com
• http://www.perlesonyx.com/wordpress/
• http://confusedofcalcutta.com
• http://plantgasm.com
• https://dkjs7.wordpress.com

Remember

we often underestimate the interest of what is obvious to us

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think of dinner parties with people curious and eager to learn or hear your story

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it’s also about personality

Survival Kit

• write down stuff that’s already pretty much in your head
• it’s public (sanity check when talking about people, how will they react upon reading?)
• think “e-mail to friend” or “dinner party”

Technical recommendations

• one idea per post
• short sentences, short paragraphs
• use “I”
• link to previous posts you’ve written instead of repeating

Here’s what it looks like

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http://wordpress.com