Blog Assignment

Blogger-ific

Creating a blog isn't too difficult.  Most blog websites (like blogger.com) make the blogging experience simple and user-friendly.  The directions are straight forward and most people should be able to follow along.  It's the maintenance, updating, linking, finding/creating images & videos, interacting with your followers, returning questions and comments and keeping your audience interested in your blog that makes the blogging experience somewhat of a challenge.  

So you might ask yourself..."How do I make this blog effective for its purpose?".  Don't worry, it's not complicated, there are a few *tips* some expert bloggers put out there to help guide us through this whole process. The "How to Blog" article by Farhad Manjoo reminds us to blog on a schedule, not be too wordy with our posts (I'm guilty of this one), and add something new (duh!).  The ProBlogger site also states that regular posting to your blog is beneficial for both the author and its followers.  Darren Rowse the author of the article on ProBlogger, makes a key point about not taking on too much at once especially with the multimedia world.  Keeping up on all of these social forums can be very time consuming!

Blogging for business purposes has skyrocketed over the past few years.  This way of marketing and business customer service has potentially huge returns, both positive and negative for a business. Highlights from Matthew Bandyk article on Business Blogging include; to be a reader of other blogs, not stressing too much about the content, and my personal favorite, telling a story without ranting.  Darrell Zahorsky points out how blogs can be beneficial for small business owners in his "What a Blog Can Do in Business" piece and shows us that blogging can be useful for personal gain as well as business.  His business focus on blogs explain how they can be cost effective as well as an opportunity to share your experiences with others.  Zahorsky gives tons of examples for ideas, inspiration, and insight.  

So, what are you waiting for?  Whether its for personal therapy or for business, starting typing and see where your blog can go!