So to mark the end of the Newcastle University blogging course run by myself and technical genius Oli Woods at The Approachable Geek, here is a top ten blog tips, some of which I've tweeted as the course went on, while others are brand, spanking new.
Top 10 Blog Tips
1. Only blog when you have something to say.
2. Feel the fear and blog anyway.
3. Blog sober (as opposed to blog yourself sober).
4. When you are ready to press publish, control the mouse - don't let the mouse control you.
5. Blog the moments of your life to get to the truth within it.
6. Blogging - like Life - is all about connecting.
7. Remember the people you're writing about - are people who read.
8. Blog often.
9. If necessary - moderate.
10. Remember that it's your blog - nobody else's.
So there you are. Blog wisely my children.
46 comments:
Blog often, eh?
Yes well they're tips not commandments
I've just really missed your blog. It used to be a joy finding a new post every few days.
I was quite worried back at the beginning of May by your first tip, because if I were to blog only when I have something to say, I'd have to stop blogging. I find that, the longer I leave it, the more it seems to matter that it's good. But I'm reassured by 8. Overall, excellent tips.
Great to see you've had time to do another blog Judith!
Can we have them a bit more often?
Great to see you back again Judith! There are some helpful tips in your blog.
Keep up the good work!
billatbingley
Great post, wifey. I've included it in my Blog Promotions page on my blog.
CJ xx
Some helpful comments here with your top ten tips,Judith.
By the way, how is the book coming along?
Keep up the blogging!
I especially like number 5. Loved your book. Are you going to Cybermummy11 Judith?
Thanks for this wonderful tips....Yes, Being honest to oneself while writing can bring about vast changes...
All good tips especially "only blog when you have something to say". That is my golden rule. I have read too many blogposts that start "I don't know what to blog about but . . ." So don't.
Or the blogpost then eventually mentions something real and interesting - so go back to the beginning and delete all the superfluous babble.
Of course, a blogger can write what he or she likes - it's their blog - just don't expect people to hang around.
of its moment, and the moment has passed
Hi Wifey, long time no read, and in my case, no write! You're so right about losing your nerve, and especially right about only blogging when you've something to say. You always have something to say that's worth reading, I however......
It's so easy to stop and so hard to start again......
I recommend this course to anyone who is thinking of attending next academic year - and I hope they do a 'Part 2' for those of us who did the course and would like to cover 6 more weeks of topic! I loved every lecture and Oli and Judith made a perfect team.
Hi!
I am now halfway through your book "The Wife in the North", and it is pure bliss! It is interesting and somewhat comforting to read about somebody who have had the same feelings and experiences with the place they have moved to as me. (Although I live in an even colder place, with even fewer neighbours, even further out in the Norwegian countryside...) I am excited to read on to find out how you cope - perhaps I can find some valuable tips!
I like your blog too. Blog on!
Kindest regards,
Susanne
(Eksingedalen, Norway)
Thank you for the tips. Pearls, they are.
So happy to have you back! And to know that another book of your lovely creative nonfiction prose is in the works. Yay.
Yes, please blog more often again! I've enjoyed reading through the older posts.
Thank You
I too enjoyed reading your blog. I understand that blogging is personal and no-one is forced to blog. I do, however, feel moved to point out that someone who has run (and presumably been paid for running) a course about blogging but now no longer bloggs herself is being somewhat hypocritical. A classic case of "do as I say don't do as I do". If you had just stopped but not written about your work advising others about blogging this comment would not have been written. Hope you are having a good time out of the blogosphere and I will still stop by your site from time to time. Hopefully you will start up again soon......
I miss your blog too. How is your book coming along?
I have to say I miss your blog too being a southern who has moved up north it has been nice to read about someone who is going through the same.
anyone there??
I just finished your book and I was engrossed. It reminded me of the times I didn't know how I'd get through the day when my kids were little. Often abandoned by my workaholic husband, trying to sustain my own fledgling freelance writing career, failing to keep a perfect house and body..... it was overwhelming.
Missing your blogging wifie, also what's happening on the book fron? The last time I heard you were doing a non fiction thingy "Jam & Jerusalem" or something like that. Eagerly await your reply!
Just finished "Stadt,Land-Schluß" and enjoyed every page!
Till the end I did not realize that it is based on a real blog...
1 and 8 both seem intimidating to me, but keeping them in the air simultaneously? Yikes. Good advice, check. Scary advice, also check.
Great list... I agree with all of them! :)
wife is very beautiful thing in life. ;-)
I'm very happy to come across these (late as usual - but only just returning to posting myself, so visiting favourite haunts). Very simple, very true. I'm going to copy them down, paste them up, try to remember. Thanks WITN, Livvy
(have I just posted this comment twice, apologies if so)
Good tips.
Who's going to run the Commandments Course? .... I might need a session...
You still checking your comments Wifey? Just wanted to say hi and I really miss you!
Hope all's well, think about you often and wonder what you're up to now.
Best wishes.
'Blog often' is surely one of the most important, if you want to keep a loyal readership. I have seen many blogs unable to regather their followers if they have been away for too long. I found your book before I found your blog, and I have loved both, and mourned your lack of blogging, but it isn't unusual amongst bloggers - they often seem to feel that they are only repeating themselves after a while. To the abandoned readers, though, it feels like losing a friend. I've been running a website for almost 5 years now, and if I hadn't acquired three friends to run it with me I think I would have given up a few months ago. I take your lack of blogging as a good sign, that you finally really do feel at home.
how does one blog often AND only blog when you have something to say?
ps like your writing style and look forward to reading more. :)
and here is my little blog:Presently just a place to focus my writing .
http://bewitchedbotheredandbewilded.blogspot.com.au/
amelia draws
Well said and great tips, I find also that we all have a lot to say and all too often we are too scared to share. Blogging is a great way of getting those thought's out and having a good old rant!
Karla - Cheap Prams
Hi! I just finished reading youre book, and it was great! When I saw it in the tiny library we have here, I picked it up instantly, and I laughed so hard while reading on it! I could have written it myself! So I took it with me home and read it to my husband - who also laughed his heart out! we moved out to the country about 3 1/2 years ago now..on my husbonds request;) well, I to fell in love with this place once he tricked me out here to wiew this farm..but I was scared and had big doubts to if I could like living here..but we desided to try. Rented an old house while building a nex one, me and the kids (I was also pregnant when we left the city) was stuck there all alone while my husbond worked at his job first and then on the house and with the animals on the farm... and we got sick all the time! because the house was rotten... but only me and the kids, cause my husbond was never there u know... Anyway I could so find myself in youre book, and I laughed and cryed so many times.. Now we have lived in our new house since sommer, and its getting better every dag. I feel more at home here, our kids have lots of friends and they were so young when we moved that they dont remember us living enywhere else.. but the most important thing I think is that my husbond is more with us now. He has more fritime and so finally I to can get some fritime;) Oh, yeah hehe I just felt we had so much to talk about..hehe, hope this didnt get to boring;) Just thought it was funny and wanted to tell u I loved ure book! it helped me also to see some things I can do myself to get this place feeling more like home, not just our house.. Plus when I read, I pictured u some fat lady, cause of how u wrote about ureself, but then I saw the picture in the back and u look great!! So dont think so bad about youreself okay!?
Hugs form the little city-girl on a farm in Norway:)
..forgot to say I am sad to see ure not blogging anymore...;(
agreed with the above noter! Why the lack of blogging these days?
I have just finished reading your book Wife in the North, it was recommended to me by a friend who claimed it was 'hilarious'. I am yet to challenge her on that, but I disagree entirely. I found it heartbreaking and it made me cry. I cried for the lost children and your lost life. I read it with curled toes and fingers-crossed willing you to go home. I was so cross with those other mothers for being mean to you in the perfect way only close-knit communities can when you are the unwelcome outsider. Are you still there? Are you happy? Lie to me if you have to. I couldn't bear to hear that you are still lonely and unhappy.
Bear rambled by, read, and saw the comment about Bears. Not so, m'lady. There are Bears in the north. Well, across the pond there are. One of them has just visited you.
Blessings and Bear hugs.
Love the list. My blog - one of the few things I can say is truly me.
Nice article, thanks for the information.
re anonymous: please don't be shy. I had anonymous commentators last time. Starting over, I would rather everyone took a name (doesnt have to be yours) that way we could build a community and we know who we are talking to. Otherwise the nice anonymouses can get mixed up with the tossbag anonymouses.
re Emma: thanks Emma, hope writing all going well
re old friends: helloooooo where have you been? How the hell are you? You've lost weight haven't you. I knew it.
re June: thankyou, so glad things are working out for you. Perseverance is underrated.
re anonymous: I am A-OK, thankyou for asking.
Love seeing more women getting immersed in blogging. Keep up the good work girls!
Sincerely from AU,
Sean Rassmusen
Wonderful post. I appreciate your attention to this subject and I learned a good deal.
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