Blog Your Passion: My notes from a presentation by Leigh Anne Wilkes. (3/14/12)

facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedin

This last weekend I attended Story@Home story telling / family history conference. (http://www.cherishbound.com/blog/storyathome/ ) I found the conference to be very good and had valuable information. The story teller Kim Weltkamp is a very talented teller.  (http://www.kimweitkamp.com/)

 

The thing I didn’t expect was to have so many presentations dedicated to blogging. But with hindsight I now understand the reasoning. The internet is a new way to communicate about our family stories and thus blogging is a part of that. I attended some very useful panels while there. For today’s Rock Soup segment, I’d like to share my knowledge. What better way to support the motto: A rising tide raises all ships.

 

Blog Your Passion: My notes from a presentation by Leigh Anne Wilkes. (http://pinkpolkadotcreations.com/)

These are my notes as she shares advice about blogging. She presented some useful points.

– find your niche / passion. How can you find this out? Ask yourself some questions such as: Q: Is there an area or part of your life where good things happen?

Q: How would you spend your time if you had a free day?

Q: What can you do easily?

Q: What are you good at?

Q: What could you teach?

Q: What brings you joy?

Q: What works do you do when you’re procrastinating?

– Keep your niche narrow. Blog on everything you loved.

– Be yourself. Read come back to your blog because of you. If you’re not authentic to yourself readers can tell and will become disinterested in what you have to say.

– Not everyone is going to like you or agree with your blog.

– Research indicates that many people read about 10-15 blogs a day.

– Readers start establishing a relationship/friendship with you the blog/you.

– Be authentic and people will be supportive.

– What kind of atmosphere/environment do you want to establish with your blog?

– Provide quality content a. Have content that is fresh, relevant and consistent information and readers will want to hear from you.

– Know your readership. This can be learned by reading the comments of readers of your blog.

– Keep it simple

– Once Leigh had five different blogs that took up a lot of time and effort. She eventually combined them all into one blog. Don’t allow yourself to become unfocused by all your ideas.

– Community is King. People come back for you and other responders to your blog. You’re content will attract your community.

– Readers will start interact with you. Learn to listen to your community.

– Respond to your community and their questions.

– Social media can build your blog community.

– Create a Facebook presence for your blog.

– Keep the blog fun.

– Have something on Facebook that you don’t have in your blog. Maybe ask your Facebook visitors questions of information you need.

– Pinterest has increased traffic on Leigh’s blog.

– Establish a community of other bloggers who match your interests. Your blog peers is a good place to ask questions. Be supportive, an abundance of others success doesn’t interfere with your success.

– Leigh did a survey of her readership to find out why people stopped blogging. These were some reasons:

a. Not enough in the blog (too short)

b. Too much / too long of a blog.

c. too many blogs in one day. Leigh suggests doing one blog a day.

d. Not like bad language

e. Print in blog was too small. Want big print for easy reading

f. No music that automatically triggers when you load a site.

– Leigh asked her readership what drew people to blogs.

a. A pretty web site,

b. Nice content

c. Site inspires the reader makes them want to be a better person (So be genuine in your posts).

– Start a blog because you have a story to tell not for earning money.

– Tread your blog like a job

– If you get a 25,000 readership a month then add ads that match the theme of your blog. Feature products you would use. Don’t apologize to readers for ads.

 

 

This entry was posted in Rock Soup. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Blog Your Passion: My notes from a presentation by Leigh Anne Wilkes. (3/14/12)

  1. Pingback: Creating blog content to promote your cause, or, shooting arrows until one hits the target. | Author's Think Tank