A blog is an online journal that allows users to share information, pictures, videos, and links. Users can create blog posts that are displayed on pages within their blog. Posts can be saved as drafts before being published publicly. Tags help readers find specific topics. Comments from readers can be moderated by the blog owner. To get a blog noticed, users can add links in emails and newsletters, on their website, and share on social media. The hosting option depends on the blog's intended impact.

1. Blogging for the terrified
Don’t be afraid!

2. What’s a blog then? . . .
• A blog is short for ‘web log’
• An online journal that can
be about anything at all.
• Your journal can become
interactive
• Information is written as a
blog-post
• You can add pictures, video
clips, sound clips and links
to other web-sites
• Your blog will have it’s own
blog address
• Use a free blog host such as
Blogger
• Enter your account
information
• You’ll be prompted to
name your blog
• Choose your colour scheme
from the templates
• Play around with the
settings until you are
happy with the overall
look.

3. Posts and Pages
• Posts are information you
want to share.
• They are viewed on Pages
• You can add up to 10
pages on your blog.
• Each page will have a
tabbed heading.
• Once you have finished
writing your post, you
can save it as a ‘draft’.
• Publishing it will make it
visible to anybody on the
internet.
• Giving your post labels or
‘tags’ will help people to
find specific topics when
they are searching.
• You can create any tags
you want to, using the
blogger facilities.

4. Make a comment . . .
• Once published, people viewing your blog will have the
option to add comments.
• can enter their comments into a comment box, preview it
and post when ready.
• Comments will be sent to the blog administrator (who-
ever created the blog) for moderation.
• The whole point of blogging is that is encourages people
to interact and share their point of view. It may be that
you don’t especially like a comment made.

5. We encourage comments on this blog site, however;
we do operate a moderation policy.
All comments and thoughts are welcomed and we will not delete
things just because they are negative. However, any racist, sexist,
hateful, offensive or obscene comments will be deleted, as will
any posts that we deem to be offensive or unsuitable. We would
therefore appreciate it if you could avoid using four-letter words,
etc.
and goes on to say:
If anything that you post clearly contravenes this policy, we will
delete it and message you to let you know why it was deleted.

6. So . . . What do I write?
• Firstly, you can adopt your own writing style; less
formal than say website content.
• Write about what your group is doing at the moment
. . . Follow up events with pictures
• Pic&nic stuff from other blog-sites; crediting and
hyper-linking it to that blog owner.
• Links are hugely important to create visitors to your
site.
• Try and get a good balance between informative and
interesting... Don’t bore your reader-include video
links and photo’s to vary the content.

7. How do I get my blog noticed?
• The best way is to add a link in your emails
• Ensure the address is on your newsletters and
flyers
• Put a link to your blog on your website.
• Use RSS feeds Really Simple Syndication
• Share your blog on social networking sites such
as

8. Where do I put my blog ?
• Where you host your blog, really depends on
what sort of impact you want your blog to have.
• You can have a ‘stand-alone’ blog...
• Stand-alone – but linked...
• Integrated...
• Or, a blog website