This document provides guidance on various aspects of blogging, including using widgets and categories to organize blog content, participating in online communities, finding blogs to follow, self-promotion strategies, and the blogging process. It discusses adding widgets and categories in WordPress, the benefits of online communities, finding blogs to read, writing blog posts, and promoting blogs on social media and other platforms. Tasks outlined include creating a blog post about social media, following other blogs, and writing a new blog post on a chosen topic.

1. +
Blogging
Tuesday 24 June 2014

2. +
This Session
 WordPress – Categories and Widgets
 Online communities
 How to blog
 Finding blogs to follow and making contacts
 Self Promotion
 Blogging about a particular topic

3. +
Widgets
 Widgets allow you to add
additional content boxes to the
side bar of your blog.
 These include:
 Links to your favourite
websites
 Twitter, Facebook and other
social networks
 Recent posts and comments
 Mini biography
 Click on Widgets tab to view
and customise.
 Uses a drag and drop system.

4. +
Categories & Tags
 Categories allow you to
organise the content of your
blog.
 Think of them as being the
main descriptor for the topics
of your blog.
 Tags allow you to be more
specific about the post itself.
 Both of them function as links
within your blog to other,
similar posts.

5. +
Online Communities
 Social media is all about helping to create or participate in
an online community.
 Why might these communities be important?
 Even online, people like to congregate around others with
the same interests, passions and hobbies.
 Using the internet, people can connect with a wide number
and range of people over large areas, allowing them to talk
to people they might otherwise not have met.
 Connecting online can save time and money, and allows
users to connect in locations that are suitable for them.

6. +
Online Communities
 What are the advantages to joining an online community?
 Participation in particular groups
 Finding friends
 Improving confidence
 Exploring self-expression
 Improving skills in a particular area/gaining knowledge
 Better awareness of online safety (particularly for parents)

7. +
TASK
 Create a new blog post and write a short paragraph, or list of
bullet points,
detailing the benefits of using social media, and
describing the advantages of using online
communities.
 Don’t publish just yet, as we’ll be adding to this post later!

8. +
The Blogging Process
 Brainstorm – come up with possible topics
 Choose your topic for the post you are going to write
 Do any research you might need for particular facts etc.
 Write your post in draft form - Wordpress allows you to save
posts before you publish them
 Re-read and tweak your post, adding images, videos etc.
 Publish your post!

9. +
Reading Blogs
 You’ll find it much easier to write blog posts if you also read
blogs about your topic.
 It will familiarise you with how other people blog, and what
they blog about. Consider it research.
 You may be able to write a post in response to a post
someone else has written, either agreeing with them, or
contradicting them.
 It will help you keep an eye on current trends, and
predictions within your area.

10. +Possible topics
 Yesterday we made a list of things you might like to blog
about. Now consider the topics for posts.
 Evaluate what you do.
 Review something relevant in your area.
 Have you seen anything cool when you have been out and
about that you’d like to share?
 Have you been to any interesting exhibitions lately?
 Do you use any particular software in your area?
 ‘Day in the life of a ………..’
 Any current news affecting your industry or area
 Do you take advantage of any Smartphone apps to help you
in your area?

11. +
Writing Posts
 You will need;
 A strong ‘headline’ or subject,
 An opening paragraph that introduces what you want to talk
about,
 Your main post, which could include images, bullet points,
numbered lists etc,
 Your closing lines, which could be a paragraph or a single
line,
 Your call to action – encourage interaction.

12. +
Promotion
 If you want to start getting the most out of your blog, then
you’ll need to promote it.
 We will be creating social media accounts, and you can use
your blog URL where it asks for your web address.
 You will be able to share links to your posts on Twitter,
Facebook and Google +.

13. +
Subscribing to blogs
 There are three main ways to ‘follow’ blogs.
 Wordpress
 RSS Readers (Really Simple Syndication )
 Email subscription: Bloglines

14. +
Wordpress
 Log into Wordpress.
 On the front page, before you go to your dashboard, you’ll
see that they have blogs that they recommend, and allow you
to browse posts by tag.
 You can also follow blogs inside Wordpress.com.
 Click on Recommended Blogs and choose a general subject
area.
 Browse the blogs on offer and if you like one, click ‘Follow’.
 Now these blogs will automatically appear when you log in.

15. +
RSS Readers
 Blogs generate something called an RSS feed, which is a list
of the posts as they are published.
 RSS readers pull these feeds into one place, so instead of
manually having to visit each blog and remember the last
post you read there, you can see only those posts published
by several blogs since the last time you logged in.
 There are many different readers available, but two of the
most used (since Google Reader was closed) are Feedly and
Bloglovin.
 You can sign in to Feedly with a Google account, and sign in
to Bloglovin using an email address.

16. +
Email subscription
 Not all blogs offer this, preferring instead to offer a
newsletter, but some blogs may have a ‘Follow by Email’
button.
 You enter your email address and you will have each new
blog post emailed to you as it is published.
 The downside of this approach is if you follow a lot of blogs,
that could end up being a lot of emails!
 Following using an RSS reader or Wordpress is probably
easier – RSS readers also let you create ‘collections’ of blogs
meaning you can organise what you follow.

17. +
Finding Blogs
 If in doubt…use Google.
 You can search for specific bloggers by name if you know
who they are, e.g. Chris Spooner.
 Like we did yesterday, enter different search terms, e.g.
football blog, design blog, film blog, photography blog. Click
on the blogs and read one or two of their posts.
 Check out their ‘recommended blogs’.
 If you like a blog, consider following them in Wordpress, or
adding their blog to an RSS reader.

18. +
TASK
 Try and locate three to five blogs that you’d like to follow.
 Either follow them inside Wordpress, or create an account
with Feedly or Bloglovin and add their feeds.
 At the bottom of the post you created earlier, make a list of
the blogs you’ve followed, including the name of the blog, its
web address, and its subject.

19. +
Self Promotion 101
 Once you’ve created some posts that you want to share, you’ll
need to start promoting your blog.
 Start off by sharing the links to your posts on Twitter and
Facebook.We’ll cover Twitter and Facebook next week.
 Use your blog address as your website address on your
social networking sites, including Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube.
 Consider creating a board on Pinterest to solely host your
own work as a mini portfolio.Try promoting your work on
Instagram.We’ll cover these in week four.

20. +
Self Promotion 101
 If you want to post to promote a business, you may want to
create separate accounts. Or you might be happy to share
what your business is doing with friends and family.
 Just be aware that overly personal stuff might not be
‘professional’ enough for social media.
 Post links to your work, talk about the projects you’re
working on, problems you might have had (and solved), and
anything useful you’ve learned.Talk about events you’ve
been to.
 Remember it’s all about conversation – consider taking part
in one of the # hashtag communities on Twitter, or the groups
on Facebook.

21. +
Self Promotion 101
 Don’t stick to just one platform. Different people use different
sites, so you want to reach as many people as possible.
 If you can, spend time coming up with a logo for yourself – it
can be as simple as your name written in a specific font.
 Consider colour schemes, or imagery you like. Use these to
‘brand’ your Twitter pages and blogs.
 Most importantly, make sure you use the search functions on
social media to find other people to connect with – you need
to get in front of people.

22. +
Self Promotion 101
 If you read relevant blogs, comment on the posts, and people
may come to your blog to see what you’re doing and who you
are.
 Engaging in a dialogue with other people is a great way to
drive traffic back to your blog, and it’s also a good way to
make new contacts.
 Check out the blogs of other people who are commenting.
 Make sure you reply to any comments you might get –
newcomers to your blog are more likely to comment if they
see that discussion is encouraged.

23. +
Stock imagery
 Either www.sxc.hu or
commons.wikimedia.org are
the best for stock imagery.
 Flickr creative commons
 Stock Xchng requires an
account but it is free to sign
up.
 Browse for images that best
suit your post.
 Save the image to your
desktop.
 Go to Wordpress.

24. +
Adding images to Wordpress
 Write your post.
 Click ‘Add Media’.
 You can import from a URL, or
upload an image to your
Wordpress account.
 Choose left, centre or right
alignment and click ‘Insert’.
 If it’s too big, you can resize by
click on the image, and
clicking on the icon in the top
left cover.

25. +
Writing a post
 Using all of the work we have done so far on possible topics,
decide on one you would like to write about for the rest of
the session.
 It could be related to social media, or it could be related to
an interest of yours.
 Go to Wordpress and add a new post.Write in the text box,
with the Visual tab open – this will let you format the text.
 Consider adding images – use your own, or try Stock Xchng.
 You have the rest of the session to work on this so make it
good!