The document provides tips for writing blog posts. It discusses finding ideas and topics of interest, establishing a writing routine, using curiosity to drive further research, taking time for reflection before publishing, and avoiding rushing posts to meet deadlines. Key recommendations include drafting in a word document first before copying to the blog, using headings and formatting to structure the post, and illustrating ideas with quotes, images and links. The overall message is that bloggers should focus on creating thoughtful, well-researched content rather than quickly punching out posts.

2. The hard part
• Find an idea or topic
that you are
interested in
• Find a way of making
that topic interesting
to other people
• Find a way to make
your writing more
interesting
• Be entertaining
The hard part about starting a
blogpost is actually starting it.
The first thing you need is an idea.
Once you have an idea the next
hardest thing is actually starting to
write.
After you start writing the next
hardest thing is to write well.

3. Establish a routine
• Think-write
– Keep several
browser tabs open
so that you can
search for link sites
and inspiration
• Get a draft down
quickly
– Open Word and type
without thinking too
hard
The truth is, writing a good and
interesting post is not all that difficult
if you don't worry too much about it.
Chances are you may be already doing
most of the work as a matter of
routine.
Technorati.com

4. Curiosity is your friend
• Your topic needs a
headline
– Write the headline first
– What is your key point?
– Make that the headline
• Find a good quote or
three
– Don’t forget to link /
attribution
– Think ‘why that quote’
and write your answer
down
If you are really perturbed by the
subject matter, you are likely to
persist and read more either
immediately or over a period of a
few days to follow up on the event
to satisfy your own information
crunch and curiosity.
Technorati.com

5. Reflection – thinking time
The best thing to do now is
put it away and forget it till
you are ready to spend that
one hour adding what you
have to say, annotating and
referencing with the links and
embellishing with the quotes
and tweets you have
collected.
Technorati.com
• Before you hit ‘post’ on
your post consider:
– Have you done enough
research?
– Do you have the right
angle?
– Is your message clear?
– What’s missing?
– Is the writing clear and
engaging?

6. Don’t try to do it on deadline
• Find something to talk
about:
– Make notes every day
– Keep an ideas diary
– Make notes about
what you are reading
– Keep track of
interesting news items
– Read some blogs
If you write a blog post in a hurry,
without having a proper background
or an idea, out of the blue, in order to
keep up with the rat race and hence
under pressure – your blog post is
going to suck!
Write a blog without
getting burned out

7. Create, don’t punch
• Most bloggers
who provide
advice would
agree
– Don’t rush it
– Take your time
– Think it through
If there’s one lesson that I’ve learnt about
writing for the web it’s that a key element to
writing successful blog posts is that in most
cases they take time to CREATE.
I emphasize ‘create’ because I think too often
as bloggers we ‘PUNCH’ out content as though
we’re in a race or under some kind of deadline.
It’s almost like we’re on a production line at
times – unfortunately the posts we write often
reflect this.
ProBlogger

8. Draft, craft, edit, refine
• Write your draft in a
word document
– Work with short
paragraphs
– Keep ideas – one to a
paragraph
• Don’t write it like an
essay or report
• Paste your links so you
don’t forget them
I always have half-cooked posts in my
drafts folder – more than one of them.
When I am in the mood to write or
when my brain says “it’s time to write”
I just pick up any post that strikes a
chord with my mood then.
Write a blog without
getting burned out

9. Make a point
• Get to the Point – Tell us straight away what the
post is about
• Don’t Bury your Points – Get your message
across in the first few sentences if possible
• Find creative ways to reinforce your main point
throughout your post
• Don’t Introduce too many New Ideas in one post
– once again this helps to avoid overwhelming
readers with information all at once

10. Make it visually interesting
• Lists – use lists, but not just lists
– A list – can be used to make a quick series of key
points
• Formatting – consider the use of formatting
with fonts and colours to draw attention to
your main points
– Don’t over do it
• Headings and Sub Headings – are effective
ways to guide the reader through the topic
– Write in blocks of 2-3 pars under each heading

11. Illustrate and space out
• Pictures – the right image, carefully positioned
will add to your post
• Borders – using a border, or box can highlight
your key message
• Quotes – draw the reader to a good quote by
giving it a visual touch – with colour or a change
of font
• Space – a bit of white space can give your content
time to breathe and
it helps the reader’s eye adjust

12. CloudDeakin Discussion
Board ‘Topic’ Home Screen
Use ‘Compose’ button to
open your post for this
topic
We recommend that you first draft your post in a word document and paste any URLs
you want to include as links into the document.
You can format them as links once you upload (paste) from the Word doc to the open
post screen [see next slide]

13. Your post is written directly in this New Message window, or pasted in from a Word
doc
This group of tools is Cut / Copy / Paste / Paste ‘text’ / Paste from a Word doc
This group of tools is for formatting B I U T is for fonts (typeface) and the lines here
are for paragraphs (left, right, centre, etc), including DOT POINT and NUMBERED
LISTs
When you are finished click Post to make your entry appear on the Discussion
Board
Your headline (title) goes in the Subject line
Pictures, multimedia and links are inserted with
these tools
TIP: Hovering over each tool will indicate what it is for. Always use the
Advanced tool bar so you can see all the functions

14. The drop down menus ‘Paragraph’ ‘Font family’ and ‘Font size’ allow you to quickly select
formatting for highlighted text in your post.
Using ‘Paragraph’ you can turn text into headlines and sub-heads
Use T to change the colour of the highlighted text.
TIP: Highlight the text first and then apply the paragraph or font style.
In this close up you can clearly see many of the formatting tools from left to right on the top
line:
CUT, COPY, PASTE, PASTE TEXT, PAST WORD DOC
BOLD ITALIC UNDERLINE AND FONT COLOUR (T)
LEFT, CENTRE, RIGHT, JUSTIFIED ALIGNMENT
DOT POIINT (BULLET LIST) NUMBERED LIST AND INDENT TEXT

15. It is possible to create very good graphic elements in your post.
This tool allows you to insert a table with several columns and
rows. This is useful for representing data

16. This section of the tool bar is where you can add pictures,
multimedia, PDF files and links to other web resources
Importantly, you can also check your spelling.
SPELL CHECK
INSERT LINKS TO WEB
PAGES
ADD MULTIMEDIA,
EMBED VIDEO FROM
YOUTUBE AND AUDIO
FILES TO PLAY IN THE
POST
ADD PICTURES
FROM YOUR
BROWSER