Blogging

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Having created many blogs, six and counting; some failures, many successes, Olivia Heath shares some tips on how to create a long-term successful blog, or ‘production journal’ as she likes to call it

In this 21^st Century, blogging is considered to be a valuable media format whereby we no longer have to rely on TV or internet news for information, but we can create our own specialist news and opinion, more often forming a subjective viewpoint.

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Blogs come in many different formats, there are photoblogs, videoblogs or ‘vlogs’, personal blogs, news or gossip blogs and genre specific blogs to name just a few.

For if you want to share your opinion with the world, then blogging is the best way to start. While blogging earns you little or no money at all (except if you were to consider marketing and services like Google Ad Sense) it’s a great way to be passionate about a subject you love.

I like to call blogs production journals because they are very much works in progress. You’re always in the production process of creating new posts and updating pages.

Blogging can appear quite daunting at first to people who are new to it. The simplest free blogging site is blogger powered by Google. Personally, I prefer WordPress because it gives you the ability and blank canvas to do more, in terms of themes, page layouts and widgets.

If you’re thinking about creating a blog that you want to reach a wide audience, then continue reading for how to create a successful blog

• The topic or subject must be specific!

The best blogs are the most focused ones. If you have a love for music, try not to cover every single style of genre. Make your blog more genre specific by sticking to just one style, for example, soul music.

• Don’t stop blogging!

It’s very easy to start-up a blog and then fall at the first hurdle, but you must be persistent and show great online presence! The more posts you make and the more interactive you are, the more visitors will flock to your site. It is hard to be consistent whilst blogging, but if you are passionate and organised then you’ll find it more manageable.

• Make it interesting

When you make a new post, add content to make your post more colourful, for example attach a photo or embed a video. Just think about the ways you could visually attract your audience.

• Have patience

It does take a long time to build up a steady amount of visitors and a loyal target readership, and you will find a fluctuation in visitor stats as you begin, but persistence is key. As Marabel Morgan once said, “Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time.”

• Spread the word about your blog

There’s no point in writing about something if no-one is going to read it! Use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube and LinkedIn etc, to create links to your posts and sync them so that you don’t have to update them all individually.

• Interact with your audience

Always respond to comments posted on your blog. That way you are interacting with your audience and they are much more likely to come back and be a regular reader on your blog.

Last but not least: Have fun whilst blogging! You are sharing information and your opinion to an audience, so make sure that it’s more of a pleasure to blog than a pain!

Check out my production journal here. http://oheath.wordpress.com/ This was created for my Motion Graphics module at university. Even though I regularly check for comments, the site is no longer updated as the project had to be completed in a specific time frame, so it is very much a documentation of my work and the processes that I went through to get the final product. Leave a comment if you wish!

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Check out this blog: http://youngwellbeing.wordpress.com/ This was a health blog for young people, created for my journalism module and it was only running for about six weeks, but it had a good following in that short space of time. I hope to re-establish it in the next coming months.