May 5, 2014

Blogging 101, Day Twenty-One: Build on Your New-To-You Post

Today’s assignment: publish a follow-up post inspired by your post from Day 19. If applicable, publicize it on a social network.

Welcome to Blogging U! This course isn't currently active, but you can learn more about what we offer and register for upcoming courses on the BU home page.

Publishing something in a new-to-you format doesn’t have to mean diluting your focus; you can weave a variety of posts together on whatever subjects you blog about to reinforce your points and keep readers interested.

Today’s assignment: publish a follow-up post inspired by your post from Day Nineteen. If applicable, publicize it on a social network.

Why do this?

  • Because it’s important to be aware of all the avenues of inspiration you have at your disposal.
  • Because it’s great to know how to weave posts of different formats through your blog.
  • Because using social networks effectively helps you grow your audience.

First, go back to your last post. What about it inspires you? What feelings does it engender? What moved you to post it in the first place? What did it feel like to try something new? Were there comments? Start there and see where it takes you.

If you posted a quote, link, or image, think about how to expand that into a fuller post, perhaps one that connects the dots for your readers and clarifies why you posted it. If you normally post shorter pieces and went with something longer, do the opposite — think about how a great photo or quote can punctuate what you wrote.

If the instruction “use a hashtag on Twitter” sounds like gibberish to you, read this.

Once you’ve polished your post and you feel like it’s ready to share with the world, introduce it on your social networks. If you’ve connected with Publicize, create a custom tweet or status update to accompany the post — share your post’s most important takeaway, or create intrigue by hinting at something readers can learn only from reading your post. If you’re publicizing to Twitter, see if there’e a relevant hashtag to include.

If you haven’t had a chance to link up Twitter, Facebook or another site, review Day 18 and think about how to maximize your blog’s exposure on your existing social networks.

Ready? Good. Get writing. For feedback, The Commons awaits.

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  1. I haven’t been religiously following Blogging 101 but every time I check in, I’m pleasantly surprised that I’m not so far off track. I’ve been linking to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tumbler for a while now. And I do think it helps. I do wish I could double publicize Facebook to both my personal account and to my blog account.

    I get more traffic to my blog from search engines than any other way. That means the day I post, I may not get a lot of views, likes, or comments to that specific post but over time my pieces are getting read.

    My short term goal is really to increase viewers from WordPress to help change that dynamic.

    Thanks for inspiring us to be better bloggers! You guys are great 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You have some amazing photos. Simply amazing.

      I have a Facebook page but I don’t want it attached to my personal account. I don’t want to inundate my friends with my posts, rather people who really want to see what I write.

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      1. I thought the same thing about Facebook and at first I only shared my posts to my blog page. But I wasn’t getting a lot of response. I think part of the problem is how Facebook decides to share posts with other people. Some of my posts were only seeing 10 – 12 sets of eyes even though I have 164 followers. So I started sharing on my personal page as well. I think it helps the overall post though not my blog Facebook page. Slow but sure is becoming my mantra!

        And I’m very glad you enjoyed the photography. I worked extra hard to improve my skills. After more than 6 months in Ecuador, I’ve had lots of practice and I think it is paying off.

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      2. You could make a Facebook Page and link your posts to the page rather than to your personal “self” on FB. I have done this and it has been quite successful for me 🙂

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      1. Thanks so much! I’ve been working hard… I also have a lot of inspiration at our new assignment. It makes it easier to pick up the camera and head outdoors.

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  5. I am getting frustrated with my blogging 101 – I don’t know what is wrong with me, I have several posts in draft, plenty of things I want to write about but I’m very frustrated by my lack of experience and my inability to tweak pictures the way I want and add things in my sidebar. I have started going through Learn Word Press to understand how things work and the techniques involved, but I’m still stuck. I probably need to find a video tutorial of some kind because I’m visual and reading about it is not as effective as seeing and imitating. Anyway, sorry about my rant, I go through depths of self-doubt of wondering why I even started a blog, and depths of frustration because I can’t seem to have the energy to move this forward.
    Maybe I just need more time…

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    1. This was me last year when I started my blog. Then I decided to just go with my own pace (which was very slow!). This year I was a bit more prepared for Blogging 101…So you said it at the end, you just need more time:). Its all right if you do not end up writing as much as you hoped or tweaking as much. You will most definitely get there at your own time and pace. In the meanwhile just enjoy the process. Hope my ranting helps:$

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      1. Thanks I will. First I have to make my way through the entire Learn Word Press to see if I understand things better. What I find frustrating is not knowing how to paste code from other sites in my blog: for a badge, or a set in Polyvore for example. I have a nice little code I only need to cut and paste, but I doesn’t work. I’m pretty sure I am not doing it the right way – I should probably paste it directly in the HTML code, and I don’t know where to find this. Anyway I will send my queries to the support team if I’m still stuck in a week or two.

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    3. I had issues with this at first and, believe it or not, I’ve chosen a theme that doesn’t have a sidebar. I decided that highlighting photography was more important. I think it will pay off in the long run.

      As to tweaking your photos, what software are you using and are you comfortable with it? That’s probably more important than anything you’re doing on WordPress, especially if your photos are a major draw to your blog.

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      1. Right now I’m only using the limited editor I have on my PC. But I’d like to have more freedom with my pictures, and find the gallery a bit limiting – I still have to learn how to play with formats I guess. I don’t know how to caption or source directly under the picture in a standard post. All in all I guess I’m limited by my template, so once I am more confident with my blog I will probably move to a more flexible format.

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    4. I’m barely computer literate and out of desperation turned to Paint to edit my photos which I then save to desktop and after opening my blog “add new post” page, click on add media and then drag off the desktop into the load area and drop them. It’s a bit clumsy but I’ve found it works for now.

      Don’t give up, just keep working on it until you figure it out.

      If you want to see some of my photos: http://www.tastylamb.biz/blog

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      1. Wow, you were able to embed a GIF, so you’re way more advanced than you think. 😉 I guess my frustration comes from the fact that at work. I’m able to build entire Wiki pages, and play with more complex collaboration systems. I guess I expected the blog to be super easy, but I just have to go back the basics and learn something new from scratch. Thanks for the encouragement, I am not giving up yet.

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  6. This is the first time I’ve read from this blog, and I think it’s got a few useful points, so I’m going to go find Day One and start reading from there.
    Thank you!

    While I’m here I’ll ask, though it may be covered in another post, how far should/could I stray from my original topic (parenting/motherhood, particularly after a case of abuse)? Can I include other things to diversify the blog or will I lose interest do you think?

    Have a gander if you wish – http://diamondsdarling.wordpress.com/ All comments and advice are graciously and gratefully received.

    Thank you so much.

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  7. Am I being dense or there is no way of easily seeing all the Blogging 101 posts from the start? When I click on the link for it and scroll to the bottom of the page there doesn’t seem to be an “older” button. Would love to be able to see them all easily as I cannot get online every day to keep up. Love that this used to be all in one post that I could refer to when I wanted and work through at my own pace but you took it down!

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    1. It’s a lovely post… makes me think that you’re a good teacher. You understand your kids and that isn’t always easy in Junior High School.

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      1. Why thank you! Middle school is definitely a challenging time for my students…they can be laughing one day and crying the next. They are wonderful people to work with everyday.:)

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  9. Hi everyone,

    Rather than do another post on a previous subject, I have reworked my Assignment 19 post. I put a video up with an important message on it, got a lot of hits which was nice but not much in the way of discussion – then I realised I just put the post up and really all I said was it was an assignment so wasn’t happy with that. This assignment has given me the opportunity of reworking my post and talking about the video (which I should have done in the first place!) and hopefully open up discussion more.

    I am not sure re hashtags so any help would be great. I simply put them in the text of the post (+ a humerous slant on #’s) and also in the tags. Should I do anything else?

    http://daysandmonths.com/2014/05/04/look-up-by-gary-turk-a-video-on-social-media-and-its-effects-on-society/

    Like

  11. All this is nice any everything, but you’ve created a nightmare to get into wordpress, my reader, my stats, and everything else with my blog. Read your forums and fix things.

    Like

  19. I created a page on Facebook and I have linked my post to it. I will create a new twitter page soon , and I am trying to understand pinterest, Many thanks for post, they have definitely improved my blogging skills and imagination.

    Like

  21. Hi guys,

    Some how the assignments are not showing up in my email so I am a day behind. Wrote a new post recently. http://eatallfresh.me/2014/05/05/lemon/ . This post is different than the others as it focuses on a particular food and its benefits. The other posts – that emphasize on nutrition and making good choices based on nutritional content.

    You can visit us on – http://eatallfresh.me/ to know more about us.

    Published on social media such as facebook, twitter and google + . First I highlighted some benefits and then linked it to the post on social media. Got two shares and few likes. Got retweeted and favorited on twitter.

    Attracted pages such as Recipes US who have more than 2800 likes on facebook. Hence a good productive assignment overall

    Regards,

    EAT ALL FRESH – http://eatallfresh.me/

    Like