Sep 24, 2014

Blogging 101: Be Inspired By the Community

Today’s assignment: write a post that builds on one of the comments you left yesterday. Don’t forget to link to the other blog!

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.

Yesterday, you left comments. Remember how we asked you to remember where you left ’em? We hope you did, because you’ll need one of them today.

Today’s assignment: write a post that builds on one of the comments you left yesterday. Don’t forget to link to the other blog!

Why do this?

  • Your blog is shaped by your own thinking and by your interactions with others, and building on someone else’s post expands your own ideas.
  • The original post was worth commenting on, that means it struck a nerve — it’s a topic people are interested in reading about.
  • Responding and linking to other blogs adds to the fabric of the blogosphere, and actually helps other bloggers find you.

In comments, getting to the point is important and appreciated — but that doesn’t mean your train of thought ends when the comment does.

If you were really engaged in the posts you read yesterday, you probably have more thoughts than what you put in the comments. Choose the one you found most intriguing and expand on the discussion or offer a different perspective than what was shared in the original by publishing your own. Letting yourself be inspired by other bloggers and comments is an ideal way to explore your own thinking, nurture the conversation and community, and draw like-minded readers to your blog.

Not sure where to start? A few ideas:

  • Did you have questions about what you read in the original post? Search for more resources or other blogs and share your findings.
  • Did you mention a personal connection to what was written? Tell that story, using the original discussion as a starting point for yours.
  • Did you disagree with the post? The blogosphere is a place for lively debate: contribute to the discussion with your own points. It bears repeating: disagree respectfully.
  • Did you continue mulling over the post after you’d left your comment, but found your thoughts veering in another direction? Explore where they’ve gone and how they got there.

If you need a bit more of a boost, take a look at this recent piece on making writing prompts personal – many of the tips can be applied to using another’s post or a comment as a jumping-off point.

In your post, be sure to link back to the original post where you left the comment; you can refer to the post title and/or blog or blogger’s name somewhere in your post, and link those words to the original post. Doing this creates a pingback, which notifies the blogger that you’ve linked to and commented on their work — don’t be surprised if they (or their readers) visit your blog to continue the conversation!

As always, be sure to tag your post with blogging101, and head to The Commons for more discussion.

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    2. I haven’t yet completed yesterday’s assignment but I’m already getting lots of feedbacks from fellow bloggers.
      Thanks to all of you that visited my blog and gave feedbacks. One of my recent posts on the need to live in peace with a troublesome person got the most likes and comments.
      If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the link
      http://storieswithoutborder.com/
      Happy blogging.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. I was inspired by several blogs today including my own. The first two links below are what I wrote today and yesterday. The last two links are sites that inspired me check them out, they are all short reads. They are centered around critiques, love and poetry

    http://007pandas.com/2014/09/24/handle-with-care/

    http://007pandas.com/2014/09/23/litmus-litmus-on-the-wall/

    http://mamaemmereflects.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/writing-101-be-brief-a-love-story/

    http://mstranquility.com/2014/09/24/tenacious-love/#comments

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    2. how do you do a ping back? I see email options, but I didn’t want my email filled with wordpress stuff. I had hoped to do it all straight from word press, but I’m having trouble seeing the replies people leave to my comments.

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      1. To do a ping back, just provide a link to another post/page from anywhere within your own post. The wordpress system will find it and create a little comment on the post you’re linking to on your behalf but the author will appear to be your blog.
        The linked post needs to have enabled “Allow pingbacks and trackbacks” for this to work. It’s a pretty nifty feature readers can use to trace back to the source.

        You shouldn’t have to fiddle with emails but if you’re referring to all the notifications wordpress sends out, you can tweak them on your dash settings->Discussion https://wordpress.com/support/settings/discussion-settings/

        Liked by 1 person

  6. What is the process of ‘remembering’ where you left a comment? Where is a good place to make those notes to oneself? In a file folder on my desktop, like I have for Facebook, in Word docs? Or is there a better way to track my comments on others’ blogs? Like on or in my own blog site somewhere?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. Help!
    Not only I had two weeks of limited access to the Internet/no Internet, but I never got any email with access to Commons (and it asks me for username and password, and it won’t let me in!).

    Same with Writing101.

    I only got a welcome email to both.

    The Internet is fixed now, it was the blasted modem, I’d love to catch up, is that OK? I’m going to start from day one, and write my way through those lost days until I’m up to date.

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    1. If you got the welcome email, then you were added to the Commons — I’m able to see you as a member on both. Are you logged in to WordPress.com? You need to be logged with your regular WordPress.com name/password to access them.

      If you’re logged in and you still can’t view them, let me know and I’ll have someone look into it.

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  17. I haven’t yet completed yesterday’s assignment but I’m already getting lots of feedbacks from fellow bloggers.
    Thanks to all of you that visited my blog and gave feedbacks. One of my recent posts on the need to live in peace with a troublesome person got the most likes and comments.
    If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the link
    http://storieswithoutborder.com/
    Happy blogging.

    Like

    Reply

  19. I’m having trouble editing the border around a photo. I went to the corner editing prompt on the photo, changed to the color I wanted, and hit update, but I must be missing a step because it doesn’t take. I know there was a post sometime that wrote about photos and borders but I have no idea where it is now. Can you help me? Thanks so much.

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    1. You might want to go to the Blogging 101 page under the Blogging U menu at the top of the page, and start from the first assignment of this course. Or else, just jump in now!

      In general, The Daily Post is a great place to start — try the search bar up top to look for answers to any questions you have.

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      Reply

    1. I like your design, although I have to admit that I kept reading it “Reading” instead of “Treading”. Must be something about the “T” being in white. Reading lightly actually made sense to me.

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      1. Really? The font is black and the background is a yellow tint. Like when old pictures have the effect of looking really old. I don’t know it could be the glare coming down on your screen. Haha. :p

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  27. It is funny — I could almost quote what I replied to a post, know exactly what I want to blog about for this assignment, yet for the life of me I can’t find the post. I check under “Comments” nothing (Probably has not been approved) — so any other hints people have figured out to track down those infamous words of wisdom — nope, I was bad and didn’t follow.

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