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Oct 4, 2014

Blogging 101 Weekend Warriors

Do some more following and commenting, or use the weekend to catch up on anything else (or write your own post).

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.

You’ve already explored the WordPress.com Reader and started following topics and blogs. Why doing it again? Growing your community is a process, not a task. Continue cultivating relationships, and use the weekend to focus on any other assignments you’re still working on.

If you’ve already added topics to your Reader, focus today on finding new blogs to follow; if you already have a list of blogs, explore new topics. (If you’ve done a bit of both, keep it up!)

When we search for topics, we usually start close to home. The chef looks for food blogs, the college frosh searches for other students. It’s a great idea and good habit to mix things up: part of the fun of blogging is the serendipity. You never know when you’ll find a new favorite writer, see an inspiring blog design, or make a connection that changes your blog (or your life). A few to try:

  • Look up the name of an author you like, to see what others have thought about books you’ve read.
  • Search a faraway country (Estonia? Madagascar? Nicaragua?) or a place you’ve always dreamed of visiting (The North Pole? The Maldives? The Taj Mahal?): who knows what you might dig up?
  • Think about natural extensions of popular topics you’re already following. If you love photography, try specifics topics like fisheye or film photography.
  • Try longreads for of 1,000 words+ or wprightnow for responses to current events.

If you need a break from the Reader, do some blog-surfing — click a link on site you’re visiting to find something new, and repeat every time you’re ready to move on.

When you find something that inspires you, leave a comment or like the post along with following the blogger. And since the WordPress mobile apps are great for surfing the reader, you can browse while you’re on the bus/train/boat/pedicab/whatever on the way to your fun weekend plans.

Weekends are also the perfect opportunity to revisit anything we’ve covered that you’re still not sure about, write a non-challenge post of your own, or spend some time helping your co-bloggers over in The Commons.

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  3. Great suggestions, I love finding new inspiring blogs! Already just from a quick look at some of the film photography blogs I’ve spotted a few beautiful looking posts to tuck into 🙂

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    1. Hi! Usually if I right click on a name it takes me to their blog, but it didn’t work on yours. Did you recently upgrade and remove the wordpress.com from your blog? When I click your name it says mudandnettles.wordpress.com does not exist. I wonder if you can somehow link your gravatar to the new domain? Luckily you visited my blog and I was able to find yours from there! 🙂

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  10. I’ve discovered a lot of amazing blogs following topics. But is there a way of limiting the posts you get on a topic? For example, I put in eggplant and I get posts that refer to fashion and even eyeglasses that use the color “eggplant.” I would like to see the food related posts without the fashion.

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  14. I kind of like looking random blogs that have no relation to a topic I am interested in, such as say christian knit wear. From a creative perspective it is always good reading writing of stuff of little interest, as if you do read it – it makes me think “why was this well written?”

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  17. My blog is about commuting. Weekends I am free from it, so if I am not writing and ‘scheduling’ my posts, I catch up on reading other blogs, commenting, I head to The Commons. Although by that time, I may not have much left to spare. I try to do it while my baby sleeps!

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  19. true, we gotta learn a thing or two everyday, this is my first day on wordpress, after reading those comments i am starting to feel it home.
    thank you

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  22. thanks, i’m using the reader a lot, and have just posted my 3rd blog. i’m not the fastest but am aiming for 2 blogs a week. i will search for topics too now. thanks 🙂

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  23. Hi Michelle,
    When does the next zero to hero class begin?
    How long is registration open once it starts?
    I would like to start over from the beginning. I was in way over my head with Writing 201. Praying on your compassion to start anew.
    Sincerely,
    Tru

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  24. I realise I’m a little bit behind with this post (given that it is no longer the weekend!), but it is such a great idea. Up until now I’ve mostly been following blogs that are similar to my own (arts, literature etc.), but it’s really fun to blog-surf and some interesting blogs are popping up that I would never have thought to search for!

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