More blogging advice

Nora Carr's column in the June 2008 eSchool News added some more blogging tips:

• write about topics you care about and feel passionate about


• good blogs have a viewpoint and a voice


• use an informal "Dear Mom" approach to your posts


• keep postings short and link to other articles or sites


• subheads, bullets, one-sentence paragraphs and other graphic organizers can help readers skim your contents


• craft titles with care; often users may only read the titles to decide if they want to read the entire posting


• post regularly

More tips on blogging for newbies

Nora Carr wrote about some tips for blogging for newbies in the May 2008 issues of eSchool News.

1. Write for an audience, not yourself.


2. Don't blog anything you don't want our mother, your principal, or school superintendent to know.


3. Provide information about yourself.


4. Start with a blog service.


5. Less copy, more often.

Blogs, Women, and Science

Blogs, Women, and Science presentation by Annalee Newitz.

http://www.fairerscience.org/pages2/annalee_2_0.html

Bloggins tips from NY Times article

Here are some tips on blogging distilled from a NY Times article from March 20, 2008.

Tips:

1. Write about what you want to write about, in your own voice. Blog about your passions. Don’t blog about what you think your audience wants. Post because you have something you are dying to write about.

2. Fit blogging into the holes in your schedule. Blog is best handled by inserting it into the small bits of free time that rest among the bigger chunks of your work -- between classes, as a break, and during slow time at home.

3. Just post it already! Resist the urge to polish your blog posts. Don’t bottle up your ideas forever believing you have to hit a mature, complete, perfect point. Glogs are always in progress.

4. Keep a regular rhythm. Bloggers disagree on how often they should post -- some post several times a day; others will go a week without a post. What matters is that you establish a reliable rhythm for readers.

5. Llinking to other bloggers is the best way to get them to link to you. Links from other bloggers increase your readership two ways: they send readers directly from other sites, and they raise your ranking in search engine results.

6. Allowing readers to post comments on your blog not only increases readership, it provides a sense of live interaction with the rest of the world. But beware: the insulting comment is an Internet art form.

Blogs rolling along

We're starting to launch blogs now. I've been working with groups such as:

• Engineers Without Borders


• Connections Miniversity


• Murray Women's Center Ambassadors


• Green @ NJIT


• CCS Dean


• TLT (Teaching, Learning, and Technology)