Entries Tagged as ''

Moms and jobseekers as bloggers

How would blogging benefit jobseekers? Showing up on searches of your name is a tricky process of links and popularity, but done correctly, a high-ranking blog could show potential employers a more complete and impressive picture of you than any CV can. With a well designed blog, you could put your best foot forward online.

Both stay-at-home moms and mothers working full-time will be able to make full use of blogs because there are many moms blogging about domestic and parenting issues online. Blogs are great venues for meeting moms, exchanging tips and giving advice on various topics. Whether your kids are infants or all grown up, you’ll still be able to pick up some hints from supportive moms. And it won’t cost you much time–a few posts a month will only take a few minutes to write, unless you want to put in much more work into them.

Blogging as a fad

woman blogging
When you decide to blog, don’t just do it because you want to hitch your cart on the bandwagon. If anything, blog because you want to. Blog because you feel the need to express and share your thoughts, emotions and ideas. Blog because you want to contribute something to the new media that is the internet. Blog because you want to be of service to others.

There are bloggers who are over conscious with what is in and what is cool in the world of blogging. Others are more concerned with writing about topics that are sure traffic getters. But if you are comfortable in your own niche and you believe you have a sure and loyal audience to your blog, then there is no reason why you should write about American Idol because it’s in season. Or deviate unnecessarily from your theme by blogging about Britney Spears just because she is No. 1 in Google search.

Blogging should not be seen as fad. Otherwise, it will defeat the very purpose of communication for which it came to be.

Widget mania

With thousands of widgets you can put on your blog, where do you start? Here are a few recommendations to help you discover widgets that can enrich your blogging experience, as well as that of your readers.

Art Painter.
Lets you draw online and save your drawing. Choose the background color.
gapingvoid. Displays the latest gapingvoid cartoon on your site or blog. Select the size that fits best.
PerezHilton.com. The latest showbiz gossip from the “Queen of All Media”. You want leopard skin with that?
MyBlogLog. Lets you see who visits your site. Now a Yahoo! service.
Twitter. Allows your readers to see your latest Twitter status and find out what your are doing.
Flickr badge. Displays your selection of Flickr photos in HTML or Flash format.

Everybody blogs!

There are people for whom blogging seems natural: techies, gamers and all those guys in Silicon Valley. What this generalization fails to consider is that active Internet use is rising among the young and not just among males. Women have embraced the web and created content of every kind. Even the elderly have embraced blogging, though to a much lesser extent. Travelers everywhere have found blogs excellent venues for telling stories and giving recommendations. In every case, one find an audience of readers and supporters. Depending on what you talk about and how, there could also be detractors and “haters”, and this is something you have to be prepared for. The cloak of anonymity can lead some people to do nasty things they wouldn’t do if they were identified, and there are privacy issues at every corner. But as bloggers can be anonymous as well, it is really up to you what you want to reveal.

Tips for group bloggers

To keep a group blog running smoothly, ground rules should be set from the beginning to make it clear who is responsible for what material and when they are expected to act. Here are a few guidelines for group blogging.

Designate. One or more admins and editors work best when they know what they are in charge of, or else they will keep guessing whose turn it is.
Clarify scope. Enumerate what topics are allowed and what are best avoided. Remember your target audience.
Specify frequency. Agree on a target number of posts per group member and deadlines for submission. For example, bi-monthly or every second weekend of the month.

The group can make up more rules as you go and as you see fit the blog and its audience.

Why you should start a group blog

One blog is usually enough for anyone to maintain. But starting a group blog can be a good way to keep in touch with people have the same interests as yourself or have a shared history. These can be family members, former schoolmates and friends with common hobbies. Here are two reasons for group blogging:
Shared responsibility. Posting can sometimes feel like a chore when you cannot think of anything to write. Having other blog authors in the group allows you to post less frequently and alternate so that there is less pressure.
Likemindedness. The ties that bind the group together provide subjects to write about. Family and friends can update each other and reminisce through the group blog. Hobbyists could write about their projects. A group of knitters, for example, can post photos of their projects and how-tos.

In the next post, we will look at tips for group blogging.

Tag!

With memes from ABCs to Top 10s of all possible topics floating around the Internet, it is virtually impossible to find yourself at a loss for blog posts to write. But if there’s one thing you can do that will not just keep you blogging regularly but also build a community of fellow readers and bloggers, it’s tagging. This form of tagging is different from the categories you find at the bottom of every blog entry or in social media sites. Tagging is answering what is essentially a meme and linking to other bloggers so that they will also answer the questions and spread the meme around. It’s a form of goodwill and at the same time an enjoyable exercise for everyone involved. Just remember to choose a topic that other bloggers would be able to relate to. Otherwise, they might find laborious to answer the meme and consider you a nuisance!