Blogs are a very popular way to communicate your views and opinions with anyone who wants to listen. What better way to talk about your favorite topic, and at the same time promote your club or association?
The Commitment
There is a big commitment that comes with creating a blog. Carefully consider the time you will have available to post to your blog every day, or every week. Don’t believe you can dash this off every morning in the 10 minutes it takes to eat your cereal. Most blogs are abandoned after a few months because of lack of time, boredom, or unrealistic expectations. An abandoned blog can do your group more harm than good, so consider the commitment carefully.
There is hope for the blogger with more passion than time. Get guest bloggers or ghost bloggers to write some of the posts. People you know may not have time to keep up with a blog of their own, but the may still be willing to post for you on occasion, as a guest blogger. Just be sure to give them credit, and a link back to their own site. A ghost blogger, on the other hand, is a person you pay to write relevant articles, and then you put your name on the article and post it.
Marketing
The success of your blog can depend on where you post it and how you market it. If you have a drawing group for example, you might try to solicit comments about your group’s work, and encourage technique discussions. In this case consider posting links to your blog on art-related sites. You will have to get permission of course, but your fellow artists’ web sites or an art school’s discussion board are both great places to “plug” your blog.
Hosting
There are several free blog sites available for you to start your blog. We won’t get into the long list of them here, but to start out you’re better off using a hosted blog site like blogger.com or wordpress.com. Both of these have pros and cons but both are very easy to use. If you do a search on “blogger vs. wordpress” you can find several discussions about which one is better for what purposes. It can be a pain to move your blog after it’s established, so do some research before you decide which one to go with, because you’ll want to stick with it as long as possible.
But What Do I Say?
So… what do you want to say on your blog? Here are some ideas to get you started.
- After every get-together your group holds, post something about the event. Talk about what it was about, and what people got out of it. Include pictures, and quotes from attendees. What made it interesting or successful?
- Talk about the latest trends in the field your group is related to. For instance, if you have a group that focuses on skateboarding, talk about new board technology, regional or national association events, or famous people who have won competitions.
- Talk about other bloggers in your field. Link to their blogs, and recap what they are talking about.
- Review gadgets. People who are passionate about a topic love hearing what others have to say about the latest “stuff.” Athletes love technical clothing and golfers love any little thing that might improve their game. Readers want to hear about the newest books, cooks love pans and knives, audiophiles love iPods! New stuff comes out all the time, so this is an endless topic for discussion.
- Start a discussion about a controversial topic. Tell people what your perspective is and ask them to tell theirs.
- Talk about absolutely anything that might add value to peoples’ lives. Don’t talk about what you ate for breakfast or how your dog’s last vet checkup went. These things are not interesting to anybody but you. If you’re not sure, just ask yourself, “if somebody was telling me about this, would I care?”
One last top… engage your readers. Invite them to your group’s events, and be welcoming and receptive of their comments. Tell them you appreciate their readership. Try to get them to talk not just to you, but to each other! You are building a community with your group, and your blog is an important part of that.
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Wow dude, this is really helpful information, much appreciated.