Blog Review

 Over the past couple months I've been attempting to write a blog every week about the presentations or the topics that are discussed in my Northern Environment class.  I think my biggest challenge to myself is actually getting the writing done weekly.  For me, writing is something that can't be forced.  I need motivation to get into it, and I need to be in the right mindset to keep the words flowing through me.  I've only touched blogging once before and I felt that it was unsuccessful.  

 A couple similar hobbies to blogging I've done is writing a travel journal and creating scrapbooks.  I have notebooks full of journals that go into little details of my travel experiences.  I've already used them as a resource to remember a few things from my past travels.  I am treating this blogging experience as a bit of a mix of the two when I can, using photos and old stories to tie into points of discussion.  

   What do bloggers actually need to accomplish to become known as a successful blogger? I found a website that lists 26 essential elements for creating a better blog.  You can find that at http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-essentials-for-blogging-success-what-you-need-to-know/. 

      

 I thought it was important enough for me to focus on just two elements, building relationships and design.  At the moment I can only see myself having 1 strong relationship with a reader that goes through my blogs.  The article I linked early suggests building relationships with other bloggers.  For this blog that I'm working on, working together with the other bloggers in my class could help re shape how I decide to do my blogging. It can help me improve what I am doing by seeing what works for other people.  And then it also just helps me to expand my audience.   I'm also assuming that the other bloggers in the class are discussing similar topics as I, so just being able to use each other as a link or resource for more information could really help and improve our blogging community. 

http://smthree.wordpress.com
/2011/11/15/why-do-we-use-social-media/

   Another relationship I haven't yet established with anyone yet is with comments.   Social media has been great for allowing people to voice their opinions and allow for others to react to their thoughts with words of their own.  Just having people ask questions to my blogs can help me build stronger relationships, it can help me bring back readers and hopefully they continue to come back. 

  I think the most important element to a good blog is going to be design.  The design in my opinion shows how professional looking a blog really looks.  It instantly tells the reader if the person writing cares about what they are writing, or if they are just doing it as an assignment and going through the process.  Taking the time to have a background photo, and using titles and captions, finding informative links and using personal photographs can easily help to improve the quality of a blog.    I've been having difficulty with blogger.com, I am often not able to place photographs exactly where I would like them . I'm not able to adjust the size to exactly how big I would like it.   

  Looking back at my blogs, I believe my strongest blog's have been those that include personal stories and photographs.  I think my most interesting blog to date has been my Swimming Amongst the Whales. I used a lot of photographs to help showcase my stories and pull readers in.  One way I can improve my blogs is the use of photo captions when possible.  It allows for the quick fact that can get the reader to go into the rest of my blogs.  

http://ingridsnotes.wordpress.com
/2012/09/02/close-to-the-the-end/

  One part of the blogging experience I haven't yet gotten the hang of yet is how to end a blog.  When I'm writing these blogs I feel like I could be having a (one sided) conversation with anyone who wants to read this, but eventually I just leave the conversation.  I tried just ending it with a simple 'Thanks for Reading', but I don't think that feels natural for a blog.  My last submission I ended it with a question, which can help get additional comments eventually.  I think starting the blogs with a question can also help with getting more comments. 

  So to end this blog I will ask you...  What do you think I can do to improve my blog?? What do you like about my blog, and what do you dislike ??