Online Communities, Conversations, Blog Tours, Memes, Challenges

When you became a blogger you probably didn't see yourself as becoming part of an online  community but by now you will have realised that you are.

People mainly blog because they want to share and pass on their experiences, and while you may be quite happy to remain a casual blogger, there are online communities and challenges that you can join to make new friends and to share the experiences of others.
They go by the name, among others, of blog tours, memes, and challenges.

Quite often you formally join the challenge/community through an online form (Mr Linky) and the duration of the challenge is the calendar year. (However you can join at any time - or drop out if you wish)
The challenge may be to make a daily blog post, or weekly, or monthly, on a particular theme. The extent of the task is up to you. Participation in a challenge does help to stimulate your blogging.

Here is a search to start you off but you can modify this Google search to suit yourself.
e.g. Blog Challenge Sewing
Blog Challenge Garden
Blog Challenge Travel
Blog Challenge Reading
Capture 365 (Photos)

See how a Mr Linky works

Write about subjects dear to your heart

You'll find your blog easier to write if you choose subjects you know a lot about or that you are familiar with.

Don't try to say too much in each post and give your pages lots of space to make it easier to for your visitors to read them.

The most popular topics for non-commercial blogs seem to be

Book Reviews

Travelling

Events

Gardens

 

and Family

Use your blog to pass on news

Blogging is the beginning of communication.
Use your blog to pass on news and items of interest.
Remember to give your readers a link where they can find out more information.

Are you in Adelaide, read crime fiction and/or interested in gardening?
Here is an event for you. See more here.
Click on the image to read it more clearly.

A joint event for crime fiction and garden lovers

Task Summary

I have been surreptitiously adding tasks and there are now 13.

• Task One: Decide what your blog is about, what you will call it
• Task Two: Get an email address and set up your blog
• Task Three: Settle on a template
• Task Four: Write your first post
• Task Five: Set up Comment Moderation
• Task Six: Check Your settings
• Task Seven: Write your second post. Decide how often you will post.
• Task Eight: Learn to add Gadgets, including an Email subscription so people can follow your blog
• Task Nine: Add a Blog Roll
• Task Ten: Add a Page
• Task Eleven: Add a Slide Show
• Task Twelve: Add a Counter
• Task Thirteen: Add a Poll

How often should you blog?

This is a question new bloggers often ask and the answer really depends on the purpose of your blog.

Sometimes the purpose of your blog will determine the frequency of posts.
For example, if the purpose is to store reviews of the books that you read then the frequency of posts is determined by how often you complete reading a book.

If the purpose is to record changes in your garden, then you are dependent on your observations.

If your purpose is to start up conversations then you might blog daily, every few days or weekly.

If you are serious about your blog, then weekly is probably the minimum.

What do you think?