Thing 4

In the blog world there are different kinds of blogs and I'm not just talking about the topic of your blog. There are blogs that are used for personal use (which are not made for the public eye) and then there are blogs where every blogger dreams of thousands of people coming to read about your personal words and interest. But in the real world, it's actually very hard to get people to comment and actually take an interest in what you are interested in. You not only have to be a good writer but you also have to have a topic of interest, not just something that interests you but something that interests a wide variety of people. 

Then there's your other problem, how do you get people to take notice of your blog? First you have to tell people about your blog and hope they like it. Another way is to go to other peoples blogs (preferably ones that have similar topics of interest) and you have to comment on their blog. This creates a sense of being a part of a community - a blogging community. If you take an interest in other peoples blogs then they will (maybe) take an interest in yours. 

You can write all you want but does it really matter if no one reads it? 

Also, like it says in this blog, http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com, criticize kindly. It's okay to criticize someone if you're being helpful, but you're trying to make friends here, so be nice! No one wants to know if you hate their blog. You wouldn't want someone else to tell you if your blog is the crappiest thing they've ever read so treat others the way you want to be treated.

http://www.problogger.net says that only one in every hundred readers comment on your blog. Do you know how many people would have to see your blog in order for you to get a steady amount of feedback? A LOT! This is where being part of a blogging community becomes handy. The more you read and comment on other peoples blogs on a weekly basis the more viewers you will get and the more comments you will receive also. It's a lot of work, but if you really want readers and comments you have to go the extra mile.

The blogs that I commented on:

• Elizabeth Howell's Blog
• Lesley's 23 Things!
• Jordyn's 23 Things.
• stephen smith's blog
• Karalina Roelle's Blogs

• Ramblings of a doula and more
• Pinstrosity

I commented on a lot of different blogs. First off, I looked at Elizabeth's and Jordyn's blogs first because they had already commented on my blog. I did not "pity" comment on theirs just because they commented on mine but I like to know more about the people who comment on. It's kind of nice to get a glimpse of someone else's life once in a while. 

On Elizabeth's I commented about how I liked that she mentioned using blogs for keeping in touch with others (especially in our community with so many in the military). This interested me because my boyfriend is in the military and everyone likes blogs that they can relate to. :) Elizabeth also writes very well, has a good vocabulary and is humorous with her "gondola driving, sheep herding wizard". These things are some of the things that I like in writers and are things that I like to see if I'm going to be sticking with a blog.

Lesley's blog was very well organized and easy to navigate. This is also something I like in a blog. No one wants to spend an hour trying to figure out what the blog is about, most will just go to the next one.

Jordyn's blog is very "happy". It's a bright color and that kind of draws people into it and gives an inviting atmosphere. She seems like a very happy and optimistic person and this doesn't just make her a good writer but gives you a sense that she would make a very good teacher as well. Being that this is a teaching blog, it will bring a certain type of reader and that type of reader would probably want to keep reading.

Stephen's blog is kind of simple which isn't a bad thing. It was also easy to navigate and even though he says he's a newbie at this it sure doesn't seem like it! His posts are short and to the point and are interesting to read.

Karalina seemed to have a little bit of a problem on her blog as she accidentally wrote her post in the comment section. I did say something to her about this but only to help and never to be mean! Her posts seem gentle and inviting. 

I think that overall everyone's doing such a good job getting through this new experience of blogging and hopefully it will help us with our future teaching experiences.

I started looking through different blogs and it took a little while to find some that interested me. I didn't want to use ones that I had already been following because I wanted to find some new ones to follow. The first one that I came across was the Ramblings of a doula and more. First of all, I have no idea what a doula is but now I'm interested to find out! The first thing that made me interested in this blog is the "flipcard" format. It's got these little cards that flip over and have each post with a picture. It's very intriguing and even though I only had the time to read one post I am VERY interested in reading more and seeing what this "doula" stuff is and reading about this woman's life. Reading about others is always fun for me because I'm a writer myself and everyone has their own story. I'm a firm believer that the more you read the better you become at writing.

The second one that I read is called Pinstrosity. Almost everyone knows about the site, Pinterest. It's a site where you can get different ideas about cooking, crafts, clothing and more. The site is mainly directed towards females and I am guilty of spending way too much time on there. Anyways, what everyone might not know is that there is a blog that posts about different pins that they have tried and if it fails it's called a Pinstrosity. If you're a Pinterest fan then you will be very interested to see how others have tried to copy the Pins and if you've tried some yourself you might know first hand that they don't always come out as expected. Also, if you have a Pinstrosity then you can tell them and they might feature it on their blog.

Overall, I think that blogging is definitely an interesting hobby if you like to write and if you have the time for it. Just make sure that if you do decide to do it to establish a blogging community and don't give up! :)