Blogging 201: Day Eight: Make Your Blog a Hub

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Blogging 201: Day Eight: Make Your Blog a Hub

blog-joke-3

“Despite the fact that no one views or cares about my blog, I will continue to spend the majority of my life updating it” Unknown

Blogging 201: Day Eight: Make Your Blog a Hub

The internet is a big playground. If you’re serious about your development as an online publisher, you need to think about opportunities beyond your blog, with your blog as your digital homestead.

Think of your site as a space to develop your online presence and personal brand strategically, promote your work in a way that makes sense for you, and connect and share your other projects and work across the web: a hub for you, as well as a place to publish posts.

Today’s assignment: create a page or section on your blog to display links to your online presence elsewhere, and make sure your other presences reflect the brand you’re developing on your blog.

Why do this?

– Because as online publishers, our work is naturally scattered across the web — you want your readers and followers to find you. Building your personal brand means expanding your reach beyond your blog while keeping it the focus.
– Because sometimes you have material that doesn’t quite fit on your site, and you want to make this complementary work accessible.

On the main page of Rantings Of A Third Kind, the social media buttons are present in several places. Both the Instagram and Flickr feeds are shown as widgets. What is still missing, is the widget for the 500px feed, work in progress to find and making it.

On the “About” and “Biography” pages the social media links are presented in their own sections.

Those of you who have ventured to my blog and browsed about, may have noticed this page:

Links 4 Writers

This page contain links where writers can find information on writing, submissions and other connection hubs. I also have a profile on the Stage32 hub.

Related posts:
Blogging 201: Day Six: Dig Deep into a Social Network
Blogging 201, Day Four: Give ‘Em What They Want
Some Social Media Bullshit

blogging-585x333

Blogging 201: Day Six: Dig Deep into a Social Network

Posted on by

Blogging 201: Day Six: Dig Deep into a Social Network

images

“The Internet destroyed most of the barriers to publication. The cost of being a publisher dropped to almost zero with two interesting immediate results: anybody can publish, and more importantly, you can publish whatever you want.” Dick Costolo

Blogging 201: Day Six: Dig Deep into a Social Network

Today’s Assignment: pick one social network you’ll use to help grow your blog. Then, outline a plan for how you’ll use it.

Why do this?

• Because blogging is about building a community, and other social networks have ready-made communities.

• Because social networks are a great place to continue tangential conversations and experiment with content. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn…where to start? A big brand might use every single one, but a big brand also has a social media department. You have the Department of You, so be selective.

I went “social media” the first day of my blog: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, 500px, LiveJournal, Tumbler, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn.

All the posts published are sub-posted on these sites. I am getting followers from all these sites and even feedback given through them or email. I don’t see a blog surviving without the social media, with the good and the bad which it contains. I have said it in the past and will say again: I have a love-hate relationship with the social media, but as the old adage goes: Better the Devil you know 😉

I have also reposted several bloggers’ posts, which I have found to be something to be shared to a wider audience and intend to continue doing so also in the future.

Related posts:
Blogging 201, Day Four: Give ‘Em What They Want
Some Social Media Bullshit
new-yorker-blogger-cartoon

Blogging 201: Day Eight: Make Your Blog a Hub

Posted on by

“Despite the fact that no one views or cares about my blog, I will continue to spend the majority of my life updating it” Unknown

Blogging 201: Day Eight: Make Your Blog a Hub

The internet is a big playground. If you’re serious about your development as an online publisher, you need to think about opportunities beyond your blog, with your blog as your digital homestead.

Think of your site as a space to develop your online presence and personal brand strategically, promote your work in a way that makes sense for you, and connect and share your other projects and work across the web: a hub for you, as well as a place to publish posts.

Today’s assignment: create a page or section on your blog to display links to your online presence elsewhere, and make sure your other presences reflect the brand you’re developing on your blog.

Why do this?
– Because as online publishers, our work is naturally scattered across the web — you want your readers and followers to find you. Building your personal brand means expanding your reach beyond your blog while keeping it the focus.
– Because sometimes you have material that doesn’t quite fit on your site, and you want to make this complementary work accessible.

 

On the main page of Rantings Of A Third Kind, the social media buttons are present in several places.
Both the Instagram and Flickr feeds are shown as widgets. What is still missing, is the widget for the 500px feed, work in progress to find and add it.
insta   flickr

On the “About” and “Biography” pages the social media links are presented in their own sections:
bio

Those of you who have ventured to my blog and browsed about, may have noticed these few pages also:

Links 4 Writers

Stage 32

WildSound

These pages contain links where writers can find information on writing, submissions and other connection hubs. Also my profile on the Stage32 hub and the published poetry selection on Wild Sound Festival Review.

 

Related posts:
Blogging 201: Day Six: Dig Deep into a Social Network
Blogging 201, Day Four: Give ‘Em What They Want
Some Social Media Bullshit

bab26c5053076f959d8892b7babd1978

Blogging 201: Day Six: Dig Deep into a Social Network

Posted on by

“The Internet destroyed most of the barriers to publication. The cost of being a publisher dropped to almost zero with two interesting immediate results: anybody can publish, and more importantly, you can publish whatever you want.” Dick Costolo

Blogging 201: Day Six: Dig Deep into a Social Network

Today’s Assignment: pick one social network you’ll use to help grow your blog. Then, outline a plan for how you’ll use it.
Why do this?
• Because blogging is about building a community, and other social networks have ready-made communities.
• Because social networks are a great place to continue tangential conversations and experiment with content. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn…where to start? A big brand might use every single one, but a big brand also has a social media department. You have the Department of You, so be selective.

I went “social media” the first day of my blog: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, 500px, LiveJournal, Tumbler, Pinterest, Google+ and LikendIn.

All the posts published are sub-posted on these sites. I am getting followers from all these sites and even feedback given through them or email. I don’t see a blog surviving without the social media, with the good and the bad which it contains. I have said it in the past and will say again: I have a love-hate relationship with the social media, but as the old adage goes: Better the Devil you know 😉

Related posts:
Blogging 201, Day Four: Give ‘Em What They Want
Some Social Media Bullshit

Social media buttons