1. Blogging
Why and how?

2. What is a blog?

3. How successful can you be blogging?
In groups of four, search about the following people:
Pete Cashmore
Michael Arrington
Harvey Levin
Timothy Sykes
What is the name of their blog? What does their blog cover? What is the topic?
How much do these people make per month/year?
Visit their blog. What stands out about their blog? Why is it so popular?

4. History of Blogging
1994 – The first blog called Links.net made by Justin Hall at Swarthmore College
1997 – “weblog” was created
1998 – First news blog as a part of a company
1999 – “weblog” shortened to “blog”
1999 – 23 blogs online; 2006 – 50,000,000 blogs online
2003 – People start to make money off of blogs
2007 – Tumblr founded as the first “microblog”

5. Purpose of Blogging
Why do people blog? What is the benefit of blogging?
Why do people follow someone else’s blog?
What factors do you think are important to make a blog popular?

6. Kinds of Blogs
Personal Blogs – general blogs that are about whatever people want to write about
Business Blogs – blogs about or for business; try to get customers through their blogs
Professional Blogs – people whose job is to blog; they make money through their blog
Niche Blogs – blogs about very specific things such as cooking blogs, exercise blogs, etc.
Reverse Blogs – the public rather than the owner writes the content of the blog;
Affiliate Blogs – blogs that review products or experiences or food
Media Blogs – vlogs, photoblogs, linklogs (creating content from websites)
Freelance Blogs – write blogging content for companies or other people for pay

7. Important parts of successful blogs
Visual Content – it looks really attractive and easy to read and navigate
Empathetic Content – the written content is relevant to the readers and matters to them
Links – your blog has links to other resources and relevant websites
Goal/Mission – your blog has a clearly defined goal, mission, or purpose
Engaged Audience – you have a blog which has followers that like to read your blog

8. How to write a blog
Usually, casual language is used on a blog, even if it is a business blog
News – formal and distant
Blogs – casual and relatable
What kinds of language can you use?
Relatable language – “We all have met our match with technology. How can you overcome?”
1st and 2nd person is good – “In my early years in business, I made so many mistakes, you wouldn’t believe it.”
Speak to the reader with relevant knowledge, facts, experience, and links to resources

11. Blogging safety
Blogging can have the same dangers as posting on social media
Be safe blogging by:
Don’t be too personal
Respect others always
Expect those interacting with your blog to be respectful too
If you have a problem with stalking or spamming, deal with it or block it

12. Blog Research
Download the worksheet off of profjonesenglish.weebly.com.
Go through the internet and find 5 blogs
Fill out the survey in groups
the completed survey to Prof. Jones’s

13. Create your own blog post
Under your opinions page, write a blog post.
This post must be related to your theme.
Consider something that you want to talk about or something that is important to you.
Use casual language.
Write at least 4 paragraphs.
Make the language and the post fun and attractive.