Blogging Basics  and Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune, LVS Online Blogging courses start this week!

Blogging Basics

The Blogging Basics course is for those brand new to blogging. In this introduction course we focus on creating a plan for your blog, setting up your blogand the basics of good blog writing. We also learn how to make your blog a multimedia experience!

Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune

Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune is a totally different kind of online course for bloggers. Students offer support and critiques of each others work while building social networks. Although there are short lessons each week, the content of those lessons are determined by the need, interest and the desires of the students. Topics include social networking like Twitter, blog promotion, modifying themes, search engine optimization and increasing conversation. We work together to promote our blogs and to stay on top of the best blogging tools.

Both blogging classes start on 1/10/09, register now!
Here is the registration link for Blogging Basics
Here is the registration link for Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune

43 Things is a social networking site that brings people together to share goals and support each other in achieving those goals. Each session, the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune students will have the opportunity to explore a social networking site together, in more depth and over time.

I chose 43 things this session for several reasons:

• stating goals helps you achieve them, be it goals about your blog, your health, your career
• the mission of this network is motivational and provides several options to offer support
  • Cheer someone’s goal and/or progress
  • Comments to offer ideas and supports
  • share the steps and resources that you took to complete your own goals
• the more support you offer, the more you are likely to receive in return
• create goals from scratch or get motivation from the goals of others
• it is a good fit if you blog about mental health, inspiration, life changes, health, travel and other personal topics
• blogging tools include widgets and the ability to post from 43 things to your blog

Over the course of this session, I will be updating my own experiences at 43 things. Students will have the option to add their own experiences here or in the more private environment of the class message boards.

Which types of social networking sites would you like to see covered in the November session of the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune class? Each session will address a couple different categories of social networking sites. This will introduce you to some of the big players as well as some of the smaller but powerful niche social opportunities. If you don’t see the social networking category to meet your specific needs, add it in the comments.

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Its not too late to register for the next Blogging for Fun, Fame & Fortune course. Registration closes 10/29/08

Do not put anything online that you wouldn’t put on a grocery store bulletin board

That is basically the advice of the Women’s Dish Blog about how much information to disclose online when searching for a new job. When it comes to social networking sites, you might want to consider even less. You might put your phone number on that supermarket bulletin board when you have a litter of kittens that need homes, but I wouldn’t advocate posting your phone number on social networking sites. There are exceptions to that, especially for freelancers that have a business phone that can be screened. A business blog with a brick and mortar presence will want to have their address available as well as their email and phone. If you are blogging about your joys of baby rearing, you will want to keep all that information private. What about if your blogging about your garden? It might make sense to list your geographic region if not state. Gardening issues definitely vary if you live in New Zealand versus New England versus Arizona.

 Remember that if you register on a social networking site to promote your blog, you are now associating your blog with the information that you share there. This is true if you are sharing your Instant Message contact,  the country you live in, the other social networking sites you participate in or the blog posts that you bookmark. So, how do you determine that balance of disclosure that allows your customers to contact you or your readers to match interests with your need for privacy and security?

For this week’s discussion add your comments here or by pinging back from your own blog.