The blog project is a fairly straightforward digital writing project. You choose a topic that interests you, blog regularly on the topic, and practice working in the blog writing genre.
The Three Rules for Us
- You must make at least one blog post in week one and two posts in each of the the next five weeks. (11 posts, minimum).
- Blog posts must engage your blog’s “topic” and must work within the blog genre (see readings and Blog Project Criteria).
- You must explore (and exploit!) the features of the WordPress software (themes, widgets, images, links, etc.)
Distilling the Blog Genre (at least for us)
Write for a Reason (Bernstein) – Is there a clearly discernible, focused topic or theme?
- Do we see the topic/theme explored in the content of individual posts?
- Are you articulating a perspective or viewpoint? (Bernstein’s “Stand up/Speak out”)
- Are you offering something new and telling a story, or are we mostly seeing recycled/repackaged content? (Bernstein & Dunlevie)
Be Sexy (Bernstein) – Are you adding your personality or yourself to the posts?
- Are you amusing your readers and/or letting the story unfold?
- Don’t be a robot writer!
Visual/Textual Integration (Bernstein, Krug, Dunlevie)
- Is the writing tight? (Bernstein’s “Write Tight”; Krug’s “Omit Needless Words”)
- Are you using visual layout to lighten the textual weight of the written words? (Dunlevie)
- Do videos on the blog make sense given the topic/theme?
- Do the pictures (Dunlevie) included make sense for the topic/theme?
- Is there a blogroll with links to blogs containing related content? (Bernstein’s Friends & Enemies)
Making Friends, Finding Enemies, Connecting with the Living Web (Bernstein)
- Are you connecting with other content, and crediting your sources, including relevant links?
- Are you connecting with the blogosphere via a blogroll, linklist, or in other ways that demonstrate your work to make friends and find enemies?
- Are people commenting on your blog? (This is the hard part, so work at it!)
- Are you writing regularly (twice weekly) on a somewhat regular schedule, or are your posts published at erratic times or hastily (say, twice on Saturday to meet a requirement)? (Bernstein & Dunlevie)
Mechanical Matters
- Are you using descriptive headlines, headers, and subheaders?
- Are you spellchecking and watching punctuation? (Dunlevie)
- Are you using lists, using bold and italics in appropriate ways, reading for clarity, and considering your options as a writer? (Dunlevie & Krug)
- Are you using whitespace, paragraph breaks, and other tools to make your posts scannable? (Dunlevie, Krug)
- Are you telling a story of sorts and letting it unfold over the series of posts? (Bernstein & Dunlevie)
Relax, Have Fun, Amuse Readers
- Are you relaxing, having fun, and amusing your readers, perhaps by breaking some of the “rules” at times? (Bernstein)
- This is your blog. Run with it!
Create Compelling Content; Make it Unique/Yours
The most successful blogs offer their visitors a compelling reason to come back. If you’re a blogger you might try to become the go-to source of information in your topic area, cover a useful niche that few others are looking at, or provide exclusive content that only you can create due to your unique expertise or resources.
Blogging Do/Don’t Infographic/Guide (from On Blast Blog)
