Six Tips On Starting Your Own Blog For Fellow Teachers

1. Read what’s out there
Before venturing into the blogosphere yourself, it’s probably a good idea to check out what is already out there. There are more and more blogs being started by teachers for teachers and lots of really good stuff out there already. This isn’t meant to put you off, but you’ll pick up ideas and be better informed in the long run.
Start leaving comments on blogs you like too. This will begin the relationship with the other blogger, who will be more inclined to lend a helping hand or post a nice comment on your blog when you launch it.

2. Think of your angle
There are lots of reasons people blog, and no one reason is better than the other. However, people are more likely to visit and remember your blog if there is an angle, a certain hook to it. A few years ago, your hook could have simply been “An English teacher’s reflections” or “Thoughts on the English language” as there were not many of us out here in the blogosphere. That’s changing now. People are more likely to be drawn to something specific in your teaching context (e.g. the challenges of teaching senior learners, teaching English in a small town in North Korea) or about language (e.g. a blog about idioms, or new words, or typical errors). Your angle needn’t depend on words. You could use mainly images, or video, or sound effects even in your blog. Think outside the box!

That being said, if you write with a distinctive voice then people will come to see whatever you’ve written just for the pleasure of reading it.

3. Be passionate about it
Um, this is actually an addendum onto tip 2 above. Whatever angle or topic you choose, make sure you feel strongly enough to talk about it for some time. So I guess that means specific, but not too specific. It also appears to be that the posts you feel most strongly about will attract the most hits. Such is the blogosphere.

4. Choose a good platform
Again, this is an area where things have moved on quite a lot. There are many good blog hosts now. I personally love WordPress, but Edublogs and Blogger are two other popular platforms. All will be pretty similar in terms of service and extras (statistics tracking, widgets etc). My advice would be to look at who is hosting the blogs you think are best-looking and go with them.

5. Prepare a whole bunch of content on your computer
I’ve read all kinds of advice about how much and how often you should blog. Basically it seemed to boil down to anywhere between one and many times a week. If you blog very infrequently then nobody will read it. And it’s easy to get “caught out” without any content. So the first thing I would do is prepare a whole bunch of backup stuff to post when you are in a rush.

6. Have fun
Don’t get too stressed by the whole thing. If someone leaves a nasty comment on your blog, don’t feel bad about deleting it and remember that he/she is a minority. If you get tired of blogging, drop it for awhile. Or ask for a guest to post something. The act of sharing though is a really strong motivator, especially when people share back. That’s really what this is all about for most bloggers. You get to meet new people, make new friends and learn a lot about the global nature of our field. Enjoy.

Lindsay Clandfield is a Canadian based in Spain. He is a teacher, teacher trainer and author of coursebooks and books for teachers. He is also a relative newcomer to the world of blogging – you can find him at www.sixthings.net

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