The Basics of Blogging, An Advanced Job Search Strategy
By Angela Loëb
If you enjoy “talking” shop about your field or craft and if you’re a pretty decent writer, then you might want to give blogging a try. It’s a great strategy for career development in general, and it could be an excellent strategy to increase your online presence during your career transition.
My favorite blogger who has combined his passion for his profession with his observations about job search during the recession is fellow Launch Pad Job Club board member, Jim Adcock. In amongst his posts about the subject matter of his profession in the high-tech arena, Jim sprinkles job search wisdom. He’s long since landed a great job, but still blogs on occasion: Working it Out (http://dlairman.wordpress.com/)
WHAT IS A BLOG?
The term blog is a contraction from the internet term “web log”.
Typically a blog is a website for an individual or group of individuals to publish writings, announcements, tutorials, or online diary entries.
There are no rules to what defines the contents of your blog. It can contain anything you want to write about.
Bloggers typically support each other and form new friendships with people writing about similar topics or interests.
(Source: http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/journal/)
HOW TO START YOUR OWN BLOG
Step One: Determine Your Readiness
A friend who helped me to get started blogging in 2006 gave me this piece of valuable advice… You are not ready to manage and write a blog unless you can come up with 20 different article ideas before you even start. She also said that to create a following, to be taken seriously, and to develop a significant online presence, you need to blog at least twice a week. In my opinion, you need to blog once per week at the barest minimum. The point is to be routine and regular so readers know they can count on you when they commit to subscribing to your blog feed.
I also found it helpful to write a purpose statement and topic guidelines when I started Attitude and Longitude. Over the years it has helped me to stay on track and decide which categories to write about.
Step Two: Choose a Platform
There are many ways to go out there, but the most popular, by far, is www.wordpress.com, and it’s free. You can pay for your blogging site as well. When I went with www.typepad.com for Attitude and Longitude, the free, open-sourced WordPress wasn’t an option. Other popular, free blogging platforms you could look at are:
- www.blogspot.com
- www.blogger.com
- www.myblogsite.com
- www.bravenet.com
- www.xanga.com
Step Three: Launch and Publicize It
Once you set up your template and publish your first article, you should announce it. Send an email to your friends and colleagues to let them know. You can post links to your articles on social media as well. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. They all provide apps or linkage access so your articles can appear on those sites so your contacts will see. In the case of LinkedIn, the king of optimizing subject matter expertise, you can connect the feed from your blog so that your articles will automatically be published on your profile as soon as you publish them on your blog.
So, if you like this idea, feel you’re ready and decide to go for it, let us know. Be sure to add us to your list when you publicize it. We’d love to keep up with you!
Good points about blogging. I know Jim also and had met him through LPJC meetings. I myself started a blog in September 2009, primarily to keep up and improve my writing skills while on hiatus as a technical writer. My own article about blogging is available at http://whilldtkwriter.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-blog-article-methodology.html. Please visit it to compare and contrast the approaches between Jim and me. (My blogsite theme is
“whilldtkwriter site 4 ayes
writing mostly for language enlightenment, entertainment, and a-muse-meant”.)
Thanks, whilldtkwriter… checked out your article and you give some great tips, too!
Thanks for the mention and the kind words!
In addition to blogging about my career (both in terms of my profession and managing my career, aka the job search), I have a second blog focused on becomming a better, more effective blogger.
How do you promote what you have written without being spammy, scammmy, or scummy? How do you decide what to write about? You can read about these subjects and more at my “other” blog, The MetaBlog Blog http://metablogblog.wordpress.com/