photo by DeclanTM
As a blogger, I’m obviously a big fan of writing. It is something that I have enjoyed my whole life. When I was a kid, I enjoyed writing stories, I always had lots of pen pals, and as I got older, I was always one of those students that had a hard time staying within the page limits of an assignment. I can’t help it — I just love to write.
Writing is one of those things that I hoped my kids would love too. Unfortunately, it just isn’t. As a matter of fact, at least some of them act like I’m torturing them if I try to get them to write up even a paragraph. It’s definitely an area that we need to work on.
However, what does that mean for trying to write a paper in science or social studies, for instance? Is it more important to work on writing skills or to see what your child actually knows?
In our homeschool co-op a couple of years ago, Noah was taking a state history class. As a final project, they could either make a poster about any state topic of their choice or they could write a paper. It seemed like a given that Noah would do a poster, even though his mind is full of so many great ideas. Things like fine motor delays and Autism often keep those ideas off of paper.
Noah chose to do his project about a particular battle that took place in our state, so I helped him to find some pictures on the Internet of major players in the battle. Then, I sat down at the computer and told him we need to write up just a bit to put on the poster with it.
I was both shocked and not surprised at all in the same moment when what I intended to be a couple of sentences turned into a full page (with single spaced lines) account of what led up to the battle, information about the people in the battle, an account of the details of the actual battle, and then the aftermath. I just typed as he told me all about it. Noah was so proud of his paper, and I was too!
It reminded me that just because he would have written two sentences if he had to write it himself, it doesn’t mean that he didn’t know the material in so much detail that it was surprising. And, it also reminded me that even though we need to work on writing skills, I also need to give the kids a chance to show off what they know without the pressure of having to be the ones to write it all out.
This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.
at OhAmanda.com
If your blog is a business and you hope to sell advertiser or work with companies on promotions, it can be very helpful to have a media kit available. You never know when someone might request it for some fabulous opportunity. How much better it would be to be able to say, “No problem – I’m attaching it right now.” Instead of having to think to yourself, “Shoot! I’ve been meaning to put one of those together!”
One of the sessions at the Savvy Blogging Summit was about building a Blogging Media Kit. So, keeping with my series of writing ten tips from Savvy Blogging Summit classes, I thought I would pick ten great tips from the class (though it was bursting full of tips, so it was hard to pick just ten).
1. Question to ask yourself when building your media kit:
- Who is your audience?
- What makes your blog special or unique?
- What blogs are similar or competitive?
- Do you blog to a network or community?
- What is your style, niche, format?
- What other types of media do you include?
- Who are you/your team?
- What are your stats?
2. You should have an about me section which covers some of the following:
- Interests
- History (Who are you? Where are you from?)
- Credentials/Affiliations
- Goals for Your Blog
- Contact Information (even if it’s just a link to a form)
3. If you’re really stuck about what to say about yourself and your blog, ask friends/family and readers to describe you and your blog. They will probably be more generous (and more accurate) than you will be about yourself.
4. When talking about demographics, think beyond just your blog traffic. Mention your stats on social media sties, such as Facebook and Twitter as well.
5. Use an online survey tool to find out demographics about your readers, such as age, gender, income, educational level, employment status, or other information that might be pertinent to your blog (especially that is of interest to companies you might be working with).
6. Be clear about where you will be able to share information. For example, you might say, “I will write one blog post, will tweet about it at least twice during a certain event, and will share it the link with my Facebook fans.” Help advertisers/sponsors understand that your reach goes beyond your blog’s actual site.
7. What are some of your usual topics and keywords that you are using on your blog? What are the keywords that are bringing people to your site?
8. Make sure that you are keeping track of (and then sharing information about) site stats. Google Analytics is a great source for this, especially since most companies feel very comfortable with those numbers.
9. Make lots of different advertising options available. Make advertising easy and accessible.
10. Some items you might include in a media kit:
- Awards and accolades
- Industry conferences attended
- Graphics, logo, elevator pitch, bio
- Contact information
- Advertising options, rates, guidelines (what are the sizes available, rates, etc?)
- Fee and payment options (For example – Will you accept Paypal only?)
- Reviews, Contest opportunities
- List of brands that you’ve worked with (you don’t have to say what you’ve done with them, you can even just put logos)
- Brand, reader testimonials
(You can read some of the other top ten tips from various Savvy Blogging Summit Classes as well, such as: Effective Monetization, Personal Productivity, Photography, Blog Design, More Blog Design Tips, and Blogging Business Law/Accounting. You can also buy the recordings and handouts from Savvy Blogging Summit.)
- Who is your audience?
- What makes your blog special or unique?
- What blogs are similar or competitive?
- Do you blog to a network or community?
- What is your style, niche, format?
- What other types of media do you include?
- Who are you/your team?
- What are your stats?
