When I wrote my first blog post back in April 2006 I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
As I fell down the rabbit hole blogging gave me a reason to pick up my camera again. It rekindled my love of poetry and brought me friendships from all over the world. And now here I am, blogging under my own name, running a creative biz online and penning books — and all of this came from being brave and posting some words on the internet.
In short, blogging has changed my life.
My blogging practice has always been to share the light AND the dark of my life. Starting a blog 13 months into my bereavement influenced much of what I wrote back then, but in the years that followed I’ve continued to share in an open, and often emotional, way. Sharing our stories and experiences with one another helps us feel less alone. Just the simple act of getting the words out of your head and onto the screen can be powerfully cathartic. A blog is less a diary and more a magazine of you, a place where you can curate your interests and visual inspirations.
This 30-day course is all about creative personal blogging. I’ll teach you how to share your life and heart online as a way to express yourself creatively, dive deep and meet like-minded friends along the way. There’ll be lots of blog post ideas as well as interviews with creatives who inspire me. I won’t be looking at how to make money from blogging, but if you have a biz and want to share more of yourself online with your customers, then this course will definitely help with that.
Crafting a blog that truly reflects who you are is about being honest and open, enjoying the writing process, recording your world with your camera and getting your creative juices flowing!
The Sessions
SESSION ONE — SETTING THE SCENE
In the first session we’ll explore some of the essentials of blogging, including figuring out our goals and intentions for blogging, getting our blog home in order, and identifying our ideal reader.
SESSION TWO — OPENING UP & REACHING OUT
In Session Two we’ll start blogging in earnest, finding and honing our writing voices, thinking about privacy online (an important topic!) and how much to share, and answering the no.1 question: what shall I blog about today?
SESSION THREE — REVEALING YOUR HEART
Session Three is where we’ll dive deep into revealing more of ourselves on our blog, with musings on authenticity (and what that really means), vulnerability vs empowerment, and how to deal with blogger’s remorse.
SESSION FOUR — SETTLING INTO YOUR SPACE
In Session Four we take a step back and consider how to infuse even more of ourselves into our blog homes, including tackling the all-important about page, design advice from my favourite web designer and thoughts on how to protect your space.
SESSION FIVE — YOUR WORLD THROUGH A LENS
It’s all about the visual in Session Five as we explore different ways to shoot for our blogs, share more of our world in photos, and tackle the question: what if I’m not a photographer?
SESSION SIX — IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL
In the last session we’ll look at ways to make your blog sharing even richer, including the use of podcasts and videos, how to beat blogger’s block and all my best tips for growing your readership and building community.