Blogging Tips?

hey,

does anyone have any blogging tips? i know this sounds lame, but i want to blog but dont know what to blog about.

so if you could help, that would be great!

thanks,
courtney

ps. where do you host a blog?

Well, I don't have any blogging tips, but heres some blog places:
wordpress.com
blogger.com
livejournal.com
xanga.com
homeschoolblogger.com (if you're homeschooled)

and thats all I can think of at the moment.

You can create a blog directly from the site, but I don't think you can host one here.

I like to read blogs that are quirky and unique. Aesthetics comes into play as well. No one wants to read a blog that burns their corneas.

Just write about stuff that's interesting to you. I usually dither on about writing, 'cause that's sort of what I do- what we all do, actually. ^_^ But my YWS blog is all about my life and the odd things I notice, and that's a blast to do as well.

Make sure you pick the brains of Writersdomain and Claudette- they're a lot more active with LiveJournal than I am. A few things from my experience, though:

- Write everything as your best. Don't scribble down notes, because who wants to read a shopping list?

- Avoid angst. If something bad is happening to you, don't ramble on about how you feel so hurt and disappointed- tell a story. I know I read an amazing blog post by Shriek that could have been horribly navel-gazy, but it was really cool the way she told it.

- If you're not using it as a diary, make sure you pick stuff that's, erm...possibly of interest to others. I'm certain your lint collection is amazing, but if no one else cares, it's pointless.

If you're just blogging for yourself, OR you can tell us about your lint collection in an interesting way, more power to you. Just be careful, and remember not to complain if you don't get replies.

- Proofread. Just like always. ^_^

If you've got more specific questions, just do a quick survey and find YWSers who have got blogs. They'd be happy to help you out.

Five and a half words: Say what's on your mind.

^^

My blog is boring, it's just a journal. It's nothing special, but whatever. I'm not even sure Sam's rules apply, at least in the corner of the blogosphere that I hang around in. I'm constantly posting to-do lists and angst and completely random crap. It's not going to make you a BNF.

If you don't know what to blog about, then you might just want to stick with the journal idea. You should blog because you're into something and want to share, not because you want to blog. (Does that make sense?)

As everyone who knows me can agree, I rant. Even when speaking aloud, I easily get off of topic and rant. Rant is just a term for it, it's more like being unorganized with my thoughts and rambling like wild - I don't keep on straight lines when speaking, or typing, for that matter ^^;

So, ramble! Just write about something that gets your goat for that day, or perhaps you are particularly happy? Of course, I also love commenting on lyrics by a favorite band of mine, or maybe quoting something from a novel so I don't forget it.

This doesn't seem like a writing tip, so I'm going to find somewhere else to move this to...hmm

I also rant, ramble and bumble along when blogging. Especially in the latest entry on writing. LOL.

Take the opportunity to let ideas flow freely from your hands without worrying about info-dumps, so you can condense the ideas later into a story's mold.

On occasion, I also use my blog to post reminders to myself. Like, how Malachi is the purple creature, NOT the green one. LOL.

Something else you can do is find humorous pictures and post them, or just a link to a site that you find hilarious.

If you want comments, be really angsty. People never know what to say to happiness. You have to be all depressed and emo and stuff and rant on things, otherwise there's no interest. So yeah, use your blog to insult the world.

Don't talk about FREAK constantly -- that's a sure way to get your readers bored.

My piece of advice my dear writer friend, is listen your favorite music, drink some favorite drink and turn on computer. While it is turning on, focus your mind about what did hooked you that day.

Well, to decide what you're going to write, you have to figure out why you want to blog in the first place. If it's to share your passions or interests, pick one and simply expound on it. If it's a journal format, then just write your thoughts and feelings. Both of these will probably come naturally.

Some people want to blog for money. In this case, you'll want to pick a niche and dedicate yourself to becoming an "expert" on that niche. This is a lot of work for very little reward and I don't really recommend it. However, if it piques your interest, there are (surprise!) blogs on the subject that can teach you much more than I can.

A good place to start blogging is right here on YWS! Just go to "blogs" and then "my blog" and you can get things started from there, it's pretty self explanatory. When I blog, I pretty much just spill my guts. To me, my blog serves as a way for me to express the things that I don't really feel comfortable talking about with my friends, or that they wouldn't understand. And sometimes I just talk about something funny that's happened to me. I'm not the greatest blogger, but I enjoy it . I think blogging is so popular because everybody loves to see what's going on in other people's lives! So go ahead..no harm in trying!