From the category archives:

Blogging and Blog Tips

Every once in a while I post key tips for bloggers here.  You can see the full list of tips here.

But it’s the beginning of a new year, and you might be wondering where to go with your blog in the months ahead.  Sure, you have a potentially huge audience, many people who might be interested in being a part of what God is doing in your part of the world.

Not sure what to do next?
Not sure what to do with your blog in 2010?
Photo courtesy of Rennett Stowe

So how can you make the best use of this medium?  Well, I’m constantly wondering the same thing myself.  So I decided to invest in 31 Ways to Build A Better Blog by Australian Darren Rowse.

Darren hands out practical tips – most of which apply to just about any kind of blog.  A hobby blog.  A ministry blog.  A blog to earn you money.  A blog to inform family and friends.  Whatever you’re looking to do in 2010.

Of course, you don’t need to actually do something every day for 31 days (which missionary blogger out there has time to do that?  I see that hand!  Oh, you were just swatting at a fly?).  You can go at your own pace – but now you have a systematic, practical way to do it.

Every day you not only get a task, you’re also taught how to actually do it.

God has given you a tremendous platform to share about what you’re doing and more importantly what He’s doing.  Let’s make the most of it in 2010.  One great way to do it would be to invest in 31 Ways to Build A Better Blog.

Better yet, if you order in the next few days (until the 19th of January) Darren will give you some extra material.  One is an excellent workbook – 9 Things to Do to Get Your Blog On Track in The New Year, which is a fantastic way to review your blog each year to see how to better fit it into your ministry.  There are also a couple of podcast interviews from other experts.

I know this will be helpful to many of you – do yourself a favour and at least check it out and rejuvenate your blog in this new year!

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Tell a story!

It’s real simple.  Tell a story in your post.

It’s surprising how little this is done, when it could be done.  So often people have a way of telling the cold hard facts rather than telling an interesting story.  Heroes, villians, challenges, drama – we live it everyday – let’s write about it!

I just read an incredible blog post that will give you ideas for your next story.  There are so many different angles, so many different stories that can be told.  The post is called 14 Types of Stories You Can Tell On Your Blog.  Here’s an except:

Yesterday we explored WHY stories can be such a powerful communication tool on your blog.

Today we’ll look at 14 types of stories that you might like to try on your blog.

14 Types of stories can you tell on your blog

  1. Personal Discovery Stories – tell how you discovered a lesson. These stories show your readers how similar you are to them and also might give some practical advice on how they might learn from your experience.
  2. Stories as Analogies and Illustrations – tell a story that on the surface has nothing to do with your topic but which illustrates a principle that is relevant.
  3. Success Stories – tell how you achieved something. These stories can be inspirational and motivating for your readers.
  4. Failure Stories – I find that these stories are incredibly powerful – particularly if you are able to show some lessons learnt through a failure.

Read the rest here.

Remember also, there are different ways to tell stories.  Use pictures.  Video.  Write a conversation.  A comic.  Draw pictures.  Audio.  Coloured text.  All these things can be done on your blog.

Go tell a story.  Tell us what kind of a story, and what you used to tell it, in a comment!

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Why so many use Feedburner – Missionary Blog Tip #14

28 July 2009

One of our earliest tips – waaaay back in 2005 – was to make sure you have a functioning, visible, accessible, news feed.  Though the vast majority of missionary bloggers now have functioning feeds, it’s amazing how many still don’t have a visible, easy to find, working link or button to their feed.
One of the [...]

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Serious about blogging? Missionary Blog Tip #13

24 April 2009

Some people just put their monthly newsletter in their blog.  Other people only post once every few months when the guilt catches up with them.  Some people are sporadic – they blog every day for a month, then disappear for a half a year.  This post probably isn’t for you.
However, there are some of you [...]

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The Power of Blog Connections

25 September 2008

I just got an email from Jim and Shelley from Livin’ Our Dreams.  They shared with me this great story about relationships and blogs that I want to share with you:
About a year ago an operator of two Christian Radio Stations in western KS contacted us.  He found us on the site and we began [...]

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Video!

19 August 2008

Let’s talk about missionary blog videos, and check out a few…

Shopping for a cow in Kenya – get the story and video!  And speaking of big animals, take a look at a rodeo in Brazil.
Time for the cute-kid videos – check out “Papa“, fun with kids and technology, Noa and Martha perform, and for a [...]

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You're famous! Now what?

1 August 2008

Many bloggers start out not really realizing that their blogs are publicly available to millions.  Others wonder why the millions aren’t coming to their blog!
What actually tends to happen on a well-made blog is that people interested in what you’re doing, in what you’re talking about, those are the ones that eventually find you.
I often [...]

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Comment (elsewhere) – Missionary blog tip #12

12 July 2008

Being a blogger means being part of a larger community. You’ve put yourself out there on the net, and you’re (ideally) attracting people that are interested in what you’re doing.  You love to get comments on your blog (you do have comments turned on, right?  And you’re responding?)  But what about commenting on other people’s [...]

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Missionary blog tip: The Newbie Guide

4 March 2008

A lot of people visit this site, visit the blogs, then email me and say,”Wow — cool!  How can I do that?”
Well, I’ve posted a whole bunch of blogging tips here that you do need to read.  And Dr. Mike gave us some reasons why missionaries should blog in the first place.  But I wanted [...]

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Missionary blog tip: Why Blog?

16 January 2008

Dr Mike of Kids’ Doc in Jos recently (ok, this past September) created a presentation about blogging for missionaries entitled “Why Blog?”.  He graciously agreed to share it with us.  Unfortunately, my computer skills are limited and I couldn’t figure out how to include it here.  But – probably all the better to see it [...]

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