Blogging help :/:/ &amp; Uni

Original post by Leigh96

Hi guys,
So as I am to start applying for university in September the course I wish to do (Journalism) requires me to have some sort of experience, so I decided to start writing a blog!
Please could anybody give me some tips on how to improve as I am a complete novice haha
www.melittleleigh.blogspot.co.uk
Please check it out and give me some tips and any other ideas you have that I could do to add to my personal statement to help me stand out!!
Thankyouuu :smile:

hi, i have been writing a geography blog for around 2 years now. the presentation and layout of your blog is good its very clear. do you have a specific topic you are blogging about or is it just general things? either is fine in my opinion but if you have a specific topic that you know a lot about or are interested in then it can be great cause it gives you something to focus on. (this is my blog btw: http://vamoswearegolden.wordpress.com/)
If you do write posts which require you to research something then make sure you credit the source of your information and include a link to where you found it if possible. lots of pictures are great as well again include the photo credit of the picture.

Reply 2

Leigh96

OP

Original post by tgwktm

hi, i have been writing a geography blog for around 2 years now. the presentation and layout of your blog is good its very clear. do you have a specific topic you are blogging about or is it just general things? either is fine in my opinion but if you have a specific topic that you know a lot about or are interested in then it can be great cause it gives you something to focus on. (this is my blog btw: http://vamoswearegolden.wordpress.com/)
If you do write posts which require you to research something then make sure you credit the source of your information and include a link to where you found it if possible. lots of pictures are great as well again include the photo credit of the picture.

Thank you for your help. I wanted my blog to be anonymous as I dont have the confidence to put my name out with it haha. Your blog is really nice and very organised thats what i thin mine is lacking haha. How long did it take you to build a good audience? I intended to have a specific topice but now I believe it will be easier to talk generally (I know i should really have a specific topic). I completely forgot to put links for the images :/ sorry haha. Thank you for your opinion it has helped :smile:

Reply 3

Original post by Leigh96

Thank you for your help. I wanted my blog to be anonymous as I dont have the confidence to put my name out with it haha. Your blog is really nice and very organised thats what i thin mine is lacking haha. How long did it take you to build a good audience? I intended to have a specific topice but now I believe it will be easier to talk generally (I know i should really have a specific topic). I completely forgot to put links for the images :/ sorry haha. Thank you for your opinion it has helped :smile:

i write under the name of thegirlwhoknewtoomuch for the same reason, although i have received a lot of positive feedback from both strangers and people i know. my audience is still growing but i have had views from over 130 countries since i started and 9660 hits, i have around 55 followers i think. it does take a while to build it up. when i first started i had days where i got no views at all. it helps to advertise your blog, post a link on any online profiles you have, if you have twitter or facebook, link your blog to that. tell people you know who won't laugh at you like teachers. i told my geography teacher about it and he told my other geography teacher who then included it in my reference for uni. they both read it still and one even used one of my articles his lessons, which made me proud haha. i also had the courage to tell 2 uni professors i spoke to at a uni open day. once people hear of it others will catch on, just takes a bit of time. and yeah always credit sources and photos as people can report your blog if they get fussy so do it just to be on the safe side. blogs are great things to tell people when they ask what you do as a hobby, better than just saying reading haha
let me know if you need anything else

Reply 4

Hey guys, I've applied for Journalism for 2014 entry at Kent and I started my blog a couple of months back- would you mind taking a look at it? I've not got any active followers and therefore haven't received any feedback for what I've done.
http://kirstyjpoynton.blogspot.co.uk/
If there's anything I should change then please let me know! Thank you!

Reply 5

Original post by kpofsuburbia

Hey guys, I've applied for Journalism for 2014 entry at Kent and I started my blog a couple of months back- would you mind taking a look at it? I've not got any active followers and therefore haven't received any feedback for what I've done.
http://kirstyjpoynton.blogspot.co.uk/
If there's anything I should change then please let me know! Thank you!

Your blog looks quite good the layout is nice and the articles you write have a nice personal style about them which i like. If your blog was on wordpress i would follow you cause i don't have a blogspot account. Do you just write about general things or is there something you like to focus on? I find it easier writing my blog cause it is focused around geography as a topic. Make sure you advertise your blog anywhere, if you are confident enough to let people you know about it then that can be a good way to share it. putting a link to your blog on your tsr profile is good as well as any other online profiles you may have. share regular links to facebook or twitter etc. of your new posts. I have been lucky enough to speak to some uni professors about mine and i have received new followers from that. basically tell anyone you can.

Reply 6

Original post by tgwktm

Your blog looks quite good the layout is nice and the articles you write have a nice personal style about them which i like. If your blog was on wordpress i would follow you cause i don't have a blogspot account. Do you just write about general things or is there something you like to focus on? I find it easier writing my blog cause it is focused around geography as a topic. Make sure you advertise your blog anywhere, if you are confident enough to let people you know about it then that can be a good way to share it. putting a link to your blog on your tsr profile is good as well as any other online profiles you may have. share regular links to facebook or twitter etc. of your new posts. I have been lucky enough to speak to some uni professors about mine and i have received new followers from that. basically tell anyone you can.

Awwh, thank you so much! I would have done one on Wordpress but I already have a Wordpress account linked up to my main email (blame stupid college assignments) so I had to go with Blogger. I'd like to focus on entertainment primarily, hence the film and book reviews, but for the time being it's mostly anything until I build up a large enough audience to specialise. I've posted my link around a lot including here (it's on my profile and I update the 'Plug your blog here!' thread each time I post something), on Tumblr and it's also on the About Me section on Facebook, so I'll carry on doing that. That's brilliant, your blog is awesome (I've always had a soft spot for Geography).

Reply 7

Original post by kpofsuburbia

Awwh, thank you so much! I would have done one on Wordpress but I already have a Wordpress account linked up to my main email (blame stupid college assignments) so I had to go with Blogger. I'd like to focus on entertainment primarily, hence the film and book reviews, but for the time being it's mostly anything until I build up a large enough audience to specialise. I've posted my link around a lot including here (it's on my profile and I update the 'Plug your blog here!' thread each time I post something), on Tumblr and it's also on the About Me section on Facebook, so I'll carry on doing that. That's brilliant, your blog is awesome (I've always had a soft spot for Geography).

well you seem to be doing all the right stuff then just needs a bit of time for things to get started i guess. glad you like geography too, have you studied it at all? http://vamoswearegolden.wordpress.com/ <--- there it is in case you want to have a look. i also write about astronomy so they have separate pages for each

Reply 8

Original post by tgwktm

well you seem to be doing all the right stuff then just needs a bit of time for things to get started i guess. glad you like geography too, have you studied it at all? http://vamoswearegolden.wordpress.com/ <--- there it is in case you want to have a look. i also write about astronomy so they have separate pages for each

I know, I've got 2 followers so far but they're just automated ones! I have, I did it for GCSE and absolutely loved it! I was considering it for A Level but got a better offer at college to do Journalism so I did that instead.

Reply 9

Original post by kpofsuburbia

I know, I've got 2 followers so far but they're just automated ones! I have, I did it for GCSE and absolutely loved it! I was considering it for A Level but got a better offer at college to do Journalism so I did that instead.

i had days where no one even looked at it. i did a post on hard engineering for river management one day and i got over 100 views, don't know what it is about river management but ever since that post has been really popular. :redface:

i'm doing geography at uni, and the blog is a lot more popular than i thought. Have you heard of iain stewart? He does lots of geology/geography programs on TV.

Reply 10

Original post by tgwktm

i had days where no one even looked at it. i did a post on hard engineering for river management one day and i got over 100 views, don't know what it is about river management but ever since that post has been really popular. :redface:

i'm doing geography at uni, and the blog is a lot more popular than i thought. Have you heard of iain stewart? He does lots of geology/geography programs on TV.

When did you post it? Maybe the winter floods had something to do with it? Ooooh, that sounds interesting, which uni? I have heard of him, I've never seen any of his shows though. Brian Cox on the other hand, I usually try to catch his shows :smile:

Reply 11

Original post by kpofsuburbia

When did you post it? Maybe the winter floods had something to do with it? Ooooh, that sounds interesting, which uni? I have heard of him, I've never seen any of his shows though. Brian Cox on the other hand, I usually try to catch his shows :smile:

not sure, it was one of the posts i wrote when i was doing AS geography and i think it is a common topic across exam boards. i think people use my blog for revision cause my views always go up around exam season
i like brian cox and his shows he does too, have a few of his books, yeah iain stewart is one of the people i've told about my blog, through twitter but also in person when i met him earlier in the year. my whole geography class (and my teachers) were really excited about meeting him, it was at this event held at plymouth university we got tickets too.

Reply 12

Original post by tgwktm

not sure, it was one of the posts i wrote when i was doing AS geography and i think it is a common topic across exam boards. i think people use my blog for revision cause my views always go up around exam season
i like brian cox and his shows he does too, have a few of his books, yeah iain stewart is one of the people i've told about my blog, through twitter but also in person when i met him earlier in the year. my whole geography class (and my teachers) were really excited about meeting him, it was at this event held at plymouth university we got tickets too.

Ah right, that makes sense! Oh wow, that's so exciting! :smile:

Reply 13