7 silly things you really shouldn't forget to do... (EduBlogging)

Traveling through the 'sphere this afternoon, while foraging about for a guest-post I'll be writing for the ELT Blogathon, I noticed some very basic errors made by a number of bloggers, both the newbies and the oldies...

Here's my list of common things you really shouldn't forget to have on your main blog page:

1. RSS feed or email subscription option

Many people don't have the time to enter in your URL each time they want to read one of your posts. Most of the time they can't remember it anyway.   :-)

Providing a link to these enables your readers to either read your blog posts within their readers comfortably (e.g. with GoogleReader) or within their inboxes via Feedburner or the like.    

Place the button to this on the top of your page and again at the side to ensure that your readers can find it easily and subscribe.  Set it to "full" so that they can read the entire post  via this or even their i-googles before deciding if the post is worth popping over to in order to comment, bookmark for later perusal or perhaps even share with friends.

There's nothing quite so annoying, however, as someone who has put the RSS button on their page but has limited the reading to just the headlines.  To be honest, when this happens, I usually unsubscribe.

If you're on Facebook, consider joining NetworkedBlogs and adding this badge to your page so that your readers can follow you there.

• What is an RSS feed and how does it work?
• Google Reader
• FeedBurner

2. An "About Me" page

If it's not immediately obvious who you are and what you do, your readers generally want to get an idea of whether or not you really do know what you are talking about!  This is not to be mean, it's just that there are folks out there who are basically not even educators, don't know much about teaching English or who are scammers  just  jumping-on-the-English-is-a-global-language-bandwagon-let-me-see-if-I-can-make-some-money-with-Google-Ads...

As the internet expands exponentially, it is increasingly becoming very important to apply critical thinking and to check up on authority. 

Therefore, consider writing a short summary of your background, add a photo if you're not too shy, embed slides from old presentations (load into a document sharing site like Scribd/Slideshare or GoogleDocs) and provide links to your LinkedIn profile or wherever else you are located within the Social Media realm.  

• How to write an About Me page
• I'm having a re-think about mine after finding 40 great examples here...

3. A tag-line or short description of what you blog about

What do you usually write about?  Is it immediately obvious?   

Like the About Me page, a sentence or two describing the sort of topics you write about (or don't write about) is very useful for targetting the sort of people who will be sincerely interested in regularly reading and subscribing to what you have to say.

• The importance of blog tag-lines
• How to create a rock-solid tag-line

4. My top posts or favorite posts widget

What were your most visited pages?   Which did you receive the most comments on?   There is a good chance that those posts will also be enjoyed by new visitors so be sure to provide a way for them to easily get to the best of your work.

Regularly check your Google Analytics for these statistics or use a Post-rank widget

5. A menu bar or side-bar links

If you write on a variety of topics you may well be missing out on the opportunity to reach certain readers. 

Having a navigational bar along the top or on the side which clearly indicates the range of your  entire body of work is very important.  Some of your readers will not know how to get around a blog and  they may want to:  it's your responsibility to make this as easy as possible for them to do so.  

Also, the first time they visit  your blog it's actually possible that it was on a day you'd published an article on a topic they're simply not that interested in.  Don't forget that you can use the labels, tags or categories that you normally use to organize your posts to create a list of special links they can get to easily -  this practice also helps to hold a variety of posts written over a long stretch of time together.

Above all, don't forget to leave a way for readers to get back to your HOME page.   

6. Link your like-posts
Remember that your visitors via Google will probably have no idea how to find these older posts and there's nothing worse than reading that this is #5 of a series of 8 and them not being able to find post 2 or post 6.

Whenever you write a series of posts or you're following up on something you had written about two or three or even six months ago, don't forget to tie them all together.

You should be doing this anyway using the tags (labels/categories) function however many of your readers won't know that they can click on these.   One of my favorite widgets in "LinkedWithin" which unfortunately I can no longer use with this template!

p.s Going back and linking the newer posts to these older posts is an area I have to work on too!






7. The Search Bar
Whatever else is missing on your blog, this is probably the most important that you should not forget to add.   After a reader has enjoyed reading something you've written, there's a good chance they may:

a) want to know what else you've written.  The link they had followed on to your page was a direct link from Twitter or LinkedIn. They aren't bloggers so they don't know how to hit the title of your blog and get back to the Home Page.   They don't know how to find the rest of your stuff (see all above tips)... they don't know how to find out if you're ever mentioned something they are really interested in knowing more about, like the Present Perfect...  The search bar will help clear up these issues.

b) want to find a post you wrote about a year ago.  They're in the staff-room having a chat with colleagues and a subject you'd spent some time on crops up... they hit the internet, with a hey "JaneX wrote a funny piece... let me just find it... "  but alas, now there's no way of finding those words again - they have disappeared into the nethersphere and Google's feeling cranky today - who has time to go 10 pages in...  Having a search bar directly on your page will help them get back to your golden gems!

I'm not sure if I've covered it all but in summary try to keep your reading audience in the forefront of your mind and remember that they may need your help at times!




What have you noticed as missing from other bloggers' pages?  
What makes it difficult for you when trying to follow someone's (or my) work regularly?
Share your thoughts with us whether you are a blogger yourself or a reader!


Thanks,
Karenne


Useful links to previous posts on EduBlogging

• Google Alerts - get notified anytime a blogger mentions your work!
• Carnival! (27 ELT bloggers share their thoughts on EduBlogging)
• My thoughts on being an Edu-blogger 
• Musings about blog rolls 
• How to keep track of all the TEFL blogs
• Blogging, chatting, discussions online: (we're still just writing on cave walls)
• IATEFL 2011:  The ELT blogosphere symposium
• Recorded Presentation on Edublogging at the Reform Symposium July 31st, 2010

Guest Posts

• Glossary of EduBlogging Terms, Mike Harrison's Blog
• Glossary of phrases and expresssions based on the word blog, Sue Lyon Jones's blog 

Series: The Best Kept Secrets of Highly Successful Edubloggers

• Intro  Nick Jaworksi's blog
• Part 1 Shelly Terrell's blog
• Part 2 Janet Bianchini's blog
• Part 3 Berni Wall's blog
• Part 4 Monika Hardy's blog 
• Part 5 Anne Hodgson's blog (still coming soon)

On Blog Rolls (EduBlogging)

After setting up a blog and writing the very first post, one of the first things one generally does next is to have a look around at other Edu-blogs for tips on layout and widgets, style and feel, and while traveling through the 'sphere one of the things which tends to stand out on the side bar (or bottom bar as in my own case) is the blog roll...

Some of the first things you may think about when you first notice this are:

a) who do I list on my own?


b) how do I get on other people's?

a) Which blogs should you list on your blog roll?

• Blogs you feel most comfortable recommending to your readers.  That is the primary function of a blog roll - it is there to tell others who to visit next.  It says that you have read at least five to ten of their posts and that you are very confident about the content and the intention of the writer.  You know that you are not randomly sending your readers on to someone who writes about dump trucks and you know they don't plagiarize other people's content.  They are EduBloggers who:

• blog consistently.
• write on similar themes as your own. 
• write well (as this is subjective, it your call and this decision may affect your own reputation!).

Concentrate on

• Bloggers who have started around the same time as you have (you can spur each other on and talk to each other about what you're both learning and going through).

• Bloggers who visit your own blog and participate in your conversations, people who are not just focused on their own.

• Bloggers with a sense of community: the ones with blog rolls.

• Bloggers who do more than indulge in "diary" writing. (There's nothing wrong with doing that but is that who you want to send your readers on to?)

• Bloggers who contribute. Their words/tips/lesson plans and ideas consistently help you (and therefore others) to develop as a professional in your field (or they make you laugh-think-feel something).

b) How do you get on other people's blog rolls?

Not by asking.  

• Don't do this and in particular, never, ever do this with an already popular blogger - he probably gets hundreds of requests weekly and it is both a major breach of blog-i-quette and a form of spam.   

 So how do you get another blogger's attention?

• write your own quality content, consistently. 
• write on similar themes as the blogs you respect without being a copycat.
• write at a relatively high level of English: use the spell-checker and edit your work before clicking on the Publish Post button.

• Participate in other bloggers' conversations: don't wait for them to come to you.
  

• Wait.  If you are new you have simply not produced a body of work worth recommending yet.  

Reciprocal linking might look very attractive to you when you're starting off - you've listed someone and because you've done this then you want to be listed back (you may even feel you deserve it) but aside from the fact that it is a cheek for you to expect this from people who are essentially strangers to you, doing this sort of thing, willy-nilly, can wind-up jeapordizing that blogger's ranking on Google!

Also those links on the side-bar also don't usually add much to your ranking - they're generally not searchable content and therefore the links which have the most value to you when starting out are those created within someone else's blog post.


Note

• Many bloggers don't update their blog rolls frequently so do not take it personally if you aren't listed even after visiting them many times.  Be patient, you never know, you might be on next week.

• Many bloggers only list the blogs written by their personal friends (real or virtual) or by their employees/ colleagues or even their mates-from-back-in-the-day so do not take it personally if you aren't listed.

• Many bloggers don't keep blog rolls due to the hassle and spam mails asking to be put on them.

So the social-media tip for this Sunday is forget about the blog roll for now and instead work on developing relationships with your fantastic new edu-community.


Useful links
Carnival! (27 bloggers writing on EduBlogging, 2009)
Thoughts on being an Edu-blogger

Blogging, chatting, discussions online: (we're still just writing on cave walls)
IATEFL 2011:  The ELT blogosphere symposium
Recorded Presentation on Edublogging at the Reform Symposium July 31st, 2010

The Guest Posts

Glossary of EduBlogging Terms, Mike Harrison's Blog
Glossary of phrases and expresssions based on the word blog, Sue Lyon Jones's blog

The Best Kept Secrets of Highly Successful Edubloggers
Intro  Nick Jaworksi's blog
Part 1 Shelly Terrell's blog
Part 2 Janet Bianchini's blog
Part 3 Berni Wall's blog
Part 4 Monika Hardy's blog 
Part 5 Anne Hodgson's blog (coming soon)


Best,
Karenne
education
image credit: MikeLicht, NotionsCapital.com

I love hearing from you! Please add your thoughts if you feel like there's something you would like to question, add or say about it - don't worry about perfection or agreeing with me - it's always a pleasure to hear from you and know your own opinions about edublogging and the blog roll.  Did I miss anything?  

Worried about spamming me? Spam = you haven't read any of the discussion either in the post or by the other comments yet you want to come to my page in order to advertise yourself... (which probably means you won't have read this either :)). Your comment will be removed.

Contribution = you've read the post and the discussion which has been added to it from other educators (or you want to start one off).

Thoughts on being an Edu-blogger

Today when people ask me what I do,

the first thing I say is

I'm an Edu-Blogger.  

Then I might add...

I write Kalinago English and on it I discuss issues related to teaching English as a Foreign Language, put up  free lessons plans every now and then, I talk about what's going on in my classes, waffle on quite a bit about dogme, do you know what dogme is?  I'm most proud of having a running series featuring amazing women in our industry - those are mostly guest posts from other bloggers, and sometimes I rant on about textbooks (not fond of them, me) but quite often I'll show how I use/d a particular computer application/ program or web 2.0 tool in one of my classes. 

Then, inevitably, one of the people that I'm talking to, in an after-work business suit, will say something like

So... do you make money from doing that?

and I'll blush and mumble something about how not everything in life has to be about money, you know. 

But then, because I have my pride and don't want him to suddenly think that 2010's answer to being a loser is being a blogger, I'll confess, of course, that  well, with regard to the moola, it's not so cut and dry, nope there's no income directly, but...   thing is, sometimes people do go on to my website from the blog and sometimes they buy my materials there but I tend not to "market" that very often (almost never) so most of the traffic on that particular site actually tends to come from Google, from countries and teachers who are non-native English teachers.  

And yes, well, of course I've gotten some paid writing work based on a lesson I did (Susan Boyle led to Working with Films).

At which point MrBusinessSuit begins to roll his eyes.

But, yeah

I have a topsy-turvey life:  my hobby (teaching) pays the bills and my job's a mind adventure.

There's something to it, tho'

There's something to all this work done by so many of us.

Where it's going, who knows...

EduBlogs, who offer various platforms designed specifically for the practice of EduBlogging,  list on a banner trailing across their website that there are

517, 432

Blogs 

written by teachers,

for teachers

for teacher-trainers

for students

and
with students.

To be honest, given this extraordinary figure, it does seem a really good time right now, to sit down, to stop, to take a pause, to look at this really quite astonishing and amazing development.   

I've decided to do this, partly on here but also, mainly, by specifically offering guest articles to my fellow Edu-bloggers  because it  is, in my humble opinion, working with your community that is one of the most, one of  the absolutely most essential parts of becoming and being a blogian: 

blogging is not just about one person 

who says that blogging is 

either this or that

but what the wider community, 

made up of each
of its individuals, 

says it is.

Blogging, or what I refer to with my own students as the digitization of paper, represents an incredible realizable step towards the democratization of education.

We're on an adventure.

It is teachers who are talking to teachers. 

Globally.

 images based on a poll of 137 EduBloggers June 2010

And although this new series is specifically aimed at giving advice to the NewbieBloggers, based on the reading I did before I dipped my toes in, based on the successes and failures I've had along the way, delving into some of my strengths, revealing my own weaknesses ... telling you exactly how I managed to build a blog that gets so many visitors, has won and been nominated for so many awards, reaches an incredible global audience through versions of some articles rewritten for the academic journals in my field -  even though I'm just a TEFL teacher and EdTech teacher-trainer, really, who had no "special" personal or professional connections prior to hitting the page.

It is also an invitation to you, those of you who have more experienced voices, to disagree with me, to add your own pennies' worth in the comments on various posts (no zumping the theme tho').  

It is an invitation to share your knowledge with your community.

Useful links
Carnival! (27 bloggers writing on EduBlogging, 2009)

Blogging, chatting, discussions online: (we're still just writing on cave walls)
IATEFL 2011:  The ELT blogosphere symposium (call for YOU to join me as a co-presenter)
Recorded Presentation on Edublogging at the Reform Symposium July 31st, 2010

The Guest Posts

Glossary of EduBlogging Terms, Mike Harrison's Blog
Glossary of phrases and expresssions based on the word blog, Sue Lyon Jones's blog

The Dogma of Edublogging, Nick Jaworksi's blog

The Best Kept Secrets of Highly Successful Edubloggers
Part 1 Shelly Terrell's blog
Part 2 Janet Bianchini's blog
Part 3 Berni Wall's blog
Part 4 Monika Hardy's blog 
Part 5 Anne Hodgson's blog (coming soon)

Also on its way...

• Lords of the Armchair (coming soon, on Jason Renshaw's)
• Comparing EduBlogging platforms (coming soon, on Marisa's Constantinides')
• Blogging with students (Barbara Sakamoto's)
• Blogging tips to share with students (Tara Benwell's)
• Why do Edu-Bloggers quit? (don't know yet, but help me out with this poll...)

What do you think?  Are there any topics in particular you'd like me to cover?


Current Poll



Best,
Karenne
education

image credit: Artemis blogging, after Rembrandt by MikeLicht NotionsCapital.com

Blogging, Chatting & Discussions Online

One of the luckiest things to ever happen in my life was being taught by Professor Hein at MLS in the US.

It was his boundless energy, creativity, positivity, dynamism and knowledge which probably most influenced me to become a teacher myself but also, it was he who inspired a love of history.  

A passion for the past. 

I am lucky to have this, I think, because unless we as a species are able to look backwards then we are unable to see forwards.

On Saturday, 17 July 2010, we held Stuttgart's first Tech Tools Day - an interactive, hands-on, full day of workshops where teacher participants were encouraged to learn more about the use of web 2.0 tools in the language learning classroom.

Expert colleagues Carl Dowse, Gavin Dudeney, Anne Hodgson, Mike Hogan, Heike Philp, Dr Petra Pointner, Byron Russell, Shelly Terrell and Andi White reviewed speaking, listening, watching, reading, describing, applying, searching, evaluating, analyzing and creating and it was a fantastic day - we all learned so much from each other.

Details of their presentations: level one here, level two here.

My own presentations were focused around the use of some of the "simpler" and depending on where you stand, possibly the less flashy of the numerous and fascinating web2.0 tools which are available today, however it was my role to look at written communication.

During the workshops, so I could provide an easy online space & exercise for our trainees to experience  threaded conversations (forums) I created a Prezi which asked "why do we write?"

Blogging, Chatting & Discussions Online on Prezi

To look at this Prezi:
click on the play button to start, continue clicking play 
or select More and set to auto-play

Many great thoughts came up and discussions ranged from whether or not we write for the interaction, to record information; to communicate with others when we aren't within hearing; to keep in touch; to share instructions; to create and collaborate.

Then, continuing on the historical theme, I made a video of our species' development of the tools we  have used to write with in the last 500 years - this  led to the qualities of instantaneous chat, asking them to think of the pedagogical applications and purposes of web2.0 tools in our classrooms.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
song by Sue Lyon Jones

I was very proud to be involved in the creation of a TechToolsDay for ELTAS partly because I enjoy sharing my knowledge, partly because I am afraid that those who are shunning technology will be left behind in ten to fifteen years as unemployable adults (or relegated to only base-level service industries) and partly because I have long felt incredibly irritated by the very, non Socratic, question "But what about the Pedagogy?"  

This, personally, to me is an incredibly foolish and fear-based question.   

The creation of the tool, the actual tool and the reason for using the tool are all different and yet all interlinked. 

A lot of teachers around the world who are resistant to today's developments will spout for you Postman - in some kind of pseudo-intellectual argument for keeping life and learning simple.   They criticize the current development of technology in the classroom as if it were something random, something that is only occurring now, in our time,  in our generation.

If we look backwards we will understand our present and see our future:

62,000 years ago we broke off branches and dipped their rough edges into the juice of berries, added chalk and colored stones to tell the perennial story of love and strife.   When charcoal paintings washed away from the walls of caves we learned how to chisel into rocks so our ideograms would not be lost.  

We fashioned clay tablets when we realized that we could not carry giant rocks, when the seasons forced us to move on to our next destinations.

We developed papyrus when we saw that clay breaks.  

When we ran out of papyrus, in a labor-intensive step, we created vellum from the hides of animals and  then finally, we made paper which 1,200 years later we're still doing because Man has an innate need to transcend his mortality, to communicate across time, to leave messages for colleagues, to share knowledge.   

When we understand this then we are able to understand that the time we are living in today is a mere blip, the so-called paradigm shift we are currently experiencing is actually nothing more than the same resource-issues we have always faced, it is no different from at any of our other junctures and it must be solved  - for today, the felling of trees is responsible for a major part of our massive environmental damage and burden.

Writing has always been done in order to reach others, to reflect and review our own experiences.

Blogs, chats, texts, tweets and our other discussions online are simply one step along this long road of evolution.   

It is nothing more than it has ever been - an attempt to harvest fleeting thoughts, to gather experiences, to warn of pain, to share joy and the experience of being a human.  

To teach.

Through our digital web2.0 tools, we are doing nothing more than painting on cave walls.

imagecredit: man of many languages, by eyesplash on flickr

Useful links related to this posting:

• Prezi: Why do we write? (adapted/downloadable as a student/teacher-training exercise)
• Animoto video: The next 500 years+
• More thoughts on technology in teaching

Best,
Karenne
education

English Language Teachers Now Blogging, tech tip 10

Back in June, I put a call out asking the ELT blogosphere to answer this question in the form of a blog carnival.

What advice would you give to another TEFL teacher interested in becoming a blogger?

27 bloggers responded: writing over 40 articles, 2 sent emails and 31 bloggers answered a poll on various issues.

Given the sheer abundance and quality of the posts from these global English teachers, it quickly became clear that the best way to present this for you would be to organize them in a downloadable doc, adding extra tid-bits here and there.

Consider the slideshare a trailer, rather than some odd kind of powerpoint presentation...

English Language Teaching Blogging The Trailer

View more documents from Karenne Sylvester.

To view in full screen mode, click the button above. To download the pdf to your laptop, click on the menu and select download. I've also taken a snapshot of each of the slides - so if you like, you can bookmark this page and grab this, print it out and use it to circle which blogs you'd like to visit and read on further (that's here)!

n.b please note that the beautiful mindmap on what community means, slide 55, was created by Joao Carlos Alves, not JC Salves.


What the bloggers had to say...


On getting started

• So you think you have a good idea for starting a blog? Well maybe you do, but every day, there are thousands of new blogs being created and of those thousands, only a very small percentage last beyond the first couple of postings. Why? ...read more on Nik Peachey's On Blogging and Social Media
  

• The transition from a blog subscriber to a blog author was not easy! I wanted to include the best apps, widgets, images, and tools on my site. I would see an item I wanted on another blog and coveted it. I was beginning to believe a person had to be a techie to be able to create these incredible blogs. ...read more on Shelly Terrell's Teacher Reboot Camp
  

• Before venturing into the blogosphere yourself, it’s probably a good idea to check out what is already out there. There are lots of reasons people blog, and no one reason is better than the other. However, people are more likely to visit and remember your blog if there is an angle, a certain hook to it ...read more from Lindsay Clandfield on Burcu Akyol's EFL blog

• There are a lot of great blogger/thinkers out there. Some of the best posts I’ve written, I think, have been expanded versions of comments I’ve left on other people’s posts. Of course, always give credit, too. ...read more on Larry Ferlazzo's blog

On blogging with students

• Edublogging... How many times have I written about it, gave tips, presented, and tried to inspire others? Fact is the ones who endure the first stages of discoveries and experiments are the passionate educators, those who teach with heart and soul, who truly believe in their transformative potential as an educator. These are the ones who, later on, become passionate edubloggers. ...read more on Carla Arena's Collablogatorium here

• Difficulties ? We haven’t got a good computer lab. Most of our students do this kind of homework at the weekends at home or in the nearest cybercafé. Some of them are interested in it some of them aren’t, as usual. ...via email from Susana Canelo (view her blog here)

• The idea of blogging with students came to me after a period of feeling that something was missing in my lessons… Before I start, I would like you to watch a video of my students’ thoughts about our class blog:... watch & read more on Burcu Akyol's EFL blog - in 3 parts and she also discusses different blogging platforms here.

• Blogging is pretty easy to do and setting up a personal blog should pose no great hinderence to even the most computer-clumsy, but how can it be used for teaching? ...read more on Illya Arnet-Clarke's EVO blogfolio
  

On finding inspiration & writing great content

• So, what about the so-called blogger's block? Looking back at my blog entries, I can see that I have a lot of unpublished drafts. Posts that I started and didn't finish. And then I remember times when I wanted to write something and didn't. ...read more on Graham Stanley's Blog-EFL

• There is not a TEFL teacher alive who couldn’t easily bang out a couple of hundred very interesting words on at least one of the topics below (in no particular order):

  1. A great/ terrible lesson I observed

  2. What I learned from some student/ observer feedback

  ...read 99 more ideas on Alex Case's TEFLtastic

• Be on the look out for post materials from all walks of life. Read other blogs and comment on them. Find your niche and develop it. Stick to a set format ...read more on Janet Bianchini's Abruzzo blog
  

• A good blog is personal. It's about things that interest you. It doesn't have to be about the intimate details of your life (although it can be), but it discusses things that have caught your attention and that you want to give more thought to....read more on Siobhan Curious' Classroom as a microcosm

On the effect it can have on your career

• Equally clearly to me is that there are brilliant teachers and trainers out there without publishing deals who are as prolific, creative and popular as some of the more visible (at least at conferences and in bookstores) names in the profession. This is a threat, I suspect, for many parts of the profession - not simply ‘expert speakers’, but also publishers, who run the risk of losing control of the primary knowledge distribution channel, and therefore the content and the income....read more on Gavin Dudeney's That's Life

• If you combine blogging with other free tools such as LinkedIn and Twitter, you can join the "magic circle" of other bloggers, thought leaders and illuminaries. In short, an "unknown" can have as much voice and prominence as the industry greats, and has as much chance of getting opinions and ideas heard along with theirs ...submitted via email, Clare Whitmell wrote a similar post on this theme here.

On stuff to know about

• RSS feeds & Google Alerts ...read more here

• Widgets Some people say you have to be careful with the amount of widgets you add to your page so that it doesn´t become too polluted, I say "Try widgets out and keep the ones you find useful. " ...read more on Ana Maria Mene's Life Feast

• Using images Blogging is greatly enhanced by the use of images. And the use of images brings us to the concern about copyright ...read more on Vicky Saumell's Educational Techology in ELT

• On blogrolls My blog roll is about my own Personal Learning Network: fellow bloggers who like sharing conversations with me, communicating with me here and over on their own blogs - we talk about different ideas and teaching approaches, discuss opinions, pass on worksheets or tips to one another, that sort of thing. Kinda like a virtual staffroom. ...read more here

• On tags and labels The haphazard, somewhat unfocussed and certainly unsystematic approach to my blogging was amply reflected in the enormous list of tags that was generated when I added the Label gadget to the sidebar. You may think it is unwieldy and eclectic now, but you should have seen it when it first appeared! ...read more on Carl Dowse's blog.
  

• On html Proficiency in a language allows us to communicate and connect with others. In the same way, proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript help us to effectively communicate and connect with our readers. If you are not a web head that is okay, because even knowing basic HTML can improve the way you communicate with your readers. ...read more on Shelly Terrell's Teacher Reboot Camp

• On SEO The acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. When you write any page for the Internet, be it a page on a website or a blogpost, you're writing in a language that is searchable for a target audience. Your text should therefore contain keywords that surfers in your target group would be looking for. ...read more on MELTA/Anne Hodgson's Ask Auntie Web

• On money Many teachers who write blogs would like to make some money from their blogging to either supplement their income or even just cover the costs of some of their time. ...read more from Miracel Juanta on Nik Peachey's On Blogging and Social Media.

• On micro-blogging #7. Spread the love. People all over the world, join in, join the love train, love train! That's right, the best way to network is spread the love ..read more on Neal Chamber's Teacher Stumpers

• On managing time If you think that this many tips on time management just to find time to write an unpaid TEFL blog is a bit anal, my answers are: 1) And? 2) They also work for finding time for lesson planning and studying for a DELTA, MA etc. 3) I don’t know if too much love will kill you, too much time management probably will, so use with care and see the last point ...read more on Alex Case's TEFLtastic

• Time management tips When I mention my blogging and social bookmarking habit, I am always asked the same question: Where do you find the time? The answer is: time is an abstract concept......read more on Isabelle Jones' My Languages

On audience

• Use some non TEFL tags about things people generally are searching for (celebrity erotic home videos, new Apple products etc) in the hope that Google drives some (mistaken) traffic to your site or ...read more on Alex Case's TEFLtastic

• Writing a blog or creating a website is hard work. Keeping it up to date and keeping new content on your site is even harder, so if you are going to put all this time and work into your site, you will want to know that people are visiting it and reading your articles and enjoying your content. So you are going to need some kind of tracking. ...read more on Nik Peachey's On Blogging and Social Media

• On getting more professional ...buy Darren Rowse's 31 day challenge e-workbook (n.b. this is not an affiliate link - the challenge made a huge difference to my blogging & blog, I highly recommend it.)

On community

• If you really want your blog or site to be useful, appreciated and get regular visitors then it’s vital that you are part of the community your serve. That means more than just pushing your content to places where you think potential visitors might be, but it means actually engaging with, understanding and being part of those communities. ...read more on Nik Peachey's On Blogging and Social Media

• BELTfree isn't a directory in the usual sense of one, i.e. a place to randomly market blog posts - we're not listed on google and the stuff we say and do there is private. All active bloggers, we're a mix of methodology authors, materials writers, teacher-trainers, language coaches and teachers. ...read more about BELTfree here.

• Wikipedia defines community as “a group of individuals who share characteristics, regardless of their location or type of interaction” ...read more on Joao Alves' Reflections.
  

On commenting

• Whenever I get a new comment on one of my posts, I think that I’m writing and some other people are really reading it and even bothering to reply for it! Every comment is a smile on my face and putting this smile on other people’s faces and doing it every day is awesome...read more on Özge Karaoglu's blog

• When I leave a comment, I’m more likely to see the connections between the various posts I read, and more likely to follow the links provided in the initial post, as well as read the blogs of the other commenters on the same post....read more on Kim Cofino's Always Learning

Why I blog

• Comin' under the wire, watch a virtual chat with Vicki Hollett on Learning to Speak 'merican

• There are lots of great EFL teachers who blog. You will be learning from them and with them. If at first it feels like you are the one who is receiving all the knowledge and giving nothing in return, that will soon change. And let me tell you that the blogging community needs the people who can ask the right questions as much as it needs those who will answer them. ...read more on Natasa Gojic's blog

• Always wanted to write, to engage and entertain, to practise articulating my thoughts. What better chance to do so, than this. What better feedback than the number of people visiting, commenting. ...read more on Tamas Lorincz's blog

• I hope that Bite-Sized-English.com is a win-win situation. I hope that the people who come here hoping to practice and improve their English ‘win’ by getting good English practice, and good tips to improve their English. And I know that the website has been a win for me, because it’s helped me refine my teaching ...read more on Toby Crowley's Bite Sized English

• I noticed a few months into blogging that I could put on my blog, at no extra cost, a poll thing. How cool is that? After some thought I decided to do a poll of influential people in ELT in order to make a new list. I felt that I would be joining the ranks of all those great internet polls (World’s Sexiest Woman, Worst Pizza Place in America etc). I proudly announced my poll on Twitter and all hell broke loose. ...read more on Lindsay Clandfield's Six Things.
  

• Time is a real issue. I could easily spend the whole day blogging, and still I wouldn’t get everything out of my system that I want to say. ...read more on Jeremy Day's Specific English
  

• A lot of blog advice seems to focus on boosting traffic or monetizing content. Personally, though, I try not to do things with these targets in mind. It is easy to get consumed by finding the right keywords, or SEO, or link exchanges. I find that if I think about these things too much, it ruins what I write ...read more on Dave Royal's ESL etc

• Though I don’t make money from it and know I’m one of (and not one in) a million, blogging is as important to me as the teaching and writing I charge for. The best part has been the discipline of thinking about things in greater depth. ...read more on Anne Hodgson's No blog is an island

Did you get this far down the screen?

Wow ;-)

So, what do you think, did we cover everything?

Any questions still need answering? Fire away - if I/we can help, we will.

And do let us know when you've set up your new blog... but no spam, right ;-)


Best,
Karenne
p.s. THANKS to all the bloggers who participated in this carnival and patiently waited for me to publish it and much thanks to you for reading it and the great entries listed.

What is BELTfree?

BELTfree stands for Bloggers in ELT, freelancers.

We're a small, exclusive community dedicated to the sharing and exchanging of tips, tricks, hacks, general information about being both blogger and EFL/ESL teacher.

All active bloggers, we're a mix of methodology authors, materials writers, teacher-trainers, language coaches and teachers.

BELTfree isn't a directory in the usual sense of one, i.e. a place to randomly market blog posts - we're not listed on google and the stuff we say and do there is private.

The function of our being together as a group is to intelligently market, build a learning network of like-minded folks and to help each other: sharing our knowledge and experience.

We will stay small. Our target is not to turn into one of those ginormous, anonymous groups with hundreds or thousands of members which are usually made up of 80% lurkers/non-contributors but instead to form real relationships with each other.

Our mission is to support each others growth as bloggers and language professionals and we're an active and collaborative community.


So do you want to join?

If you're a English language trainer, blogging for at least 3mos, you post more than once a month - in fact your last post was less than 3wks ago and you have written at least 10+ articles plus your blog belongs to you personally, then do contact any of our members with your URL and some details of why you'd like to join us.

www.beltfree.ning.com

If you'd like to know more about what we do, go on ahead and ask.

And BELTfreers, why is it interesting to be a part of BELTfree?