You'll want to read what Patrick Says
My frequent statement is that I like to read personal blogs written by interesting, funny people. When the blogger is interesting, I'll read whatever they write about.
I especially enjoy bloggers who blog their insights on everyday topics in a humorous yet thoughtful way. For a perfect illustration of this kind of blog, I present Patrick Says v2.0 for your reading pleasure.
As a lover of language, I found his observation on sarcastic use of a common phrase both funny and smart. This is the kind of writing that I strive toward, because it zooms in on a tiny slice of life, illuminating something ordinary people can relate to.
I found one post that makes me admire Patrick's fearlessness. He writes candidly about the day he discovered girls are interesting. Considering the details are online for all to see, that story is a brave, honest thing to blog about.
As a nod to paid blogging, I had to include a link to this video. My advice: stick with your day job and blogging on the side, because your dream of being a puppeteer is miles from working out.
I've been a puppeteer and it's nowhere near as exciting as my earlier foray in miming.
Now I teach and I can discern no noticeable difference between my previous two gigs except the following:
1. I find that I still operate as a puppeteer, and
2. My students are well on their way to mime-hood.
On another note, since I read a previous entry on your blog, I keep my blog on Blogger. I am not out to make money; however, I often feel that I am 'less of a blogger' because I use blogger, because 'blogspot' appears in the url.
It's unfortunate to think that legitamacy of voice is dependent upon the platform in which it is expressed.
And we wonder why so many students sit quiet and feel disconnected. Imagine if we told them what we tend to suggest to one another in the (forgive me) blogisphere: 'your voice is small compared to my wordpress voice, but you do your thing'.
Amazing how class consciousness is here in blog world.
Anyhow, time to go buy a bigger house, oh, and a bigger televion.
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As I stated in the article, I have nothing against Blogger. I don't look down on anyone who uses it. My husband has a blog on blogger, as do many great bloggers I read daily. They blog about a wide variety of topics and many even make money from their blogs.
Heck, I don't even use Wordpress.
My point is that if you want to give advice on a given topic, you should be able to show some proof expertise.
Would you take advice on mortgages from someone who rents their home?
Would you take career advice from the jobless?
Would you take parenting advice from someone with no kids?
Would you take diet advice from a fat person?
So I won't take "make money blogging online advice" from someone without a url... or with limited online experience...
Yes, all those voices have less credibility.
A personal blog, a teachers blog, a parenting blog, a sports blog.... anything else does not loose credibility for hosting on a free url.
Even owning a domain, you can still host with Blogger and redirect to your domain. That allows for a better ability to make money blogging, because advertisers often require a private domain, right or wrong. That's the only reason I made the jump to a private domain.
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I totally agree with you on the point that advice carries 'cred' when it emanates from someone who is truly knowledgeable about a particular field.
Currently, I am commenting back and forth with a fellow blogger (she uses WordPress) who is trying to get me to switch from Blogger to WordPress. She thinks this will help my blog.
How? Traffic, I suppose, b/c I'm surely not looking to make money from my blog.
I began blogging to model the point you are making: If I want my students or their teachers to A)read blogs, or
On another note, if we lived in the Renaissance, I would most likely seek out the advice of fat people. They were adored, them Renaissance beauties. Or so my 9th grade history teacher taught me way back in the dark ages of my high school days of yore.
Thanks for the feedback.
Long live Blogger!
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I love the idea of teachers and students blogging. Writing saved my life when I was a lonely teenager. I believe the power of written communication is so much more important than it was even then years ago. Giving students that power will set them up for life.
One of the blogs I read is written by an alternative school teacher. She posted recently about getting approval for a blogging project for her students.
I don't know that there is an advantage for you to move from blogger. Right now, I'm using GoDaddy's Quick Blog - not the most flexible thing, but I have to stick with 100% web based because I don't trust our computer.
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Thanks for the write-up. I just found this and it's very nice of you (although that commercial is still pretty embarrassing today).
Thanks again.
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Glad you liked it.
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