BLOGGING

There's never been a better time to start a blog. Professionally blogging can boost your business. Personally it can promote you. In both cases it can be fun. Or at least it should be! In this one day workshop you'll learn how to tackle the twin challenges facing bloggers: the technical and the editorial.

CONTENT

We divide this course into three distinct sections. The first, by way of introduction, looks at what blogging is (and isn't) and the value it can add to your life professionally and personally. The second explores the technical issues of setting up and maintaining a blog. And the third looks at blogging from an editorial perspective covering things like content creation and writing structure and style.

Introduction

What blogging is.
What blogging isn't (or shouldn't be).
Why you should blog.
What blogging can do for you professionally - whether you work in the profit or not-for-profit sectors.
What blogging can do for you personally.

Technical

Hosted versus self-hosted. What the terms mean and their advantages and disadvantages.
Which platform is for me? An overview of Wordpress, Blogger and some of the many alternatives (including Tumblr and Squarespace) to help you choose the right one (or ones).
Setting up a blog - the optimum settings.
Maintaining a blog.

Editorial

In many respects the hardest and most important bit because without good quality content and lots of it your blog is bound to fail!

Why "content is king."
How to find things to blog about. Content calendars and Google alerts.
Structure - why linear may not be best for online content.
Writing "hooks" that grab attention and "twists" that keep it.
Style - why conversational is best.
First, second or third person? Why writing about you in the first person is usually the best option and the case against it.
Establishing an audience and building a community.
Quality versus quantity.
How long should a blog be? The optimum length for posts.
Comments - getting your readers involved.
Activating your copy - using grammar and vocabulary to bring your words to life.

FACILITATOR

Our blogging workshops are led by Richard Uridge. A journalist for more than 30 years, Richard's love affair with words shows no sign of abating. He's passionate about them - both written and spoken. And a little bit of that enthusiasm will rub off on you. You can read his work blog here and his cycling/poetry blog here.

FEEDBACK

To find out what other people think about this workshop click here to read their comments.

IN HOUSE

This workshop is available for in-house delivery which is cost effective if you've got more than a few people who need training with the added advantage that course content can be tailored to your specific organisational needs. Contact the trainer to discuss your requirements.

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Join our waiting list

We're sorry, the course you’ve chosen isn’t running as an open workshop at the moment but you can either register your interest and we’ll let you know when it’s back on, or ask to have it delivered in-house (see below).

Ask about in-house options

If you have more than a few staff to train, want to tailor the content to your exact organisational needs, prefer the privacy of one-to-one training, or simply want the flexibility of choosing a date and, for our face-to-face workshops, venue that suits you, then this is a great and, in most cases, cost-effective alternative to our public sessions.

Price

From £999 per day (or per hour)*

* Please note the rate depends on workshop type and duration. You may pay even less than the price shown for shorter sessions.

Book an in-house workshop

If you're ready to order an in-house workshop and you want to use our secure, online booking system then click on the order in-house button below. You'll get a chance to let us know your preferred date at the next step.

Price

From £999 per day (or per hour)*