Is there a secret to blogging?

[Southern Presbyterian]

Our church's web site gets an average of about 500 hits a week to its blog page. The only problem is that no one does any blogging. I have resolved to start doing so myself in the hopes that it will inspire the others to do so. However, I feel more than a little foolish just sitting down and posting about any old thing that pops into my head and my written communications skills are such that most of the time I feel like this guy,

.

I know some of you all to be consummate bloggers and communicators. What are the secrets of a successful blog? If its a "either you have it or you don't" situation then I fear that I'm doomed. If it's a skill set that needs to be developed, then perhaps there is some hope for me.

Any and all tips, pointers and suggestions will be appreciated.

***For now I'm just trying to snag some thought provoking stuff off the web, just to get things started and in the hopes that those folks who are visiting because they find a blog page will have a reason to return and perhaps visit the rest of the site.***

 

[JonathanHunt]

Successful bloggers, per se, keep churning out regular stuff of a decent quality and hence get a lot of regular readers.

That is a huge commitment. I just blog when it suits me and I don't care that I only get 50-100 hits a day. If you want more hits, write on current events from a christian perspective and use keywords!

 

[Pergamum]

Make sure you fairly represent your church if you are blogging on behalf of the church.

Also, short and concise seems best for blog posts. With pics!

 

[BJClark]

Maybe ask if anyone in your church would like to contribute their own thoughts to the blog, writing their own articles; if they aren't already able to do so.

I know many times I read articles online and see where the author totally misrepresented Christian beliefs, they write on what they *think* Christian's believe and not on what Christians really believe. Maybe they could write a response to something like that, they read online..

 

[Zenas]

Post about ninjas. People love ninjas.

 

[panta dokimazete]

Post about ninjas. People love ninjas.

 

[panta dokimazete]

1.Try and build a committed "core team" - that will keep you from feeling as if you are carrying the ball alone.

2. Use an RSS portal (my.yahoo.com, iGoogle, etc..) and develop a mix of blog and news sources to scan daily for commentary ideas

3. Link to offsite content to substantiate your posts and pique interest

4. Follow Shakespeare's maxim "brevity is the soul of wit"

 

[jawyman]

Post about ninjas. People love ninjas.

 

[greenbaggins]

It all depends on what you want. If you want traffic, then you have to comment on other people's blogs and be interested in what they're saying (for instance, a good way to do that is to link to and interact with someone else's post). If you simply want to say what you want to say, then go ahead. However, realize that the less controversial something is, the less traffic it will receive. It is always best to keep the posts short. Posting regularly is better than posting often. However, for more traffic, post once a day. Start linking to other people's blogs in your links section. For me, it was Federal Vision issues that got my blog off the ground, specifically my debate with Douglas Wilson (who gets a lot more hits on his blog than I would ever even think of getting on mine). Then, of course, you run the risk of having your blog be a one-issue blog, which may not be a bad thing for some people.

 

[Robbie Schmidtberger]

My pastor writes a synopsis of his Sermons. The synopsis is emailed out and posted on the website- explaining the passage, his focus, and the church activities. Sunday School, AM and PM worship, other things like a fellowship meal if that is included. This is on a weekly basis (regularity).

Other ideas include: updates about weekly activities. If you have home groups, small groups, Bible studies, etc then include the relevant information for those. (where, when, topic, leader, etc.)

Quotes from Calvin, Owen, Bunyan, Lloyd Jones, Piper, Sproul, etc. All winners

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

Good ideas and suggestions, all. Except for maybe the ninjas. I don't know anything about ninjas.

Keep 'em coming. I'm taking notes.

 

[Zenas]

Hey, two people got excited over the mere mention of a ninja blog. That should tell you something.

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

Hey, two people got excited over the mere mention of a ninja blog. That should tell you something.

Perhaps we could have you do a special guest blog about ninjas.

 

[Davidius]

Post about ninjas. People love ninjas.

Don't forget pirates.

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

How about ninja pirates?

 

[Kenneth_Murphy]

Blogging is very similar to news paper columnists. I'm sure there are a lot of books out there in the Journalist arena that tell you how to be a good columnist and write those types of articles. I would think much of that would apply to blogs.