Blog2Learn

Adding an About page gives readers information about you–the author of the blog. Since one of the first rules of information literacy is to evaluate the source of information, it is vital–if you want readers to count the information on your site as trustworthy–that you explain who you are, giving credentials to validate yourself as a legitimate source of information. Consider creating a page or, at the very least, posting an About text widget in the sidebar.

Check out Sue Waters’ tips on creating an About page.

Now that you’ve created your blog, you want to make it easy for readers to subscribe to your blog. Watch the brief video below to learn how subscribing to online content works.

Creating a subsciption widget in your sidebar is a two-step process:

1. Burn your feed: By burning a feed at Feedburner, you create a way to track stats and give readers several options for subscribing to your blog–no matter what feed reader they may be using.
2. Add sidebar widget: Add the RSS icon to your sidebar to give readers one-click access to subscribing.

Also, consider giving readers the option to subscribe via e-mail, just in case they aren’t familiar with RSS/readers or they prefer e-mail subscriptions.

Blogging is all about conversations–reach out to others around the globe who share similar interests and learning from each other.

How do you get people to visit your blog? How do you find people to talk to–to enter into conversations and collaborations?

Here are a few tips:

• Read and comment on other people’s blogs. When you comment, be sure to type in the address to your blog. Other people will read your comments and click on your name to learn more about you.
• Add your blog URL to educational blog lists like Support Blogging and Teacher Lingo.
• Find a niche (what’s your passion? your special area of expertisement?) and share things people really want to know. Avoid just journaling (Who really cares about what you ate or what movie you watched?)
• Use more than just text. Incorporate multimeda elements like images, Vokis, videos.