Taking your Blog to the Next Level – What is that exactly?

No. Seriously. I need to know.

No. Really. I got talked into, flattered into, agreed to, felt just crazy enough to do a next level blogging class this semester.  Each time I end the beginning class, What About Blogs?, many want to know when the next class is.  I have to be honest, I have hesitated.  The first class is challenging enough because each person comes to class with his and her very own expectation or idea of what that class will be about. It really is one of the more challenging classes I teach for this very reason. There is a blog for every shade in the rainbow out there.  Every class has bloggers from all over that rainbow. Somehow, we manage to stay a little focused.  And, well, the class is just fun.

For this “next level” class, I am going crazy trying to anticipate what the majority of participants will want to know.  Will they still be beginner bloggers? Are they still trying to figure out what they want to do with their blog?  Have they been blogging for years and are perhaps looking for tips to freshen up? Do they want to know about the brand, the writing, the technology, the expansion of readership, the tricks and tips of layout? What?  I could spend 3 hours on a list of 100 tips. I could ask everyone to throw their top two “want to knows” in a hat and figure out how to answer them.  I could PowerPoint my way through the class and dodge questions.  I got this!

I have been learning about and teaching blogging for years.  I know a lot about it, but - and here is the most wonderfully ironic part - I don’t always do those things that traditionally make a blog successful. I’m not sure I would even call our Eighth Floor Blog successful!! 

Like I said, I know what to do; I just haven’t done a lot of it. My primary goal has always been to have a blog that was solid enough to teach a beginning class on blogging.  That’s all.  But now look at what I have done.  Now I have to have a blog that has been “taken to the next level” . . . by next week.  I know.  In teacher time, that’s tons ‘o time. Oh, and Thanksgiving is at my house this year.

Just laughin’
Lee Anne