Make Blogging Fun Again

Keeping a site up and running isn't light work. Writing, scheduling, promoting, proofreading, maintaining, updating, replying, publishing... all of that takes time and energy. Bloggers get burnt out trying to keep up with it.

What can you do to avoid burning out while still being productive with fresh inspiration to go on creating more?

• Change where you write.
• Change how you write.
• Get some sleep!
• Make writing fun (again).

If all else fails, reconsider your topic. Maybe you just don't have a blog niche which really suits you? Make a list of the things you really do love to read about, find out about and above all - what do you like to DO? Chances are something you are actively participating in will be a much better topic than something you watch from the sidelines.

Write Something Different: Interview Troubleshooting - problems with solutions Profile someone or something Quiz or polls Personal stories Quotes Conversations Explain decisions Answer questions Thank someone Round ups Goals Update old posts Q & A Follow up Checklists Trends Controversial Live blogging - report on an event Life streaming - report on yourself Video posts Promotional - talk about your ebook, etc Contests Ask questions of your readers FAQ (Frequently asked questions) Top ten list Podcast Review Editorial Rant Critique Special reports Post in a series, linked together Cheat sheet Infographic Hand drawn post Web comic Art journal Jokes Webinar Repost a discussion held on Twitter Debate Curated links Collaboration (trade posts with another blogger). Historical Future predictions Shopping ideas How-to Seasonal On this day... Whatever happened to... Tutorial Images with minimal text Advice column Hypothetical (What if...) Satire Inspirational/ motivational News Definitions of words/ jargon Directory of links Join in on a meme, blog fair or other project

Write it Differently

Stop writing everything like a standard blog post. Look at other formats. If you run WordPress make note of the formats available in the toolbar menu to the right.

Get out of your same old post rut and try something new.

Work on scheduling too. Put together a few posts ahead of time and schedule them to be posted in the days ahead. This way you can actually take a few days off from your daily blogging grind. Do something else. (Besides blog stuff - there is a whole world out there, offline).

Write in a New Location

Do you always write in the same place, at the same time, with the same tools? Why not make a change, something simple which will give you a fresh perspective, fresh scenery and people to watch.

I especially like writing in a coffee shop. I find a window seat and let myself procrastinate for awhile with a good latte. Once I stop trying to write it becomes easier to think of things to write about.

Another great discovery is the local transit system. For the cost of a few dollars I can spend an hour on the bus (it doesn't really matter where I'm going) and let my mind drift. I keep pens and paper in my purse or backpack and make notes with ideas as I get them.

Write outdoors too. Put yourself under the open sky with all sorts of room to breathe, relax and wander. Just being outside never fails to lighten my mood.

Unclutter your mind. It's funny how much easier it is for new thoughts to seep in once you have given them some space. Sleep (That thing you close your eyes for). People who keep blogs work for themselves, set their own hours and can have the most demanding boss. Themselves.

How many times have you stayed up late to proofread a post? How many times have you worked through lunch to put in time posting on Twitter? How many times have you not taken a day off in an entire week? What job has such poor hours, unless it is also someone self-employed?

Go to bed. Take a weekend off. Take a vacation and really stop blogging. Don't check email. Don't write a few lines to Facebook or Twitter. Don't do anything... except maybe jot down a note or two when you get a great idea you can work on tomorrow when you're done with your day off blogging.

Remember When all this Seemed Fun? I began blogging because I loved it.

In time that gets forgotten buried and lost. There are so many demands we put on ourselves. So many things others tell us we should do if we care about marketing, traffic, SEO, readers, comments, guest posts, advertising, monetizing and the list goes on. It's all pressure. A lot of it is just plain peer pressure.

Consider this... why do you read a blog (other than your own?) In some cases you may be looking for news and information and nothing more. But, even then, why do you choose one blog over another?

Something sparks your interest, beyond the text content. Most likely the blogs which get and keep interest from their readers are the blogs which have some spark of life, a sense of fun or at least of not being anti-fun, all work and a real chore.

Put fun back into your own blog and your work there.

Do you still love your blog topic? If not, what can you change about it to make it interesting and fun for you again?

Is there a new niche you would love to know more about yourself, something relevant to your topic? Something you just haven't taken the time to find out about or dive into?

A stale blog can't be fun to write. Bring something fresh to your blog and to your time and energy spent on it. Don't be afraid to boldly renovate and go forth in a new direction. Better to make progress in a new way than to burn yourself out and have nothing at all left to say and no real desire to say anything.

No matter what we tell others or deny to ourselves, we all want to be one of the popular people. One of those blogs which seem to have endless faithful readers. One of those blogs people are commenting on almost as soon as a fresh post is published. One of those blogs you know everyone will link to, refer to and praise as being so great, wonderful and fabulous. But, how do you get from here to there? How do you become one of the popular bloggers? It isn't something anyone or everyone can do. A lot of it takes personality - if you are introverted the social part with be hard for you. Still, there's nothing keeping you from trying and seeing how close you can get to reaching your lofty goal. Don't get discouraged. Not everyone can find fame and fortune. You may get to the point where you find your plateau and realize you are happy right there. Goals should never be so rigid you can't change them to suit yourself. They are after all, your goals, for you.

• Don't give up!
• Stay focused!
• Be friendly!

Don't Give Up Too Soon

Getting a site off the ground takes time. Even if your site is a few years old but you have not been active in the niche community of your site, you are going to need to give yourself time to find your feet and build those social connections.

Take a weekend sabbatical because you shouldn't push yourself so much that you burn out too soon. But, don't give up too easily. If you take more than a weekend off you will lose momentum. Treat blogging like a job with a regular work day. Once you have done your 9 to 5 take the rest of the day off and keep your weekends free.

Focus on One Niche Topic

Pick a niche and stick with it.

You may fear not having enough to write about. So, take paper and pen and brainstorm a list of ideas in your niche. Give yourself an hour or jot down notes over the day as you go along. How many ideas did you get? Review them and see which are not as relevant, which are related to your niche and which are just what you want to write about. A niche can be flexible. Consider seasonal posts which are still relevant content but have a seasonal spin.

A niche does not have to be restrictive. But, it may seem that way if you don't have enough knowledge or really love the topic, theme or niche. Over the long haul you need both knowledge, resources and passion to sustain a blog. You also need the focus to keep on topic so readers will know what to expect and come back for more. If you stray too far out of your niche too often you lose credibility and that nice predictability readers are looking for.

Having said that you really do need a great writing voice. Your own personality should shine through your words. Your own experiences, opinions and ideas will engage readers and make them feel they are connected to a real person. You need to become your niche and don't be afraid to show some humour too. Think about the blogs you read versus those you just skim.

Be Engaging and Encourage Interaction with Readers

Engage readers and encourage comments.

Remember you are writing to people. Think about others as you write. Ask them questions, encourage them to give feedback. Leave open ended posts where readers have something to add rather than just the bland, good post, I agree, sort of comments. Stir things up in some way to give people a reason to leave you a note.

When someone does comment follow up on it. Find out who they are, check their own blogs (if they have one) and find them on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and so on. You can choose to follow them or not. Don't automatically follow everyone. Be sincere in who you follow and stick to people you have a reason to want to get to know or find out about.

Keep Them Reading

Get writing and then make sure your posts are easy to find on your site. Promote your own links to relevant and related content on your posts. In the sidebar you can gets lists of your most popular posts, most commented on posts and even your posts from a year (or years) ago. Give people more to read and they won't read one post and move on so quickly. Also, you are showing your own knowledge and authority in your niche.

Don't forget tags and categories. These are a great way to build an index to the content on your site. Tags can cover more ground, smaller and more focused topics. Categories should be limited to the main ideas you want to write about. Think of categories as a table of contents in a non-fiction book. While tags are more like the big index in the back. Both categories and tags, and the search you should also use, give readers the ability to find more of your related content.

Learn to Love Social Media

Make sure readers can follow you and repost your links too.

There are a large variety of widgets you can add to your blog for social media sharing and getting followers. What's a great way to get someone to follow you back? Let them know you followed them and why you did. Everyone likes to know you actually followed them for a reason (other than wanting to beef up your own numbers). Plus, people who have a lot of followers usually don't notice the addition of someone new. So announcing yourself, in a positive way, is a great way to get followed back and likely get your blog noticed too.

Be Active in the Online Community

Get to know other bloggers and those who work for other sites and social media.

This is not easy for me. I'm very much an introvert and I like not being too social. However, if you set yourself the goal of becoming a big fish you need to be a joiner and keep your accounts active. Not just Twitter, the odd repost to Tumblr or StumbleUpon. You need to jump right in there with both feet and become a social butterfly.

Build up your small talk skills. Learn more about the art of conversation. Even though the medium is not face to face your sincerity will show through. So work on becoming socially skilled and do your best to shine.

Of course, there is the other extreme, the troll. Know where the limits fall. Don't become the person who has to have something to say about everything, always has to make their opinion known and makes everything about themselves. If you find yourself taking over too many conversations in the forums step back and take a full day off. Decide to not even read a few of the forum threads. Set limits you (and others) can live with.

Not everyone will want to try things like blog fairs, carnivals, memes and such. But, these are a great way to break the ice and meet your fellow bloggers.

If there is a particular blogger or group you want to notice you, write a review of their site and talk about what they do and what you like about them. Share the link via social media.

Write Outside the Blog

Guest blogging gets a lot of mention but I'm not wild about it. As a blogger I tend to get awful posts in the name of guest blogging. People ask me for space on my site before knowing (or caring) what I post about. I have had amazingly terrible submissions. Never accept a guest blogging post unless it really works for your niche and you actually think your readers will want to have the information or the point of view the guest blogger is promoting. Of course, check any links they want you to post. Check them at the HTML level to be sure you aren't getting more than you expected.

As someone trying to find a place to guest blog... it isn't easy. Most bloggers have not had great experiences with guest blogging. Many won't even read requests because so many of them are useless. So, you have a real up hill battle to get your foot in the door and even be heard. Start by leaving comments (good comments) in the blog you want to guest blog for. Get noticed for something you are doing right and then, when you do have your foot in the door, suggest writing a post for them.

An alternative to guest blogging is to write for networks. They do seem to be disappearing but HubPages and others which are still pretty new, are still around. Get your feet wet, create a profile you can link to with good posts. Build up a readership and direct them to your own site as a source for extra information and more resources.

Both guest blogging and network blogging will give you links to your own site from an outside source. As you write more posts on outside sources you will be giving yourself a nice selection of links back to your site and the search bots (and actual human readers) will find you.

100 Creative Ideas

This was originally posted to HubPages. When it became mothballed due to their no-index policy I pulled it and brought here to rescue it from content scrapers and give it a second wind.

This will be my 100th post to HubPages. I actually joined years ago but didn't start writing here until last year. Still, it took awhile to write 100 posts. I almost went ahead and just posted one of the ideas I have been working on without thinking to make this post anything special. Then, I stopped. One hundred posts should be some kind of milestone. So, after considering a few ideas, I decided to post 100 creative ideas to help, inspire and push others to be creative (more creative). Yes, they are slightly slanted to women. But, I'm thinking of ideas out of my own head and that's who I am.

Enjoy the ideas. Let me know if you try a few and what kind of creative adventures and explorations you have.

1. Write your own list of 100 things.
2. Gather up all your pens and some paper. Have a pen testing party. Get rid of pens that don't still work.
3. Create a design with coffee cup rings (or tea) on a blank page.
4. Take paper and pens - find somewhere public where you can spend an hour or longer just writing whatever comes to mind.
5. Draw a dragon. It doesn't matter if you can't draw, doodle until it starts to look good.
6. Interview someone interesting, to you. Ask them what you really want to know.
7. Write a suggestion and send it to the right people.
8. Go barefoot (within reason) for at least an hour.
9. People watch.
10. Practice calligraphy. Bonus if you can use a fountain pen too.
11. Pick up a pebble, a leaf, a shell, something small from nature.
12. Start an account on Twitter and use it.
13. Try ASCII art. Images created with keyboard text.
14. Write a haiku poem.
15. Draw a map of your local area, add all the land features, streets, etc.
16. Play Scrabble with someone.
17. Leave your car at home and take the bus for one day.
18. Read out loud.
19. Write your favourite word on an index card (recipe card) then decorate it in any way you dream up.
20. Try a unique flavour of tea. The best I had was caramel.
21. Make a chain of paper dolls.
22. Write a postcard to someone, mail it.
23. Take a unique self-portrait photograph of yourself.
24. Read the newspaper and clip out one idea you can write about.
25. Try baking something: pie, cake, cheesecake.
26. Repurpose an old T-shirt in some useful way.
27. Try Snip.it - set up a topic you want to research there.
28. Paint your body. If you seldom paint your nails, try that. Otherwise, face painting, a temporary tattoo...
29. Photograph water, any kind of water: rain on a window, a puddle, water in the sink...
30. Make thumbprints and turn them into characters.
31. Try origami. Follow a pattern and see how it turns out.
32. Write at least one journal (diary) entry about your day.
33. Clean out your purse or wallet (or both). Reduce clutter in a small way.
34. Put an ice cube in a glass of water. Start writing, keep writing until the ice has melted.
35. Try a graphics software, Gimp is free, create a web banner for your blog, site or just your own name.
36. Write about your ultimate vacation: where you would go, how you would get there and what you would do.
37. Rename all the characters in whatever book you are reading now.
38. Think of something completely unacceptable to write for a woman's magazine. Write it anyway.
39. Photograph an abandoned place or thing in your area.
40. Take one photograph of anyone (not someone you know) in a public place, street photography.
41. Watch a favourite movie you haven't seen in a really long time.
42. Read about night photography and give it a try.
43. Sew on a button. If you are already a sewing diva create something with a lot of buttons.
44. Create your own bookmark.
45. Try freestyle embroidery. Embroider a square of fabric which you can sew on as a patch on jeans, a blanket, etc.
46. Invite a friend over for an unbirthday party.
47. Use crayons and draw a big picture - be a kid again.
48. Become a cartoon artist for a day.
49. Clip glossy photos from magazines and create a collage.
50. Write a fictional news story. Use the newspaper writing style and all 5 Ws - who, what, where, when, why and... how.
51. Try a crossword puzzle.
52. Crochet a granny square.
53. Get sticks and yarn to create a God's Eye pattern from the 1970's.
54. Use paperclips or dandelions (in season) to make chains you can wear.
55. Find out about mail art. Write a letter and use what you have learned about mail art.
56. Start a scrapbook for something. Not for family photos, but a collection of newspaper clippings and such which you keep together in a traditional scrapbook.
57. Write your name over and over using different fonts/ lettering each time.
58. Make your own personal time capsule to be opened more than a year from now.
59. Recycle newspaper by trying paper mache.
60. Learn how to tie a sailor's knot of some kind.
61. In winter make a snow angel, in summer try a sand angel, or something else you can lie in and make an impression upon.
62. Make Jello, pick a few colours, add the cubes to a large bowl and squish it all with your toes.
63. Repurpose all those unmatched socks. Sock puppets are easy, what else can you do with them?
64. Write out your favourite quote (or find one) and share it with someone else.
65. Settle in somewhere nice outside and try bird watching.
66. Turn something you like to cook or bake into an actual recipe, with measured ingredients and instructions for a beginner cook.
67. See how far back you can go with your family tree, without peeking at anything you have already written/ printed out.
68. Give yourself a ribbon for 'World's Greatest...'make it out of ribbon, paper, whatever you have on hand.
69. Read one non-fiction book from the dust bunny collection on your bookshelves.
70. Draw happy faces. Keep drawing them with different expressions until you run out of ideas.
71. Go without your watch for a day. Ask other people the time or find a clock in stores, on the street, etc.
72. Watch for little lost things in the street, sidewalk, etc. What can you find when you really look?
73. String together different sized coloured beads and see what patterns you can make.
74. Play with the sand, the snow, a pile of leaves, whatever is in season.
75. Try some of the other mystery settings on your camera. You might like them.
76. Design your own business card, even if you don't have a business.
77. Back up your computer files. See what you forgot you had. Save the important stuff to a DVD.
78. Write the dedication for a book you haven't written yet.
79. How would you sell ice to people living in the Arctic?
80. Get sidewalk chalk and remember the world of chalk drawings.
81. How many different kind of shadow animals can you make?
82. Play with an ink pad and rubber stamps.
83. Make doll clothes. They can be for paper dolls if you don't sew.
84. Try to fold a better paper airplane.
85. Bake and decorate cookies or cupcakes.
86. Use a small mirror to write secret messages or draw backwards pictures.
87. Draw a family of stick people, add pets, the family car and a house too.
88. Draw or sketch or doodle something you can't see.
89. Get big sized paper and take crayons to the cemetery. Make cemetery stone etchings. (Don't use stones which look fragile).
90. Create a connect the dots game for kids.
91. Make a meal based on one colour, try to keep every food/ dish one colour.
92. Make a list of everything you smell.
93. Trace your hand and then draw all the lines in your palm.
94. Try storytelling. Or just write a complete nonsense story for fun.
95. Collect random words and pull them together into a story.
96. Write a story using less than 50 words, flash fiction.
97. Paint something.
98. Draw a flower.
99. Cut out paper snowflakes.
100. Plant something. Use a flower pot or container of some kind if you don't have garden space outside.

Originally posted to SuiteU, part of Suite101. SuiteU is being removed from the site. I wanted to save the ecourses so this resource would not disappear.
Drawing 101
By Joan Martine Murphy

Introduction

Most people would love to be able to draw what they see. Many people find enormous pleasure in the art of self-expression. Sadly the idea of learning to draw skillfully is quite daunting for a high percentage of people of the Western World. This is sometimes due to negative experiences that have come from early child hood.

Drawing is a form of communication, which can allow us to express ourselves when words will not suffice. This simple art form affords us the opportunity to express our emotions in a safe and pleasurable manner. Many people for example find that the simple exercise of drawing negative emotions which are then ceremoniously torn to shreds or burnt away - is a useful, safe way to deal with them. The exercise allows the artist to move on to a more relaxed and harmonious and peaceful happiness state.

Maps, symbols, colours, expressions and many other elements of design convey meaning and help us to construct a world of illusion. They help us re-present our reality. This can be useful, informative, recreational and healing. …more

Today when you talk about personal websites what do you first think about?

Not so long ago people would think a personal website was a page (or a full site) they built on a free web host service like Geocities, Tripod, AOL or their own space on the ISP (Internet Service Provider) they were paying to connect to the Internet. Geocities was one of the best places to have a personal site then. There were good options and features and you could be part of a large community or the bigger community of all of Geocities too.

Not much point in talking about it now. Geocities is gone. Bought by Yahoo and later closed down. As for the rest, they are mostly full of abandoned personal websites. If you search you can find them. But, it's like wandering around the ruins of a ghost town now.

Your personal website can be anything: a blog, an online journal, a photo blog, a podcast, a wiki community or your own hand-made HTML site. Once you have an idea for the site, the next thing is to choose your media - the method to your madness. Build your web empire, but decide on how it will be constructed and where.

What's Your Online Experience?

Have you ever run your own site? Yes, a personal blog. Yes, an online journal. Yes, a photo blog Yes, a podcast. Yes, a microblog. Yes, a wiki community. No, but I'd like to. No. I don't want a personal site. No, I don't want a web presence.

Build Your Own Personal Site (with HTML)

Of course, you can build your own site, from scratch using HTML, without using a service like Geocities to give you a start and some basic elements to cut and paste. Most people rush into starting a blog, rather than working with the nuts and bolts of HTML and creating a site. But, it is a great experience. You will learn a lot and feel pretty good about having built something. Your personal site can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it.

Pick up a book about HTML, CSS and PHP code, or something simpler for the personal web site creator. Once you get the hang of it, creating a personal site is really empowering and you really do get the feeling of being active and a real part of the online community - not quite an expert geek but for sure qualified to be among the geeky realm.

Of course, you aren't alone among the code with nothing but a blank Notepad in front of you. There is very good software which can get you started and help you figure out what goes where. Most of the site building software will show you a version of your site as you work on it. Microsoft has recently made their Web Expressions software free. Pick up the Design software too so you can create your own images/ graphics for your site too.

I know almost no one will go this route when creating their personal web presence. It has lost popularity due to the quick and easy methods of just putting up a blog, but there really is nothing else like it.

A personal site doesn't have to be extravagant. This is my personal domain, thatgrrl.ca. I used to have more on this site, but now it is an index to my other sites as my mighty web empire grew.

Online Journal

LiveJournal has done a better job of hanging on than most of the other old personal web places. It began as a site for online journals/ diaries (back before people were calling them blogs). You can still create a site there, free. Or buy more features, options and space for your site if you want them. LiveJournal has a good community, a good taxonomy if you want to find people by their interests, hobbies, careers, etc. Even after all these years, I would still suggest LiveJournal as a good place to begin your personal site and start dipping into social media.

I don't use LiveJournal a lot, but I have a personal account which you can see as an example.

Personal Weblogs

Blogger was one of the first and simplest places to run a personal blog site from. Google bought it at one point. For awhile it seemed to be sink or swim, but someone took notice of it again and began updating it, giving it new features and allowing people to use the Blogger software as a CMS to run their site on their own domain even. You might find yourself on a Blogger site and not even know it. They have broken out of the original restricted design. But, you can still see traces of it, especially when you comment on a Blogger site (if you don't have a Blogger/ Google account yourself).

Blogger is still free and you can do a lot with creating a site and using social media. I would suggest Blogger first to someone who wants to start their first personal site. The instructions for getting started are very good. The service is well supported by the company and the community. You can easily find WordPress fanatics who will put Blogger down (taking it too far) but the fact is, you can run Blogger and it is still fairly simple to make custom changes to your template (theme) and the code itself if you want to add features or change the look and workings of your site.Don't rush into being an elisties snob about Blogger, it is a really good starting place for a personal website. A free Blogger.com site will give you more flexibility than a free WordPress.com site.

Note: If you pay someone for a custom blog (Blogger) template, make sure you are paying for more than just a background and header image. A lot of people offer services as a blog designer for Blogger. Not all of them are selling original creations you couldn't just do yourself, for no cost at all. However, if you really don't want to DIY, try Etsy as a starting place to find blog designers.

Community Sites

Another option for creating your own personal website, is a wiki. A lot of people have not heard of wikis, but they will know Wikipedia. Did you ever wonder about the name? Wikipedia is intended as an online encyclopaedia But, a personal wiki is about your own topic focus and the resources you can bring or find. However, you do not work and maintain a wiki alone, it's a community effort.

A wiki is like creating a mega site about a chosen topic. Often a personal hobby, interest or something you know a lot about and want to share your knowledge and resources with the online community. The idea is to gather others to add their own content, resources and knowledge too. If you want to get deep into a topic and find others who share your interest, starting a wiki is a good choice. A wiki has many branches of information stemming from an index - it will also be searchable.

However, you will have to use social media and online promotion to bring people in to find your wiki site. (Not so different from any other site, but people seem to think once they build it other people will just come, show up magically). it can happen, but that takes a lot of time and you could get feeling pretty lonesome and discouraged before they find you.

WikiWikiWeb - Where the wiki originated.

Microblogs/ Social Media Sites

Then there are the tumblog sort of sites. Tumblog is another word for microblogs. These are not meant to be full service sites. Instead the focus is on short entries to the site and using social media to share your entries, photos, text, quotes, etc. I like Tumblr and Twitter, but there are a lot of them out there. If you choose Tumblr the only downside I have ever found is the change they made to commenting on Tumblr sites.

Whatever their reasoning you can't comment without using extra, outside software. The site owner (that would be you) sets it up. Not a tricky thing to do, but I've never understood why it was changed. Anyway, the focus of a microblog is shortness, brevity and sharing content. If you don't want a personal diary sort of site - just quick updates and keeping up with friends, consider a microblog.

You may not think of Twitter as a blog or personal site. It's become very fast paced, more like a forum than a site. But, Twitter is a microblog. A very successful microblogging and social media site. You can find me on Twitter.

Get started Using Twitter.

Photo Blogs/ Sites

Next up, photo sharing. You may not want to write much at all. If so, take a look at Flickr. You can post your photos, illustrations and videos too. Free, up to a set limit, or get a paid account and post as many photos as you like. I use Flickr because I like the groups. You can upload your own photos, add descriptions, give them a title beyond the one the camera spits out with them - then look for people on Flickr.

It is amazing how many communities/ groups there are on Flickr. You can find a group started for anything you can imagine. If you can't find a group, you may just need to search again with a different phrase, because everything under the sun is at Flickr. However, Yahoo took over Flickr, made changes people didn't like and a lot of people abandoned their accounts. Some are back, some are not as active, some have left groups started and not maintained. But, Flickr is not a ghost town. I'm there myself.

Another clever and creative way to use a photo site, like Flickr, is to make and show off an art journal. All your own art can be scanned (or take a photograph of it) to create an image file. Then the image can be loaded to your photo blog. You can create your own art gallery with your personal creations and a commentary about each of them.

Get started using Flickr.

Podcasting

Podcasting is another way to create your personal presence online. Instead of images, podcasting is all about sound. You may have some images loaded for eye candy, but the focus is on sharing your music or giving your own web radio show. You can create a podcast and have a live show, or store the files online and let people run them in whatever order (chronological or subject) they choose. BlogTalkRadio is one site which offers the set up for running your own live podcast.

I haven't done much podcasting. I listened to a friend who was a professional DJ and put on her own live radio show through a site for an online game, Kingdom of Loathing. Also, I assisted Bev Walton-Porter with finding guests for her live show. I was a guest on one show too.

If you are interested in creating a live show, the world is your oyster. Get out there and do it.

Social Interaction

Content Curation Something a little new still is a merge between photo sharing and social media, content curation. The important thing with using content curation is to remember you want to keep the links you share looking like something someone else will read. Don't shortcut and leave extra text, use an image which doesn't match the content and don't scrimp on writing a little description or note of some kind.

A content curation site, like Scoop.it, gives you a lot of social media focus. If this is really what you want, to build yourself up in Twitter, Facebook and the other social communities, content curation is the highway on your path. Don't forget, content curation is very visual - often it is the image which people will 'read', even before the headline. Once you create your quick post to the link you have chosen send notice to Twitter (my favourite) and the other social media sites where you will be building up followers due to your great links through content curation and you own personal ideas, thoughts, suggestions, research and knowledge on the topic you are focusing on.

Originally published on HubPages. Laura has been writing online since 1996. Her first content was sold to a print zine. She is a solo publisher of her own sites.