Your Take on Blogging Thus Far

When I chose my blog, I really wanted to write about something that I could relate to and have a lot of knowlege about. While I think that exploring other topics is beneficial, I think that writing about your own personal life experiences is more beneficial. It gives you a place to just jot down everything that you ever wanted to say in a unique way! When I chose my title, I wanted it to be funny and intriguing, so all of my content kind of shawdowed that. My theme is all about college so all of my pictures and content are focused on my college experience. If I continue to blog, I think that I will make a more professional blog. Although the one I have now if fun, it's a bit to raunchy for the carreer world.

I created my blog for class to meet the requirement and try to figure out how to incorporate blogging into my personal routine. I never considered writing a blog and I'm actually "stuck" when it comes to making use of it. I created the blog with a matching e-mail, facebook, twitter, etc.  They all have the same name "Raconteur." If I were to use these tools it would be to restart my freelance writing career. The blog would be a networking tool with other writers, not a public-facing marketing tool to speak to potential clients. It will take me some time to decide what I'll do with all of these, but all of that will take time. Better to think it through before I throw it out there.  

I found an interesting article, 'If a Tweet Falls in the Forest'...Life Without Applause-Signs, Laugh-Tracks and Likes,  about Social Media Content and potential audience. Deep toward the end of the article, the author writes: ..."Of course, the same goes for blogging. It's there; it's read, perhaps, if someone's got the time (generally at work, I'm told) or if there's an engaging title. We look hopefully to see how many "likes" we have or how many hits in the WordPress counter -- but eventually, like child-rearing and comic-drawing, you just have to cut that umbilical cord, hit the "Publish" button, take a deep breath and hope for the best for the new orphan -- as homely as he may be."

I was skeptical at first about starting my blog because like many people, i thought i might not have an interesting topic or i might run out of something to say.  THis post will definitely help me continuing posting on my blog with new ideas for topics and ideas to expand on current topics

My blog is centered around travel and style and I titled my blog around those two subject. I was a little skeptical of blogging at first, but I've enjoyed it so far. I'm very passionate about traveling and fashion, so it's cool to post about my trips and interests. I'd like to improve the graphics on my blog. I follow several style and travel blogs and admire how unique they look. I'd also like to develop my blog writing skills to make my posts more interesting. Developing my understanding of the technical aspects of my blog is also important to me. Overall, I'd just like it to look more professional and organized.

This blog has given me a lot of encouragement for this class. I am very nervous to start a blog because I feel like I might run out of things to talk about. After reading this blog I have decided to write my blog for this course either about food and different recipes or music. Both of these topics could be easy for me to talk about and I feel like I would be able to write a variety of things about each of those topics. I know when I first start writing a blog it isn't going to be that great but hopefully i'll be able to see the evolution as well and see my writing and blogging skills get better as the semester goes on. 

Blogging so far has been a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be.  I find myself wanting to write more and more articles and coming up with more ideas everyday.  I've been testing out the iPhone as a TV journalistic tool, and blogging about it.  I have been able to draw readers to the blog posts through social media.  Having a focus on an area that I have an expertise, helps add credibility to my blog.  TV journalism is a very expensive business.  Many companies are trying to find ways to make TV news cheaper.  Currently, there is a lot of interest in mobile journalism.  The focus has been more on Radio and less on TV.  Pushing the television aspect of the iPhone can set my blog apart.

When we first were given the assignment to create our own blog, my first thought was what could I possibly make a blog about. I ultimately decided on making a blog about my love for collecting shoes. When I first started designing the blog I wasn't very happy with how the design turned out. Since the initial design I have changed many parts of the blog around and have added additional videos and images that have helped make it more aesthetically pleasing. I feel that if I continue working on this blog I will need to make a lot of more changes to the overall design and functionality of the site. I also plan to include more categories and create social media accounts that are interconnected to the blog itself. While I am not 100% sure if I will continue to use this blog after this course, I know that for the time being I am going to make it something that people will enjoy reading and scrolling through. 

My blog came from what I personally loved, which is sneakers and being a cynic to the world around me. Granted I'm not totally an outsider by any means but I love to make fun of the world around me. My title, topics, and designs came from my other blog, but personally I can say that my blog is a little bit about me. I want to share my experiences and ideas that I have within the sneaker community. I also want to inform the world as well about different releases. I want to use the echo strategy because within the sneaker community more sources are better than one. The categories that I came up with were an "Editorial" section (which will showcase my ideas and voice), a fashion section (mostly posts on menswear trends), My2cents (this is purely my opinion on whatever, serious to silly topics), sneakers (the main segment of the site overall, most posts will be on sneakers), and finally uncategorized (this section is for everything else). The theme I selected was the BOLDR theme and I used some art by Andy Gillmore (which can be used commercially). I chose this set up because it is similar to my BlogSpot. Lastly, I for see my blog turning into a huge writing sample for potential companies and clients. If another blog or media company sees my blog for a guest writer job, they’ll see my versatility and voice as a writer. I also want to continue to provide entertainment and nostalgia to the world. 

When I first began my blog, I already felt the pressure to make something good for my audience that everyone could relate to. One, I wanted to make sure that the instructors thought it was cool and two, I want to really begin to reach out into the blogging world. I thought about blogging before but I never took the full steps to actually doing so. I wanted to make sure that I could reach all audience members that I wanted to target. My blog focuses on lifestyle and the college student. When I made my first post, I wanted to focus on money saving tips that can help guide students through college. I had in mind that several students were taking trips and I chose to focus on bugdet travel tips. I see my blog reaching several heights and helping many as I go forward. 

Blogging for me sounded like a drag. I do not like writing and do not find myself 'creative.' I had a hard time coming up with a topic for my first blog post. I set a goal for myself that I want to write every style you can write a blog before this class is over. My first post was titled "7 Ways You Know It's Summer"...I titled it like this so my readers would know to expect a list. I decided to write about summer because that was the most recent thing that was happening in my life. I want to keep my blogs about current events that can help inform or enlighten my readers. That is why for my second blog post I wrote about dehydration after experiencing it firsthand. I tied dehydration in with summer so didn't have to change much for my page. I took off the beachy pic and put one of just a glass of water. If I stick with blogging, I hope to be able to write about more controversial topics and be able to state my opinion without offending others. I hope to write on things more meaningful to others and write about things others can relate to.

Blogging has been interesting to say the least. It helps me appreciate the time and dedication required to maintain a blog while driving readers to your site. I have always been a blog reader, but now doing it myself it is a whole new game. Everything from the title to the keywords—all of the details require dedication. 

As for evolution, I hope to build a following and then cater my blog more for their preferences. This would help increase traffic and possibly advocate advertising on my blog from external companies. 

To start it took me a while to figure out what i wanted to blog about. I was struggling between a music and fitness blog (both so original i know) and i ended up choosing to make my blog about music. I made my categories: Music festival, song of the day, artist news. I chose these because i felt like it gave a decent variety for my blog. For my theme I chose twenty eleven just because I liked the layout and I changed the backgrounds and the colors of it. If I stick to blogging I can see myself becoming a better writer and maybe grow it to be able to go to many different music events and maybe review them and rate the different events. I feel like that would be really cool.

I had a hard time coming up with a topic initially but after some thought, I think my blog is about something that really defines me. After I had the idea, coming up with the categories was simple because they are all components of what my blog is really about. I decided kept the NMDL theme and just change the colors to fit the feel of my blog. Since I am not much of a blogger, I can’t say I will continue it after this class is over unless it becomes something I really enjoy.

I never really followed any blogs besides some gossip ones or ones that were my inspiration when creating my blog. I think that I may have made my topic too broad and should have made it more specific considering that I just started and won't be using it as frequently as the blogs I read do. However, after learning about how to blog and SEO I think that it will be easier for me to pick topics or change the way that I blog so that it is more interesting for my readers. I think that I need to pick topics that people want to read about instead of the thoughts that just run through my head, which is what my blog was based on originally. I picked three main categories that every young female struggles with the idea of; beauty, fitness, and health. Not being a beauty or health guru I think I put myself way out of my league. But I really like the idea of blogging and am considering keeping up to date with mine even after the class is over.

I came up with my blog topic because I’ve always wanted to scrapbook all the memories/pictures I have but never find the time to actually sit down and do it. Plus I’m not that artsy/creative. So far I find blogging about my life much quicker than sitting down a scrapbooking.

My blog is called Katie on Wheels, because that was my nickname throughout school. I came up with the categories Adventures, College, and Favorite Recipes. I selected the theme Twenty Eleven. I changed the background to green with white polka dots.

In the future I plan to add more categories to the three I already have.

I have never blogged before so when this assignment was given I was a little nervous. When choosing a topic I knew it had to be something I could talk about a lot and in full depth and detail. It had to be something I am passionate about. I decided to chose fitness because it is something I think about everyday so it is an easier topic for me to blog on. My title is Slimming Summer because it is aimed for how to be and stay fit in the summer. I thought having a catchy title would draw in some positive attention to the blog. The categories I came up with are what I base my life off of. I basically incorporated what I do in my life into the blog. I designed the blog entirely off of me. All the pictures I put on the blog are mine. I feel that using my own pictures gives the reader a better feel for who I am and shows how passionate I am about this topic. I hope my blogging does evolve and that it improves my creativity when it comes to fitness and staying healthy.

I compeltely expect my blog to evolve.  At the moment, I can already predict how content may change as I become more comfortable with writing and as the landscape of the topic changes.  Coming up with my topic was fairly easy - it reflected what I thought would help me in my future and how it would help others.  My topic was community engagement, however using this as a title seemed too generic.  I decided to get a little more specific and use the title "Urban Engagement," but not be too abstract.  In my opinion, this title still seems generic so it's a possibility that it will change in the near future.

Similar to my title, I see my categories changing.  There are some that I think are weak examples of what content should be and could be included.  While coming up with my categories, I researched various activities that I would like to write about and how they would fit into categories.  Specifically, I contemplated what content the audience I am targeting would be interested in and how writing about these categories would exhibit my expertise.  The audience I am expecting now may change - thus, it is possible that the categies and what content is included will change with them.  

My design will likely change as well - I will find a header image that better demonstrates the topic and this will lead to further appearance custimization.  I look at other blogs and realize that I would like to evolve to a high-functioning blog that optimizes widgets, links, pictures, etc.  It's difficult wanting everything to be perfect when you first start out, but it's refreshing to know that it's natural for a blog to evolve.  I know I will have the same embarrassing feeling when I look back to these early posts. 

Once we were asked to create a blog about a topic we enojoyed, I decided right away that I would do mine on beauty and health because those are two topics that I am passionate about and have knowledge on. I mostly talk about makeup on my blog and different ways you can wear it but my latest post relates to health. I titled my blog "Lipstick Queen" because of my obsession with makeup and beauty and I thought it would be an interesting and creative name for one of the millions of beauty blogs that are out there. I came up with the categories of makeup, beauty, health, fitness, diet and fashion because those are the topics that I will cover the most in my blog. For my themes , I decided to use a lipstick background because I found it eye-catching and colorful and I decided to make the font pink and purple so it really stands out. Hopefully I will update my blog once or twice every week and will find interesting topics to talk about that will attract girls like me that are looking for ways to feel and look better on the inside and outside. I can also see my blog growing with the help of SEO and other tactics for attracting traffic to your blog.

I chose the topic of my blog based on something I felt passionate about, and that's my job.  Of course I can't talk in full detail about everything I do, mainly because of University policy, however I chose to speak in general about the struggles that come from have a leadership position at work, doing well in classes and attempting to maintain a social life.  

The voice of my blog is meant to be comical and witty but also informative and helpful. I chose categories like "Work Relationships" "Discipline" "Social Life" and "Hiring."  These are things I frequently have plenty of commentary about that I feel would be enjoyable to read about and potentially helpful.  

I went with a simple theme and snuck in a picture of the building where I work as the header photo.  

I can see my blog evolving much like my experience at work has evolved.  The more time I've spent there, the more I learn about myself, and I hope that's what my blog does for me as well.  It will give me an outlet where I can reflect on my day to day occurences and I hope to use that to improve. 

Once graduation comes, I won't have the job I have now.  So the topic of my blog will definitely change, but I can start a new one with similar style. 

I came up with my topic by thinking of things I was interested in and topics I had about which I had significant knowledge. I decided on fitness because it is something I am passionate about and have dedicated a lot of my time to figuring out how to get the best results from my workouts. I chose the title "Fitness Freak" to convey the level of commitment I have to staying active. My categories combined fitness relflected in pop culture, and physical and mental tips to help a person stay motivated. The design I chose showed pictures and activities that I feel are most relevant to staying fit. I imagine if I stuck with blogging, it would evolve into being mostly centered around how to stay active when you live a sedentary lifestyle, like working at an office job.

I chose to create my blog to center around the sport that I love, baseball.  I have created two baseball blogs in the past and neither has been successful.  The reason for this is I would be motivated to write for a month or two and then just stop and not post again.  This time around I believe that I can fix this problem by focusing my blog on a more specific idea, the unexpected and unknown facts and news from Major League Baseball.  My first two blogs were centered around too general of ideas, the first being on Major League Baseball as a whole and the second on the Detroit Tigers.  I think it will be able to create more of a target audience by centering my blog on one specific idea.  To make it more interesting, I also added a “This Day in Baseball History” page.  I want to reel in the avid baseball fans who love the sport as much as I do.  Every day in baseball something crazy and unexpected happens that makes fans say “Wow”, and that is why I named my blog “WOW Baseball News.”  For the first time I am also utilizing search engine optimization and Google Analytics with my blog.  I used to get discouraged by how few people were reading my blogs before, but I am hoping that these new skills that I am learning and implementing will help me to gain a larger audience. Overall, I am very excited to see how this blog will turn out.

I decided to write about social media and advertising. I know it seems like an easy choice because of this class, but it’s what I’m interested in and what I could see myself maintaining after this class. I want to peruse a career in something that involves social media and how companies can use it to their advantage. I titled my blog The Social Media HotSpot because I thought it could be easily found in a search engine. It has what my content is in the title and would be quick and easy for a user to look up. My content is categorized by what social media site the post is about; Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or others. I chose the Twenty Ten design because it seemed the most simplistic and clean of the available themes. I changed some of the images and colors. I could see this blog continuing with more up to date information and quicker responses. 

When I picked to write about films and music it was an easy decision for me because I am very passionate about both. My blog posts so far seem ok and a little rough but I think that is alright because this is the first time I have ever blogged. I hope that my blogs become a lot more informational and more interesting as time goes on and I think that will happen. It is easy to write about things you are passionate about and I think that will help. In terms of content I really am excited to see my work grow and evolve.

When I first decided to do a longboard blog, I knew that I wanted it to be about places, not necessarily tricks.

Then after my first post, I desided to expand the nature of my posts in that they would expose readers to more of the surrounding business' and really give a feel for the place beyond the board.

Then I decided that it wasn't enough. I have tons of experience using longboard products, wearing them out, looking for new one's online. Why not incorporate that into my blog?

So now my blog is less about just places, and more about the overal experience of longboarding in the midwest and my take on certain products. Everything that goes into a post, especially shooting and editing the videos, was very hard to predict. I just had to do it. And, I'm super proud to say that my second video is WAY better than my first and I'm excited to see how creative I can get with it.

My dream would be to get paid to go around, longboard, use products, and write about the experience. To do that, I would need to attend as many events as I can, use more products, and build authority by creating as much content as I possibly can. It's a fun goal, though.

Blogging is a whole new world to me. I never really even read blogs, let alone write one. I had to do some research to figure out what really makes blogs tick and how to obtain readers. The reason I started writing my blog is to come up with a way to show future employers that I'm in tune with culture and how it affects media planning. One connection I made at an agency told me it was imperative that I have something to show people because Michigan State's media planning section of the advertising program is sparse in courses. I chose my title to be as direct as possible, "A Media Planner's Guide to Culture: Finding your cultural niche." I wanted people to know exactly what this blog was going to be about before even reading it. I also wanted to have them think they could gain something from reading it. The categories I came up with related directly to everything I was writing about. I selected my background to be an old-timey world map and the header to be a new-aged world map to show that culture is world wide and ever changing with time. So far, I really like this whole blogging thing. I get really excited when I go to my blog. I'm hoping to see where this blog really goes, see if people interact, have questions that I could respond to, see if this could really be a helpful resource for someone. I'm hoping it will be! 

So far, blogging consistently has been harder than it seems. With other classes and other responsibilities it's pretty easy to put blogging on the back burner. I never understood how famous bloggers and vloggers could quit their day jobs to focus strictly on blogging but it really does take up a lot of time. There is time needed to come up with posts, make the content needed for posts (take pictures, go to certain places), and edit the post so it is client-ready and for famous bloggers and vloggers they are held at a higher expectation for producing high-quality content. My categories were a mix of what I have seen on popular blogs and what I would like to see on more blogs. As hard as it is to make time for blogging I definitely want to keep up with it. Hopefully my blog will get some character. I want my voice and personality to shine through as if a reader knew me personally. I think it will take some time but the more time and effort I put into blogging the better I think my posts will turn out.

When I was first thinking about making a blog, I knew I had to come up with something that would hold not only other people's attention but mine as well. Which meant, I needed to pick a topic(s) that I would enjoy learning and writing about. I also wanted a namet that was catchy but gave me the freedom to write about a variety of different things which is how I picked the name "Kayla's Corner." Recently, I have really been interested in health and fitness which is something that I did not really care for when I was in high school and even early on in my college career. I knew that being the age that I am, there are probably other young women like me who are interested in a healthy lifestyle and would probably relate to me in one way or another. I have also been very interested in the beauty industry. Again, something I had no interest in earlier on in my life. I've felt that I have learned a lot in the past year and have gained some tricks of my own as well, all of which I am willing to share. This led to the Beauty and Fitness portion of my blog. 

The fashion and baking portion of my blog was a no brainer. I love to shop and I love to bake. What else could you ask for? Baking is a part of me and I cannot imagine have a blog or YouTube channel where I did not incorporate it at all. The layout/design of my blog kind of gives the readers a glimpse of my style and life. I really like deisgns and I think the sunflower photo header is something that is really eye-catching. Of course I have an "about me" but I would like to continue to work on other pages that would interest people. I hope to someday incorporate a craft page or a career related page. It's no secret that most college students are on the hunt for a career and I would love to inspire someone if I could. 

As for the future of my blog, I hope to one day inspire a wide variety of people and even make money off of it. I know there is a way it can be done and I think it would be a great hobby to pursue.

When choosing a theme for my new blog, I just went with what was most comfortable for me and that would be music. I've been in multiple bands and have taken many classes in music so, needless to say, it's beeen pretty important in my life. I'm currently in a punk/hardcore band and that's where my true passion in music has been for a while now. When titling my hardcore/punk blog, I wanted to thin kof something that really encompasses the attitude of the hardcore scene. I ended up choosing "Fight Back," which I think makes a statement (it's also the name of one of my band's songs). I chose my catagories, thinking of what people interested in hardcore music would be interested in, music, bands and shows/tours. I post band showcases, tour dates as well as a few other things. I chose to go witha really simplistic design as I think clutter just makes things confusing and I want the content to be obvious. Hopefully I can keep going with this blog after class as I see it as a fun outlet for information and a good self-marketing tool.

When I thought about the blog topics, I wanted to choose the one that I could develop myself with the blog and kept myself motivated. And then global marketing which I like to learn more and want to involve myself more in the future came up to my mind. I feel that there are many blogs about marketing but not that many deal global marketing so that it can be a niche. The title Globalish includes the meaning that the main topic is global things and the perspective of global marketing should be from various countries’. The categories include important factors for global marketing. I chose BoldR as a theme. The main color of the blog is blue which I associated with the word of global. I used the image of city and sky. The border of city and sky is blur, which can express that possible business can be existing in far from your city. As I learn more about the global marketing, I can share more knowledge and topics related to global marketing. If I continue the blog, I may be able to put deeper insights. 

When I created my blog, I chose to blog about health and beauty. Those are two areas I am very passionate about and I enjoy talking about and reviewing products that I use. I wanted to write about something I enjoy, so this made sense to me. When designing it , I wanted something that was colorful , but not too flashy or  overdone. I think that the colors and pictures I chose match my personality well because my taste is very simple, but the colors show off my personality. I was a little out of my element blogging because I have really never blogged, except for a tumblr I had a long, long time ago. I wanted to try and blog everyday, but I am finding that is hard for me because I am so busy. I have really searched around for some other blogs focused on beauty or health and was inspired by how they organized their blogs, or some of the colors or patterns they used. A lot of them are really developed, but I would hope to eventually have mine become something I can habitually update and post on because I do like the idea of blogging. Also, I have learned a lot of beauty tips and tricks and health tips that have really benefitted my life, so I hope to share that information with others as well as pass on things and products that I have used. I titled my blog Beautiful You because I want it to be a place that gives information that inspires others to feel beautiful in their own way and embrace themselves. I waited until after I made a few posts and designed the layout to come up with the name to see what felt right and looked best. I tried a few different ones, but I felt this was the best and got my message across in a simple, yet catchy way. 

Choosing the topic for my blog wasn't a very difficult task for me. I love fashion and had previously worked in retail that provided me with a great discount  resulting in an abundance of clothing. I have always enjoyed looking through fashion blogs, because I have an internship this summer I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to document different outfits and styles I wear throughout my internship. I came up with a few categories (I am still learning about blogging so those may change). However, my current categories are all about different types of fashion like casual, dresses. color, patterns, etc. I tried to put a pretty simple theme I don't want the colors and patterns to take away from the content of my blog. I am very excited to see how my blog will evolve over time, I felt pretty awkward writing my first post and wasn't sure how to address hte audience. I am looking forward to seeing how my posts, pictures and engagement cahnges over the course of the summer. 

I came up with my topic because cooking is a hobby of mine. The angle that I write my blog with mirrors my personality: passionate but easy going. It titled my blog because being a college student, I've never had much of a disposable income. Enjoying food cooked at home, in a healthy way, for as cheap as possible, is my goal. I picked a theme that was simple and clean and need to learn a little more about how to personalize it from there. I hope I stick with my blogging, too! I think it will be a little tough to update once I'm back at school with 12+ credits and a part-time job unlike now, but I think having the New Media Driver's License certificate and hopefullying getting certified in Google Analytics will help with my exposure in the future. 

This blog is the first blog that I've ever written. I created a Word Press last year, but ended up not doing much with it because I was too busy. It was hard to pick my topic for this blog. I initally made a list of things that I am knowledgable in and topics that I would be able to write about. I also took into consideration who my target reader would be, and if anyone would find it interesting. I've been dancing since I was 2 years old, so I ended up going off a dance topic. I eventually chose to write about dancing through college, and how to continue a passion even if you aren't necessarily studying it.

I was stumped on the title at first, so designed my blog and then wrote the first blog post hoping that I would think of the title later. Desigining the blog was easy for me because I just had professional dance photos taken at a recent performance, so I used one as my header photo. The photographer's website got to go on my blog too! The categories I chose were easy to think of. I chose "My Experience", "Audition Advice", "Managing School and Dance," and "How to Make an Impact on Your Team". These categories will be very easy for me to write in because I have first hand experience with dancing through colllege.

My blog had potential to grow a lot, because I feel like a lot of college dancers are in my place. It could also become an advertisement for my own team at Michigan State. I'm hoping to continue to blog through each category and acquire some readers!

Think about how you came up with your topic and what decisions you made about your blog based on it. How did it effect how you titled your blog? What categories you came up with? What theme you selected and how you altered the design? If you stick with blogging (and I hope you will) your blog will evolve much like mine. What possibilities do you see for the evolution?

I made a long list of what I wanted to write, and as always, my ideas were everywhere. I wanted to write about everything, but I had to pick one only. I ended up choosing to blog about volunteering, because I was passionate about it back in high school, but I strayed away from it for a while. Now, I want to start again, so a good way to keep me accountable is to blog about it. Plus, I will be learning a lot more about volunteer and non-profit organizations. I wanted to think of a theme for my blog, and what to call it, so I wanted to center it around a daisy. The meaning behind it is for my blog to be based on purity and beauty. I wanted volunteering to be something that is pure and beautiful, because it simply is. There shouldn't be any motives behind doing good deeds, so I wanted to educate people on it! I created about 4/5 categories and they have to do with local/global organizations, volunteer oppotunities, and the Peace Corp.

I chose theme twenty ten because I liked the banner of the website. It was simple, and fit the picture I created. If I stick with this blog, I can see it being a useful blog for college students who are interested in volunteering.

This was the first blog post I have ever written; so it was a challenge. I was puzzled at first because I had no idea what topic to pick. I still think I have to work on my topic to make it smaller and narrower. I choice to focus on all the time I have faced change and diversity; which included moving to a different country, going to college, and studying abroad. I didn't talk about this all during my first post. I basically focused on why I moved to Russia and some of the things I was challenged with. The main theme of my blog is diversity and all the different people I have met over the years and how being culturally aware is a huge advantage in life. This was how I chose the title, diversity.

The theme of my blog page was twenty thirteen; I picked this because it has a variety of colors and I think it represents the diversity we are confronted with throughout life. I do plan to stick with my blog because I think it is good practice and I know this post was not great so I hope develop better writing skills and story telling skills. I do see possibilities for my blog to grow because we face diversity everyday and global issues. This can all tie in and create a great reference for people. 

I opened my 1st blog since I was in high school and I keep posting till now. It is a good way for me to write sth about my daily life or show my point of view about some hot current affairs. I also post some essays and my own novel on it, this makes me owning amount of followers till today. I'd like to talk or share ideas with these persons, and their comments always bring me some new points for my articles.

It is really a wonderful choice to own a blog and keep posting for may many years. It is not only a life record but also a useful platform for you to build up relationships with various people. Your reviews may be quoted by your favourite website just due to your reader's recommendation. While you sharing sth with others, you may build a two-way communication to give and receive informations or news as many as you can.

I would like to use my new blog to set up a small social media world for me and others to share personal views. I hope I could gain different ideas form this culture and bring sth I know about my own country for my followers in order to enrich both of our horizons. I think an attractive title, a special focus and lots of high  quality articles are three main bases of a successful blog.

I like something amazing. I have exposed myself to such contents in my life. I thought people will visit anf revisit my blog if my contents are interesting and amazing. That is why I chose my topic as impressive stories in the world. It was fun to customizing my blog as the way I like. I first arranged my contents that are going to be used and tried to categorize them. I used simple words as I can in order for the visitors to easily understand.

Actually, I was really temped to use paid theme, not free theme. However, I decided to build my blog without paying money first for experience. I am sure my blog will evolve as my skill develops, especially with this course. 

I am relatively new to blogging. I did create a blog in the past for another class but it revolved around topics that we had to write about and I was not really into the idea of trying to keep up a blog about something that didn’t originate from my own ideas. I am glad to now be able to get the push from this class to write on a blog that is about something that I like, which is art. I know that I will be a lot more likely to keep posting to it when this class is over because it is about something that I live and breathe everyday. 

Considering what I wanted the topic to be, I decided to call it Art Muse. I wanted the name to embody the theme and the fact that it would be a place where other artists could get inspired, share and learn. I chose the theme Twenty Eleven because it was clean and minimal allowing for a gallery-like feel so that I could add pictures without it feeling cluttered. Some categories that I added were DIY, Drawing, Painting and Mixed Media. I also have a category called Featured Artists so that I can showcase artists who inspire me. I would love to see this category evolve into a place where I can have artists write guest posts as well. I hope with all of the skills that I am learning in this class, I can improve my blog and feel more comfortable putting my voice out there so that I can continue writing on Art Muse as an ongoing project.

This is my first attempt at creating a blog so I have no previous experience whatsoever. Learning more about blogging and SEO is exciting. I know with these new skills, my blog can only improve from here.

I hope to do at least one blog post per week. My idea for my blog blossomed when I was thinking of my personal goals. Sometimes we, college students, can get overwhelmed with school and work that we stray from simple things like exercising, fun meals and learning new things like-words. With the name being Breathe Easy, I hope that each viewer can finding something they’ll find relaxing. I have three categories so far: mind, body and soul. The theme is twenty eleven because I found it to be the most classy, easy reading and calming one. The color green is used to give organic, calming and soothing vibes.

I am using this blog to practice the skills I am learning in class to professionally prepare myself for post-graduation.

While I am new to blogging, I have to admit that I have tried it before and FAILED miserably. I actually created a blog the last time I was enrolled in this class, it too revolved around parenthood. My previous blog was entitled "Bre's Bassinet" and was geared more toward upcoming parenthood becuase I was pregnant. This time my blog is entitled "Oh Me, Oh My, Oh Mommy" and is geared toward my life experiences as a mother to a toddler, as well as things that I have witnessed from other mothers and parents.

I wanted to be able to track my progression and growth as well, so instead of deleting my old blog, I created my new bog over it. I made sure to keep all THREE posts (lol) I did last time so that over the evolution of this blog I could track my growth. I feel like this blog will be different because I'm excited to share my experiences as a mom! I think my kid is AWESOME and although she absolutely gives me the "oh, me, oh my's" she's totally worth brag blogging about :-) Clearly my blog is about motherhood, so picking my categories and design was easy and quite obvious.

Mommy blogs used to be largely underestimated, but they actually have great potential. One of the most important things about starting a blog is making sure you pick a topic you are passionate about and want to write about. I could be wrong, but I don't think you can get much more pasionate than a mother toward her child(ren). That alone will make for an interesting blog with huge potential. I see my blog as a testimony, a confessional, an advice column and much more. I would like to use this as an avenue for everything from writing reviews for prodoucts to my weekly couseling session (lol).

Enjoy reading.

Well, this was the first blog that I have ever made if you don't count Tumblr (where on that I am mostly just "reblogging" people's pictures not really posting my real input).  I came up with my topic by just thinking of things that are interesting to me and something that I look at on a day-to-day basis.  I'm constantly on Pinterest looking at the Women's Fashion and Beauty boards so I figured why not write about something I enjoy.  I wanted to have an interesting title so I did "The Beauty is Within the Blogger", I just thought it was something different and would make people a little curious and maybe want to read it.  

My categories were just related to the things that I would be talking about in my blog, such as hair, nails and fashion.  I think I picked a more simple theme because I couldn't figure out how to change the header image on the original blog and I thought that it shouldn't be there since it wouldn't make sense paired up with my blog.  I think that my blog will evolve by including other things to talk about such as DIY's and Recipes!  I hope that I will be able to eventually get a wider range of audience to view it by adding the other categories and discussions in there to reach out to more people.  This blog will be something that I can do for fun because it's something that interests me and I think that'll be the main reason why I would keep it going.

When I first got my new blog, I had several topics in mind: fashion, workout, lifestyle and food. Then I did some searching online and found bunch of great blogs about these topics. They are doing really great. Facing those great competitors, I started thinking I should do something unique. Since I have been to MSU  for almost a year, I already have some knowing about the food around MSU, so a more local topic came to my mind: eating around MSU. Although my blog just has one post now, it will be updated once for a week as long as I’m at MSU. The design of my blog is not fancy or outstanding, it aims give people a feeling of simple and peace, as the feeling real cuisine gives to us. As time goes by, the theme might be change a little bit. I might post some blogs about food around Lansing, or eating with Michigan, things like that.

I don’t have any previous blogs as Professor Johnson, but I do understand the feeling of reading our previous posts. I used to use Chinese social media a lot, like Renren of Q-zone. Sometimes I like to read my previous articles or “status” that I posted online, they really make me feel exactly interesting and embarrassing. I liked to post an article or a status when something important happened that day, and just wanted to record my feeling and emotion. But now, these posts seem meaningless to me. This reminds me that I should post something with real meanings and values in the futher.

I had already gotten very excited about running this summer, and started a running program before the blog was assigned, so it was easy for me to think of something I wanted to talk about! Since the running program is only one topic and I didn't want to be limited, I expanded the topic to my lifestyle change in general, incorporating both physical activity and my perspectives about health.

My blog is called modest zen, because that feels like what I want to achieve. Usually the word "zen" makes me think of yoga, green tea, and a deep commitment to inner peace. I like those things, but I don't want to dedicate my life to it - especially because I just never got into yoga. Instead I made the title to reference my approach to the healthy lifestyle: right down the middle between the two extremes. And since my blog is about the "healthy middle" I created categories for physical health (food and exercise) as well as a category for mental health, which I think is often neglected when we focus only on running and lifting weights. Also, I kept to the NMDL theme because I liked how clean it looked, but as more content gets added I'm not against updating/changing things for that purpose.

Given that I will be writing based off my experience, I expect my blog to change as I do. Maybe I won't complete the running program. Maybe I'll get more into healthy receipes than exercise. I'm very open to evolving personally this summer and that could easily reflect in modest zen.

I had some issues coming up with a topic for another blog to write in. I already write one where I make things, which is my favorite thing to do. So ultimately, I came up with one thing I struggle with - exercise and eating right. Its been a rollercoaster with that topic. Some days I love it, and some days I hate it. So I wanted people to take the fitness journey with me.

The name of my blog is "Flab to Fab." It reminded me of some of those infomercials, plus it is almost the same word, so I knew it would be something that would stick in someone's head. I incorporated my creativity found there to be five main categories of working out: DIY (workout clothes, etc.), exercises, motivation, music and recipes (nutrition). The theme I chose was "Boldr" because I think it gave the most "workout/fitness look" and I was able to change the whole background and add a header. I think the theme is also very feminine when I changed the header and background, plus it sticks out so I think more people will be drawn to it.

As for the future of my blog, I unfortunately don't see myself sticking with this one in particular. However, I think I'll be able to take what I've learned with this blog, whether it's fitness, SEO, etc., and weave it into my current blog. It's not strictly DIY-focused - it also has life tips and other aspects in it.

The first thing that came to mind to write about was something I do every day, work out. I decided this would be a good topic because I would be motivated to write about it and keep myself motivated as well as others to live a healthy life. I titled my blog "Work Hard Play Hard," because you'll never see results if you're not putting in the effort. I decided to write about three topics; what I do which will dicuss different workouts I do regularly or new things I am trying, food will be another category because I love eating and finding good recipes to share and I will also have a third category talking about people at the gym such as annoying people who slam their weights on the ground. I like to keep things simple so I have a basic layout for my blog, but I have added a background picture and changed the colors to make it more appealing and aimed toward working out. I hope as I keep blogging some other fitness loving people will notice my blog and read about my workouts and reply with tips and other things to try. 

My blog is fashion based blog called Clemily. I chose to write about fashion because it's something I've always loved and have been interested in. I have also written for fashion websites before and I have really enjoyed it, so I figured why not keep going with what I know and what I'm good at.

I chose the name Clemily, which is my first and last name combined and a common nickname for me among my friends, because I wanted my blog to have a fun and personal tone to it. I wanted my blog to reflect me through the title; therefore I wanted it to be a little silly. It was a tough process trying to come up with a name, I played around with various fashion labels or nuances, but it all seemed a little stiff. I like my blog title because it's unique to only me and perfectly reflects me instantly when someone looks at my blog. 

My initial categories so far are "DIY," "Resale," and "Summer Fashion." I chose these categories because those are the things I am mostly going to be writing about. I do a lot of DIY fashion projects that I want to post about and I use a lot of resale clothes as my base supplies. I thought the two went hand in hand for various articles I'm going to be composing. I chose Summer Fashion because it is relevant and is another topic I think I'm going to be focusing on a lot while posting, at least for this summer and then I may start adding in other seasons. 

I chose the Boldr theme because I liked the amount of freedom it allows in customizing it and the overall cleanness of the theme. I really like the big title at the top with the links and that the background can be altered. It's simple theme, but it speaks loudly. 

I believe I want to continue using my blog after this class and I want to continue to let it evolve. I can see it becoming more dimensional with some new categories, such as with new seasons, as well as with new topics like maybe celebrity fashion. I want to brainstorm some more ideas on how to make my blog more interesting through more varied posts, so that I can reach a wider audience. I'm excited to continue to let my blog grow and flourish!

The blog I created is called The Hobbyist and it is about showcasing the hobbies of those around me. I came up with the idea when trying to figure out what I wanted to spend my free time doing this summer while EL is a ghost-town. I feel like so far the hardest part of this blog is trying to get the content that I want to write about because most of my friends are all around the country right now, and have busier or different schedules than usual. Although the idea is small at this point I feel like it really has room to evolve and grow because I haven't confined it to specificity. The categories I created are "Introduction", "Hobbyists", and "Indulgence". I thought these 3 topics would be the best way to orginize what I wanted to make this blog in the long run. I see my blog turning into more an informative blog about the different hobbies that people are involved in, not just confined to people I know.

Although there's a ton of music blogs out there, I decided to begin another one because I knew that was something that I could keep up with. I tried to come up with an interesting take on it by not only providing the basics such as reviews and new music, but also providing playlists for different moods and occassions. Since one of my calmest and most peaceful moments is when I just have music blasting through my headphones, I decided to name my blog Headphone Happiness (also can't beat the alliteration). The design of my blog not only reflects the topic by having a music note background, but also reflects my personal style with a simplistic layout and my favorite colors. I'm excited to see what new ideas and topics I come up with in the future to blog about to make my blog stand out even more.