Blogging has been a part of my life for over a decade. Yes, I do mean decade.  I started blogging in 2000, it wasn’t called that yet, but regardless it was blogging that I did.

In the year 2000 Larry and I joined a cycling community and traveled around the world.  Prior to this amazing event, I taught myself how to build a website.  Partially because it was a challenge and partially because I wanted to be able to record our adventures as we progressed around the globe.  The only way I could do that without having to physically write and worse yet carry the additional load was to publish a website. The rest is history.

That year of weaving a website/blog taught me many things. We learned how to scope out a restaurant, school gymnasium each night when we arrived for power.  Power being the electrical kind. Without power I was reduced to having to type fast before the battery in my little Sony notebook would give out, so necessity was often the number one requirement.

It wasn’t very long before my site gained in popularity. Friends and family of the 250 cyclists in our group, used my site at times to communicate through me to their loved ones on the trip.  I took responsibility to relay messages and some photos to my delighted readers. Like the blogs of today, my site became a community with conversations.

We also learned how to deal with dial-up connections in over 40 countries of the world.  I can tell you each and every one comes with a challenge or at least in 2000 they did!  Today I laugh at the barbaric nature of our past  as we access wifi in coffee shops or in the street.

After blogging literally in the trenches, I am very thankful for the lessons I’ve learned. After returning to the work life after an entire year on the road, blogging in the comforts of home and office is actually not that difficult!

In 2003 formal blogging platforms hit the market. It didn’t take me but a few seconds to jump on the band wagon!  I knew I had to do it, even though I didn’t have a clue what I would write.  Many years later I can say blogging has been very, very good to me.

So Why Do I Blog?

1. To demonstrate my expertise in Denver Colorado real estate
2. To attract new customers
3. Posting is a creative outlet for sharing ideas and showing off my photos
4. Creating a body of work to be indexed by the search engines helps my business
5. Blogging increases my online reach
6. It’s fun to engage in online conversations & make new friends
7. Blogging helps me to develop a trusting relationship with readers because of transparency
8. Presenting to an audience comes with it a sense of excitement
9. To educate others and myself
10. Blogging expands both my mind and horizons

Are You a Blogger? Why Do You Blog?

Leave a comment and tell me how you feel.  I’d love to hear your reasons for blogging.

P.S. If you are interested in reading a little about the trip that site has been moved to a WordPress Platform and like many things in my life at the moment, is not complete. Someday I will find the time to redo the entire site. Hopefully soon. BikeTracks.net

Ten Reasons to Blog is a post from: KrisTalks

Let’s talk about the Wall of Words.

How often do you visit a blog or a website only to find nothing but a ton of words. How appealing is that?  I guess ultimately it depends on your motivation.  If you really want/need the information you may read it.  If you are like me you may just skip it or better yet skim it.

Skim it?

Yes, that’s what I said. Most readers don’t read, they skim over the words, to see if they want to read it. So this being the case, let’s format our wall of words for the skimmer.

Give them Headings and word breaks.

Isn’t this easier to read when the copy is broken up into smaller parts?  Each header should be relevant or at least catchy to keep the reader’s interest. Keep pulling the reader’s eye down your copy, giving them the “gist” of the content in each header as you write.

How do you format headers?

Using HTML it is easy to format a header.  It looks like this (only omit the spaces after the < )

< h1>This is the largest header</h1 >

There should only be one <h1> tag on a page.  Obviously it would come first.  After the <h1> tag comes a series of 4 more tags, each getting progressively smaller.

< h2>This is the next smaller size< /h2>

< h3>This is smaller yet< /h3>

< h4>How small do we need to go?< /h4>

By now you get the general idea. Use the H tags to help the reader skim the copy and give  visual appeal to your content.

Don’t want to try HTML?

OK, HTML can be a bit scary at first, if you are timid at this point, never fear. Most blogs offer the same result in the editor.  Just look at the Bar Above when you are in “Visual” or “WYSIWYG” (what you see is what you get) mode.  Here there is a drop down box that will provide <h1> tags for you.

Here’s how it works:

1. Highlight the text you want as a Header or heading.
2. Click the Format or Paragraph drop down box
3. Select the <H> tag you like
4. You are done. No step 4!

Be Nice to Your Readers is a post from: KrisTalks