Truly Interesting? Why, Yes

Image by: Corby Morrison

It had been a pretty good Monday, a lot of technical and emotional support shared between my EMDT compadres and I (yes, dan, you are now an EMDT compadre), as we began the second half of our 30-day course cycle. It can feel a bit odd, in that I’m the rookie teaching my first course for Full Sail, that the veterans who have been here since the program’s inception turn to me for help as much as I try to follow their lead in creating and managing my course. Then towards the end of the day I pulled up the Full Sail website to check on posted course materials and saw the blogging story on the website’s front page. Since being contacted two-weeks ago by Full Sail Online writer, Ashley Belanger, I’d been wondering when they were going to run the story. OMG, I had no idea that they would use so much of my material in the article. Wow.

As I’ve mentioned before I’m still adjusting to coming from feeling like a lone ed/tech voice in the wilderness and then to come to a place where I’ve run into folks in other departments who have read my blog (hi Gustavo). And now to have the blog prominently featured on the school’s official website is pretty scary. So much for flying under the radar. I wonder if they know about “Twitter” yet? The complete text of the Full Sail article follows below (either directly or you might have to click the “read more” link). enjoy. jbb

How To Write a Truly Interesting Blog

Blogs need to become more than words to engage readers.

That guy who sold you coffee at Starbucks, he has a blog where he posts his artwork. The girl who accidentally knocked into you while you were trying to catch the bus, she blogs about her newborn baby. And your favorite course director, it might surprise you to find out his latest log entry is about political cartoons. These days, every Joe Schmoe has the ability to upload his opinions directly to the Web, and if you’ve ever tapped into the blogosphere, you know that they’re already posting and perhaps the thought has crossed your mind: Should I be blogging?

Yes. Blogging helps the casual poster in many ways. Daily writing exercises improve your organizational habits, clear your mind and allow you to vent. It’s a moment of social clarity where you can literally say exactly how you feel. But how do you take those ideas and make them interesting? That’s the tricky part.

“The thing, that is so true today and wasn’t back when I started writing, is that blogging isn’t just about writing but also about sharing pictures, ideas or even the line of a great song. It’s about finding something that makes you stop and think and then sharing that with someone else,” said EMDT Course Director Joe Bustillos.

Bustillos encourages students to blog in his classes, and he leads by example, regularly posting to his own domain JoeBustillos.com. His blog encompasses all of his varied interests but has the admirable ability of maintaining the distinct Web persona that Bustillos has created. A good blogger finds a way to manage his or her voice so that readers instantly recognize it. Part of this has to do with a lack in inhibition.

“Ironically, now that they probably have the language skills to express themselves and have the experience of the world to have something meaningful to say, they generally don’t want to say something ‘stupid’ or ‘wrong,’” Bustillos said.

The best blogs incorporate graphics and work to be as visually stimulating as the posts are mentally stimulating. Orlando entrepreneur Anthony Scotti uses his blog Get Phree to post his unique observations. He frequently relies on only an image or video as a post, but because his readers are so invested in his character, the reader understands the point Scotti is trying to make even without his written comment.

“It does help to encourage students to look for a graphic to include with their post. That sometimes inspires the ones of few words and breaks the concentration of those too in love with the flow of their own rambling thoughts,” said Bustillos.

Don’t undersell yourself. If you think you have nothing interesting to say, it’s likely that you just don’t know the proper way to express yourself. Blogging can be personal, but it can also be purposeful. Test the waters by posting a few entries to a private blog and see if the concept grows on you. The blogosphere may seem crowded, but there are few people who really know how to engage a reader, so next time you come across a blog that really interests you, take some time to analyze why, and you might be able to utilize those same characteristics to bolster your own blog!
-Ashley Belanger