&Who Are YouWhat Are You Doing?

How to start and maintain an interesting blog

Two Questions

• What to write about? • How to keep a blog?

Finding Your Storyline• Why are you doing FMS?• What do you like?

– Your dog– Nature – Architecture

• What are you influenced by?– Religion– Environment– Family

• What’s a theme in your life?– Bad luck– Art– Food

Ev’s Storyline

• Why are you doing Peace Corps?– Immerse in a new culture

• What is one other interest of yours?– Personal Development

• What is one thing you’re influenced by?– Family

• What’s a theme in your life?– Travel

Incorporating Your Storyline

• Immerse in a new culture– My First Time… Making Armenian Lavash

• Personal Development– Goals for 2013

• Family– I–Miss America

• Travel– Lisboa by Myself

Finding a Weekly Story• Answer Why

– http://travelingev.com/2013/07/why-did-you-join-peace-corps/

• Cultural Adjusting– http://travelingev.com/2011

/06/first-armenia/

• Where I live– http://travelingev.com/2012

/07/apartment-tour/

• Daily Routine– http://travelingev.com/2011

/07/daily-routine/

• Compare/contrast– http://travelingev.com/2013

/01/wheres-all-the-food/

• Small daily chore– http://travelingev.com/2012/09

/hammerfor/

• People– http://travelingev.com/2012/07

/diabetes/

• Picture-heavy post– http://travelingev.com/2011/08

/recipes-armenia/• Ask readers for suggestions

– http://travelingev.com/2012/04/more-later/

• Holiday– http://travelingev.com/2013/04

/easter-eat-more/• Reflection

– http://travelingev.com/2012/04/changing/

How to Write for the Web

• Interesting heading• Compelling intro• Shorter sentences and paragraphs• Pictures or video• Bullet points• Bold text• Headings

From the Beginning

• Post consistently• Encourage comments• Utilize social media• Plan for the future– Represent yourself in a good light– Submit guest posts– Collect email addresses

How This Will Benefit You Later

• Professional portfolio• Personal branding• Personal development• Online reputation

Housekeeping

• Professional representation – Yourself, the Monterey Institute, your organization

• Permission from your organization – Privacy concerns, Social media policies

• You may be featured on the Monterey Institute or Frontier Market Scouts websites

• Here’s the Monterey Institute media release form for permission to use multimedia content (audio, video, and photos) from your interviewee.

Your Presenter

• Evelyn Helminen– www.travelingev.com– ehelminen@miis.edu