Blog Basics 4 Total Beginners is a new blog, as of July 2011, featuring information and instructions on blogging for those who are truly “total beginners” to blogging, and to internet use beyond simple surfing or e-mail.
The idea for the blog arose as I tried to encourage and help a local group I belong to, Penticton Writers and Publishers, to start using the internet in a variety of ways. The majority of members are seniors, and have experience in the worlds of traditional publishing and self-publishing. But the internet, for many, is foreign territory. Computers, for most, are for typing manuscripts, sending emails, and perhaps surfing the internet. And that’s about it. The very thought of actively using the new media is pretty terrifying for a lot of folks, even though that is where the world of writing and publishing is rapidly heading.
To help them overcome their fear, and get started in interactive use of the ‘net, I began by setting up a simple e-group on Yahoo, where we could share news, useful links, and help each other out with critiquing between our monthly meetings. About a dozen or so members “took the plunge” – it was a new experience for all of them! Next, I started producing a quarterly newsletter, sent out in PDF form, and a year later, we have about 1 1/2 dozen subscribers. I’m sure we’d have many more subscribers if it were available in “paper” form sent by snail mail, but slowly though surely more folks are joining the list, and taking part in submitting stories and information.
We have also been encouraging the members to set up Facebook accounts so they can join our facebook group. We now have a small but loyal – and growing – group of internet users there as well.
Over the past year or so, we’ve been introducing the idea of authors’ blogs and/or websites, or at least personal blogs or websites where they can get their name out there and develop a following. This past winter, one brave member decided to take the plunge, and started his own blog, Lakes, Trails and Tales of the Golden Triangle, on the Blogger platform. Another member, Claire , now has an author’s website with blog. A third member, who already had a business website has now started her own blog, Respect. A fourth member, a writer and self-publisher, who well understands the use of business websites, also has a site, Red Tuque Books. I am delighted to see these folks entering this whole new world of communications.
However, most members are still pretty terrified. Which brought me to the idea of starting a very, very simple, basic, step-by-step introduction to blogging – and particularly, blogging for seniors who are (or want to be) writers and/or authors. Granted, there are some great step-by-step “how-to-set-up-a-blog” (and/or website) sites out there already. But what I have found, in discussing this whole issue with my fellow writers in the group, is that there is a need for a site where they are not overwhelmed by jargon they don’t understand, where reasons for blogging are carefully laid out, and where the site is set up in a fashion they are familiar with and understand.
This is the reason for some of the rather unusual aspects of Blog Basics 4 Total Beginners - a Table of Contents you would more likely expect to find in a traditional book; a Glossary of blogging, website and internet terms explained very simply (and links to the terms from within the posts); and lots of step-by-step simple involvement and interaction. The site also links the users to other sites (such as simple ”how-to-set-up-a-WordPress-blog” sites) which explain various aspects better than I can!
Well-known bloggers tell new bloggers to blog as if they are speaking to, and interacting with, an audience of thousands – but at the same time to focus on one person who is clearly representative of the target audience. My target audience of thousands (or millions!) are all the seniors (and others like them) out there who need some help getting over their fear of real involvement with the internet – with a special sub-emphasis on those who are, or would like to be, writers and authors. And I have two “individual” focuses who help me remember who I am blogging for: the members of our Penticton Writers group, as I’ve already explained - and my dad.
Despite being a commerce teacher for 30 years, and in the process keeping up on the “cutting edge technology” of business machines – up to and including “word processors” and such, he retired right before the widespread introduction of personal computers. And it turned out that that new world was just a bit too much. Us kids got him a computer – but even using e-mail turned out to be a terrifying experience. His children and grandchildren and various “computer instructors” tried to teach and encourage him, but his constant complaint was that they “go too fast” and “use terms I don’t understand.”
Finally, the task was tossed to me. And I, the oldest of his progeny, turned out to be the one who was able to patiently guide him. Dad became an enthusiastic e-mail user, and liked to surf the web, and to listen to me explain what I was doing on my web-sites. Although he passed away before blogging really came into widespread use, I realized I had found a “niche” – the ability to explain the basics of these new-fangled technologies and methods to those for whom they really are “foreign territory.” I suppose my years of school-teaching and tutoring (not to mention raising 5 children of my own, and now being a grandmother of 8) also help!
So – if you’re one of those terrified folks – or you know others who are, and you’d like to find someone to help them, I hope that Blog Basics 4 Total Beginners is the place for you. Of course, a great thing about blogs is their interactivity, and I’d also be happy to answer questions and give a personal helping hand where I can. Please check out the blog, introduce others to it – and let me know how I can help. You CAN blog!
