Yesterday I participated in a discussion forum during the final meeting of a class series on social media at the Nacky Loeb School of Communications in Manchester, NH (thanks to @TeresaKRobinson for inviting me! – check out her running blog). After leaving, I thought about how much I would have benefited from having taken such a class before I started my own foray into the world of Twitter, Facebook, and blogging. Over the past year I’ve put an enormous amount of effort into building this blog into what it currently is (not to mention starting a podcast!), and have enjoyed nearly every minute of it – blogging and podcasting have truly come to be two of my passions. That being said, it has been a constant learning process, and I have encountered and mostly overcome many bumps along the way. With this in mind, I got the idea on the way home from the discussion last night to do a series of podcast episodes on blogging and podcasting from the standpoint of someone who’s still relatively new at it, but who has navigated a number of the challenges that any beginning blogger/podcaster faces. I have some topic ideas already in mind, and some content already recorded, but I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do my first Q&A with readers and listeners.
So, what I’d like to do is open up the comments section below (or feel free send me an e-mail if you prefer) to solicit any questions you might have about blogging, podcasting, or any other aspect of social media. I’m by no means an expert on any of these things, but if I can help you avoid some of the difficulties I encountered as I developed this blog or my fledgling podcast, then I’ll feel I have accomplished my goal with this. Doing it now while my own experiences are still fresh in mind is a better time than any. Feel free to fire away, and I’ll do my best to answer in the podcast series (and possibly blog posts) to come.
About Peter Larson
Hi Peter,
I’m very interested in hearing your podcast on these matters. I’m a full-time freelance writer that wants to build my own successful blog. I’m very familiar with blogging, but not with building an audience, what it takes to keep it up, etc. I’d be happy to enter a discussion with you if you want to get more ideas for questions to answer etc. Lemme know. Chris
Chris,
I’ve recorded a bunch of content, and I do touch on audience building. I
need to work on editing it all together, which may take some time – that’s
the hard part of podcasting! The best tips I can give you at the outset are
to use social media (set up a Facebook fan page, get a Twitter account),
read and comment on other blogs, and build relationships in the blogging
community. Other bloggers are your best source of support! There are also a
couple of good books that I’ve read on the topic:
Blogging Heroes by Michael Banks
Say Everything by Scott Rosenberg
Once I get the podcasts up, I’d be happy to discuss any thoughts, questions,
ideas you might have.
Pete