How to Blog and Why Blog???

Tip Junkie wants to know why you blog and so do I, go post why you blog on Tip Junkie! and here too. Here is my story reposted and added to...


Seems like whenever someone finds out that I started blogging the typical question is, "why?"

I know why I started blogging... I own a website called Teaching Heart and it has been around about 10 plus years and is well liked and read by k-3 teachers around the world. Through Teaching Heart I noticed that a few teachers were blogging and I checked it out and thought about setting up a blog for teachers. I kept telling myself, "Self, why do that when I already have a website for teachers?" So, I thought it would be neat to make a more personal blog. I share resources with my moms group already and I like helping moms in my area and I like talking the mommy talk... IDEA: I should share online in a special place!! I learn by doing. Why not learn about the blogging world by setting up a blog myself??? So here I am!! I am here to learn about blogging, get the word out about Teaching Heart in the blogging world, win some cool blog prizes from all those wonderful blogs out there, and to vent and share my mommy stuff!

Let's get serious and honest... I am a business women and I see the benefit of getting Teaching Heart the website out to the blogging world. A world filled with a new community of moms and teachers who may like the activities I create, who may want to purchase a CDROM some day... I wonder someday if most website will all include a blog. I am hoping to get a head start on this... As with Teaching Heart I have always wanted to share my skills too and not make it all for profit. Hopefully, I have shared some things on this blog that you have used. I am grateful to God for my gifts and I do think blogging is a way I can share some of those gifts.

I am still a little leery about this blogging world. I want to share about my family, but not so much that one day my son or daughter's future boyfriend will Google their name and see what their mommy had to say about them. So I am trying to mention them, but I am careful what I say. I read many blogs where women talk candidly about their husbands and how wonderful or even how awful they are. I know I want to stay away from the awful and reserve that for my closest friends (not that my husband is ever awful - maybe stubborn, but not awful). I even read a blog the other day where a mom was talking about her neighbors negatively. What if that neighbor finds the blog? I don't like conflict: and as a result, I will try to keep positive about the people in my life when I blog... still it would be tempting to tell you a few inlaw stories -- only kidding!

It's so easy to be a snoop out in the Internet world... just Google a name and you can find out details about people. If you Google my name for instance the first few links will show you:
Teaching Heart
My Amazon Reviews

Luckily, I haven't been in too much trouble so you won't see anything bad! Hee-hee! Google your name and see what you find. Anyhow, point is some people (my husband) feel I have always shared too much online. So I am trying to be somewhat private in my posts.

Cool thing about blogging is that so far it has been free for me. Set-up was free and I am amazed at the amount I can upload onto a blogging server without having to pay. Still, I wonder if paying will come into the picture. When I first started my website years ago; it was free and then ended up costing me $700+ a month until I figured out that I needed to switch hosting services and now cost me a much more reasonable amount. So does blogging get expensive??? I will have to find that out!

I give a high five to those moms that blog very candidly about their life. I don't look down upon them. Actually, I probably read their blog more because of it. I just don't think I will ever be able to truly treat blogging as a real diary.

Another thing I would love to try is a blogging conference, like Blogher... I think going to NY with a favorite blogger friend would be fun. Now to convince her and convince both our husbands. I think we would learn lots and have fun!

With all that... Wanted to share some links about blogging that I found interesting:

How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)
http://w2.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/blog-anonymously.php
"Blogs are like personal telephone calls crossed with newspapers. They're the perfect tool for sharing your favorite chocolate mousse recipe with friends--or for upholding the basic tenets of democracy by letting the public know that a corrupt government official has been paying off your boss. "

Learning About Blogging
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/08/29/learning-about-blogging-and-how-to-blog/
"The evolution from website to blog changes how people communicate. Let’s look at some of the development of blogs and help you learn more about blogging and how to blog."

If you look to the right of this blog you will see my blog list. It is basically a list of cool blogs that are mommy friendly and fun to read and learn from. You can visit them and learn more about blogging there.