DIY Blogging

Image Credit: Billy Curtis

For a long time, I have been very interested in DIY projects. I think it is so cool what we can make and are able to recycle. Last week, I posted a DIY project I did with my father and I loved talking about it. I got so much positive feedback from social media, it was awesome! This made me decide to search how to do DIY posts correctly and I found a lot of tips and tricks.

One major thing I found out was that DIY blogs usually only write about DIY projects. Also, only a certain type of DIY. Like one blog I found was dedicated to wood work projects while another was completely about yarn projects. This is a cool thing about DIY is there is so many different kinds that they can be appealing to anyone.

Different kinds of DIY projects include:

Image Credit: grassrootsgroundswell

Kitchen

Bathroom

TV/ Electronic

Wood Work

Classroom

Outdoor

Image Credit: b inxee

Stain Removal/ Cleaning

Garden/ Landscaping

Welding/ Metal Work

And these are just a few!

Since I am interested in multiple DIY projects, I don’t want to limit my blog to one type. I want to do things that I find interesting and will be useful to me. This can make my blog successful because it is able to reach out to more people. One way of being able to reach people is through social media.

Although my posts get shared through Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest is a very famous site for looking at DIY. This is because the pins are based off pictures and you are able to see the DIY without having to click on it. This way, you can try the DIY without having to read the post. However, some people do click through to the post and read the steps to creating this DIY.

Now, what about the post? How can you make the post interesting to read? Some of the tips I found was making a step list. If you make a step list than it is easy for the reader to follow when creating their own project. The reader can easily copy and paste a list so they are able to print it off.

When making a list or the steps, you want to make sure you go through everything you did but not make every step super long. I found that the recommended length for each step is 2 sentences at most. “Well, what if I have to explain more?” If you need to explain more, you can write a very detailed guide at the beginning or end of your post. This way they have help if they need it.

Hopefully this post was helpful to future DIY writers!

Until next time,

-Rachel

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Rebuilt Clock

One thing I did this week was rebuild a clock and made it into a key holder. While my father did a lot of the work…I am proud to say I painted the dots! I did not get picture of the clock before the repair but all you need to know is the wood around the clock was cracked but the actual clock worked!

First thing we did was repair the wood. Since the wood was not to cracked, we could just glue it back together. My father then sanded it down and spray painted it black. We then put a clear coat over it and reset the time. My father then put 5 screws in the bottom so it could hold all of my keys! 🙂

For the paint, I used Sharpie paint markers in blue, green and pink.

First Blue, then green, and finally pink!

The final product (after some touch ups):

This product was super easy to make and did not cost anything. The clock was recycled and the paint is something my family already had! Its awesome how some of the smallest things can be reusable!

Until next time,

-Rachel

Google Autocomplete?

For this weeks post about my independent learning project, I wanna talk about what to talk about. What are some things you can do when you draw a blank? I will be talking about one major tip that you can do. This tip is Google Autocomplete, also known as Google Suggest.

Google Autocomplete is when you start typing in the search bar and it gives you suggestions on what you might be looking for. Looks something like this.

Google Autocomplete works very simply. When you type a word, the autocomplete is established by popularity of the search. Now, how does this tie into blogging?

When you need to know something or want more information about a subject most of us use Google to solve this problem. Well, one way to get ideas from blogging is by Googling a subject you are interested in. This is a point in my past post and it is something that multiple bloggers do. The autocomplete comes into play because it can bring up different topics to talk about. An example is if you type “”blog” Google autocompletes it to “blog tips”, “blog sites” and “blog help”. (On mine anyway)

Another thing about Google is it can base your searches off of things you have searched in that past. This is if you have a Google account and you are logged in when searching or if you search something on the same computer. Say you read news from CNN, if you Google something and CNN has done an article about it, CNN will come to the top of your search right away. It can be very personalized if you want it to be.

Now, what if you have no idea where to even start. Say you just want a general concept to write a post about, how can you use autocomplete? Thanks to the internet, I have found some popular keywords that you can look up to give ideas what to write about. These words are just some of the popular words that people search and write about in 2016.

These words are:

1. Facebook   2. Youtube  3. Aquarius  4. ESPN  5. Popular  6. Test  7. News  8. Art           9. Free  10. Amazon

These are just a few popular searches. You can pretty much find anything you need with Google or another search engine.

Hopefully, Google Autocomplete makes more sense and can help you in your future blogging career. It has helped me immensely!

Until next time,

-Rachel

7 Tips for Beginning a Blog

For my independent learning project, I will be learning to create a successful blog. I found some very useful tips and wanted to share with you my top ten tips I’ve read. These tips come from multiple resources, including regular people and expert bloggers.

1. Do not try to be perfect.

No one is perfect and no post is perfect. It is important to remember this when writing your posts. There is always going to be someone that disagrees with you but there are people who do agree with you and will find the post you are writing interesting.

2. Blog what you are passionate about.

Image Credit: Wanda Di Mattero

When you are thinking about what to post about, consider things you find interesting. Try to reach write something you would want to read. This way you will get the audience you want. Something I do is go on Twitter and find some popular stories on subjects you enjoy.

3. Do not lie in your blogs!

Blogging is almost like a news source. You are talking about a subject and telling people about it. Just like in person, you don’t wanna lie about this subject. If you do, you loose all your credibility and your reputation will drop dramatically.

4. Write something that can last.

Image Credit: Josie Hopkins

This is my favorite tip! If you want your posts to be popular for a long time, write about subjects that people generations from now will have questions about. Say tips for blogging. People are always going to be looking for tips because there are new bloggers everyday. Same with DYI projects or reviews.

 

5. Personalize your website.

When someone first comes to your website, their initial reaction will determine if they want to read your blog or not. If your website is plain looking with no pictures or colors, that will make the reader uninterested. Make it good looking!

6. Take advantage of social media.

If you truly want to make your blog successful you need to get it out there. With how much social media there is, that is the best free advertising you can get. Try using the popular ones and share it with your friends. The social medias I would recommend advertising on is Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. These are three super popular platforms and have multiple connections to different search engines.

7. Use images.

Images provide so much extra support and gives more appeal to the audience. This is just another way to show the meaning of your content.

These are some tips I found very useful and will definitely be using them in future posts.

Until next time!

-Rachel

Featured Image Credit: Candid Writer

Independent-Learning Project

For the CSC “Literacy in the Digital Age’, we were given an awesome project to spend 4 hours on whatever subject we’d like and post our way through each step. For this project, I decided to use my own blog as my project. For the remaining weeks, I will be spending time researching and try to make a successful blog.

First, I need to determine what a successful blog is. My goal in these next couple weeks it to gain followers outside of my classmate followers. I will be attempting to gain these followers by creating a variety of blogs on different subjects as well as sharing every post to Facebook and Twitter. On top of my school posts, I want to do at least one different topic each week as well as an update blog each week. This update blog will talk about the stats I get from each week as well as different tips and tricks I learned from the internet.

Second, I need to determine what type of blogs I want to post. I am really interested in media and different popular medias, such as Youtube, and the “trending” tab. This could serve as a review as well as different possible reviews (movies and books). Another thing I have thought about is different cooking recipes. I became interested in cooking from my mother and eventually took classes in high school which was pretty funny. I think it

would be funny to try to see some “average Jane” try intense cooking recipes. One last thought I had was different welding projects. I was in welding or shop (as some schools call it) for 3 out of 4 years of high school. The first year, I learned the basics of multiple shop tools and found my own techniques on them. For second and third year welders, they would have to make their own projects and submit them for a grade. Being the person I am, I wanted to make welding art. This has become very popular with welding art made out of horseshoes. I did this a lot and thought I could share my experiences and knowledge with the good people of the internet. With all these ideas, it is probably safe to say, I am not a professional with any of these things. They are just simply my hobbies.

*If you have any ideas PLEASE comment them!*

*Also, all the images uploaded are my own personal projects.*

Hopefully you are able to follow me through this journey!

-Rachel