Task 7 - Write an Opinion Post

In task 7 you will need to create an opinion post for your blog. The task requires giving your readers your very own personal opinion and/or your perspective regarding any one person, thing, or event in your niche; then carefully listening to the opinions of your readers.

Listening to All Sides

If possible, try to write about something in your niche that will cause controversy and that others will be willing to refute or support. The point is to spark as much debate as possible and invite others to make comments on your blog, expressing their own opinion on your published topic.

Sparking Debate on a New Blog

Since your blog is relatively new you might not get many immediate responses or comments. To remedy this, ask some of your friends, family or acquaintences to read your post and leave their own opinion in the comment section. Don't ask them to lie or write just for the sake of writting. Try to get them to tell you what's on their mind even if it means completely disagreeing with you. Promise them that you will not get offended if they express conflicting views.

Always reply to the comments left on your opinion post. That will help keep the conversation going and keep the debate interesting.

The best opinion posts are those that spark the most controversy; those which many people either strongly agree or disagree with and where they are willing to leave their own opinion.

Other Types of Opinion Posts

Not all opinion posts have to spark controversy. If you feel you are not yet ready to bring debate to your blog you can publish another type of opinion post which gives your opinion but does not necessarily cause controversy. For example, you can express your dislikes or dislikes regarding a certain type of food, clothes, brands, locations, etc. Most people will not be offended and you may still be able to receive some comments.

Why Opinion Posts Matter
You are building a niche blog about a particular topic. You want people to recognize you as an expert in your niche. Informative and educational posts regarding your topic are great but opinions make you stand out from the rest of the crowd.

In an opinion post you are letting people know how passionate you are about a topic; not that you are simply knowledgeable. You are letting people know that you are a real person that cares about this niche with all its ups or downs and is willing to take a stand, even if it is controversial and may put your reputation on the line. They see that you stand up for what you believe about a topic. That gives you a valuable voice.

Like Darren Rowse says in his 31 Days to a Better Blog (Day 19): "Expressing opinions on your blog is like adding seasoning to food."

Task 6 - Create a Logo for Your Blog & Upload It

In Task 6 you will create a logo for your blog to give your site a more professional look. You can either use an online logo maker or use design software to create your logo, if you have it.

A great open source design software you can download and use for free is Gimp. It takes a little time to learn but it is very powerful.

There are also several online logo sites where you can create a logo in minutes. Some are free, some charge. It all depends on you.

One free online logo maker you can use is http://www.logomaker.com/  but there are others. Here you can create and use your logo in low resolution. If you want higher resolution you have to pay for it.

Here is the logo I created with logomaker:

Play around with your design until you find something that works for you.

Try to create several logos for your blog. Tweak them, use different colors and see how they change, change sizes of certain objects, etc. Eventually you will need to decide which one you will use but giving yourself several options helps you better evaluate what you really want out of your logo.

Here are some sample logos that were generated with http://www.freelogoservices.com.

Since this particular blog is about building or constructing student blogs, I chose "construction" as my logo theme. I still need to work out the details and chose which one I like best and possibly edit it, or just throw them all out and start again but it's a start. For now I will use the logo I created with Logo Generator:

So what are you waiting for? Create a great logo that will make your blog look more professional than ever.

Uploading Your Logo to Blogger
Once you have the perfect logo and you have saved it to your hard drive, it is now time to put it on your site. In Blogger this is very simple. Use the following steps to place your logo at the top of your blogger website:

1. Login to Blogger and go to the Design tab or menu.
2. Find the "Header" and click edit.
3. Upload the image from your hard drive. 
4. Choose whether you want to replace your text based title or use it along with your image. 
5. Press save. 

Now go to your Blog and refresh the page so the new logo becomes visible. That´s it. You are all done. You now have a logo on your website (blog) that makes it look more professional.

Task 5 - Create a List of Authority Websites

Image courtesy of Hubspot

Task 5 in this blogging course, involves researching your niche for authority websites and creating a list post of quality authority websites related to your topic.

The first thing you need to do is find the top websites in your industry or niche and tell us why they are so important. They may be sites you already frequent or you may want to do a little bit of research to make sure you are giving us an excellent list.

Once you´ve identified your list of authority websites you will then need to publish it. Create an ordered list using a numbered or bullet point format, whichever you feel most comfortable with (e.g. 1. 2. 3. 4., etc.). For each point, give a brief description of the site and state why it is so important.

Don't forget to add a link to each authority website or blog:

Example:

List of Authority Websites Related to Blogging

1. Problogger.net -  The most extensive website that exists about blogging and how to make money with blogging. Darren Rowse, the author is an experienced blogger that runs a successful blogging business and teaches others how to do the same. He has written many ebooks as well as physical books teaching us how to get the most out of our blogs. 
2. Copyblogger - Brian Clark, provides solutions and great advice which empower bloggers to successfully grow their blogs and online businesses using social media as well as online marketing.
3. SmartPassiveIncome.com - Pat Flynn shows us how he is using his own blog to make money and gives us advise on how we can do the same. The great thing about Pat's blog is that you get to see how someone is really doing things. He's not just telling you. He is showing you through a live, living example, himself. 
4. WriteToDone - A blog about the craft and the art of writing. At the "Write to Done" blog, Mary Jaksch provides a great place for all of us to grow as bloggers or writers. Write to Done  a blog where we can share some of what we have learned as bloggers or writers. 
5. etc.

This post can be a work in progress. You can always come back to it and add other great authority sites that you learn about in the future. You can even ask your readers to suggest more sites in the comment section. 

Task 4 - Embed a Youtube Video in a Post in Your Blog

Task 4 is to add video content to your blog. The idea is to find a useful Youtube video and embed it on your website.

Instructions:

1. Find a Youtube Video related to the topic of your blog.
2. Create a new post about the video. 
3. Embed the video in the post.
4. Write your opinion or a description about the video. 

I have embedded the following Youtube which gives you instructions on how to add the video to your Blogger blog.

Task 3 - Write a List Post

The last task that our 31 Days to a Better Blog manual gave us was to create an elevator pitch for our blog. In today's task, Darren Rowse (the author of book) tells us to write a list post.

What's a list post?

A list post helps us organize a topic we want to blog about. A list could be about anything depending on your blog topic and personal interests or goals.

7 Things to Keep in Mind When Writing a List Post

1. Have a Clear Topic In Mind. If you are talking about dog accessories, do not include cat accesories in your list.
2. Be Specific. Try to narrow down your topic and give valuable information that helps build your reputation as an expert in your niche. 
3. There are different kinds of list posts. 
• List posts can be comprehensive or they can be simple and superficial. 
• Lists can be persuasive or informative. 
• Lists can help you break down complicated or extensive topics into more digestable chunks of information. 
4. List Posts can have different structures. For example, your whole post can be a list or you can have lists within an individual post (like this one). List posts can also have sub-lists like the one on point 3 of this list.
5. Lists can be numbered (like this one) or they can be bulleted (like the sublist on point 3). 
6. It's important to expand upon each point in your list either in the list itself or somewhere else in the post. Not doing so leaves the reader with the sense that your post was too superficial and can hurt your reputation.
7. Put a limit on the number of list posts you do. As Darren Rowse puts it, "lists can be incredibly powerful but readers can become frustrated with them if that is all you do."

Task 2: Create An Elevator Pitch

In this task we will begin working with advice from a great blogging a manual I purchased a while back from my favorite blogging authority: Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.net. It is called 31 Days to a Better Blog and it is quite powerful.

Although Darren suggests we finish all of the activities in 31 days we will only be working on 1 or 2 activities per week. Task 2 is activity # 1 of the 31 days to a better blog:

Create an Elevator Pitch

Basically we need to create a short sales pitch for our website (blog) that has to be short enough that we can tell it to someone on a ride up on an elevator. About 100 to 150 words.

It has to tell people what our blog is about and why they should be reading it. For example a possible elevator pitch for a Harry Potter blog can be:

"Harry Potter fan club website that tries to reveal all of Harry Potter's best moments as well as giving us ways to bring Harry Potter out of the movies and books and into our everyday life."

Once you have your elevator pitch, create a "PAGE" not a post on blogger and post it as your "About Me."

All done? Go on to Task 3: Write a list post.

Task 1: Create and Tweak Your Blog

In this class we will be working with Blogger. There are many other blogging platforms like Wordpress, Tumbler, etc., however in order to keep things uniform we will all be using Blogger for this specific classs.

You are welcome to also create blogs using other platforms. I will add them to our student's blog directory. For now simply create and tweak a blogger blog.

Once you have created your blog, please send me the link then go on to task 2: Create an Elevator Pitch.