Starting your own blog7 February 2015: The HagueBloggers & Writers Meetup

Who am I?

Renée Veldman-Tentori

Dutch Australian

Mother of 2 little girls

(Freelance) Lecturer at The Hague University of Applied Sciences

Social Media Specialist

Keen blogger! (with several blogging friends)

Benefits of BloggingLots! See separate presentation on

Slideshare:http://www.slideshare.net/reneeveldmantentori/2013-benefits-of-blogging

and covered by Catarina in her motivation section

Dutch Australian

Personal blog about my experiences of life between the two countries

Regular guest contributions & interviews of the community

www.dutchaustralian.com

Zestee

Social media, Marketing & Photography

Sub site - Zestee Social Media School (with blog of free tips)

www.zestee.com

Professional Parents Network

Family Work Balance

Mixture of personal experiences, events and information

www.professionalparentsnetwork.org

Culture and Kids

Art, Books, History, Language, Museums, Music, Theatre

Personal experiences but plan on asking for guest posts

www.cultureandkids.com

My children

My daughters also have blogs

Some posts are public, others are private

Website vs a Blog?In the past, these were very separate….now

generally they are combined

Business vs Personal?

The lines here are also becoming blurred..every business should have a blog and your

personal blog can potentially become a business

Different Blog Platforms

Plenty to choose from….

The 10 best blogging platforms

http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/best-blogging-platforms-121413634

Top 3 Blogging Platforms

• Tumblr• Blogger

• WordPress

Tumblr

Simple and straightforward

Post anything from anywhere (e.g. Instagram)

Reblogging option

www.tumblr.com

Blogger

Owned by Google and you need a Google Account

.blogspot URL

One of the older platforms but hasn’t changed a lot

www.blogger.com

WordPress

WordPress.com : Free, quick and easy

WordPress.org : Self hosted, more customisable

One of the most popular platforms and my personal pick

Make life harder for hackers

Malware & hacking issues

Mostly a concern if you own a WordPress.org website

Run regular updates

Use security plugins such as BruteForce and WordFence

Have secure passwords

Integrate with social media

The best blogging is about community - grow this on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram etc

Cross promote and post

Consider an enewsletter (easy with RSS feeds)

Challenges

Overwhelming, so much to know but just remember Frenzy, Fatigue, Focus http://zestee.com/frenzy-fatigue-focus-theory-social-media-life/

I don’t blog “regularly enough” in the short term, but this is a long term plan for me and I simply love it.

It’s a very individual thing - just go ahead and DO IT!

Have fun!Come and say hello on any of my blogs :)

Or connect on LinkedIn: Renée Veldman-Tentoriwww.dutchaustralian.com

www.zestee.comwww.professionalparentsnetwork.org

www.cultureandkids.com