Have you ever thought about starting a blog? Have you started a blog but wondered why nobody’s visiting? Why nobody’s commenting? This 8 week course will consist of one meet-up a week (of approximately 90 minutes each), and will have you start a blog from scratch and bring it into success! There will be a series of lectures every week, including a guest speaker in one of them, but most importantly you will get lots of hands on experience as well. Think of this class as part lecture, part lab.

If you’ve never thought about starting a blog, now’s the time to do so. Blogs are slowly replacing resumés, and it’s amazing the difference a blog can make in a job interview (or even for potential employers to find you!). You are doing yourself and your future a favor by starting and keeping up a great blog.

Included in the class is:
-Help getting your blog set up, hosted, and working (a $250 value)
-A Premium Wordpress Theme valued at $70!
-Individual consultations / help (which normally costs $40 / hr)
-A group of classmates that will help you get Stumbled, Digged, and get comments going on your Blog. Really, getting those initial readers is the hardest part, and with this class, we hurdle that problem no problem :)

Each class will end with homework assigned, including projects, writing blog posts, and relevant readings. Readings will come from the Internet, so you won’t have to pay for any books. I look forward to working with you and everyone else to create some really great blogs!

Homework Before the Class Starts:
Choose 3 topics / niches that you’d be interested in blogging about and send them to koichi@tofugu.com. No “personal blogs” about your life allowed. Pick something you’re interested in – doesn’t matter if you’re an expert or not, though experience in the subject is definitely helpful. You aren’t going to do all 3 topics, but I really want you to bring several options so we can talk about them and discuss the possibilities.

Week 1:
-The Joys of Wordpress
-Hosting your blog (paying for hosting & free hosting)
-Picking a great (and brandable) domain name (and registering it EVERYWHERE)
-Creating a Logo
-Picking your niche and researching it (please choose 3 topics you want to blog about before the first class)
-Share Contact information

HW: Get hosting (or do free hosting) and set up your blog. I’ll help you throughout the week.

Week 2:
-By now we’ll have all our blogs set up, and we’ll be ready to post.
-Working on the “About Section”
-Feedburner & Tracking your RSS feed (plus, why RSS is so important).
-Google Analytics & Tracking your blog stats
-Plugins to make your blog POP!
-Our “Group Blog”
-“How to write” in a blog

HW: 1 post from each person on the group blog, the “about section” on your individual blog. Plan your second post (the one after your introduction) and bring your ideas to class next week.

Week 3:
-Social Marketing
-Youtube Strategies
-Twitter Strategies
-Choosing a Social Media Market to focus on. We’ll each choose one we want to concentrate on. You can choose either Youtube or Twitter.
-Helping each other with StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, and Twitter

HW: Youtube people incorporate a video into a post. Twitter people start Tweeting. Be prepared to share your experiences in the next class. Post on Group Blog.

Week 4:
-Individual Stats Checks (how are we doing?)
-Group Blog Stats Checks
-Share what’s working and what’s not working with each other
-How often should I post?
-When should I post?
-Getting more comments on my blog

HW: Post on Group blog / Individual Blog

Week 5:
-Guest Speaker (Topic TBD) – might move down to week 6
-Group Blog Stats Checks
-Making Money with your Blog (Discuss different options you have to get a little back)

HW: Post on Group blog / Individual Blog. Choose a revenue model to start pursuing.

Week 6:
-Interacting with fans
-Turning readers into evangelists
-Individual 1:1 conferences. Other students will be working on a group project.
-The contest! Giving something back to your readers, and gaining more readers in return!

HW: Post on Group blog / Individual Blog. Start working on your contest / giveaway

Week 7:
-Thinking about SEO in your posts (what’s your stats breakdown?)
-Creating good Linkbait
-Doing something to garner the attention of a bigger blog
-Networking with people your blogging age
-Presentations: Pick a topic to present in the last class

HW: Get your contest ready to go! Post in blogs. Get your presentation done.

Week 8:
-Final look at statistics. Where did we fail? What did we do well?
-Individual Presentations (5 minutes long, though this depends on the class size)
-Assessments & Conclusion
-What do we do post-bloguation?
-Bloguation! Congratulations!

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at koichi@tofugu.com or message me via the eduFire message feature.