Lessons I’ve Learned in College that Made me a Better Blogger

by Alvina · 26 comments

This is a guest post by Alvina from AccreditedOnlineColleges.com

Writing has always been a huge part of my life, so when I enrolled in an English program at my state college as an undergraduate no one was really surprised.

While English courses helped me perfect my grammar and understand the various works of Shakespeare, my English courses didn’t specifically prepare me for blogging.

No, the skills I learned that made me a self-proclaimed blogger extraordinaire naturally occurred while I worked as a part-time journalist for the student newspaper. To find out what lessons I learned from the news room that can help boost your blogging career, continue reading below.

Blogging Lessons Learned From College

Always Meet Deadlines

First and foremost you need to establish and meet deadlines. In the newspaper world, there is no such thing as not meeting your deadlines—if you don’t, your scary editor will rip you a new one. But of course, in the blogging sphere there is no scary editor and you’re not running a news operation; therefore you don’t need such a quick turnaround. But giving yourself a personal deadline when it comes to blog posts is always recommended.

In fact, this is the easiest way to ensure that your blog continuously has fresh content. Since I was a sophomore in college I was exposed to the benefits of having an editorial calendar: you can see which days each blog post is supposed to go “live” and you can properly organize for the weeks to come.  If you know that you’re not going to meet a deadline, then find a guest blogger, like myself, to help fill in the pieces.

Don’t Write “Sensational/Controversial” Blog post Unless you’re Prepared for Backlash

Not everyone is going to agree with what you write about, especially if you are writing about a very “hot topic.” You need to learn how to respect your readers and not attack them if they don’t agree with what you have to say. Acknowledging their comments and thanking them for reading your post is the better way to approach the situation.

But whatever you do don’t censor negative comments on your blog just because you don’t like a reader’s tone; meaning don’t just blatantly erase the comments like they were never there. Of course if the reader writes racist slurs or profanity then by all means ban them from your bog.

Research on Your Own

It’s always a good idea to do extensive research when writing your blog posts—even if something you’re reading gives you “statistics” or “facts.” Be your own fact checker and go back to the original source or study to make sure that whatever you’re reading didn’t get anything wrong or take something out of context.

You want your readers to trust you and know that they can view your blog as an authoritative source. So just take a few minutes before posting your blog post and make sure that everything you say rings true. It’s also a good idea to link back to studies and other areas where you got your sources of information from to boost your credibility.

Quality not Quantity

Last but not least, don’t assume that your articles have to be long to effectively get your message across. News writers have a restricted word count because they have to conserve space, therefore they are forced to write much shorter, punchy articles. But those articles are the most read in the nation.

If your article isn’t as long as you anticipated but it’s still well-written; have the confidence that it will do well—after all, experts say shorter online articles are  better received with readers anyway because consumers only have time to “scan” articles.

About Alvina

Alvina Lopez has freelanced about education throughout her career. As technology and education converge, Alvina hopes to guide her readers as they search for online college programs that have the potential to jumpstart their careers and change their lives. She primarily contributes to www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/. She welcomes feedback at alvina.lopez@gmail.com

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