Over the last three years we’ve built the World Race into a phenomenon – a fast growing ministry that is waking up a generation and challenging them to radical living. Blogging has been a huge part of our mobilization strategy. Mike Price and Jeff Goins have been wonderful partners for me as we’ve sought to build a culture of transparency that blogs facilitate.
Blogs do two things that are invaluable:
First, they are an online journal that help those who know and love them follow them as they go on adventures and are challenged in a thousand ways. They help those of us who sign up to be coaches pray for and encourage them.And second, they cast a vision for others to follow in their footsteps. Most of our new Racers come to us through the word-of-mouth that past Race blogs initiated.
One of the things that we’ve wrestled with is answering the question, “How do we do a better job of blogging?” I challenged Jeff to help us come up with “Ten Commandments of Blogging” that all our Racers should learn. Here they are. Any suggestions before we throw them out there as requirements for our Racers and eventually other AIM missionaries?
- Blog every week. No exceptions. Blogging twice or more is even better. No internet access? Write an extra blog & post later or save to thumb drive & have someone download for you.
- Use paragraph breaks. No more than four to five sentences per paragraph.
- Tell stories. Introduce characters, events, and places. Share dialog. Tell why it matters at the end. Don’t just talk about yourself.
- Verbal processors dictate to someone & have them post it.
- Post pictures – at least one per blog.
- Keep it short – don’t drag on. A good blog is 4-5 paragraphs or roughly 300 words.
- Work on & improve your blogging skills. Go thru these blogging lessons before leaving.
- Shoot short videos – they should average 90 secs & have a point. People have short attention spans – don’t waste time on videos they won’t watch.
- Call out your audience. Use your experiences to activate others for ministry. Encourage and challenge them to seek out their own life’s adventure.
- Build your blog audience. Invite people to subscribe to your update alerts. Use Facebook to automatically import your blogs as notes. Include your blog address in emails and newsletters.
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Seth Barnes
I'm motivated to join God in his global reclamation project. He's on the move, setting his sons and daughters free from their places of captivity. And he's partnering with those of us who have been freed to go and free others.
Ahh, I’m really bad at #6! I’m always too long winded! Working on it though. 🙂
YOU ALREADY BROKE THE 5th COMMANDMENT WHERE IS MY PICTURE!!! But I guess I should not cast stones. My blog (www.damascus180.blogspot.com) kinda stinks – okay really does but, then again, I have not been to breakthru yet.
Thank you Seth!
sometimes i see people use silly clipart for their picture. please just tell me you’re not advocating that and i’ll give the Ten my vote.
Where are the THOU SHALT NOT’s… ?
Jody – we’ll get to the Thou Shalt Nots later.
Jacob – no clip art, please.
Steve – guilty as charged. Maybe I’ll get one up there.
I wholeheartedly support #2 and #6 especially. I get bored reading even my blog if I don’t adhere to those rules. I can think of a few people who are awesome writers, but their blog posts are often so long, I can never make it to the end. (That is, of course, unless there is a picture at the bottom.)
One correction
#1 “two blogs ARE better than one.” Not “is.”
And I think #3 should be #1. Good writing shows instead of telling, but it’s something I constantly have to remind myself of it, even after being an English/Writing major and writing a blog for months.
Also, in the stories, use colors and other descriptors. It’s amazing how much saying what color the bushes or the child’s face is can bring the reader into the story.
I know what a mouse and keyboard is……sorry you lost me on this one.
yes, pictures are good, but make it OVERALL visually pleasing as well.
the italic, bold and underline are your friend … and fonts OTHER than Times New Roman can be you friend too if you don’t make them too crazy.
and i agree with Jacob … just say no to clipart!!!!
What makes a great blog are three simple points: brevity, frequency, and clarity. Seth excels at all three of these. He posts short posts every day and makes his points clear and concise. That’s why we all keep coming back to read it. Art, style, and flow are all peripheral to these central points. What matters is the content and the simple, no-hassle package in which it comes. Thanks for setting the bar for blogging high, Seth.
I think that’s a pretty good list. And you know I’ll help with #8!
I think that’s a great Moses pic!
I love blogging and love reading your blog! Great words of wisdom and you bring much clarity of thought to many different topics. Very much benefited from these 10 commandments….and I’ll use one point of advice from the above posting as I sign off. My blog – http://www.journeytogether.info. How shameless?! 🙂