Part 2: RR&B Assessment: Creating a Valuable Family History Blog

RootsTech 2014 conference presenter James Tanner broke the art of blogging down into six steps for his class: [and in brackets I have answered the questions pertaining to the RR&B blog as per our goals here under "Why"]

1. Be passionate: Focus on the thing or things you really want to write about, and stick with them. Make sure you have a lot to say about your blog topic.(1)
[and in brackets I have answered the questions pertaining to the RR&B blog as per our goals]

2. Decide on an audience: Are you writing this blog just for you and your personal records? Is it meant to link all members of your extended family? Is it a how-to blog for other members of the genealogy community? Choose beforehand whom you are intending to address.(1)
[numbers 1 & two of RR&B goals:  1--Share & exchange information about the Roberts family, and 2--Keep in touch with the Roberts family members]

3. Decide on a title: Tanner suggests being extra careful with this step. If you haphazardly choose a title — or if you choose an extremely long or specific title — your readers may get confused. Also keep in mind that people identify you based on your title and it becomes a sort of “brand.” Changing your title midway through a blog’s lifetime could result in loss of readership.(1)
[I decided to keep the same name as the newsletter to keep conformity and because it specifically spells out our surname, and because it describes the goals:  descendants as well as ancestors.  Sometimes I will abbreviate it as RR&B.]

4. Decide how often you want to post: Committing to blog every day or even every week can be a big undertaking. Pick a frequency that’s realistic for you and your schedule.(1)
[I try to post at least 3 times a week with varied content.  I have struggled with this.  How much is too much, where readers cannot keep up with the pace of lengthy daily posts, and how much is too little where readers will lose interest, or forget to come back and read?  Last year at RootsTech 2013, I went to a class that suggested using a spreadsheet for tracking your posts.  I have to say this was genus!  I have been able to view the regularity as well as the subject content enabling me to keep posts varied and not too much of the same content.]
  
5. Decide if the blog will be public or private: There are pros and cons to each, but if your purpose of blogging is to spread your family history and connect with others, make sure you keep your content accessible to the public.(1)
[For me this was easy.  I wanted web searchers to be able to find and locate this site so I could share information with other researchers and distant family members.  The downside to a public blog is the spam comments and my email address getting misused!  Blogger has a great filter on comments and it has caught all but one spam comment.  I was notified of the comment that it missed, so it was not up very long.]

6. Decide if the blog will be free or commercial: Are you open to the idea of having paid advertisements to help fund your efforts? Or will the blog have strictly family history content?(1)
 [I have kept this blog free from commercials and paid endorsements, because that is how I have run the newsletter; I have wanted it strictly family history.  For the time being that is how it will continue, and I don't foresee any changes.]

What are your opinions and what is your assessment of this blog?  Please leave your comments, and thank you for reading!
  
(1)Source:
Guderian, Katelyn, Desert News, "Effectively blogging about your family history", Published: Monday, Feb. 10 2014, online here. 

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