Notes from Spain is a blog started by Ben Curtis as an experiment to understand how blogs worked. He initially posted pictures from Madrid and commented on Spanish news items. Later, he wrote an article on technology for a local English language newspaper and started the Notes from Spain podcast. Initially, he worked on the podcast alone, but later Marina also joined him, and they started making travel and cooking podcasts, which became more popular with time.
One day, a commissioning editor at Fodor's contacted Ben and asked him to edit a chapter for their 2007 Spain guide. He chose Galicia and Asturias and spent a few weeks in the north of Spain doing research. In 2008, he wrote a couple of introductory sections for their guide.
After returning from a recent trip to Thailand, Ben experienced blogger's block and couldn't think of anything to write about Spain. However, he read a piece of advice on another site, which suggested using a blog post to tell a story. This led him to share the story of his book, East of Iberia, and the success of the Notes from Spain podcast.
The Notes from Spain podcasts have led to wonderful opportunities for Ben, including work with Lonely Planet. He wrote several emails to the person in charge of online content at Lonely Planet, complaining that their first podcasts were boring and suggesting they produce shows like the ones he was making. Eventually, after his third email, a nice man named John got back to him, and Lonely Planet purchased one of their podcasts for their feed. Since then, they have made five podcasts for Lonely Planet, which Ben considers a dream come true.
He speaks to his audience as if they are friends.
He uses the first person pronouns I and we a lot.
He uses interjections like hey and wow.
He uses dashes (-) and exclamation marks (!).
He joins sentences with and rather than moreover, however, and therefore.
He uses some slang words.
He usually uses contractions.
As a result of the above points, his style is informal.
Use white space to make your blog entries visually appealing and easier to read.
Blogs must be focused on a main topic or theme, such as entertainment, news, debate, etc.
Use short, descriptive, interesting titles for blog entries.
Use headings, sub-headings, lists, photos, images, underlining, etc. to help readers navigate your blog more quickly.
Blog about something you are knowledgeable or passionate about.
Include your main point in the first couple of sentences so readers can decide if they want to continue reading your post.
Check your blog for mistakes, as readers may be put off by a blog with confused content and language errors.
Use useful information and insights to provide the reader with value for blog entries.
Answers & Comments
Notes from Spain is a blog started by Ben Curtis as an experiment to understand how blogs worked. He initially posted pictures from Madrid and commented on Spanish news items. Later, he wrote an article on technology for a local English language newspaper and started the Notes from Spain podcast. Initially, he worked on the podcast alone, but later Marina also joined him, and they started making travel and cooking podcasts, which became more popular with time.
One day, a commissioning editor at Fodor's contacted Ben and asked him to edit a chapter for their 2007 Spain guide. He chose Galicia and Asturias and spent a few weeks in the north of Spain doing research. In 2008, he wrote a couple of introductory sections for their guide.
After returning from a recent trip to Thailand, Ben experienced blogger's block and couldn't think of anything to write about Spain. However, he read a piece of advice on another site, which suggested using a blog post to tell a story. This led him to share the story of his book, East of Iberia, and the success of the Notes from Spain podcast.
The Notes from Spain podcasts have led to wonderful opportunities for Ben, including work with Lonely Planet. He wrote several emails to the person in charge of online content at Lonely Planet, complaining that their first podcasts were boring and suggesting they produce shows like the ones he was making. Eventually, after his third email, a nice man named John got back to him, and Lonely Planet purchased one of their podcasts for their feed. Since then, they have made five podcasts for Lonely Planet, which Ben considers a dream come true.