Dancing About Architecture

Have nuns taken up the blogging habit?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I am being stalked by nuns.  It is Catholic World Youth Day in Sydney next week and the Pope will be coming to town, thus Sydney is starting to fill up with Catholic pilgrims from around the world including lots of nuns.  In a city where it is rare to see a nun to now seeing them everywhere is very strange.  It feels like I have stepped into a parallel Catholic world.  But there is one group of nuns who I swear are stalking me.  They are a group of young nuns from Tennessee who got on my bus the other morning to travel into the City.  We said hello and chatted briefly about Catholic World Youth Day.  Now, I keep seeing them everywhere - in a city full of nuns.  It is starting to freak me out and I think I am being to develop a touch of cloisterphobia.

Seeing all these young nuns around town got me wondering about whether these nuns are blogging about their lives and in particular if we have any blogger nuns attending World Youth Day.

A quick search has revealed the blog and twitter of Sister Julie who writes A Nun’s Life where she talks about what it is like to be a nun and runs a forum for those interested in taking up the vocation.  It is an absolutely fascinating read.  Did you know that there is a difference between a nun and a sister?

A young Aussie nun Sister Sarah blogs over at The Nun Thing where she has a fantastic post entitled Sometimes it is embarassing to be Catholic where she, like the rest of the citizens of Sydney, questions the logic of the annoyance law in place for WYD. I am glad to see Catholics feel the same way that the rest of do about this idiotic law.

This is what I love about blogging, the fact that so many people from so many walks of life take part in it.  A simple Google search can uncover blogs that let you see the world from someone else’s point of view and in doing so can change the way you view others.

If you have liked what you have read, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Related Posts

• Blogging Taboos - What won’t you blog about?
• The Ultimate Blog Party
• Views from an office window
• Lesbian Geek
• Saturday

Desperately Seeking A Name

I have received an amazing amount of positive feedback about my thoughts of creating a blogging network for women. I am amazed that so many of you think that this is a fantastic idea. I initially want to begin this network as an email group to foster discussion about what you want to see in a blogging network, what features would be most useful to you and the best method of delivering it. I have found with forums and blogs that people forget to check them or feel a little intimidated to comment. However, with email it is in your face (well your inbox) and it is very easy to hit reply and type a response.

The main hurdle to getting all this up and running is coming up with a name for this new network. I want the network to be Australian based but open to everyone who wishes to join. Therefore, I thought of The International Women’s Bloggers’ Network, but that sounds really convoluted and clunky. Then I thought about cutting that down to just The Network, but that sounds like a secret underground Government organisation. Then I thought of a parody of the name of the TV show, Women’s Murder Club and having Women’s Blogger Club. However, none of these names are popping out at me and saying this is the perfect name!

Therefore, I am opening it up to you. What should this brand new group be called?

Edit: A friend of mine suggested Ning.com as a way to run the group.  What are people’s thoughts on Ning?  Is it a good way to go or are their limitations to it?

Related Posts

• Overdosing on chocolate
• Using social networking tools to promote your blog
• Is it really that important to have a niche for your blog?
• Inspiration Whilst Wasting A Precious Resource
• Digital Day of Rest

Overdosing on chocolate

I was so focused on getting my thoughts about creating a female blogger network down, that I completely forgot to talk about the Sydney Women’s Bloggers’ meetup and share some link love with those that attended.  I blame the massive amount of sugar I ingested.

There were five of us in attendance; Leigh from All for Women and Crazy Meezer, Christie from Fig & Cherry, Veronica from Kissing Fingertips and Fern from Not Nigella and Nappy Addicts.   We meet up at Max Brennar’s in Parramatta where all they serve is chocolate - lots and lots of chocolate.  We all had a hot chocolate and I indulged in a dark orange hot chocolate which was simply divine.  Then I made a fatal error and also got a chocolate souffle (pictured above, taken on my inadequate mobile phone camera).  It had dark, milk and white molten chocolate in the middle of it and sent my blood sugar levels off the chart.

Besides the amazingly sugar ladden food, we talk about blogging, photographing food (thanks for the tips Christie) and the insane crazy people that seem to populate forums.

We have already planned the next meetup which will a high tea so that we can pretend that we are refined women.  If you are interested in attending, let me know.

Related Posts

• Chocolate and Blogging
• Desperately Seeking A Name
• Using social networking tools to promote your blog
• Is it really that important to have a niche for your blog?
• Inspiration Whilst Wasting A Precious Resource

Creating a network for female bloggers

I have just returned home from a meetup of female bloggers in Sydney.  It was a group of just five of us, but the passion these women displayed not only for their chosen niche but bloggering as a whole was incredible.  This got me thinking, which is probably a dangerous thing to do when on a massive sugar high from devouring way too much chocolate.  I have seen places for female bloggers before but they are just either on a blog or a forum or an email group and they never seem to move much out of that sphere.  Would a network that encompassed all of these things plus social networking actually work?  I think it would be great to get together a group of women who can not only discuss blogging but work together to promote each other’s blogs through tools like StumbleUpon as well and perhaps use Twitter or Plurk to network as well.

Initially I thought of just restricting it to Australian female bloggers as down here we tend to miss out on other American centric women blogging networks.  Then again, I hate so much missing out on really cool stuff that I would hate to do it to others.

So, what do you all think?  Would something like that work?  Or would it be really cool for a month or so and then die out because nobody can be bothered to participate?

This idea is really in an embryonic stage so all suggestions, criticisms and ideas are more than welcome.

Random Posts

• Blogging From The Doldrums
• Harry Potter versus Star Wars
• Fixing up the place
• Lurker Roll Call
• Promoting Your Blog

Using social networking tools to promote your blog

Most people when they start a blog simply set up their blog, write some posts and then wonder why no one is visiting or commenting.  They forget that one of the most important ingredients for running a successful blog is marketing.  Marketing, however, doesn’t mean spending money on advertising as there are many free methods you can use to promote your blog.  This article will be examining how to effectively use social networking tools to promote your blog.

Blogging can be quite a solitary process and it is very easy to become egotistical especially if you have tasted some success in the early days of your blogging journey.  In the blogging world though, people who engage with peers, create conversations and promote the work of others can easily gain credibility and traffic on their blogs.  On the other hand, those who just focus on their own blogs and use social networking tools purely for self promotion will quickly lose respect. Therefore using social networking tools to promote your blog needs to be done with care as once you lose respect and credibility, it is very hard to regain them.

The two social networking tools I am going to focus on are Twitter and StumbleUpon.  There are many other tools out there but these are the two I use most frequently and therefore feel somewhat qualified to talk about.

Twitter - either you love it or you hate it.  However, many bloggers do not know how to use it effectively to not only promote their own blogs but to build up connections with other bloggers. Using Twitterfeed to broadcast your latest blog posts is a great way to let those who are following you that you have written a new post, however, if that is all you use Twitter for then you are going to quickly lose followers and credibility. No one wants to read your twitter feed if all it is, is an RSS feed.  To use Twitter effectively, you must stop focusing solely on yourself and start connecting with others.  Tweet about articles you have read and enjoy and ask questions of your followers and use their knowledge to write future posts. There is nothing a fellow blogger likes more than to see themselves referenced in someone else’s blog.  Yes, all bloggers do contain a healthy dose of ego. Also use Twitter to follow bloggers that you admire and watch to see how they use it. See what they do that works and what doesn’t work. Learn from their mistakes and replicate their successes. Most bloggers who use Twitter will have their details on their blog and if not, it never hurts to ask them.No one is going to get upset at you because you want to hear more about them.

StumbleUpon is a social networking tool that really teaches you the value of giving. If you just use it to “stumble” or “like”  only your own posts then you won’t get much traffic from it.  However, if you use it to “stumble” or “like” other blogger’s posts then you will quickly gain the reputation as a Power Stumbler.  Power Stumblers can generate an amazing amount of traffic for the blogs that they stumble.  I can hear you all thinking, “well, what is in it for me?”.  This where connections really count.  Form a group of like-minded individuals and stumble each others posts. You give them the gift of great traffic and they in turn do the same for you.   It is a true win-win situation.  Of course, if you don’t like the post, don’t stumble it, you don’t want to get the reputation of stumbling any old crap.   If you are new to the blogging world and don’t really know anyone, still get out there and stumble.  If the blogger also uses StumbleUpon they can see exactly who has stumbled their post and will most likely go and check out your own blog and if they like what they see, they will stumble one of your posts. Well I know I do that so I am going to assume that other bloggers do as well.

Creating great content is useless if no one is going to read it.  You need to get out there and promote yourself and your work.  The best way to do that is by connecting with other bloggers especially those who blog in your own niche.  Social networking is an easy way to get yourself known, but you need to take care with the image you are portraying.  Just as in real life, bloggers feel favourably towards those who do things for them or take the time to get to know them.  Get out there and start connecting with your fellow bloggers, the rewards are greater than just an increase in your traffic.

Do you use social networking to promote your blog?  What tools do you use and what successes/failures have you had?  What do you find works best for you and what has been a waste of time?

Related Posts

• The Social Media Love-In
• New Forum for Women Bloggers
• How to be Everywhere in Social Media
• Creating Fiction on Twitter
• Identi.ca: Will it kill Twitter?