Letter from a reader- Setting up a TEFL blog
“alex,
read your fantastic blog on tefl.net. brilliant stuff and i wondered if you had any advice on setting up a blog like yours..
Mike Long
S. Korea”Thanks Mike, flattery will get you everywhere! While I’m pondering my answer and searching for the links to the bits and pieces I’ve written about that already, I’ll open the floor to the other TEFL blog writers who come on here occassionally. Anyone like to help, especially anyone more technical than me who actually managed to do it for themselves?
March 19th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Hi Mike
I’ll deal with content first, as that’s my thing. I’ve just had an article published on how to come up with ideas for a first TEFL article that works just as well for blog entries:
http://edition.tefl.net/articles/how-to-write-tefl-articles/
You might also want to look at this post on sustainable TEFL blogging:
http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/general/sustainable-tefl-blogging-part-one/
I can’t tell you anything about the technicalities of setting up TEFLtastic, as the editor of TEFL.net very kindly did it for me as I’ve been Reviews Editor of the site for many years. I have since gone on to move my Japan stuff onto free Wordpress blogs, one example being http://japanexplained.wordpress.com. If you are happy to do it that way, it only takes 5 minutes to Google “set up a new Wordpress blog” or similar, click a couple of times and have it up and running.
The advantages of setting up with a Wordpress address is that it is quick and easy and you don’t have to worry about server problems, and that Wordpress will send some traffic your way. The advantage to getting your own address is that people will take http://www.japanexplained.com much more seriously than japanexplained.wordpress.com, and I’m guessing it’s easier to put your own advertising on it (all mine either have no ads or the ads are run by the site owner). You can use Wordpress software for your own site or even transfer a Wordpress addressed blog onto your own address later. Laurent at http://www.lo-la.co.uk might be able to give you some more hints on that if you visit there or if he pops in here.
Hope that helps
Alex
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Cheers Alex. I’ve started one now and I hope it ‘ll be of use for new teachers for methods and ideas but will also have my whinges and moans as comically expressed as possible. If anyone wants a look. The address is below. Thanks a lot to Alex Case and Sandy McManus who in their very different ways, have the best blogs on the net by a country mile! Bloggers - this is the standard you have to meet! Let’s give them a run for their money!
http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/mikelong/