Try blogging!

My favourite fashion blogger, Andy Tores of Style Scrapbook presented a TED talk last week about how to create a successful blog. I wanted to share it with you (especially ALES204 students) because she is the perfect example of someone who succeeded in achieving many of her dreams after starting her blog. One truly important thing to consider when blogging is to be yourself and be genuine. That's when people begin to relate to you and they want to come back to read what you have to say and see the photos you've been taking.

In ALES204 we were asked to blog about our thoughts on the class and to blog about some of the projects we worked on for the class. I think that some students may have been discouraged by this daunting task. Even for me who had been blogging for over a year before the class began, it was really difficult to keep updating my blog. Discussing topics that every other student was also blogging about and that we had already discussed thoroughly in class just did not serve much purpose for me. In spite of this, I did learn a few things through this blogging project. One of the most obvious is that I have to love what I'm blogging about to write genuinely and update frequently.

I hope that students will see the potential fun and rewards that come of blogging and try their own after this class. Students in any area of study in the ALES department can start up a blog pertaining to their passions. Like Andy Tores, you will start small. You might not have the highest quality photos or the most interesting discussions but the more you work on it the better it will get. And the better you get, the more people will come visit your site and that's when you'll start receiving interesting comments and you might even get some opportunities that you'd never dreamed of having. I can say this with assurance as even with my small fashion and lifestyle blog, I have received invites to cover fashion events in Edmonton.

To finish, I want to leave you with this motivational quote with which Andy Tores finished her TED presentation.

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go" - T.S. Eliot

What do you guys think of Andy Tores' TED talk? Are you inspired to blog more like I am?

Also have a look at ALES204's blogger Alice Sech who has used her blog as a way to promote her new club. Good work Alice!