Is there something you'd like to know about stories or storytelling?
Ask Anansi!
Storytelling FAQs and Resources
"Anansi wove the world wide web."
Anansi the Spider is a trickster character found in many, many African folktales. According to one of these, Anansi originally tricked the Sky God into giving him all the world's stories, and so all stories are Anansi's. He has made his way around the world in many stories told by many storytellers. With all that experience, if he doesn't know the answer to you question about stories and storytelling, no one does!
If you have a question about stories or storytelling that isn't answered here, Ask Anansi! He'll spin you an answer as soon as possible, most likely within a week. And he may put your question (and the answer) up on this page.
Q:
Dear Anansi:
Blog! Blog! Blog! That's all I hear. Last issue of HearSay even had a short article on blogs. But should I be blogging? What are the advantages or disadvantages? Help, I don't want to fall behind the technical ball.
Sincerely,
Blogless
A:
Dear Blogless:
Blog is short for web log and I've been creating webs on logs for years, but creating logs on the
web is something relatively new for me, too. The good news is that there are lots of websites about how to set up and use blogs, so you won't be in the dark for long.
Here are a couple of thoughts to get you started. First of all, blogs are free! And you can link your
blog to your website to increase traffic. Two freebies that come to mind are Word Press and Blogger. Take a look and see which is easiest for you. Be sure to set up the spam blocker or you'll have a lot more than flies stuck in your web. Pick a name and try spinning a few yarns before advertising your site to friends and clients. If you like it, keep spinning; if writing on the web is not for you, no problem - just delete your blog. Webs aren't for everyone, you know.
Reasons to blog: it could increase traffic to your website and, because blogs are short and fast to read, it might help you specialize and be seen as an expert in that specialty.
Reasons not to blog: if you aren't committed to updating the blog frequently, don't even start.
For your blog to be a useful marketing tool, you need to post to your blog (that means write something new) at least once a week, if not more often.
When writing for your blog, you must also remember to feed the search-engine spiders! That's right Ð those little crawly bots that move from link to link to find the content for search engines to index and serve up when people go searching the web for information. Those arachnids like to eat keywords, so make sure they find some in your titles and subheads and key sentences. That way the people you are writing for will actually find your blog!
Also be sure to set up your blog so that you'll see all posts before they
are actually posted to the blog. You know there are some unscrupulous animals out there.
Happy blogging!
Anansi
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