Give to gain project: 10 tips for a successful blog

Hello everyone,

my name is Giorgia and 2 weeks ago I had the pleasure to share my experience as a blogger on the Give to gain project.

Today blogs are a daily presence in our lives, but if we want to become bloggers or we need to write a post we should keep in mind some useful guidelines that will help our readers enjoy what we are writing about.

The main feature for an article is that must be "ENGAGING", which means it has to attract as much people as possible. How do we do that? 

1) It's all about CONTENT!
Content must be interesting, useful, original and well written in terms of grammar and spelling. Nobody wants to read a copy\paste article. Make it personal!!!

2) UPDATE - The more you update your blog the better! Experts suggest once a day, but it also depends on the topic of your blog and how much time you can dedicate to it.

3) LENGTH - Articles must not be neither too short nor too long. Ideal length is between 250 and 450 words.

4) PICTURES are always recommended together with text. If you use somebody else's photo make sure you mention the author or the source where you found it.

5) KEYWORDS or TAGS are very important for the SEO (Search engine optimization) because help your blog to be found when people browse search engines.

6) DESIGN & BLOG STRUCTURE must be usable and with nice colours and layout. 

7) SAFETY -  Never write personal details/addresses and never offend people online.

8) SOCIAL MEDIA (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google Plus, PInterest)

a. create your own Official page or profile on the social media

b. sharing on different platforms and on topic-related groups

c. reply to comments and emails

9) NETWORKING is also an excellent strategy. Create your own niche of readers by doing some researches, leave comments and links on topic-related blogs and websites, use guest blogging and interviews to gain more visibility.

10) THE P FACTOR Whatever topic you want to talk about... do it with PASSION. It doesn't matter if it is food, photography, make up, knitting, volunteering, cinema or politics, just be passionate about it.

These are the basic rules to run a successful blog. My food blog is about Sicilian Cuisine. It was created almost three years ago and the response I have received so far is really amazing. If you follow these simple tips I am sure we could read your blogs very soon. 

Good luck!!!

Give to gain project: Success for our first seminar!

Give to Gain’s first seminar, 'working with young people' kicked off with a bang. The course was jammed pack with lots of information helping 24 volunteers and mentors improve their knowledge of the British school system and our volunteers work with young people. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended. As we mentioned in our first post Give to Gain is an organisation supported by the "Youth in Action" programme of the EU, helping to give back to our community and gain some professional skills, as well as making some new friends along the way.

Our next seminar, an 'Introduction to journalism and news writing' is a free seminar held at the Baytree Centre on 31^st October 2013. This seminar is designed to help attendees develop their knowledge and understanding of Media to maximise their career prospects and develop skills that employers want.

Media and Communications is an exciting, multidisciplinary industry, so gaining basic media and communication skills that will prepare attendees of the course with sound knowledge on the world of media, will be a step in the right direction in getting their dream job. The Media industry is a growing industry and everyday we use media to engage with friends by texting, using Facebook and the Internet, TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, photography and films. Students will gain skills in oral and written communication, the analysis of existing media and their audiences, how media and communication industries work,as well as a range of research skills.

So, if this sounds right up your street, please click here https://g2g-journalism.eventbrite.co.uk/ to sign up to the course.

Introduction to Give to Gain

Welcome to the official Give to Gain UK blog!

This being the very first post, it would be good to make some introductions. Give to Gain is an organisation supported by the "Youth in Action" programme of the EU. The main aim of the project is to help to give back to our community and gain some professional skills, as well as maybe making some new friends along the way.

The names of the team members are: Faye, Justnara, Uwaye, Siham, and Lorianne. We are all women with ages ranging from sixteen and still in school, to those slightly older with a lot of previous experience. There's a massive variety of backgrounds and upbringing between the team members, with no one of us being from the same place - making this team a great and diverse group. All of us are volunteers, with a real enthusiasm for this project, each with something different to add to the team.

From now until February 2014, we will be organising a number of events and projects particularly aimed at doing something fun for our community - this may be anything from a knitting class, to learning the ways that different cultures cook a type of dish. As well as that, there will be the opportunity to learn about some skills that are more applicable to professional situations through a number of seminars with a wide range of topics, ranging from journalism to project management and even how to use media such as Twitter.

We hope to get a rich and rewarding experience through Give to Gain and look forward to the future.

Thanks for reading!