If you are a blogger you know that it gets difficult sometimes to either find time to post or material to post about. For the month of March I decided to try and post every single day. I have stuck with it, but in the process I have learned that it can be a very difficult thing for me to do. It’s even worse when you have two blogs. Not only do I have Avoiding Evil, but I also take care of a blog for my youth group, TBC Youth. Although I posted every single day in this month on Avoiding evil, I have missed almost every single day of this month on the youth blog. Here is the problem:
1. I hardly every post on the youth blog. It sometimes goes months without being posted on, even though there are plenty of things that I could post about.
2. I have tried to get youth to do it. In fact, I have given at least 5 different teens this opportunity to help maintain the website and unfortunately none of them will post either. They cannot decide what to post about, they forget the latest announcements and I personally think they are probably somewhat uncomfortable with the idea since they have never had a blog before. I can’t complain about it either since I am just as bad and don’t post a thing.
3. It doesn’t get a lot of visitors. I will never build a base of readers and our youth group will not use this page if it never gets updated with anything of substance and interest.
I think it is a really nice looking page and a good resource to have; it just needs a little work. I don’t want the blog to sit unused and I would hate to just delete it, so instead I am going on the SAVE THE BLOG CAMPAIGN by asking you for advice. Do you have any ideas on what I can do with the youth site? How can I spice it up, keep it updated, make it useful, and get readers and teens to become regular visitors?
I know ya’ll have some great ideas and are excited to share those with me, so please leave all of your wonderful suggestions in the comment section!
Pressed
P.S. I do have to give props to Michael because he keeps the pictures updated!
Now that I have done it a few times its easy. Thanks. If I could write I would update the youth page.
Michael! What are you talking about! I am very jealous of my blogroll and refuse to have hundreds of links on there, and… there you are!
Blogging a youth group website isn’t a way to showcase writing talent, anyway. It’s a way to get out the news that the visitors want to see.
I post my sermon notes from church almost every week. How often does the youth group meet? Take a few notes of the BIG IDEA from what Craig has to say and post it within about 48 hours. I live in Iowa and have never met you, but I’m curious about what’s going on in your church and your youth group. So are the parents.
Did you do something fun with the group or some members of the group? I remember reading a post months ago about how there would be an evening of some of the guys playing video games. “Halo” on the X-Box, if I remember correctly. Post the pecking order for bragging rights. If some event isn’t “blog-worthy” it isn’t worth doing, I say.
Tell the others with posting access to blog any event where a lesson from the group came into play and they avoided a temptation with the instruction they got in the group. Better yet, did one of the members help another member avoid a bad situation? Your parents may wonder how you could get yourself into such a mess, but they will be proud at your resolve in Christ.
The latest Left Behind book is coming out. I see that on your site. I don’t see it on the Youth Group site. Are there many members of the group that are reading the books? Could they appreciate a reminder there?
News-Head-O-Rama is not a site I go to for deep theological discussion. It’s a site I frequent because I enjoy it. Your youth group blog will prosper when the content flows and the readers see that the authors are enjoying themselves and growing in Christ.
Just keep it updated, even if it isn’t anything big.
People will stop visiting if there hasn’t been anything new in awhile, but people will keep coming back if there is new material, even if it isn’t much.
I believe you should post everything and anything. Blogworthy things will be posted, but the mundane will keep new things popping up. Sign up everyone’s parents and the pastor on Bloglines so they get an email when the posts are updated. I believe parents are aching to know what is going on even in the lives of other children. After all, if my child is hanging out with “Joe” and “Joe” leads someone to Christ or tells the story of overcoming tempation (etc.) I WANT TO KNOW THAT. As a church member, I want to come alongside parents and teens and to do that I want to first know what is going on. I believe there are plenty of parents who want to know the Youth program’s activities including Halo scores! How about getting someone to interview the pastor? Talking about Teen Praise Teams? Teen ministries, trips, competitions? What goes on in their schools that challenges them? I also think that if parents and other church members and visitors will comment on posts (you will need to educate & encourage them), the teens will visit in order to see what people are saying. Teens like to express their opinions - test them out - let them do it and receive honest feedback about it. Perhaps you should assign topics and deadlines for the blog writers.
Very good suggestions!
I know what you mean - I have a blog - Little Island - and an online journal - Suburban Island (www.suburbanisland.us) plus a fotolog and moblog at buzznet for mobile phone pics. It makes my head spin. One thing that will help is efficiently finding good content to share. I would identify some consistently valuable sources that you can subscribe to through bloglines (a free newsreader)or any other news aggregator you like. I think bloglines is excellent and free. I use it to catch up on your site. Whatever you what to suscribe to just need to have an XML feed which many papers and blogs are making available these days. That way you can easily read and review both news and blog postings of interest to share back with the youth group. Hope this idea saves you some time and is helpful.
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