5 Lessons I Learned Helping My Kids Blog

Earlier this year I helped my sons setup a blog. I knew the day would come. In fact, domain names were purchased several years earlier with that day in mind. It was a Saturday morning, and after setting it up, they spent the whole day “blogging”. Their excitement paled in comparison to what happened with my youngest just last week, but more on that in a moment. My oldest wrote 5 articles that first day. From what I can tell, it has been a great experience for them. If you are thinking of helping a child (or anyone) learn how to blog, here’s hoping these lessons will be useful.

5 Lessons I Learned…So far, Helping My Kids Blog

Just like blogging is not for every adult, not every kid has an interest in blogging. My sons were 11 and 8 on that Saturday, and showed genuine desire to blog. I let them know it would be difficult at times, but they expressed a desire to develop blogging skills. With that in mind, and with the summer break forthcoming, I challenged them to write using a schedule, and told them I’d coach them along the way, adding some technical education along the way.

1 – Start Small

Your goal should be to get that first post up. Account for their age and skillset. Small beginnings are key.

2 – Start Early

Everyone’s mileage may vary, but trying to do anything requiring focus and effort after a day of swimming, playing for hours outside, etc., doesn’t work with my kids. I’ve found after breakfast is best, when they are rested and fresh. If not in the morning, sometimes right after dinner can be good as well. It’s important you pick the times that work for your child.

3 – Be Patient

Riding a bicycle is a no brainer for most adults. Get on, pedal, and off you go. For someone who has never ridden a bicycle it is a different story altogether. Same with blogging. When I discovered they weren’t sure where the keys are on the keyboard, I was reminded that was me at some point. Plan for investing chunks of time nurturing them along the way.

4 – Sell Them On a Long-Term View

In a world of Twitter, Instant-messaging, Text messaging and “right now” mindsets, it was important to let them know that this is a long-term investment. Assure them that if they stick with it, they will see results down the road.

5 – Show Results Quickly

You may share their post on Facebook, or email family members, in any case ask them to leave comments. Earliest comments were from family members, and brought a smile to their faces. We enabled the akismet plugin to deal with spam.

WordPress also has traffic monitoring plugins available at no cost. Seeing that strangers are visiting the site can be the encouragement they need to keep going.

What Happened the Last Week

My youngest was having a challenging moment; he was unsure what to write about. Hoping to encourage him, I sat down with him, and looked at a recent article he posted. Next, we went to Google (Chrome incognito window) and searched a phrase from a recent post title. There was his post, on page 1, position 1. When I showed him, his face lit up like it was Christmas morning. With over 10 million competing results, his post was #1 in Google!

For a moment I thought he might jump through the ceiling. After coming back to earth (but lightly floating) I asked him if he thought all the work was worth it… He had his next post ready shortly after.

I remember thinking, “oh yeah, blogging is exciting when you think about it.”

What do you Think? Do you know any kid bloggers? Ever considered teaching someone how to blog? Funny thing about these lessons, they apply to adults as well as kids. Are you maintaining a long-term perspective in your own blogging with encouragement along the way?

Photo Credit: Mike Licht