• Do something you believe in.

  Much like teaching, blogging to get famous or make money is bound to be disappointing. I started this website while in grad school, because I felt like there were not a lot of places online that pulled together ESL / EFL materials and global issues / activism. Personally (perhaps too personally) I believe that these are very important and useful areas to combine. I also started the site because I wanted to keep track of the variety of great resources I found while doing my research. In other words, this blog is very much me — it is a place to keep my links and materials together, and it is a reflection of who I am both as a teacher and as a person.

• Don’t worry too much about an audience.

  A lot of blog advice seems to focus on boosting traffic or monetizing content. Personally, though, I try not to do things with these targets in mind. It is easy to get consumed by finding the right keywords, or SEO, or link exchanges. I find that if I think about these things too much, it ruins what I write, as I get hung up trying to incorporate search terms or popular ideas. I guess I believe (perhaps a bit anachronistically) that having useful content is the only “audience building” activity worth engaging in.

  That said, one thing I do encourage is getting involved in online groups with other educators. I participate in a variety of Ning groups and email lists, and I follow a handful of blogs. I have found this to be a great organic way to build a bit of traffic.

  And, I’m sorry to say, if you’re interested in getting feedback on your writing, there are much better ways than blogging to do it.

• Do something different.

  There are tons of blogs around. You’re only going to get attention if you’re doing something that isn’t already being done. If your idea for a blog is a popular one, you could try being a writer at an existing blog instead of starting your own blog.

This is a great way to learn about some of the many, many other language teaching related blogs that are out there. I found last year’s toplist very useful. This year, I’m happy to say that ESL etc. has been nominated in the language teaching category.

Thanks for your support!

I’m not sure if I will start podcasting again, but I will be taking over responsibility for TELL@ELI, an electronic newsletter featuring practical articles written by ELI teachers. Perhaps we will develop a podcast as part of that. In the past, it has had a heavy CALL focus, but I’m hoping to bring in more content-based / project-based / global issues themes. We’ll see.

The page is posted in the links for teachers section of the website.