Blogger do's and don'ts
The UM website has a blog section and all UM students and employees can get a blog account. The blog will be connected to your personal profile page and will generate extra personal exposure. It is a challenge to put your ideas out there, and share them within a larger network. Blogging on topics that interest you will allow you to expand your network and engage with other people who are interested in similar things. It is also an easy way to share your thoughts with a large audience. So take advantage of this new opportunity and publish on the UM website!
Blogs may cover a wide variety of subjects on research and education, general topics, or just what’s on your mind and interesting to share. They can present ongoing research projects, relevant publications or academic discussions. Did you attend an interesting lecture or conference or read a good book, share your review in a blog.
The Do's of Blogging at the UM website
- Do: Be direct. Get to the point quickly.
- Do: Be professional, but also be friendly.
- Do: Write a post with insanely useful content. Always ask: ‘How can readers benefit from this?’
- Do: Use examples and anecdotes to clarify your points.
- Do: Offer original content that has not been published before.
- Do: Find a catchy title.
- Do: Proofread and double check. Preview all drafts before publishing. Read your post backwards and make sure to spell check.
- Do: Use short sentences. Simplify complex words.
- Do: Use images. Pictures, graphics, and video will make your blog more attractive. Make sure you only use content from others if you have permission and take care of the correct copyright.
- Do: Use bullet points when possible. People love lists so use them.
- Do: Ask your readers a lot of questions and listen to what they say then blog more about it.
- Do: Blogs write your blog in English, Dutch or both languages.
- Do: Blog regularly, your audience will get back and your network will grow.
The Don'ts of Blogging
- Don't: Ramble with run-on sentences that just keep on dragging or lengthy texts.
- Don't: Try to cover too many topics at once. Break up content into multiple entries if needed.
- Don't: Use profanity or unprofessional language.
- Don’t: Use other people’s stuff without permission and credit.
- Don't: Combine too many style effects like bold, italic, or underline. Things become hard to read.
- Don’t: Write purely for search engines. Too many keywords in your post is not good. Write for the reader and your SEO will do just fine.
- Don’t: Give up. Building a blog takes time. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
- Don’t: Spend all your time ‘learning’ how to blog instead of actually writing for your blog.
- Don’t: Use the blog for advertising, third party content, career events, internships, job adverts, surveys (thesis related), surveys (asking for student preferences/opinions), etc.
The editors of UM website reserve the right to remove a blog from the website. If your blog is removed the editor will approach you with the reason why, and will try to offer alternative publication outlets.