Verily, Thou Canst Blog

Here’s a written version of the class I just gave on blogging in the SCA. Enjoy!

Why?

• Advantages of blogging
  • Educate others. For me personally this has been really meaningful and satisfying. This I believe: 1) Period food is yummy! 2) Authenticity is achievable! These deeply held beliefs inform how I approach blogging, and I’ve found that I’ve been able to spread my message, as it were, much farther through blogging than I could have done through more traditional means.
  • Improve your work, research, and writing. Again, speaking from personal experience, I had never entered an SCA competition when I started blogging, and this was a way for me to figure out how to write SCA documentation in a “lower stakes” environment.
  • It’s fun! I meet people at events who read my blog, I make myself laugh, and more. Blogging is just neat.
• Types of SCA blogs
  • Projects / A&S adventures
    • Examples:
      • Medieval York (that’s me!)
      • Mode Historique (http://www.modehistorique.com)
      • Viking Food Guy (http://www.vikingfoodguy.com)
  • Topic focus / sharing research
    • Examples:
      • Heather Rose Jones (http://hrj.livejournal.com)
      • Medieval POC (http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com)
  • Sharing experiences, thoughts, philosophy
    • Examples:
      • Baron Giuseppe (http://joeguppy.livejournal.com/)
      • Gebhard’s Blog (http://lozengia.com/gebhard/)
  • Vlogs and podcasts
    • Examples:
      • Knowne World Bardcast: https://soundcloud.com/gideon-brutal
      • (I can’t find examples of SCA vlogs but there must be some out there, right? Send me links!)

How to Get Started:

• Decide what you want to write about, pick a platform, and do it!
• Platforms:
  • Blogger (formerly blogspot) — www.blogger.com
    • Through Google now, this used to be basically the only game in town if you wanted to blog. I used to use blogger but moved away from it due to ongoing frustrations with the commenting features and just feeling like I had outgrown it.
  • Tumblr — www.tumblr.com
    • Technically a “microblogging” platform, Tumblr is ideal for connecting to others writing about similar topics; you can easily re-share (with built in attribution) something someone else has shared, kind of like Twitter. Tumblr is very social and often image-heavy. I haven’t seen a lot of SCAdians using it, but that doesn’t mean there’s not potential there.
  • Livejournal — www.livejournal.com
    • Livejournal makes me feel old. Back in my day… Anyway, Livejournal was really one of the earliest “blogging” platforms, before anyone thought of what they were doing as blogging. There’s a surprisingly large SCA community on Livejournal, still. LJ is great for connecting socially and for more “diary-esque” writing, but otherwise does not do most of the things I think people want out of blogging.
  • WordPress — www.wordpress.com
    • This quickly became the standard platform for nearly all bloggers. Free basic hosting and multiple options to get more by paying a little money. Easy and elegant. I use WordPress and I pay for my own domain through them; I have been very, very happy with WordPress.
• Driving traffic to your blog
  • Start by having great content. There’s no point in getting people to your blog if you don’t have anything to offer them once they’re there. Write interesting articles, post good photos, cover topics that are relevant to SCAdians, give instructions for how to make something, showcase your research. Make it good!
  • Post regularly. I am really bad about this, but it is really important if having a dedicated readership / lots of views is important to you, or if you are thinking you’d like to turn your blogging into a professional endeavor. Posting on a schedule is one of the best things you can do to take your blog to the next level. Like I said, I don’t do this well, but I know it makes a difference.
  • Tell people about it. Print business cards to bring to events. Insert your blog name into every conversation (sorry, friends). Post links to related Facebook groups (sorry). If you use Pinterest and Twitter, you can start to build a “brand” that matches your blog; I Pin lots of things about the SCA and the Middle Ages, so my blog links fit seamlessly into that. I’m laurelfactorial (my mundane name is Laurel) on Pinterest, FYI.

If you have an SCA blog, feel free to post a link in the comments. I’d love to build my reading list!

If you have an SCA blog, feel free to post a link in the comments. I’d love to build my reading list!

Author: eulalia

I'm a foodie, medievalist, crafter, and gardener living in beautiful Portland, Oregon. View all posts by eulalia