Blogging is easy plus it’s effective in getting yourself noticed. You can contribute comments to any blog including the HAPPEN blog or you can setup your own.

Sending a comment about someone else’s blog posting is quick and easy. If you comment enough, other readers will recognize you as someone who is an active participant and an expert in your field. Lots of HAPPEN members have had their comments posted on this blog. Usually the comment is in reference to a posting that either the HAPPEN executive or a guest speaker has written. The best comments add something to the discussion and go beyond just agreeing or disagreeing with the original post.

Leaving a comment is not a bad way to start blogging but doesn’t create the kind of acknowledgement that running your own blog can do.

Setting up a blog is easy. Just go to anyone of the various blogging sites (We use WordPress.com for the HAPPEN blog) and register your blog name. Registration is free. Just follow the instructions on how to setup your personal blog. You can get a domain name that doesn’t include the WordPress address by going to a company like GoDaddy and getting your own domain name and pointing that address to your blog. So whenever someone types in joesmith.com or joesmith.ca they will be redirected to www.joesmith.wordpress.com and no one will be the wiser.

Once you’ve got your blog running, the next step is to add content on at least a weekly or, better still, a daily basis. If you want a blog that will attract readers then your blog postings have to be of interest to those folks. All of us have work and life experience that we can share in our blogs.

Posting to your own blog is a great way to demonstrate your expertise in your field of work. Your loyal readers will subscribe to your blog (via an RSS feed which is best explained by Googling the term RSS) and your future employer may notice you. At the very least you can refer employers to your blog to see what sort of person you are.

And, unlike static websites that just sit there, because you add content to your blogsite the web search engines will keep your rating high on places like Google. This is a very good thing. Most people searching on Google look no further than the first couple of pages of listings. If your blog is listed on those pages more people will be inclined to visit.

After you’ve got your blog up and you’re posting daily then it’s time to start visiting other blogs written on similar subjects and leaving comments that include your blog address. Adding links to other blogs on your blog’s main page will encourage other bloggers to reciprocate.  Now it’s time to get a Twitter account so you can encourage all your followers to visit your blogsite to read your new post.

Of course, this is a lot of work and it’s not for everyone but those who get involved in branding themselves (Sounds painful doesn’t it?) get incredible results.

Remember everything you blog is available to everyone, everywhere, just about forever. So regardless of the temptation (especially around former employers and what awful people they were to fire you) don’t write anything about anybody that you wouldn’t say out loud to your children.