Blogging with Purpose for Teens

Posted by AngelaM | 0 comments

Does your teen blog? If they do, they’re not alone! More and more teens are using blogging for everything from expressing themselves to school projects.

The first step in starting a blog should be defining your purpose. It may be that your purpose will change or grow over time, but from your first post you should know what it is you want to say to the world. Even if your teen has been blogging for a while, it is a good idea to reevaluate their purpose from time to time. Here are some simple tips you may want to share with them.

How to Define Your Purpose

Step One: Ask yourself some questions.

What has God put on my heart for this blog? Pray and maybe even find a scripture that will be your blog’s scripture. My blog’s scripture is Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the body. I have this scripture on the cover of the notebook I use for work. I don’t list this on my homepage or anywhere else, but it did inspire the design for my blog. More importantly, it reminds me of my purpose.

What is my blog currently about? Is my blog a ministry, an educational project, a way of keeping friends and family informed on what I’m up to? Does it educate, inspire, persuade, or get people to think? Is it an artistic outlet or a journal of sorts?

What do I want a person who has read my blog for the day to feel when they walk away from the computer?

Step Two: Create a purpose statement.

Come up with a few sentences that describe your purpose. Maybe you will include this in your about page, or maybe you’ll keep this private. Either way, I suggest writing it down somewhere you’ll see it often.

Problogger suggests developing an elevator pitch for your blog. He says you should be able to define your blog’s purpose in ten words or less. Ten words may be a bit short for some, but the idea is to be able to succinctly define why you blog.

For instance, my ten words would be: Equipping and encouraging moms to treat family as their top ministry. Ok, I cheated and used 11 words. You get the idea.

I know My Purpose, Now What?

Once you have prayed about and defined your purpose, it is time to put it in action. When planning posts, writing posts, linking to others, ask yourself: Does this fit with my overall purpose?

If my purpose is to Equip and encourage moms to treat family as their top ministry, then a post on who had the cutest outfit on American Idol last night probably won’t make sense.

That is not to say that everything you post has to be in the same subject matter. Some posts will be fun, or silly, or totally random. No matter what you post, just remember your underlying theme.

For example, if I wanted to post on the cutest outfit on American Idol, I could include a commentary about what standard we set for how our girls dress. But the ultimate question I need to ask myself before posting is: Does this equip or encourage moms?

What is your ultimate question?

Angela Mills homeschools her two amazing girls. When she’s not dreaming up her next organizational system (the one that will really work this time!), she loves to spend time with her husband of nine years. She is seriously addicted to reading, Lost, and Burt’s Bees lip balm. She’s been a working mom, stay at home mom, stepmom, and is occasionally a weird mom, or so her kids tell her. You can catch her blogging at Homegrown Mom.