Course Description

NOTE: This class must have a minimum of 10 in order to run. Blogging is taking the world by storm! The heart of its power lies in its immediacy of publishing information, the ease of setting up and maintaining a blog and its interaction with its users. Blogs are used for everything from private family updates to journals to product reviews to photo journals to political podiums. As well as being a satisfying outlet on a personal level, blogs can be a powerful communication tool. Businesses, from freelancers to large corporations like Boeing, are using blogs to promote their products/services, gain and maintain customer loyalty, obtain customer feedback, and communicate news to their customers. In addition to business, blogs are a very effective means of communicating about social, health, technology, political and art issues. During this course, you will learn about the art and science of blogging. We will use the popular and FREE WordPress software to install and administer our blog. We will cover how to write engaging titles and blog posts, how to use blog directories, how to build authority in the blogging world and how to share your blog with others. We will focus on the interactive nature of blogging and how to increase participation on your blog without a lot of spam. There is so much happening in the world of blogging and blogging promotion, that it is hard to cover it all in six weeks. With this in mind, the course will vary slightly each session to allow us to devote more time to study and put into practice different blog elements. The purpose is twofold. First, blogging is all about community. This course is designed to create, nurture and support a community of LVS Bloggers. You can take this course once for the content or you can take it multiple times as a means of "continuing education" and networking. The second purpose is to provide dynamic and up to date information about blogging. Although there is a base curriculum for this course, each session the students will help select some of the topics covered. Participation and practice will be the focus of this class. Part of the student's learning process will include assisting other students via feedback and input. Not all blogs will gain you fame and fortune but they all can be fun! For those blog topics that are conducive to it, we will also cover revenue streams like tip jars, affiliates, advertisements and sponsorships. Some bloggers, like Dooce, SimpleBits and Lockergnome, have turned their blogs into fulltime businesses. Learn more about blogging and see what past students are doing at the Blogging Class Blog This is a 6 week, self-paced, online course. If you need additional help understanding the material presented, you can communicate with the instructor and fellow classmates. The instructor will monitor and track your progress throughout the class. LVS Online offers many wonderful learning tools to help you get the most out of your online course, including an online portfolio service that manages all your course registrations, certificate of completion option, a class discussion board to interact with your instructor and fellow classmates, free hosting account, and a student upload area. LVS is a Corel Training Partner. LVS students may purchase Corel products at a significant savings. Follow this link for details. LVS students are eligible to receive software and hardware at a discount. Follow this link for details. Students are also eligible take advantage of special offers made available specifically for LVS by famous software developers such as Andromeda, AV Bros, Extensis, Harry Heim, namesuppressed, Nik Multimedia, and Ulead. Details are provided in the classinfo link found in the confirmation of registration. Show off your LVS Online spirit with an item from the LVS Store If you would like to receive more information regarding this course, click on the "Contact Us" link in the Information section and we'll try to answer any of your questions within the day.

Course Requirements

Students should have working knowledge of their operating system and must understand directories and paths: Free Windows XP/ME/98 Class Here Windows Vista Class Here. Directory Structure Tutorial Here Assignments must be reviewed by the instructor in order to earn a certificate. Students need a web hosting account. You can get a free blog at WordPress.org, but as with most free things, there are some restrictions when it comes to styling and plugins. To use all of WordPress features you will need a web hosting account capable of running WordPress. Make sure that your web hosting account has MySQL and PHP, these are required to run WordPress. If you do not have one, students have the option of purchasing a low cost ($49.95 per year including domain name) Starter hosting account. The low cost LVS Starter hosting account has a quick and easy installer for WordPress included. The free LVS student account and the $24.95 Student acounts are NOT WordPress compatible! Details on LVS Hosting plans is available HERE. You will need the capability to upload the Wordpress software and plug ins to your blog. You must know how to upload your files to a server. Free tutorials are available: Basic HTML page WS_FTP SmartFTP All lessons are available in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view/print the lessons. Plan to devote approximately 3-6 hours each week to complete their course work. Part of your homework will be contributing to and commenting on other blogs. Blogging can be addicting, so your time devoted to this course will vary according to how much time you spend on other blogs.

Course Prerequisites

Class Level - This class is an intermediate course. Students need to have taken the Blogging basics or an equivalent course before registering for this course. Students are expected to have at least a basic understanding of the following: Posts vs pages Inserting images Track backs/Pingbacks RSS feeds Those knowledgeable with html, css and php will be able to take their blogs to higher levels of customization.

Course Syllabus

Coming soon!

Course Excerpt

Coming soon!

Course Goals

The goals of this course are fun, fame and fortune. In terms of fun, this course will provide you with the tools and support to spend time thinking, reading, writing and discussing the things that you care about. You will build fame as you work on gaining authority and building a readership. The fortune is obtainable with a carefully selected topic, an established authority and attention to your audience. You will gain the tools and knowledge to continually refine your blog. Visit the Blogging Class Blog

Course Reviews

Adele Aldridge: "The Instructor and the Content are above superior. The price is the best bargain on the planet. This is my 5th time with Bean. That should tell it all." More...

This class must have a minimum of 10 in order to run.