Create a blog for your charity

A blog is a website with regular entries in reverse date order. The entries usually include commentary or news on a particular subject, or are personal diary entries. Each post can be tagged with keywords, to help people find the post using a search engine and allowing old posts to be filed into a theme-based menu.

Before deciding to create a blog, think about the following:

• Do you have enough time to regularly update your blog, and will you continue to have time for the next few years? Blogs require a long-term time commitment as they must be regularly updated and it can take years to attract a loyal readership.
• Do you have a unique perspective that you can bring to a particular issue? Read the blogs that are already writing about the issue you care about. Do you have something new to say?
• Are you willing to be controversial? A blog that expresses strong viewpoints will attract more readers, but this may put off supporters who disagree with you.

If you do opt for a blog, there are a number of free tools available that do all the technical work for you, including Blogger and WordPress.

A couple of examples of popular charity blog's include:

• John Burton, CEO of the World Land Trust - his blog has been praised for his honesty and willingness to express opinions that may not be popular.
• Jamie McCoy, ex-homeless person - his blog has been praised for his individual voice, and his different perspective on the issues of homelessness.