Blogging may seem a bit like a scary, unknown area for you, but many senior citizens have found great value in writing and managing a blog. Blogs can give you an opportunity to chronicle your wisdom and experiences for future generations. It can also be a great way for you to process what you have been through, and what you still hope to accomplish.
Want to write a blog but have no idea where to start? Here’s some quick steps for getting started.
- Understand the purpose of a blog.
A blog is a type of website that focuses primarily on written content. There are blogs about all sorts of things—food and recipes, travel, journaling, poetry, celebrities, history, etc. Many seniors find themselves wanting to document their life stories and wisdom—but aren’t sure what platform to do so on. Should they write it on paper? Should they try to type it up and save it in a file? But why not start a blog? You’ll be able to share a link to your blog with family and friends so they can read what you have to share as well.
- Pick a topic that you’d like to blog about.
What do you want to share? Perhaps you’d like to write a personal history for your grandkids to have. Maybe you’d like to write one blog post each week, journaling different lessons you’ve learned throughout your life. Regardless of the topic or who your audience will be, blogging creates a sort of time capsule of your memories that can be passed onto future generations.
- Pick a blogging platform.
Thanks to the internet, there are dozens of popular blogging platforms that you can utilize. This makes it so that you don’t have to deal with the hassle of coding and programming to create a website from scratch. In fact, many blogging sites have made the process so simple, you practically don’t have to design anything at all! You can simply create an account, pick a visual format you like, and start typing. Make sure to save your work! A quick internet search will show you many blogging platform options and the perks of each. Take a little time researching which would be the best and most user friendly for you.
- Write.
Once you get your blog all set up, simply begin writing. Pick a name for your blog. For each blog post, you can initially write and save your thoughts in a word document or another file on your computer and upload them to the blog once you’re done and ready to post them.
- Share your blog.
Once you’ve posted at least once on your blog, you can share the link to your blog with family or close friends. There is usually an option for them to subscribe to your blog as well, so they can receive email updates whenever you post again in your blog. This allows your loved ones to follow along with your story/content, and have it for generations to come.
Although some people write blogs for their career and try to get thousands of followers, this isn’t necessary. You can write a blog simply for the joy of sharing stories and wisdom with your close loved ones. You can add pictures, share pieces of family history, or post your grandmother’s favorite recipes so that your grandchildren can pass it on to their children. There are even options to print off blogs and bind them—giving you the option of compiling a written history that you could gift for Christmas.
Here at Aspire, we value you and want you to have opportunities to share your life and legacy with future generations. For more ideas about how to document your stories and memories, or for any specific questions about blogging, reach out to us. We are happy to help!
