"Learn to blog smart: join the conversation" - training day in February

New year, new ventures. I'm very pleased to be able to announce that I'll be running a blogging training day in association with the folks at journalism.co.uk.

"Learn to blog smart: join the conversation" will be in West London on February 26th 2009, and the blurb runs like this:

"We are increasingly being urged to "join the conversation" online, instead of relying on the one-to-many communication model of the print and broadcast eras - but how do you find the right conversation to join? And, when you've got something to say, how do you make sure that people join in the conversation that you want to start?"

I was tempted to call the day something like "Blogging for the reluctant". I have this terrible fear for a whole swathe of journalists and trainee journalists that one day they'll be happily writing slap-dash pieces about Twitter based on virtually no research, and then the next they will find that the main edition of their newspaper has gone free, that they are expected to self-publish their own articles to the website using Wordpress as a CMS, and find themselves doing their own sub-editing and getting paid according to their page impressions.

However the day is more than that. It is aimed at people who have recently started blogging either for professional or personal reasons, or for people who feel that they need to understand blogging in order to advance their careers or get that next job.

So, what will you get on the day?

Well, for a start I promise it won't just be me strutting around like a peacock saying "I've got a blog myself. It is terribly good, you know."

The official list of learning points is:

• how search engines work and rank content;
• how to use specialist search tools and techniques to uncover where the conversation is happening about your subject;
• how to blog in a way that encourages and generates conversation;
• techniques for engagement with your audience online;
• techniques for dealing with difficult voices online;
• how to track conversations via RSS;
• how to build a consistent online "personal brand" that commands attention.

It's going to be a very hands on day, with lots of real uses of the Internet to improve the way that your blog can be found. There will be a little bit of SEO 101, and a lot about finding your own voice online. There will be a big focus on joining in the blogosphere conversation. There will be practical training on finding conversations that are worth joining in, and nurturing the conversation and comments on your own site.

And it won't be me being relentlessly enthusiastic about technology either. I'll be looking at practical ways to deal with some of the downsides of blogging as well - including spam, trolls, content scrapers, and how to handle direct complaints.

There are still a few slots left, and you can book onto the course via journalism.co.uk.