Alan Smith, British writer (not soccer player)

A well-known British writer, Alan Smith, of England, flew over the Atlantic Ocean to be a guest at UCO as part of the Passport to England program.  

He is a senior lecturer in creative writing at The University of Northampton and has also taught philosophy and English in a prison. He has written novels, plays and non-fiction. He has written more than 70 articles about prison for The Guardian.

When I tried to Google search Alan Smith's picture, the result I got is this and I don't hate it. The reason is because this Alan Smith used to play soccer for my favorite team, Manchester United, and he played for Team England as well.

Anyway, I'm glad that I was able to listen to one of his talks at my blogging class. First of all, I love his British accent, which he claimed not to be as authentic as it is in United Kingdom. I could see his successes through his God-gifted story-telling ability in that class. It kept everyone, which includes me, "entertained" through his talk. 

I like how he said that if a newspaper publishes your work and do not pay for it, that shows the newspaper doesn't appreciate your work and it's of no value. I quote from him, "the only sincere sign of praise is the check you receive." I truly agree with him on this because I'm a photographer, if I don't get paid for my work, I feel there's no point for me to take good pictures. 

He shared another interesting point like how he doesn't have to learn about blogging but write a story on a computer and hit the send button on the email. He said that journalist has the best job in the world because you can write a story even without getting out from your bed. However, for me, as a photography blogger, I can't do that, I have to go outdoor or somewhere else to capture great pictures to blog about. 

All in all, I learned a lot from his sharing.

Dave Rhea's advice on blogging

Dave Rhea

This guy is talented. It's my pleasure to hear him speak at my Blogging class on Tuesday. Here's a little background about him. He is the managing editor at The Journal Record based in Oklahoma City. 

He gave us, amateur bloggers, a couple of really good advice on blogging. He emphasized on the importance of having a niche to write about. For example, if you're into sports, write about anything under the sky which have something to do with sports. That's how you are going to be noticed for your work and writing because you have to be expert in this already saturated market of blogging. 

Next, he spoke about how an interesting content can boost up my blog's traffic. It is crucial to have good content to attract loyal readers. Once you got that, next step would be to blog as often as possible. Perhaps one post a day.

All in all, I enjoyed his talk and learned quite a bit from it. 

Dr. Kurt Hochenauer at my blogging class

Dr. Kurt Hochenauer teaches at UCO’s Liberal Arts department's modern British literature courses. He teaches a course on the Beat Movement with a focus on American authors Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. He teaches the online courses Advanced Composition and Blogs: New Independent Media.

He started blogging in 2004. The reason he blogs because he thought there was a need for the people to voice liberal thoughts. His blog’s name is Okie Funk, mainly focuses on Oklahoma’s issues rather than national issues. After eight years of existence, his blog has over one million of traffic and over a thousand posts.

            

One thing he said that caught my attention was he does not have any political credentials but he blogs about politics simply because it is his interest. His advice to be a successful blogger is to have good writing techniques. I’m interested in photography, so this advice really helps me to improve blog. I have to take good photos besides writes well.

          

In addition, he does not allow advertisement banner to be put on his blog. In other words, his blog does not generate income. His thought on that was if he has an advertiser, he has to comply with his advertiser.  As I had mentioned earlier, he is more of liberal person, so, he wants to have the freedom to write anything he wants and not offend his advertisers. After listening to him, I had to think twice before I allow any advertisers to put up banner on my blog. It will limit my freedom to blog.