Trish Snyder is the Relay for Life Mission Delivery Chair in Everett, Washington.  Her blog, bloggingforacause.com, is a personal and independent continuation of the work she did as a volunteer in helping develop the American Cancer Society’s Blog Project.  Trish also blogs at the American Cancer Society's FISpace: A Journal About Innovation and Change.

Today bloggingforacause.com performs an essential function of networking among blog writers and readers dealing with cancer.  It is an excellent place to find cancer related resources and information.  It is also a great example of what can be done with a personal blog focused on a particular set of issues.

Trish did an interview with me by email and offers good advice for bloggers covering any topic.


Marshall:  Now that you've been blogging for awhile, how is it treating you?  Since your blog's orientation has changed over time, what sorts of things are you consistently getting out of  the time and energy you investing to post so frequently?

Trish:  I can honestly say that I get far more out of my blog then I put in. I meet so many wonderful people and get to help them share their stories and experiences by promoting their blogs. I've always been drawn to 'survivors', those people who have been through extremely trying circumstances, yet refuse to give up or give in. My mother is that type of person, although she won't admit it. She always told me, you just do what you have to do. That's stuck with me my entire life.
 
For a long time I'd been looking for a means of working with such people and supporting them, and I was lucky enough to be introduced to The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life by my friend Cassie Black, a colon cancer survivor. This blog is a direct result of that involvement and it allows me to do the things I love: Support people, cheer them on, provide resources and educate. To varying degrees, there is a component of each of these things in my blog.
 
I am hoping that non-bloggers who are battling cancer, as a survivor*, friend, family member and/or caregiver, will visit the blogs I mention, interact with their owners, build an online support network and hopefully start their own blogs. Until someone starts a blog, it's difficult for them to understand just how powerful a tool they can be to help them get through a very difficult situation. One can think of a blog as a node in which a strong support network is built. Each blog is a node upon which network ties connect and if someone just reads the various blogs, even if they regularly comment, they can not experience the full support that the network can give if they have their own place within that network.
 
* A survivor is anyone who has or has had cancer. From the day of diagnosis, they are considered survivors.
 
Marshall:  Your blogging is prolific and largely about networking.  Given how much blog writing and reading you've been doing, what sorts of advice would you offer new bloggers?

Trish:  First, you'll want to have a catchy blog title. Something that gives a sense of what the blog is about. This is not always an easy process. Take time, list some ideas and live with them for a while. Otherwise, you may find yourself changing the blog's title a few times and this leads to confused readers. I've done that myself.

Realize that offline friends may not be as keen to follow your blog as online friends. If you don't already have a strong online network of potential readers, and a new blogger generally won't, you'll have to really work on raising awareness. Listing it with search engines and blog lists is an often used strategy. It's also important to make sure that your blog is set up to ping search engines as soon as it updates. However, I've found that networking with other bloggers offers more bang for the buck. Someone is more likely to visit your blog if you've visited and commented on theirs. Commenting is the key. And if you discover that someone mentioned your blog in one of their posts, make it a point to thank them either in an email or in the comments section of that post.

Make it easy for people to get updates. Provide RSS information. Some sites allow people to be emailed as soon as a new post goes live.

If you run a special interest blog, become an active member of a few online groups that pertain to that interest. Do not just log on to the group and say "come visit my blog."   That's a big turnoff.   Take an active part of the group and post relevant information and comments. If people like what you write, they will check out your blog.

Becoming a member of special interest group is also a great way to keep up on current topics. This, of course, provides fodder for posts. Post often. Try for every day. But if that isn't possible, don't allow a week to go by without posting. People can loose interest in a blog fairly quickly. If they don't have your blog on an RSS feed and if they haven't seen a new post in a while, they may forget to come back.

Make sure your blog is easily readable. Meaning, make sure the font is fairly large and stands out against the background. Also, avoid clutter if at all possible. There are so many cool things that can be added to the blog, but having too many blog toys and widgets can be distracting.  


Marshall:  How do you find new blogs on your topics?

Trish:  Besides using blog search engines, I've found the best way to find new blogs is by visiting existing blogs and looking at blogrolls and comments. I've found quite a few personal cancer blogs by visiting the blogroll links of my friends. [Blogrolls are the list of links many bloggers put in their sidebars to point to other blogs they like.] However, I've recently discovered that many cancer survivors comment on these cancer blogs and often these people own blogs themselves. Their blogs may be missed in a search engine query because cancer may not be a common theme in their posts.

Marshall:  Can you give us an honest assessment of the shortcomings of the medium of blogging, either as it stands today or inherently?

If you are ask whether a community can be based on a blog, I'd have to say no. But it can be a springboard to bring a community together. A blog can be a member of a larger blog community and it can help to bring in more people into the community but it's no more a community than a dinner party is a community. The blog owner is akin to a dinner party hostess. Yes, many people may congregate at the hostess's house, but it is her house. It's her forum.  Even if she does a great job of introducing people to each other and encouraging conversation, the people are still guests in her house. In a real sense, hostess and guests are not equals in that particular space. This setting is fundamentally different than, say, a community forum where, in a perfect world, all members are intended to be equals. Each has an equal right to be heard.  Dissenting commentary may not be liked, but it is allowed. At a dinner party, if someone were to have such bad form as to cause contention, they would be asked to leave. The same goes for a blog. If a comment is not liked, the owner can simply remove it.

I realize that the above is a really simplistic way of looking at things, but if you look at a community as a shared space, a blog just doesn't cut it.

As far as other aspects? Well, I look at it this way. A blog is A tool for communication. It is not THE tool for communication. It is what it is. To be a successful communicator, one needs to use all the tools available.

Marshall:  Net Squared is all about helping agents of social change do their work more effectively.  Can you think of anything that you could use help with in this regard?  Your thoughts on what could be included in the Net Squared conference or in the Net Squared community at any time that would be of interest and assistance would be much appreciated.

Trish:  I would suggest having a presentation, seminar, round table, whatever, on the power of storytelling to affect social change. Blogs can be a huge tool for storytelling. I find this especially true for the bloggers that I introduce and promote on bloggingforacause.com. I sincerely believe every congress person should read these stories. In fact, I've been toying with the idea of editing a book of cancer related blog entries and sending each congress person one. It could also be a great fundraising tool to support cancer research.

 Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
ACS, cancer, blogging, web2.0, networking, support