(Sorry about the slide quality/images/fonts in some cases they get butchered when exporting from Keynote to anything else ...) This (part two of a) was designed to empower the members of the Samahita teaching team to blog AND share their work widely. It covers basic motivations behind blogging, how to pick ideas, how to think in terms of your audience and create impact, the importance of visuals, where to find rights-free images, and how to create community and get content shared through experts you admire!

1. Finding the joy in writing and
the courage to share it, widely
Part II
A presentation that evaluates writing rules and effective ways to reach
an audience with words, in order to make the process your own
Photo credit: Metatron Mandala by Soulscapes

2. But … if you don’t write it, someone else
likely will, and maybe not even as good!

3. What’s the point of blogging?
Communicating experience in an effective way—inviting people
to a new way of thinking, sharing insights, staying in touch,
creating community, lighting the world one mind at a time!

4. Ideation:Wings become windows
• Those tips you give to each other?
Those are blogs!
• Things you find yourself repeating
to guests, to each other?Those are
blogs!
• Your thoughts and experience
matter
• So many ideas could help so many

5. Let’s focus
• From heart to audience—meeting
them halfway
• The importance of an editorial
process and working with a house
style
• How to find good rights-free
imagery and choose visuals that suit
your blog
• Cross linking, ideation and the
opportunity of dynamic digital
space

6. Audience:Who are these people?
• Same-same—but different
• Write what turns you on, but write
to them, too.They are:
•Wide
•Equals (authority is earned)
•Busy
•Overloaded with information
•Quick judges (mind the
details)
•Seeking guidance BUT …
Image credit:Anna Dziubinska,Unsplash
Image credit:pixabay rights free

7. TRY …
… not to underestimate someone’s
intelligence or overestimate their
knowledge.

8. Everyday people
• Rarely practice yoga
• Think yoga is exercise
• Read news and gossip
• Listen to audio in their cars
• Love video content
• Require entertainment
• Have routines
• Want to improve their lives
• Want someone to relate with

9. • Develop an eye for hardline information, and be transparent about its source
it—if it is speculation, state that. If it is through your direct experience, say it. If it is a
theory, state that. If it is a fact related to a study or an expert, attribute this
• Authority vs. credibility
• Be like an informed friend
—not above, not below, equal
• Consider the words you
use—include as many people
as possible
• Check and double check
what you are talking
about

10. Readers are busy, like you
• Length: 800 words
• Subheads
• Paragraphs
• Visuals
• Get to the point
• Make it about them!
Image credit:Jason Rosewell,Unsplash

12. Information overload: Bee different!
• What are you saying that people haven’t already heard before?
• ADDINGVALUETOTHEWORLD
• Find how you are doing this and draw confidence from it
• Speak with humanity not authority—authorship is a dying art,
people are all authors and researchers now
• Take time to find the right visuals that grabAND include people

13. •Imagine having to go somewhere and
someone starts talking—what do you want
them to do?What would keep you from
walking away?
•People are hooked by authentic emotion
•Let your first draft be a ramble—a draft!
•Then edit it for its highlights
Give them a
why, fast

14. Readers don’t read,
until they scan
• A few baseline assumptions: Users
won’t read your text thoroughly
• First two paragraphs contain most
important information
• Subheads are critical
• Subheads, bullet points contain vital
information

15. Reasons to ask others to check your work
• What if you worked out every day,
learned several languages, worked on
your personality, kept up with
fashion, and then showed up at a party
unshowered and in your lounge-
around clothing?
• Writing full of errors: People might
see the potential but wonder about
quality
• People today snap judge this stuff—it
is not even conscious; they know
quality in an instant and lose levels of
interest just as fast.

16. Approaching the editorial process
• Yes, you can achieve the word limit, (inner critic is not all bad)
• No matter how much experience you have, or how high up you
are in a company, two pairs of eyes are better than one
• Clean it up—if it feels better, save the scraps somewhere
• Skilled editor: Luxury of time? Conversation is best, then
tracked changes and exchange, then just sending it off. Depends
on context.

17. Saying:“There are
no good writers,
just good editors.”
Is it true?!?
• This is a friendly butcher shop
• Somebody did all the hard work
• Somebody had the intentions
• Somebody’s passion is on the line
• Work together—combine brains
• Make it about the information, the
impact, the effect, not the ego
Image credit:Lukas Budimaier,Unsplash

18. The difference between
good and great …
… is in the details.

19. The importance of house style
• Samahita has a style guide.
Knowing the rules helps you hold
them through a single piece
• Title case, sentence case, mixed case
and anything goes looks/FEELS
haphazard when someone reads more
than one blog on your site
• It’s easier to write in the long run
when you lock in the house rules
• Take pride—if you are going to do it,
do it all the way, final touches—be
professional
The importance of House style
The Importance of house Style
The importance of house style
The Importance of House Style
Yoga
yoga
Ashtanga
ashtanga
Ayurveda
ayurveda

20. The importance of imagery
• Colored visuals increase a person’s
likelihood to engage in content by 80
percent
• When people hear info, they are likely to
retain 10 percent of it three days later.
When same info is paired with relevant
visual, retention rises to 65 percent.
• Articles with an image once every
75-100 words got double the number of
social shares than articles with fewer
images.
• ETC. Read: http://goo.gl/9BO9KE

21. What is relevant?
What is inclusive?

22. Finding awesome rights-free images

23. Samahita Stock
• Great visiting photographers
• Showcase the locale
• Faces people recognize
• Vibe
As of today:
• Repetitive
• Tend to be a bit ethnocentric

24. Google
• Type a term
• Click on “images”
• Click on “search tools”
• Click on “usage rights”
• Click on “labeled for reuse”
• You can filter for size, color, time,
etc.
• All images are free to use however
you want!
Image credit:Ng,Unsplash

25. Unsplash
•Search through a bunch of inspiring images covering a range of terms
•Create catalogues for projects
•Credit people if you feel like spreading the love
Image credit:Padurariu Alexandru,Unsplash

26. Linking in/linking out
• Try to find at least one idea you have
expressed in the archives of the Samahita
Retreat blog
• Try to find at least one related article
(through a Google search, or better yet,
through a blog, article, video by an
expert you admire) and link out
• When you do the later, drop the person a
line to thank them, tell them you shared
their content and ask them to peek at
yours!
• Draft email in the tech specs copy/paste
document

27. Tapas
Do great things come easily?

28. Burying the point
• Readers want to know that the
writer understands that they
are busy, that their time is
valuable
• Show them by getting to the
point and then elaborating
• Let the rest of the story back
the point up—tell the reader
what on Earth is going on,
ASAP
Image credit:Auggie GomezVergera, augie.com.au

29. Tempo/sentence length variability
This is a pretty big deal
Snip apart compound sentences
Simple, compound, compound, simple, simple
Read out loud—feel the rhythm of the messages and how it helps energize the information
Image credit:Jamille Queiroz,Unsplash

30. GrammarCritical to flow and your credibility
Meeting common expectation around language
Most common things I see:
Image credit:Joao Silas,Unsplash

31. • British vs.American English—Bra-merican English
• Comma overuse or underuse (comma use without purpose)
• Use of “which” (British overuse relative toAmericans) and “that”—they are
different
• Hyphenation of compound non-adjective/non-descriptive phrases
• Misuse of semicolon and colon
• General inconsistency in rule application
• Capitalization of things for emphasis, inconsistently
• Spelling is another matter altogether but: to, too, its, it’s, where, were, we’re,
who’s, whose, etc.

32. A few requests to draw more
readers … and keep them
• Please provide minimum two, engaging images (Samahita image library or many
online free shots: https://bootstrapbay.com/blog/free-stock-photos/)
• Please consider your headline carefully, as part of hooking the reader (have
someone else brainstorm with you or think of one for you based on their reading of
the piece if you are tired at this point)
• Look in your piece, find the golden sentence and use it as a subhead
• Subheads will go under the title and for the subhead in the blog main page:
(172 characters no spaces/203 with spaces)
• Length—no longer than 800 words, and please split it up with …
• Section heads

33. Enjoy!