Spreading my love of blogging around Perth

On the weekend I was lucky enough to spend a day with a bunch of Perth bloggers, as I ran a course on Advanced Blogging for UWA Extension. It’s almost a year since I first ran a beginner blogging course for them, and I’ve done several more of those since, but I have to say, this advanced course was the most fun yet!

After blogging for six years in a pretty solitary way – as a lot of bloggers do, I suspect – it’s so lovely to be meeting people face-to-face who are so enthusiastic and excited about their blogs and who are ready and keen to hear about all the bloggy-stuff I want to tell them. Fitting everything I wanted to share into just one day was quite a challenge and but I hope my students were left just on the good side of overwhelmed and definitely in a state of inspiration, ready to go home and blog themselves silly.

The “Perth and Other Places” blog

The participants in my advanced course, of course, have already set up their blogs, and in some cases have been plugging away for some years, although most of their blog-lives could be measured in months. Their blog niches are many and varied (although a few are travel or writing related – a bonus for me!) and so are their personalities, but I think we all managed to have a fun day together. But what I really am writing this post for is to introduce some of these exciting blogs to the wider world. And to say, yes, there are so many fantastic up-and-coming bloggers in Perth – yay for my hometown! So without further rambling, here are some of these blogs:

• Perth and Other Places is a beautiful blog full of photographs of (um, yes, you guessed it) Perth and other places! One of two very travel-ish blogs in my list … closely followed by –
• A Taste of Travel – a beautiful blog with a beautiful name (I think I’ve used up my mentions of the word “beautiful” now!) – so far centred on travels in Italy with, of course, a heavy emphasis on food – don’t read this blog on an empty stomach!
• The Ponder Room – an inspiring blog about inspiring people and places and happenings and … well, all kinds of things! The Ponder Room blog actually began in one of my beginner courses so of course, I’m extra proud of this one … as well as
• Creativity Doesn’t Come From a PhD – a graphic design-ish blog from the friendliest Gen Y artist-type I know. Lots of interesting stuff on this one.
• The Chook House – a writing blog from a real-life published writer whose novel I just finished reading (I love getting to meet all these cool people on my blogging courses!) – and with a hat-tip to travel too, as there are some great posts about a recent Hawaii trip.
• Beyond IQ – a business-based blog, and such an interesting business, involving coaching about communication and compassion in the workplace.

If they spark some interest for you, do pop by and visit – and leave a comment to say you called!