David Hamilton is a Toronto-based word nerd who, since finishing journalism school, has written for the National Post and several technology publications. He now works as a copywriter, blogger, and content strategist for Kobayashi Online. He loves travel, great conversations, and striving to be a better writer. Contact him via Twitter (@ko_davidh) or email him at david@davidihamilton.com.
David is presenting: How to Write a Blog Post
Why WordPress? Why do you like using WordPress? | When I was first getting into Content Management Systems for publishing online content, WordPress seemed like the obvious choice for me. It was a platform that could be customized for any number of applications. But more importantly, it was backed by a dedicated community dedicated to improving it, and helping regular people use it. The Internet has revolutionized communication, and platforms like WordPress are helping enable people to more powerfully communicate their messages and experiences through technology |
Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Ottawa? | For many years, I’ve been using the WordPress platform and participating in the WordPress community. What I’ve found is a community that strives to share its knowledge and experiences with each other in the spirit of making things better, and enabling other people to do and make great things.
It’s in this spirit that I want to bring my experience in writing blog posts to WordCamp Ottawa. I hope my presentation at WordCamp Ottawa can help teach people something new or provide a new perspective that will help inspire attendees. |
What is your talk going to be about? | Many things go into making a successful blog, but the quality of posts is something that keeps people coming back.
In this presentation, I will share with you some ways to come up with interesting blog topics, write for your audience, use the right tone, and kick your storytelling up a notch. I want attendees to come away from the presentation with some new ways to approach writing a blog post, and createcontent that connects with readers |
What is your favourite WordPress plugin or theme? Why? | My current favourite plugin is nrelate, which lets you display related content on your site and others sites on your blogroll. I think there’s a tremendous opportunity to offer up pages and posts that someone will want to go to after finishing reading the page they’re on.
I have no doubt that the more time in general someone spends on your site, the more they’re interested in your messages and the more they trust you. Leading people to other related pages helps give them what they want without going off-site, and it helps you build a connection with visitors. To accomplish this, the nrelate plugin can be placed at the end of a post and seamlessly lead the visitor to another related page or post. Nrelate helps keeps people interested. |