A Call to Makers: Blog on Patch

I am a Maker.

To those of you who do not know about the Maker movement, I invite you to .  This message is reaching out to those who make.  It is especially reaching out to those who organize Makers and Maker Spaces.

I want to share with you the Patch platform and suggest that you use it to grow your Maker community by being a volunteer blogger for Patch.

I am doing this very thing.  Since December 25th, 2011 I have been blogging about .  First hesitantly and now as a train rushing headlong down the track.  Read: Every day.

Blogger at Heart

Some of us are born to blog.  Blogging requires the ability to sit at a laptop and pour your heart out to the vast internet.  More than this, it requires you to have the desire to do so.  Perhaps we know that we have this desire early on.  Perhaps we just need a reason to recognize it in ourselves.  I pick and choose my messages.  Mine is about Making and Creativity of all flavors.

Every Blogger Needs a Voice

A website gives you a voice.  Some of us have our own websites where we share our information.  Perhaps we don't want to manage our own site, so we sign up with a blogging site.  There are websites which offer the opportunity via a free page linked to their domain.

A Voice with Strength

The strength of a blogger's voice depends on the readership of his/her blog.  I have a blog.   I call it Handmade Penguin.  I'll tell you a secret - not too many people read it.

I've found that the Belmont Shore Patch has a substantial readership and justifies my time writing.  I could write passionately for my own website.  I would probably be the only person who reads it.  My blog posts are actually read on the Belmont Shore Patch.  Some statistics?  By verbal report, one post received over 300 hits on Facebook alone.  More from the site itself.  Not a huge number if your name is Steve Lopez, but if your name is ... Wowza!

A Chance to Grow your Community

I'm sure that everyone is busy, and already has several social media platforms that they already use to reach out to members of their community.

Sure we have MeetUp, Facebook and Twitter, but those are people we already know.  The Patch editors are tasked with reaching as many people in their area as they can.  This density ensures that you will be reaching many that you don't already connect with via your other social networking sites.

Part of a Larger Network

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Patch, it is a collection of over 800 hyper-local websites that are linked under the Patch.com domain.  Patch.com is a property of America Online (AOL) and is a member of the Huffington Post media family.  Some stories make it over the local Patch boundaries.

How do you Blog on Patch?

So, my , are you ready to blog now?  You need to be passionate about Making.  If you're organizing a makerspace, you are probably passionate.  If you aren't particularly inclined to blog yourself, find someone in your trusted circle to help you do it.

You don't have to blog every day as I have, but I've found that frequent writing helps me to grow my style, my voice.  It's loads of fun!

So... to get started... simply access your local Patch, click on the "Want to Blog on Patch" button under Local Voices, and follow the instructions!  Not every town has a Patch, but you can find out if your town does by going to Patch.com.

My Personal Experiences

As a blogger on the Belmont Shore Patch, I spent many month writing periodically about creative projects I worked on, whether or not they were completed.  Mor recently, I started playing a game I call .

It's a 100 day scavenger hunt for community, creativity, art in a city I love.

I'm not asking you to play my game.  You can make Lemonade if you want, or you can develop your own blogging style.  If you want to start with Lemonade then branch out, I will help you.

Here are the .

Trish Tsoiasue writes as herself about creative and maker topics for and as Handmade Penguin for the Handmade Penguin Blog.  She is currently playing .

This message is from Handmade Penguin.  There is no endorsement, implied or otherwise, from Dale Dougherty, except he took the time to take a photo with me!