Last night I was the guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Northwest Christian Writers Association (NCWA). My topic: “Boggled by Blogging: Weblog Basics for Novices and Non-Techies.”

Of course, I got to talk about adoption, as well, since that's the topic I blog about on my two blogs. After the meeting, I met two people with a connection to blogging: one woman is in the home study process to adopt from Vietnam and a man adopted his child 47 years ago.

I had a great time sharing blogging tips with the friendly, welcoming audience of 50-60 writers. In my past life, I was a high school journalism and English teacher, and my first love is teaching. Unlike some high school students, adult audiences are polite and engaged (usually) and they furiously scribble notes.

The challenge of teaching a class on blogging is that my listeners are all over the map when it comes to their knowledge of and experience with blogging. Last night’s audience ranged from high school students to 80-somethings. Some were techno-phobes; others were techno-geeks.

Rather than trying to cover everything anyone could ever want to know about blogging in one hour, I geared my presentation specifically to novice bloggers without technical know-how. Several people from the audience who are already bloggers commented afterwards that my presentation was a good “refresher” course.

I’d like to welcome those of you who attended last night’s meeting and invite you to submit a comment to this post. Commenting on other people’s blog posts is a good way to “get your feet wet” in the blogosphere.

Anyone who would like to listen to the presentation can purchase a CD from me for only $5, including postage. I’ll have them ready shortly – just post a comment or e-mail me (laurachristianson@hotmail.com) (with NCWA in the Subject line) if you’re interested in purchasing one.

I’m expanding the presentation (and its accompanying PowerPoint slide show) and will be selling the complete version via my Web site, www.laurachristianson.com. More details will be coming shortly!

I’m also writing a “Boggled by Blogging” Amazon Short, which will contain much of the written text from my presentation. The Amazon Short will be available for the low, low price of 49 cents at the beginning of June. Let me know if you’re interested in owning the Amazon Short and I’ll send you an e-mail when it’s published on Amazon.com.