Top Cross-Culture Posts

Creative Ideas to Share Your Time Abroad

A common obstacle that many bloggers run into is running out of inspiration. After a few months or years, the newness wears off, work routines settle in and the cultural differences are second nature, so blog posts frequency trails off until it’s time to go home. The blogger returns home and reminisces about their time abroad and goes back to their blog to try and remember all the little things they forgot about. And the posts kind of peter out. That doesn’t have to be the end of the blog though! Blogging abroad doesn’t just have to happen while the blogger is physically away from their home country; blogging abroad can encompass all of the things relating to time spent away. And with the wide variety of creative expressions out there, blogging doesn’t just have to be words, pictures and videos. Here are some ideas on how to creatively process experiences abroad, even after you’ve returned home. Compose Songs Maybe you spent your downtime abroad learning how to play some simple songs on the guitar. Or maybe you picked up a local instrument to foster a connection with your school’s music class. Or maybe you were making music for years before you went overseas. Either way, writing songs can be a great way to commemorate some of those relationships or experiences that are hard to explain through a blog post. Keith May wrote and recorded an entire album, “127 Daughters,” about his time teaching English at a university in China, and is reaching a new...

Common Mistakes To Avoid On Your Blog’s About Page

As managers of a fantastic community of bloggers from around the world, we are regularly interacting with hundreds of different blogs. We've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. Since our aim is to better equip folks who are bridging cultures through blogging, we wanted to share a few simple tweaks that could improve the effectiveness and quality of your blog. The About page There are a few foundational elements that every blog needs in order to connect effectively with readers. The "About page" is one of these key elements. An About page is one of the most important and most commonly viewed pages on almost any blog. It may go by different names (About Me, FAQs, etc.), but essentially, it introduces the readers to the blog and its author(s). Because so many readers visit the About page, bloggers should be very intentional about what is published there. Think about it from a new reader's perspective. What are they looking for? What do they need to know? To help you answer these questions and create a more effective blog, we've put together this list of the most common mistakes we've seen on blog About pages. Mistakes to avoid on your About page Not having one We were shocked to come across blogs that don't have any About page at all. As a new reader, we immediately look for more information about the author and when we can't find it, there's a big disconnect. Most often, we won't bother coming back. Granted, some folks prefer to remain anonymous, and there are...

5 Ways Blogging Changed Our Peace Corps Experience

This post originally appeared on IntentionalTravelers.com

When my Uncle did the Peace Corps in the 70's, my Mom would record messages for him on tape and wait months to receive his response in the mail. Times have really changed! These days, many Peace Corps Volunteers are just as connected by phone and internet as they would be in the States. While this new digital age certainly has many implications for Peace Corps that can be good and bad, we found the ability to keep a blog during Peace Corps to be particularly rewarding. Here are some of the key ways that keeping a blog improved our Peace Corps experience:

1. Reflection and Processing