Advanced Driving Blog

[jbsportstech]

I have started an advanced driving blog with the hope of promoting the subject in a modern, fun and informative mannor.

Please take the time to visit and make the kind of quality post I see on here to help get it off the ground .


http://drivingfortomorrow.blogspot.com

[martine]

James,

Good idea but you need to be careful with typos and spelling/punctuation otherwise it will get the wrong message across...I really don't mean to come across all school-teachery but here's some hints...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My name is James and I am hopping to promote better understanding of what comes under the 'Advanced Driving' umbrella. Its not all flat caps and wheel shuffling, driving slower than the average driver. This seems to be the overall perception and its just the case.

If you are passionate about cars which less face it can be a pretty imotive purchase then thinking a bit more about what you do when your driving your expensive purchase and taking care of would seem to be sensible and protecting it along with yourself and loved ones.

With my blog I aim to provide some tips and give what I believe is better overview of my experinences in advanced driving.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[jont]

My name is James and I am hopping to promote better understanding of what comes under the 'Advanced Driving' umbrella. Its not all flat caps and wheel shuffling, driving slower than the average driver. This seems to be the overall perception and its just not the case.

Good job you didn't get onto whether some of it made sense too

[Octy_Ross]

As it seems we're proof reading - I'll put my anal proof readers cap on. It has an MG badge

My name is James and I am hoping to promote a better understanding of what comes under the 'Advanced Driving' umbrella. It's not all flat caps and wheel shuffling or driving slower than the average driver. This seems to be the overall misconception and it's just not the case!

If you are passionate about cars which, lets face it, can be a pretty emotive subject then thinking a bit more about what you do when you're driving your expensive purchase and taking care of it would seem to be sensible, protecting it along with yourself and loved ones.

With my blog I aim to provide some tips and give what I believe is a better overview of my experiences in advanced driving.

If you're using firefox, it has a built in spell check function....just needs to be enabled.

[jont]

Also, as "driving for tomorrow" is Chris Gilbert's tagline, you might want to make it clear you're not linked to him in any way.

[ROG]

Great idea.
I would do it on a word doc so that spellcheck can be used then simply copy and paste onto the blog.
doing it outside the blog also gives you more time for proof reading and any changes - if doing similar then I never post it the same day - always seem to see something I don't like after a good nights kip

[ScoobyChris]

I like the idea of promoting AD through different media to reach people

I have a couple of questions which might help focus how people contribute... Who do you see as the target audience for this blog? Do you have any thoughts on what sort of information you'd like to see contributed and also how best to present that information? I guess the blogs I've read previously tend to be short diary-style entries from people announcing what they've done, encounters they've had, etc and haven't really been focussed on changing mindset or trying to get a lot of information across so I'm not sure how I would write an AD style entry around that?

One way I could see it being achieved is to have a short summary piece to get the reader interested and then a "to find out more..." web link to take you to a fuller explanation or some theory/videos but I wouldn't want to tread on your toes if that wasn't your aim Maybe put in a couple of example entries to get the ball rolling

Chris

[TripleS]

As it seems we're proof reading - I'll put my anal proof readers cap on. It has an MG badge

My name is James and I am hoping to promote a better understanding of what comes under the 'Advanced Driving' umbrella. It's not all flat caps and wheel shuffling or driving slower than the average driver. This seems to be the overall misconception and it's just not the case!

If you are passionate about cars which, lets face it, can be a pretty emotive subject then thinking a bit more about what you do when you're driving your expensive purchase and taking care of it would seem to be sensible, protecting it along with yourself and loved ones.

With my blog I aim to provide some tips and give what I believe is a better overview of my experiences in advanced driving.

If you're using firefox, it has a built in spell check function....just needs to be enabled.

What this really needs is a built-in Chris Kay.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[SeanP]

Great idea.
I would do it on a word doc so that spellcheck can be used then simply copy and paste onto the blog.
doing it outside the blog also gives you more time for proof reading and any changes - if doing similar then I never post it the same day - always seem to see something I don't like after a good nights kip

Or post them here first

Thinking out loud -- and perhaps a topic for discussion on the blog...

I'd love a succinct (set of) one-liner(s) of "what is AD?" which will make "non-believers'" ears prick up and take interest. I typically throw in a line similar to the "not all wheel-shuffling, pootling along etc.", also mentioning that it's not the "pipes, slippers and cloth-caps, brigade" (though that probably DOES apply to some around these parts!)


I think it probably centres around "Common sense - with a system applied", "survival of the fittest" and "fun" - "Automotive Fun with built-in Safety?".

Also, whenever a small mistake is made -- like the two incidents recently mentioned hereabouts -- Wifey pipes up "...and you're supposed to be the Advanced Driver!"... appropriate suggestions for responses would not go amiss!

[firstmk1]

Also, as "driving for tomorrow" is Chris Gilbert's tagline, you might want to make it clear you're not linked to him in any way.

Maybe they are linked?

[Octy_Ross]

Having thought about this a little, perhaps making it more personal would increase its value?

I think something like the below may be better;

Dear Reader,

Allow me to introduce myself, I'm James. With my blog I hope to introduce new people to the world of Advanced Driving. It's not all "flat caps" and "wheel shuffling", indeed going slowly where good progress could be made, could result in a test fail!

If you have a passion for cars, then isn't improving your driving skills a worthwhile use of your time? It could help you to lower your risk of damaging your pride and joy. Not to mention the decreased chance of damaging yourself or a loved one!

I hope, over time, my blog will become a resource of hints, tips and articles which the every day driver can find useful.

Thank you for taking the time to read this introduction.

James

[ScoobyChris]

I like the personal angle, Ross, but maybe it could be a bit less formal to increase the appeal to "da kids" and reduce the them-and-us divide? If it's a sales pitch type thing, also worth mentioning it can reduce your insurance premium by as much as 25%

Chris

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

As others have said:

Get it proof read
Get some content on there, not just "hello I'm James" but something actually about driving

Once there is content, there will be something to discuss, Google will be more interested in it, and it may start to happen.

[Horse]

As others have said:

Get it proof read
Get some content on there, not just "hello I'm James" but something actually about driving

Once there is content, there will be something to discuss, Google will be more interested in it, and it may start to happen.

+1

Hi James,

Not wishing to rain on your parade/trackday/driving event , but . . .

. . . Can I suggest you don't get your hopes up too high?

I've been running http://the-ride-info.blogspot.com/ for some time, and get a trickle of visitors.

Where do the visitors come from? Some via Google, which will search and log any post you make, some from my 'sig line' in forum posts such as this, and some from other links (when posts have been picked up on other web sites or forum posts.

I have some - a few - 'followers', and some people (I don't know how many) who receive the content via RSS feeds.

For visitors coming to the site (rather than RSS), some days it's in single figures, my highest was almost 100 in a day.

But the hardest thing is putting the content there - I have a 'back catalogue' of ideas, text and pictures - but just not enough hours to do it, hence no recent posts.

But more fundamentally, what's your reason, your 'purpose'? Who do you want to read what?

You can't rely on people here, for example, to create your content. I get 'comments' added very rarely to my posts - and they're not the way to build a blog.

When you do post, you'll either have to do little and often, or comprehensive, in-depth, weekly posts.

Then - if you want visits via Google for people (call them 'customers, if it clarifies your thinking) searching for advanced driving information - you'll need to provide Google - and those visitors - with it, so your content, tags, and title all need to include important search terms.

Next, from your Google account, sort out statistics tracking and paste the code into your site's HTML, so you'll know who's visiting and where they've come from - and why. A big surprise for me was when I posted a 'jokey' space-filler about Zil limos - it's probably had more Google-related visits than any other single post.

Good Luck!

[Darren]

How about pooling resources and write material for aduk? The main site runs wordpress, so could add a few contributors.