Tuesday 8 March 2011

My Favourite Blogs: Nothing shocks me, I'm a scientist

One of the things you notice as a blogger, is that you start reading lots of other blogs for ideas and inspiration.

It's great when you discover a blog that introduces you to a subject or topic that you never thought you’d been interested in.

This is what I found when I discovered a blog called Nothing shocks me, I’m a scientist, by freelance science journalist Angela Saini.

A few years ago I remember reading on article giving advice and tips on how important it is for journalists to build a brand. One piece of advice given, spoke about how freelance writers should develop a niche topic in which to write about and build their reputation around.

Angela Saini’s blog was given as a perfect example of a niche blog. Her niche is in science journalism. This is what she specialises in and what she’s good at.

Even though I didn’t particularly have a great interest in science journalism I decided to have a look, as I thought I might be able to gain some ideas on how I should develop my own blog and freelance writing.

I loved the way that Angela wrote about science. I’ve never considered myself to be a science type person (I’ve always been more arts and humanities) but she made a subject I thought I wasn’t interested in sound relevant and appealing. I soon decided to subscribe to her blog on my RSS feed and I’ve been reading it ever since.

Soon after I started reading the blog, Saini moved to India for 6 months to cover science stories for the BBC as well as beginning research on her first book called Geek Nation..

The book covers Angela’s journey through India in which she investigates why the country is set to become the world’s next scientific superpower. During the last year, she’s kept her blog readers up to date with various science stories from India as well as progress reports on how the book was taking shape.

Geek Nation was finally published last week on 3 March, and I have to say I was quite excited to see it released.

I’ve been reading Angela’s blog for the last 18 months and followed the progress of the book closely. Angela’s currently updating her blog readers on all the promotional work she’s been doing to promote the book.

On Sunday, I came across a review of the book in the Sunday Times Culture magazine. It was quite positive, and so far the book's been getting a lot of good feedback. After reading Angela’s blog for so long, I feel I now need to go out and buy the book.

Nothing shocks me, I’m a scientist, is a great example of a blog that introduces you to a new subject with an interesting, informative, and personal style of writing that grabs the reader and keeps them coming back. These are characteristics that all good blogs should have.

3 comments:

  1. Rodney, what a lovely post. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy the book!

    Angela

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  2. Hi Angela

    I'm glad you liked my post.

    As one of your 'two blog readers' I wanted to write something about how much I enjoy your blog, and let a few of my readers know about you. Although I think you're doing a pretty good job on the promotional front.

    Congrats on the book launch, I intend to order it off Amazon tomorrow.

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  3. Excellent information, brings up some interesting and relevant points.

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