Guest Submissions
There are those of you out there who have valuable thoughts and insights you?d like to share, but who don?t have time, energy, or desire to create and maintain a blog of your own. And sometimes the things you?d like to share are too long for comments or, frankly, deserve a post of their own. We?d like to provide you an outlet for your thoughts.
Northern Lights is offering a solution: Guest Post Submissions. If there is a particular topic you would enjoy discussing on Northern Lights, feel free to submit your post (or post series) on that topic.
What to do: Write your thoughts in the form of a blog post and email them to submissions at ldslights dot org. Put the title of your post in the subject line of the email and the content of your post in the email message body. Be sure to include your name and a short biographical blurb (about 2-3 sentences) so that we can give you proper credit.
We will select as Guest Posts those submissions that we find relevant, insightful, well-written, and in harmony with the purpose and focus of Northern Lights.
Why Blog
The benefits of a lively online conversation among thoughtful and respectful friends is pretty easy to see. However, beyond that, starting one’s own blog has been strangely therapeutic for many LDS folks who are trying to deal with issues related to homosexuality in their lives. There is an opportunity to remain anonymous and consequently use this shame-free environment to achieve greater insight into personal challenges and refine social and moral views. Many LDS bloggers who discuss their experiences and thoughts related to homosexuality have found that the honesty and openness that the blogging experience engenders is extremely therapeutic. Basically, we recommend you give it a try.
Blog How To
Blogging is no more difficult than writing an e-mail. You can sign up for a free blog at a number of sites on the web. One of the easiest is Google Blogger. Another popular option is WordPress. After blogging for a while, you can learn to create more complex pages, and you can customize the look and feel of your blog as well. There are many resources available to help you “tweak” your blog into a unique and fun method of expression. Start by reading your blog host’s support files and perhaps try searching for discussion groups about customizing blogs. It can be as simple or as involved as you want it to be.
Remember that giving and receiving comments is crucial to having a dialog. Once you start a blog, it’s a good idea to let other people know that it exists (either through comments or e-mail). We recommend that you acquaint yourself with the basic security and privacy issues of the web if you do go ahead and create a blog for your own safety and piece of mind.
