Joining the Ooffoo community and posting on the blog is completely free!

Below is a treasure trove of ideas to help you to get the most out of Ooffoo so you can benefit yourself and the wider world.

 

5 ways to use and contribute to the Ooffoo community

• Post an article on the blog: For everyone to use. Publish articles, stories, poems, blogs, recipes, diaries, suggestions, advice and who knows what else. Not to be used cynically and unethically to merely promote a business though. The best rule of thumb is: if you have something positive to add to the Ooffoo community then go for it – if the community does not like it they will tell you as much.
• Add comments: We all want to hear your thoughts, feedback and comments, so don’t be shy, but please do be nice.
• Enjoy and share the blog: Whether or not you would like to post on the blog yourself, or comment on other members’ posts, we want you to enjoy the blog!  So feel free to pour a coffee, put your feet up and have a good read.  And if you find a post that you’re particularly fond of, why not share it with your friends and networks.
• Browse the Marketplace: With over 100 retailers listed and more than 6,000 goodies, you can be sure to make some great discoveries in the Marketplace!  Pop by and have look round, learn about the suppliers that have been carefully selected for their commitment to people and the planet, and get some great ideas for ethical gifts for those special occasions such as weddings, birthdays and Christmas.  You’ll also find heaps of everyday stuff like washing nuts and bin bags!
• Join the Marketplace: Would you like to shout from the hilltops about your own wonderful, ethical goodies for sale?  Get in touch and find out how. 

 

20 ideas for blog posts on Ooffoo

• Waste: Do you have advice on how people can reduce their waste?  Perhaps an idea for re-use or upcycling?  Or maybe you know an organisation that collects unwanted goods to re-use and recycle.  Why not post an article and tell the community all about it. 
• Gardening: Help other members to reduce their food-to-fork carbon footprint by sharing your gardening tips for growing your own veg.  You could write a diary covering when to sow different seeds, when to harvest and how to store veg.  Or tell members about how you protect your cabbages from the slugs! 
• Seasonal Recipes: We all know what it’s like when your seasonal veg box arrives and it contains veg that you’ve never even seen before!  But if this doesn’t apply to you and you can share a useful article about some unusual seasonal veg and a great recipe, we’d love you to post it.  You could also post a recipe for some of the old classics like carrots and peas if you like.  (Please note that all the recipes posted on Ooffoo will automatically be shared with www.vegbox-recipes.co.uk.  See our terms and conditions for more information.) 
• Campaigns: If your favourite charity is running a campaign, you call tell the community about it and drum up support.  Perhaps they need donations, or maybe they’re trying to raise awareness of an environmental or social issue.  Whatever the cause, as long it fits with our ethos you can write about it.  Charities are welcome to blog for themselves too! 
• Enterprise: If there is an enterprise near you that is doing great work in your community, why not tell our members about it.  You never know, it may inspire similar innovation elsewhere.  Enterprises can write about themselves too – just try to avoid making it an outright advert! 
• Energy: You could post your top ten tips for energy reduction to help others reduce their consumption.  You could even ask the community to add to your list. 
• Transition: Are you part of your local Transition Town?  If so, why not write an article about what your group is doing locally.  Perhaps you’ve encouraged the council to plant nut trees in the town centre, or maybe you’ve started a garden share scheme.  Whatever it is, we want to hear all about your positive work.   
• News: You can post an article on current affairs.  If there is a story in the news that you have an opinion about, you can share it with the community.  Or perhaps there’s a story that’s not being covered by the news media that you think should be.  Share it here, but make sure you feed the right wolf! 
• History: If you have a passion for a particular movement, you could write an article that shares the history of that movement – how it came about and how it has developed.  For example you may want to talk about the history of animal welfare laws, or the history of women’s rights.
• Eco Product Review: Have you recently bought an eco product from the Marketplace (or from somewhere else) that you’ve been particularly pleased with?  You could blow a trumpet on the blog – tell the community why you love it and share the ethical credentials.  Or perhaps there’s a product that you haven’t tried and you’d like to find out more before you do.  Why not ask the community for advice.
• Book Review: You can post a review about your favourite books.  Tell the community what you learned from it, why you loved reading it or a bit about the author. 
• Philosophy: Do you have a motto that you live your life by?  Or an idea for promoting feelings of happiness?  Why not share an article about it, or start a discussion for other members to contribute to.   
• Swapping: If you’d like to trade skills with someone, for example you’re a carpenter but you need your sink unblocking, why not post a request on Ooffoo.  Or maybe you’d like to organise a clothes swap in your area and would like to promote it, or even get ideas on how to organise it.  You could post about that on Ooffoo too. 
• Events: If you’ve organised an eco event, be it a local cooking workshop or a national eco homes fair, you can tell the community about it. 
• Emotions: You could write a personal piece about how positive thought and local support has helped you through a difficult time.  Or you could share your top tips on how to influence people positively.  As long as it feeds the right wolf, we’d love to hear about it. 
• Parenting: Have you found some great reusable nappies?  Are you bringing your little ones up on a vegetarian diet?  Or doing home schooling?  Tell us all about it.  You never know what kind of connections you’ll make to other people having a similar experience. 
• Craft: Do you make your own Christmas cards every year using bits and bobs you find around the house?  Share an article with the community all about your crafty ways. 
• Activism: If you would like the community to join you in taking positive action towards a cause, for example by pledging to cycle to work once a week, you could post an article to rally support.  But please keep it positive! 
• Environment: Why not share details about a local beauty spot or conservation area, with some information about the biodiversity it supports and why it’s so important. 
• Eco Shopping Guide: Help others to make better choices by posting an article all about your favourite places to buy goodies.

 

Ooffoo fundamentals

• Community (individuals and organisations): What we really want to achieve on Ooffoo is to create a dynamic community of like minded Ooffoo’ers as well as help support local communities and activities. Ooffoo offers free access to the blog for all to help let your community know about events or local issues or just about your business or yourself!  We hope to facilitate and encourage local groups to start to talk to each other and to use Ooffoo for their community activities and fund-raising.
• Network: There is indeed strength in numbers. You can comment on other user’s listings or have them comment on yours. You can upload poems, recipes, useful ideas and suggestions, create discussions about local or global issues, tell a story and so on. The blog is not for merely advertising a product, service or business. The blog is for those of you who have a useful guide to offer others, wish to genuinely share ideas or seek advice or just wish to have a chat or start a discussion.

 

Tips to get the most out of Ooffoo

The ability to tell a vibrant and powerful Ooffoo audience about whatever it is you need to tell them is of obvious benefit.

The best way to think about Ooffoo is that you have a footprint in the Ooffoo system that comprises of all your activity on Ooffoo, namely your articles and comments on other people’s contributions. The more you do on Ooffoo the more people will find you. Simple really.

The above 20 ideas for blog posts on Ooffoo will hopefully give you plenty of good ideas to get immense value from ooffoo but be sure to make the most of it. Here are some great tips on how to maximise your impact in the Ooffoo community:

• Increase your Ooffoo footprint: post relevant and useful articles, post comments on other people’s contributions, respond to people who comment on your contributions.
• Write the best copy you can so that it communicates as well as possible with the reader – put yourself in their shoes and write for them. The most important thing to do is be as honest as possible. Lastly, we recommend you use a spell checker and then cut and paste your copy in before you save it.
• Write copy that ensures the maximum amount of relevant words so the search finds you as much as possible but keep it spam free of course. Using the same word a nonsensical number of times will possibly see your listing removed.
• Spend time coming up with a good title!  The title of an article is very important when writing website content – it helps the search engines to match your content to the correct and most relevant search terms.  So it’s important to make sure that the title represents your article well and uses words that match the topic of your article.  It will also help members to instantly identify what your post is about. 
• Use tags that cover both niche and generic areas to ensure you are found by people browsing generally and those looking in greater depth.

 

Happy Ooffoo’ing!

 

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