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Blogging Tips
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1. Make your content readable
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What this boils down to is one word: EDIT.
I am absolutely flabbergasted when I come across a seemingly professional or well-constructed blog riddled with grammar and spelling errors. It makes it hard to read and take seriously. Especially for those of you catering to a well-read audience.
Before publishing a post, preview it. Read through it a few times. Catch the mistakes before they're published for all to see. And, if one should slip by, go back and fix it as soon as you find out.
Enable the spell check in your browser. Use a dictionary or grammar book like Strunk & White's Elements of Style.
Know the differences in these words:
to, too, two
their, they're, there
your, you're
its, it's
etc.
Also, learn proper punctuation usage and be strict about it. Don't overuse commas.
Another big problem for bloggers is publishing their posts in large blocks of text. Remember, you're catering to readers who, on a whole, have short attention spans while online. Large blocks of text make a blog post look daunting and cause people to click away.
Break your paragraphs up with line breaks or a photo. And, while on that thought, photos also help to keep readers interested. If the post is a longer one, consider the usage of a photo or two.
2. Design
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Design and visual appeal are most important. Who wants to look at an ugly page or a cluttered blog. Anyone remember why Myspace got so frustrating and tanked? Too much crap on profile pages. Every gif imaginable and garish color schemes.
You want to make your blog easily navigable. Avoid plastering tons of photos on all corners of your blog. Avoid cluttering it with too many widgets. If you have information that you'd like to include but takes up some room, create a separate page with a link on top.
Separate pages help to organize your information and keep your main page clean and clear of clutter.
Use color schemes that are easy on the eyes. Avoid using bright color backgrounds that may be harsh on the eyes. Ever try reading a lot of text with a glaring, white background? Also, avoid use of dark text on a dark background (ie black text on a crimson background). NEVER use neon-colored text.
As far as text goes, use an easily read font. Yes, there are thousands of amazing looking fonts out there, but they're not made to be easily read for an extended time. They're made to look pretty. Use those fonts for headers and labels. Stick with the tried and true fonts for reading (ie Times New Roman, Ariel, Courier, etc.).
3. Promotion
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As bloggers, we love comments. We love followers more. Why? Because that means people are reading what we have to say and that means someone is finding our words important, trustworthy, interesting or all of the above.
However, you're not going to get much traffic unless you promote your blog. There are thousands of amazing blogs and webpages out there that are lost to the gutters of the online world simply because no one knew they were there.
Promotion is simple. And there are many ways to promote that most people never think of. Here is a list of the ways I promote manic-frustration.blogspot.com (See what I did there):
- Put a link in your email signature
- Create a Facebook fan page
- Post links on your Facebook or Google+ wall when you make a new post or any site you belong to.
- Tweet a link on Twitter (do this a few different times during the day to compensate for timezone and peak usage)
- Leave a link in posts you make in forums. Most forums allow you a signature. Use it!
- Word of mouth (I have a link on the back of my business card)
- Follow and comment on other blogs. This is more helpful than you would think and many people forget that giving love brings love in return.
4. Regular posting
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When I first created my blog, my posts were few and far between. Consequently, I had little traffic. Over the past year, my traffic has increased tremendously due to self promotion and regular posting. Soon after I wrote a review of Ada Limon's "Sharks in the River", I noticed a huge influx. She had posted a link back to my blog.
Regular posting keeps your readers interested and coming back to check for new posts. The longer you go between posts, the more forgettable your blog will become.
Keep this in mind, though. Life happens and we all get busy. Sometimes you can't help but have a long break between posts. When you do return, don't mention the break. Don't apologize. Just write and post. We all know life happens. If you establish yourself, your readers will be happy just to see a new post. No need to apologize for that.
5. If it ain't broke, don't fix it
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This one is simple. If you establish yourself and begin bringing in new readers, don't go making huge changes to the layout of your blog every other week. Keep it familar to the reader. There's an obvious reason why they keep coming back. They like what you have. Keep up the good work.
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These are just a few of the tips and ideas I've run across over my time blogging. Remember, when you begin constructing your blog, ask for critique. Ask your friends how it looks. Ask your readers. Create something which people will want to come back and read again and again. Interact with your readers.
I think you can change it to a list format in the Layout editor and they won't be all different sizes. But it would be a long list instead of a compact cloud.
1. Make your content readable
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What this boils down to is one w..."
Those are some great tips. Thank you for sharing.
Go to Edit Profile, click on the Widgets tab, and it should be near the bottom with an HTML code for you to copy and paste.
https://allonsythornraxxbooks.wordpre...
https://allonsythornraxxbooks.wordpre..."
This is a good list of tips. I especially like the one where you don't have to write just reviews. That's definitely good because I've found that reviews are generally less viewed than other posts.
-MULTIPLE PAGES
1. an about me page is nice, you can write about why you're a blogger and give your readers an idea of who you are and what you like to read.
2. a review policy is very important. Tell your readers (and review requesters) how you review and that you expect everyone to respect your reviews as an opinion and not to be aggressive if they disagree.
3. a page for your reviews
4. a review request form, if you take requests.
5. a general contact form (contact can be its own page)
6. A homepage, which can be your posts page, about me, or welcome
7. A review directory (this is optional) of an alphabetized list of all the books you've reviewed with their links
-AUDIENCE
1. ability for readers to contact you
2. ability for readers to comment and like
3. be friendly! Check on your blog's feedback and comments and talk with your loyal readers whenever possible! They make your blog have a purpose, so be grateful of them :)
-MORE TRAFFIC
-if you have a free blog (like me) it can be hard to get traffic.
1. make sure your blog is organized, clean, and easy to navigate through
2. post regularly or semi-regularly
3. include a follow button in multiple places throughout your blog
4. participate in tags, inter-website blogger challenges, or collabs to make connections with bloggers who have more followers than you (it works, believe me)
5. enable search engines access to your site (it depends on the platform you use on how to do this, but your platform's forums or help pages should explain how to do this)
6. blog buttons/logo trading with links to your partners' websites
-APPEARANCE
1. colors that don't hurt the eyes/distract from reading
2. readable and clean, pretty fonts
3. nicely formatted posts and pages
4. clear images in various sizes and spacings
-COOL OPTIONAL STUFF
1. paragraph break symbol (it just looks pretty)
2. a logo
3. a blog button/badge
4. widgets full of literally anything you want displayed (goodreads profile, other social media platform links, calendars, post schedules, follow buttons, pictures, etc.)
5. your NetGalley badge if you're a member
6. display badges for blog tours you participate in
Can some kind blogger advise me how to add a 'Join' button to my wordpress blog?
I've narrowed it down (! - I'm not tekky) to needing a plug-in, but I downloaded a popular one but it gathers way too much information/ forms/et.c when what I want is a "Click here to join" type deal.
Any ideas?
1. Consider doing a soft-launch, which means publishing a few entries with minimal publicity. It gives you time to master the technology and work out what your blog is *really* going to be about - this may not be exactly the same as your original intention. It also means that when you start giving your blog posts a blaze of publicity, visitors will have something to look at as they explore the blog.
2. Be serious about publicising your work. Check which Facebook groups might be interested, join and post a link (if the group rules allow it).
3. Post regularly. It will keep your enthusiasm levels high and encourage readers to come back.
It'll help build your reputation!