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A resource list for beginning bloggers
By Moriah on February 28th, 2009
I have several IRL (in real life) friends who have started blogging in the past couple of months. This list is for them. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, only a helpful one.
Both Blogging Basics 101 and Problogger are invaluable for easy-to-understand information, both for the technical and communal sides of blogging. If you’re looking for something specific, use their search boxes and chances are you’ll find it.
A real life friend, Jennifer (Playgroups Are No Place For Children)’s blog tips. Read them all. Seriously.
(One of the tabs is “Developing Your Brand.” One piece of bloggy advice I hear over and over and over is to find your unique blogging voice and to stay true to it. There is only one you, capitalize on it! You should also develop a posting rhythm (don’t post every day and then stop posting for three months). Your voice, rhythm, and design look are all parts of your BRAND. The salt shakers in my header? Part of my brand.)
Jo-Lynne’s tips on increasing comments. And let me just underline one of her points — please, please make it easy for your readers to leave a comment. Those stupid word verification boxes are on my last nerve. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve given up without commenting after getting the letters wrong the first (couple of) time(s).
(Go in your Blogger dashboard, hit the Settings tab, hit the Comments tab, scroll down to “show word verification for comments” and make sure it says ‘no.’ Also, be sure your email address is entered in the comment notification email box below that so that you will be emailed when you get a comment. This is crucial for possible comments left on older posts that you might otherwise miss.)
(Also, in your edit profile tab, you should have checked “show my email address.” This way not only can people reply to your comments left on their blogs, but it also links an email address to your blog. If you’re worried about security, create a free email account just for your blog that doesn’t use information like your first and last name.)
And my best advice on increasing your comments? Leave tons of comments everywhere you go. My perfect example of this is my friend, Mer. She comments on nearly all of my posts. So I comment on nearly all of her posts. We MET because she left that first comment, over a year and a half ago now. “Give and you shall receive.” Oh, and also, be patient.
Velveteen Mind’s thoughts on blogging within her Blissdom recap. I love her thoughts on blog design. There are billions of blogs. The average web surfer looks at a blog for about 4 seconds, and if you have a standard dummy template, the fact of the matter is you’re not going to stop anyone in their tracks. Your design/template is your proverbial book cover. Make it appealing.
And finally, Blogger Buster’s Complete List of Blogger Tutorials and Tips for New Bloggers.
18 Responses to “A resource list for beginning bloggers”
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great tips, Moriah! especially the word verifiation. ack!
Great great tips!
Psssttt…I tagged you in a meme today. Sorry. I know people have a love/hate thing with memes. ;)
LOVE it…and will link to this later in the week. Count on it.
I also want to add that I think it’s important to work on bloggy relationships. I TRY to visit the blogs of people who visit/comment on mine. I want to get to know my readers. The only way I really know you’re reading is if you leave me a comment. Moriah, you’re GREAT about responding to comments (which you can only do if the commenters profile/email are linked). It definitely makes you feel like you’re having a conversation.
Great stuff here! Thank you!
Great tips. I had no ide until Blissdom that some people are very anti-word verification! (So I’ve taken it off my site, of course.)
This is some great stuff, Moriah! I’m going to check out Jen’s site…haven’t seen that one yet.
hmm, i should take these tips as a nudge for me and my very lackluster blog…
Jennifer has the BEST tips, I love her!
*snicker!*
Great tips – been checking them out, and my comment moderation is OFF :)
this is a great resource…
i’m totally w/you on the word verification…although sometimes i get a laugh out of what it is asking me to type in!
Thanks for the comprehensive list. I thought I was the only one that had to retry the verification word over and over.
Thanks for visiting, and for the carpet cleaner rec. I’ll be picking some up. We made the dog start staying outside when she started tinkling in the floor, but I guess that’s not an option with kiddos huh? ;)
Ok,I’m off to check some of your links…
Comment moderation is a good thing. If you’re on a major blogging service like Blogger or Wordpress, you aren’t going to have the same trouble with spam that those of us have with our own ventures. The reason we aren’t on major blogging services is because we want creative control and are developing our own kind of website.
Captchas and moderation SIGNIFICANTLY reduce spam.
My bit of advice to blogger wannabes is go with Wordpress; it’s very good software. (Sorry, Moriah.)
Great tips! I’m going to read over some of the links you posted. Oh, and I just turned off my word verification! lol
Great tips! I am not sure if I have a word verification or not, I’ll go check and change if I need to.
One thing that I can’t seem to get people to understand is the “add email address to the profile” thing. Its absolutely annoying when someone leaves me a comment with no way for me to reply other than to go to their blog. Especially if they have asked me a question. Because then it’s like ok, do I reply with the answer on my blog post in the comments or on their blog and confuse everyone by the randomness of the reply comment. Anyway, I’m OCD so this probably doesn’t bother other people the way it bothers me LOL
thanks in advance! :)
I’m totally gonna go check out those sites! I’ve been blogging for like 9 months and it is still all so new to me…
(I found you on Cheaperbythebakersdozen…isn’t the Princess awesome?)
Thank you for this. I found your blog at the recommendation of a friend and LOVE it! :)
Thank you for this. I found your blog at the recommendation of a friend and LOVE it! :)