Blogging 101: Kristi and Jill asked me to post all the blogging questions we discussed at the Blog Party last Saturday night. So here goes:
1. Is it worth putting advertising on my blog? It really depends on how much traffic you get. In my opinion if you get less than 700 views per day – it’s not worth it. Especially if you use Google ads which is pay-per-click. I only earned $4 a week with Google.
I joined BlogHer not only because they pay-per-view but also because I strongly believe in supporting women and being apart of a community. BlogHer is doing some amazing things for women and I wanted to promote them as well.
I am not familiar with any other forms of advertising. So those of you who are, please let us know your experience!
2. Has anyone printed out their blog? I saw a Blurb book at Blogapalooza and I was very impressed with the quality. It’s hard bound with full color pages.
Personally, I’ve made 6 Shutterfly photo books and I would say that Blurb is comparable in quality. Blurb is a lot cheaper and holds more text. You can also have it auto-fill from your blog.
The advice from the people who use Blurb was not to auto-populate your blog. In the beginning play around with it so you can see what’s better for you. There was also a warning that the pictures may not be big enough to look good in the book. The solution for low resolution is to replace it {{slurp it}} with the original digital picture.
3. Is it better to leave a lame comment or not to comment at all? My sister would disagree, but the overwhelming majority said it’s better to leave a lame comment.
4. Who can make my blog look cool and how much?
- Amy has a tutorial on how to design your own Blog Header using Photoshop.
- Make your own using Photoshop Elements but be sure to by the Scott Kelby’s book to make it much easier to understand. I think you can purchase both at Costco. I haven’t tried this personally, but you can download a free 30-day version online here.
- Shannon who designed my blog, has headers for $40, pre-designed blog templates for $65, and does custom blogs for $90. I would highly recommend her.
- You can also Google ‘free blog templates’ or ‘cute blog templates’
- Blog Designs by Summer start at $15.
If you design blog headers or have more tips regarding this topic, leave a comment or e-mail me laurie[at]executivehomemaker[dot]com and I’ll give you a plug here on Tip Junkie.
5. When do you blog? The majority of the responses were early morning, while kids are napping, and late at night.
6. Allison has easy instructions on how to have your comments e-mailed to you. This is a great way to track your comments. You don’t have to moderate your comments to have them e-mailed to you. This way if someone comments on an old post, you know about it.
7. Why do you have a private blog? The couple people who were private said they prefer it because they want to be able to vent when they want to, control who’s reading their blog, and protect against strangers reading their blog.
I know this brings up passionate conversation. But there are several things you can do to protect the identity of your family without going private.
- List your first name in your profile (or use an alias) but not your City or State.
- Use nicknames for your children and hubby. DH is a popular one meaning “dear hubby”.
- Use a graphic as your profile picture instead of a real one.
- Enable the comment moderator to delete comments that use your families real names.
- Blogger is well indexed and people can find your blog on search engines like Google and Yahoo. To prevent this go into your Settings under the Basic tab and change:
* Add your blog to our listings? No
* Let search engines find your blog? No
This is what Bloglines looks like (above)
8. What is Google Reader and Bloglines? Basically it’s a free program that constantly checks your favorite blogs for new content. If there is something new – it bolds the title of the blog and gives you the number of new posts. It’s a more efficient way to read blogs and to make sure you don’t miss anything on your favorites.
I have so many blogs I love, I have divided them up into different categories: Daily, Weekly, Mo
nthly, Crafty, etc.
This is what Google Reader looks like (above).
I use Bloglines but Google Reader seems to be more popular. For instance, 116 people are subscribed to Tip Junkie on Bloglines and 349 people are subscribed to Tip Junkie on Google Reader.
When using these programs, I would suggest to only have the program list the title or only a section of the post. This way you have to go to the actual blog to read it. This enables blog owners to track who’s reading their blog and it makes it easier for you to comment.
9. Does Bloglines and Google Reader’s page views count in my stat counter? I couldn’t find a direct answer to this but it looks like it does. They will show up as ‘unknown’ in your site stats. Thanks for the info CrazyMamaof6!
However according to Google Reader, “While moving to full-content feeds may result in a short-term decline in visits to your website itself, the long-term gains of increased readership and mind-share are generally worth it.”
10. Why should I have a stat counter? Well, for me personally, I have a lot of traffic but hardly any comments. So if I was tracking the success of my blogs through comments – I’d be misinformed.
There are several stat counters you can use. To find them you can Google ‘blog stat counters’ or you can click on one of the counters on your favorite blogs. I use Site Meter. It’s a free program and relatively easy to set up.
You can see the obvious stats like how many viewers per day.
What blogs or websites are referring people to me.
That last one by Google was someone searching for ‘teacher appreciation scrapbook’ and was directed to this blog.
By Location
13. How do you decide what to blog about? First decided what is the purpose of your blog. If you are using your blog as a journal then you’ll focus more about your thoughts and feelings. If you’re using it to keep updated with Grandparents, then you’ll focus more on the kids. You get the idea. Here are some “journal type” topics to help in your blog posts:
- Memory Monday
- Self Portrait Tuesdays
- What Works for Me Wednesday
- Wordless Wednesday (picture only)
I’m sure there are TONS more. If you have a favorite theme you’d like to share be sure to leave a comment or e-mail me and I’ll feature it.
14. Do you like music on blogs? Almost unanimously it was no. If you do have music please don’t have it auto play.
15. How do you post a picture that’s linked to a site? Click here.
16. How much time do you spend blogging? Obviously this varied but we all agreed it was too much. 
Some women managed their time by setting a timer. Others used blogging as a reward for getting their “to dos” accomplished first. Some only read blogs on certain days of the week. The majority said to be sure their blog got updated regularly, they post on their personal blog first before reading others.
17. Why do some of my images stop showing up? If you right click an image, click properties, and copy the URL address – that image’s URL may change or get deleted all together. It’s better to Save As onto your computer to be sure it will stay on your blog.
from MJ
18. Do pictures have a copyright on the Internet? I’m certainly not an official voice on the subject. Have you heard the expression “do what I say not as I do”? {{oops}}
On scrapbookers or photography sites where the copyright is stated on the side bar – I always e-mail them and ask permission.
However, I personally don’t have a problem taking a picture or image from another site or blog. If I take it from another blogger, it’s proper etiquette to give credit to that blogger and give them some link love.
I saw this on someone’s blog but now I can’t find it. I got it from Google Images.
19. What are blog manners or blogging etiquette? I’ve read some really great posts on the topic but because this post is already way too long – I’ll save it for another time.
| SHARE | Tweet |
|
  « 0 |
Subscribe:
Comments
Wow – thanks for this excellent recap! All your info is very helpful to new and experienced bloggers. Thank you!
I was so sad to miss Blogapalooza, it looked so fun! I hope to catch the next one
ok you do get credit for a hit from bloglines, or google reader but you can’t tell who visited using that service, it will show up on sitemeter, as a refferal from either of those sites. bookmarked visits show up as unknown on sitemeter.
great list. now i’m wondering if i should shut off my auto play on my playlist. people say they like it. but who knows.
awesome questions. i’d been wondering about blogher.
Wow, Laurie you did such a great job with this post. You covered all the information and illustrated it perfectly. Thanks!
Thank you those are really great blogging tips. I agree, I don’t like music on other’s blogs.
Fabulous tips and hints. I’m seriously thinking about taking the music off my blog now.
Have a wonderful week.
Blessings,
Sandy
Thanks for all of the great information! I’d like to comment on topic #8 though (making readers go to your blog to read the whole post). I get updates of all the blogs I read sent to Outlook (my email).If the whole post isn’t there for me to read I RARELY go to the blog to finish reading it. It takes too much time. I know it’s a pain for bloggers (as I am one of them). I want people to visit my blog too to see all the cute things I’m doing in the sidebars. BUT, as a reader with little time to read all the blogs I want to, I’d much rather have all the content of the post right there for me. And then when I have time I’ll go visit the blogs to see what’s changed.
♡ All great stuff! Thanks!
That is some AWESOME info Laurie… thanks for taking the notes and reporting back to us peeps!
You are the QUEEN blogger in my book… thanks for your inspiration!
Wow, lots of info! Cool beans, yo. I dabble in graphic design and have made a handful of headers and have custom designed a few Blogger blogs, too. But I’m never sure what to charge… maybe you can answer this question: how much is too much OR how much is reasonable? My current rate is 15-30 dollars an hour, depending on the difficulty of the design/client
Really, I’m up for any challenge, of any medium! “Small girl, big dreams,” that’s me. *B
I’ve only been blogging for a couple of months, and this was a very helpful post for me! Thank you.
what awesome ideas to share!! wish i could have been there to discuss with so many great women.
(thanks for the link!)
Great post! I feel like a “seasoned” blogger, but this was great anyway. I used Amy’s tutorial, and made myself a banner today. Thanks for the tip!
It was really good to meet you at the blog party. Thank you for doing such a great recap.
I just started a design blog to do custom designs if anyone is interested dlxdesign.blogspot.com
Thanks!
It was like I was really their Laurie! I appreciate you writing all this out!
This post had some great tips and hints. I totally appreciate it. I completely disagree with the music playlists though. I love my playlists and I love listening to what other people have put on theirs. I think it lets me get to know more about the person I am reading about. I’m keeping mine put, remeber there is always a pause button!
What a great site and great info – thanks! I just found you through sayitonthewall and now have your site bookmarked.
I can’t believe I just found your blog! I am an addict for tidbits of information like you have here! Wish I had found your site when I first started my blog, so helpful. I am still learning though. I will be back to read more.
Great post, Laurie! It was fun to meet you in person at the party.
In respone to your question about Blurb. I recently made a book from my family blog (I use blogger) and it worked great. It is an easy program to use and your blog just downloads right into their program. I had to do some reconfiguring of pages and pictures but it was easy.
The book is beautiful and since I use my family blog as a type of “family history” I now have a bound copy of that history complete with pictures. The quality was great!
Laurie, Thanks for all this info!! The blog par-tay looked so fun. Great tips! You rock!!
Again, for my PERSONAL use I used blurb.com and couldn’t be happier. $24 for a hardbound book with 66 pages…even gave one to the MIL for her bday who was estatic!
xo~LJ
I need help!!! I want to ad a “Get the Code” or Grab my button thing to my sidebar but I don’t know how.
I use Yahoo Alerts to send me an email when the Blog is updated. I had over 50 of these and changed some of them to Bloglines so I could go there to read a lot of them as time allows. Yours however stays on Alerts.
The music is a problem for people with slow internet and older computers. Music frequently slows the download a lot and then locks my computer sometimes. It is a pain to restart so I immediately delete sites with music.
I am computer challenged and realize most people don’t have this problem.
Tanya
Thanks for the recap. I am new to blogging and sometimes not sure which direction I am headed with it. Your site is my #1 place to visit! Thanks for all of the hard work you put into it!
Pretty cool stuff (here’s my lame comment)
You must be logged in to post a comment.