I think it’s safe to say that once you’ve been blogging for, say, more than a week, you know how much time you can spend writing blog posts, thinking about the next topic to blog about, reading blogs, commenting on blogs, and social networking.  I also think it’s safe to say that keeping up with all your blogging commitments can be incredibly overwhelming and defeating since there comes a time where it’s impossible to keep up and have time for things like showers and meals.

Here’s how it starts.  First, you discovered blogging.  Blogging is what everyone was doing.  The next thing you knew, you got some comments and you got high from the comments.  Comments felt good, they made you feel popular, funny even.  Then two or three comments weren’t enough so you started leaving comments EVERYWHERE in hopes of getting a few return hits.  It worked!  Then you heard about this thing called “social networking” and thought you’d give that a go, too.  Before you knew it, you were obsessed with coming up with the next blog post, with getting your next comment, with finding the next must-join social network.

It’s a sick, sick addiction.  Eventually you realize that you are spinning out of control and know that you have to get a better handle on your time online.  Today let’s discuss where we should focus our blogging time and still have time for a LIFE.

1.  Content

Of all the things to devote your time to, this is THE MOST IMPORTANT.  Not only is it the most important, but developing your content is how you should spend the majority of your time in the blogosphere. If you want keep your readers coming back, you have to offer them a variety of quality posts.  This means that you have to devote some time to developing post topics, writing posts, and editing posts for publication.

If you feel like your writing could improve, and don’t we all feel that way?!, consider taking a creative writing course.  Also, look at how your favorite bloggers and authors write and figure out what you like about them.  Is it the way they phrase things?  Do you like their vocabulary level?  Maybe it’s how they inject humor into even the most mundane of subjects.

2.  Community

One of the reasons I started blogging was to reach out and connect with others who are like me.   This facet of blogging is probably one of the most frustrating, though.  As you gain readers, it can be very difficult to reciprocate comments and develop relationships with other bloggers.  There are only so many hours in a day.

With that said, building a community around your blog is how you should spent a large portion of your time.   Here are a few ways to participate in the blogging community:

Commenting on others’ blogs, replying to comments on your own blog, answering emails, replying to tweets, and promoting other’s posts via Twitter, StumbleUpon, or sharing items via your Google Reader…

All of these tasks take time, but it is time well spent and will reward you with popularity! and money! and fast cars!  Okay, a slight exaggeration, but participating in the blogging community is INVALUABLE and shows others that you aren’t just a selfish, comment hoarding jerk, who’s only looking out for number one.

3.  Social Networking and self-promotion

There are 37, 684, 561* social networking sites. (*estimate, not researched)  There is no possible way to join AND PARTICIPATE in each one.  The majority are a waste of time, as far as driving traffic to your site.  Also, the only way to actually benefit from social networking is to participate, so I recommend choosing AT LEAST ONE and participate in earnest.

If you only have time for ONE social networking site, choose Twitter. It’s a great way to network and chat with gob loads of other bloggers.  Also a great way to announce new blog posts (as long as that’s not the ONLY thing you tweet.)

If you only have time for TWO social networking sites, start using StumbleUpon on a regular basis.  StumbleUpon has the ability to drive thousands of visitors to your site per day, particularly if you’re an active participant and approach SU unselfishly.  Need to know how to use SU?  Read THIS post about the basics of SU and THIS post about how to use the toolbar.  If you still don’t understand, SU is probably not for you.

If you only have time for THREE social networking sites, choose Facebook or a not-full-of-crazies message board.   I have seen quite a lot of traffic from Facebook and from links that other’s have left about my site on different message boards so I know that these types of sites can generate traffic to your blog.

**Important note about social networking sites**  In order to protect your blog’s brand, you should consider at least signing up at these different sites so that nobody else can use your name.  I’ve signed up at nearly all 37 million sites using the name “Playgroupie” so that MY blog name is already taken.

4.  Website Maintenance

What?  I have to maintain my website?  Huh?

Actually maintaining your blog is incredibly important to ensure that 1) it looks visually appealing 2) loads quickly 3) isn’t out-of-date.

Here are some things to consider….

a.  Make sure that the clutter in your sidebars isn’t slowing the loading of your site (I KNOW your sidebars are cluttered). Slow loading time=potential readers leaving.  Is the clutter in your sidebars necessary?  Do you have the MUST HAVES in your sidebar?

b.  Does your blog need an updated look? Is your blog SO 2007?  Consider changing templates or paying someone to redesign your site.

c.  Do you need to update your “About” page? Consider using an updated picture and making sure your page is a worthwhile read.

d.  Do you need to upgrade your WordPress to the next version or update your plugins?

These all take time and need to be considered when considering managing your time online.

5.  Monetization

If making money off of your blog is a goal, then time will have to be devoted to finding sponsors for your blog.  This could include replying to PR pitches to do product reviews and place ads on your site.  It also could include seeking out companies willing to pay for ad space in your sidebar or finding an ad network that actually pays.  Once advertisers are found, it’s important to set up a schedule to review and renew the ads.

I hesitate to say exactly how much time should be devoted to each of these facets of blogging because it will vary based on your aspirations.  This will also vary depending on where you are in the life cycle of your blog.

These are NOT hard and fast rules, just very, very, very, very loose guidelines.

If you are a newer blogger (blogging 6 months or less), maybe 40% of your time should be devoted to Content, 35% to Community, 20% to Social Networking, and 5% Website Maintenance.

A more experienced blogger (6-18 months) could possibly devote 30% of time to Content, 35% to Community, 30% to Social Networking, and 5% to Website Maintenance.

Veteran bloggers (18 months and beyond), depending on whether you’ve started writing for other sites and whether you’re trying to monetize, may devote 65% of their time to Content due to increased writing commitments, 10% to Community, 15% to Social Networking, 5% to Website Maintenance, and 5% to Monetization.

How about me?  How much time to I devote to each?

In a typical week, I devote about 70% of my time to my content (lately it’s been hard to tell.  I KNOW.) and to my Managing Editor responsibilities at Blog Nosh magazine,  15% to Community and 10% to Social Networking (mostly with Twitter and StumbleUpon, though I try to leave a bread crumb trail of comments), and finally about 5% to Website Maintenance.  I wish that I had more time to devote to Community and checking out new readers’ blogs and reciprocating comments.  This is a personal struggle that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to reconcile unless I decide that cleanliness is overrated and that my children would be happy eating Cheetos out of the carpet.

The point of all this entire post is this:  For your blog to be truly successful, you simply must devote the majority of your time to your Content and to the blogging Community. Without that necessary base, all the social networking/self-promotion in the world will not yield regular readers.  This base is also necessary before efforts to monetize your blog will pay off.

What is your typical breakdown for the time you devote to these areas?  Do you think there is an area you need to improve?

Next week we’ll discuss some web-based tools that can help manage your time online.

You can read more entries from my Blog Tip Sharing Project series HERE.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

SU newbie:  “But Jenniferrrrrrrrrrrr.  I don’t GEEEEEEEEEEET it.  I’m lost.”

Me:  “Well, did you read my post about using the SU toolbar?”

SU newbie:  “Yes.  But I still don’t geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet it.”

Hopefully I can cover some of the BASICS of SU to help you all get a clearer picture of how to use this most awesome of traffic generating tools.  For those of you who are not SU newbies, scroll on down to Part 2 of this post where I’ll give some more intermediate tips.

The basics on how to use StumbleUpon, or StumbleUpon Preschool

1.  First of all you have to set up an account at http://www.stumbleupon.com. You’ll be asked to choose a name, try to choose one that best fits your brand.  Next, you’ll be directed to “Join and Download Now.”  The “download” part means that you’ll be downloading the SU toolbar, which is vital to getting the most out of SU.

2.  You need to set up your preferences once you’ve received your password via email and have logged into your SU account.  Along the top of the page, you’ll see four tabs:  Home, Websites, People, Videos.  Go to the “Home” tab.

Next you’ll see some more tabs:  What’s New, Favorites, Friends, Inbox, Preferences.  Go to the “Preferences” tab.  The first section you’ll come to is “Personal Information.”  After providing the necessary information, go to the next tab, “My interests.”  Here you will choose the categories of items you’re most interested in reading.  Go through each topic and choose as many subtopics as you’d like.

The final part of filling out your preferences is the “Public Profile” tab.   Here you can write a little blurb about you, your blog, share your interests, and customize the look of your SU page.  My blurb says, “I’m Jennifer, nice to meet you!  Come visit me at my blog http://playgroupsarenoplaceforchildren.com!”  You can write whatever you’d like, although I’d recommend putting your blog address, as this is the only place on your profile where you can do that.

Make sure you’ve hit the green “Save Preferences” button on the right hand side of the page!!!

3.  Start adding friends.  You can do this by allowing SU to search your email address book for people who are already SU users.  Click the “Connect with friends” button on the right hand side of the page.

(note:  StumbleUpon only allows you to add 200 friends.  If someone doesn’t reciprocate and add you as a friend also, it could mean that they’ve reached their friend limit…or it means they don’t really know how to use SU!)

4.  Now it’s time to start stumbling! There are LOTS of ways to do this.  (Using the toolbar is fully explained HERE).

Here are my favorite ways:

**Just read a post or found a website you adore?  Stumble it!  Hit the “thumbs up/I like it” button on your toolbar and write a review.

**Go directly to your friends’ SU pages and see what they’ve most recently stumbled upon.

**On your SU toolbar, look for the icon of two people together.  Clicking this allows you to stumble your friends’ favorite posts.

**From your own SU page, look for the “what’s new” tab and see what has most recently been stumbled by different friends.

5.  Write a review? Here’s what I mean…you can simply write a one sentence review saying what the post/site is about.

“Recipe for peanut butter and fudge pasta.”

Or you can copy a key sentence from the post for your review.

“From the post: ‘Obama and McCain are running for President of the United States and this is who I’m voting for.’”

6.  Approach SU unselfishly.  Certainly you want StumbleUpon to drive traffic to your site, but you’ll only get out of it what you put into it.  Stumble LOTS of people’s sites, not just your own or one particular site.   If you’re writing quality posts, other savvy SU users will review your work if you’ve reviewed them.

Part 2

This section will cover a few more intermediate tips for those of you who are more savvy SU users.

1.  Review your friends’ SU blogs.   The term “blog” in this instance does not mean their actual BLOG that they write posts for, but rather the collection of sites they’ve stumbled upon.  Your SU blog is your SU homepage (mine is http://playgroupie.stumbleupon.com).

To review your friends’ SU blogs, go to one of your friend’s SU page/blog, and click the “thumbs up/I like it” button on your toolbar.  Write your review (“Love his stumbles, such a variety!”), add the tag “stumblers” and you’re done!

The more reviews you write and receive, the more weight your stumbles carry.

2.  Take advantage of the StumbleUpon’s Photoblog It! feature.  This feature adds the pictures you’ve stumbled upon to your page/blog.

When you stumble upon a photo that you’d like to review, you can right click on the image, scroll down to the bottom where it will say “StumbleUpon Photoblog It!”  Click that, write your review, add your tags, and done.

3.  DO NOT ONLY REVIEW YOUR OWN SITE.  I mentioned above to approach SU unselfishly and I cannot stress enough how important it is to stumble and review OTHER’S sites.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with stumbling your own site occasionally.  However if you stumbled your site today then before even CONSIDERING stumbling yourself again, you should go out and stumble 10-20 OTHER sites.

I’m certain that there will still be questions about StumbleUpon.  Feel free to leave your questions in the comments section.   I will not have computer access until Sunday afternoon so I’ll be unable to answer any questions until then.

Other Blog Tip Sharing Project articles can be found HERE.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

I think that this is a subject that has the potential to hurt feelings, and in no way is that the purpose of this post.    I hope that the comments section today turns into a true discussion of this subject, and veers from openly hurtful jabs at others.

Let’s start with the subject of comments.

Here in the blogosphere, there is a “rule” (not sure if it’s written or unwritten) that returning comments to those who’ve visited your blog is necessary…and expected.

While I agree that people should try to reciprocate comments, it is not always feasible.  With life’s responsibilities, a person may not have time to return comments in a timely manner.  I know that I’ve lost readers because I didn’t reciprocate with leaving a comment at their site.  Does this bother me?  Sure, a little.  I don’t want someone to comment here, though, simply because they are expecting me to return the favor.  I also don’t want to allow the hours it would require to reciprocate EVERY comment to interfere with time with my children and husband.  Also, it’s typically not a reflection of YOU if someone doesn’t return the favor of commenting.  More likely it is just a busy life that prevents them from reciprocating.

One way that I make up for my lack of commenting is to promote blog posts I read via Stumbleupon, sharing it in my Google Reader widget, or Twittering about the post (as mentioned in the BTSP 7:  Building Your Community).

Also in regards to commenting, I’ve received comments from people saying things like, “oh you’ll never read this, but…”  and every time I want to reply back, “Of COURSE I read every comment!  Is there anybody who doesn’t??”  I think that there is a misconception that those who get LOTS of comments don’t really read them.  I can’t imagine that there is a person out there who doesn’t read their comments, although I’m sure there are a small handful.  Comments are what all bloggers thrive upon, to me it’s counterintuitive that someone WOULDN’T read them.

Moving along to linking.

My general opinion of linking to other’s blogs is this:  Do it often!  Be generous!  Don’t be intimated to link to bloggers you feel have more traffic or are more popular!  Link to posts you admire and relate to the subject of your post for the day.  There certainly is a fine line between linking to those you admire for the sake of generosity and linking to others as bait.

I do think that if someone has linked to you (you can see most links on Technorati or WhoLinksToMe.), it’s nice to drop by and leave a comment.  Is it necessary?  No.  If you don’t will you hurt someone’s feelings?  Possibly.  Should you lose sleep over this?  NO.

I think that the biggest faux pas in relation to linking is NOT linking to someone you are talking about.   If you are going to specifically name someone in your post, you really need to insert a link to their site.

Memes and Awards

When I first started blogging, I adored being tagged for memes and getting awards.   Once you’ve been around the blogosphere for awhile, though, most likely you have participated in every meme known to man.  Also, days when a meme is posted tend to be low traffic days for most people.  For me, I prefer not to participate in memes since it takes a lot of effort to write them and you get very little return for the time invested.

If you wish to participate in memes, though, that is perfectly fine!  It is also perfectly fine to tag others for the meme, but don’t get your feelings hurt when people don’t play along.

As for awards, it is always kind to give out awards.  The recipient of the award may or may not choose to pass along the award.  Also they may or may not the display the award.  This is again one of those situations where you shouldn’t get your feelings hurt if someone doesn’t play along.

How about a discussion of Twitter etiquette?

Maggie Mason recently wrote an article pertaining to twitter etiquette over at The Morning News.  This article has several thought-provoking points (as much as Twitter can be thought provoking..heh).  While I personally agree with several of the points, I think it’s important to realize that not everyone uses Twitter in the same way.

Following those that follow you:  Touchy subject, I know.  For me, the purpose of Twitter for me is to get to know people and follow links posted.  Therefore, I follow almost everyone who follows me.  On the same token, it’s not necessary to follow back those that follow you, however if you want to seem accessible, it IS the nice thing to do.

There are people using Twitter only to keep in touch with those they really KNOW.  Additionally,  there’s a whole other set of people who only follow those that they deem cool enough. *shrugs shoulders*  None of us should get our panties in a wad if someone doesn’t follow us back.  If you’re really bothered by someone not following you back, then simply UNfollow them.

Speaking of Unfollowing…See above about not getting our panties in a wad.  Also, remember that Twitter gets hosed up OFTEN and unfollows people for you.  I’ve discovered that Twitter has unfollowed LOTS of people for me.  Try not to let it bother you if someone unfollows you, it was quite possibly unintentional.

Promoting yourself on Twitter.  As I’ve already mentioned, people use Twitter for different reasons, one being promoting new blog posts.  For some, this is their sole purpose for using Twitter.  If this annoys you, then unfollow them.  To me, I don’t care how others choose use Twitter (unless they are EVIL Twitter SPAMMERS…GRRR.)

I’m certain that I could write an entire novel on this subject of etiquette in the blogosphere.  Hopefully I’ve made the point that 1) you can’t make everyone happy and 2) don’t get your feelings hurt over things that do (or don’t ) happen in the blogosphere.

Blogging…it’s supposed to be FUN, right?  Perspective…

Discuss amongst yourselves.

You can find all of my blog tips HERE.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

I feel like I should remind everyone reading that all 11 of these blog tip sharing posts have been based solely on MY experiences and the things I have had success with.  You may possibly disagree with my answers and I’d love to hear your opinions.  The point?  There is no ONE, RIGHT way to be successful blogging.

Okay, then.  Let’s get started, shall we?

Question 7 comes from Anne Glamore: (paraphrased)  How about explaining HTML coding in your sidebars?  For example, explain how you do your reading list, buttons, and widgets.  Also could you discuss your thoughts on the effectiveness of the stuff you have in your sidebar, which you like to be clean– like feedjit (love!!) that savvy source thing, the flickr deal, etc?

Ooh, great question!  First of all, I think that the majority of the stuff in my sidebars are unnecessary, yet I like them and keep them.  As I mentioned in my BTSP post number 6 about sidebars, there are things that are necessary like a subscribe button, a search function…the other fluff could all be done away with.  I really love that Feedjit widget and my flickr badge so I keep them, clutter or not!

So onto HTML coding.  For simple things like text only things in your sidebar (like my book list), here’s what you do:

1)  Find the correct widget from your Dashboard, probably a Text widget.

2)  To make a list you have to put breaks in between each item.  For example my book list looks like this:

<b>Book List for 2008</b>  (The <b>, </b> tag makes it BOLD.)
<br/><br/>  (The <br/> tag is a break.  Two together makes two spaces, one make one space.)
The Kite Runner
<br/>
Memory Keeper’s Daughter
<br/>
Water for Elephants…

Easy peasy.

To make a button in your sidebar…well, see, that’s tricky.  I’ll do my best to explain.

1)  First the picture you want to make into a button needs to be uploaded onto a photo hosting site like Photobucket or Flickr.

2)  Once uploaded, you will be able to get an HTML code for your pic/button.   You can change the coding to make it clickable to whereever you wish.  To further explain, using an example from Photobucket…

<a href=”http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i301/jenleah99/?action=view&current=sowqueen.jpg” target=”_blank“><img src=”http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i301/jenleah99/hello.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Photobucket“></a>

I’ve colored each changeable part with different colors…let’s discuss the RED first.  This is where you can put the url that you’d like the pic/button to redirect to when clicked.  Let’s say, you want to redirect it to Shamelessy Sassy‘s site.  Instead of what’s written in RED, you’d write http://shamelesslysassy.com…making sure to keep the quotation marks.

Now, the part that’s PURPLE is where you can write whatever you want.    You could say “She rocks!“  Or whatever you want.  Once posted, you can place your cursor over the pic/button and see what you’ve said.

See how simple that is?!

Moving on…

Question 8 is from Stacy:  What’s your opinion on whether or not to display the labels (or tags or categories) on your website?

After mulling this question over, I think that it’s very important.  So important, in fact, that I’ve now added my categories in a pull down menu to my sidebar.  I think it’s helpful when you’re searching for something specific in someone’s blog to be able to search their categories.  I know that you can search in the Search Box, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to go directly to a category.

Questions 9 and 10 are from Marinka:  I noticed that some blogs, including yours, have all those buttony- things at the end of the post–digg it, stumble it, etc.  How do they get there?

By magic.  Kidding.  And for the record, the buttony things are called social bookmarks.  With Blogger, it will take some code tweeking in your template.  Since I’m not certain exactly how to do this, I’m going to refer everyone to this guide:

Tips for new bloggers, social bookmarks

With self-hosted WordPress, you can simply add a plugin that will add the buttons for you.   There are so many, if you’re interested just Google “wordpress plugin social bookmarking.”

Also, do SiteMeter and StatCounter do pretty much the same things?

Basically, yes.  I don’t use StatCounter, but I asked folks on Twitter what they could tell me about the differences.  Laurin and Kelly sent me to an article on BlogCoach.  The summary of the article:  StatCounter gives information on the last 500 visitors, Sitemeter does the last 100.  Reportedly, StatCounter shows 1-10% more visitors than Sitemeter.  Also Cagey said, “[StatCounter] is the BOMB.”  You heard it hear first!

Question 11 is from Kia:  What makes for a good Bloggy Giveaway? What products do people want and how do you get word out in the Blog community that you’re having a giveaway?

I hate to cop-out on this one too, but I honestly don’t really know what makes a good bloggy giveaway!  I asked some folks on Twitter and got one response:  Starbucks gift cards.  Maybe expensive items do well?  Those of you who do giveaways, can you help?

As far as getting the word out in the blog community, you can use Twitter and Plurk to let people know.  You can make a button for your giveaway or ask other’s to help promote it on their blogs by giving those that help 5 extra entries in your contest.  Any other suggestions from the peanut gallery would be great.  HINT, HINT.

Question 12 is from Sarah:  I hear randomly from (a fair amount) of people that it takes FOREVAH for my blog to load on their computer.  I was even having this problem myself until I switched to Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.  Is there something I can do myself to make my blog load faster?  Or do I have to boss everyone who complains to just SWITCH TO MOZILLA ALREADY DAMMIT BECAUSE I AM WORTH IT!

Oh Sarah.  You ARE worth it.  I was so inspired by your question that I have officially switched to Firefox and haven’t looked back, nor have I had to reboot IE 2000 times in an afternoon because it locked up.  I wonder, “Why in the hell did I wait so long???”

Firefox is heaven!  If you’re not using Firefox, YOU ARE MISSING OUT.  This is the last question, so go!  GO RIGHT NOW AND DOWNLOAD FIREFOX and make it your browser.  DO IT.

Other Blog Tip Sharing Posts HERE!

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

Question 1 is from S/he who asked to remain anonymous:  When we have links in our posts to other blogs, should we have them open in a new window so that our readers don’t actually leave our blogs?  I keep reading both sides of this issue and some people are annoyed when the link doesn’t open in a new window and some people are annoyed if it does.  What’s the best way?

I had a discussion in the comments section several weeks ago with Mrs. Who about making links open in a new window.  At first I thought, YES!!!  Links SHOULD open in a new window.  I did a little more research and have since changed my mind, though there are LOTS of differing opinions.  I think it is up to the reader to decide if a link should open in a new window.  If you push “ctrl” and left click with your mouse or you can right click and select “open in a new window” and voila!  A new window opens!  Problem solved.  Or not because some people will disagree…I guess we can’t make everyone happy.

Question 2 is from Andrea:  Is it preferrable (from a reader’s standpoint) that a person post every day, every week day, or less?  I used to post every day, thinking it would help keep people interested.  But as I find more blogs I like, I get overwhelmed by the number of unread items in my reader.  Since a lot of people don’t seem to read on the weekend, are they more likely to just read the most recent post on Monday, or just mark all as read or what?

I don’t want to “waste” my posts by posting 7 days a week and having people just skip them because there are too many.  What do you think?

I think that less is more.   With that said, I personally have some sick compulsion to post most days.  I’m going to try and go down to 4 times a week.  You make an excellent point about “wasting” posts.  I think when we have too much in our feedreaders, we can’t read it all and often miss great content.

The thing is, though, you need to post often enough to keep people coming back.   I have NO EVIDENCE backing up my hypothesis, but I’d say any less than once a week is too little and everyday or more than once a day is TOO MUCH.

(Hello pot?  This is Kettle.)

Question 3, Andrea also:  (slightly paraphrased)  I’ve read that our blog should have a focus and if we have further interests, we should have a separate blog for that.  Do you think mixing things up on one blog is OK, or am I losing readers by not having a focus?  Should I try to assign each day of the week to one focus?  Do you think readers really care about all that?

This falls into the category of “You can’t make everyone happy.”  I do agree that your blog should have a “focus,” but if your blog is about YOU and YOUR LIFE, I think you can talk about all of your interests.  However, if you’re really trying to attract and maintain visitors, you probably want to stick to a select core of related interests.

For me, these “blog tips” posts don’t really fit into my regular content of personal injuries, parenthood, and marriage.  That’s why I purposely only publish these posts on Saturdays and make it very clear in the title what the subject of the post is. That way, those who aren’t interested can move right along without wasting time here!

Question 4 is from Brianne:  Share your ideas on the pros and cons of “renaming” kids inside your blog?  Is it really necessary for a small blogger with a dozen readers versus, say, people who can quit their day jobs due to their blogging career?

For me, I chose early on when I had 2 readers (and at my husband’s insistence) to use pseudonyms.  Now that I’ve been blogging for awhile, I’m glad that I chose to use pseudonyms.   Since I write personal stories about my kids and husband, I’d hate for someone to be able to Google their names and have something I’ve written about them come up.  This could happen whether you have 2 readers or 20,000.  Again, though, it’s a personal decision.

Questions 5 and 6 are related…First up, Stefani:  I’d love a short tutorial on how to reroute my blog from the blogger site to my own domain name, dropping the blogspot from my url address. I have a portfolio site through GoDaddy. Can I just buy another url on GoDaddy and host my blog there? How?

I didn’t know the answer to this question, so I asked my pals HRH and VDog for help.  Here’s what they told me:

“Through your dashboard in Blogger, go to Settings, then Publishing. It will say you are publishing on a free blogspot address.  It asks if you would like to switch to a custom domain.  Click on that – also called advanced settings.

You will now have the option to buy your domain name through Blogger via Go Daddy or one other company, they choose for you.

It’s $10/yr, but it includes all the privacy options for your Who Is registry.  Your domain can be automatically renewed each year.

It sets you up with Google Apps, but DO NOT ENABLE WEB PAGES.  Basically, you are just automatically redirecting the server to your new address.

Google Apps will give you your own email @yourdotcom.  Once your purchase goes through, you can hit the button where you started in Settings—>Publishing that says “Switch to Custom Domain” (or publish on) and it should take you right to your new blog address.  Sometimes it can take a few days for the DNS servers to catch up and reflect the change.”

This video walks you through the whole thing: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=76543&ctx=sibling

Voila!

Carma asks:  I was curious about the various hosting options and what you recommend.  I notice you, as well as others,  have had your own site designed and that it is powered by WordPress.  Is this so that it is possible to display ads?  How does that all work?

My webhost is BlueHost and I’ve been generally happy with them.  I think their control panel is user friendly, they have 24 hour customer support, and easy install and upgrade of WordPress.  I’ve heard others say they use Liquidweb and have been happy with their service.

I chose WordPress over other blogging platforms like Blogger and Typepad because I really liked WordPress’s plug-in options.  Also, I’d previously used Blogger as my platform and hated not being able to reply to comments.  All the blogging platforms have their pros and cons.

As far as ads, you can display ads on hosted WordPress blogs, Blogger, and Typepad blogs.  You cannot run ads on wordpress.com blogs.

Well! *claps hands*  I think that is enough for today.  Next week, more of your questions!  And yes, if you’d like to submit a question you still can.  PLEASE EMAIL me the questions, don’t leave them in the comments section, as I’m likely to lose them (unless, of course,  it’s a question about today’s post…).

Until next week.  Dismissed!

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

Did you read it?  Seriously, if you don’t understand RSS feeds, the rest of this post will make no sense.

First of all, I recommend setting up your blog’s feed through Feedburner.  It’s very easy to do this, as you just follow the instructions on Feedburner’s site.  Feedburner allows you to analyze and customize your feed, and track subscribers. 

(I apologize, but I know very little about wordpress.com and Typepad blogs so this information may only truly apply to self-hosted WordPress and Blogger users.)  If you’re a Blogger user and haven’t yet set up your feed through Feedburner YET, go set up your Feedburner account, then you can redirect your feed’s traffic!  Learn how HERE!  Self-hosted WordPress users can use the Feedsmith plugin that you can download HERE.

So now that we’re all set up with our RSS feeds, lets cut straight to the chase and talk full versus partial feeds.

A full feed is one where you can read the entire post in your feed reader.  A partial feed is one where you get the first few sentences (and in some cases only the first sentence) and have to click through to the site to read the rest.

In a word, partial feeds are EVIL, or at least they are in my opinion.   Evil is certainly a strong word, so possibly they just annoy the ever-loving crap out of me.  Around the blogosphere there are raging debates and differing opinions.  Certainly people should have the option of choosing whether to offer full or partial feeds, but as a reader, I’m HIGHLY UNLIKELY TO CLICK THROUGH to read the rest of your post.    With over 300 blogs in my feedreader (Google Reader), I don’t have time to click through to every site.  If I see a partial feed, those first few sentences will probably not lure me in and make me want to read more.

There are two main reasons that people choose to offer partial feeds. 

1.  They are afraid of their work getting scraped and republished elsewhere.

This can definitely happen, no doubt.  However, if someone really wants to steal your content, they can quite easily steal it directly from your blog.  One way to help deter icky thieves (and again, if they really want your content, they’ll take it anyway) is to put a copyright at the end of your feed.  (You can do this if you’re feed is set up through Feedburner.)

2.  They think it will get them more hits on their site.

False!  Like I mentioned, it’s unlikely that I’ll click through to read the rest unless those first few sentences are irresistibly luring.  What’s more likely to happen is that the number of hits on your site will go down.  Period.  People simply don’t have time to click on every single one of your posts, no matter how charming you are!

For more information on the full vs. partial feed debate, go visit Deb, Mom of 3 Girls, where she discusses it in plain language and includes MANY links to others who’ve tackled this debate.

Basically? If you want readers, OFFER FULL FEEDS!  For the love of Betsy, offer full feeds!  Be generous.

*************

Bonus discussion! 

The other day on Twitter, several of us were having a discussion about our subscriber numbers and how they go up and down.  Mrs. Fussypants asked me to explain the reasons behind this so….I’m going to explain this as I understand it.  THIS INFORMATION IS BASED ON MY LITTLE UNDERSTANDING AND KNOWLEDGE AND MAY NOT EVEN BE ACCURATE.  FOR REALS. If you have more accurate information, feel free to correct me…but do it nicely.

First of all, your feed count is updated ONCE each day, typically in the morning.  This number will usually vary from day to day and is based on the number of people who access your feed (meaning:  they simply opened their feedreader or logged into their Google account, where Gmail, Google Reader, and Blogger are all intertwined).  The number of subscribers you have is based on the the PREVIOUS DAY’S information.  

So let’s say it’s Monday morning and you notice that your subscriber count has gone down by 10 or 50 or 100.  The most likely cause is that there are lots of people who don’t have time to read blogs on Sundays, so they don’t bother opening their Bloglines account.  Therefore, Feedburner has no way of counting those people as subscribers since they didn’t even access your feed by simply opening their feedreader. 

There are also days where Feedburner gets all wonky and somehow forgets to count all the people who read through Google Reader.  I’ve woken up to a feed count 300 less than the previous day.  Certainly it’s disconcerting, but it’s not because I actually lost 300 readers.

*******

Discuss.  Tell me your thoughts of full feeds (YAY!!) and partial feeds (*glaring*).  Also, let me know if the subscriber count thing is understandable now. 

Homework:  Next week I’m going to focus on your unanswered questions about the topics I’ve already covered or anything else blogging related.  I need you to EMAIL ME your questions to playgroupie at gmail dot com.  In the subject line put “Question” so that I don’t lose it. Please don’t leave your questions in the comments section! (Unless it’s a question about today’s post!)  Also, let me know if you want me to link you with your question or if you’d rather remain anonymous.  No question is a dumb question.  I don’t promise to know the answer to every question.

You can read more of my blog tips HERE.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

The focus of today’s post is your brand.  How your blog looks and how you market it is your brand.  Think about brands you see everyday.  You can see the “golden arches” and immediately recognize McDonald’s or the red target and know Target (duh.)  Your blog should have something similar that makes it easily recognizable.

Consider the following areas when developing and marketing your brand.

1.  The name of your blog

Most likely if you’re reading this, your blog already has a name.   If not, then try to come up with something unique and memorable.  Google the name to be sure nobody else has the same or too similar blog name.

Also, since it’s very easy and FREE to set up a blog through Blogger and WordPress.com, I’d recommend setting up a blog with your blog name with those sites so that no one else can.  I have blogs set up at playgroupsarenoplaceforchildren.blogspot.com, playgroups…forchildren.wordpress.com, AND I own this url.  In Blogger and WordPress, there is a way to make it so that it’s not found easily by search engines so that people are not accidentally redirected to those dummy sites.

2.  A visual association to your blog

My visual branding is the buckethead picture.  It’s the picture I use for most everything I do related to my blog.  It’s my twitter picture, my favicon, my avatar for StumbleUpon and MyBlogLog…it’s MY BRAND.  People recognize the buckethead pic and immediately know it’s me.  Those who don’t know the picture will see it and think, “hmm!  That’s a funny picture, I’m going to click to find out who that brilliant genius is!”

In all actuality, I have no idea exactly what people really say when they see the picture, but I do get compliments on the picture choice.  I purposely chose it because it was unique, funny, and easily recognizable.

3.  Your personal nickname when blogging

I use the name “playgroupie” because 1) it’s easily derived from my blog name and 2) it’s unique.  With a very common name like Jennifer, I like to use “playgroupie” as my email address, twitter name, etc…

Also whenever I leave comments, I say “Jennifer, Playgroups are no place for children” to distinguish me from the 2,000,000 other mommybloggers named Jennifer.  I recommend that if your name is Jennifer, Heather, Deb, Amanda, or something equally as common, you choose a nickname derived from your blog name and/or use your name followed by your blog name.

For example:  Deb, Mom of 3 Girls, or Heather, Queen of Shake-Shake, or Burgh Baby

4.  Use your blog name or blog nickname as your email address, and put your blog url in your email signature

I mentioned this in number three, but it bears repeating.  Everyday I get emails from people whose addresses I don’t recognize and without their blog url in the signature, I’m so confused as to who I’m replying to! 

Also, if you’re not using Gmail, *HEAVY SIGH*, you really must get with the program.  Gmail is far superior to crappy Yahoo and Hotmail email accounts.  With Gmail, you even have the ability to chat with your contacts (which is a great way to be accessible to your adoring fans! )

So that’s it!  Unique blog name, associated nickname, unique visual representation of your blog, and a Gmail account and you’re on your way to becoming a millionaire blogger!

I wish.

Please leave your thoughts about branding in the comments section.  Next week we’ll discuss RSS feeds and learn why partial feeds ARE EVIL.

To read more of my blog tips, go HERE.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

Today’s class is going to focus on building a community around your blog.  What I mean by community is this:  The people who visit and comment, the meaningful interactions with other bloggers, and positive word-of-mouth about your blog.   I think that building a community around your blog is vital to attracting and maintaining readers.   You want to create an atmosphere on your blog where people feel welcome and want to come back.

To build a community around YOUR blog, though, means occasionally…okay OFTEN…venturing out and participating in OTHER blog communities. 

1.  Comment on others blogs

I think that this is THE NUMBER ONE THING you can do to attract and maintain readers to your site.  Commenting on other blogs is especially important when you’re first starting out with your blog.  In fact, behind well-written content, I think it’s THE MOST IMPORTANT THING you can do to generate traffic.   Find other blogs in your niche and let the comment love flow.

People LOVE receiving comments and your comment let’s people know that you visited.  Consider your comment your calling card.  Not only does the blog author see your calling card, but so do other visitors to the site.  If you’ve left a particularly witty or well-written comment, you’re likely to get people’s interest piqued enough to click through to your site.  Beware of leaving very obviously “traffic-seeking” comments, like “Oh that was funny.  Be sure to check out my blog at Practically Comment Spam!”

With that said, there does come a point when commenting and reciprocating comments can take over your life.  Literally.  For me, I attempt to visit new readers’ sites, but it has become nearly impossible.  Sometimes it takes me weeks or months to return the visit.  We’ll discuss more about managing your blogging time commitments in an upcoming post. 

EDITED TO ADD!!!!!  Thanks to Megan at Velveteen MInd, she brought up an excellent point about not having time to comment, but instead promoting a blog post on Twitter or StumbleUpon…I think this is AS GOOD if not BETTER than leaving a comment.  Not only are you giving a virtual high five for their post, you’re potentially sending them loads of traffic.  And what blogger doesn’t adore loads of traffic?

2.  Join weekly meme’s/carnivals

(There is some debate as to what these weekly participation things are called…from here on out for ease of reading, we’re going to call them carnivals, k?)

There are so many different carnivals you can join to promote content on your site each week.  Participation in these carnivals can be a great way to generate traffic, especially when you’re first starting out.  Being a regular contributor to a particular carnival is also a way to developing relationships with the other participants.  If you do choose to participate, it is a good thing to also visit the other sites participating.

Here are just a few carnivals in which you can participate:

Best Shot Monday, Tackle it Tuesday,  Wordless Wednesday, Works for Me Wednesday, Thursday Thirteen, Haiku Friday, Fight the Frump, Weekly Winners, Weekly Words Challenge, Theme Thursday, Manic Monday …if you know of any others to include, please let me know and I will add them!

Participating in carnivals should be interspersed with original content.  Solely posting lists or pictures can turn some readers away.  I know that some of my regular readers don’t visit on Fridays because they don’t care for Haiku Friday…AHEM.

3.  Be involved in at least one social networking site

I’ve talked about this before, no need to rehash.  Whether you choose Plurk over Twitter or Cre8buzz over Facebook, choose a place you enjoy, make friends, and participate.  It will pay off. 

So now that we’ve established some ways of getting your name out there and socializing like a nice person, here are some things you can do right on your own site that will help build and maintain your community.

4.  Be accessible to your readers

One thing I failed to mention in my post about sidebars, was to make your email address easy to find.  I would say that I get at least two emails per week from people who have a question or want to make a comment privately.  This leads me to my next pet peeve point…

5.  REPLY to emails!!!! 

If someone has emailed you, REPLY.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve emailed another blogger only to get *crickets chirping*  NO REPLY.  This has also happened when someone has emailed me for advice or assistance, but never bothered to thank me for my reply.  *shakes head in disgust*

Listen people.  It’s rude not to reply to emails.  If you don’t have time, then reply back and say, “Hey, I’m so swamped right now, I’m sorry I can’t reply right away, but when I get a chance, I will, kthnxbai!” 

(If you think I’m talking about you, well….)  Speaking of replying…

6.  Reply to comments left on your blog

Replying to comments lets your readers know that 1) you actually read your comments and 2) appreciate each comment left.  Before learning about the greatest comment plugin ever that emails my reply to the commenter, I would just reply via email.   Most of us don’t have time and it also isn’t necessary to respond to every single comment on your site.  Some comments don’t require replies, but those comments that ask a question or that just make your day, SHOULD GET A REPLY. 

The ability to respond to comments is also a point of contention between different blogging platforms.  In fact the whole replying to comments issue is one reason I switched from Blogger to WordPress.  I think that Blogger’s key flaw is that you don’t have to include your email address when you comment.   Tsk, tsk. 

6.  Show your readers you care about them by linking to them

The greatest way in the world of blogs to let someone know that you admire their work, besides commenting!, is to link to their site.  If a post of someone’s inspired you to write your own, LINK TO THEM!  

7.  Link to your own posts to help explain the backstory to new readers

Have you ever walked up to a group of people who are all laughing about some situation and people that you’re clueless about?   You stand their feeling awkward and left out…  This happens on blogs all the time.  I regularly read new-to-me blogs and don’t understand what they’re referring to, then in the comments section I realize I’m the only one who doesn’t know the back story.  

Remember that many people just randomly happen upon your blog and do not know your life story.  If you want to make your new readers feel welcome and you’re talking about something that has a backstory or could be clarified by something you’ve already posted about, then LINK TO THOSE POSTS!  Don’t let new readers feel like the new kid who doesn’t get the joke.

So basically what I’m trying to say…Building relationships in blogging is exactly like building relationships in real life.  Be nice to others, return favors, and make others feel welcome.  The goal should be to develop meaningful relationships with those to whom you relate.

I also think it’s important to mention that the size of your blogging community is only as important as YOU make it.  If you have 10 loyal readers, that is AWESOME!  If you have 1,000 loyal readers, that’s AWESOME, too…not awesome-er.  When a blogging community becomes very large, it’s hard to maintain those readers through reciprocity in comments, replying to comments, or linking to new sites. 

Previously in this series…Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

PS.  There will be no class next Saturday.  I’ll be drunk.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

Generally, we want things in our sidebars to entice our readers to stick around and read more.  Your sidebars are also a good place to put information that lets your new readers get to know who you are and who they are reading about.  When your sidebars are too cluttered, INCLUDING MINE, people tend to ignore all of it because it’s too visually cluttery*(new word!) to wade through.

One excellent way to clean up cluttered sidebars is to add pages.  Under my header, there are links to pages that contain information that I previously had in my sidebars.  With a little html/javascript/css knowledge, they can be added to any template.  Just google “adding pages to blog” and you’ll find about 59 million sites willing to help you.

Let’s talk about the MUST HAVES for your sidebar(s). 

1.  Subscribe button

Make it easy for people to subscribe to your feed.  My subscribe button is over there to your left, right up at the top.  Easy to find!  I really like that particular button because it makes it easy to add the feed to any feed reader.  You can get that button, too, at Addthis.com.

(Quick confession, I don’t understand how to use these orange subscribe buttons  I see everywhere.  They just take you to the feed and I can’t figure out a way to add it to my Google reader.  I must have the dumbs.)

2.  Cast of Characters

In my sidebar I have my name, a picture of myself, the names and ages of my kids, and my husband’s name.  This is a CRUCIAL thing to have in your sidebar.  When a new reader stops by, they need to know who and what your blog is about.   If you don’t already have this on your blog, I’ll wait for you to fix that RIGHT NOW.

**taps fingers**

3.  Comment Policy

You need to let commenters know what you do and don’t allow people to say in your comments section.  Be sure to let readers know if you edit comments, delete rude comments, or if cursing isn’t allowed.  Here’s a great explanation of comment policies from The Blog Herald.

4.  Search Box

This is helpful for those who come to your blog and want to search for something specific.  I often use search boxes on other’s blogs when I’m looking for a post that I wish to link.

Those four items listed above are probably the only ABSOLUTELY necessary things you should have in your sidebar.    However, most of us, INCLUDING ME, cannot resist the lure of other widgets and buttons for our sidebars.  So let’s continue to discuss some of the other things that are useful, though not necessary. 

5.  Consider adding the number of feed subscribers to your sidebar.

Ever since adding my feed count to my sidebar nine months ago, I’ve gone from around 150 subscribers to over 600.  Here’s an article from Problogger that discusses revealing your subscriber count.

6.  Blogroll/Google Reader shared items/Blogger’s blog list

Sharing with your readers what YOU read, is not only a great way for people get to know you, it’s also a fantastic way to send traffic to sites you admire. 

Since most people’s blogrolls are hundreds of sites long, I don’t necessarily recommend that you keep your full blogroll in your sidebar.  There are ways you can still have a blogroll, but without so much clutter including having a having a link to a separate site or page that houses your blogroll, a rotating blogroll which shows just a few of the blogs you read at a time, expandable boxes for hiding or showing your blog list (also excellent for hiding awards, buttons, etc.), and scroll boxes. 

(By the way, my blogroll is NOT updated.  Since I use a feed reader to keep track of the blogs I read, the only time I add people to my blogroll is when someone asks.  If you’re not on it and wish to be, please email me and I will add you.)

7.  Archives, most recent posts and favorite posts

Offering these in your sidebar makes it easy for people to nose around your site.   I have archives and most recent posts in my sidebar and I made a page for my favorite posts.

8.  Links to your social networking sites, like Twitter, StumbleUpon, Flickr, etc. 

These links let people know where else they can find and “friend” you.  I don’t have links to every site I belong to, but the sites that I use the most.

As I mentioned last week, make sure that whatever you have in your sidebar is not holding up the loading of your page.  Long load times means lost visitors.  Many of the award buttons and twitter widgets cause these slow loading times.  Beware!

I realize that I have many things in my sidebars in addition to the items I mentioned above like ads, a live traffic feed, and (too many) other buttons.  Like my Internet addiction, I’m slowly weaning myself from the lure of excessive widgetry*(new word!).  It’s a work in progress.

I’d love to know what you think is necessary in a blog’s sidebar.  What do you think is unnecessary?

Previously in this series…Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

Nice (in reference to blog design) adj. “A blog that doesn’t make your eyes bleed when you click over.”

I think that everyone has opinions on what a nice blog design is, some of us think a background design looks really cool, where others think that lots of white space is the cat’s meow.  Some people like two sidebars, others prefer three or even four.  Since this blog series is about what has worked for me, that’s what I’ll focus on, but also include some links to helpful articles and blog posts I’ve read on the subject.

Today we’re going to cover overall blog design…and yet again I’m giving you the much coveted list.

1.  A unique design makes you look more credible than a default template (like those provided by Typepad, Blogger, and WordPress.)

I know that when I switched from one of Blogger’s stock templates to a unique three-column design with custom header, I had an increase in readership.  Certainly there are exceptions to this, as two of my favorite blogs, Swistle and Oh, The Joys, simply use the Minima template provided by Blogger and they are doing justfinethankyouverymuch without a fancy pants design.

There are thousands of free templates that you can find simply by googling “free template for blogger/wordpress.”  Also, simply adding a unique header, easily made with the assistance of a program like Photoshop Elements can spiff up a basic template.  If you happen to use Blogger for your blogging platform, Tips for New Bloggers is a great site that walks you step by step through tweaking and customizing the basic templates.

If you prefer a truly unique design, there are many reasonably priced web designers who can help you.  Here are just a few…

Dawn and Coming to a Nursery Near You
Dress My Blog
Temptation Designs (on a brief hiatus due to the birth of her second baby boy!)
Judith Shakes Designs
NW Designs
Oh My Stinkin Heck
Izzy Blog Design and Graphics
Blogs Gone Wild
Splat Creative Designs
Swank Web Style
Jenny at Absolutely Bananas (headers and buttons)
Me! I can help make headers…but that’s about it.

2.  Whatever template you choose MUST be fast loading

When people have 1000+ unread in their Google Readers or those who’ve stumbled upon your blog have to wait for your page to load, they simply aren’t going to wait and will click away.  Therefore, you are LOSING READERS.   Waaa!

I had to take my twitter badge off of my sidebar because it was causing slow loading time.  That makes me want to cry, but I did it FOR YOU because I heart you even more than I heart twitter.  Other things that slow loading time are cluttered sidebars, coding errors, and flashy ads or backgrounds.

3.  Make sure that whatever template you choose for your blog looks nice* in all web browsers.

You can check this by going to browsershots.org.

4.  Your blog should be easy to navigate.

a)  Is it obvious where to comment on your blog?  Also, don’t make people have to register to comment!  Adding that step could possibly make people throw up their hands in frustration!  Edited to add:  I’m not referring to blogs powered by Blogger, but rather blogs that require you to register to even comment.

b)  If your header isn’t “clickable”, then you really need to make a button that people can push to send them to your “home” page.  This is easily done in your sidebar…for example on my last template, my header wasn’t clickable, I made a “home” button by writing this code:

<a href=”http://playgroupsarenoplaceforchildren.com>HOME</a>

You can also make your header clickable…somehow…if anyone would like to share with the class how to do this, please do so in the comments section.

c)  Is your most recent post the first thing at the top of your blog?  If it isn’t, people aren’t going to scroll around looking for it and you are LOSING READERS!  WAAA!

5.   Did I mention before the design should look nice*?

Oh yes, I did! And this is what I mean…

Think about these things…the colors you choose for your background, headers, links, and fonts.  Make sure they are easy to read.  Stay far, far away from tiny fonts, they’re too hard to read!  Beware of really elaborate or flashing backgrounds, as they can distract from your content.  If you have ads on your site, make sure they don’t overwhelm your content.

There is also a debate around the blogosphere about music that automatically plays on blogs.  I personally don’t mind the music, but there are people who swear that they immediately leave if music starts playing.  It’s just something to consider.

Here are a few links to posts that discuss blog design…

Make Your Blog Design Work For You

17 Resources for Creating a Blog Design

Good Blog Design

Next week I’ll discuss your blog’s sidebars and use of pages.  It will be a RIOT.

I’d love to hear what you all have to add about nice* blog designs.  Please, please, please, please…make certain your comments don’t sound like “I hate blogs that…”  I certainly don’t mind people putting in your opinions about what makes for a good blog design, just please consider the feelings of others.  Also, let me know if you’ve seen any results from StumbleUpon this week…I’m so proud of you who have really jumped right it and stumbled your little hearts out!

Previously in this series…Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.