Did you hear the  one about the blogger who sat down to write about “Writing” and had writer’s block? (What? You think I’m kidding?)

I finally realized my dilemma: There’s a gosh-darn huge amount of gosh-darn GOOD information on writing better content, y’all. The cup of knowledge overflows in copious goodness.

So why the heck would y’all want to take MY advice? I mean, other than the fact that I have such a cute southern drawl. Except that y’all can’t hear it.

Right.

Moving on…  Without further ado, let’s talk about:

3 Tips for Writing Better Content.

There’s no denying “content is king.” The topic you’re writing about is the  main thing that’s going to draw the readers in and keep them there. Delivery is important, too. A good writer ties the two together – it’s what you say AND how you say it.

1. Offer useful, interesting or needed information.

Since you’re still reading (even though I just practically told you not to) I’m going to have to assume that either

• A.) You really want to know about what I’m writing about.
• B.) You’ve got nothing better to do.

I’m going to take a chance and bet on “A.”

Lest you think it’s necessary to write about blogging, traffic or writing – rest assured that “useful,” “interesting,” and “needed” have different meanings to different people and would look different for different blogs.

Useful could range from low-fat recipes to printable worksheets to cheap decorating ideas. Interesting could range from photography to the latest news to politics. Needed might look like a how-to article, information on consumer alerts or recalls, or new state or national laws going into effect.

And for us personal bloggers, yes – interesting can also mean humorous or somewhat embarrassing anecdotes about… pretty much anything. Humor is our advantage. Imagine all the other niche bloggers out there whose sense of humor is limited by their chosen niche. Humor is good. I’m just sayin’.

How do you know what to write about?

1. Write what you know/love. Obviously it’s going to show if you don’t know what you’re talking about. Unless of course, you state up front that you don’t know what you’re talking about. In that case, it just might work.
2. Stick to the feel of your blog/voice. It might throw your readers off if you always use proper English and then write an article filled to the brim with slang or catch phrases. Most likely, they’ll think someone hacked into your blog or you forgot to credit a guest writer. Don’t confuse your readers.
3. Stay true to your purpose. Remember when I asked you to consider why you blog and what your purpose is? Your purpose in writing (teaching, sharing, community, etc.) will shape what you write about. Too much shifting in purpose makes for a less-cohesive blog overall.
4. Remember who your audience is. Likewise, if you’ve created a following through all your killer recipe posts and fabulous diet tips, your readers probably aren’t going to be as interested in politics, poetry or puppies as they would be in the regular fare you normally serve them. It’s okay to digress on occasion, but you may want to mention the obvious digression.

Personal blogs tend to be less focused than niche blogs, and that’s okay to an extent. Let it be said that a little extra focus probably wouldn’t hurt. If you’ve got a hobby, a job, a facet of your life that you really love, that would probably be a good thing to write about.

Additional resources:

• Content is King @ Blogging Basics 101
• How to Write Better Posts, Every Time @ Problogger

2. Let your writing convey your personality.

I’m going to guess that another reason you’re still reading is because I haven’t bored you enough yet for you to lose interest and hit the eject button (or the little red X at the top of the screen.) Allowing your personality to show in your writing is one way to prevent your readers from getting bored.

How can you help your personality flow naturally into your writing?

1. Leave your thesaurus on the shelf. You know how the teacher could tell when you’d written half of your assignment with the help of the thesaurus? You didn’t sound like you. If you’ve already used the word “nice” 3 times in the same paragraph, then sure, go ahead and consult your thesaurus. Otherwise, use words and phrases you already use in real life. It will come across more natural and genuine.
2. Don’t be afraid to use slang. Y’ALL, I mean it. It’s alright, really. Again, if it’s something you might say, then throw in that  sweet catch phrase. SERIOUSLY.  But again, if it’s not something you know how to use and pull off, then skip it. Otherwise it’ll just stink. I’M JUST SAYIN’.
3. Use font formatting, text size and punctuation to your benefit. I’m not suggesting that you over-format ever single thing you type. Your readers probably wouldn’t put up with a whole page of uppercase letters, bold type and exclamation points. On the other hand, using them to show inflection is a good way to help your written word come across the way it sounds in your head.
4. Disregard what you learned about proper paragraphs and sentence structure in grade school. Again, don’t do this for every paragraph and sentence, but I hereby release you from three sentence (or more) paragraphs and complete sentences. Used intentionally, this is another good way to add personality and inflection to your writing.

A paragraph can have just one sentence and a sentence can have just one word.

Really!!!

Additional resources:

• Finding Your Bloggy Identity @ Boomama
• A Guide to Becoming a Better Writer: 15 Practical Tips @ Lifehack

3. Write regularly.

The term “regularly” doesn’t mean abundantly; it means on a regular basis. Most blogs try to deliver new content daily. Some blogs deliver new content only on weekdays. A few might only publish weekly. The key is choosing a schedule and sticking to it – or at least as best as you can. Your readers are likely to forgive you if you break pattern from time to time. They’re less likely to stick around if the pattern is highly erratic or if too infrequent. Of course, if getting readers to stick around isn’t your goal, then I suppose that doesn’t matter, does it? (But then, you’re STILL reading this – so it probably DOES matter to you.)

Here’s a few tips for sticking to your schedule:

• Plan ahead. Using a calendar, a notebook, or whatever method works best for you, plan out a set of articles for the next week, two weeks, or even month. Participating in regular weekly events and offering your own regular weekly or monthly articles will go a long way toward filling in that plan!
• Write ahead. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that almost all of the really big blogs write articles in advance and schedule them to post on certain days. Rarely do they ever write the night before or the day of. Sure, they may indulge in an impromptu post on occasion, but they’re never under the gun without an article to publish because they’re ahead of the game working on future posts. Doesn’t that sound lovely? It sounds like a good idea anyway, right? I know how hard it is to get ahead of the game. If you can at least write 2 to 3 days ahead, it will save you a lot of frustration and allow you more time to spend crafting an article before publishing it. It also means that blogging is never competing with your main priorities if you’re always writing in your designated time instead of oh, say, ignoring the kids while they watch a movie and tear up the house so that you can finish a post last minute. Getting ahead of the the game is definitely the way to go.
• Look ahead. Keep an eye open throughout your day for write-worthy material. Jot things down in a notebook or on your computer. I like to create a draft with a potential title and idea for the article to come back to later. When I need something to write, I can browse my drafts folder for something to finish. It helps with the planning ahead and writing ahead processes.
• Go ahead and use writing prompts. If you just absolutely cannot think of something you want to write about go ahead and do a google search for writing prompts, like this list of 101 Post Ideas from Mom Bloggers Club. But don’t write just to write. Look for something you’d like to write about. Quantity is not better than quality.
  

Additional resources:

• An Editorial Calendar Will Keep You Sane @ Blogging Basics 101
• My #1 Tip for Creating Better Content: Write In Advance @ Skelliewag

These 3 tips alone will make a huge difference in the kind of content you offer your readers. Offering desirable information, regularly, with your own voice will give your readers incentive to keepreading.

If you’d like a few more resources, check out these good articles:

• Advice: Writing Well and Increasing Traffic To Your Blog@ Blogging Basics 101
• More on Writing Content for Your Blog @ ProBlogger

If you’re just joining us in this series, catch up by reading Part 1: Creating a Blog and Part 2: Growing Your Traffic. Next week we’ll deviate from the plan a little to talk about Branding Your Blog. Don’t miss it!

If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you know it is NOT true that “if you blog it, they will come.” And yet, many new bloggers often expect just that. So if writing alone isn’t enough to bring in the masses, what is?

What are your traffic goals for your blog?

It goes without saying that your goals will affect your results, but if you haven’t really hashed out your goals and developed a plan to achieve them, you may not be receiving the results you’d like. Whether your goals are to build a large blog following or simply to make your content more accessible to interested readers, here’s a few steps you can take to increase your traffic.

Step #1: Participate in the blogosphere.

Nobody likes “takers” and everybody likes attention. Come on, you know it’s true.

Even those of us who get into blogging saying, “It’s not all about ME, I’m not going to be all VAIN and all THAT…” know that the truth is really that we have created a blog because we have something to say and we want someone to read it. Sure, some of us care more about the attention, but that’s fodder for another post.

I think it’s safe to say that we want traffic. So we can recognize that others want traffic, too.  Sometimes, by giving traffic you will receive traffic in return. How does that happen?

Reading and commenting on other blogs.

As you read other blogs and get to “know” some of them, as you comment, promote their carnivals and answer their questions, over time you’ll be recognized as a loyal follower and there’s a good chance they’ll return the favor, visit your blog, leave you comments and answer your questions. Of course, there’s always a chance that other readers of those blogs will click over to your blog, too. The more the merrier.

Bear in mind, though, that if you find a blog you really like to read which has a larger following, your comments or emails are like sugar crystals on a sugar cookie. Sweet, but hard to distinguish from all the other sugar crystals. It will take more time and involvement to develop blogging relationships with bigger bloggers. Don’t let that discourage you if you don’t get comments back from your favorite blogs. If you read them because you like them, keep on reading!

Also, try to always sign your name the same way when commenting or signing up for events on blogs. The common “Name@Blogname” method works well to represent who you are. If your blog name is too long for the text fields, you can either abbreviate it (like my good friend Katie at Boasting In My Weakness who signs her name, Katie @BIMW) or shorten it (like myself, I use Amber @ Classic Housewife instead of writing out the full name.) Signing your name consistently gives you credit where credit is due for comments and other participation and again, makes you visible to others. Often I’ll come across a blog whose name I recognize from comments on other people’s blogs and I’ll hang around a bit to check it out solely because of that.

If you need help keeping track of all the blogs you read, use a reader, such as Google Reader, which works like an email inbox for blog posts. It’s not complicated to set up, I promise.

Participating in carnivals and giveaways.

There is a certain amount of exposure gained by participating in regular carnivals, giveaways and other events. Of course, the majority of the traffic you’ll receive won’t hang around for long,  but you might gain a reader or two. I have “met” several people who read my blog, and I read theirs, through events such as The Ultimate Blog Party and Bloggy Giveaways Carnivals. It does happen.

Most likely, though, you’ll gain more traffic by hosting your own regular carnivals and giveaways and inviting others to join in. Of course, this is difficult to do if you don’t have a lot of traffic. It may seem like a bit of a catch 22 – need to host carnivals and giveaways to get more traffic, can’t host them without it. However, I believe, and correct me if I’m wrong, that most carnivals and events begin small. When you feel ready to give your first event a try, go for it. If you keep your expectations realistic, you’ll do well, even if you only gain a handful of readers.

Respond to comments.

This just makes sense, but when you can, respond to people’s comments – either on the blog page or via email. Personally, I prefer to respond via e-mail, and then if it is something everyone else would benefit from knowing also, copy/paste my answer to the blog comments. How you do it is a personal preference. Either way, responding to comments and answering questions shows your readers that you’re paying attention and lets them feel involved. Readers will like coming back when they know they’ll get interaction from the blogger.

Step #2: Use Social Media to Your Advantage

The most obvious benefit to joining these social media outlets is making more contacts. Unlike other social sites such as Myspace or Facebook, with Twitter and Stumbleupon, you actually WANT strangers connecting with you. Why? Because your Twitter page or Stumbleupon profile is a portal to your blog. It provides a brief bio or description of your blog, an insight to your personality (via links, articles and websites that you link to) and entices people who like what they see there to come find more at your blog.

Sign up  for Stumbleupon

There are several popular content sharing sites, but Stumbleupon seems to be the best combination of ease of use, availability and results.  Websites such as Stumbleupon are a valuable tool for increasing your blog presence and helping pages to get seen. When someone reads an article that they like, they will “stumble” (or share) the article through Stumbleupon. Others can then find the article and read it, too. The idea is to get your articles stumbled so that more people can find them. Some “musts” for using stumbleupon:

• download the add-on for your web browser tool bar. Stumbling is way too complicated without it. With the tool bar you’ll be able to share a page as soon as you are done reading it. Simply click on the “thumbs up” in your tool bar, (add a few words if you’re the first one stumbling it,) and you’re done. Easy as pie.
• make it easy for readers to stumble your posts. Not everyone has the toolbar add-on, so providing the opportunity to “stumble this!” at the end of your post will not only make it easy for those users but also invite and remind the toolbar users to stumble it if they liked it.
• stumble a variety of posts from a variety of bloggers. It seems that stumbling the same blogs again and again decreases your stumble upon credibility and may affect how well Stumbleupon works for you.

At any rate, stumbling posts from your favorite blogs frequently could at the very least help you because of the “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” mentality. Some bloggers, if they discover you’ve stumbled one of their articles, feel obliged to visit your blog to find something worthy of stumbling. Often times (through sites such as Twitter) stumbles can actually be traded, asked for or offered.

Note: I’m going into detail about Stumbleupon over other content sharing sites because: 1.) It seems everyone in my Twitter following uses Stumbleupon so the one I use the most, and 2.) It’s the one I am most familiar with. The key point to take with you, however, is that using a content sharing site (or a few!) can help increase your traffic. Digg, Kirtsy, Technorati and Delicious… these are all good sites, too.

Sign up for Twitter

Twitter is like a cross between blogging and texting. It’s micro-blogging. Each update, or tweet, is limited to 140 characters and answers the question, “What are you doing?” In addition, you can use Twitter to share information about your blog, other blogs, news articles, or to ask questions. You also have the ability to respond to other people’s tweets or forward them by “re-tweeting” them.

Websites such as Twitter are valuable for expanding your area of influence. When you sign up for these sites, you sign up to “follow” others (see what they write.) Likewise, others will follow you and be able to see what you write. Begin by looking up your favorite bloggers and websites – even many politicians, companies and celebrities have Twitter pages (or at least pages run for them.) Most people will automatically return the favor if you follow them. That being said, following a large number of people is the best way to increase your Twitter following – that and making it easy for your blog followers to connect with you directly from your blog.

As mentioned above, Twitter can be used as a trading ground for Stumbleupon. Sometimes this happens when one person offers to stumble a post in return for a stumble of their post. Often, people in my list just randomly ask for good posts to stumble (since it behooves them to stumble a variety of posts,) and not only is it nice to have the opportunity to offer a blog post for stumbling, but this also increases their visibility and my positive perception of them as a fellow blogger. Given that, it’s a good idea to return the favor from time to time.

Step #3: Don’t neglect those profiles!

Sure, you can gain visitors and subscribers without them, but the profile is your big chance to sell who you are and what your blog is about. It’s better than any one post could be because it’s shows your blog identity as a whole. While writing your profile (or your ‘About Me’ page on your blog), show your personality, describe what your blog is about, list any credentials if you have them (say if you have a food-related blog it would a good idea to mention if you’re a professional chef!) and mention any regular items you blog about. If you’re limited in characters narrow it down to one thought that sounds interesting. Whatever you do – don’t leave your profiles blank! For every social bookmarking, information sharing website you join, make sure your profile is current, complete and compelling.

And if large amounts of traffic is not your goal?

If one of your goals is to grow a large blog, then you’ll most likely want to follow each of the above steps if you haven’t already done so. Even if your desire isn’t to grow extremely large, following the above suggestions can still help get your blog off the ground, or give it a boost, and above all, help others find your content. You’ll still definitely want sign blog comments consistently and write regular weekly features on your blog to get your readers involved. I also still recommend signing up with Stumbleupon, adding the toolbar add-on, and signing up for Twitter. The difference will be the amount of time you spend reading blogs, commenting, responding to comments, stumbling other posts and writing updates in Twitter. The good thing about these sites is that you can use them as little or as much as you want to. With the stumblupon toolbar, I try to remember that it’s there while I do my normal daily surfing and stumble the things that catch my eye. For twitter, some people only log in occasionally to share something interesting or ask for feedback. Use these tools to the extent that you need them.

Regardless, don’t let it consume you.

Unless your blogging is your job, don’t treat it like one. The bottom line is that it’s just a blog and the world will not fall apart if you don’t get a post written on time or respond to every comment. Even if blogging IS your job, don’t let your traffic statistics consume you. They’re just numbers. Keep blogging according to the goals that you’ve set for yourself and don’t let real life take a back seat to those statistics.

Just a note, when I left my old blog and created this one at the beginning of December, I discovered that the majority of my traffic had been from google search engines. I had no idea. Actually, I felt disappointed because even though most of my followers moved with me, none of my google hits did and my statistics hadn’t been so low (at my old blog) in a long, long, time. It felt like a HUGE step backward. I chose not to focus on the numbers and just focus on the blogging. By working on these things (and some others) I’ve been able to more than double my traffic in a month – and only a tiny amt of that has been from search engines. The moral? Don’t obsess about the numbers. Focus on the blogging. The numbers will follow.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it…

Your assigment this week, should you choose to accept it, is to sign up for Stumbleupon if you haven’t already, download the add-on for your toolbar, consider joining Twitter, check all your profiles to make sure they are current, complete and compelling (I need to do this, too!,) and decide how you will sign your name from now on if you haven’t already. You also need to start thinking about some kind of regular weekly or monthly feature you could begin offering on your blog. Hold off on writing it yet, just start brainstorming it. Next week we’ll finish discussing traffic and then after that we’ll get into writing.

Extra Credit Reading:

• Growing Your Traffic -Shannon @ Rocks In My Dryer

• Increasing your blog traffic – A how to guide from ‘Crunchy’ herself – Amy @ Crunchy Domestic Goddess

• What is socical media? Should I participate? – Blogging Basics 101

Next week, Part 3 will address writing — which is actually part of growing your traffic but large enough to be contained in it’s own piece. We’ll discuss content, frequency, branding, and all that jazz. Don’t forget to come back then – or subscribe so you don’t miss it!

So you want to blog. Or maybe you already do blog, but you want to consider other platforms or even self-hosting with your own domain name. Whichever the case, this quick run-down will help you get started.

Ready? Let’s begin. But first–

Why do you blog?

Before you get started, or begin making changes to your existing blog, you need to answer these two questions:

• Why do you want to blog?
• What will you blog about?

Your motivation my be personal, to promote a cause, or to promote a business. The answers will influence the blog host you choose, your theme, your blog design, etc. Personally, I blog for social interaction, a creative outlet, connection with family and friends, and the sharing of knowledge. Because of this I can get away with my pink obsession. If I was trying to promote a business or cause – notsomuch.

Free Blog Hosts

There are many, many free blog hosts available to you. Some people think that blogging costs money but that doesn’t have to be the case. I’ve used both Blogger and WordPress, two of the biggest free blog hosts, so I’ll give a quick review of each of those here.

WordPress

I like using WordPress. It has it’s quirks on occasion, but once you get used to using it, it’s really quite easy. They’ve recently revamped their user dashboard for the better – featuring all the controls in one place which makes it even easier. Some of the advantages are:

• clean and professional look to the sites
• good forums and FAQ sections
• user friendly dashboard, with lots of options
• option to have multiple pages on the same blog
• built-in blog statistics tracker
• multiple users
• easily manage your uploaded media
• the ability to write “sticky” posts
• the ability to password protect individual posts or make them private.

Some of the disadvantages are:

• limited theme templates
• WordPress has strict regulations on advertising (so if you want to create a blog to sell things or make money, you might not want a WordPress blog.)

Blogger

I didn’t like using Blogger at first but it has improved a lot in the last couple of years. They’ve improved the user-friendliness, as well as given it more options. Other advantages are:

• advertising freedom
• you can upload new themes, for free, found on the internet
• you can create your own theme or hire someone to do it.
• you can drag and drop page elements when designing your page
• huge amount of gadgets to add to your page
• multiple users

Some disadvantages are:

• many of the free themes don’t work (some of them are for the old blogger system and some just have bad code) causing you to have to switch multiple times before finding one that works well.
• the Blogger Dashboard bar across the top of the blog page can be undesirable (this can be removed in the code if you have the know-how.)
• doesn’t include statistics tracking (but you can use 3rd party tracking such as Google Analytics)
• doesn’t automatically come with ‘pages’ but you can go around this with some creative linking to back-dated posts.

There are also other options available to you. Check out this list of 40 Free Blog Hosts. And, check out this article about creating your own blogger theme.

• If you need a blog designer, I happen to “know” a couple:

1. Simply Amusing Designs
2. DCR Design

WordPress Self-Hosted

This is an option a lot of people end up going with, myself included. You get all the advantages of WordPress listed above, plus complete control over your code and your content (so you can advertise and install new themes,) an endless supply of plugins to customize your site and make it unique, and full ownership of your domain name.

Self-hosted means that you download the WordPress software, buy your own domain name, purchase some webspace, upload the WordPress software (and your themes, plugins, etc) to that webspace with an FTP program such as Filezilla and when you’re all done it works and operates like a blog at WordPress.com except that it’s all yours.

The obvious downside is that you have to purchase a domain name and hosting space, so there is a little bit of cost involved. However, there is a reliable source for web hosting, with domain names included that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. My husband and I have been using 1and1.com for over three years now and I’d recommend looking there first. The service I purchase is only $3.99/month.

If you do choose to self-host with WordPress, you’ll be able to find free themes online with a quick Google search. At some point, though, you’ll end up wanting a theme of your own. You could consider trying to make your own wordpress theme, use a theme generator, or you could give one of my designer colleagues above a visit. It’s up to you.

Elements of a good blog design.

What’s in a name?

The name is the first thing your readers will see. Odds are, they saw the name before they even got there, by clicking on a link. It can be tempting to sway to the overly creative side or the overly simple side while choosing your blog name. Take your time and don’t rush it. You want to choose a name that:

• Fits you and your personality
• Describes what you want your blog to be about
• Invites others to read it
• Is memorable but easy to type and read
• If you want to purchase your own domain, you’ll need to find something with an available domain.

A word about choosing a domain name (whether it’s for a self-hosted blog or a web-hosted free blog), it’s important to find something easy to remember and type. www.ilovepinkcats.com is a little long but memorable, whereas www.i_love_pink_cats.com is more complicated and www.ilpc.com is short but not memorable or identifiable to your readers. You’ll notice that I chose www.classichousewife.com/daily-life instead of www.aclassichousewifeinamodernworld.com. This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. (Yes, you may thank me.)

Visual appeal

Generally speaking, a good blog design is going to be visually attractive to the eye. You don’t want something too busy and too hard for the eye to follow, you don’t want something too dark – you DO want something that leads the readers eyes down the page and encourages them to keep reading. This requires putting some thought into the color scheme and layout, but also requires good organization and de-cluttering skills in the sidebar. Not an easy task, but an important one.

First things first

The same “above the fold” rule that goes for newspapers applies to blogs, too. The part of your blog that a viewer sees when they first arrive at your blog, before scrolling down, is referred to as “above the fold.” The above the fold content is what encourages your reader to keep reading below the fold. Considering this, you’ll want to keep the important stuff at the top: some page navigation, a brief bio or picture of you, a subscribe button (VERY important) and most importantly, the headline of your top post. Make sure that your header image isn’t so large that post content is completely below the fold.

Other important blog components

A few other important things you don’t want to leave out:

• An About Me page – allows your readers to connect with you.
• Contact information – make it easy for your readers to email you a question, tip, comment, or compliment.
• Highlighted posts – including links to some top or favorite posts gives new readers a place to start when they first meet you and encourages them to subscribe.
• Search box – sometimes readers remember finding something at your blog and want to come back to find it. Make it easy for them.

To learn more about good blog design elements, browse these good articles:

• Blog Design Tips for Lorelle on WordPress

• 7 Elements to Make Your Blog Look Great by Pro Blog Design

• Blog Design: Keep it Clutter Free and User Friendly at Blog Her

So leave some feedback.

So now you’ve got some starting points if you want to create a blog, or some information points if you want to switch hosts or go self-hosted. So what do you think? This is the point where you share your thoughts and input in the comments. Which hosts have you used? Have you used something besides Blogger and WordPress? Did you like them? Why or why not? What blog elements do YOU feel are most important, dear reader? I want to know!

Next Monday, the topic is Growing Your Traffic. Perhaps I should talk about writing first, but there are some things you need in place from the beginning, so traffic it is! See you then.

In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be tackling the biggest blog series I’ve tackled yet: How To Blog.

Whether you’re a non-blogger who’d like to blog, a baby blogger, or someone who has been blogging for a while but has yet to delve into the deep recesses of bloggy technique, you won’t want to miss this! Trust me. This isn’t something I’m throwing together overnight. Inspired by questions from readers and friends, I’ll be completing for you a fairly in-depth study at blogging, from every angle I can think of.

AND… I’m not some big, technical guru. I’m just a regular blogger like you, so you don’t have to worry about me talking over your head. I’m going to explain things in terms you can understand – one little blogger to another. Ready?

Take a look at the outline for this series:

I. Setting up a blog.

WordPress

Blogger

WordPress Self-Hosted

II. Growing & Traffic

Participating in the Blogosphere

Feed Aggregators & Google

Online Persona

Writing Good Content

Search Engine Optimization

III. Writing, Finding Your Voice, Branding

Tips for Writing

Writing Frequency

Purpose In Writing

Branding

IV. Making Money?

Ads

Affiliate Links

Selling Products

Product Reviews

V. Go Forth And Blog.

Applying What You’ve Learned

Monday, December 29th, we’ll embark on this (at least) 5-week series called “How to Blog.” It’s possible the outline above could expand and grow as I go and we could end up with 6 or even 7 weeks in this series. The potential to learn and grow through this is exciting, isn’t it? I’m also considering bringing in some guest posts on certain areas.*

Now here’s what I need from you, dear reader. I NEED YOUR QUESTIONS.

What do you want to know? What do you struggle with or not understand? Is there something that you’d like to do but don’t know how? Send me your questions and I will give you my best answers. Ask your readers, too, or send them over. I’ve already got a thorough outline, but I don’t want to miss anything you need to know. So, please! Fire away! Tell everyone it all begins December 29th.

So is it a date? (If you haven’t already, subscribe to my feed and you won’t miss out when the info starts flying.) See you back here a week from Monday!

Amber

* Interested guest posters: In Part One, I’ll be including information about WordPress, Blogger, and self-hosted WordPress because that is what I’ve used. If you use Typepad or some other platform not listed here and feel confident enough to write about how to set up and use a typepad blog, please contact me about the possibility of doing a guest post on the subject. If you successfully make money through ads, affiliate links, or selling some kind of product, or if you’ve had success receiving products to review and keep, please contact me about the possibility of writing about your experiences in these areas for Part 5. Thanks!

What a trip! Imagine my shock and surprise when within an hour the first person guessed and picked the correct name! Imagine my shock and surprise when within that same hour the second person guessed and also picked the correct name!

Here’s the tally:

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and commented! I’ve already introduced a few of the new blogs I’ll be checking in on from now on and I’ll be introducing more later. So check out my new signature: