Jo Traveler: Blogger Luncheon

Learning more about Blogging

Hi, I had a wonderful time at the Blog Luncheon today held at The Vintage Bricoleur. I learned about some great “new(to me) blogs that I plan to follow. Before I hit you with all the practical info that I learned, plan to implement, and hope that you too will find useful I just want to say what a fabulous job our teacher/mentor Courtney Allison from the very successful blog French Country Cottage did with the presentation.

I also found a wonderful spirit of gifted engaging women in the group. There is nothing like being surrounded by like minded people who share your passion. I definitely made new “bloggy” friends! Everyone was happy and excited to be there. Everyone was smart, energetic and fully engaged.

Here are some things I learned. Now you all will see changes on my web site very soon. The first big change is to figure out a new background.

· Some new (to me) blogs to look for new and creative backgrounds.

o www.thecutestblogontheblock.com

o www.PlumRoseLane.com

o www.LeeLou.com

o www.Shabbyblogs.com

o www.graphicsfairy.com

· Word Verification

o Place in off setting if you want comments go to settings, comments

· How to handle negative comments on your own blog

o Be Nice. Perfect, my kind of people.

· How to spread social media cheer,

o Linking accounts to your blog:

o Twitter, Pintrest, Facebook, Tip: always thank people who like you

o Shout out and share you blog posts on Twitter and Facebook.

o Pin your best blog photos to Pintrest and add a simple label

· Make it easy for followers to follow your blog. Have a link to Google Friend Connect (GFC,) Linky Followers, email etc.

· Make sure your Pintrest, Facebook and Twitter names are all the same as your business

· Be sure to tag photos you take of the places you take them.

o Example if you buy something at Home Goods, tag it so that Home goods will see it.

o You never know when a sponsor might present themselves.

· How to get a custom domain

o blogspot blogs for $10.00 a year through Blogspot

· Developing your Brand

o Be genuine, only endorse or praise products you’ve tried and love.

Expect a payoff for everything you do that takes time away from your family and your life. There are a variety of pay offs that can make it worth it:

o Higher Traffic

o Recognition

o $$$

o Experience

· What and how to join a Link Party.

o Have only 1 full post per page to encourage readers to click around for more content

o Make sure your site is easy to read

o Make content easy to find with Navigation and Categories

o Be Interesting and Be Memorable

o Always thank the host of the Link Party

o Leave a link back to the blog hosting the party

· How to handle Images:

You cannot just download pictures off of the internet to use in your post. Even if you cite the image or link back to where you got it, it is still illegal to use if you don’t have permission from the owner. Pictures have to have a creative commons license or Creative commons for creative use (for paid posts) to use on your blog.

No iphone or poor resolution photos (oops I have done this)
Easiest thing is to use your own pictures
Do not put high resolution photos up on blog
Use a watermark on your pictures, easy way to do it is through Picasa 3 (Google)
Use PicMonkey to create Pinable images
Use Flicker Creative Commons and I Stock for pictures. You may have to pay.
Try BeFunky.com it’s free and can add picture frames, words on pictures, watermark and more