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.
·
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
·
How to get better ranking on
Google:
- Use
Google Keyword Tool to look up good key words
- Use
key words in your title, content, and tags.
- Don’t
over use key words though, make it sound natural.
- Use
synonyms for your key words
- Use
Goggle
Analytics to:
- Look
at your traffic sources
- To
set Goals (decrease bounce rate, increase page views, increase unique
visitors, etc)
·
Here is my list of my new
blogger friends:
And our lovely and brilliant instructor:
Last thing, now that I have the bug --Blog Conferences I am interested in:
- What: Conference
for DIY & Home bloggers
- Where: Atlanta,
GA
- When: June
21-22, 2012 (Missed this year but plan to go next year)
- Fee: TBD
- What: A women
blog conference that opens to all.
- Where: New York
Hilton, New York, NY
- When: August
2-4, 2012
- Fee: $79-$698
- What: Conference
for travel bloggers
- Where: Los
Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
- When: September
11, 2012
- Fee: $75
And that's it for now. What are you learning that's new?
Labels: Blog, friends, organize, tips
