Typical Ramblings, Atypical Nonsense: Blogging

Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day Eight

>> Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Day 8: Interlink your old blog posts

The assignment Mariana (riding with no hands) posted for day 8, was a nice and easy one. While I don't always link to another post I wrote, I occasionally do and I also use LinkWithin to post related posts and the end of my posts. I am not sure if this is helpful in terms of SEO but based on my stats readers occasionally click the links, so that is helpful I would think. New readers can see older posts that may interest them and then in turn may subscribe or follow. Do I need to manually link my other posts within my own post in order to increase my SEO or is using LinkWithin helpful in that area?

The second half of the assignment was to update our copyright statement for 2010. I don't have a copyright statement and I did some searching to find one for blogger and I didn't see one. If anyone knows of a copyright statement for blogger or where I can find one, would you please let me know? :)

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day Seven

Day 7: Write a link post

The assignment for day 7 was to include a link to at least one other blog. This was not too difficult for me as I usually link to another blog or website in nearly every post I write. The most recent example of this would be the post I wrote entitled Toddlers, Tantrums and Gentle Discipline. I'm also thinking about expanding this idea into a weekly link post. I may list blog posts I've read that have been particularly inspiring or even a website that I found something interesting on. Would you be interested in reading this type of post?

The second half of the assignment was to clean up our sidebar. I did just that on day 2 when I moved my blogroll, I went ahead and got rid of the things I felt were just clutter.

Thanks again Mariana (riding with no hands) for hosting this challenge!

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day Six

>> Monday, March 15, 2010

Day 6 – 27 must-read tips & tutorials for bloggers

This assignment wasn't difficult really, it was time consuming because there was a lot of information to read and process. Even though it took a lot of time to read through all the different articles it was well worth it. Some of the information I already knew or had read before but even that stuff was worth reading again. And some of the information was very new and I'm still working on processing it and figuring out how or if I want to apply it to my blog.

I think one of the best articles I read was 43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid, written by Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips. I think every blogger should read this article. Some of the most common (and annoying - can we say auto play music!) blogger errors are covered in this article. One thing I had just recently started doing was using a new browser window with links. I personally like this feature *shrug* but apparently it annoys lots of users. Does it annoy you or do you like when you click a link and it opens in a new window? I will stop having my links open that way and trust that if you like my blog you'll find your way back. :)

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day Five

Day 5 - Email a Blog Reader

Part one of this assignment was relatively easy. Not because it was something I was doing already, but this is something that I can implement daily without using time that I often do not have. Seriously, how long does it take to email a new commenter to say "Thanks for stopping by my blog"? Oh about 3 minutes. ;) So I'm going to make an effort to email a couple people every day. Sometimes it may be a new person, other times it might be someone who comments regularly. If you blog you know that it's really nice to see comments. Even though I mainly write for my enjoyment it's nice to see that others are enjoying (or not) what I put out there. I think this is a nice way to let them know that I value their comments.

Part two wasn't all that difficult either. We were supposed to spend some time looking over our email systems. I still need to work with mine a bit. I'm using gmail and I've still not spent enough time learning how to use it effectively. I also need to work harder at responding immediately to things I read. Often I'll read an email and I'll say ok, later I need to ____ . Sometimes it takes me several days to get back to finishing what I should have done right away.

Thank you to Mariana @ riding with no hands, for hosting this Blog Spring Cleaning. I am really enjoying it and learning so much!

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day Four

>> Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Day 4: Analyze a top blog in your niche

This assignment was both difficult and eye-opening. When I first read the assignment Marianna (riding with no hands) gave us today I wasn't sure that I could do it. It took a couple of reads and clicking over to ProBlogger before I had my ah-ha moment. Before today I really didn't even know what my niche was. I mean is there a niche for a mish mash of stuff on a blog? Turns out there is - pretty amazing isn't it? I think I most closely identify with the lifestyle bloggers - which according to Mariana's post is saturated - That means a lot of people are blogging in a similar manner as I do and they are doing well at it! Once I figured that out it was a big light bulb moment - even more that what I learned on day 1.

Once I figured that out I could get to work on the homework:

Take 15 minutes to analyze a top blog in your niche - The blog I decided to analyze was Feels Like Home. I picked her blog because she blogs about crafting, recipes, homemaking, and even personal stuff (all the things I like to blog about) and she does it well. Her stats show that! I used Alexa.com and Compete.com to analyze her site and well, it was hard to even compare since my site doesn't even show up on either one of those sites. So obviously the biggest difference is in traffic. Her site is well organized and easy to navigate even though there is a lot of information. Another big difference is in the frequency of posts. She posts nearly every day if not every day - sometimes more than once a day! I'm not sure how she manages to do it all. Tara if you're reading this - please be my mentor :) Maybe the more you post the faster you get at it?
Take 15 minutes to analyze your blog - Okay this really didn't even take me 15 minutes ;) I kid - sorta. I looked at my stats and I can see when I participate in memes I generate a lot of traffic. How much of that traffic becomes a regular reader? I have no idea. Even on my high traffic days I don't generate many comments. How do I engage you more? Also of course my numbers are better when I blog on a regular basis - seems you folks like reading even if you don't comment. ;) So I'm going to make a concentrated effort to try to blog more frequently. I know life gets in the way but other bloggers do this so it must be attainable right?

Even though this post talked a lot about numbers that really isn't why I blog. I enjoy blogging, so I really blog for myself and hope you are enjoying it. Is there something more you would like to see here? Something you would like to see me blog about more often?

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day Three {Promote a Blog Post}

The third assignment in the Blog 'Spring Cleaning' challenge hosted by Mariana, from Riding with No Hands, is to promote a blog post. I pretty much use Twitter and Facebook to promote my blogs. Sometimes I question social media etiquette - I wonder how many times is it acceptable to promote a blog post? I know sometimes I'll see some being posted many times in one day and then days later see them promoting the post again. Personally unless it's a giveaway I usually just stick to promoting a few times the day I post it. If a post is generating a lot of traffic or comments I might extend that by a day or two at most. What are your rules for post promotion?

Homework for this assignment:

Promote one of my posts - This was fairly simple as today is Crafty Tuesday on my blog so I wrote a post and shared it on Twitter and Facebook. I've tried to figure out Stumble (I do have an account) but I feel really awkward stumbling my own posts and I don't like begging for stumbles either. Having said that if you have Stumble and you stumble my post I would appreciate it. Let me know if you do and I will absolutely return the favor. :)
Leave a comment on 5 blogs minimum - This was a great challenge for me. I have a lot of blogs in my Google Reader that I visit each day and I rarely leave a comment. I'm going to work harder at leaving a comment on the posts I read and enjoy. I know I love comment love so other bloggers would too!
Create a Facebook Page for your Blog - I've had a page for sometime now so I didn't need to create one, but I went over and updated a few things. Got rid of notes (because I want people to actually come to my blog right!) and figured out Networked Blogs for posting. Probably could use a bit more work so I'll go visit some other pages and see how they are using their Facebook Page to promote their blog.

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day Two {Write a List Post}

I'm still playing catch up on the challenge hosted by Mariana from Riding with No Hands. On day two our homework consisted of writing a list post. Oh yeah! I love making lists so I knew I could really get into this one. I probably make a new list every single day so bringing that over to my blog occasionally (maybe weekly) would be a lot of fun for me. I really enjoyed this task and wrote about 14 Craft Sites for Inspiration for my Crafty Tuesday post.

The second step in our homework was to update our blogroll. I've read elsewhere (maybe ProBlogger?) that you want to keep people on your blog as long as possible so putting your blogroll on a separate page or at the bottom of your page is a good idea. I'm not really great at html formating and I knew I wanted to break my link blogroll into categories, so I decided to move the whole thing to the bottom of my page. Take a scroll down there when you're done reading and look at all the great blogs I love to read and share with you.

If you have a blog and would like to be added to my blogroll (button or link), just let me know and I'd love to add you!

Blog "Spring Cleaning" - Day 1

>> Monday, March 8, 2010

Day One - Write an Elevator Pitch for Your Blog

“An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).” – Wikipedia

Since last Friday I've been reading a series of blog posts written by my friend Cathy from Let's Be Green Together. She's been participating in a Blog 'Spring Cleaning' Challenge hosted by Mariana from Riding With No Hands. Every post that has been written so far, I've read and thought oh I should do that or oh that's a great idea! Finally yesterday I started asking a few questions and this morning I decided to take the plunge and join the challenge. What do I have to lose other than the opportunity to learn something and possibly make my blog better. I'd be foolish not to participate right?

This morning Cathy offered to be my sounding board and help me work through some things about my blog. I've known before this challenge that I really needed a tag line for my blog. When I decided on the name of my blog I felt it was a good choice for me but making a tag line was very difficult to come up with after the fact. We bounced some ideas back and forth, she asked some questions and we she came up with the best tag line for my blog -

Somewhat Normal, Mostly Unusual, Always Authentic

Don't you just love it? I do! I think it fits me and my blog perfectly. Thank you again Cathy!

I took a break after that to think about my blog and do some reading over on the ProBlogger site. I've really been struggling with my blog lately. To me it felt like I had no direction over here and I didn't know what to write about or what was okay for me to write about. After reading I made a few lists and while the things I write about aren't going to drastically change I realize now that my blog has always had a direction I just wasn't aware of it. Once that was out of the way Cathy and I again spent sometime chatting (her cheering me on and really pushing me to be bold) and I think with her help I was able to come up with a pretty good pitch.

Hi, I’m Krista! Your resident eco-chick, craft loving, organizational freak and a rock star in the kitchen! I'm also a fantastic mom - just ask my kids! I love learning and sharing new ideas for natural parenting and creative family fun on a budget. So come back often and see what I’ll be rambling about next!

Speaking of rambling, one blog just wasn’t enough. You can also see what I’m cooking and organizing next at:

Home Organization 365

To Cook or Not to Cook

So what are your thoughts? Tell me what you think. If you're reading this I want to hear from you!