Blogging

Jul 15, 2011

Tips For Bloggers ~ Irritating Things Bloggers Do or Don’t Do

July 15, 2011 By Chele 24 Comments

I recently asked some friends on Facebook what irritates them about what bloggers do or don’t do. Recently, I’ve been taking note when I go to a blog about what bothers me about things that are not there readily available for the reader. The following are just tips of what bloggers want to see or don’t want to see on your blog or social media outlets.

This is my biggie! Have many different ways for someone to follow you! Especially the email option. I say this because I use my email not the Google Reader. I’ve realized that I don’t keep up with those blogs when I add it to the Reader so I’ve eliminated that step a long time ago. There are so many of you that do NOT have the email option. If you did, I would love to follow you. Plus, if you have readers who are not bloggers… they normally don’t use a Reader. However, I want to share if you make this option part of your blog. Make sure that you opt out of the “email me if someone unsubscribes.” This will only bring you down! I also have found that some people just want to follow you on social media. Have your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Stumble, etc readily available for someone to follow you.

Robin from Simple.Green.Organic.Happy, said “I hate when there isn’t a way to easily tweet a post. Yesterday I wanted to tweet something, no tweet button, AND the twitter handle wasn’t readily available so I couldn’t even @ that person. I just gave up.” Totally know what Robin means! I follow a bunch of blogs that do not have the tweet button and it is very frustrating when I want to share with my followers. Let me add, Facebook… same thing! Use the social media plugins, it’s not hard!

Cindi from Moomettes Magnificents and Molly from Life With The Campbells said that capcha is a problem for them. Molly added… “I used to be a blogspot blogger, but switched to WordPress. So I have a Google reader account. But it still asks me for my user name and password what seems like a MILLION times, THEN I have to do the capcha thing, and by then I have either lost interest, or I am exhausted…” Yes too many steps takes time and gets frustrating. Try something like Disqus. I know I am the rare few that love this comment system. However, if you have it then any blog you go to your information comes up right away. Not only this, Disqus also automatically emails the person when you respond! Love that!

Tips from my friends on Twitter!

Beki from The Rusted Chain says “Don’t whine and be negative. Don’t be fake. Do be real.” Oh Beki knows me well! Be authentic but seriously watch the whining and negativity. It’s okay to be real about how you are feeling but too much of whine and negative remarks can hurt you!

My friend Aurie Good from Our Good Family says “DO check & double check. DON’T assume anything.” Research before you write. Just as you are supposed to think before you speak! You know what assuming does right?

Links to others advice!

My friend Heather Solos from Home Ec 101 wrote on her personal blog about this very thing. Go check out her list!

Also, Carissa from Good N Crazy has written about why you should use your real name on Twitter. Go check it out!

Any others we should add to the list? Any you don’t agree with?

Your turn,

Chele

Fyi, I mentioned Disqus because I love this commenting system. I get nothing in return!

Filed Under: Link Love, Social Networking, Technology Tagged With: Blogging, links, tips, venting

Jun 30, 2011

#Typeacon is the Feels Like Family Conference

June 30, 2011 By Chele 22 Comments

I attended the Type-A Parent Conference last week. I had some thoughts of how I feel about this conference that I would like to share. I know some of you are thinking I am bias because Kelby Carr (founder of the conference) is one of my bestest friends but I promise you. I live by my title Bona Fide.

I left this conference thinking that #Typeacon is the Feels Like Family Conference!

This is my second time at this conference. My first experience of any conference was Type-A last year. I have been to a few others within the last year and this year’s Type-A Conference showed me that this is indeed the best conference for many reasons. However I have to share, you know I spoke at this conference. Well look what I found in a pile just a few weeks ago that I put on a post it note after returning home from last years conference! Ha-Ha!

These next few thoughts are reasons why you should attend this particular conference!

Learning –

You learn a TON of information. As a matter of fact, all the other conferences were mainly about networking and partying. Although there are still the networking and partying at Type-A, the learning is in abundance. They do an amazing job at lining up speakers and sessions. You will not leave this conference without some excellent knowledge to use!

Networking –

You would be amazed for any conference what networking does for your online life. The friends you make who will think of you when an opportunity comes and they need more bloggers. The companies that you get to know are amazing. If they didn’t want to work with you in some way, they wouldn’t be there in the first place! Just like you will see in the next thought, there is a lot of time at this conference to get to know those you would like to know better!

Personal –

There are so many that say that #typeacon is the place to make those amazing relationships. I agree! You have the time to embrace time with others while eating, going out on the town or sitting on the patio. There is time in between sessions to chat or even to relax the mind (which you may need at any conference, ha!). You have quality time to meet other bloggers and those who work for the sponsors. As well as, you get to know them on a personal level. That’s probably why I feel like I’m #consick right now. I miss my friends new and old! By the way, my definition for #consick is depressed or melancholy at being away from a conference or longing to go back.

All of these things combined are why #Typeacon is the Feels Like Family Conference! Like some of these sisters I never had who are in my Social Media Moms Group that I had the privilege to meet face to face or see again! Love them all like family!

Photo credit courtesy of Christine at From Dates to Diapers.

To see some of the LiveBlogging Posts from the conference go here.

If you want to read more or link up your recap of the Type-A Parent Conference please go to the Type-A Parent post from Kelby.

Question: Am I the only one that feels this conference feels like family? Am I the only one that is #consick?

Your turn!

Chele

Filed Under: Family, Relationships, Social Networking, Technology, The Carolina's Tagged With: Blogging, Bona Fide, Conferences, North Carolina, relationships, Type-A

May 20, 2011

People Won’t Take Your Blog Seriously Until You Do {Guest Post}

May 20, 2011 By Chele 16 Comments

I hear it all the time. People say things about their blog like “no one ever reads my blog” or “my blog is so small.” But really? Until you take your blog seriously, no one else will. Yes, that even applies if you are just blogging for fun and to express yourself creatively.

That applies even if you don’t want to work with brands. Don’t you want people who are not brands to respect your blog? Or possibly you want to do freelance writing, or write a book someday, or get a job or a gig.

Your blog is your online presence. If you have a blog, you are a publisher. That is a pretty big deal.

If your blog only gets read by your mom, you still have a reader (I would say a pretty important one).

So here are some tips for taking your blog more seriously (and having it show).

Stop Publicly Insulting Your Blog

First of all, don’t say negative, apologetic things about your blog, especially in public spaces like Twitter and Facebook.

Instead of:

“No one reads my blog” or “My blog is so small!”

How about:

“I love my tight-knit group of loyal readers!”

Stop Being Sloppy

This certainly doesn’t apply to everyone, but I see blogs with haphazard designs and littered with typos and grammatical errors.

Clean up your design. There are some wonderful tips in a series on blog design at Mommy Words. If your blog is a hot mess (especially that sidebar), it isn’t just companies that will leave. Readers will, too.
Clean up your posts. The tough thing about blogging is we don’t have editors like traditional media does. Even if English wasn’t your favorite subject in school, you can still get some help. After the Deadline is a WordPress plugin that checks grammar and spelling, or even save your post and then paste it into Word with spelling and grammar markup enabled.

And I am just going to say the unspeakable, even if it gets me haters. If your header or your avatar involves you depicted as a cartoon, I think it’s pretty hard for people to take you seriously. That is just a personal opinion of mine, but I know many others share it. If you are concerned about your face being known, consider doing a photo with your face partially obscured instead.

Stop Ignoring Your Numbers

Numbers matter, especially if you actually do want to bring in advertisers or work with companies. Be sure you are using, at the least, Google Analytics. It is free.

Do NOT use Webalizer or Awstats, as those stats packages record every hit (as in every image loaded, every script loaded, etc.) and those numbers are meaningless and can be ten times your actual numbers. If you don’t mind paying a small amount, I also love GetClicky and I run that with Analytics on my sites.

Once you know your numbers, put them together in a one-sheet PDF or on your about page. It can simply be a rundown of monthly visitors, monthly page views, Twitter followers, Facebook friends and fans, RSS feed subscribers (use Feedburner or Feeblitz if you want tracking on that), etc.

And be sure you have all of your basic information somewhere easy to find, such as an about page, including your contact information. I am surprised how often I find blogs where you cannot even reach the blog owner unless you comment publicly. Not good.

Stop Kissing Up to Companies

You know what is more important than getting a company’s respect? Getting your readers’ respect. Without the readers, you have no numbers to give the companies.

I see lots of “reviews” that are nothing but a commercial. That is not a review. When you write a post (shoot, even a sponsored post), you always need to be mindful of your readers.

A good review does NOT have a headline raving about the wonders of the product, but simply has the product’s name followed by review. (Bonus: that way it will also be much more likely to show up in Google search results). It has both pros and cons. It shows the reader you took the time to test it out for them.

I think many times bloggers fear a company will not work with them unless the review is glowing. This is not true. They have worked with traditional journalists for years, and those reviews are balanced. They also know readers do not trust a review that is nothing but sunshine and rainbows, and that readers will be much more motivated to buy if they’ve gotten the full low-down on a product.

Start Taking Yourself Seriously

Those are just a few tips that I think will help you take your blog seriously and, once you do, help everyone who encounters you and your blog take it more seriously.

Do you have any tips as well? I would love to hear your thoughts!

******

Kelby Carr (@typeamom) is the founder and CEO of Type-A Parent, a social network and multi-author magazine-style blog for digital moms and dads, and Type-A Parent Conference. A former journalist with 15 years of experience in newspapers, she is the publisher of Investigative Mommy Blogger, providing daily breaking news and investigative journalism for moms, and the author of Mom Blog SEO. She’s been geeking it out on computers since she was 10, social networking online since the 1980s, web publishing since the early 1990s, blogging since 2002 and tweeting since 2007.