My Seven Tips for Better Blogging

My Winterberries and My Winterberry Gatherer

(Having Nearly Nothing Whatsoever to Do with Today's Topic ☺)

New blogging buddies are so much fun for they bring a freshness and enthusiasm to blogging that can be lost if we always remain in the same clique circle. New faces and new voices are wonderful. Once in a while, I am asked a question about blogging forms and formalities and I smile because I so well remember having the same sorts of questions about blogging. Gosh, I still have questions about blogging all the time.

Sometimes, I allow myself the luxury of thinking perhaps I do know something about this blogging business. Of course, I'm just pretending, I actually know precious little. Sadly, it is my nature to tell more than I know; therefore, in an effort to answer some of the questions I've been asked of late, I'll share why I blog the way I do because that's really all I know anything about. What you do, dear one, is always your choice.

1. I try to make my blog friendly by not using any sort of verifications. They are a huge hurdle for my commenters and for me. (Feel free to snag the button if you decide to go verification free. It is a great joy to find it on blogs and, no, I didn't start it.) Yes, I have had trouble with spammers in the past, but Blogger has done an amazing job with its spam filter. You can always check your filter by going first to the Design button and then directly to the Comment tab. This truly eliminates the need for fussy word verifications. If you should receive an unwarranted comment, do not hesitate to delete it or to report it as spam. Certainly, do not give it much concern. I would just challenge you, if at all possible, to try letting go of those verifications. If you have troubles again, you can always return to them.

1. Design and then directly to Comments

2. Anonymous commenters are either a blessing or a curse. Because I think everyone should be able to stand behind a comment, I no longer allow anonymous ones. This helps to further eliminate spam. The way to check this setting is Design, Dashboard, Settings, Comments.

2. Design-Dashboard-Settings-Comments

3. I regularly check my blog's load time. There are a number of good programs that do this. I recently tried Pingdom, which breaks down the components of my blog and shows the various load times for each item. For example, I see that my little clock there (that I love, btw,) is sucking a lot of load time.

4. If I have a problem with a certain blog, I'll mention it to the blogger behind the scenes in an email.  Quite often, it turns out to be my problem and not hers in the first place. And I want to know if you're having difficulty here, too, because I'll try to find out why. The pop-up box for comments, which I also love because it allows me to see the original page, often causes visitors troubles when leaving a comment. That is a setting on your home computer concerning safety issues, which you may or may not wish to change. Some have reported success by using Google Chrome.

5. I attach my email and my blog to my profile. Why? So that when I comment, the blogger can easily find me without jumping through hoops. And I realize that for some of you that is not an option, but if you are not hiding, please consider doing this. It can be accomplished by following this path: Design, Dashboard, Edit Profile. Once in Edit Profile, changes can be made. For example, I no longer wish to show my second blog. Be careful about having too many blogs listed. It makes it confusing for others to find you. Some even have their "behind the scenes" blogs listed. That should probably not be the case. 

5. Design - Dashboard - Edit Profile

6. For photo editing, one can't go wrong with Photoscape. It's a free, quick and easy download. (Google it.) This is the program I most use for mosaics. It also has a lot of photo edits that can be fun.

7. Blinkies...way too cute by half for me. Why? Because I am growing older and to have something blinking away in a sidebar or a post is very distracting.

You'll notice that I didn't even touch the music issue. That's because I alternately have a love-hate relationship with it. My own music is set so that my readers must turn it on to listen. So often, we are listening to our "own thing" when reading blogs. It can get to be way too much. However, last year at Christmastime, my mother and I loved listening to the various playlists hearing songs that we hadn't even thought of in years. It was just plain wonderful and for that reason alone, I will never get negative about playlists.

If I could change just one thing about blogging, it would be to have us all do what makes us content without concern for not meeting someone else's expectations. And, just to totally negate that, I want you all to blog nearly every single day! =) Not possible? Somehow I knew that's what you'd say.

Would you like to add anything to my list? Now's your chance!