Archive for the Category »Linking «

Dec

Since I call this “your blogging classroom on the web”, I decided it was time we talk about homework; or that behind the scenes stuff we often put off.

Today’s Lesson

As many of you have noticed, I decorated my blog for the holidays.

Since I use a theme which has the “custom header feature”, adding the photo was simple. For the RSS widgets I searched for “holiday icons” and then recoded my widgets.

Listed below are a few new (to me) plugins I am testing.

First is Sexy Bookmarks by Josh Jones and Norman Yung which is visible at the bottom of each post.
The Sexy Bookmarks plugin is easily customizable, looks good, doesn’t take up too much space and is positioned so readers will be reminded to Tweet, Digg, or use StumbleUpon, etc. to share a post.
The “Follow Me” plugin by WP Burn.com can be seen on the right of the page.
This plugin is to remind our readers they can follow us on Twitter. The customization includes using different colors as well as different Twitter birds images.
The Wibiya toolbar can be seen at the bottom of the page.
What I like about this toolbar is if you don’t want to clutter up your sidebars with an RSS feed, recent posts, etc., you can include them in the toolbar.This isn’t a plugin, but more of an add-on which requires an invitation. Just go to the Wibiya site and follow the instructions. In a matter of days you should receive an email from them and at that time you can set up an account and customize your toolbar.
Thanks to the suggestions from both Internet Strategist @ GrowMap and Betsy at Passing Thru I added Zemanta and Apture.
In a nutshell, these two applications which work for all blogging platforms* make blogging easier and faster by suggesting photos, links, related articles, etc. for our posts. (Disclaimer: I’ve only tested them on WordPress.)

Zemanta adds a interface to your dashboard from which you can drag and drop photos and/or links into your post as you’re writing it.

Image via CrunchBase

Apture adds icons which when clicked on, does the same.

Zemanta also adds a “reblog” feature at the bottom of the post which makes cutting and pasting quotes much easier, plus and an option to add links to other posts which may be beneficial to our readers.

Thus far, the only downside I see to using some of the above applications is they do slow down the page load time.

Today’s Assignment

What are your favorite plugins or applications?

Care to share?

Footnote: When using Zemanta on a self hosted blog, the Zemanta plugin must be used. For WordPress, the plugin can be downloaded here.

Do you have a strategy for social bookmarking and crowdsourcing? (socialmedia.biz)
Manage Your Social Networks In One Place With Pond (100 Invites!) (makeuseof.com)

Category: Archives, Blog Maintenance, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Linking, Plugins and Widgets, Save Time Tags: Blogger, digg, Drag-and-drop, google, Hosts, LiveJournal, MovableType, RSS, StumbleUpon, Twitter, TypePad, Wibiya, WordPress, WordPress.com, Zemanta 58 Comments

Dec

If I Said It First, Is It Mine

Barbara Swafford

Millions of people go online each day and share their brilliance.

We see it in blogs and comments alike.

With the click of a button, those ideas are ours for the taking.

But who do those ideas belong to?

Today’s Lesson

Suzen of Erasing The Board brought up a good point in the comment section of the Save Time – Copy and Paste A Post article. She said, in part,

I just ran across a blogger that used my comment in their very next post, no attribution either.

Suzen went on to say,

Whenever I’ve used so much as a phrase from another, I always mention where the idea came from. I think it’s only fair, don’t you?

Although most bloggers do try to link back to where they got an idea from, in many cases we won’t see that happening as we’re dealing with blogs; a medium which has no rules.

Depending on how a blogger learned to blog, proper blog etiquette may not have entered their mind.

And then we have to ask, “What came first, the comment or the exact same idea that was swirling in our mind?”.

Suzen re-commented and said she “let it go”.

Today’s Assignment

What would you have done?

When we leave a comment on another site, who do those words belong to?

Raise your hand and share what you think.

Category: Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Comments, Linking 75 Comments

Apr

Gain Readers By Selling Yourself

Barbara Swafford

After reading Betsy’s post on Passing Thru, “Selling Isn’t Selling Anymore”, I was reminded of how bloggers need to “sell” themselves in order to gain readers.

Let’s face it, with the amount of time we spend on our blog posts, we certainly don’t want it to be all for naught.

Although selling isn’t a favorite of mine, oddly enough, my first full-time job was in sales at a Sears catalog store.

Part of my job was to go through the telephone book and make “cold calls”. I would pick out names, call them, introduce myself and ask them if I could assist them in finding something out of our catalog. Often we would page through sections of the catalog and I would help them uncover a treasure.

All phone calls didn’t end up in a sale, but fortunately I lived in a small community and held that job before telemarketing became the rage. Instead of my calls being a nuisance, people were actually grateful for my help.

Today’s Lesson

For our blog to succeed, we must sell it.

And, in selling our blog, we are also selling ourselves.

When building a community on a blog, we need to get our name out there.

This can be done by:

Visiting other blogs and leaving meaningful comments
Linking to other blogs referencing one of their posts
Joining and participating in social networking sites such as Twitter
Offering a free ebook or newsletter
Joining and/or hosting blog carnivals
Entering our names in blog directories
Using our blog URL as part of our email signature
Write a captivating “About Me” page, giving our readers a reason to subscribe

For blogs that are built for search engine traffic, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is required. Using SEO means we are competing against others for the same keywords and/or keyword phrases. Perfecting our use of SEO becomes essential as we’re technically selling ourselves to “Big Brother”, telling him our content is worth rating above others.

It’s one thing to write and boast of the hundreds of posts in our archives, but if we’re not letting others know what we have is worthwhile reading, we may as well be writing a private journal.

Today’s Assignment

How do you sell yourself? Or, do you?

If you’re not selling yourself, what holds you back?

For those who concentrate on selling themselves and their blogs, what can you share with others that has worked for you?

Care to share?

P.S. For more ideas on getting found, stay tuned for a future guest post when Matthew Dryden steps in as substitute teacher and shares what he learned from watching two of his mentors market themselves.

Photo Credit:Wishbook

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Comments, Increase Traffic, Linking, SEO, Social Networking, Writing Tips 41 Comments

Mar

Smashing The Myths About Blogging

Barbara Swafford

Since Monday, March 30, 2009 will mark my two year anniversary of blogging, I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned and how some of what we read is not true.

Today’s Lesson

The common myths on blogging:

Blogging is easy.

Yes, writing a post and hitting the “publish” button can be easy, however, there’s more to blogging than just writing. In order to gain exposure and stay current, we’ll often find ourselves engaged in social networking, answering emails, commenting on other blogs, learning coding, and/or performing blog maintenance.

Typos in blog posts mean the author is careless or can’t spell.

Although most bloggers try to be careful, nearly every blogger will make typos. Keep in mind, words are also spelled differently in other countries and for some bloggers, their first language is not English.

The only way to succeed in blogging is to have a niche site.

Although a niche site is great for targeted advertising and can become a great “go to” place for a specific topic, success can also be had by mixing it up.

Having a blog is an easy way to make money.

Money can be made with blogging, however the numbers we see the big shooters speaking of are the exception, not the norm. In most cases it has taken the A-list bloggers YEARS to make a six figure income. In truth, most money bloggers make will be from products they sell or promote, speaking engagements and/or jobs they procure as a result of blogging (such as freelance writing, coaching or web design).

If we don’t visit a another blogger often enough, they’ll forget about us and unsubscribe from our blog.

Whether we visit our blogging buddies once a month, or once a day, the other blogger will most likely always remember us and stay subscribed.

Never leave a comment that says “great post”. The author will mark it as spam and delete it.

If the comment is written by an active blogger and the comment links back to a reliable site, in most cases it will NOT mark it as spam.

In order to succeed, we must follow in the footsteps of the big boys/girls.

It’s true, we can learn from the big boys/girls, however copy cat blogs are quite boring. Whether we post product reviews, write 2000 word articles, 7 word haikus, share our favorite photos, write rants or tell our readers all about our children, it’s all okay. It is OUR blog and we are free to use it as we see fit. The most important thing is to stay true to yourself, be an original and build off of that.

In order to get our blog found, we should comment on high profile blogs.

A comment on a big name blog will get our name listed in their comment section, but changes are our comment may not even be acknowledged. To build a community and/or relationships with with bloggers, time needs to be spent visiting small to medium size blogs. Unlike the A-list bloggers who have bigger fish to fry, authors of smaller sites are more apt to show their appreciation by reciprocating the visit and subscribing to our blog.

New bloggers should wait until they have a following before they monetize their blog.

Quality content is what visitors are looking for. Placing advertising on our site will not deter visitors unless it overpowers the message.

If we link to other sites, our readers will leave us and never come back.

Linking to reliable resources shows our readers we’ve done our homework. Instead of leaving our site, they will consider us as an expert and keep coming back for more.

Today’s Assignment

Prior to having a blog, what did you read about blogging that you found out not to be true?

Did that make you question other myths you’ve read?

Care to share?

P.S. Come by on Monday and see my new theme and celebrate my second anniversary. There won’t be any cake and ice cream, but there will be lots of surprises.

Photo Credit: smellyknee

Category: Archives, Blog Maintenance, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Comments, Lessons Learned, Linking, Making Money, Networking 34 Comments

Sep

Sometimes Thank You Is Not Enough

Barbara Swafford

When we truly give from our heart, we never have a second thought of what we might receive in return. We give to help, support, honor and/or show our affection to others. When I blog, my goal is the same.

Todays Lesson

Today my heart is filled to the brim. Reflecting back on just the last ten days, I am honored to have been mentioned on twelve thirteen blogs. To show my gratitude and share the generosity of these bloggers, I am listing each link. I encourage you to visit their sites and drop them a line.