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.
Related articles by Zemanta
- 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)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1eba33ba-ccc4-4925-94fa-6d64706450da)
Hi. I'm Barbara Swafford and I'd like to welcome you to Blogging Without A Blog. Grab a seat, share your thoughts and join in the conversation. 
I don’t know about you, but I have not met a blogger who has a lot of free time. In fact, as I travel through blogosphere, I’m beginning to believe bloggers are over achievers – trying to do it all, and do it good.
Needless to say, the issue of time is often written about in blog posts and/or comments as bloggers struggle to find more.
Today’s Lesson
Although we’ve discussed how to make more of our time in the past, I feel this is a topic worth discussing further.
So, what can we do to give us more time to blog? To visit other sites? To set up additional blogs? To work behind the scenes? Or to join and participate in social networks like Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon?
Here are five options I’ve come up with:
One thing we often read is we need to make the Google bots happy and publish fresh content daily.
Although daily posts will show those pesky Google bots our blog is alive and well, what we’re not taking into consideration is our readers. Will they have time to visit us daily and read our latest post? Chances are, they won’t. Soon our best work is buried in our archives and few have had a chance to read it.
Networking on sites like Twitter or Facebook is a great way to connect with other bloggers and possibly drive up our traffic numbers, however, if we’re not careful, a planned 15 minute visit can easily turn into an hour. If this is an issue for you, try setting a timer.
As discussed in the comments of the He Said, She Said, They Said post, many bloggers don’t go back to check for a response to their comment until they visit the blog the next time. By using this technique it will allow us more time for other blogging activities, or life.
I don’t know if other blog platforms have this feature, but WordPress does. When we’re feeling creative, we can write more than one post and schedule them to publish at a later date. Not only will this relieve the stress of “what to post next”, but in the event life calls and we don’t have time to construct a post, we’ll have one (or more) ready to go.
Many of us do try to do it all, but for each of us there is probably a part of blogging that keeps us beating our head against the wall. Instead of wasting precious time struggling with the parts of blogging that frustrate us, we can hire an expert. This will not only save us time, but we’ll know it is done right.
Okay class, now it’s your turn.
Today’s Assignment
Which part of blogging uses up most of your time?
What are your favorite time saving tips for blogging?
Raise you hand and share your thoughts.
Photo Credits: Clock by wan fauzan
Stress relief poster by: ©aius