Author: Barbara Swafford

More and more as I travel through cyberspace, I see the use of gravatars (globally recognized avatars) on comments or in social networks such as StumbleUpon. This is the one I use used. Today’s Lesson With avatars, you can do one of two things. 1) You can make your own… read more How To Get and/or Add A Gravatar To Your Post Comments

Photo Credit jurek d.’s photos Feed readers are a great way to stay current on our favorite blogs. The blogs are automatically updated, and we can pick and choose which posts we want to read…all in one place. Today’s Lesson If we read posts in a feed reader, we don’t… read more How Links Increase Visits And Earnings

Photo Credit Dano’s photos This blog topic may sound hypocritical. After all, every Tuesday I showcase a new blog and ask my readers to pay them a visit. Today’s Lesson I believe a good blog starts with a solid foundation. A foundation that is the result of research, a good… read more Go Home and Cover Your Crack

Photo Credit chefranden’s photos Well, he doesn’t actually “lift cows”, but in his most recent post,”Confident Goal Setting: How to Pick Up a Cow, Daily” , he writes how Milo of Cronton, trained for the Olympics by lifting a baby calf on a daily basis. The concept is interesting, and… read more NBOTW Author Exercises By Lifting Cows

Photo Credit junkmonkey’s photos Several comments to my last post, “Comment Luv – Linky Love – NoNoFollow” inspired me to dig deeper into the subject of blog spam (also referred to as comment spam). I wanted to know why blogs get spammed, and what we can do to prevent it…. read more Spammers Hit The Jackpot

Photo Credit lovelypetal’s photos Links create love in blogoshpere. However, “no follow tags” are set as a default on many blogging platforms. Even if you use the CommentLuv plugin, when your blog is crawled, the bots and spiders don’t give commenters “credit” for their link. Today’s Lesson On my travels… read more CommentLuv – LinkyLove – NoNoFollow

Photo Credit nugunslinger’s photos The first line of your post can be like an anchor pulling a sinking boat to the bottom of a lake. Today’s Lesson Have you ever picked up a book, opened it to the first chapter and read the first line? If it doesn’t grab your… read more Your First Line Can Sink You

Photo Credit woodleywonderworks’ photos If you are a new blogger, or even a blogger who has been consistently posting for a long time, you may ask yourself, “when will I have success?” Your definition of success determines how long it takes to get “there”. Today’s Lesson Getting a blog found,… read more No One Said It Would Be Easy

Photo Credit sunshinecity’s photos As each Tuesday approaches, I make time to find a new blogger. It was in the comment section of a recent post of Problogger, I found this week’s “New Blog Of The Week”. At first glance you may think, “this won’t be a blog I care… read more NBOTW Provides Proofreading Tips

Photo Credit: tell me what you saw’s photos For those who don’t know what etiquette is, I will quote part of Wikipedia’s definition: Etiquette, one aspect of decorum, is a code that governs the expectations of social behavior, according to the contemporary conventional norm within a society, social class, or… read more Blogging Etiquette – The Unwritten Rules

Photo Credit miguelb’s photos Hello loyal readers, This is a very exciting , but nerve racking day for me, as Catherine Lawson and I are guest posting on each other’s blogs. Although my post on her blog, can’t match the caliber of Catherine’s writings, I’m hoping I haven’t made a… read more Increased Search Engine Traffic For Lazy People

Photo Credit nukeit1’s photos Words gets a lot of politicians in trouble, with some believing politicians are just blowing smoke. Words are easy to say or write. The question becomes, do you stand behind your words? Do you walk your talk? Whether you are in business or blogging, your words… read more Do You Walk Your Talk Or Are You Just Blowing Smoke

Many bloggers are being careful not to monetize their blogs too soon. Why? Because a few big name bloggers said you should wait to monetize your blog until you build up a loyal readership. Yes, that makes sense. After all, we don’t want other bloggers to think we’re only in… read more Why Wait – Blog For Dollars Now

Photo Credit iowa_spirit_walker’s photos Earlier I wrote about profanity in blogs, today, I’ll discuss language of another kind. Today’s Lesson Do you think visitors to your blog know what a “post” is? Unless your audience is other bloggers, chances are, you are confusing them. Let’s look at a sentence that… read more Blogging? Watch Your Language

Photo Credit: ali edwards’ photos This Tuesday brings you, my fifth “New Blog Of The Week” (NBOTW). Have you ever read a post that brought tears to your eyes, and heart felt pain for the author? This week’s “New Blog Of The Week” had that affect on me. Why? The… read more Help For Life Issues From The NBOTW

Photo Credit bs70 If you know me, you know I don’t mean she exposed herself, like “that”. Search long enough though, and you will find some bloggers are literally exposing themselves to gain readership/viewer ship, but that’s not what today’s lesson is about. Today’s Lesson Have you ever read a… read more Blogger Exposes Herself – Traffic Soars

Photo Credit wilhei55’s photos On two of my favorite blogs, both authors have written about gambling, in December 2007, Hunter published an article titled “I won the lottery”, and recently, Nez wrote a post titled ” Who Are The Gamblers?” Lotteries and casinos, are notorious for aiming their marketing toward… read more And You Say You Are Not A Gambler

Yesterday I wrote how we often marry our blogs, by becoming consumed with blogging. Today, I will share time saving tips I use on a daily basis which streamline my blogging activities.. Today’s Lesson 1) Install a good spam blocker. I use Akismet, however, there are others available which will… read more 15 Time Saving Tips For Bloggers

Photo Credit: srslyguys’ photos We love to blog, but as time passes, maintaining a blog gets very time consuming. Today’s Lesson When you first heard of a blog, you found how to get one for free, or signed up with WordPress and got a web host. You read/watched WP blogging… read more Me And The Blog – Till Death Do Us Part

Photo Credit: Mike9Alive’s photos It’s Tuesday. It’s time! Until further notice, I will be dedicating my Tuesday post to the “new blog of the week” (nblotw). This will give me the opportunity to share with my readers, why I have chosen each new blogger. In hindsight, I wish I had… read more New Commenter Becomes NBOTW

Photo Credit: Ben Zvan This lesson starts with a short story. Stick with me. Many years ago, at a time when it was safe for two young girls to travel alone, my best friend and I went on a road trip. From the Midwest, we headed toward the west coast…. read more Stubborn Blogger Wouldn’t Ask For Help

Photo Credit: Photopia No offense to my loyal RSS readers, but it’s time others know that claims of having thousands of RSS readers is a farce. Today’s Lesson Often, on big name blogs they will post or brag that they have 15,000 +/- RSS readers. No, they don’t. They have… read more RSS Feed Reader Numbers – A Farce

Photo Credit: chefranden’s photos Just as a top needs help to make it spin, a blog is similar. A top always stops, and falls over, after spinning out of control, will you? Today’s Lesson In the past few days, I have been visiting and reading a fair amount of blogs… read more Bloggers Fall Prey To Instant Gratification

Photo Credit: Editor B Have you ever written a popular post, that created a huge spike in your traffic statistics, only to see your numbers plummet after several days? Today’s Lesson I call that “spikey” traffic. It does one of three things. 1) It distorts your actual visitors statistics by… read more Spikey Traffic Distorts Visitor Statistics

Photo Credit i_yudai’s photos It’s Tuesday, and time to announce my “New Blog Of The Week” In the past, I did not dedicate a full post to my new blogger, but today is different. This blogger does not have a flashy blog. In fact, if you were to land on… read more Honorable Mention For A Mom Who Blogs

Photo Credit john_a_ward’s photos As bloggers, we often take time to study about SEO ( search engine optimization), Google’s page rank, and keywords, in order to get our posts ranking high in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Today’s Lesson Sometimes I try to use keywords in my posts, but… read more How Keywords Attract A Larger Audience

I am an analytical person. Maybe I was born that way, learned it, or am, because I’m a Virgo. Analogies and analyzing go hand in hand for me. Today’s Lesson If you’ve been following my blog, or digging through my archives, you’ll find posts with titles like: New Blogger Begins… read more Diets, Decorating, Dogs and TV Inspire Me To Blog

Image Credit: buggolo’s photos Comment spammers are getting creative. They are posting messages on blogs, that at first glance, look like actual comments: Here’s a sample of one I got today; “Hi! I’m David Banner! Your site is good, i love it!” At first glance, it looked like a genuine… read more Are Spammers Saying “Gotcha”

Photo Credit : Makelessnoise When I started my WordPress blogs, I did tons of reading. I searched for WordPress tutorials, but there were very few. Those that I did find, were pages filled with many words and/or images. Now there are video tutorials. These videos show things as simple as… read more WP Tutorials – Where Were They When..

Photo credit Woodley Wonderworks On my mission to find new bloggers (for my New Blog Of The Week series), I use whatever means are available. I search the world wide web, I click on comment links, and I beg new bloggers to find me. Thus far, I have found three… read more If Content Is Queen, Where Is She Hiding