Author: Barbara Swafford

Good Day Class, Today we are honored to have David Wright of Blogger Dad as our substitute teacher (guest writer). He will be covering a subject many of us may have thought about, but we normally don’t discuss. Since this is a longer lesson than normal, I ask that you… read more Does An Ugly Blog(ger) Stand A Chance?

I don’t know how she does it. She’s like Wonder Woman. She’s a wife. She’s a mother of five boys. She writes on two blogs, is owner and administrator of a message forum, guest posts on other blogs, shares her voice on Twitter, maintains a FaceBook page and virtually meets… read more Doing It All With Ease

One thing about buying books from Amazon is they let us “search inside the book” before we make a purchase. Often we will see the table of contents, get to read the first page or two, the back cover and they even have a “surprise me” option which takes the… read more About Me – The Most Important Page On Our Blog

If you haven’t heard of Susan Boyle, you will. She’s been deemed the latest YouTube / internet musical sensation. Her debut on “Britain’s Got Talent” has received over 16 million hits on YouTube in less than a week. Susan’s story has been discussed on CNN, Fox News, CBS Early Show,… read more What Susan Boyle Can Teach Us About Blogging

Blogging is about writing and the blogger I’m showcasing today, knows it well. With writing being the topic of his blog, he not only teaches us how to become a better writer, but opens our eyes to the fact writing is more than just striking keys.  Writing takes work, determination,… read more Writing Tips and Attitude Adjustments

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…. read more Gain Readers By Selling Yourself

I don’t know about you, but when I land on a blog, I often like to read more than the current post. I will take time to look for links, recent posts, archives, and/or a list of favorites. If the current blog post intrigues me, but the blog doesn’t provide… read more Give Your Readers What They Want

I love when a blogger steps outside the box and creates something original.  Whether it’s their theme, niche or what they write about, I always find it refreshing. The author of this New Blog Of The Week (NBOTW) did just that. She found herself a niche, and with camera in… read more Picture Yourself In Her Shoes

In a previous post we all shared what we do when we’re not blogging and your answers got me thinking. What inspired all of you to start a blog? What did you know about blogging prior to that? Today’s Lesson Prior to blogging, I was already spending numerous hours a… read more So, What Was The Attraction?

Click here if you can’t access the video I was recently reminded of an old classic sung by Barbra Streisand. The name of the song is “People”, and the lyrics are: People, People who need people Are the luckiest people in the world We’re children needing other children And yet… read more Be A Person Who Needs People

Normally when I showcase an author for the New Blog Of The Week, I’ll share some of their written work. Words can say so much about a blogger, their desires, their life, and their beliefs. Today I’m doing something a little different. These two bloggers have great blogs many of… read more When A Picture Speaks 1000 Words

(Update: This post was written when I changed my theme in 2009. In 2010 I changed it again to what you’re seeing today). When we start a blog, we never know where it will take us. Some may walk a steadfast road and believe they want to end up at… read more Then and Now – A Metamorphosis

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… read more Smashing The Myths About Blogging

Have you ever looked up to see what your name means? I did. According to Namespedia, the meaning for Barbara is, Meaning: From the Greek “barbaros” meaning foreign or strange, traveler from a foreign land. Nicknames: Babette, Barb, Barbar, Barbie, Bebe, Bibi and Babs Narrative: This word was originally used… read more What’s In A Name

This picture reminds me of how bed hair can give us away. You know, you decide to take a quick nap, jump up because someone knocked on the door or you realize you’re now late for an appointment, and forget to comb your hair. Sometimes it’s not pretty. Bed hair… read more When Things Aren’t As They Appear

Good Day Class I don’t know how he found the time to do it, but I’m glad he did. Today we have Lance of “Jungle Of Life” as our substitute teacher (guest writer). As with his own posts, Lance will get you thinking with this one as well. Without further… read more The Snowball Effect of the Social Web

As I was reading the entries in the Blog Registry this blog jumped out at me. It reminded me of my first days of blogging. Remember those days? Days when you just wrote to that imaginary audience, knowing one day they would show up? To quote this blogger, on January… read more Sharing Encouragement and Inspiration

I have always loved listening to stories being told by older adults.  They speak of when they traveled from “the old country”, how the farm house needed to be expanded with the addition of more children, their experiences on jobs, why others became their best friends, how being honest paid… read more If We Knew Then What We Know Now

Good Day Class. You know how we all would love to have each post of ours as precious and popular as a sparkling diamond? Well, Eric Hamm, of Motivate Thyself, is here today to teach us how to pace ourselves, what to look for prior to hitting the “publish” button… read more Making Every Post Count

Last week I dug through the entries in the Blog Registry and chose five female bloggers to showcase for my New (and not so new) Blogs of the Week. Not wanting to show preferential treatment, today is the guys turn. In no particular order, Matthew Dryden describes his blog this… read more Let’s Hear It For The Boys

We all have a life outside of our blogs. Work, family and friends may take up a lot of our time, as well our other interests and/or hobbies. So, what do bloggers do when they’re not on their blogs? Jannie Funster sings and plays the ukulele when she’s not blogging…. read more Where Or Where Do The Bloggers Go

Good Day Class Today we are honored to have a ghost writer as our substitute teacher (guest writer). What I’m not sure of is, if he’s a ghost writer, is he really here, or is it just an illusion? I’ll let you decide. It’s my pleasure to introduce Sean Platt,… read more What If I Run Out of Things to Say?

When I started the New Blog Of The Week (NBOTW) series I would spend hours searching for new blogs in comment sections, by doing online searches or by asking those in my community for recommendations. I don’t have that problem anymore. In fact, as I was doing the math, I… read more In Their Own Words

Whether we’re blogging for fun or to enhance our online profile, we need to realize we can also expose ourselves to scrutiny,cyber bullying, law suits and even death threats. The higher the profile of the blogger, the higher the chances of being targeted. Today’s Lesson Although these are topics we… read more Law Suits, Death Threats and Cyber Bullys

Good Day Class. Today we have Tess from The Bold Life as our substitute teacher (guest writer). I peeked at her lesson, and not only is it great advice to use when blogging, it’s also fabulous advice to use in our daily lives. Let’s take our seats and welcome Tess…. read more Like Bees on Honey – Learn to Attract Comments to Your Blog

Remember the post, “What Do You Do With A Blog? I listed 25 +/- sites and briefly shared how some bloggers are utilizing their blog for multiple purposes. One blog I didn’t include was this one which I was saving for the New Blog Of The Week (NBOTW) series. I… read more On The Path To Helping Others

We all have hobbies we enjoy. For some it’s scrap booking, for others it may be quilting, reading, watching TV, participating in sports, and/or photography. When Debbie Yost, Mommy blogger and Down syndrome advocate shared her thoughts on How Do You Measure Your Success, her comment reminded me blogging is… read more Is Blogging A Hobby, A Time Suck, Or…

Good Day Class! Today we have the honor of having an elementary replica breitling chronomat 41 brown dial black rubber mens watch ab014012 q583bkpd3 school teacher as the substitute teacher (guest writer) for our lesson. For those of you who haven’t met him yet, he’s the author of Silent Cacophony… read more Avatar Honesty

I was recently reminded why I started the New Blog Of The Week (NBOTW) series. On an old post of mine titled Help For New Bloggers With Low Traffic, I got a new comment. The comment said, Thank you for writing this! I am a new blogger, and I’m learning… read more Questioning Life & Blogging About It

There comes a time in (almost) everyone’s life when we stop thinking only of ourselves and begin to wonder if we’re leaving this world a better place.  For some, this happens early in life.  For others, it may be on their death bed. I don’t remember exactly when I began… read more Bloggers – CareTakers Of The WWW