Kim at Bold Blue Adventure has created a meme about blogging tips. I’m normally not a meme-ish person but I thought this was a great idea. Now, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here. There are literally hundreds of websites out there that are solely dedicated to blogging tips. I’m simply going to point you in the right direction, relay my experiences of what I’ve learned in my seven months of blogging, and talk specifically about what I do in regards to this book blog.

And I KNOW that this is WAY more than she asked for but I just can’t help myself.

Seven months ago, I knew NOTHING about blogging! I had never even heard words like plugin’s, themes, widgets, etc. I was 100% completely lost. I had two things in my favor. One, an incredible sister who didn’t mind that I called her five times a day. And two, I’m a pretty fast learner.

During my first three months, I was lucky to get 15 visitors a day. And I was so excited when somebody from Argentina visited my blog that I ran down the stairs to tell my husband. I love seeing who has visited from the far corners of the globe and have now reached all 52 states and 102 different countries. I’ve been fortunate enough to see my statistics steadily increase, particularly the last month and have exceeded any expectations that I had. Every month is always better than the last.

So why do I say all this? Simply, I think I must be doing something right to see my numbers steadily rising rather than plateauing. But I am NO expert! I hope to figure out this blogging thing even better and look forward to all the other tips that everybody has.

This will just be a modge podge of things I’ve been doing and resources that may help you. Everybody is different, so what may work for me, may not for you.

On to actual blogging tips . . .

• Why am I blogging? Who is my audience? I think a question that we all need to ask ourself is: Why am I blogging? Who am I blogging for? Am I writing just for myself? Or am I writing for a particular audience? Is that audience just other book bloggers, or just my friends and family, or is it for a larger internet audience?I first started blogging to bring some exposure to a home-based business (more about that another time) but I’ve found that has changed.

  For me, I’m now blogging for several reasons. One, I love to read. I’m a stay at home mom who needs a creative outlet, some interaction, and this blog has done just that. When I first started blogging, I didn’t know that this wonderful book blogging community existed. I’ve been very fortunate to be welcomed with open arms. So while I am blogging for myself, I’m also blogging as a part of this community. But I am very aware that 75% of my visitors that are not book bloggers. They are simply seeking information that I hope I can provide for them. When I write, I very much try to not address just the book blogging community. Why? I want everybody to feel welcome. As a result, I feel as though my writing reflects this. Make sense?And because I’m blogging about books, I try to keep everything on topic. Sure, I share stuff about my personal life, but I like to throw in some relevant books at the same time.

• How Much Time Do I Have? So this is one that I need to get under control. I spend way to much time blogging. I hope to nail down some type of schedule because my husband says he misses me. And frankly, I miss him too.
• Choosing a Blogging Platform. For me, I chose to purchase my own domain name and host my own WordPress blog. I couldn’t have done this without my sister. I only hope that we are all so lucky to either know how to do this stuff on our own or know somebody who doesn’t mind helping you out. With Wordpress I have the flexibility to do whatever I want, have a ton of plugin’s at my disposal, and have full control of my content. Not to self: back up my stuff!!If you don’t have a blog yet, but are thinking of starting one, shop around and see what features you like and don’t like about the various platforms.

• Branding Branding is important to me. I want everybody to know who Maw Books is. I use the same avatar and the same name everywhere I go. Social networks, commenting on other people’s blogs, forums, etc. I want to be easily recognizable and easily found.

• Google Alerts I love Google Alerts. If you’re not using them you should. Basically, Google Alerts does all the searching for you. Say I write a post on a particular book. I’m curious as to what else is being written about that book. Not just now, but in the future as well. Set up a Google Alert for a particular keyword, choose what to search (entire internet, blogs, images, etc.) choose how often you would like Google to notify you (as it happens, daily, weekly, monthly). Google will then send you an email with it’s search results. It’s a great way to find new bloggers talking about something that you have interest in and you’ll have something to contribute.

  Plus, every time anybody uses the words Maw Books, I am immediately notified (even if they don’t link to me). It’s a great way to keep tabs on what others are saying. But I can also have a Google alert for links if I have my keyword like this: link:http://blog.mawbooks.com. If you do a Google or Yahoo search it will tell you all the pages linked up to you. Yahoo seems to have more pages indexed than Google.

• Have a Feed! Have a feed for your blog. If I can’t subscribe to it I will NEVER come back. I just don’t have the time. Most people subscribe to blogs through Google Reader or Bloglines. I prefer Google Reader. But make sure that you also have the option to subscribe to your blog by email. Not all of your readers read enough blogs or have the know how to use a feedreader. For example, I subscribed my own mother-in-law and my parents by email. I’ve also noticed several of my neighbors signed up as well.

• Google Reader Trish at Hey Lady, Whatcha Readin? has already written a great article about Google Reader so I’m not going to even try to repeat anything she already said. I just wanted to mention how I use Google Reader. Because I maintain the Book Bloggers Book Review database (yes, I managed to slip that in there!) I put every book blog that I come across into Google Reader. I just checked and I’m now up to 515 subscriptions (yikes!).Thank goodness that you can manage those subscriptions through folders otherwise I’d be going crazy. What’s nice is that you can have a blog in more than one folder. I have a folder where I put anybody who has left me a comment. This helps me pay particular attention because these are extra special people. I have a folder for author’s blogs, a friends/family folder, blogging tips folder, and my newest folder addition is the Weekly Geeks reciprocal link exchange list so I could keep track of who said they were willing to exchange links (I have 45 blogs in that one, let me know if you want that list). All the rest just hang out folder-less, I scan through them quickly, see if there is anything interesting, reviews to add to the database, etc.Starring. Because I have so many blogs in my reader, I will always star something that I want to go back to and read in depth more, comment on, a book I want to add to the TBR, etc. I also star book reviews that need to go into the database, once added I unstar them.

  I also do a lot of searching within Google Reader. Say I just finished a book and want to see what my fellow book bloggers are saying, I can search from just within Google Reader. That’s how I’ve been creating the database.

  I also share what I’m reading as well. You’ll notice in my left hand sidebar, the widget that corresponds to Google Reader. Anything that I mark share will show up there, and you can click read more to see all my shared items. I honestly don’t know if anybody actually does click through to anything but I like it.

  And another thing about Google Reader. As soon as I add anybody to the reader I immediately change the name and add in the first name of the blogger into the title. This helps me remember bloggers on a first name basis and who belongs to what blog. Which brings me back to branding. It’s sometimes hard for me to track of everybody on a first name basis alone. Branding yourself can only help.

• Share a bit about yourself! I really try to focus on just books and reading on this blog. But I want my readers to get to know me as well. Make sure you bring some of yourself to the table while keeping it relevant to your context. This goes back to the question: why and what do you blog?

• No excuses! I hope to never be apologizing to my readers for a lack of a post. I honestly don’t think everybody is standing by their computers and wondering why Natasha hasn’t written a post in two days. But that’s just me.

• Titles Does your reader know what the topic of your post is from the title alone? Well, they should! Please don’t tell me, “This Post Has No Title” or “A Couple of Reviews.” When I log into my Google Reader I am looking at 200-300 new blog posts. If the title doesn’t tell me what the post is about I’m not likely going to click through to find out. Plus, my blog is syndicated through several networks (CafeMom, Facebook, BlogCatalog, BlogRush, etc.). Titles are the only thing that will tell somebody what your post is about.

• Keywords I have actually been shocked on the number of book reviews that I have read that do not mention even once the name of the book or the author (even in the title). I guess I’m suppose to figure it out from the book cover. When search engines crawl your blog they are looking for relevant keywords. Make sure the keywords that you use in your title are the keywords that you use again in your blog posting. Every time you say, “this book, this author, this story, etc.” replace those words with the title and author. What do you type into the Google search engine when you’re looking for something? Are those the keywords that you are also using?

• Navigation How easy is your blog to navigate? Are your book reviews easily found? How many clicks do I have to go through to find something? The less the better. Sometimes I find navigating a particular blog so frustrating that I’ll switch over to Google Reader and browse through there instead. Have a search box as well. Also, how cluttered is your blog? Does your blog need some dejunking? Keep it easy on the eyes, nice, clean and simple. And I hate music that automatically plays. And if you’re at work, well then you just gave away that you’re actually not working.

• Social Networks If you are looking for more ways to drive traffic to your blog consider the use of social networks, blog directories, and forums. Have a presence in the major social networks. I currently have profiles with YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and CafeMom. I’m not working them as much as I could (exception being CafeMom), but at some point in the future I hope too, particularly YouTube. You just have to ask yourself is your time worth it? Plus I haven’t even mentioned a million others.

• Blog Directories List your blog in free blog directory listings. Some examples are BlogCatalog, Fuel My Blog, and a myriad of others including directories for mommy bloggers, book bloggers, etc.

• Forums I consistently contribute to at least four forums on a regular basis (all book related) that allow me to have my blog listed in my signature line (all forums have different rules, so you’ll have to check). It’s a great way to contribute in book related discussions and give your blog some exposure. Again, you have to ask yourself is your time worth it? Is this something that you want to get involved in?

• Book Catalogs I’m having a brain freeze. I can’t think of the proper name for these. But let’s not forget the myriad of different book cataloging services you can use as well. Library Thing, Shelfari, Goodreads, etc. These all have a large deal of socialization as well. Pick one that works for you and go with it.

• Download the Web developer tool bar for Firefox. I use the web developer toolbar to check block sizes, CSS styles, and color. I honestly don’t know what I would do without it.

• Alexa Ranking Do you know what your Alexa ranking is? It’s a rough estimation of how much traffic your website receives compared to other websites. For example, Yahoo is #1, Google is #2, YouTube is #3, and I’m #394,887 which roughly means that I have the 394,887th most popular website. They update the ranking every month and I’ve been happy to see my ranking increase. When you download the Alexa Ranking toolbar you can see the ranking of each website that you visit. If you have a blogspot.com blog it will show as #9 as it cannot tell the difference between your blogger domain and another bloggers domain, rather it’s everybody’s combined ranking. This may be true of Typepad and Livejournal as well.I use the tool bar to to judge how popular a website or blog is. If it’s really popular I’ll be sure to drop some comments or cite an article. If they are getting great traffic, it won’t hurt to try to get some exposure there. A lot of people don’t put a lot of stock into the Alexa ranking, but I think it gives a rough estimation on how you are doing compared to other bloggers. I like it.

• Stat counters Why use a stat counter to advertise that you have only had 20-200 visitors on your blog? If your traffic is low, why are you telling me? This really irritates me.

• Technorati Use Technorati to keep track of who is linking to your blog. A must have in my opinion.

• Blogging Faster I keep several text files with the hyperlinks of my book reviews, hyperlinks of my posts and hyperlinks of my images. That way I don’t have to go find them every time I need them.

• Encouraging Comments
  • First, write great posts! If it’s not interesting, nobody will care to leave a comment.
  • Ask questions in your posts that lead naturally to a response.
  • Develop great blogging relationships. Not a problem in the book blogging community, everyone is amazing.
  • Leave meaningful comments on other blogs that contribute to the conversation. There is nothing worse than spamming a discussion with just leaving your link. Or only saying, I read this too, check out my review. Comment on my post and I’m more likely to then check out your review as well.
  • Make leaving comments on your blog easy. I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of the captcha. I sometimes have to try 5-6 times to figure out what the letters are before I finally get it to go through. Very frustrating although I understand why some bloggers use it. And are you restricting comments only to those on your blogging platform? Why? Why would you exclude those who don’t blog on the same platform as you? I have to admit that I had to create a blogger profile just so I could make comments on these blogs, although I don’t have a blogger blog. And you’re lucky that I took the time to do that. Most will just bypass commenting on your blog. Don’t discriminate.
  • Reward your commentators. I have the Top Ten commentator widget in my sidebar. Nothing like a little friendly competition and satisfaction of seeing your name there to encourage comments. I used to have snapshots on this blog, which when hovered over a commentators name will give the RSS feed of their last three posts (which takes me back to why titles are so important, since that’s the only thing it shows). I just took it off after some discussion on a forum made me realize how much everybody hated this plugin. I am currently searching for a new plugin that does something similar.
  • Have contests and giveaways. Everybody loves something for nothing and it doesn’t take much for us book bloggers to get excited!
  • Respond to comments. I personally am disappointed when I see a blogger hasn’t responded to my comments. Sure, some may not lead to a response but it’s nice to know that the blogger has acknowledged what I have to say. I try to respond to all the comments here, but have found it increasingly time consuming, but feel that it’s worth it.
  • Have a way for commentators to subscribe to comments. Ha, like I should be talking about this one because everybody tells me that mine doesn’t work. Even after I fixed it and tested it with my sister who receives all the follow up emails. I may have to find a new plugin as well.
  • Follow a commentator back to their blog. Add them to your feedreader, make a contribution to their blog. I have to admit that I used to always leave comments with everybody who left me a comment on a very consistent basis. But I now have had more than 120+ bloggers leave me comments and I just can’t keep up. I now comment on those which I feel like I have something to contribute. In the perfect world, I would spend all day leaving comments but I do have two small children who would mysteriously get into major trouble.

• HTML Code/Technical Issues Whenever changing anything on your blog, make sure you have everything backed up! Save files into a text file so you can easily revert back to something. This is a HTML Quick list that I use often. A lot of people recommend changing your template often, as for me, I’m really scared to do that. I’m comfortable with what I’ve got, so why change it.

• Readability Keep your posts easy to read by breaking up your post into shorter paragraphs. I almost never read a post if it’s one continuous paragraph. I get lost and my attention spans. Use proper writing skills and skip all of that texting lingo. I seriously don’t even know what half of them mean. Capitalize and punctuate properly. Nothing annoys me more than no capitals or punctuation. Did they even make it out of high school? I’m the first to admit that my grammar is probably on the bad side, but I’m talking about the obvious here.

• Use Images Nothing like photos to make your blog more appealing. Use them! I also love videos, even if I’m the only one to watch them. I’m a very visual person and enjoy blogs that reflect that.

• Blogging Tips Blogs (that you should be subscribing to):
  • The Blog Herald
  • Lorelle on WordPress
  • Blogging Basics 101
  • Blogging Tips
  • Blogsessive
  • SEO Megacorp

• More resources to help you blog. Lorelle on WordPress has written the best in-depth article that I have ever seen about blogging helps. Everybody should check this one out.

• Have a Universal Gravatar. Visit http://en.gravatar.com and register your email address with a gravatar. Blogs that have this enabled will automatically show your avatar. It’s a great way for your comments to stand out. I only wish that there was a way for Blogger blogs to show people’s avatars that are not a part of Blogger.

• Make it easy to have people contact you. Often times people will say “visit my profile page to find my email address.” Couldn’t you have just given it to me? If I was reading it in a reader, that will make it two, no wait, three clicks to get to your email address meaning you just lost me because I won’t click that far. I have a contact page and surprisingly people use it all the time!

• Organize Your Email I have different types of email go into different folders. If it’s a Google Alert, it goes into the Google Alerts folder. If it’s a comment from my blog, it goes into the comment folder. If it’s a contact through my contact page, it goes into a contact folder. I also have different folders for various forums, social directories, etc. This just makes my blogging easier and faster. I only have to look at what I want to look at, when I want to look at it.

• Link to Your Older Posts Nothing like getting me to browse your blog more. Link up to your older blog posts if it’s relevant to the one that you are writing.

• Saving Posts for a Rainy Day Have a few posts ready to go for those days that you don’t have much energy or time to devote to blogging. If you are going to be out of town take advantage of pre-publishing your posts so that you will have something going up although you are not at home. I also worry when people say that they will not be home for the next two weeks. Are they just inviting intruders to their home? Especially when I found a website (can’t find it now) that pulled up my name, address, and phone number all based on my domain name purchase. Scary.

If anybody is self-hosting a WordPress blog and would like me to post on what WordPress plugins I think everybody should have, just let me know and I can add them into the comments. This post just got super long so just let me know if interested.

Okay, so how’s that!? This really got out of hand. Did you learn anything that you think you can use? Anything to build on what I mentioned? Tips of your own? I’d love to hear them.

And after about two weeks of this being in draft, I’m finally hitting publish! Better late than never.

P.S. Visit www.mylivesignature.com to create your own signature.