Successful Blog

A Timely Reminder

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When was the last time that you . . .

  • found a new blog in your niche to read? New blogs offer new communities of readers with fresh ideas and new points of view. Join their discussion by leaving meaningful comments and trackbacks. New friends there might read your comments and want to find out what you’re writing.
  • tweaked your blog description and checked your directory listings? Blogging is flexible and adaptive. How much has your blog changed since you last read your blog description? Have you visited the directories that you listed your blog in? Listings have a way of disappearing over time. Even when they don’t, they might need revising.
  • organized your archives as your readers would want them? Great archives are super blog promotion. For more on how to think like your readers see Watch What You’re Doing.

What other reminders might we need now that spring is here?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
Blog Review Checklist
Blogger Forums as Promotion
Blog Promotion Basics [for Everyone]
Audience is Your Destination

Top 10 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger

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Photo of White Arrow in Road pointing down

January, February, and March are boring. They leave me feeling like I have nothing to look forward to. New budgets, new plans, and New Year’s resolutions hover over. Everyone’s working and often everyone’s miserable. So I offer a list of 10 things you might do, so that when everyone’s having fun being miserable, you won’t feel left out.

Before you begin reading, prepare yourself. Adjust your thinking to realize that, no matter the season where you are, next winter is too near and next spring is too far.

Top 10 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger

      10. Spend your first quiet morning hours checking your stats to see who was not reading your blog at 2:18 a.m. When you’re done, check 4:47 a.m. and 1:31 a.m. too.

    9. Read the feeds for the exact idea you will write about, rather than just looking for fodder. Then decide all of the good ideas have already been done, because you know that five seconds ago someone took the last one.

    8. Keep your mind focused on all of the things you have to do and how little time there is to do them. Check the clock often to see how behind you are in getting them done.

    7. Don’t prioritize or make a plan.

    6. Answer every email, important or not, as soon as you get it. While you’re there, think of the ones you might write and write them before you do anything else. If you’re going for the gold, do the same with telephone calls. Heck while you’re at it, call my mother-in-law.

    5. If you finish with email and it’s still the same day, read other blogs that have no relationship to yours. In fact, choose blogs in a language you don’t even know. When you stop to eat lunch, clean the refrigerator.

    4. As you read and comment on blogs, notice how much better every other blog is. Then think of the reasons you wouldn’t read your own blog.

    3. Spend hours tweaking your template over details no one will ever notice.

    2. When you finally sit down to write, know you will have writer’s block. Think about it. Talk about it. Then watch the clock.

    1. Count your value as a human by links, stats, and number of comments.

There you have it. Follow this Top Ten List, and you will be miserable when you need to be. It will serve you well into Spring–which we know will be rainy, cold, and ugly this year.

If you’re an overachiever and you just need one more, here you go . . .

Definitely, positively, and for sure, buy into all of your own PR, and believe whatever other folks say about you, because everything put into print simply has to be true. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss

More fun:
Desperado: The 7 Payoffs of Making Your Blogging Relationships Suck
65th Crayon Finds that Google Doesn’t Use Search
Internet Slang Dictionary and Translator

Getting Your Blog Ready for Readers

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In the spirit of a community blog, articles from readers are a regular feature here. Know that I read them all to ensure the content belongs in the context of Successful Blog. Know that not every submission makes it here and that some get revised before they pass muster. Still even then, not every one of them will be right for every one of you.

To be respectful of your time–who needs me going on and on?–I ‘ve made a snapshot form to help you determine easily whether the content suits your personal needs. When you keep an article, it can serve also as a summary. If you have suggestions for changes to the form, just make a comment after an article whenever you think of them. Now on to the article. . . .

gray purple strip A

Guest Writer: Katy Whitton

Katy Whitton of Katy Whitton.com sent us this article on how to Market Your Blog and Keep Your Readers from her blog, Flipping Heck!

Target Audience: Beginning Bloggers
Article Type: Overview
Content: Katy mentions the main points of bringing your blog into the world of blogging, including choosing an appropriate name, content considerations, Permalinks, pinging catalogues (directories), posting frequency, advertising, and stats. She also provides links to additional information.

Notes: This is an overview that will get a new blogger thinking on what there is to do and hopefully bring him or her back to Successful Blog to find answers to any questions the article might prompt. Katy’s writing makes her article an easy read, an investment of a few minutes. Her writing voice lets the reader know that he or she can do this.

Thanks, Katy, for contributing to the Successful Blog community.

ME “Liz” Strauss

Blog Design Checklist

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A successful blogger is always asking the question, How does this serve my readers?

To many of us design is the fun and “creative” part of building our blog, talking and tweaking design can take up more time than writing content–if we let it. A checklist can help keep my creativity at uptimum levels and keep my focus on how my choices will ensure my readers enjoy their stay well enough to return again and again.

Blog Design Checklist.

      1. Title and Subtitle: Are they here? Are they clear? Could any reader understand what they mean? Turn off the blinkers, the sliders and slinkers. They distract me when I’m trying to read your post.

      2. Bio: Can I find it? Does it tell enough about you that I feel a connection with the person behind the screen? Did you give me a way to contact you, if I have a genuine reason to? Is there a photo, or at least a visual, there to represent you?

      3. Fonts/Text: Are they readable? Are there too many? too few? Are they in readable colors? Is there moving, blinking, twinkling text to distract me and annoy me? When it comes to color, size, and number less is always more.

      4. Comments/Permalinks/Trackbacks/Email: I expect to find these after the post? Please don’t get creative and make me look all over to find them.

      5. Navigation: Can I find my way around in a glance? Can I find your Classic Posts? Do your links really work? Is it easy to get back to the home page? I don’t like feeling lost.

      6. Sound/Gadgets/Plug-ins: Do they really need to be there? Are you sure they won’t irritate me? When in doubt, take them out.

      7. Technical Issues: Does the blog load fast in my browser? Does it load accurately? You may hate IE but most folks still use it. If you pretend they don’t exist. You can be sure for you they won’t.

      8. Images: Are they clean, clear and crisp? Are the files compressed so they load quickly? Fuzzy pictures hurt my eyes.

      9. Organization: Does the page feel in proportion? Do things seem where they belong? Is there enough white space and a lack of clutter? I like a little room to breathe.

      10. Marketing: Is the presentation of subscriptions, ads, and other marketing integrated into the design? Do ads become too interruptive? Are there pop-ups or pop-unders? Ads that make themselves too annoying will drive me from your blog forever. No pop-ups or pop-unders–they break your trust with me.

Use this checklist to remind yourself not to let too much design creativity take the “fun” out of reading your blog. Then get started. Have fun tweaking.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

And don’t forget the other checklists in the set:
Blog Review Checklist
Editing for Quality and a Content Editor’s Checklist
Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs
A Blogger’s Personal Narrative Checklist
Checklist for Starting a Directory Listing