Better Your Blogging With 12 Nifty Tools

Photo by Rodrick Reidsma

We research, write, edit, tweak, search for photos, download, upload, design, write code, align, adjust, and obsess. Blogging involves a lot of tasks, and it can easily suck away valuable hours.

It’s always great to find little sources online that speed up the process. Here are a few I use constantly:

1. Find basic HTML code - Just trying to find simple HTML for your everyday code issues? HTML Code Tutorial has a good quick reference sheet that has most HTML codes.

2. Find basic CSS code - The same thing for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is available with this reference guide and tutorial. Good basic stuff.

3. Tweak WordPress - If you use WordPress.org, like me, you’ll probably find this enormous list of WordPress help sheets as handy as I do. It has basic template files, PHP code for headers
and templates, and lots more. (Please note – these are for wordpress.org, not wordpress.com.)

4. Use the right keywords - Keywords are what people search in engines like Google, and if you want to get traffic from these sources, it’s good to use some of the more popular keywords in your blog’s niche. This keyword suggestion tool from SEO Tools is helpful – you can type in a basic word, and it will provide you with the top keywords researched on the major search engines.

5. Submit your stuff to a carnival - Carnivals are a good way to broaden your audience, but there are so many out there, it’s hard to know where to start. Blog Carnival is a database of all the major carnivals out there, and you can search by category.

6 .Test your site in IE - If you use Firefox (and you should!), Safari, or Opera, it’s important to know that your site could look quite different in Internet Explorer. A follower of mine on Twitter led me to NetRenderer by Geotek, a handy tool that takes a quick screenshot of what your site looks like in IE. Very helpful for those frustrating evenings spent solving the problem of wonky sidebars in Internet Explorer, unfortunately the defaulted browser of so many people.

7. Show code in your published text - It’s quite difficult to display written code, because your blog platform wants to convert it to an actual command. But it’s helpful to provide visible code every now and then, like when you want to provide code for your readers to copy and paste in their own blogs. You have to tweak the code so that your software doesn’t interpret it, and instead, it just spells it out as is. This nifty Encode/Decode HTML tool will provide the text you need – just copy and paste your HTML in the space provided. (If this is all clear as mud, here is Simple Mom’s page where readers can get HTML code for buttons. I used this tool to correctly write the displayed code.)

8. Get your random number - Are you having a giveaway, and don’t feel like asking your child to draw one of 372 numbers out of a hat? Use random.org, a free tool that will spit out an order of numbers that you provide that’s, well, random.

9. Ask your readers anonymous questions - Readers love to participate if it’s easy for them. Polls and surveys are a great way to do that – my favorite source is PollDaddy. It’s super easy to write your own polls and surveys, customize their style, and paste them into your blog.

Photo by Trey Ratcliff

10. Legally use photos - I refer to Skelliewag’s fabulous article all the time about how to use and find great Flickr images. She perfectly describes the process I use to find my photos in every article I write.

11. Liven up the photos you do use - With Big Huge Labs, you can have fun playing around with the Flickr photos that will enhance your blog post. You can create mosaics, frames, Andy Warhols, and more for free. You won’t want to do this with every photos you use, but it’s fun every now and then.

12. Brand your blog when you comment elsewhere - Not all blogs have avatars for their commenters, but when they do have them, it’s nice to have your photo or your blog’s logo, instead of a default head next to your comment. Set up your avatar at Gravatar, the internet’s default source for connecting avatar images to your email address. 99.9% of the time, your avatar will be your gravatar on sites that use this.

I found it difficult to not use too much bloggy jargon in this article, but I didn’t want it to be too long. Is this confusing for you at all? Please let me know if you have questions – although clicking on these links might clarify any muddle.

How to Get More Comments: 10 Ideas You Can Use Today

Photo by Tamelyn Feinstein

Comments – bloggers lust after them. They make our day, and many times, it’s what we use to measure the “success” of a post.

But they can be hard to get, can’t they?

This may sound obvious, but a post won’t generate a lot of comments unless it’s a comment-worthy post. And a blog that doesn’t publish a ton of comment-worthy posts tends to hear the crickets in the audience more than they’d like.

Does this sound like something you struggle with? Here’s a few ideas to maybe generate more comments from your readers:

1. Respond to the comments you do get. Even if you just get one or two, reply to every single one in the beginning. This will show readers you want to interact, and it’ll be more of an incentive to them.

2. Go to your commenter’s blogs, and leave comments there. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. They’ll appreciate it, and will probably be more likely to comment on your blog again. This might start a blogging relationship, which could lead to a wider audience, and therefore – more comments.

3. Answer their questions in a post. Many times this acts as double-duty, because it also generates another post idea for you. Everyone loves to see their name in writing, and it’s icing on the cake if it’s linked back to their blog. It’s also good practice to ask them via e-mail first if they’d mind youranswering their question in a post.

4. Be humble in your post. If you sound like you know everything about everything, people aren’t as motivated to comment. They might be afraid of a snarky response from you, or they might just not want to waste their time conversing with someone high-and-mighty. Don’t be afraid to share mistakes, weaknesses, or uncertainty. Don’t be afraid of the words “I don’t know.”

Photo by Rick Audet

5. Ask questions, especially in the end. I end almost all my posts on Simple Mom with a question posed to the readers. Many times, answering that question is specifically what the comments are about.

6. Assume (in a light-hearted way) that you will get comments. Follow up your ending question with a phrase like, “I look forward to reading your answers in the comments section below,” or “I’ll see you in the comments section.” It’s like inviting your readers to a discussion.

7. Make it easy to comment. When a blog has a million hoops to jump through in order for my comment to register, I lose motivation to bother posting. Make your comment form clear and simple, and if it’s possible, have the option for a reader to select their info to be remembered. And if you have a blog with blogger, please enable non-blogger readers to comment without having to register for a blogger account.

8. Use WordPress plug-ins. If you have a WordPress.org blog, there are a few plug-ins that encourage more comments. Comment Luv allows commenters to leave a link to their last post on their blog, and Comment Relish automatically generates a thank you e-mail (that you write) to first-time commenters. Easy Gravatars publishes commenters’ photos (if they’ve set them up with Gravatar), which helps establish a more personal feel.

9. Be a bit open-ended. Don’t write absolutely everything you can on your post’s topic. Let your readers pick up in the comments section – they can add ideas, stories of their personal experience, or maybe an opposing opinion.

10. Write about things people want to comment on. Look at your past posts, and find the posts that have generated the most comments. What do they have in common? If you see a common thread, pull on it, and replicate. It might generate more comments again.

5 Easy Ways To Drop Your Blog’s Link

Photo by Gaetan Lee

If your blog is a business you’d like to promote, then there’s a few simple ways to get your link out there and to expand your readership.

Here are a few ideas.

1. Your Email Signature

Take advantage of the “settings” feature in services like Gmail, and add a simple signature that includes your blog’s link. Make it simple and easy to read, and add your tagline or some description so that everyone you email has access to your site.

2. Your Forum Signature

If you’re on any online forums, make sure your signature settings also have a link to your blog, in a similar fashion to your email signature. Make sure this is allowed, as each forum has its own rules.

3. Twitter

If you want to promote your blog at all, you must use Twitter. I personally only use it several times a week, but when I’m on it, I stay active and interact. There are many resources that will give you guidelines and ideas on how to use this tool to its maximum advantage – one solid place is TwiTip, written by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. I’m not an expert, but I do use it, and have found that it really increases my blog audience loyalty.

I recommend downloading TweetDeck as a great medium for using Twitter, and at minimum, using TwitterFeed to automatically send out your latest post to your Twitter friends.

4. Other Social Networks

Each blog niche has its own logical use of social networking, and it’s impossible to be on every single site. I recommend narrowing down to the ones that make the most sense for your niche, and spending most of your time there.

However – I do recommend at least opening an account at almost every networking site you can think of, and at least filling out the profile to include your bio and link. This is because you’re building a brand with your blog, and you want to snag the same name on all these sites.

I’ve registered “SimpleMom” on most networks out there, but I really only use three or four on any regular basis. But that means I’ve kept the brand identity mine.

5. Business Cards

If you’re going to the Blissdom Conference February 6-7 this year, you need to order your business cards asap. If you’ve got plans for any sort of blog convention or conference in the near future, then you also need business cards. If you have any plans on entering a public place sometime this year, I also recommend business cards.

They don’t need to say much – they can be simple, with your blog’s name as the focal point, along with its tagline (conference attendees will receive a lot of cards, so they’ll need to remember the general gist of your blog). Also include your full name, your email address, and any form of contact that’s important to you. I’ve got my Twitter name on mine (@simplemom).

Use them to pass along when you’re chatting with people at blog conferences. It’s expected self-promotion, so it won’t come across as pushy. In real life situations, however, it can be a bit random to pass along an unsolicited card, so choose more discreetly when you pass it along.

Always keep a few with you, and you’ll be surprised when you need one. I’ve given mine out on play dates, at the playground, on bulletin boards at a local community center, and even at a coffee shop. It might only mean a few new readers, but you can’t pass up face-to-face contact to build loyalty.

I recommend Overnight Prints for quick, inexpensive, quality work. I was very impressed with my cards, along with everything else I’ve ordered from them. Usually, you can get 100 business cards for $9.95.

If you’re a beginner blogger, it might feel weird to think of yourself as a brand – but by building your expertise on your blog, that’s exactly what you’re doing. And strategically putting your link in the right places means getting it in the right hands. To further your blog’s success, think of it as a business. And think of yourself as its CEO.

10 Tips to Balance Your Online and Offline Life

Photo by Dave Shea

Blogging is more than just writing. Add all the feed reading, topic researching, photo selecting, social networking and promoting, and comment moderating – blogging can unintentionally become a full-time job.

Here are a few tips I’ve applied in my own life to set healthy parameters around my time spent blogging and my time in “the real world”:

1. Keep a notebook handy. Post ideas come at the most random times, and if you don’t write them down, I promise you will forget them. By having your place to jot notes with you at all times, you can dump it out of your brain and move on to getting dinner ready.

2. Close out other programs on your computer. When you’re writing, compose the text in a simple program like TextEdit or Notepad, and close Firefox, your Twitter app, your email client, and anything else that serves as a distraction. You can reopen them when you’re doing the non-writing part of blogging.

3. Designate official blogging times. It helps to not try to blog while also trying to balance your budget, clean out your desk drawer, check e-mail, and use StumbleUpon. Use set times to blog, and blog only.

4. Make daily, specific goals. Instead of having one giant upcoming post loom over you, put it in your to-do list that you will research for such-and-such post idea today, then write it tomorrow, and then edit it the next day.

5. Write out a blogging calendar. My post topics are usually set on a calendar a month in advance, but I still stay flexible for those sudden post topics, such as when a commenter asks a great question, and you want to answer it right away.

6. Have a stockpile of timeless posts. Slowly try to accumulate simple posts about things that can be used at any time (in other words, not newsworthy topics). Then when you’re slammed with everyday life busyness, you can post and still keep your blog fresh while tending to your “real” life.

7. As you’re perusing Flickr to use for your post, “favorite” any photos you like that could potentially be used in a future post. Lately, all I’ve needed to do to find the perfect photo is go to my favorites collection.

8. Set realistic goals. If you’re a stay-at-home mom to three kids under 5, you’re not going to have scads of time to post an in-depth article every day. Currently, my goal at Simple Mom is to post three times a week.

9. Cut the online clutter. Unsubscribe to blogs that you don’t love. Select only a few social media networks to involve yourself in, and don’t worry about missing out in the rest.

10. Take a day off. When blogging starts to gets stressful or obsessive, step away from the laptop and get some fresh air. The blogosphere will manage just fine without you for 24 hours, and you’ll get some much-needed perspective.

What little things do you do that provide sanity, balance, and perspective amidst the blog-writing busyness?

A Newbie’s Guide to Starting a Niche Blog: Initial Reading Homework

I’ve recently heard from a number of folks wanting to start a blog, but aren’t sure where to start. So to kick off this new site of mine, I’m going to write a six-part series on how to start a blog from the very beginning. Expect it to take about six weeks, since I’m sticking with weekly articles here.

So in lieu of reinventing the wheel, I’ll start this series of a newbie’s guide to starting a niche blog by suggesting some darn good reading. Read up, and then I’ll follow with my own personal insights.

1. Find The Right Niche.

• An Introduction to Niche Blogging :: Dosh Dosh
• How to Choose the Right Blog Niche: A Simple Three-Step Method :: Dosh Dosh
• How to Choose the Right Niche For Your Blog :: The Lost Art of Blogging

2. Just Start.

• How To Launch a Blog and Have Fresh Content For Weeks :: Pro Blogger
• New Blogger Checklist :: Modern Media Mom
• How To Write a Blog Post :: Pro Blogger
• If I Started Today :: Chris Brogan
• 20 Types of Pages Every Blogger Should Consider :: Pro Blogger
• Anatomy of a Post: How To Get Blog Readers to Pay Attention :: Write to Done

3. Promote Yourself.

• The Beginner’s Guide to Promoting Your Blog :: Social Media Explorer
• Don’t Use Social Media as a Tool To Promote Your Blog :: Michael Martine
• Can You Join Too Many Networks? :: Mashable

4. Generate Initial Readership That Will Lead To Loyalty.

• 21 Ways To Make Your Blog or Website Sticky :: Pro Blogger
• The Essential Guide to Growing Your Blog on Minimal Time :: Pro Blogger
• Three High-Powered Reader Engagement Tactics :: Pro Blogger
• How To Create Great First Impressions on New Readers :: Pro Blogger

5. Stick With a Streamlined, Polished, Simple Design.

• Basic Blog Design Principles :: Modern Media Mom
• 21 of the Best WordPress Plugins for New Blogs :: Marketing Pilgrim
• Top 5 Blog Design No-Nos :: Blog Coach
• Give Your Readers a Clue With a Great Tagline :: Blog Coach
• 7 Elements To Make Your Blog Look Great :: Pro Blog Design

6. Plan As You Go.

• 5 Steps For Planning the Direction of Your Blog in 2009 :: Pro Blogger
• Create a Media Kit to Attract Advertisers For Your Blog :: Pro Blogger

Start with reading up on some of this stuff, and don’t be shy about following their provided links.

A word of wisdom – you can easily get overwhelmed. There is a lot of information on the internet about blogging, and you can easily get discouraged and throw in the towel before you start. That’s why my biggest piece of advice – just start – is so important. Start as you go. Don’t wait until you have all your ducks in a row, blogwise, because you never will.

That said – it does help to start well and to not make too many irreversible mistakes. There aren’t many you can’t reverse, so in my opinion, it’s always best to just start. You can always revise later. That’s why that “edit” button is so handy.