Blogging Tips: Part 1

After more than three years of blogging, I have learned a thing or two about how to write and manage a fairly decent and moderately successful blog, and today I want to share a few tips that may help you and your blog. Of course, I am by no means an expert to any extent, so take anything that I say with a grain of salt. Also, if you have any tips, let me know in the comments.

For the Love of Sanity Use Spell Check!

Few things turn potential readers away more than posts with numerous, easy to correct, spelling errors. Of course, no one is perfect, and I often make mistakes. However, simple mistakes that a quick spell check can fix are always a great idea. Since the spell check that Blogger uses is rather terrible and often glitches, the easiest way to accomplish this is by using the built-in spell check that comes with the web browser. After using Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Firefox, Google Chromes seems to have the most effective and accurate spell check. For an even more accurate spell checking, activate the "Ask Google for Suggestions" feature from the right click menu after you misspell something. While not always accurate, the Google Suggestions seem to recognize more proper nouns and other words like "tsundere" that are not in the dictionary. Also, you can add words to Google's dictionary so that certain proper nouns do not show up as misspelled. Another great way to check for spelling is to copy your post to a word document or other type of word processor to check the spelling, which is something that I almost always do. To prevent odd text changes when pasting text from documents to your Blogger posts, either use ctrl + shift + V or right click and then left click "Paste as plain text," although this only works in Google Chrome to my knowledge. However, pasting as pasting as plain text removes hyperlinks. Another alternative is to use the “Remove Formatting” option (“T” with an “X” beside it) to set the text to the default of your blog.

No Autoplay!

Autoplay music on blogs is the absolute worst thing you can possible do on a blog if you want people to read it. Nothing is worse than checking out a blog to read while listening to "Guren No Yumiya" and then some annoying song like "Fireflies" starts playing, thus creating a painful symphony of annoyance. Having a song playlist on the side of your blog is fine. Readers can discover your personal taste in music that way, but auto-play music is a surefire way to make people not want to read your blog.

Collaborate

While not something that everyone would want to do, collaborating by guest posting or having a podcast is often a great way to introduce your blog to new readers.

Find Other Blogs

If you wait around for others to find your blog, chances are few people will find your blog. There is a variety of ways to find other blogs. For one, if you have a Blogger profile and not a Google+ one, you can click on the tab that is usually in the top right on Blogger with your profile name and then you can click "Blogger Profile." Once you click that, it will take you to your profile. If you have already input your interests and favorite movies, you can click on them to see what other people have the same one listed on their profile. While not as effective as it once was, this is the method that I often used. Another method is to go to similar blogs or ones that you read and see who is commenting and who is following said blog. Lastly, Google+ communities often have sections for bloggers to post links to their site, and thus you can find other blogs, as well as promote your own on the communities. Unfortunately, Google discontinued their Blog search, which was a useful tool.

Please check back Monday for the next part of my blogging tips. What do you think of my tips? Please let me know in the comments below.

If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.