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Friday, December 12, 2014

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.

13 comments:

  1. These are great tips, I didn't even know there was a built-in spell check in web browers and I use Chrome for all my blogging! I'll definitely have to start using that trick for sure!!!

    YES. BOO ON AUTOPLAY. Thankfully I don't run into them as much I used to. *whew*

    Collaborating is great fun and a great way to expand your audience, or at least make you blog known! I'm glad we've gotten to collaborate so much!

    YES on that last one too (I guess YES to all of them, lol!) Many of my most loyal readers and commenters are people who's blogs I found first, lol!

    Looking forward to your next part!

    ~Jamie

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    1. I am not sure how well it works with Wordpress, but the spell check is incredibly useful on Chrome.

      I know, autoplay music is not all that common anymore, thankfully.

      -James

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  2. Good tips. Presentation is important too. I'm a Luddite and my blog looked it. Luckily, I convinced a more savvy friend to give my template a polish up and now I think it looks rather natty. You're right that you have to check out other blogs and we should support like minded bloggers by having a blog list so others can find them if they find you. Lastly, I think being a regular poster is very important. I make sure I post at least once a day and have quite a few posts stacked up in reserve if I'm busy. I'm not suggesting everyone need be so prolific but I do think a good blog should post regularly.

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    1. Good points, some of which I have written about for the next part. But Presentation is actually one that I forgot about. I like the new look for your blog, by the way. The colors make it easier to read, and see what is important.
      Same here. I have so many posts in reserve. This post, for example, was written nearly five months ago.

      -James

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  3. What you said about autoplay is so hilariously true, in my case anyway. haha Nice list, James. :)

    xx

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  4. You don't like Fireflies by Owl City?

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    1. It's not bad, but I am not a fan of modern English music in general.

      -James

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  5. Excellent tips! Especially the No Autoplay one :-)

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  6. This was very helpful - thank you. :)

    xx Nicole Rose

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  7. Aw, I like Fireflies! But, of course, if I want to listen to it, by golly I'll listen to it, and I don't need any help, thank-you-very-much! Hehehe. Nice tips, James!

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One rule: No strong profanity. If you want to link to one of your posts, please do; I am always interested in other reviews and such.

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