Like so many other bloggers, I jumped into blogging with my eyes wide open slammed shut. No plan. No reading up on how to write a blog. No idea what I was doing. I only knew that I had this growing passion for design and DIY that I wanted to share.
Fast forward over two years and there are still plenty of days when I have no idea what I'm doing. But I've learned so, so much since those early days of blogging. Mostly by messing things up and then having to figure out how to fix them. There are so many times that I've wished I had known this or that when I first started blogging. So I've put together some of my this and that tips as well as tips from some of my favorite bloggers. Whether you're thinking about starting a blog on Blogspot, you just got one up and running, or you've been at it for years, this post is for you. I'm pretty sure that you'll learn a new tip or two...
Back Up Your Blog
If you blog on the free platform that Blogger offers, your content - every word and photo you have spent countless hours crafting - is not guaranteed to be there tomorrow. Make sure your work is saved by backing up your blog content on a frequent basis. I schedule my backup on my weekly calendar. The backup takes only a few moments but the peace of mind is priceless!
You'll find a step by step tutorial {here} on how to save your blog from disappearing forever into cyberspace!
Remove Word Verification
Cassie @ hi sugarplum!
Make Sure Your Links Open in a New Window
Elizabeth @ The Little Black Door
Although blogs are personal, there are still some standard best practices in the world of the web that bloggers should follow and one of those is making sure any and all links you include in your text open in a new window. No matter if you are linking to another site or just to another post within your own blog, making sure a link opens in a new window is critical. You don't want people to be sent off to another site, or even another post, without being able to find their way back do you? (not everyone uses the 'back' button). You've worked hard to get people to visit and you don't want to lose them just because they lost their way.
The good news is, it's really simple to make sure you have all links open in a new window. When entering your link, make sure that the 'Open this link in a new window' box is checked:
And then, are you ready for it, that's it!! Super simple and super important to keeping readers happy.
Schedule Your Posts To Publish In The Morning
Pam @ Simple Details
Did you know that the highest percentage of people read blogs in the morning before they get busy with their day and their inbox begins filling up? If you publish/schedule a post for early in the morning, it'll be sitting in your readers' morning inbox ready to read! Scheduling a post couldn't be easier - when your blog post is open for editing in Blogger 1) Go to "Post settings" 2) Click on "Schedule" 3) Click "Set date and time" 4) Enter the date and time you want your post to be published 5) Click "Done" 6) Publish your post (don't forget this one!)
And don't forget to make sure you have scheduled your email delivery time in Feedburner for the morning hours! Go to your Feedburner account {here} and 1) Click on your blog name 2) Click "Publicize" tab 3) Click "Email Subscriptions" 4) Click "Delivery Options" 5) Choose a time from the "Schedule Email Delivery" menu and 6) Save!
Don't be a No-Reply Blogger
Linda @ Calling it Home
I think there's a lot of confusion over the term "no-reply". Many people think that if they're able to leave a blog comment, they must not be a no-reply blogger. Not true! If you don't have an email address in your Blogger profile then you are a no-reply blogger - without an email address linked to your blog comment the blogger has no way to reply back to you. You may have wondered, "why didn't she tell me her....paint color, rug source, molding size, etc? "She" probably tried, but could not find a way to contact you. If you are a no-reply blogger, you are missing out on a really fun part of blogging.....the private conversations that ensue stemming from your comment.
If you have switched from a Blogger profile to a Google+ profile and are a no-reply blogger, it's a bit more complicated of a fix but you can read how to do it {here}.
Use a Desktop Blog Editor to Compose Your Posts
Emily @ Emily A. Clark
I recently switched to Wordpress but when I was on Blogger I used Windows Live Writer to compose all of my posts and then uploaded them to Blogger. I found it so much more user-friendly, and I didn't have any of the spacing problems I used to deal with when I wrote them directly in Blogger. It also let me custom size my images and put watermarks on them.
Enlarge Your Photos to Fit the Main Content Area of Your Blog
Becky @ This Is Happiness
To get your pictures a bit larger than the “x-large” size that Blogger allows, here’s an easy tip using Microsoft Word. Open Word, click “new”, then “new blog post.” Once your document is open, click the “insert” tab and choose “picture.” This will open your computer picture library and you can choose your photo. When the picture uploads it will automatically be on the “format” tab and this is where you can customize your photo. When using this, it’s helpful to know the width of your blog posting section. For example, my total blog width is 1100 and my main posting section is 700, leaving my right sidebar at 400. So for me when I format my pictures a 6.5” width (which converts to 650 in Blogger width size) works well, filling a large portion of my posting section. Once you’re done formatting your picture, you can copy and paste the document and pictures to your new blog post leaving your pictures at their “original” size in Blogger.
This can also be done in Pic Monkey using the “resize” button and applying the same picture width to blog post size conversion (i.e. the width of my blog posting section is 700, so I usually resize the width of my pictures to 650 in pic monkey.) However, often times I prefer using Word because I can type my post and customize my photos all at the same time.
And a few final tips of my own....
Sign up for Google+ Even if You Don't Use it For Social Networking
When you start a Blogger blog, the photos you upload to it are stored in a Picasa web album {here} but if you sign up for Google+, your blog photos will be stored on Google+ {here}. There IS a difference between the two:- Picasa Web Albums offers only 1GB of free storage for photos and videos. With Google+, the storage limit is 15GB.
- For both Picasa and Google+ you can upload an unlimited amount of smaller photos for free - in other words, photo files under a certain size don't count towards storage limits. For Picasa, photos larger than 800 x 800 pixels count toward your storage limit but for Google+, only photos larger than 2048 x 2048 pixels count.
- You can set your Google+ settings so that ALL photos uploaded to Google+ will be automatically resized to 2048 pixels (on the longest edge) so that they won't count towards your storage limit. Simply log into Google+ (if you have more than one Google+ account, make sure you're on the one where your blog photos are stored) and go into your settings (in the drop-down menu under "Home" in upper left corner). Scroll down to "Photos and Videos" and make sure the box to the left of "Upload my photos at full size" is NOT checked.
Know How Much Photo Storage Space You Have
You can find out how much free storage space that you have left by going {here} (unless you don't have a Google+ account, in which case go {here}). The amount of free storage space you are given is fairly generous, but the space is shared across your Google Drive, Gmail, and your Google+ photos so if you store a lot on Google Drive or Gmail, it could limit the amount of space you have for storing your blog photos. If you hover over the pie chart that you'll see when checking your storage space, it will show you the breakdown of what you have used and how much free space remains:
Why is it important to be aware of how much photo storage space you have left? Because once you reach your storage limit you won't be able to receive new emails or upload new videos or pictures to your blog unless they fall within the "free storage" guidelines! If that ever happens, you can pay a monthly fee for more storage through Google or you can store your photos on an outside site such as Flickr. You can also delete items that are using a lot of your storage but be VERY careful about deleting anything in a Google+/Picasa web album - if you delete a photo that you used on your blog it will also delete the photo from that post!
If Your Blog Has Adsense Ads, Display a Privacy Policy
All bloggers using Adsense ads are required to adhere to Adsense policies. You're probably familiar with some of these policies, such as not clicking on your own ads, but did you know that you are required to have a privacy policy on your blog? Specifically, Adsense states that "publishers must have and abide by a privacy policy that discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users' browsers, or using web beacons to collect information as a result of ad serving on your website". Why is this important? If you don't have a privacy policy, you are not in compliance with Adsense's policies and are at risk for having your Adsense account disabled (sometimes permanently). Google tells you what information to include in your privacy policy {here}.
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Thanks so much to my amazing blogging friends for contributing to this post - they're some smart girls I tell ya! Hope you all learned a new tip or two. And if you have a tip to share, we'd love to hear it - share away in the comments! Enjoy your weekend!
