Blogging Tips

I have learned along the way: I have only been blogging for a short year, but am hoping this page will help anyone new to blogging. If you're new, Welcome to the Wonderful World of the Greatest Therapy ever offered. Sorry I don't have that Ringling Brothers circus music to go along with that. 

Are You a Potential Blogger? 

A very good link for a blogger newbie right up to the most successful blogger in blogosphere.
Have you found your niche' in blogging? Maybe you have no idea what to blog about? Have a look at 
101+ Killer Blogging Ideas

There are up's and down's to blogging I recently read "Ouch! My Blog Hurts!" the best post that I found describing the highs and lows of blogging.
Getting A Few Blog Hits  Here are some useful hints I found along the way:
Association: Some have not associated their blog to their profile. If not, your blog cannot be found. Many do that to keep their blogs private and that's okay. Some though wonder why no one visits their blogs and don't realize they have that feature turned off.
Include the link to your blog in your emails. That way your friends and family have an easy to access link to find your blog. This works as long as none of them send one of your emails to SPAM. BIG Exception to sending your link: If you are sending an email to the President, Senator or any of the like you may wish to take your link off the email. I once sent an email to my Senator and forgot to do that.
Social Networking: If you use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace (or any of the other thousands of others) once or twice a week put the link to one of your favorite postings on your social network. Do not be offended if you get -0- hit's however. A lot of the Urban Amish don't understand the word, "blog."
Follow Other Blogs: One way to get a few followers is if you are blog hopping and find blogs that interest you, follow that blog. Many bloggers follow their followers; however some don't so please don't be offended if a blogger doesn't follow you back right away.
Comment on Blogs: Another way to get your blog exposure is to start out commenting on 1-2 blogs. Trust me it gets easier. When I was new to blogging I was often intimidated by other bloggers. Many bloggers are so busy they often only get back to those who have left comments on their blog.
Blog Hops: Blog Hops are a plenty in the blogging community. Join a blog hop that interests you. Your blog will get some exposure, and you can easily gain a few followers along the way.
Follow/Follower: (aka Follow other Blogs) Many bloggers only follow the bloggers that follow them and shoot I can understand. I currently follow about 300 blogs and it often gets hard keeping up to them in the reader. I am currently trying to organize the folders there a little better, right now the folders are a mess.
These are a few to help get your started.
Captcha's On/Off: Many bloggers don't like the robot feeling of the Captcha to leave a comment to a blog. If you aren't getting a lot of comments, try turning it off for awhile and see if that helps and This is a Public Service Announcement for Bloggers Everywhere 
MeMe's: I never really understood a lot about these. They are often in stick figure form or picture showing a "RAWR" or stick figures laughing. They can be found in your blog reader or even come to your email. I take it that even the blogging world has trolls. Try not to be too offended by the pictures. I once got one with the stick figure throwing up.
Other Things To Note:
There are quite a few Grammar Nazi's in the blogging community that are often offended by Internet lingo such as LOL, OMG or WTH? and emoticon's such as :) :( and =,,/ (and others), misspelled words and bad punctuation. Some will either reprimand you in a reply to the comment, email you about it or delete your comment entirely. I once found a blog that had a comment message of: "Leave Only Worthwhile Comments All Others Will Be Deleted." I was going to leave a comment that said, "Why don't you just use the Moderate the Comments because I am not sure what you consider worthwhile?" I also recently stumbled on a blog with this warning "If the only thing you have to say in a comment is Great Blog Post or thanking me for stopping by your blog,  please do not leave a comment" This is how I interpret what that says and really means is... I know my postings are great you don't have to tell me and I now regret stopping by yours. Actually I have no idea what that means, but I wanted to leave them a comment asking that they just turn off the damn comment thing!
So have you ever been cruising the super slab blog world in the granny lane and rolling up on you fast in the hammer lane is Alice in Wonderland driving a four wheel phone booth office on wheels? Yeah so I know what you mean. It happened to me recently when I got caught up in a Blogosphere Grammar Checkpoint Charlie. Apparently they got a 507 from the A&A that I was offending the kiddies in the cheese wagon. So they came and went 10-200 on my blog. I cruised right past the grammar check point charlie and didn't see the roller skate setting there in plain paper. Thinking they'd go after Flyboy, I didn't even have time to put the hammer down. It is always a good day being pulled over by the Blog police with all their protecting and serving of the blogosphere isn't it? Their distress call heard all over Blogworld. "10-31 10-31 For Bad Grammar." I was pretty stoked to see how fast I was snared in the check point charlie- those folks are good aren't they? Well I co operated, did what was being demanded didn't want them calling out a "Man Down" on me or anything like that and have the Cub Scouts rushing out. I have found that there is not much you can really do to stop the passive aggressive from trolling blogs and the Internet, making corrections for all man kind. The best thing to do is to remain calm. Any hysteria on your part is sure to call up an A.P.B. on you and 10,000 Internet trolling cub scouts will descend on your page.

There are some blogger's who get offended by Tags and Awards. Some feel that these actions turn blogging into Social Networking and Email Chain Letter type postings. I often wish those pages alerted with a flashing hazard symbol of some sort to let you know so that an action of sending something doesn't become their next negative blog post, but it doesn't work like that.

Some Pages I found with some helpful info on the topic are:

As always the Blogging A-Z blog has helpful postings in the archive. 
D.L. Hammonds who blogs @ Cruising Altitude 2.0  has a good post on building your blog referring to "If you build it, they will come" 
MOV @Mother's of Brothers has written a Handy piece with Info on the blogging police.
Muppets for Justice wrote a very good piece about How To Tackle Writer's Block!
Bloggers Rights Is a very good site for any blogger ANONYMOUS
Due to the overwhelming SPAM after turning off the Captcha thing, I had to turn the Anonymous comments off. I didn't mind anyone sending a comment Anonymous, I do mind the passive aggressive, troll type Anonymous comments of the attack like kind such as:
"I hope you burn in hell"
"You are a F^(% ing Bitch"
"You are a nasty bitch"
"You are such a bitch. Andy Griffith died bitch and joined the entire cast of the show in heaven and you write about booty shorts. What a shame." 
At first I just laughed them off, I mean do we even really know any blogger, the "real" people that they are? In attempt to not have any readers or commenter's drawn into a den of drama, it was easier to just turn off the damn accept Anonymous comment thing.  Anyway... Hello the world isn't round it's flat. Put down that Kool Aid and walk for awhile. You won't be so nervous!
C’est La Vie ©Gossip_Grl