.jpg)
Belle Bean Dog - Being a Bad Blogger
ThetaMom - How to invest your blogging time wisely
ByWordsMusing - Not a big blogger?
ccnoffi - Blogging Pet Peeves Part 1 and Part 2
Kludgy Blogging - A whole whoppin slew of blogging must reads with a side of nougat!
If you just want some bare bone lessons, you've come to the right place.
Lessons Learned - Blogging
- Once you come up with a subject for your blog post you will quickly discover that it does take 20,000 bloggers to change a light bulb. After you hit publish you will be slammed with comments that "I just wrote a post on that topic!" Upon reading it you will feel like you sucked. BIG TIME. It's fine to continue to write on the same topic but be unique. Do something big like offer your readers a picture of a bunny with a pancake on its head for them to laugh at.
- Unless you can handle staying up until 4am with the only company being Mr. Disappointment, never ask for a few more followers so you can hit a milestone. Watching the number stay the same is not good for your esteem and trust me...you'd rather have someone who wants to be at the party to dance than someone who comes to just look at your appetizers and punch bowl and leave to never be seen again.
- So you finally hit it big and some online retail place has offered you to do a review/giveaway. They want you to use the keywords lampshades or headboards. When you do your post we all know that you are being forced to use these keywords to be in giveaway compliance. Don't patronize your reader into thinking that you have been looking for a lampshade for 6 months and it wasn't until you hooked up with this company that you found the perfect one. *eye roll*
- Word Verification and/or Auto Reply Responses on your comments. These services are extremely annoying to your readers who actually had something important to say. Plus I believe every time they are used a puppy is killed somewhere. Let the guilt lie on your shoulders alone because I don't want to kill a puppy. Take it off and save a puppy.
- Back to blog topics. You will soon discover that your best ideas come when you are driving, dozing off or you are up to your elbows in a nasty diaper. Your memory is not your friend and unless you have some way of quickly jotting it down (please wash your hands if you were the person up to your elbows) you are not going to remember it and will spend a minimum of 3 hours trying to hone in on a lost thought. If you still can't retrieve it...go read those 20,000 other blog posts on the same topic. Yup...that's what you were going to write about.
- Receiving comments. Folks this is a conversation and things go better if you look at it that way. Picture yourself listening to someone give their thoughts on a topic. You respond back with your thoughts on what they said. Then they just walk away without looking back. Hello rudeness! If someone has taken the time to actually read your blog (Praise the heavens because you have a reader!) and give their thoughts, take a few minutes to talk back to them. This does not apply if you have a commenting system that allows people to comment with no way of getting back in touch with them via email, Twitter, etc.
- Getting big. Let's face it (this is where I throw cold water on your face and slap you for good measure) unless you got something really special, you will probably not be the next best thing with a book deal. Here is the thing though...let's say you have 10 followers that are not family or real-life friends and they comment...HOLY CRUD!!! You have 10 people who actually want to listen to something you have to say. This is time for a celebration! I have 3 little girls that I gave LIFE to and feed cookies and they don't listen to anything I have to say. All you did was write and 10 random people listened??? This is amazing! Congratulate yourself!
24 comments:
OMG! You kill me! This post is great. Awesome advice. :)
Thanks for the shout out mama! You rock! And I LAUGHED OUT LOUD about the bit on the review/giveaway key words. Especially, the *eye roll*
Thanks for keeping it real mama!
So, so, frickin' true! Where was this advice when I needed it a year ago?
You rock CW!
I really like your advice on blogging. The word verification is a pain in the butt when I try to comment from my phone or when it doesn't work and I have to type it in 3 or 4 times. Usually I just give up and leave the blog frustrated. I also like that you talked about commenting back to people when they comment. I comment back to everyone who comments on my blog because I see it as a way to converse. I usually also try to go back to blogs I have commented on to see if the person has replied to me. Thanks for the advice today.
Loved this whole post--especially the bit about the people you gave life to not listening! Right there with you. (Saw on a Tweet from @thetamom by the way. Twitter works. It does!)
This is awesome! Great advice as well. Couldn't agree more on the responding to comments (I'm not fishing for a response here!) but I try to always respond to every comment - even if it's just a "Thanks for reading/stopping by" type of reply. You just made me want to celebrate my little newbie blog! ;)
Sometimes the posts that receive the most comments are those about blogging. There is nothing that bloggers like talking about more.
Thanks so much for the link love! Together maybe we can save some puppies!
OK all you jackwagons above me. This is what I was talking about on leaving no email address so I can't talk back at you! All it says is "no-reply blogger" You 8 people are causing me to potentially kill puppies or something worse like stomping butterflies!
Thank you to each one of you for coming over and talking with me though. Look me up on Twitter @crayonwrangler if we don't normally chat because I just *big squishy heart* all of you!
Keep blogging!
I had a few writing ideas in my head before falling asleep last night. As you said, they are gone. So now I'm reading the 20,000 other blog posts written about the topic.... Oh! And yours. I know I wasn't going to write any of this.
As a relatively new Blogger (6 months, is that considered "new" in cyber time?) I adore this post! I've learned every one of these lessons the hard way, and thoroughly enjoy your conclusion that it's an accomplishment in an of itself that anyone is listening at all. Pat yourself on the back, girl. I'm listening, and you didn't even have to give birth me :)
Crayon! Oh, sweet, dear Crayon! :)
First, thank YOU for including me!
Second, I will go goo goo gaa gaa over a bunny with a pancake on its head any day. Third, I TOTALLY have a thing about inspiration while submerged with water! Definitely hinders the ability of getting the ideas written down. :)
This was absolutely scrumptious.
Except for the diaper changing part. Ick. But still funny. I especially like the comment-conversation analagy as well as Pancake-Head Bunny.
Thanks for the Monday afternoon laugh!
I loved this. especially the one about omg 10 people want to listen to what you have to say! I am always amazed that people are interested in what I tweet and what i write on my blog. It makes me happy!
Love it! My favorite part comments So true!!
Oh, the poor puppies! All the puppy killers out there!
Off to look for pictures of bunnies with pancakes on their heads...
No dead puppies on my conscience! It's a cause we should all be interested in!
Good stuff here! I may need to borrow that rabbit with the pancake on his head, he's cute and I think he'd entertain my kids! lol
Thanks for including me in the list! :)
This cracked me up. Yes, when you read Empress' post from Sunday and realize there are millions of blogs with more being added every day it's a sobering fact.
Or a reason to open a bottle of wine, I'm not sure.
I love how you always keep it real! :)
and so very true...SAVE the PUPPIES!
-although, I have to admit...If I have something to say, I will go through the process of captcha. But if I have to attempt more than twice...I move on.
Great advice...as always!
Yes! Thank you for mentioning the no reply bloggers. Sometimes I get all excited about a comment on a post and I really want to continue the conversation and then I hit the brick wall and it HURTS!!!! Love this post.
This was fabulous! Especially the get rid of Word Verification bit. I think, if you play a Led Zepplin record backward, it actually says "GET RID OF WORD VERIFICATION".
Try it once, you'll see.
Thank you for the much need PSA: turn off word ver!!
I usually just comment and then click out. So, if there is word ver employed, there's no way of me knowing, since I've already done gone left, AND my comment is lost, too.
I know this happens with every blog I've commented on that has word ver. I don't wait to see what happens to my comment after I submit it.
There it is: a sobering fact. Like the 15 million blogs there are out there.
And, if you can figure out a way for me to get back to my commenters that is quick and possible? PLEASE. TELL.ME.
I'll give you a million dollars. As it is, I am going on 4 hrs sleep a night.
This was a REALLY good post! I tend to spend too much time crying over my stats, and less time writing. I have got to get that switched around. And I need to figure out which posts I did the best writing on....and stick to that style.
Post a Comment