Bloggy DIY for Newbies & Wannabes

Sitting around my table at our bloggy Tea Party, a brand-new blogger turned to me and said, "Simoney you have to do a post for us newbies. Tell us your tips on how to do cool stuff with our blogs...."

This post is in response to that plea. And because I love to see beautiful blogs. And help lovely people.

My technical tips relate to blogger blogs, but if you are on Wordpress (or some other random blog platform), I hope you'll still find plenty to help you too.

Firstly, let me say that I am not any kind of html whizz. I also have not paid anyone professional to design my blog (apart from the lovely young artist pictured above). But I love to fiddle. And I can google. And so bit by bit I am building a blog I am proud to call mine.

Think of your blog like your home.
Your home reflects you, your style, your personality. You want to invite others to come over and visit. You want them to feel relaxed and enjoy visiting you.

You want your home to be more than just a cream box. You want to fill it with things that are useful and beautiful, meaningful to you. If you have visitors you probably sweep the floor and tidy away the clutter, serve up some home-baked goodies, coffee or tea.

So it is with your blog.
You want others to enjoy visiting and want to return?? Make your blog-home a warm, welcoming place serving up good stuff. It doesn't have to be the height of fashion with bells and whistles - it just needs to reflect you.

Beautify your Bloggy-home

The Template: Explore Blogger's new Template Designer. In one click you can add a colourful background, play around with fonts and colours, adjust your blog width and alter your layout. Sick of one sidebar? Add another one with one click. Want bigger photos? Adjust the widths using the slider. You can also get rid of your extra column with one click. You won't lose your widgets. You'll just have to drag and drop them to re-arrange them where you want them. Fun!

Fonts and Colours: Readability is the name of the game! I recommend a white or light-coloured post background for readability. Grey, black and other neutral colours are easiest to read for page text. Avoid bright colours, contrasting colours or busy backgrounds. People will click away if your text is too hard to read or hurts their eyes with its garish glare! Also, now that Blogger has a bunch of new webfonts to choose from, make sure your body text is easily readable - some browsers display fonts differently (e.g. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox display text a bit rough and jaggedy, making the new webfonts difficult to read). Just saying. (I recommend sticking to the regular fonts for body text and jazz things up by using webfonts for headings and sidebar gadgets. A change I sadly had to make myself once I realised that not all browsers show up nicely).

A Header: I make my headers in Photoshop, but you don't need Photoshop to make a really great header that fits with your blog's style. Play around in PicMonkey or  PhotoScape (Download for free here) A header is the first thing people see. It's like your kerb-appeal. Don't underestimate the importance of a header that's unique to you. If you are a bit artistically challenged, you can adapt ready made headers with your own photos, from places like ShabbyBlogs.com

Photos: A picture is worth a thousand words. Use pictures! The bigger the better, I think. At least, start each post with an image. Use a camera phone if you don't have a digital camera. Scan in old photos (or take photos of them on macro). Use google images to search for pictures (and give a photo credit at the end of the post). Break up long text with pictures. Too much text will put readers off (the same way friends get put off if we hog the conversation and talk incessantly about ourselves)Photograph everything. And I mean everything. 

Maximise your Sidebar: Use it! Put links in there.
Grab a set of my cute social media buttons and make yourself easy to follow.

BLOGGER: Make "buttons" to match your blog's style in a photo editing programme. You can use the "picture" gadget to make clickable links to your favourite posts.  Click on the post (or label) you want people to visit. Copy the URL address and paste it into the picture gadget where it says: "URL you want to link to". Or make a list of your recipe posts. Or Crafty posts. Or funniest posts. Whatever is unique to you and your blog.

Put your email address somewhere people can find it to contact you. I recommend setting up a free webmail account just for blog related emails, e.g. hotmail or gmail. De-Clutter regularly. Forget Adsense. Is the .20c a month you might get worth the ugliness that it brings??? Regularly spring clean.

Add Pages Tabs (BLOGGER): This is a great feature on Blogger that not many people seem to know about. You'll find it in the list of functions underneath the orange "NEW POST" button. Click on "Pages", then "New page" and after that it's just like writing a post. Check out my pages for some ideas - the tabs at the top under the header. You can add as many as you like. Use them to declutter your sidebar, to tell the readers more about you, your family, your world. Highlight your best posts. Use them however you like!

How to grow your readership...

Firstly think about what makes your blog unique. What is your unique voice? Who are you writing for? Is this a family record of your daily happenings? Is it mainly to update family and friends living overseas? That's great. But are you wanting to reach a wider audience? In which case you will need to ask yourself, what will my readers take away from this? And tell your stories in a way that a total stranger will be interested. Funny, embarrassing, upsetting, honest... whatever the situation calls for. Share YOU. And make sure you post some pics of yourself; don't be shy. Readers will return if they get a sense of you.

The most important thing about having a great blog is of course content. Be yourself. Write the way you would talk. Let your personality shine through. Don't set yourself up as an expert (unless you actually are a child psychologist with a PhD, but even then, think twice). Laugh at yourself.

Once you have decided you want to grow your readership, here is the most important principle for you: If you want a friend, be a friend.

Want readers?? Want followers? Want comments? You will have to go out there and read, follow, comment. BUT don't become obsessed about it. Do what you do well, be friendly and interactive and you will see your numbers grow. Here's a few tips...

Blogiquette
Use bloggy etiquette whenever possible within allowing it to become a burden. If someone comments, make an effort to reply back. The Blogger commenting system is still a bit awkward, but there are ways around it. Under Settings (Comments) set up your blog to email you whenever you receive a comment. Then you can click on that emailed comment and reply to the sender (if they have an email showing up). Otherwise, leave a comment in your own comment section, or go visit their blog and comment there. It's a bit of work. But think of it as if you are new in town. Just as in a new neighbourhood, you want to meet your neighbours and show yourself friendly. Put yourself out there and make yourself known. The community we build is the joy of blogging.

Add the LinkWithin Widget
This widget selects a list of links to earlier stories, which display at the bottom of each post, with the invitation to read more: "You Might Also Like...". This is a great way to encourage readers to keep on reading. Just follow the easy instructions here.  :)

Check out the NEW Stats Tab
Find out who is reading your blog. Not many people comment, so just because you don't have many comments doesn't mean no-one is reading. It's fun to know, but don't get too hung up on it.

Use Social Networking
Make the most of online communities to spread the word about your blog. Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are the most popular ones, though Google+ is starting to grow too. A Facebook Fan Page is NOT linked to your personal profile so strangers can't access you private profile from it. You can also sign your blog up to Networked Blogs on Facebook and have your posts publish automatically to your FB profile and/OR your Fan Page and to Twitter. I'm not personally a Twitterer, but I do have a Twitter account to which all my blog posts get posted automatically. Pinterest is particularly useful if you are writing posts which others will find interesting or helpful, like craft, baking, parties or other how-to's.

Join In: Networks and Link-Ups

I recommend SITS, BlogFrog, and Mom Bloggers Club Under 100 Followers group. Go and sign up. Join in conversations. Reply to other people's discussions. Leave your link. And if you are a Kiwi Mummy Blogger, join Kiwi Mummy Blogs :)

Linky parties are lots of fun. There's all sorts you can hook up to including my Best in Blog Monday linky.

Things I'm Loving, Wordless Wednesday, Woo Us to Your Blog, Tickled Pink, Pour Your Heart Out and more! These linky parties are great for getting new visitors. But if you really want to increase readership... guess what? You have to visit other people's links and leave comments. Yep. You do.

  

Privacy...

I recommend giving your kids nicknames. And not using your surname. And not linking to your facebook page from your blog. When I started blogging I used my kids real names, I had my surname plastered everywhere and there was a facebook follow widget in my sidebar. Then I came across a discussion on Mom Bloggers Club about the subject of security. I guess there are wierdos out there in Blogland. Lets protect our kids and families from them.

But also, do I really want my kids real names out there forever linked to their toddlerhood shopping tantrums so any future employer can google them?? No. So I came up with nicknames.

The beauty of nicknames is that it is less confusing and more personal than say, "Master 7", because Master 7 will soon be Master 8 etc etc. Plus having an online alias is fun. My kids love their bloggy nicknames!

A Word of Warning:

Blogging can become addictive. Try to not get obsessed about numbers and comments; that will steal the joy, guaranteed. JUST ENJOY.

I hope you have found this useful in the process of Bloggy DIY. Leave me a comment with any other questions you have... Blog On!


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My Other Blog Tips:

Blog Tips: Guide to Good Blog Design

Blog Tips & Tricks for a Delicious Blog
Blog Tips: Creating Pages to Organise Your Blog
Blog Tips: Making Photo Collages & Using Photoscape
Blog Tips: Making Grabable Buttons
Blog Tips: Make Your Own Social Media Buttons

Making Clickable Links (Hyperlinks)
Blog Tips: Using "Labels" Properly
The Gentle Art of Commenting
Ten Tips I Would Give My new-Blogger Self
If you've Lost your Blogging Mojo... read this