Being a Better Blogger

[thartley]

Question for Admin:  Can we get RSS feed linky things for our individual blogs here to make it easier for people to be notified that the blog has been updated?

I am trying to do a (dare I say GREAT?) job documenting all the things that happen to me and around me as a first time far from home volunteer, and I am committing to updating my blog on a regular basis.  My questions to anyone out there are:

1.  How often should a good blog be updated?  What is too often? 

2.  If anyone has read my blog here on Isara, are my entries too lengthy for this form?

3.  How entertaining are extra links added to the body of my entries?  Does anyone click them, like the YouTube links I was ending them all with? 

4.  Are photos a plus or a minus in my blogs?

Right now, every time I update my blog, I send out an e-mail with a link to a distribution list I have set up in my e-mail specifically for my blog.  But they may be forwarding the link on to other people I dont know about and I want a way to capture those folks' attentions for repeat visits.

Comments?  Suggestions?  Order me to shut up? 

[Ginafish]

Shut up already!

Photos, always a plus.
It's your blog so if you want a lengthy entry, do it, if you have to share a quick story, then do it, even if you have already posted that day. Better a great short post than too long in between posts b/c you are saving up.

I've seen some blogs that post once a week, once a day, three times a day, they just run the gamut. Post when you want to and when you have something to share. Just try not to let more than 2 weeks go by or people will forget to check on it.

Extra links are cool if they are a part of your story. For me, I click your links b/c I know you. If I just happened upon someone's blog and noticed that every entry had a link pointing to youtube, I might not click b/c I wouldn't understand the relevance.

To create traffic, use your blog address as your web address every where. You can sign up for other blogs and then use that address solely to point to your isarablog. Also, participating in a weekly meme can increase traffic too (like the Fridays Feast I do, just look for a meme that has more than 100 participants).

Can't think of anything else right now...need more coffee...

[thartley]

I would think that posting too often could be as bad as posting too infrequently.  It is my blog, but besides wanting to use it to keep friends and family current on what is going on with us, I'd like to make it entertaining enough to draw some kind of readership...besides friends and family. haha!  I'm here for six months and as I chronicle the organization, events, and mishaps in my isarablog, I want to maximize its reach for the .org

Photos, check.  (duh)

But I don't even know what a meme is. 

What about the RSS or the ability for viewers to subscribe to our blogs?  Anyone know?

[Ginafish]

The isarablog/thartley page has a link to My blogs' rss reader, but when I clicked it and bookmarked it, it didn't work. When I tried it with my isarablog and clicked "My blogs Rss", it instantly popped open my bookmarks and let me add it in. Soooo...maybe there is a setting you have switched off even though the link is there.

And yes, it does get annoying when people update too often, unless you update twice in one day and then don't do again for three or four days. If you do it four times a day, every day, that's overload.

A meme is an online blogging device you participate in with other bloggers. The Meme's List is a list of meme's for each day of the week. Each one will have it's own instructions.

[PK]

Hi thartley. REgarding the RSS question. If you click "Settings" in your blog control panel, there's an option for "Site Feed". Click that and you can activate your blogs RSS feed.

Here's what mine looks like:
http://www.isarablog.com/rss.php?w=pk

Let me know if that works for you.

[thartley]

Yep, I got that now.      I saw it on Ginafish's blog, but I didnt see an RSS link on anyone else's blog.  I checked my settings and poof, there it was...marked NO.     So I enabled that and it should be fine now.

What I was trying to do today was get my blog registered on some community-based network, and I found MyBlogLog but I couldnt get my blog url to authenticate in the registration process, but I think I have that figured out.  I just need to go back into the MBL account I created and test it out again. 

I'm not sure if MBL is the best, or even a good, way to go.  I think its more of a traffic tracker, but its geared toward the blogging community and I figured it might not hurt.  I'll see how it goes.  I can add our MySpace, Facebook, etc. to my profile there as well to perhaps use that avenue as well to gain some traffic over here. 

[thartley]

I found this article this morning (or is it afternoon, I still dont know) and thought I might share it with everyone.  Its got some good suggestions and quite a few I am still twisting around in my grey matter.

http://www.lifehack.org/a...ing-a-better-blogger.html

Isara has a pretty cool blogging section that I think is greatly underused, and I'm talking to myself on that one too.  I hope to rectify that, though.

Anyone out there who regularly blogs and has some pointers they want to share, please do.  I know Pohui has at least a couple of blogs.    

[Ginafish]

ZeroG, pk - if either of you have a chance, I know you both are pretty handy with computer speak, and thartley asked me a question about customizing the blogs. I poked around the template a little bit, but I don't speak it's language.

Is there a way to add a button on the sidebar that links to another website? I'm sure there is in the 'format template' section, I just can't figure out where to put it (maybe under links?) and how to type it. (what do all those <<>>'s and a's mean?) Thank YOU Both!

(btw, I know some websites provide html code for their buttons, but this website didn't, that makes it double tricky, I haven't ever tried to add a button that had html with it, much less one that didn't. )

If anyone else has an understanding of what I mean, jump on in!

[ZeroG]

Go to the Settings->Links tab and add your links there.

The links should show up in your template by default.

[Ginafish]

Well, I know that you can add links to your blog that way, but you can't add a graphic that way. I'm wondering how to add a graphic link to the side I guess that then when you click on it, takes you to another site.

I tested putting a graphic link, using your suggestion,  into my blog by using the html code from the 'link to isara' area, and titled it "Isara", but after I saved the links and viewed my blog, it is reverts to a text link.

The site that thartley is linking to requires you to have a graphic link so then they will post your blogs link, but all they provide is the graphic, not any code.

[ZeroG]

You will need a link to the image, and a link for the site.

Replace the first http:/... with the link to the site (everything between the double quotes),
and the second http:/... with the link to the image.

<a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/?source=arcatum.net"><img src="http://www.pokerstars.com...rs/euro_current/85x68.gif"></a>

Then insert it into template after the </div> and before the <h3>Friends.

Or just post the two links here and I will post the code.
 

[Ginafish]

Weird! I did like you typed (A HUGE THANK YOU!) and got the graphic box with the link into thartley's blog.

Now... her blog and my blog use the same template but hers is all now screwy.

Can one line of code do that?? I guess so, b/c it did! I just don't know if that will work though...

Here's the addresses for our blogs so you can see a before and after template.
http://isarablog.com/ginafish
http://www.isarablog.com/...?w=volunteer&e_id=591

I'm at a loss as to what happened to her white boxes. 

I'll just leave it alone till T gets to see it and how wacky it is. Maybe changing templates overall might help and then inserting the code??

[Ginafish]

Once we get this figured out, we (*cough*you*cough*) need to post a 'how to put graphic boxes into Isarablog' for the future so that it's easier to find. Or I guess we could split the topic and rename it. Benefits of being moderator!