Repost of Blogging Tips

After looking at all of the blogs from the blog hop The Bold and the Beautiful (your blog reviewed)  I am reposting a post from September. I recommended to almost every blog I visited that they download Windows Live Writer.  This will explain a little about it.

Thanks to everyone who linked up!  I’ve been to almost every blog. If I haven’t gotten to you, I will today. I hope that you are visiting some participants too. I’ve seen a LOT of you leaving comments as I travel from blog to blog!

IF you linked, but didn’t write a specific post for the party, I probably deleted your link. Please write up a short post explaining what is going on, you can even copy the blurb in the blog hop.  In the future it just wouldn’t make much sense if someone happens upon your blog about “cherry pie” and saw a bunch of random advice about your blog.

On to this original post from last fall:

 

 

 

It’s been a while since I posted any blog tips, so I thought I would fill you in on the things I’ve learned lately.

 

Windows Live Writer

First, I want to talk about Windows Live Writer.  It works in conjunction with Blogger. It is the way I write ALL of my blog posts.  There are no limits on the amount of photos you can upload at one time. It is very user friendly and easy to navigate. This is what it looks like right now as I write this post.

You just type and insert pictures. It is very easy to cut (ctrl x) and paste (ctrl v) pictures from one spot to another.

After you upload your pictures it is very easy to resize them or crop them right from this menu.  If you resize or crop them in Windows Live Writer, it will not change the picture on your hard drive.  You can even add “Alternate text” to make your photos have “real names instead of those names your camera gives them when you upload them to your computer. Having real names may make your pictures easier for search engines to find. If you hover over the picture above, you will see I have named it “blog tips”.

If you are already familiar with Windows Live Writer, did you know that you can set your settings where you upload all your pictures and have them watermarked automatically.  I used to have to click on each picture, resize it, then add the watermark. I stumbled upon the settings change by accident.  Now, when I upload 1 or 20 pictures, they upload to the size I want them with my watermark already on them.  Talk about a time saver! 

To do this, upload a few pictures, click on “Advanced”  size them and watermark them the way you want them to always look. (you will have to click a picture in order to get the Picture options to show up)

After you get them how you want them, click from “Advance” back to “Picture”. You want to see this little option pop up in the bottom right corner. Click on “Save settings as default”  That will make your pictures always load that way.

You can thank me later!  ;)

 

Okay, while I’m on the subject of how much I LOVE windows live writer, there is one downfall. Rose and I noticed that when we updated our blogs, a thumbnail was not showing up on each other’s blog rolls. I Googled it over and over again until I found out the cause of the problem. It has to do with the address that Windows Live Writer “parks” your photos for storage.  I tested the theory by starting a post in WLR (windows live writer) then setting the publish date for the next day. Then I clicked Publish, this sends the draft to blogger. I went to my dashboard (in blogger) and went to edit posts. There I opened the draft and uploaded the first picture I wanted to show up on my friends’ blog rolls. I saved the post, closed out and went back to WLR.  Voila!  there was the picture.  You can do this step at any time. You can write your entire post, then go to blogger and insert a picture at the top of your post.

  WHY would you want to go to all that trouble you ask? If a picture shows up on a friend’s blog roll, someone may be more apt to click on the link and visit your blog.  Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don’t.

 

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Google Reader

Rose shared this link with me. It is from Erika’s blog “Oops I Craft My Pants”.  If you read blogs in a Google reader, you may find this very helpful!  Basically in a nut shell, while in your google reader, you click one little button on your tool bar and you navigate from blog to blog. Let me try to explain it better. In reader, you get the full text and pictures, but you don’t see the blog layout. If you do this little tip that Erika explains, you will actually be going through your Google reader items, but traveling from one blog to another. You will actually see the entire blog, click next and it quickly will take you to the next item in YOUR Google reader.  Look what shows up when you reach the end of your item list:

Another great feature of visiting your items this way, is that it allows you to leave comments without jumping out of your reader. However, I just did it so I could snag that picture, and I kept getting a 503 error.  I’ll have to go back to make sure my comments “took”.

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Comments

First, let me say that it’s YOUR blog. You are the owner, writer, and proprietor of your blog. BUT, don’t you write you blog for your readers?  If that is the case, then please consider these options.

1. Allow your email address to be shown in your profile
2. Turn OFF word verification
3. Turn OFF blog owner approval
4. Turn OFF music

1—If you haven’t already, get an email address JUST for your blog.  Try your best to make your email address the SAME as your blog. My email address is MyRepurposedLife@gmail.com.   After you do that, go to your profile page and click edit profile

See that little CHECK BOX, click it!   If you do not have it clicked, this is what I see when I try to reply to your comment via my email.

noreply-comment@blogger.com   

I know a lot of bloggers who spent a lot of time replying to comments only to find out later that they were lost out there in cyberspace. (You know who you are!)

By the way, I subscribe to my own comments, that sends them to my inbox which allows me to quickly answer comments via email.  (those who are NOT noreply-comment@blogger.com)

2— Word verification.  We bloggers love a little pat on the back, don’t we?  In my opinion, you will get more comments if readers do NOT have to type in those nonsensical words! 

3— Save yourself some time and headache by not approving your comments.

4— Music, I can almost hit my mute keys in my sleep.  I LOVE music, I truly do. However, sometimes I may have several blogs open in different tabs.  Can you imagine if even TWO of those blogs are both playing music? If you look at any post about blog tips, they will ALL say, turn off the music.

 

I am not a newbie, nor am I an old pro.  But, after blogging for a little over a year now, I have learned how to make my life easier. I do not allow Anonymous comments. That’s it!  Simple! After changing that option on my comments settings tab, all the headaches went away. (as did all that smut that ended up in my inbox) (edited to add, Blogger has come a long way in stopping spam, so I typically allow anonymous comments now)

Okay, if you haven’t closed me after that, thanks!  Just keep an open mind. I read a LOT of blogs, and make a lot of comments. Please consider making some changes, even if they are only temporary to see if you can live with the changes. You can always change it back to your regular settings.

Another thing about comments. Blogger has recently made some changes. They are filtering spam. Since they started doing that, I routinely check to see if any spam has popped in. It hasn’t BUT some real comments have been tagged spam. So, if you haven’t checked it, you may want to make sure you don’t have any real comments in your spam file.

See it?  Right under the word Comments?  Spam

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Keeping your traffic on YOUR page.

Think about this scenario. A blogger is having a giveaway, they tell you to click HERE and then come back to comment about yada, yada, yada.  When you click HERE, the page you’re on disappears. The link  does NOT open in a new window. By the time you check out the site they wanted you to check out, you are lost in cyberspace or blogland and can’t find your way back to the original post to leave the comment.   I have even copied “buttons” for link parties that don’t open in a new window. I always change these buttons so that my blog page remains open and the button opens in a new window.

In Windows Live Writer, it’s pretty easy. When you add a hyperlink, it gives you the option to check a box to open in a new window.  Easy peasy.  In blogger, it’s a little more difficult.

Look toward the end and you will see where I added target=blank 

EDITED TO ADD:

You will need to hit the SPACE bar then do target=blank. If you look closely you can see it after html”  

When you add that to the end of your link it will open in a new window. So if you link to a  party by a button , or by a link at the end of your post, you want to make sure it says target=blank.  You don’t want your readers leaving your blog.  Right?

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Guest Posting or Blog Swapping

You do not need to give your friend your password in order for them to post on your blog.

Write your post like you normally would, in blogger or in Windows Live Writer.  Set a far away publish date and publish your blog. This will “park” your photos and will allow you to send your post to your friend.

In blogger,

click edit html

ctrl a (select all)

ctrl c (copy)

open your email to compose a new message

ctrl v (paste)

That will paste the code in the email.  Send the email without doing anything to it.  If you need to send instructions to your friend, send it in another email.   Your friend can then open blogger and start a new post. They will need to

edit html

and paste your code into their post.

In windows live writer, you would write your post, and publish it at a later date.  (if you don’t change the date till a later date, it will publish to your blog right then. After it finishes publishing:

click  source at the bottom (left) . That will open up the html code.  Follow the directions from above, copying and pasting into an email.

Remember, you must publish your post to blogger (using a later date) before you can send the code. If you don’t publish it, you will end up with the pictures with the little red x because your pictures won’t have an address.

 

Have I totally confused you?  I hope not. I’ve only done it a couple of times and I still get confused when I go to do it. Usually I’ll talk to Jamie (the html queen) and she will repeatedly tell me, “it won’t work, your pictures will NOT show up”

EDITED TO ADD:

I want to show you another Blogger feature I discovered.  I have analytics (which tracks traffic and post popularity). But now, if you don’t have analytics, you can still keep up with your traffic. I’m sure you all are familiar with this tabbed screen.  Look all the way to the right.  Stats 

Click on it and you will see something like this: This is just the front page of what you can see.  You can delve deeper into it to see what posts are getting the most hits.  It’s very informative!   Let me know how you like it, k?

 

THE END

In my archives you can check out Blog Tips and Tidbits, More Blog Tips and Tidbits, Still More Blog Tips and Tidbits.

 

 

gail

 

 

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