Blogging Tips & Tricks {Part 3}

This is it, y’all.  The third and final part.  Make sure you read Part 1 and Part 2 as well, and then we’ll all be well on our way to awesomeness.  And the blogosphere will be a better, prettier, and funner (it’s a word) place to be.Win-win.

How to Have an Awesome Blog {Part 3}
Implementing these next tips is suuuper important (in my humble opinion).  They’re all kind of random, but each could make or break your blog and/or your blogging experience!

1. Use Windows Live Writer (if you have a PC).  It changed my life.

I heard something once about blog posting through Windows Live Writer, and then I realized that my laptop already had it installed (you may already have it too, or you can download it HERE if you use a PC)! And people, it will revolutionize your blogging experience.  I used to literally go stark raving mad (err, STAY stark raving mad) due to the time it took to upload pictures on Blogger and due to the way Blogger would randomly screw up all the spacing on my posts and due to the fact that Blogger just overall SUCKS!!! (yes, I am bitter.)

Then I started blogging with Windows Live Writer, and groups of pictures that might have taken 15 minutes to upload on Blogger take about 5 SECONDS on Windows Live Writer.  AND you have the option to size them to your exact specifications!!

And that’s not even going into all the other multitudes of reasons that posting blogs through Windows Live Writer is AWESOME. It is exactly like posting in Blogger, except way better.  You must try it, and you will understand.

For all you Mac-ers out there, I hear uploading pics through Photobucket or Flickr is much easier than using Blogger.  There’s a tutorial HERE. But sorry, I don’t think you can use WLW on a Mac… I guess this is the one and only thing Windows has on Apple! ;)

2. Speaking of pictures, put only the best ones on your blog (and make them as large as your template will allow).

This is so, so huge.  YES, blogging is a writing based media, but your blog will be judged as a whole package.  When you include large, clear, and good quality photos on your blog, you are drawing your readers in – in a way that not even words can do.  A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So make sure your photos aren’t shoddy and your readers don’t have to squint to see them.

Great photos add SO MUCH to a blog.  Think about your very favorite blogs, and I bet you will realize that most of those bloggers all incorporate great pictures! And NEWSFLASH: you do NOT have to have an awesome, expensive camera to take better pictures for your blog!  Any ol’ digital camera will do, and even some phone cameras take great pictures!  You just have to learn a couple excruciatingly EASY tricks regarding angles, lighting, etc, and your pictures will improve dramatically.

Just before I started getting into photography, I asked our wedding photographer for some tips, and she suggested I buy the book How to Photograph Your Life by Nick Kelsh (find it HERE – check out the used copies! I think I paid about 12 dollars for mine!).  It’s a really awesome book for beginners, even though it’s old.  The information is timeless!

3. Install Sitemeter and Google Analytics.

Both are fabulous (and FREE) tools for monitoring stats, pageviews, and even (in the case of Sitemeter) how many people are live on your blog at any given moment! Do it.  You will become obsessed.  In a good way?

4. Utilize ALL social media to help grow your blog and keep people coming back for more!

This is another big one, in my opinion.

If you aren’t using Facebook and Twitter to help bring people to your blog, you’re being silly. 

Let me explain. Specifically, let me explain the benefit of Twitter to those of you who haven’t entered the 21st century yet jumped on the Tweet Train yet.  I was against it at first, too.  And honestly, I don’t really see the purpose of Twitter unless you’re a blogger or have a business you’re trying to promote, or unless all your friends are on Twitter too.  But if you’re a blogger and not on Twitter, you’re missing out on a valuable way to drive traffic to your blog and to maintain relationships with other bloggers.

So go make a Twitter account.  Start following all your blogging friends, and some will follow you too.  Then write interesting tweets sometimes.  Then reply to other people’s tweets.  Then post a link when you publish a new blog post, and make your link sound interesting so people will want to click it.

Do the same thing on Facebook.  My blog has a Facebook page, and I post a link to the blog when I publish something new. 

It’s just marketing, people. Marketing and relationships. In the 21st century.  Get with it.

(and by the way, Twitter is not only a great marketing tool, but it’s a super fun way to get instant feedback and chat with blogging buddies.) Follow me on Twitter! (shameless plug) “Like” Story of My Life on Facebook! (another shameless plug!)

and finally…

5. Grow a thick skin. And assume there are crazies reading your blog.

Ah, yes, the crazy people.  My final piece of advice to you is to accept the fact that, as your blog’s following grows, you probably WILL encounter some crazies.  And I’m just warning you: if you give people the option to comment anonymously, they WILL.  And it’s usually not because they have something nice to say.

Just a couple short months into blogging, I received my first ugly anonymous comments, and I was horrified by it.  I removed the option to comment anonymously, but even now I still hear from some haters/people-who-fell-out-of-the-looney-bin-and-discovered-the-Internet. 

Do not respond to them.  They are people who don’t know how to create relationships through kindness, but instead just try to get a reaction and a rise out of you. Or they might just be legit insane.

But DO be very careful about the personal information you put out there.  Just because you don’t have any crazies YET doesn’t mean you never will.  Trust me on this one!

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I sincerely hope you found all these tips helpful!  If you did, spread the word!  Let’s make the bloggy world a better place.

Do you have any other tips I missed?! Leave them in the comments!