Helpful hints for blogging.

For the beginning blogger...

I have wanted to write up some hints for those out there new to the blogging world... so here goes. Now remember, I have never been formally trained nor am I a professional, so I may be wrong.

First off, unless you have a lot of html experience... do not do it by yourself. There are many blog hosting companies out there. The one I am using is Blogger.com. All you need to do is write.. and if you do know html it is just a bonus. With blogger I have it set up that if I want to email my blogger I can do it.. and most of the times when you see a post without links or pictures, that is how it got there. And when you first start it, use a template. You can always use a different template or make you own.. but anyone that surfs blogs knows mine is from a template. What I have done to “spruce it up” is vary my text and add to and revise my sidebar.
I like blogs with a sidebar. It can keep some important information close to the top where others may see it. I prefer just a sidebar on one side... but others may not. For those using a template for you to know where the sidebar info is... normally it says something like ***This is where the sidebar info is*** on the template. As you can see with my sidebar I start with posts and archives which were part of the template when I set it up. This automatically gets updated with the blog.
Next I have a link so others can have my blog emailed to them. Some people (Heidi!) really prefer this just in case they miss checking mine and others blogs one day. I looked for one then found Feedblitz and so far it has worked nice because I have one email sent to me a day with everyone’s blogs that I have subscribed to.
Next I have a button for Blogger that came with the template. And a counter that I think I may have found through blogger, though you can find them anywhere. After that is a link to my favorite site on the web, ScrapShare. This leads me to a hint, to add a link on the sidebar or through html this is what you do you add the following [a href=”http:// and link to your site.com”>Name of your site[/a> except you replace [ with < href="http://this is the blog adress.com/">Name or nickname[/a> and again, I replace [ with <. Next I include some fun stuff. A clock I found at clocklink.com, A “thermometer” I found on weatherpixie.com, and a neopet. After that you come to some ads. These I chose to put on my blog and I can make money from them. The first is through the Amazon.com Associates program, and then the google adsense program. After that is a couple more things that I can earn referrals from – either financial or points. Then comes to some things to assist me in publicizing and tracking my blog. Blog Explosion is a way to add you blog to a site where many others can surf it. Basically you sign up and get points for looking at other people’s blogs as well as through other games and such.. those points translate into hits for your blog ... and get people to see yours as well. Under that is StatCounter.com. This is a free site to track “hits” to my blog and to find out whose visiting. For those running a blog to try to make money, this is what they use to find out if they are getting the visits they are looking for, I use it just for s**ts and giggles!!! Next comes a couple more sites that I have sent my blog address to.
At the bottom I have a couple other things. The first is a map I found at
I also have a link to Truthlaidbear.com which is a way to see how many blogs in their “ecosystem” are linked to yours.
Also, some of my posts have photos in them. I know some blog hosts – including blogger – have it so you can add your own photos directly to your blog. But if you already have a photo sharing site like Imageevent or PhotoBucket you can post them on your blog using the following code [img src=http://address to your photos/some name.jpg> again replacing [ with < and if you find the pics our too big you can put height=”xx” width=”yy” between img and src. Usually, on a horizontal photo I put height as 300 and width as 400 if I want one photo in the row or height=150 and width=200 if I want two photos in a row. It is something you can tweak if you want.
The biggest thing is HAVE FUN with your blog. For most a blog is not a job... so don’t worry if things aren’t perfect. Oh, and remember, not matter how private you make it, blogs can be very public. So don’t include things that others may not want published, or things that would embarrass you in the wrong way.
I hope have helped some of you. Blogging is a learning process and I have had fun learning about how to improve mine so far.

C-Ya!