Hey there lovely BBN’ers! I hope today finds you well. I want to talk to you a little about Blogger today, following on from Laura’s fabulous post on Monday.

Now, if you’ve been using blogger for a while there may be things you want to improve about your blog and things you want to customise. Let me take you through a few options, with a few sneaky links to my blog thrown to give you the step by step process. Here are my top tips for making your Blogger look a lot more like you and a little less like Blogger

1. Customise your social media icons. I posted a tutorial about this one here.

2. Customise your header tabs to suit your design. Another great tutorial here.

3. Change your blogger background from the default. Now, if you use the template designer, this is a walk in the park. Here’s a little picture how-to for that:

Now, you might well be thinking hang on Sarah – this is supposed to be for more advanced bloggers on a Wednesday. Which is true. That was maybe a little bit basic. But here’s the advanced option!

You’ll notice (if you’re keen of eye) that my pictures about demonstrating the template designer all relate to my other writing blog. This is because for ACLC I can no longer use Bloggers template designer. I have messaged the good people at Blogger about this, as I was initially confused about why this should be. It turns out that once you have customized your blog to a certain degree, you kind of overload the template designer and confuse the poor thing a little! This is where I am with my blog. Does this mean I can’t change my fonts or backgrounds? No siree. Here’s the (more advanced version) of the above tutorial, in case this is something that has happened with your blog too.

First, upload your chosen background image to blogger on a page or post or onto Flickr if you prefer. Copy the image URL for the background image you want (just right click and choose copy image URL). Make sure you have that link saved ready to use.

So, there we have it. Three different ways to alter our blogs and make them more pretty from beginner projects to advanced.

Have a great day people!

Last week, Angie talked about ten reasons to use WordPress, and today I’m talking about ten reasons to use blogger. I’ve been using blogger for over three years now, and minus the occasional hiccup (which ever site has), I love blogger. It’ll be a long time before you convince me to jump to WordPress.

Here’s some reasons why.

1.) Simple, Free, and Easy

If you have a Gmail address, you can sign up in just a few minutes, and even if you don’t have a Gmail account. I originally signed up for blogger with a live.com email address (that was the hip version of Hotmail – shows you how long I’ve been blogging!) and it took me about five minutes to pick a blog name, a URL (the URL I wanted was already taken) and a blog design (I’m picky about how my blog looks!). If you aren’t picky and you know exactly what you want for your blog name, this will take two minutes, maybe less.

2.) Tons of Designs

If designing isn’t your thing, there are plenty of free websites that have thousands of free templates that you can use.

3.) Customization 

If designing is your thing, blogger is pretty simple to figure out. And for the things you’re stuck on, there’s resources like Google (the company that owns blogger) and Pinterest to help you with the super hard stuff.

4.) Widgets

Blogger has a decent amount of widgets for blogger. But, in the chance that you find something that doesn’t have a widget, all you need is an HTML code that you can copy and paste into the “HTML/SCRIPT” widget and wah-lah! You’ve got the widget just the way you need it!

5.) Domains are Super Cheap

On Blogger, you can pay $10 to buy a domain for a whole year. And that’s it. Unlike WordPress where you have to pay a fee to link your blog to a domain on top of buying the domain, all you do is buy a domain with blogger and you can hook it up to your blog for free.

That’s right, I said free.

6.) SEO

Because blogger is owned by Google, it’s already accounting for SEO (search engine optimization), so whatever you’ve read about boosting it is just the added bonus to what Google’s already doing for ya!

7.) Google+ Integration

Google+ is supposed to be the latest and greatest social media network. A lot like Facebook, you can create a page for your blog on Google+ and whenever you publish a post (scheduled posts don’t work), you can have Google post a link to your blog post on your blog’s page, automatically! And now, you can have Google+ comments on your blog too.

8.) Author Adds

It’s easy to have multiple authors on a blogger blog. You can have up to 100 authors on one blog, and as long as someone has a Google account, they’re good to go. As the admin (or creator) of a blog, you can control what every other author can do.

9.) Google Analytics

You can use the blogger statistics, but Google has built in the option to link up Google Analytics to your blog. I just recently discovered all the wonders of Google Analytics and I love it.

10.) WhoIs ID

When you register your domain under blogger, Google lets you use their information in the WhoIS database. WhoIs shows things like your address, your legal name, and all that stuff you aren’t supposed to post on the internet. Thanks to Google, I was able to say I live in California instead of Texas like I really do. Yay for fooling WhoIS!

What are some of your favorite reasons to use blogger?

Basically, PageRank is a link analysis algorithm. The formula or how it is computed can be quite confusing  but it relies pretty much on the number of backlinks your site receives. A backlink is a link on one website that leads to another site.

Sounds pretty easy, right? All you have to do is just have others link back to your site. But PageRank’s algorithm does not only look at the number of links received but also importance of these pages that contains the link. They also consider the relevance of the links, are they related or not? Hence, the quality over quantity still applies.

But is Google PageRank important? 

A PageRank is only a piece of a puzzle of making your blog statistics better. Before, it was probably considered the most important in terms of getting advertisers. Now, most advertisers rely on the number of following and readership. But that doesn’t mean you should just shrug it off. If done properly, a PageRank can have a significant impact on your Google rankings = more viewers and traffics based on search results.

Now, don’t be too hard on yourself if you only got a 0 or 2. Google frequently checks the PageRank, so there’s always room for improvements. The ideal number for a personal blog is 3, especially if you are interested in sponsored posts or link advertisements.

For reference and given the amount of traffic the following sites receive, here are some sites and their current PageRank:

• thewonderforest.com - 4
• skunkboyblog.com - 4
• seaofshoes.com - 5
• abeautifulmess.com - 5
• fashiontoast.com - 6
• tumblr.com - 6
• imdb.com - 8
• facebook.com - 9 (imagine that?)
• twitter.com - 10

In a nutshell, your blog’s PageRank is important but it is not something you should be obsessed about.

Here’s your chance to create a few back links to your blog. Post your link below!

When I was first getting used to WordPress, not only did I have no idea how many plugins were available and readily out there, I also had no idea how much they would help! I’ve been using WordPress for a number of years now, and I feel pretty confident with the list of “essential” plugins I’ve put together below for those who are not sure where to start.

This list covers a lot of things that you will encounter as a blogger, from optimizing SEO, to communicating with your readers, and making things a whole lot easier for yourself!

To install any of the below plugins, go to your WordPress admin panel, navigate to Plugins > Add New > Search.

1. All In One SEO Pack
Out of all the SEO plugins out there, this one remains the most complete. You can optimize everything from your post meta to your categories and links. It’s also incredibly easy to set-up and use.

2. Bottom of Every Post
This one is a recent discovery for me! Use this plugin to tack on whatever content you want at the end of each post. I’m currently using it on my blog to include an image of my signature, and a link to my BlogLovin’ account!

3. Google XML Sitemaps
This is important from a search engine point of view. XML sitemaps will create a directory of your blog’s pages, which makes it easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index. With a few clicks it’s installed, and you never have to worry about Google forgetting to crawl your website again.

4. Jetpack
Jetpack comes with your install of WordPress, and includes stats, sharing, its own comment system, and tons of other features. Seriously. I thought I didn’t care about this until just a few months ago, but I quickly changed my mind the very first time I tried it out!

5. WP Realtime Sitemap
This is a great plugin for reader discovery. Use Realtime Sitemap to create pages with full directories of your posts – all of which are automatically updated as you publish them! I’m currently using this plugin on my website, so feel free to check this page out for a full demo.

What are your favourite WordPress plugins? Leave your number one choice or top five in the comments!

WordPress is arguably probably one of the most well-known content management systems. Both for personal and professional use, some of the options it provides makes it the top choice for many users. Here is a list of 10 reasons why.

1. Flexibility. WordPress is an extremely flexible platform that affords its users many options. Whether your plan is to have a website with a static page, one that is merely a blog, or one that incorporates both, it is possible with WordPress. Users no longer have to rely on coding a static page and using a sub-folder for a blog. This is easily achieved with WordPress.
2. Extensions. WordPress boasts an extensive plugin collection and, due to its open-source nature, if you have the knowledge you can make your own plugin as well. Plugins can range from providing a mobile version of your site to allowing you to use footnotes without the tedious coding it involves. The best thing about WordPress is knowing that if something isn’t built into the base functionality, it’s likely you’ll be able to find a plugin that satisfies your needs.
3. Visual Editor. If you can do it in Word, you can do it in WordPress. The visual editor is truly robust and allows users to copy and paste text directly from Word. It allows you to see exactly what your text or formatting will look like as you type and if that’s not enough, there’s also a nifty “preview” button users can use to see what it all will look like once your content is published.
4. 5 second installation. WordPress is extremely easy to install. Once the your files have been uploaded, you simply have to go to your website and it will walk you through set up.
5. Themes. WordPress has over 1500 themes to choose from, allowing you the ability to completely customize your website in a manner that works for you. Themes vary in style and cover many personal and business needs, including standard blog layouts or even commerce layouts for businesses.
6. Author management. It’s not uncommon to feature guests posts or guest authors. WordPress user systems allows you to set up accounts for guests based on their role. For instance you can set a guest post to be an author, contributor, or editor. Likewise if your website is managed by more than one individual, you can make that user an Administrator so they have the ability to tweak themes, add extensions, and more.
7. Support. If there is ever a time where you’re unsure of how to do something or need help with code, WordPress not only has a thorough knowledge base but also a great forum community with members who won’t hesitate to help!
8. User Friendly. Arguably, one of greatest things about WordPress is how user friendly it is. The administration area is very user friendly with easy navigation. If a user is unsure of how to do something, support links are also provided to point you in the right direction.
9. Search Engine Optimization. WordPress is SEO friendly right out of the box. Unlike a lot of content management systems, WordPress allows search engines to index every single page. If that’s not enough, there are optional plugins you can use to further customize your SEO options.
10. Automatic Updates. In an effort to ensure that WordPress is continually secure, WordPress will be automatically updated when the most current version is released. This boosts both security and performance.

WordPress has many other features that make it one of the most used platforms. Whether it is the extensions or the support provided, it is truly one of the most versatile content management systems in existence.

What are some of the reasons you use WordPress?

Facebook is one of the big three in blogging social media. Everyone and their mother has a facebook account. I’m 19 years-old and a college sophomore. I can only think of one person my age I know who doesn’t have facebook.

So, is a facebook page necessary? Yes and no. If you’re just starting out, no. Why? Facebook pages take a lot of time to cultivate a good following and Facebook is constantly messing with page owners about what type of posts will get the most views (Answer? Not the ones with links. There’s a reason everyone is sticking those in the comments section now). Facebook expects us to pay to have people see our link posts and since most bloggers don’t have an infinite budget, we’re forced to outsmart Facebook and work around the limits.

If you’re new to blogging, you’re probably trying to build a reader base, whether it’s on blogger, wordpress, bloglovin’, twitter, facebook, or whatever it may be. If you’re new, wait for facebook. It’s a lot easier to get followers on twitter than it is facebook. I don’t know the logic behind why that is, but I know it is. My facebook page has 208 likes, I have 450 twitter followers. Over double.

But, if you are pretty good at this blogging thing and you’ve been doing it for a while, go ahead, make a facebook page. For the few people in my life that actually read my blog, it’s so much easier to direct them to my facebook page than to give them a totally different URL. If it doesn’t start with facebook.com, a lot of people get scared unless they can click on the link.

It’s so much easier to say “search ‘Howdy Girl blog’ on Facebook!” than to say “Go to your address bar and type in howdygirl.com.”

So, yes, a facebook page is necessary. But it may not be the right time to start one.

When we first start out, we have to ask ourselves, why are we blogging? What do I as a person have to contribute to the blogging world?

I’m a lifestyle blogger. You know what that means? Lots of outfit posts. Shoes, glitter, DIY, make-up tutorials, lots of pretty photos of going out on the town.

I don’t have any of that. My life consists of living in a tiny dorm room where the fire alarm goes off for no good reason. I work behind a computer screen too many hours during the day and yet, after three years of blogging, I still find things to blog about.

How?

I’m observant. I notice the way people act, I process the things people say, I over think everything. Got an opinion about something going on in the world? Blog about it! Discover something interesting about your town? Blog about it.

Last week I blogged about the mindset of living half a mile away from Texas’ Death Row.

Another way to blog about your uninteresting life is to keep notes. I use Evernote whenever I get a great idea that I can use for a blog post.

When I think I’ve gotten to the point where my uninteresting life has finally caught up with my blogging ideas, I pull out my little list and write one of those ideas.

Or maybe participate in a link-up? There’s plenty of them out there, I promise!  Even just reading other blogs may give you inspiration that will make you realize, “oh, hey, I really don’t live a boring life!”

Hey there lovely BBN’ers! I hope you’re having a fantastic day, wherever in the world you may be. Today I’m here to talk to you all about niches. More specifically, about whether you should have one at all.

Now, as with most things blog related the choice here is yours and yours alone. For some of you bloggers a niche will be the most logical thing. You may run a crochet business and want to focus your blog on all things craft related. You may be a keen surfer and want to discuss all things wave related.

If that kind of thing sounds like you then great – go ahead and niche away to your hearts content! The only thing that can be tricky as a new blogger is deciding on a niche that you can stick to and stick with for the future. This can be a really daunting task – it might be hard to imagine which topic you can see yourself blogging about into the future.

If you are going to choose a niche for your blog then here are a couple of tips and things to consider:

1. What are you really passionate about? Whatever that is, write about that. Don’t chose a niche based on what might seem trendy as you’ll quickly lose interest and momentum as the weeks and months go by. Also, if you choose a topic you love that will literally shine through in your writing and people will get a sense of the real you through your writing. You’ll also build a great following of blog readers who share your tastes and ideas.

2. Try to create a blog name that can flex and move with you over time. Although you may start in a certain niche it might not be that you stay within that niche forever. For example, if you love to make cards and your name is Carol you could conceivably call your blog “Carol’s Cards.” Catchy, no?! If however, a year or so down the line, you branch out into art work and leave the cards behind. Then your title will be a little irrelevant and not a good reflection of what you do. Perhaps a title like “Creatively Carol” might give you more room to breathe.

All that said, I personally don’t believe a niche is necessarily necessary. So, if you’re struggling to think of one or choose then fear not – you don’t have to make that kind of choice.

Take my blog as an example. I blog all about curiosity. The title is A Cat-Like Curiosity. Which gives you the hint that I love cats and that I’m a curious person in general. But within that curious angle I can blog about all kinds of things: art, DIY posts, inspiration and all kinds of other topics. Which is nice for me and for my readers I think – they can grow along with me on my blogging journey.

Here are some tips for blogging without a niche:

Have a general theme to your blog that holds together your ideas. As in my curious blog – that curious nature is what gives me the license to blog about just about anything I want to!

Be consistent in your writing style. Once your blog readers get to know your voice they will be able to recognize you in any kind of post you may write. That will mean they will have that lovely sense of familiarity when they head over to your blog but also they get to be surprised by whatever delightful thing you’re writing about today.

Think about introducing some series on your blog. I have a few of these – Lovelies can be adapted to cover blog sponsors, my favorite shoes or anything else I think is lovely. These will provide a sense of familiarity but will give you enough room to wangle your varied tastes into your blogging in an authentic way.

I hope these hints and tips help you in your blogging journey, wherever you may be along that particular path.

Have a great day people!

I think that most bloggers would consider the Big 3 social networks to be Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

For me, Twitter had the steepest learning curve out of the three. It’s such a diverse and fast moving universe, where things are in a constant state of change. Even Twitter Etiquette seems like it’s constantly evolving!

Over the years I’ve been a Twitter user, I’ve slowly discovered what works, and what doesn’t. Of course these things are different for every blogger, but I’ve kept the Twitter Don’ts below as simple as possible, and there are a ton of them that I think would be considered universal.

For example, does anyone really want to hear about what time you went to bed yesterday?

DON’T #1: In the wake of a worldwide tragedy, don’t forget to place a hold on your auto-tweet service. If you forget, there’s a very good chance your promotional post will look decidedly tacky alongside others prayers and best wishes.

DON’T #2: Try not to treat your Twitter account like everybody treated Facebook in 2010. Keep yourself away from mundane, taking a tap, walk, or break type status updates. Offer something to your followers, instead!

DON’T #3: The fastest way to get me to remove you is to over-tweet. Keep it simple. Keep it under 10 tweets per day, or 1 per hour.

DON’T #4: In my opinion, sending automatic “thank you for following me” direct messages are the equivalent of Twitter junk mail. It’s tacky, and more importantly, a total pain for me to mark as red or delete.

DON’T #5: Don’t forget to give shoutouts to your supporters! If someone tweets a link to your recent blog post, promotes your blog, or otherwise shares you with their followers, don’t forget to say thank you! If you’re a few days late, don’t worry about it – it’s better late than not at all, right?

DON’T #6: Your Twitter bio is important, and should not be left blank. Put something short, sweet, and catchy – and try to include keywords, if it’s possible.

DON’T #7: While we’re on the topic of your Twitter bio, never use a short URL service to link your blog. It looks spammy and unprofessional. If you’d like to track how many of your visitors come from Twitter, use Google Analytics!

DON’T #8: Definitely keep your hashtags to a minimum. It’s that simple.

DON’T #9: Don’t forget to share information with your followers! Offering knowledge is like offering a service, and I promise some people will find it invaluable. Retweet other blog posts you find helpful, and share links a few times a week.

DON’T #10: Stay away from the default Twitter layout, especially if you’re a blogger. If you are unable to create your own design, use Google to find a free background! Put your personality into it, and show off a bit of your own personal taste.

What about you guys? Do you have any Twitter Don’ts? Leave a comment with yours below!

I’ll tell you about mine, because it actually happened to me.

At first I was confused. Then I got really upset. And then I cried, ate some chocolate, and watched tv for an entire day. I went back later and did everything I could to find it, but it was completely gone. The most frustrating bit was that I had been doing a bunch of research into backing up my blog and was planning on doing it the day it went missing. All of the stories, tutorials, reviews, carefully placed links, attention to details, and heartfelt posts with others’ uplifting comments had completely vanished. I felt like a piece of my heart was yanked out of my chest. Possibly the worst part was that I wasn’t the cause of its disappearance. There was nothing I could have done to prevent that from happening.

The details about what exactly happened aren’t the important part. The important part is that you don’t go through what I did. You just don’t know what is in the future for you and your blog. Whether you get hacked, you make an error while learning and experimenting with coding, you make an update that will erase your content, or a tech support employee makes a mistake with your database, you’ll be happy that you took the time to back up your blog. And if nothing like that ever happens to you, you’ll still have the added peace of mind that all of your writing is safe and it’s one less thing to worry about.

WordPress.com Blogs:

WordPress.com backs up all your files automatically. However, it may not be easy or convenient to access. It is done so that should anything happen to the servers of WordPress, your blog will still be around. It’s not exactly meant for you to be able to find and use at your leisure.

Because WordPress.com blogs are hosted for free, there’s a limited way to backup your content. The only way I’ve found is to do it manually on a regular basis. Think of it as a part of writing your latest blog post. After you finish writing the content and either schedule or publish it, back it up! It usually only takes a minute. Or, you can update your data backup once a week or month as you feel comfortable doing. Make sure you replace the old file with a new one, unless you want to make a new file every time for your entire blog.

On the left menu, under “Tools” select “Export.”

This will export a bunch of programming gibberish that you don’t need to understand. But within it is all of the information you’ll need if something ever does go wrong with your blog (or if you need to transfer from one blogging platform to another).

WordPress.org Blogs:

You can manually back up your WordPress.org blog the same way you would for a WordPress.com blog, but there are some more convenient options as well. Since you’re self-hosting and paying for the freedom of complete control over your blog, there are some handy plug-ins that will do it automatically so that you don’t even have to think about it. Some of the free ones are:

BackWPup 
BackUpWordPress
Backup (to Google Drive) 

You choose how often to have backup files automatically made, and the setup of each of them is really simple.

 Restoring Your WordPress Blog

Should you need to use a backup file to restore your blog, it’s a simple process. The same way you use “Export” under the “Tools” Menu to manually backup your blog, select the “Import” option instead.

Choose the blogging platform you’re importing from (in this case, WordPress).

Then select the file to import all of your blog information from.

Your content will be imported, and if you have the same theme that you had when you made the backup file, your settings in it may also be restored.

So remember: If you’ve taken the time to create a blog and make it an extension of yourself or your business, be responsible and back it up too. Take it from me–you’ll be glad you did when you don’t have to deal with the same mess I’m still cleaning up from.

……………………………………………………………………………
Additional websites and info on backing up WordPress Blogs can be found here:
WordPress.org: WordPress Backups
Lorelle on WordPress: Backing Up Your WordPress.com Blog