Blog Tips and Observations from a fairly Newbie Blogger

Blogs are time consuming little buggers - both writing them and reading them.  I've been blogging for a little over a year now, and I must admit, there hasn't been a single time that I've thought about discontinuing my blog.  I enjoy it too much.  I have to admit that it's sort of a heady experience when you start gaining a few followers.  You think, "Hey, someone actually wants to read what I'm writing".  But then you come down a notch when you realize that sometimes people will follow your blog just so you will follow theirs.  I think we all have our favorites.  I follow about 90 blogs, but I only read a dozen or so on a regular basis.  I would love to read them all - every day, but I would be reading 24/7 if I did.  Along the way, in both reading and writing, I've made some interesting observations. Here they are:
Observations:

• More women blog than men, especially those "over 50" bloggers.  In that age group, it's probably a mixture of reasons.  A lot of 60 plus men are content to learn no more about computers than they have to know to get by in their jobs and in the world.  Men of that age group also tend to use the "hunt and peck" method of keyboarding, whereas, most women over fifty have either taken keyboarding or typing courses for work purposes.  I'm speaking from experience here.  Example:  My hubby.  But I've found men bloggers to be fun and interesting, for example, Mike, over at Our Little Meadow makes me smile every time I read his posts.

• More women are blog followers than men.  I think women are just naturally more curious and more eager to connect with people who have the same interests as we do.

I've also recently given a lot of thought to trying to improve my blog and thought I would share just a few things I've learned.

• How do you get people to read your blogs.  From the blogs I've read, it seems like I keep reading the ones who write about things they know and love.  If you write about something you're passionate about or something that you have a talent for, there will be readers who will follow you.  I love reading human interest blogs, DIY blogs, decorating blogs, farm life blogs, and also blogs about other cultures in other countries.  It's sort of like writing a book - if you write what you know and write it well, you will have readers.  I've also found that linking one of your posts to someone's blog who has lots of followers will attract readers.  Susan, over at Between Naps on the Porch, has a terrific blog on decorating and tablescaping and she has hundreds of followers.  On Mondays and Thursdays, she has a project specific blog that she invites fellow bloggers to link their related subject blogs to hers.  When I've linked my meager efforts of tablescaping to her blog, I've had hundreds of "hits" each time.

• How to create blogs that get in the google searches:  Blog sites have statistics to help you see where your readers are coming from.  Some of mine come from family and friends, some come from fellow blog followers, but many come from Google searches.  Last Spring, I was so surprised when I saw that I was having hundreds of visitors to my blog each day.  That was puzzling since at that time I was a relatively new blogger on the block.  I had written about the royal wedding and the Disney princess comparison of the clothes worn by the wedding party.  I Googled "royal wedding, Disney Princess Comparison" and lo and behold, my blog was on the first page of the Google search lists.  Since that time, I've had more views of that blog than any other I've done.  If you want to pull in readers that way, write about current trends that are in the news that people are naturally curious about.  Here's that blog post, by the way.

• Organize your blog for easy reading.  You can have more than one blog and I do - simply because I write about different subjects.  My main blog is Life Happens, which is really more or less human interest items.  I have a blog about my flea market adventures, but recently found that if I had simply created tabs in my main blog and organized it a little better, you would be able to click on the "flea market adventures"  tab at the top of the page and see only those stories.   It's time consuming to do more than one blog, and attracting readers to more than one blog is tiresome. 

• To pimp or not to pimp your blog and why it can turn off readers:  I know that every blog reader and writer is different.  Some love to what I call "clutter" up their blogs with links, calendars, sparkly gidgets, etc.  I've experimented with all those things too trying to improve the appearance of my blog.  But I'm one of these people who has Attention Deficit Disorder and too many things on a page confuse me and they cause me to not pay attention to the real blog material.  I find myself overwhelmed - like in a candy store that has so many flavors that you can't pick just one.  Most of this stuff isn’t making our blogs any quicker, easier to use, or even prettier. Most of it is simply clutter.

• Photos:  I love photos in blogs.  Photos tell a story that sometimes words can't express.  People who read your blog and find you interesting also want to see the things you're talking about.   There's a reason for the old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words".

• Help new bloggers.  If a new blogger comments on one of my blogs, I go out of my way to read his/ her blog and post comments.  If it's good content, I'll provide links to his / her blogs so other's will follow the link and read it.  I appreciate all who did that for me when I began blogging.  That's how I acquired some of my followers.

• Followers:  I'm not in any contest to gain followers, but it does thrill me when I see that someone new has started following my blog.  A nice thing for seasoned bloggers to do is to try following a newbie blogger occasionally, just to give them a boost.  I know that our blog rolls can get overloaded with blogs that we follow, but we don't have to read all of them every time someone posts. 

• Comments:  All bloggers want feedback on what they're posting.  If you don't get any comments, you think that no-one likes what you had to say.  When people take the time to comment, I try to do a follow up comment to show that I appreciate what they have to say.  It takes time to read blogs and comment.  But a comment means a lot to a blogger, so pay back your fellow commentors!

• Be kind and be positive.  No one wants to hear rants and raves when they're reading blogs.  They want to read pleasant experiences.  And no-one wants ugly comments.  It hurts feelings.  Of course, there are some exceptions.  Some blogs are designed for letting off steam.  There are readers for those kinds of blogs too - just stay true to who you are and what type of image you want to project. 

And don't quit blogging!  We, your readers, are disappointed when we no longer see posts from those bloggers we have come to know and love.


In the one short year I've been blogging, I've learned a lot.   I am still learning every day and still experimenting with my blog subjects.  I don't have a lot of followers, but I enjoy and appreciate the ones I have.  If you have any pointers you would like to share, please do so in your comments.  We should never quit learning.  There's always room for improvement.