10 tips to a better blogger!
Hi everyone! So today, I kind of want to talk about how to be a better blogger. There are lots of blog posts out there that sum up how to get a better design, etc. but I thought it would be good coming from me. Lol.
1. Header - the first thing you should have is a good header. For those of you wondering how the hell you will be able to get a good header, you can either make your own, or you can just use a photo editor like picmonkey.com. If you really need help you can always email me. I'm always available to help anyone with their layout needs.
2. Cute Catchphrase - This is not that important, but if you have a cute catchphrase, your layout will look better. Especially if you incorporate it into your header!
3. Info bar - Now this part you don't have to do below your header like me, but it makes it easier for those readers of yours, to see how simple it is to navigate your blog.
4. Same width pictures - This is very important for a neat looking layout, and with same width pictures it can be a little tricky, but it makes your blog look much more organized. And if you take really good pictures that will add to more readers. And if your picture fits the width of your layout, that helps as well! I always try to take decent if not good pictures, and to do that you should (don't have to) invest in a good camera. Now I'm not saying you should invest in an SLR, but a good digital camera, and a small tripod to take those still items/life pictures are good.
5. Profile Picture - This is important to establish who you are to your readers. If you don't want to post a picture of yourself, that's fine as well, as long as it's something meaningful to you. This will allow your readers to get used to seeing you, if you want to connect more to your viewers.
6. Email / Social Media buttons - This is important, because it helps broaden your network, so that way people can connect with you better. I've included in mine facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, and bloglovin'. This gives you a good range of social networks so your readers can follow you there as well.
7. Followers / Email Subscription / RSS feed (Not shown) - This is not covered in my picture above, because my blog's a little too long to show this, but it's important for your readers to be able to follow you either by GFC, email, or RSS feed. It can get a little annoying if you found a blog you really like, but there is no follow button.
8. Archive (Not shown) - This is another really important widget to add to your blog, because it allows your readers to browse the different blog posts you have done in the past. Please don't ask me, how many times I wished some of my favorite bloggers had this widget in their blog, because it really helps when I'm looking for a specific blog post of theirs for inspiration.
9. Grammar - I'm not a grammar nazi, but I think it's good if you spell check a lot of the words you write, and please don't write LOL HAHA for every other word. It gets kind of annoying when someone writes that in every sentence. I use wtf, lol, haha, omfg, omg, and other shorten words every once in a while, but not every other word. And please note that it's annoying when someone puts like 5 + exclamation points, or periods after a sentence.
10. Blog about what your passionate about - The last and final step of your blog is blogging about what you really enjoy. If it's DIY, then blog about it. If you love cars, or knitting, blog about it! And before you know it people will be reading your blog. Not saying that if you don't promote your blog you are going to get readers, but if you promote even a little bit, and get involved with other people's blogs, you will get hits.
Other tips/Advice:
If you want a good layout, there are plenty of free layouts out there you can download, and use on your blog. I'm not advertising for any website, but you can just google up free blog layouts, and you will get a dozen plus websites that you can download and install your layout. Just make sure you always back up your layout, because you never know how the new layout might turn out.
And if you can, don't put up like 15 different colored fonts on your layout. It can get frustrating for someone to read, especially if you color your fonts like this! And please none of that CaPiTaLiZeD FoNt stuff, I think we all know, we aren't in elementary school anymore.
It's always polite to comment back on someone who comments on your blog, because it can increase the hits to your blog, and it's a good way to connect to your viewers! If I don't comment back on their latest post, I always follow them, and if I do find something interesting on their blog later on, I comment.
If you want to learn how to do simple tricks in HTML, and photoshop, my other blog will be up soon! So stayed tuned. And everything I'm offering on my other blog is free, because I learned a lot of stuff from the internet so I'm going to be teaching you all!