Blog Tips

10 TIPS FOR THE CASUAL (or not so casual) BLOGGER

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10 TIPS FOR THE CASUAL (or not so casual) BLOGGER

I thought I would do a Blogging Tips post today. This is for both the casual and the blogger who wants to take that next step. Both types can use these tips. Many of these are basic and some are what I’ve picked up along the way. I hope you find something useful.

10 TIPS FOR THE CASUAL (or not so casual) BLOGGER image

I. CREATE CONTENT PEOPLE WANT TO READ

  1. You may have a target audience you would like to reach.
    • Do some looking around to see what other similar blogs as yours are doing and have had success with. Don’t copy them, but take the idea, put your spin on it. With all original content. This should then spark other ideas.
    • When reading or watching whatever type of media is your preference, consider the topics being discussed for posts on your blog.
    • When reading a novel there may be something that gives you an idea for a post. This has happened to me several times with tips on how to write.
    • If you are a writer, then do posts about writing. A poet? Poetry. A carpenter? Carpentry. Baker? Baking.

II. CREATE POSTS THAT ARE LISTS

  1. A numbered list like ‘Ten Ways to Paint Your Nails Without a Nail Polish Brush’ will get you visitors/traffic/hits. I don’t mean traffic just for the day or week you post it, but also off and on for weeks and months to come. I have posts from 6 years ago that still get visits.
  2. Images are a hit or miss now. The pros of blogging and Social Media are saying fewer people want to see your images. If you think about it, it makes sense. I would say most people want a quick and easy-to-read list of information. If they need to scroll down past one image after another, they might leave the page and not visit you again. But if the images are relevant, include them. The list might be ‘The Greatest Album Covers of the 80s’, which would need images.

III. HOW TO POSTS

  1. You can do a post on a popular topic you know about that. Or you can create one about something on-trend right now. But if you see it’s popular, you’re too late, but give it a shot, anyway. Do a post on something you like. It won’t hurt your blog. And if it’s a real dud, that’s what delete is for. Go to a site like Google Trends to see what’s happening now if that’s what you’re looking for.
  2. If you choose something outside of your comfort zone, make certain you have your facts right. But I suggest you stick to what you know and what your blog is about unless it’s about random topics. Then I suppose you can go for it.

IV. CREATE A PROFESSIONAL AND QUALITY POST

  1. After I determine what kind of post I want to do, I spend time with it. For a haiku, a poem of three lines of seventeen syllables, I could spend three minutes, three hours, or longer. I want it to be just as I want it. Sometimes I’ll ignore this rule, rarely, but I do so to keep myself writing. And posting forces me to write. If I’m writing a post about thirteen types of ghosts in cultures around the world, that’ll take a while, because I don’t like to copy another person’s post. I may use part of it for inspiration, and then go off and hunt down more information that I want to use that differs, so mine is unique, or as unique as one can get on the internet.
  2. If I write my poetry, it can be weird, but for poetry that’s okay. It’s a creative art form to let the crazy out sometimes. It’s the healthiest way you can do so.
  3. But when I put out a post like this or a How-To post, I want to make sure it looks and reads as what I call casual-professional. The tone may be casual, but when you look at the structure, the grammar, and the spelling, I want it professional.
  4. If you have Word, go into the settings of the Editor or what most of us call the Spellcheck and customize what you want it to check for.
    •  Or you can use Grammarly.com which is free and has options to check your Word documents and even your post in your WordPress.com Posts editor.
    • There are others, such as ProWritingAid.com/Free, which is like Grammarly. I like the reports you can check out. I may do a post on the sites I’ve found. Both services limit what you can do with the free versions, but they’ve been working for me just fine.
    • I’ve noticed my writing has improved. I recognize the problems as I’m typing, not only punctuation but diction, grammar, and sentence structure, just to name a few. Do I always use the suggestions of a site? No, because sometimes it’s in the dialogue of a book I’m writing. Dialogue does not always stick to the rules. If it did, it would make for a somewhat boring and mechanical tone, but sometimes I might want that.

V. CREATE AN ATTENTION GETTING TITLE

  1. Clickbait? Yes, but in a positive way.
    •  Use the keyword that people are looking for, then build your title around that. Keep it as compact as you can, meaning use as few words as you can, but still let the people know what the post is about, maybe even why to choose your post over someone else’s.
    • Making it unique is including that one descriptive word that you feel stands out about your post.
  2. Don’t do the bait and switch and have barely a mention of what’s in the title. This is self-explanatory.
  3. Don’t have a post that has nothing at all to do with the title.
  4. Have you ever clicked on a great title and ended up reading about two or three paragraphs and been like, ‘This is a lying sack of burning garbage from the backside of a dog?’ Me too. Don’t do that. You’ll lose your regular and faithful visitors that way, not just those first-time visitors.

VI. CHOOSE A FORM OF ENGAGEMENT WITH OTHERS

  1. Reply to comments on your posts but keep it positive. Don’t argue. You can disagree but keep it professional. I’ve had to do this.
  2. Visit other blogs.
    • Engage with the blogger in the comments of a post you like.
    • Engage with other bloggers that make a great comment.
    • While on another blog, never argue or be negative. Always be positive.
    • Only like, comment, or engage in any way, if you truly like the blog and the blogger. And that brings me to the next point.

VII. NEVER FAKE IT

  1. It’s so easy to spot the fakes. You can tell by the words and tone. I can’t explain it, but you’ll figure it out.
  2. Whenever you comment, type what you mean with the words that come to mind. Look at them after you type, and you can always change a word here or there that will make you seem smarter than your thoughts might say on their own. Or that conveys your comment in more precise wording.

VIII. DON’T SWEAT IT

  1. At one time I was doing just about everything to drive the traffic up higher and higher on my blog, but it became too much.
  2. Unless you have an unbelievable amount of energy and organizational skills and commitment, you’ll burn out.
  3. Blog burnout is one of the worst feelings. You want to create posts. You have ideas. But you just can’t write put them in post form.
  4. If you keep writing and you’re doing the other things, then people will visit, it may be slower than on some other blogs, but do what you do and just let whatever happen… happen. Unless you’re looking to be more than a casual blogger.

IX. SOCIAL MEDIA

  1. This will surprise you to hear, and there will be some who might comment and completely disagree with me, but Social Media, at least Twitter, isn’t quite what it once was. I”m not saying to ignore tweeting your post. I’m just saying you need to cultivate relationships and make friends. Somehow create a connection where a reader wants to come back for more. I, fortunately, made friends before I all but abandoned my blog for a long time. Those friends kept the blog alive until I was able to return not to long ago.
  2. If you can find a good group on Twitter to be a part of that will help a lot to make Social Media work for you. Or you can grow a group of TRUE SM FOLLOWERS and by ‘TRUE SM FOLLOWERS’, I mean don’t do the follow-for-follow or the follow back trains. I did that recently as an experiment. Then I stopped.
    • Each week I’ve seen double digits in the number of unfollows. I still have new people following me without me being required to do anything in return, but often the unfollows are higher, but it’s evening out as of the original writing of this post.
    • To find out how many are following or unfollowing, you might try one of the SM hub sites, like TweepsMap.com. It tries to get you to install a browser extension, but I haven’t. I get an email report on how many new followers and unfollowers I had for the week.
    • I knew what the results of the experiment would be, but I wanted to speak about it from experience, which is what I mostly do when I do Blogging Tips or How To posts. Before the experiment, I was gaining followers at a steady pace each week, just not massive increases. But they were TRUE increases and in my area of interests, the literary types mostly, but not always.
  3. Try all the various Social Media possibilities, then monitor your stats each week. If you look at the Referrers section, you can see where most of the clicks are coming from. It’s not bulletproof, but it’s good enough for me.
  4. I would suggest doing some posts through Instagram and note to check your profile for the link you want them to click on. Have a good image, maybe even a very short few seconds telling people to click the link in your profile/bio.
  5. I’ll give you an example. For my basic broadcast to other outlets than my blog, including Social Media, on Monday of the week of this post, my usual biggest day, I received one visitor who clicked on a social media link, and that was a Facebook link. Other bloggers will vary based on how much time and effort they’ve put into whichever SM they are getting those referrers from.
  6. But keep trying until you find your people. I know I’m not a big magnate for Social Media responses. I haven’t ventured into Reddit much, but I’ll try that out to include in a future tips post.
  7. I’ll finish this section off with something I just checked, from back when I was heavily involved in blogging. Back then I was working the blog about eighteen hours a day. And I was doing number I, II, V from above a lot. Outside of my challenges, my next three biggest posts that year were
    1. 10 Tips list
    2. A very Attention-Getting and Timely Titled post
    3. A How-To post.
    4. My referrers that year ranked as #1 Search Engines (11 of them), #2 WordPress.com Reader, #3 Twitter, and #4 Yahoo mail. The Search Engines and WP Reader accounted for 85% of the referrers that year. Twitter was 10% a lot of this percentage came from blog shares that were extremely popular at the time. Every Sunday had this one that would trend in the top 10 on Twitter, and Monday there was another one. But as you can see, Twitter is a different animal than it once was.

X. TAKE IT EASY

  1. If you are like I am now, you want to create excellent posts that you think people will like, post them, and don’t worry about what happens next. Don’t worry about negative comments on your post. You can even deactivate the comments entirely, but that causes some limitations at the time in engagements with the good people. ‘Negative comments’ is my polite way of saying savage beasts who create a diatribe of spittle covered screens. Your friends might give a constructive suggestion, like with your poetry. One did so for one of my recent poems, but they did it in the right way.
  2. If you create a weekly challenge, make certain to visit the participants’ entries. If you like it, then click like, if you don’t then don’t.
  3. Honesty. If nothing else, post and be honest. Don’t lie just to keep them coming back to your challenge.

 

Check out these other posts for more tips:

5 Ways to Grow Your Blog Audience. This one has some of the same information but a lot of different as well.

How to Survive the Blog Life. This is a good one for new bloggers, as well as veterans who are starting to feel weary. 10 things I’ve realized over time that can make you lose heart or lose your mind while blogging.

1 Key to Help People Find Your Blog.  Most of us know what Gravatar is but not everyone is using it to their greatest advantage.

 © 2020 Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.

5 WAYS TO GROW YOUR BLOG AUDIENCE.

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I’ll be sharing how to set things up to attract attention with a post and what to do with it once you’ve attracted readers. Okay, so I don’t make money from blogging, but to me, the Readers are friends and encourage me to continue writing. How do you think the amnesiac finished a book and has it on Amazon? I was in limbo before I started blogging and found the community here.

5 Ways to Grow Blog Audience

YOU NEED TO GRAB THE ATTENTION OF THE CASUAL READER (CR).

If you’ve been blogging a while and look around for how to bring people to your blog, then you’ve seen tips about catchy Post Titles. Yep, this is the big one for getting people to click on your post, to begin with.

  • Don’t lie or bait and switch. In other words, your title should be true about the post. If not, people won’t come back.
  • How do you create that attention grabber title? I’ll give you the three that work the best.
    • Use numbers if doing something like quotes.
    • Use the old ‘How to” if you are going to share a tip or advice.
    • Or use “What do you do …”

Do these work? Here are my top 10 most ‘Liked’ posts.

Anything I mentioned above stands out to you on that list? The question is, did I use those methods on purpose or not? The truth? I did it with only one, and that one I did use the numbering the way the tips I’ve read said to. I used 18 instead of using numbers such as 5, 10, 15, 20, and so on. What you see though is, that attention grabbers work. However, grabbing them doesn’t mean you keep them coming back.

YOU NEED TO KEEP THE CR’S ATTENTION.

To turn a visitor into a regular reader of your blog:

  • Follow through on what your title promised.
  • Make your post visually and mentally stimulating.
    • Get the readers eyes moving.
    • Mix up your post with Images scattered about and not always centered or all in a column along one side of the post.
    • Don’t have too many font sizes or colors. That gets annoying. If a list, like a list of quotes, perhaps alternate two colors, with odd being one color and even being the other.

YOU NEED TO PLAY THE NAME GAME

Sounds like I’m saying to spread gossip, right? No. What you need to do is make sure when you put an image in your post, you have filled in the Alt Text field for the image. Why? Do you notice that quite often people put images at the very topAlt Text Image in Media Library of a post? Have you ever noticed that I rarely put my images right at the very top? (WordPress has changed there Alt Text field to the top of the box since this image was captured. I’ll be updating it shortly._

There’s a reason I don’t. Search Engines crawl through your pages searching for key words a person is looking for. If you have an image taking up room at the top, and nothing in the Alt Text field, two things get messed up: the Search Engines may discover other more SEO friendly site pages and push you down the list during their hunt, and the other thing, nothing to do with Search Engines, is screen readers for the visually impaired don’t read that blank field and it throws them off a bit. Simply pick maybe the best five words to describe what the image is about in the context of the post. It doesn’t need to be complicated. It could be something like “Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge Image”. Also, be certain to include what the post is about in the first paragraph as well as anywhere appropriate.

LINK TO RELATED CONTENT YOU ALREADY HAVE.

If people visit you looking for one topic, add a link at the end of your post to previous content of a similar nature the reader may find interesting. One thing you can do with the old post is to change the name of it to something catchier and more attention-grabbing for the reader to click on. The thing is, your content may be great, it’s just your title is bad. (See Blog Tip: Links to Blogs and Articles-How to and WHY to find out to link.)

YOU NEED TO INVITE READERS TO FOLLOW YOUR BLOG.

Make it easy for a visitor to click follow. You can:

  • Put a link to Bloglovin’ in your post and have people follow you that way. It’s not my preferred method but it is one.
  • You can also include your Twitter handle with a link included for people to follow you on Twitter. I do this. (Wonder how to add it? See Blog Tip: Links to Blogs and Articles-How to and WHY
  • You can also put a script in your post that when people click on it, they follow your blog. I do this.

I imagine you may be wondering what that script is I mentioned. Let’s see if I can put it in here and make it not work.

[ blog_subscription_form ]

Success! What you need to do is take all the bold you see and remove the space between the [ and the b and between the m and the ]. Place that in your post and it will appear as everything between my Book Cover below and my Twitter handle. There is no actual HTML scripting.

Check out 10 Tips to Make Blogging Enjoyable. Traps to Avoid or 18 Quotes to Inspire Writers, Bloggers–Everyone. You choose which your in the mood for today.

Much Respect

Ronovan

Click HERE to see my Historical Fiction novel on Amazon.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2016

How to be a Great Guest Blogger by author @RonovanWrites!

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Visit my guest post on Hugh’s blog. Some great advice in the comments as well. Seriously.

MAKE YOUR FONTS VISIBLE ON IMAGES.

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You have a great piece of writing and a great photo to put it on. You put the words on the image and what happens? You can’t seem to find that happy color of font to show all of your words because a normal photo has a great number of colors in it. Even if your photo is the sky, you have shades of blue ranging from so pale a blue it looks white down to the dark blues to almost dusk. The answer? Overlay images.

A Note: All overlay images were found in the public domain. The actual photo of the building is mine.

Make Your Fonts Visible

One thing to know, this post is not that long, it’s mostly taken up with image examples.

How do you make it work and still see your image? You know you could put a block of color in the sky and put your text in. But that ruins what you’re going for.

Enter picmonkey.com.

I use picmonkey quite often in tandom with pixlr.com, a free photoshop like product online.

Below is a photo from the top of a parking deck on the campus of UGA. You can see the stadium lights to Sanford Stadium over the buildings in the distance. As you can see, my name doesn’t show very well across the building but very well in the sky.

UGA by Ronovan Hester

Below you see the menu inside of picmonkey.com after you have loaded your image. The thing to know first is to create the overlay image/shape you want to use and then type your text. You can then manipulate all you like and the text will be to the forefront. Of course you can always do it the other way around as sort of a see through a veil or curtain affect.

A-Points to the Overlay Icon in the shape of a butterfly. The overlay does exactly as it sounds, it overlays something on top of the image already showing. You can even pull in your own image to overlay on top of the image you first loaded.

B- For the purpose of what I want to do with this image and text I’ll chose the Geometric options.

UGA Picmonkey Overlay Demo

C-I am choosing the rectangular Geometric option because it actually can be manipulated to any height or width. The square, for example, will obviously adjust to remain a square.

UGA Picmonkey Geometric Demo

D-You are able to make the image height taller or shorter by placing your cursor on the point along the edge and dragging the edge down.

E-You are able to increase or decrease the width by doing the same as the above but along the side edges.

F-By placing your cursor over the small circle over the top of the box and then clicking and holding down your mouse you are then able to rotate or tilt the box however you like. Something to keep in mind is making the text and box lines parallel.

UGA Picmonkey Geometric Manipulaiton Demo

G-Here you see the Editing Box for the Geometric Overlay rectangle I used.

H-There are two boxes, one for the outline of the rectangle, and then below it is the inside of the box, the part we’re concerned with today. The box will start out as black, but you can click on the box signified by “H” here and choose a color. You may first want to use the part signified by the “I” first.

I-To make the box fade to transparent you increase the Fade. I left the color as black here and you can see the letters are still more visible as a whole than before.

J-You are able to do some different Overlay manipulation other than simple fading of a selected color by choosing the Blend Modes option. Simply select the different options within and see what they do. Some are very surprising.

UGA Picmonkey Demo

Below you see the final result with the box having been changed to the dark green of the trees in the background to the right of the building. I chose this color by clicking on the black box image, signified by the letter “H” above and choosing the eyedropper. I then clicked on the tree. I could have also let my cursor go over all the colors inside of that letter “H” box and the Faded Geometric rectangle would have changed colors as the cursor passed over each color.

UGA Faded Ronovan Hester Green Demo

And last we have the copyright in the sky with a red background of a box with the same blue lettering as above. Skies are difficult to have attractive lettering in and this will help you accomplish that. Something to consider with what I did here. I moved the box and text up and then tilted everything back to horizontal. Easy? Maybe for some, but what I did, to make certain the text and the box were in line with each other was drag them both to the bottom and line them up with the bottom edge of the screen. Then I moved them to the top.

UGA Ronovan Hester Sky Demo

You may pull in your own images as overlays by choosing the Your Own at the top of the Overlay options. Following are two examples. One is the UGA G, the image was found in the public domain. The photo is mine. It is followed by the same image with a curtain, found in the public domain, overlay over it.

UGA Image Ronovan Hester G

UGA G and Curtain Ronovan Hester

You may have a lot of fun with this feature. I did have to make the G and the Curtain fit the building image. To do that all I had did was take the corner of the image and drag it to increase the size. Try it, you’ll see how easy it is. The other Overlay image options do the same thing as the Geometric and Your Own.

When you save the image, remember to rename it to something other than the original name of the image. That way you keep your original image in its original form.

You are also able to use these techniques when creating book covers.

Enjoy!

Ronovan Hester is an author, with the debut novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in December. He shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com with the hope if inspiring others to overcome and continue on. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Blog Tip: Be A Free Blogger or Go Super Nova.

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Caught in a trap. Can’t walk out. Cause I . . .  wait, um, let me start this again.

What is a Free Blogger?

We’ll get there, if I remember.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you can’t walk away from something because of responsibilities? I’m not talking about relationships, but you can probably take this along that same line.

When you have been blogging for a period of time something will happen. That something is called inspiration. You will develop these ideas, then–there you are—commitment.

You get these ideas that would make great blogs, great community building ventures. You see a support blog that NEEDS to be created.

These things are all well and good, whatever that means, but count to a million aloud and then see if it still sounds good. If it does, hold your breath to the count of a million.

The great authors and creators of the world do something I find interesting. When an idea comes to them, they don’t write it down. If in six months the idea is still with them, they go with it, if not then it wasn’t that great of an idea.

If you spread yourself too thin you become just that—thin. Your blog content becomes weak and your ability to connect with people suffers. I’ve been fortunate that in my one main inspired venture, Lit World Interviews (LWI) has a team taking up my slack. You see, I love authors. I mean LOVE them. I am one, and I know the agony of feeling you are alone and searching for help. Thus LWI was created and now a sister blog Authors Supporting Authors (ASA).

LWI runs because of that team, not because of me. I don’t even need to exist for it to be there. And it is a way for the Team members to have another outlet and help people once a week. ASA runs when people tell me they have a need. I just realized that as I wrote it. I had felt badly about how slowly ASA is moving. It has a good number of followers for such a young blog, but the activity is not that great. And now I am fine with it.

But the problem comes when you commit to an endeavor that takes you away from the love of what brought you to blogging. One thing to always ask yourself—if you don’t love blogging, then why are you still here? That means if you are doing all these different things and are feeling pressures you are now doing a job, and part of blogging is to get away from pressures. I know some do blogging as a job or to build a platform but that is a bit different.

One thing about LWI is that it’s a volunteer thing. The members write when they like to write. Two of them have somewhat of a schedule they keep. I’ve given them days that are theirs. That means only they can post on those days unless I have something that needs to go out. But no other team member can post on those days. But if they don’t post, they don’t post. If they don’t post, I worry, but I’m not concerned about there being no post, just the fact they always do and I am worried something is wrong.

Having so many blogs going on, and guest posts to do will cause a major problem. That problem is you find you don’t have the mental energy and at times the physical energy to do things on your personal blog that you want to do. I’m into cartooning a bit now. It takes a lot out of me physically in many ways. I feel guilty because of commitments I’ve made in other areas, and that is part of the strain on me mentally. And no, if certain people are reading this I’ve agreed to guest post for, I don’t mean those guest posts.

Be a free blogger.

That means:

  • Don’t get tied down to anything in blogging that will take away from the release blogging gives you.
  • If you want to do something like LWI or ASA, become part of something that exists already.
  • Groups are a great thing. The more you have the less each person has to do.
  • The less each of you have to do the more you can do on your own blog and still have that sense of helping in something else.

You are thinking that you like to control things or you want it done your way.

  • Start in a group.
  • Learn.
  • Discover if you do want to do this for the long haul.
  • If so, then do one of your own.

Excitement is great in blogging, but you want to keep that excitement. One sure way to lose it is to use it up like a super nova.
Much Respect

Ronovan

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

A Blogging Tip.

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It’s time to take a step back. I notice a lot of people looking at wanting to know how to increase the number of people that follow them on a blog or on Twitter or some other social media outlet. Is that why you first created a blog? Or first chose THAT name for your Twitter Handle? Did you choose @psychochix666 hoping it would attract people to you? Your blog is called myrandomthoughtsaboutstuff. Very enthralling and makes me want to head right on over.

Ronovan Writes is not exactly a “come and meet me” blog title. It’s just what I do. But we all get caught up for a time in the numbers for a moment as people start following us and we see our numbers get close to a certain cool looking number. Then we go nuts.

For a time we begin writing anything we think will draw people in. There is a problem in that. Once you do that you have to keep doing it. Do you really want to write about different ways of using pickles in a dish every Thursday? “Here’s the Dill.” You could call it that. But then you are stuck with it.

At some point this place you created to be you, to share you ends up being a job. You have to do things on certain days. If you don’t do things just right you get people complaining. The place for fun and pouring yourself out has turned into another box/cage to keep you held down and away from the freedom you first felt as you published those first couple of weeks.

It’s not all your fault. You blogging support encourages it with goals and awards. They make out like creating a following is what blogging is about. They make you think blogging is a game of who can get the most followers. To win you must have big numbers.

When you forget why you came here is when you lose. You have fallen in to the trap.

Do you have fun with your blog? Is each post something you want to do? I have a Haiku Challenge I hold each week and I wonder at times if the people really want to do it or if they do it because they have been. That’s a dangerous thing to say because if they are reading this and then decided it is just a habit and not a joy, they will stop.

But I want people to enjoy blogging, even if that means they don’t read my posts or participate in my challenges. Happiness is the purpose of writing. Even if we are writing the most miserable things imaginable we are doing it to get it out of our souls to make room for positive things.

I am well aware there is no time for negativity, misery, or anything like that in life. We are here for a limited time, and there are moments when you come close to that time being up and you realize you should not let anything pull your joy from you.

Sharing you and your honest self will bring people to you—if that’s what you want. I blog with the philosophy of writing what I want to write. My choice of theme for the recent A to Z Blogging Challenge for April is proof of that. I’ve been enjoying it so much even though there are moments of frustration and I will be happy when it is done. I have ideas for it.

I haven’t caved to the numbers game. I’ve written what I like and moved on to the next thing I want to write that I like.

Like what you write. That’s all that truly matters in blogging. Anything else you do is fake.

With all of that being said, for this, my personal blog, with these personal posts, I’m doing away with my traditional “Let’s connect”, ending with my twitter, facebook, and google+ addresses. Those things are elsewhere to find on the blog. I’m here to enjoy.

Much Respect

Ronovan

 

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

How to Add your Facebook Page to Your Blog with a Widget.

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All links open in this window. I had two requests about Facebook and the Sidebar. How to Add your Page to the Sidebar, such as a store or author page. How To Add your Personal Status Page. Click to got to Personal Status Page How To The Sidebar of your blog is like advertising for yourself. Many of us have a facebook page to go along with our blogs. In some cases the facebook page came first. If you’ve been around here before then you know it’s time to start the show.

Facebook Store/Author Page

We’re headed to the Dashboard of our blog. I use WordPress, that means what I describe is what I see.

  • Got to Dashboard.
  • Go to Appearance near the bottom on the left.
  • Hover over Appearance or click it.
  • A menu appears and you click Widgets.
  • Scroll down the page that comes up with all the Widgets on it until you see Facebook Like Box.
  • Click Facebook Like Box.
  • Choose the Widget Area you want to the Box to show in.
  • Click Add Widget.
  • In the Title field, type what you want the Widget to be labeled on your Sidebar.
  • Take the URL from the facebook page and paste it into the Facebook Page URL field.
  • If you want to show the posts from that page check Show Stream.
  • Click Save.
  • You are done.


 

Facebook Personal Account Status Page

This one pretty simple for now as far as getting your RSS Feed URL. I’m still working on a more complicated way for some reasons. But for now this is what I have. return to top

    • Go to http://fbrss.com
    • Log in with facebook.
    • And you now have your RSS Feed links.
    • You can choose Your RSS Status feed or Your Own Posts Only. Pick one.
    • Now we’re off to the Dashboard of the blog.
    • Go to Appearance.
    • Click Widgets.
    • Scroll down to RSS.
    • Select the Widget Area.
    • Click Add Widget.
    • Paste your RSS Feed URL into the box labeled for it.
    • Give it a name.
    • Click Save.
    • You’re Done.

return to top For other How To with Widgets click How to add Widgets to your blog. That’s it for this Widget How To. As always, GO TO THE ABOUT PAGE to fill out the form if you have any requests for more How To posts, please. I enjoy doing them. @RonovanWrites

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How to add Widgets to your blog.

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All links open in this window.

Recently I published a How To article and in closing I mentioned if anyone had a How To they would like to see to let me know through the Comment Form on the About page. I got a request.

Widgets in the Sidebar, how?

Depending on the Widget this can be very simple, or a little less simple, but overall not that difficult.

I will show how to add four types of Widgets. If you don’t know how to get to where you select the kind of Widget you like in your Dashboard, make certain to keep reading before jumping to a certain section. The below links take you to sections of this article.

Let’s get started.

  • As always we’re headed to the Dashboard of your Blog first. I of course use WordPress.
  • In the Dashboard, when you look down the list of options you have you will see Appearance near the bottom.
  • Hover your cursor over this and then choose Widgets from the menu that shows. You can actually click Appearance and the list of options will show below the word Appearance but I like to hover.
  • You have a lot of Widgets you may use but be careful you don’t overcrowd your screen. Make certain what you choose has a real purpose for being there.

Different Widgets obviously have different purposes and it takes different steps for each kind. Some require you add a link from another website. Some require you add an image link from the Media portion of your blog Dashboard. But for each the next things are the same.

  • Click the Widget you want to add.
  • Select the Widget Area you want to add it to.
  • Click Add Widget.
  • And eventually Click Save.

Something useful to know: You can then drag your Widget up and down the list of Widgets to place it in  the order you would like. Perhaps you want more eyes on your Facebook Like Box than some other Widget. Just drag it to a more prominent position.

That’s the basic how to add a Widget process. As I said, some Widgets will require a little more work. Some of those are how you want them to appear or how many in a list you want to show. Those are simple.

Twitter Timeline

One not so simple one but very popular Widget is the Twitter Timeline. For the (TT) click here to go to the article I wrote in July titled Adding the Twitter Timeline to your Sidebar. This article includes images of the process.Return to top of page.

Image Widget

The Image Widget is also popular to use. You will need an Image URL to place in the Widget information. The Image URL is the URL attached to an Image you have in your Media Library. Click to your Media section on the Dashboard and find the image you like and then copy and paste the link into the appropriate box. If you want people to click the image to go somewhere else, you need that URL address as well. As for the Width and Height? For my own blog I have found 210×210 pixels is as wide as I go without losing part of the image. You will change the numbers in the Widget area itself.Return to top of page.

Top Posts and Pages

Top Posts and Pages is probably one of the most popular Widgets to use that I have seen in my wandering about. For this one you need to chose between a Text List-a list of article names, an Image list-List of names with Image, or Image Grid-A side by side two column grid of images from your most popular posts and pages, at least that’s what it does on mine. You need to have an image inside of the post for it to grab or it will grab what it wants. I place one near the top of a post just in case. I can always come back and create an image if something happens. No specifics for size. The Grid makes it fit. You will also need to chose based on Likes or Views.Return to top of page.

Adding Video

Some people like to have a video in their Sidebar. For a time I had a Video Welcome to Ronovan Writes. I looked terrible and sounded bad. I removed it. But if you want to add a video you use the Text Widget:

    • Go to Youtube.
    • Select the video you want.
    • Choose Embed.
    • Copy the Code that comes up in the box. It will look something like this:
    • Paste that into the Large empty box under your new Text Widget. Now the numbers showing about, 210? I did that. Why? Because what you will see in Youtube is different. But you want it to show nicely for you in your sidebar, just change those numbers.
    • Give it the Title you want.
    • Click Save.
    • Done. Unless you want  to drag it to a new position among the current Widgets.

Return to top of page.

Adding Widgets is a lot easier than people think. For one thing, remember this; You aren’t going to break anything. Something doesn’t work right, delete it and try again. I may add another article about this in the future.

For facebook Widgets click How to Add your Facebook Page to Your Blog.

My apologies to the lady that asked for this. I was working on it when I went to the Emergency Room.

Remember, if you have a How To you would like to see, go to my About page and fill out the form. I’ll get to work on it as soon as I can. It’s the teacher in me. I enjoy it.
Return to top of page.

Much Respect

@RonovanWrites

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How to Combine/Merge Blogs/Move Articles from Blog to Blog or Backup Blog Files.

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , , , ,

Have you ever had more than one blog and then decided you just wanted one? Or have you ever maybe been part of one site and wanted to move something you wrote over to your own personal site? Wish you could combine those blogs into one or move that article over? Maybe you simply want to backup your blog content?

Just to let you know, if any links appear in this article and you click them, they will appear in this window, not a new tab or new window. You will need to click the back arrow to return to this page.

How to Combine or Merge Blogs or move your Articles from one Blog to another.

It’s easier than you think. It looks like a lot of information, but I’m just detailed in my information providing. It is really is easy.

Remember what you move is still on the old blog. You would need to actually delete it from the other site if you wanted to.

First we’re going to Export whatever it is you want to Export.

Step One.

  • Go to the Dashboard of the Blog you are doing away.
  • Go to Tools.
  • Select Export.

In WordPress.com you will see two options you can select.

  • Export-This will create an xml file and it’s Free to do.
  • Guided Transfer-This is for where someone working for WordPress will transfer your Blog content for you to a WordPress.org site for a price.

I of course will be explain the Free way.

Step Two.

  • Click Export.
  • At this point you get to choose what you want to Export.
    • All content.
    • Posts
    • Pages
    • Feedback
  • Choosing All content is self explanatory.
  • Posts you have the following options.
    • Categories-You are able to choose a category to Export. A good idea if you have a lot and want to try it out at first.
    • Authors-That’s right. Choose just one Author to Export their work.
    • Date Range-It’s a Month and Year to Month and Year range.
    • Status-This things such as Published, Scheduled, Drafts, Pending.
  • Pages you will have the following options.
    • Authors-Export just those pages by author
    • Date Range-Again by Month and Year.
    • Status-Just like with Posts. Posts

Step Three.

  • You’ve selected what you want to do.
  • Click Download Export File.
  • A pop up box will open.
  • Make sure the Save File is selected and then click OK.

The File will go to your Download folder on your computer.

Now to Import the File to the other Blog.

 Step One.

  • Go to the Dashboard of the Blog you are doing away.
  • Go to Tools.
  • Select Import-Man, are you going to be surprised at the possibilities.
    • You can actually Import from Blogger, Tumblr, and others. (See details for Blogger at the bottom of this page.)
    • But we’re going to select WordPress.

Step Two.

  • Click WordPress.
  • You will be prompted to Browse for the file that was Exported.
  • Find it and select it.
  • Click Upload file and import.
  • Then you will be prompted to select the Author for the Imported items. If that person doesn’t exist, then assign to another Author.
  • Then click Submit.
  • You will then receive a message on the screen that says you will receive an email with the Import is successful. The Email takes a while at times. I tested it and the Import I did was in the new Blog several minutes before the Email came.
  • When the system and WordPress are done the email will say Import Successful in the Subject. And it will be from WordPress.com. I know that last part sounds like a big of course moment but that’s the detail I give and you would be surprised at how many people might ask if I didn’t tell.

You will want to make sure things are as you like them with your tags and things like that. The content will still be in the other Blog but you can do with it what you like at this point.

You can also download Blogger files and then load them to WordPress but you will need to do some changing once the files are loaded. But you still have everything you need. What do you have to do?

  • Go to your Dashboard on your Blogger.com site or the Design page if you like to use the name you click on to get there.
  • Click on Settings.
  • Click on Other.
  • Then near the top middle of the page you will see three options in blue text. Import Blog, Export Blog, Delete Blog.
  • Click Export Blog.
  • Click Download Blog when the window pops up.
  • Then select Save File ad OK.
  • To Import to WordPress, you do just like Importing from a WordPress Blog.

Hope all of this helps. If you have anything you would like me to write a How To for, go to my About page and fill out the form. I’m always looking for new ways of helping.

Please ReBlog and share if you like. I know some people don’t like that but I am like, um, does it mean people read what I wrote?

Connect with me at the following.

https://twitter.com/RonovanWrites

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ronovan-Writes/630347477034132

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RonovanWrites/about

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Two Tips For Today: Copy and Courtesy-Making Blogging Easy.

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , , ,

copying-courtesyA Blogging Tip today? I know, it’s an unusual day for one but with a recent hashtag thing I started I’ve been visiting more blogs lately and have noticed a few things, okay, two things.

 

I’ve discussed one before; Add your website/blog site to your Gravatar.com site . . . PLEASE!

This one may seem a bit odd if to you if I am actually reaching another bloggers site and reading their posts/articles. However, if I read a great and intelligent comment by a blogger and want to try and follow them, I click their name or image and I end up at Gravatar.com. That’s normal. But once there all I see is a picture. Sometimes an email address is there. That doesn’t help to get someone to follow you unless you are wanting a pen pal.

You should be putting links to your blog, twitter, facebook, and/or any other link you want people to connect to you with. I’ve missed the chance to follow dozens of bloggers since I began this site for the simple reason of their being no way to find their site.

Below is the gist of the post I wrote back in August and was one of my most popular post for a long time.

So PLEASE:

  • go to your Gravatar.com,
  • your profile
  • then web sites
  • and add your blog site
  • You can even add your facebook and Twitter or whatever, but PLEASE add your blog site.

Addition to article-There has been mention of About.me in the comments, which I have replied to. Gravatar.com is a site that allows one to link to sites such as WordPress and you can follow blogs and the like and comment as yourself rather than as a guest. About.me is a larger animal. Although Gravatar can do some of the same things it is nowhere near what About.me is. For details on About.me you can visit an article I wrote about it on my LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com site.

https://litworldinterviews.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/how-to-about-me/

Now for the New Tip

There is something that will annoy some visitors to your blog.

Too many clicks to get to the reason they showed up.

You put out that you have an article, but it’s really another click or two away. This comes about because:

  • You may want to let people see an old article you wrote
  • Or some even set it up so only part of their article appears and then you must click read more, or click to continue to get the rest of the article.
  • I’ve seen a guy have three of these for an article.  Each time the page reloaded, the ad banner reloaded. You can probably see what he was doing. I quickly left and never went back.

Here in WordPress, we have something that makes an old post renewed a little more courteous. But why will some not use this or refuse to do so?

Not everyone is like this. Not even the ones I’ve visited lately. Some people just don’t think about it or may not know about it. But,

  • Some like to have that ‘Like’ count go up on the original article. I get that, but I’ve gotten past that part of blogging. I basically want my articles read.
  • Some like the views to go up by having the visitor click twice.

The next time you are in your post editor and you are wanting to create a post:

  • Scroll down and you will find under the Writing Helper section something called  Copy a Post. If you don’t see it, look to the right of the same line Writing Helper is on and you will see a little arrow. Click that and it brings down and reveals Copy a Post and Request Feedback.
  • Click on Copy a Post.
  • Type in the name of the article you want to copy.
  • Click it, now it’s copied. Even the Tags copy with it and the Category. You will need to click Add for the Tags to actually take or appear in the box you are accustomed to seeing them in, and you will need to put in a new Featured Image.

Good Reasons For Copying a Post

  • You want to share the post again without making people clicking a lot to get to it. It’s called courtesy.
  • You want to update an article with new data or other information. If you do this, I would go to the old article and put in a link at the top that says there is more recent data and give the new link. Why not just delete the old article? That’s up to you.
  • You have something that you do each week. Instead of retyping all of it every week, simply copy it and change what you need to.

You can change the name of the article. I just wanted to say that and not assume people would know it.

If you do copy an article for the sake of sharing an old one you may want to consider one courtesy to do;

  • Note at the top of the article that it is a republished copy of an old article for your long time visitors to know.

If I am copying for the sake of updating information, if it is information that is important that it be current, I update it in the old article as well. People link to some of my articles at times and I want to be sure anything they are sending people to me for is as accurate as possible.

Those are the Two Tips for Today. Hope you find them helpful.

Remember to follow me in the following if you can:

@RonovanWrites    Google+   Facebook   GoodReads

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Are you a Blog Hijacker?

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The original version of this article I was working was huge. I’m going to try to make it simple.

What is a Blog Hijacker?

A person that comments on a post and does at least one of the following on several posts:

  • Writes a comment that is so long it should be a post of its own and is mostly about the bloggers own blog and writing. Meaning you CAN TELL it is an obvious self promotion comment.
  • Comments some nonsense and leaves links to their own blog when it’s obvious they haven’t even read the post.
  • They reply to other commenters with what they think you meant by your post.

You are probably able to come up with some additional Blog Hijacker behavior. If you do, leave them in the comments. I mean that.

What if YOU are a Blog Hijacker?

If you are doing these things be careful, they WILL eventually have a negative impact on your own blog.

  • People will begin to notice and stop visiting your blog.
  • Not only the people you are doing it to, but their friends that are seeing your comments.
  • You will one day wonder why you haven’t seen ‘likes’ from someone in a while.

Most comments should be:

  • To the point, unless the blogger has asked for comments that are of an engaging nature or you are sincerely commenting with honest feeling.
  • Supportive and/or complimentary or at least leaving an intelligently and courteously phrased comment about why you don’t agree with a post.

I personally don’t do the last one unless the blogger has asked for feedback of that nature. If I don’t like it I am going to move on and not be negative in another persons creative realm. However, I rarely find a post that is a waste of my time. I learn from most blogs. I learn what is bad and what is good. Both are instructional.

Do not mistake Blog Hijacking for being supportive.

  • Look at what you are writing and see where the focus is.
  • Is the focus on the post and the content and how it affects you, the blogger, or yourself?
  • If the answer is mostly that last one, you’re Blog Hijacking.

How do you know if you are a Blog Hijacker if no one tells you AND you are doing these things?

  • Are you receiving comments from the blogger when there should be a reply from them?
  • Do your comments not receive ‘likes’ by the host when all others do?

Now for me, I use ‘likes’ to talk to people who comment. Unless there really is a reason to reply, I click like.It lets them know I read it and appreciated it.

Added for clarification:

Sometimes a post asks for comments that may be about self. That is the nature of some blogs entirely. Commenting about how the post relates to you and may touch you is great.

What this post is about are those random comments with links and off the wall unrelated comments or those people who as you read the comment you can tell are self promoting. We, as bloggers, love comments. It lets us know we are getting something right.

So those of you out there who write comments with honest feelings, you are good to go with commenting. Those of you who read your comment and realize, hey, this really is all about my own blog and does look like I’m trying to get people to go read my blog, well, maybe see if there is another way to do some phrasing.

As a result of putting out this post I want to let people know I’ve lost some friends who didn’t get it. They either misunderstood OR perhaps felt they were Blog Hijackers. I’m going to continue to be honest in my tips and helps. It is impossible for me not to be. Since I suffered a concussion I tell it like it is. And I rarely say anything maliciously. I’m not sure I have.

Remember to connect with me if you can at the following.

 @RonovanWrites    Google+   Facebook   GoodReads

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The Power of the Blog

Ronovan Blogging , , , ,

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There is something amazing about having a blog, you can reach more people than you ever could in person. Some of you are thinking, “No way, Dude, I ain’t got that many followers.” You have more reading you than you have followers. Some just don’t follow or can’t follow.

But what do you do with that reach?

  • Some people spread their ideas of how things should be.
  • Some use it for business purposes.
  • Some use it for diatribes and hate.
  • Some use it for helping and loving.

I generally use my blog to share what I think or my tips or perhaps someone I stumble across that seems cool to me. But then something happens and I want to help. The thought that does not run through my mind is, “Should I do this, should I risk alienating my followers and watch my number plummet?”

The answer lies within you what to do and the purpose of your blog. If you are a business venture of some sort you might not go for the risk. I get that.

For me? I’m still surprised I  have followers at all. I never even thought I would have any let alone the number I have, which is nowhere near what some of the older and bigger blogs have. But I feel that when a need arises I have to step up.

Using me as an example.

So I am the example I will use here. People see your first attempt at helping in something and things go okay, but then they quickly tire of it. It happens. Numbers begin to drop. Do I worry?

I only worry because I want my new updates on the situation to reach people. But I keep moving along. When do you stop discussing the need for help? When the need for help is no longer there. If you are a numbers freak, don’t look at the numbers. Write with your heart.

Do not wait to help,

As the winds of fate spread word,

Move to those in need.

There are several ways you can get a message across. That Haiku is one way. It actually uses the prompt words from my Haiku Challenge this week. Write a post and include the need for help at the end. Or you can write straight forward the need for help. It’s up to you.

How do you get the need across?

  • Write different types of posts with different headings.
  • Write a normal post and mention the need at the end.
  • Mention the need within a post if it is natural and not forced.
  • Ask people to share your post of need with others.

Will this help your blog or hurt it? In the long run it helps. People know who and what you are. They know you have heart. They know you are real. They know you aren’t here for the purpose of trying to write for number of views or likes (read traffic to your blog). New people find you because of it.

Do NOT do help posts to get new readers. Do it because you NEED to and you CARE. Fake help posts are quickly spotted and it backfires on you.

How do you use these same ideas if you are an Author?

Now although this has been a post about using your blog for helping you can take these same tips for boosting say a book promotion if you are an author.

  • Write a post and at the end mention the book you want to get noticed.
  • Use yourself as an example in the post you are writing if it is makes sense and mention the book if it makes sense.
  • Use the tips mentioned above as well.

Blogging to help others or to sell your book that you desperately need to in order to pay bills, just remember that title is important. Mix it up because you want people to come inside and read and SEE the need. A heading can turn people off.

This has been a Blog Tip of an unusual nature but one that is timely for me. It’s good to use your blog for a BETTER GOOD sometimes. When the Numbers Game becomes more important that the Caring Game then you might as well stop blogging because something has messed you up inside.

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Ronovan Writes Week In Review

Ronovan Odds and Ends , , , , ,

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In case you missed something from this week, here they all are. Hope you find something you enjoy.

POETRY

Bruised Heart-A Haiku

BLOGGING TIP

Blogging Personality: The Key to Success.

RONOVAN’S RANDOMS

Ronovan Writes Weekend Mick Flick. Do you feel Serendipity this week?

Depression, Understanding, and Finding Peace.

 

Maybe more next week,
Ronovan Writes

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Ronovan Writes Week In Review

Ronovan Odds and Ends , , , , ,

ronovan writes banner

In case you missed something from this week, here they all are. Hope you find something you enjoy.

POETRY

Pop Fail-A Haiku

Night Fails Me Again

Pure Love

Writing Tip

How do you write?

BLOGGING TIP

Blogging: Making Friends That Last

RONOVAN’S RANDOMS

Fallin’ but got up. And a blog tip thrown in.

Ronovan Writes Weekend Mick Flick. Grab some lamb & some olives. We’re going Greek.

Character is Huge.

 

Maybe more next week,
Ronovan Writes

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Fallin’ but got up. And a blog tip thrown in.

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The infinite days of the finite ways draw me down and bind like stays.

Those are words that came to me as I started typing the word ‘The’. I often let the words flow for a moment to see where my mind is. I have found through blogging you get the most out of your life by letting your life out.

That’s what real blogging is about, letting parts of your life out onto a screen for people to read. Why we think we’re that interesting is beyond me. But the truth is we connect with each other because we like to know we’re not the only ones out there like this.

On Monday I feel again. Some of you know my story. Well it happened again but not so tragic. I am comfortably–um, strike that. I am sitting in my bed covered with a faux fur leopard print sherpa and a tin of caramel popcorn for breakfast. No, I don’t intend to eat the entire tin. At least not for breakfast. It’s a small one; I’ll be okay.

Disasters in your life make you sit back and think. Sometimes you find yourself lying down and thinking. Or leaning forward and thinking. I can’t stay in one position very long so I am all over the place.

So, I fell. Hit my head again. Makes you wonder about things. What if I had hit it just right and Blog World was gone from memory? I’m sure I would find my way back here soon enough but I can only imagine what I would be like.

Yes, I said faux fur leopard print sherpa, Hugh. And no you can’t have it.

I am NOT writing this for sympathy words or anything like that. I’m just blogging, the old fashioned way. The migraines are spiking right now so posts may be a little slim for a time, but knowing me I will have things out like usual. I have things in drafts I may pull out.

Blog Tip: Hold things in reserve. You don’t have to post everything you write. If you keep some things in your drafts then you can pull them out to post when you get in that situation of not being able to write something that is entertaining.

On that note, if you are around about 7:00 PM tonight Eastern Time or New York City Time, check out Hugh’s blog for my next guest post as I help out during his MIA moments. You can see mine from yesterday by clicking here. If you are hesitant, just think, it’s to help Hugh out, not me. Get Hugh some views and maybe even follow his blog if you’re not already. The 7 PM post? I’ll just say it’s Pure Love. I hope to please.

 

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From nothing to a Blog Post. It happens.

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I’ll be honest with you, I have no idea what I am going to write. I opened up this page with the thought of just letting words happen. The idea of writing about How I DIDN’T Watch Football on New Year’s Day came to mind. Then I thought, why? I asked myself that as I leaned back against the headboard of my bed, leg stretched out crossed at the ankles and my laptop, well, on my lap top. Not that I’ve ever heard of a lap bottom. Why would I write about no football?

I thought about writing a poem, but it felt forced. So that was a no.

I thought about a writing or blogging tip, no.

I thought about promoting a book I like a lot by a friend of many of us, no. But that being said seriously go and purchase The Blue Diamond: The Razor’s Edge by PS Bartlett. It really is excellent and no, I do not say that as a friend. My honesty comes before friendship, otherwise my recommendations mean nothing. And she has other books in the series she is working on so there are more to come.

I did create a logo for the Lit World Interviews site. I am sharing that because I enjoyed doing it and I do think it looks pretty good.

lit world interviews logo

Okay so there, picmonkey.com. I was a fan of fotoflexer.com for a while. I still like some of their features. But picmonkey has become my current go to. I create all my own images of late, if at all possible. That way I don’t have to worry about credits and the like. My images, my credit, or no credit really.

I originally was against picmonkey because of the way you had to navigate, but as I mentioned in a previous article it was just a matter of getting accustomed to things. And it was very easy to grow accustomed.

There are some limitations in some font choices I would like but the ones they have are very cool and varied and you can load your own fonts. The borders are nice and the effects and textures are excellent. If you are creative you can do a lot with them.

From creating a banner, a simple blog insert or even a book cover picmonkey.com is a great place to get the hang of. And it is really simple once you just start clicking and playing around with it. I use it every day.

Oh, and when you save it, make sure to put dashes between words like this – and ronovan-writes-blogging-tipsnot like this _ because _ is ignored in searches so words run together. While this – is seen as a space.

And that’s how I created a post for today. I wrote until something of interest to me came up and I thought would be of use to you. Normally I get rid of the not possibly interesting parts but decided to leave them in today just to show you how random I am.

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My Top 10 Most Liked Blog Tip Posts of 2014.

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When  I started blogging I never thought I would have anyone reading my work or following my blog. Honestly I just wanted to share what thoughts came to mind as a way to get them out of my head because I needed to. I mean I literally had to get all these things out or go crazy. A concussion will do that to you.

I was a teacher of students of ages 14-over 50 or 60 all in the same classroom. Then I was a trainer and manager in the business world. Teaching is in my blood somehow. If I learn it I share it.  And I like to share it as simply as possible. Well as simple as other people can understand. It isn’t always simple to make it simple for others to get it. But people have liked my Blogging Tips this past year and here they are my . . .

Top 10

ronovan-writes-blogging-tipsOf 2014

#10
How to Increase your #SEO Results and get your #Blog noticed.
Sept 15

#9
Nice try . . . but even though I may be stupid, I do check.
Sept 5

#8
3 Ways to Increase Views and Make Your Life Easier
Aug 21

#7
Keeping Your Sanity in Blog World
Sept 4

#6
3 Things Every Writer or Blogger Should Consider
June 29

#5
5 Image Things to Know for SEO
Dec 3

#3
Add your website/blog site to your Gravatar.com site . . . PLEASE!
Aug 19
#Blog #Tips Tag So You’re It-How to Tag your Blog Right.
Dec 1

#2
Writing and Blogging For Therapy
65 June 3

#1
How to Survive the Blog Life.
Oct 14

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What is a blog?

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What in the world is a blog?

Big Lazy Old Guy.

No, no that’s just my own personal definition as I look at my reflection in the screen of my laptop as I write this.

You’ve heard of them, Blogs that is, you might even have one, still Blogs or maybe that other blog definition, but you have no idea what that really means. Well, let’s give it a shot, shall we?

You have two creatures out there called web sites and weB LOGS. Or some might say weblog as the history of the word goes. See what I did there? Yes, I know you did.

Keep It Simple Simpleton

A site is one of those places that you go to and is somewhat static in nature with some background content updates. For the most part it’s a place where you will most likely see the same thing each time you visit. For you writers out there, ever notice when you go to a literary agency web site how things don’t look much different? That’s a site.

A weB LOG is a log of things that come to your mind and you share with everyone. It might be life events, creative sparks, anything. Anyone can have a Blog. Many authors have both a web site and a Blog. With Blogs an author puts out promotional updates and even samples of what they might be working on. Or at times just a quick little poem or short story to give fans a taste.

I personally, believe it or not do own a website, www.ronovan.com, just no hosting for it so here I am in Blog World and will stay here even once I have hosting I can afford or find for free somehow. The Web Site would act as the landing site for visitors and then they could click on a tab on the page to show up here. Which they can do now actually. How about that name for my website? Is that original or what? Can you believe it wasn’t taken by anyone? And yes, Ronovan really is my name.

Why is a Blog so useful?

  • A blog is where you can have fun and keep fans posted on goings on in your author career.
  • You can show your personality in a blog. This how you really connect to fans these days. You combine a blog with things like Twitter, Google+ and other things and you have people that will buy your books. They want to know your life, and this is a way to give that to them. Even if it’s just a picture of a sunset near your home or places you’ve been.
  • And as for being a part of WordPress you can become part of a massive author community that  helps each other out. You can learn a lot about being an author, from writing to marketing right here on WordPress.

You don’t connect like that with a Web Site. You are mostly out there on your own.

In reality you can make a Blog, which is really a web site as well, a traditional web site if you wanted to. Perhaps I will do some articles about building a Blog. I did a few on my LitWorldInterviews site but life got in the way of my completing the series. Who knows? I may have even written a few articles here on Ronovan Writes as well. I tend to write a bit about everything. You may have noticed that.

So before I commit to telling you to expect a series, I’ll have it completed first. But, if you have a question, ask. You can even send a question to RonovanWrites (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll see if I can help you out.

Much Respect

Ronovan

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5 Image Things to Know for SEO

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In a recent article I discussed How to Tag Your Blog Right. In that article I mentioned that to increase SEO results and thus visitors and views to your blog does not mean extra work. Tagging your blog content is something you do anyway, so why not do it properly? I also discussed the permalink change that is no extra effort. Extra effort to me is if I have to do research and search for all the things to do for an article. I like to just go with the flow of the mind waves.

Today is another ‘No Extra Effort, Should Already Be Doing It’ thing to, again, increase SEO results. I harp on SEO results. I don’t do this to try and turn you into a tech savvy market yourself machine. I do it to give you the lingo and the basics of blogging and website management. You write it, you build it, don’t you want it seen?

I get in a rush sometimes and don’t always do this. To be honest, as I have said before, I am not so much focused on really pushing my blog to be some monster machine. I’m happy the way I am. That being said, I should be doing these things. Reading about these things might make it SEEM like there is more to do, but it’s not. It’s just you are reading about what you already do. That always makes it sound like work.

5 image things to know for s e o

Image Type or File Type

When you look at images on your computer you see those letters at the end after the . that are usually JPG, GIF or PNG. Those really are QUALITY things to look at. If you want QUALITY at any size go with the JPG. PNG and GIF would just depend on what you have. I notice that at times a site called picmonkey will save a creation in PNG form. This is not to say it is better than others, it just means that the format is good for that image. How do I know this for certain the JPG is the best quality? I took a picture and did something I will discuss in the next point.  The JPG quality sometimes surpassed PNG and GIF greatly.

You are probably wondering how if you have a GIF how you can turn it into a JPG. In WINDOWS you simply open the file then click;

  • File
  • SAVE AS
  • And Choose JPEG from the Save as type portion of the pop up box that shows up. At least that’s how it works with mine. Most will work similarly. Play with it if yours is different.
  • Save

Right about now you are thinking that is a lot of work. Do it a couple of times and it takes you maybe 30 seconds. My apologies if that ruins your day.

Others of you are asking yourself “What difference does it make since the picture looks fine to me?”

File Size or Web Page Load Speed

You’ve written a catchy sounding title, it’s been clicked on and then it just sits there attempting to load. If I am a passerby visitor I’m gone already. If I am a friend and follower of yours I will refresh to see if it works and if not, I might come back later. Sure I will eventually read your post if I remember. If I have 10,ooo followers on my Blog and another 20,000 on Twitter and I might have shared that post with them at Lunch Time in the New York City time zone and am now sharing it in the 2 AM New York City time zone instead, that might mean a bit of difference to you.

This is a little extra work for you. But it’s quick work.

The smaller your File Size for an image the faster your load time. But be careful of your quality. Reducing File Size means reducing the number of pixels per inch. As you reduce the number of pixels you are basically taking away detail of the image.

  • DynamicDrive has something called Image Optimizer that is free to use online. You can choose a URL to load or an image from your computer. You can convert to a different type, and then compress.  The really great part? You can then scroll down and look at the original photo and compare to the different reduced file sizes for what you like. Yes, they get bad toward the bottom, but the first couple are pretty good. And depending on your purpose for the image, that -21% image might be nice enough. Then you just save the image you want and move on.
  • I Optimized the same photo in all three file types and the jpg was by far the best quality.
  • What you have below is the original photo in JPG form, then reduced by 21% in JPG form, then by 19% in GIF  and then the PNG is the only one they offered.

collaborationstallcollaborationstall_21collaborationstall_19collaborationstall_4Extra Bonus? Less space on your computer taken up as well if it’s something you are just using for a blog post and not a family photo.

Now you know about quality file types. You know about compressing or resizing your file types. Now onto something else that’s important and we will discuss it in three forms. Why? Because there are three different forms

Naming Your Images

File Name or Image Name

This is the name you give it on your computer and then load it to your site or blog. Think key words and simple English. Don’t jam it full of buzz words. Let’s say you have an image of a sunset. Suggested File Name;

  • pink-sunset-over-ocean.jpg

Basically you describe what is in the image with the most important words first, just in case you use too many characters. In a way you are ‘tagging’ your images. Basic and to the point. If you had a vehicle you would put in the details of the vehicle such as blue-honda-accord-2007-se.jpg or something like that. Your images have to have a name so why not make them useful for you and SEO. I have done a bad job of naming some of my images in the early stages and spend forever looking for that one image I need.

Alt  Text

If you look in the Media portion of your site or blog you will see something called an Alternate or Alt Text box. Fill that out. Don’t leave it blank. When you load the image you will already be on this screen with this field staring at you. What do you do? One simple thing would be to take the file name and just replace the dashes with spaces. I know that sounds simple but that is one suggestion. You can also give it a different name such as;

  • sunset over laguna beach pacific ocean

Now you have two different wordings for the same image for the SEO to see. Just remember to use the important words first.

Title

The great thing here is that for WordPress.com users this is already filled in. Now you can always change it for a third descriptive and short blurb. If you have a site or blog that doesn’t fill in the Title go ahead and put something in there. There is no 100% answer to if it does or does not impact SEO but why not? You can even just copy and paste the ALT Text blurb if you like.

So why the big deal about naming?

There are tools out there for the visually impaired that actually read your images. Also SEO reads your images and if you have an image at the beginning of your article or post and there is nothing to read but gibberish File Name numbers that came from your camera then that search is going to skip right by you. I am not certain how far into your content a search goes but make sure those first couple of of paragraphs, images included, have important words in there.

Much Respect

Ronovan

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Get that Creative Spark Back: Do a Guest Blog

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How can you spark your Blog World Creativity?

It’s called the . . .

Guest Blog

Yes, that fabled thing we all hear about and sometimes actually take part in. I did one a while back. Now I’ve done two. Today, this being Friday, November 21, 2014 I have a guest post on Meanings and Musings by Florence T. How in the world did I end up on the blog of a very deep thinking, super intelligent ladies’ blog?

Well it all started back in 1970 when two young tadpoles were born and then . . . okay maybe that’s too far back. Florence is crazy busy in her life and needed a Florence 2stand in for her Blog for the day. And yes, Florence T is the Florence of LitWorldInterviews. So her being so nice as to help me out on that site I was more than happy to step in and save the day. Super Ronovan Writes to the rescue.

Then I find out the topic. I wont’ tell you what it is, you’ll have to go find out for yourself. Let’s just say it’s not a subject I would have thought of. But the good thing is, it stretches the creativity.

When asked, don’t say no. Just go for it and whatever the topic, do it. Just remember, you are writing it and you can make it what you want it to be, not necessarily what they thought it would be.

As long as you write in a respectful manner that doesn’t like insult the audience or the host then cool. Like I know that on Meanings and Musings, Florence’s site, I will not use profanity. Not that I do anyway. She is a professional; attorney, therapist, teaching college, mother, saint. astronaut, former pop diva, and professional wrestler. (Some of that might be true and some might not.)I keep that in mind, although I don’t let it stop me from having fun. I still have to be me, and she knew that going in.

That poor woman. All those poor readers. All I can say is part of the title is “What’s up with Sex?”

Perhaps I will start Guest Posts here. Hmm. Not a bad idea. Random Writers on Ronovan Writes. Interesting.

Much Respect

Ronovan

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