Tips

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

Ronovan Blogging, Blogging How To , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Advertisement

MAKE YOUR FONTS VISIBLE ON IMAGES.

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

@RonovanWrites

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

Writing while young. (And any other time as well.)

Ronovan Quotes, Writing , , , , , , , , ,

I have recently begun encouraging young people to write. They should write about their now in order to later be able to write about what it was like then.

“Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times.”

We try to recapture the feelings we had when we were a certain age or in a certain place, but we so often rarely achieve that goal. Staring at the sentences we don’t feel them. They describe everything but relay nothing of what they speak of. I believe this is the one thing that keeps writers from submitting their work and becoming published authors.

Great masterpieces have been set aside in spiral bound notebooks to collect yellowed pages and dust. All for the simple fact the writer did not feel what they wrote.

Oddly, they may have conveyed more than they realized. Even if not capturing the moment for themselves fully, to others the paint on the canvas is three dimensional with smells of the ocean and heat on their skin from the setting sun.

The problem is they have no confidence in what they have done.

“Encouraging young people to believe in themselves and find their own voice whether it’s through writing, drama or art is so important in giving young people a sense of self-worth.”

Starting early in a person’s creative life helps build a creative confidence. And I believe there is no such thing as failure in creativity. You have created something, even if not what you set out to create. How many times has what any of us begun ended up exactly as we had planned?

“It is really important that focusing on things such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting doesn’t inhibit the creative flow. When I was at school there was a huge focus on copying and testing and it put me off words and stories for years.”

Today’s education doesn’t encourage so much creativity as much as it does scores to be nations. “Our nation beat your nation.” It doesn’t matter what it is, each nation is in competition. Even our children have been drawn into it, and not for the better.

But I believe we should rid our children of a great deal of the restraints early on and give them the freedom to create. Show them how to trust who they are and what they are. Give them free rein to explore and express.

“Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about – something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.”

Michael Morpurgo quote image

Today’s quotes are from Michael Morpurgo, English author, poet, playwright, and librettist.

This has been part of Colleen’s, of SilverThreading, Writers’ Quote Wednesday blog share. Click the link to visit her quote for today, and join in.

Much Respect-Much Love

Ronovan

 

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. 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.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

@RonovanWrites

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

 

10 Tips to Make Blogging Enjoyable. Traps to Avoid.

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , , , , ,

Sometimes you start to blog, not having blog tips as warnings, you are all excited and you do things to your blog or that involves blogging that ultimately end up being traps that are like quicksand. They drag you down and deplete you of energy as you work to pull yourself out of what has happened.

What you do with your blog is ultimately up to you, because you want your blog to BE you. It represents part of you that you want to put out there.

Today I want to cover 10 things, traps if you will, that will cost you time, cause you weariness, and create misery. Knowing these things ahead of time might be able to save you. As a blogger now, you can maybe head these things off before they get out of hand. Or if you’re neck deep already, perhaps these 10 tips will give you a start on figuring out what has happened to you.10 blogging tips image#1 Sidebar Craziness or Widget Weary

Whichever you want to call it, those sidebars with all those widgets can have side effects you never thought of.

  1. So crowded no one can see what’s there.
  2. So many graphics it slows loading of the blog page down.
  3. Your page looks like an ad for everything, even though you’re not selling anything. Big turn off.

But does that mean sidebar widgets are bad? Of course not.

  1. If you’re advertising something, go for it, like authors want to get their books out there. But some advice to authors: Switch up those images and their order. Maybe even change the side of the screen your sidebar is on. Why? It makes return visitors look around for what might have changed.
  2. The same thing goes for book reviewers or people who have guests on their blogs.
  3. But if your blog is geared toward images, then widgets won’t make a difference.

Remember, graphics on a blog slow it down loading and slow loading may lead a reader to do one of two things.

  1. Leave because they clicked you on impulse.
  2. Leave because they think something is wrong with your page or their browser and then they’re gone.

One thing about your Widgets you may not realize is that many are never even clicked on. I moved my Widgets to my footer areas and I am still working on their order. But my main goal is to make them useful ones. Which ones do I think are most useful?

  1. Most Recent Posts
  2. Most Popular Posts
  3. About.me
  4. Follow me
  5. Search

Those are off the top of my head. Why am I not going to look for other Widgets? Because those are the ones I remember, which says a lot to me, and look for on other blogs. For some blogs the only way I can find their posts is by using their Most Recent Posts Widget.

#2 Image is Everything, or so your Blog says.

Yes, I am still on images. I try to go minimal with images in my post these days unless I’m just having a moment and decide to go crazy. We all do that at times. That’s fine. Images is a sometimes food. Wait, that’s cookies. I warn you, I’m very visual media oriented today. Weird quotes may show up at anytime. Forgive me in advance.

But regardless, keep in mind that many or most of your Widgets are never clicked on. I like the Most Recent Posts and perhaps the Favorite Posts Widgets. Of course you want a Follow Me Widget and a Search one. Notice these are not graphic intensive and are useful.

A tip about Images: Keep in mind how large your image is in reference to how much storage space it uses such as 250 kb or something like that. The larger the file, the more time it takes to load. Sometimes you need to use high definition image. But then there are times you can optimize your image size and still have great definition. Visit 5 Image Things to Know for SEO for more information about this.

#3 The “I want to be cool” blog moment.

We’ve all done it. Okay, so I’ve done it several times. We do these crazy color schemes and then the possible results begin.

  1. People are scared and run away, okay they click away.
  2. People can’t read because of the color scheme. Check out what color blind people can’t see. A tip here. If you have links make sure to underline them and possibly bold them to signify they are links. Most people understand underlined words signify a link is in those words.
  3. The look doesn’t match the content. By this I mean the feel you have created just doesn’t fit.

Your theme style, color and header need to match what you are promoting. Promoting? Yes, you are promoting your posts, as in you. Will my current theme, layout and everything work for what I am promoting? Maybe, maybe not. I experiment. That’s one thing those of us who for some odd reason think we can give blogging tips do, we are the experimenters. I even have a test blog where I play around with themes to see what they look like and can do.

#4 The Following Frenzy

Yes, we follow, follow and follow even more. For some it’s a trick to get followers and for some it’s a reflex in following people in return. What do you end up with?

  1. If you are WordPress then you have a Reader so full you can’t get through everything.
  2. You have so many “friends” you can’t make any FRIENDS.
  3. You get caught up in the needing to get more and more followers as the Following Frenzy engulfs you.

If you’ve fallen into Follower Frenzy spend 10 minutes each day cleaning up that Follow list. (I might actually take my own advice.) Also you can make sure to follow those ones you really do like by subscribing to their email notifications until you do clean up your list.

#5 I’m Gonna Be Better Than That Guy

Competition in blogging is a thing. You may experience it for a brief moment. Once you do believe me when I say that your readers will notice and some might get turned off. There was a time, prior to two years ago when I had a concussion that brought some reality to my world, when I was competitive. It worked for the big job I had way back when, but for life in general, blogging specifically, it just doesn’t work for me.

  1. Most bloggers are not here to, or at least don’t start out to, be some guru or god of blogdom. Sure, we all want to be read and be popular to some extent but in the beginning we all have that little bit of reality, until we begin to see followers happen and the comments and then we see someone else like our blog who is sort of competition.

They aren’t. You just keep writing, write honestly, and write well.

#6 No One Really Likes Me (Insert Frowny Face, Tear.)

We don’t get the views each day, the follows, the likes. We begin to think no one likes us. We visit blogs and we think how much better our posts are than those. We wonder why no one likes us.

  1. You’re new. Be patient.
  2. Veteran blogs sometimes put out content that is perhaps not as well done as their usual content. Why? Time. Goofiness for the day. Lack of inspiration after blogging for so long.

Don’t worry about them. Don’t WORRY about anyone, including yourself. Just keep writing, write honestly, and write well.

#7 But I HAVE to post because my readers will miss me.

Man, this is a tough one, for new and veteran bloggers alike at times. There is this sense of responsibility to our readers. We think they are just waiting for us to post something and if we don’t they may never visit again. Um, do you do that to blogs you follow? Chill dudes and dudettes. I’ve been in the hospital, been sick, had a laptop go down and people still find me, and they still return. Why? I think in part because I’ve built a community that have my blog in common and met through my blog. Did it happen overnight? Nope. It takes time. Patience. What do I do to build a community and keep readers?

Just keep writing, write honestly, and write well.

#8 Size Matters! BIGGER IS BETTER

We discover how to change the font size and we go crazy at first. It’s not a good thing. You should really only use a different sized font for a heading of a section/topic. Think of how I have been using font size in this article. I know sometimes we will use all sizes of fonts, but make that a rarity. Looking at a page full of every size of font imaginable gets eye weary. Also by using your font sizes in a uniform way throughout your articles, you somewhat train your regular readers to know what to expect. And you do need those section headings at time to break up long passages of text.

#9 My Writing Is Amazing and I am an Original and need not worry about standards.

Have you run across those blogs where the entire thing is one paragraph and about 700 words long? Punctuation is by accident? Capitalization happened because of auto-correct somewhere along the way? Do you know how many times I return to those “I am an Original”?

I’m not saying don’t do it that way. If that’s what you are wanting to do and are going for a certain atmosphere, go for it. Some make a success of it. But it takes a certain type of writing to make it work. For most blog readers, they want to click and be able to read and have a pleasant experience without having to figure out what in the world or how in the world they are reading.

#10 I have to write like this because they expect it.

No, I’m not referring to #9. This is about writing about certain topics or in certain styles. There may come a time in your time blogging that you no longer want to blog about whatever it is that got you started. You have two choices.

  1. Start another blog.
  2. Or just start writing what you want to on your current blog.

I’ve written about just about everything here on Ronovan Writes. But then I did choose a good title for the blog to be able to pull that off. I have hits and I have misses and misses and misses. I’m not trying to build a blogdom here.

I simply write what I feel like writing in that moment.

That is the greatest blogging tip you will ever get from anyone. That’s not a brag. That’s telling you like it is. If you write things you don’t care about you are faking it and faking it can be picked up on quickly by blog readers. Some people write about blog tips every day. That’s something they find fascinating. I couldn’t do that and keep it sounding real. Well I might, if I had broken this one down into one per day.

That’s it for me today. 10 things bloggers get trapped into at some point. 10 things to watch out for and avoid. Avoid those traps and you’ll have a pleasant blogging experience for a long time to come.

This article goes somewhat hand in hand with another of my articles I wrote sometime ago called How to Survive the Blog Life. It’s the number one article on my blog.

Much Respect-Much Love

Ronovan

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. 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.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

@RonovanWrites

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

5 New Things About RonovanWrites Blog and Why. #Blog #Tips

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s time to take a look around the blog. I know those of you who regularly visit have noticed the changes, but here is the official unveiling, and shame to those who peeked.

First, why the change?

Everyone needs a fresh start at some point and it was about time. I could get into some marketing and even managerial reasons, and I might as we go, but for now, let’s leave it as I just needed a change. Maybe as I talk about each change I’ll mention the why.

The Header

I have a header finally. What? Ronovan Writes didn’t have a header before? Nope, it was all in the header image. Now I have the image from my Haiku Challenge that I like so much gracing the abode on a grander scale. Well…at least until I get to learning how to be artistic with my new laptop!!! Why did I change? I decided it was time to be less me centric in the look and I wanted a brighter feel to things. My purpose for this blog isn’t such that it requires anything specific. I’m going to have fun.

No sidebars here.

But all the old information is still here to find, just scroll to the bottom and it’s all in the footers now. Did you really think I would do away with talking about myself and advertising ME completely? Shame on you. No sidebars gives a larger feel to the reading area, cleaner appearance, and simply has that inviting look as far as I am concerned. But then again, to each their own.

Blog Tip

One thing to think about if you change locations of your Widgets and that is the  width of any of your Widgets that have images related to them. If they are too wide then they throw everything off. If you don’t see your Widgets when you change, check that width and reduces to a small size for the moment. Then check your main page again.

Only 5 Posts on Main Page

With the Footers added I decided to limit the number of posts appearing on the landing page to 5. This allows for quicker loading time for the blog and isn’t too much to look at. Also, a reader can get to the Footers a bit faster.

I’ll be doing some other changes slowly to move to as professional and peaceful appearance as I can. That’s what I am going for. I want peace. With a dash of explosions and excitement at the same time. Kind of like Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot. Hey, I saw what I saw in that movie, you see what you want to see. Agreed? Good.

Want to read my best Blog Tip article lately, How to Hashtag Blog Tweets? Click here to visit my guest post on Hugh’s Views & News where you can also check out some great tips of his own while you’re there.

Much Respect-Much Love

Ronovan

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. 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.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

@RonovanWrites

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

Blogging Mental Health: Phobias, Disorders, Anxieties

Ronovan #BeWoW , , , , , , , , , , ,

Phobias, Disorders, Anxieties. You know we all have one of these. And actually the labels can often be interchangeable so don’t judge a phobia by its disorder, you’ll just cause anxiety.

I am very prolific in my blogging. I write an article or poem a day except on Saturdays, and sometimes even then. So it seems that I have a problem that people don’t understand. It’s become worse over time since I began blogging.

And when I mention it, well the subject, people’s responses just make it worse because they don’t get it. It goes back to my concussion a couple of years ago.

Before that I was a very engaging person. Never met a stranger. Could have a conversation with anyone. But since then, and the retrograde amnesia, things changed. You know I kind of get afraid of things. And I became so isolated because of not only the amnesia but the light and sound sensitivity, and the migraines, that people actually became a problem.

I am now at the point I don’t go to stores any longer. I very rarely step outside the house at all. I’m okay with the no people in person thing though. I mean, I like being alone now.

My communicating with the world is through my articles. And unless you are a super close person to me, I don’t even talk in emails.

That brings me to the problem. And it’s kind of sad I even have to mention it, but I’m going to anyway so people will understand people like me, and not judge us.

When people comment on blogs, well some of them almost demand a response. I have a fear or responding. Don’t ask me why or what it is, but if you ever see a response it has taken a lot for me to get up to the point to do it. I have almost been to the point of removing the comment option from the blog. But people have met through my comments and helped each other.

I’ve mentioned comments before in articles and the responses have made it worse. People pride themselves in responding to every comment on their blogs. They brag about it in the comments. Some actually do genuine responses, but there are also those who do fake responses. If you’ve been blogging long enough you know what I mean. I personally am not going to do fake responses just to make my blog grow. That’s not me.

When I first began blogging I was able to make myself respond, but things have gotten worse as time has passed. I want people to know they can blog however they like and grow a blog. It’s your content that matters. If you have something people find worthwhile, that’s all that matters.

Don’t let other bloggers who say you must respond to every comment in order to be a good blogger, a successful blogger, force you to do anything. If you are like me and feel physically ill sometimes at the idea of having to respond to a comment, learn to not worry about it. I do it at times because a comment really requires a response, or I am having a good moment.

Is it a Social Anxiety issue? Maybe. Is it some kind of phobia about people? Maybe. Sounds like they are both the same to me.

If you read my blog and you comment and I don’t respond, don’t take it as I am not reading your comment or that I am not appreciating it. Sometimes I will click like on the comments to show I read them and appreciate them. Some people are Blog Nazis and don’t think that’s good enough. Whatever.

I’m good with what I can do. You be good with what you can do. Don’t judge. This is my outlet. This is how I talk to the world. And this is the last time I am going to talk about comments on this blog. I’m tired of it. Almost as tired as I am of people complaining about me not replying to comments.

Much Love, Success, and Respect
Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

The best tip I have to get Blog Traffic.

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , ,

Thought I would give the biggest and best tip I have about blogging views and traffic today. But you’ll have to wait a moment for it.

I’ve seen so many posts/articles that go on about how if you post like this or that and during these hours and the like you will get a lot more views. To some extent they are correct.

I’ve written articles about where the views come from as in do the source of the clicks to your site come from Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or whatever.

But here is the honest deal to it all. The more friends you have that know about your site and read your site the more people you have share your articles elsewhere.

I don’t share my work in many places right now. Twitter is pretty much it, and Tumblr by default. Really those two are defaults built into my blog. But I get views from other sources. Facebook is one. I rarely share an article on facebook, yet I get a decent number of views from there, well on average they are okay, but not like stellar. But for not even using facebook for the purpose of sharing my articles, getting views from there is pretty good. Same goes for Reddit.

You see, your focus should be on writing great content and making great friends. Doing that means you end up with a great blog. Those great friends share your work with their friends. Is that why you make those great friends? No. It is a side effect of doing what you are supposed to do on your blog-Write Great Content.

What is great content? That’s all dependent upon the writer. Do I have great content? I’m not sure. I write from the heart and mind and leave it at that. I don’t make the effort to weave a tapestry of words that will enthrall people. This article, for example, is all stream of thought and won’t be edited. This is it, how I think and how I write.

The content you come up with may end up being a poem, a short story, a blog tip or a challenge of some type. But the truth is, if you are writing those just to get traffic on your blog then people will know it. Thus, it’s not great content.

When I get a lot of traffic on my blog, it’s an accident. I don’t really post at the best times or anything. I post at midnight sometimes which is an awful time to do so and I get hit by 200+ clicks for that article.

You want lots of views to your site, lots of traffic? Write and make friends. Forget all the headaches of research. Yeah, read the advice, but don’t get caught up in all of it too much. Focus on those two things I mentioned and you’ll end up just fine.

Much Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

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

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , , , ,

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

How To: Do Page Jumps-Return to Top of Page. Updated to make it Simpler.

Ronovan Blogging, Blogging How To , , , , , ,


I’ve been doing something called Page Jumps on my articles lately and I’ve had requests how to do them. So here I am. Page Jumps are when you do things like click on something that says Return to Top and it takes you to the top of the article.

Here are the Codes to use to have your Readers Return to the Top of page by clicking on those words. Make certain to do this in your Text Tab of your Post Editor.
AND where you see quotation marks that look backwards? They should face the words. They appear backwards here due to the color fonts. I know it sounds crazy but apparently the quotation marks are prioritizing the font stuff over the text stuff. Go figure.

Anchor Code-It goes at the very top of your article.
<a id=”Top“></a>
Go To/Return to Top Code-It goes where you want the Reader to be able to click.
<a href=”#Top“>Return to Top</a>

Don’t worry about the colors. That’s just something I have from later in the post where the red is what you leave alone, and the blue is what you can change. The Reader won’t see the colors. Just the words Return to Top in that second code.

That’s the simple way without any explanation of how things work. You can do it and things are fine. If you want to understand more, keep reading. You can bail out of here any time you like.

 

If you’re still with me, I’ve been using a lot of references and instead of having all the links and colors filling up the body of the article/post, I decided to go with a little more professional look.

I am going to break this up into different posts for different Titled jumps, even though they are all basically the same.

Today will be

How To: Include a Return to Top of Page “Page Jump”.

I’ll be honest with you. If you can do this, You can do any of the other Page Jumps I will discuss later in the series. But I’m not going to clutter up things with too many things at once.

You need two pieces of HTML Script/Code to do the Return to Top Page Jump. I gave them at the top but don’t worry they appear several times in the article. You saw how simple they are.

Bur first there are things to remember about HTML:

  • Always use HTML in the Text Tab of your Post Editor. It will not work in the Visual Tab.
  • When going through this article, all Red Bold Text is what is to be left alone. Blue Plain Text within the HTML Code is what you can change to meet what your need.
  • Save often if doing a lot of HTML Code.
  • Always open an HTML Code intensive post in the Text Tab. 

The following is how the Codes appear in a generic form, before you do what you want to them. I will also call the codes by these two Titles throughout this series but without the word Generic.

Generic Anchor code:

<a id=”unique-identifier“>words for reader to see</a>

Generic Go To code:

<a href=”#unique-identifier“>words for reader to see and click</a>

For Return to Top of Page, the Codes will end up like this.

Anchor code:

<a id=”Top“></a>

Go To code:

<a href=”#Top“>Return to Top</a>

Let’s talk Anchor Code a moment. You can now copy and paste the Anchor Code to the top of your post before everything else, even with the colors. Remember  no one will see the colors or anything else. The only way anyone can see the Anchor Code is if you put in something between the ><. And even then they don’t see the actual code itself.

Place the Go To code anywhere you need to in your post. For the Go To code, the only thing people will see is Return to Top. Why? because those words appear between the >< in the Go To code.

You can now do the Return to Top jump in your post.

If you keep reading, I explain about how the two scripts work and what makes parts of them important. If you are simply going to use them as is and you think any further explanation might confuse you then stop now. Just make sure to scroll down to connect with me at various places like Twitter and Facebook.

But if you stay, those two pieces of code will appear again at the end, so you won’t have to scroll back up to get them or worry about copying and pasting right now.

You are still with me. Here is the Generic Anchor (GA) code and the new Top Anchor (TA) code, see how the Anchor code changed?

GA <a id=”unique-identifier“>words for reader to see</a>

TA <a id=”Top“></a>

The unique-identifier was changed to Top. That’s the word I am using to let the Go To code know where to go to. 

The words for reader to see was deleted. I personally don’t want anyone to see something at the top of my article that isn’t part of my article. You can have the word Top in there if you want people to know that’s where the Top is they are going to. The code would look like this

<a id=”Top“>Top</a>

In the Article the Reader would see the word Top in the article.

If I made the code look like this <a id=”Top“>Banana</a> the Reader would see the word Banana in the article.

But to make this work, the important part is that unique-identifier, what is now showing as Top. Now we need the Go To code and something for the Reader to Click so they can Go To the Top.

You have  the Anchor <a id=”Top“></a>
Now here is the Go To <a href=”#Top“>Return to Top</a>

Notice how the word Top appears after the = sign in both of the codes? The words are identical to each other. That is important. The script is case sensitive. Leave that # in the Go To code.

With those two scripts above you can now have some fun. You can put that Anchor at the top of your page, or anywhere in the page for that matter, and then paste that Go To script anywhere you like and as many times as you like.

That’s it for today.

If you want more detail today, and I mean MORE detail, click here. Otherwise I’ll have another article soon with more Page Jump tips. In the meantime,

Let’s connect. and then if you have a How To suggestion click here for the Contact Form.

https://twitter.com/RonovanWrites

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

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

ronovan-profile-bw

 

 

 

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.



You decided you wanted a little more. Okay. Well, it’s a lot more now that I’ve typed it up.

Anchor Code: <a id=”unique-identifier“>words for reader to see</a>

Go To Code: <a href=”#unique-identifier“>words for reader to see and click</a>

You can do all the Page Jumps you want with these two pieces of code. I’ll have posts coming up that breaks them out more but if you want to play a little here’s all you need to do.

See that unique-identifier?

As long as you have that Identical in both codes, you can put them anywhere in your post. You want someone to have the option of skipping down to here, like I did earlier? This is all you do.

Anchor Code: <a id=”here“></a>

Go To Code: <a href=”#here“>here</a>

The id is what is known as a Header. So the id/Header for the page jump to this section equals “here“. So my header is the word here. That lets the Go To Code know what Header word to Reference when looking for where to Go To. See what I did with the red bold letters? href, and what does the Go To Code include? href.

Review for a moment and catch your breath. All of that we just talked about means, the words unique-identifier must be identical in both codes to talk to each other. If they don’t, they won’t work. That’s all we said.

Now to walk through what each part of the Anchor code means. Like I said earlier, I’m not using techie words here. At least not intentionally. If you think is too much, bail now before I confuse you.

<a id=”here“></a>

Each character in the code means something. I may not give you the technical jargon, but I will give you the gist of it all.

  • <a (Tells the blog this HTML script is going to create a link up with another script on the page or another page. That’s what <a means, a link. Just like <p means paragraph.)
  • id=”here“(This is identifying your Header. Your unique place for the Go To Code to unite with. The word you type where it says here is what the Go To Script is going to look for. It’s case sensitive and needs to be exact in both HTML Codes.)
  • >< (Anything between these two will appear to the Reader of the article/post.)
  • /a> (This closes the script. If you don’t have the / in there,  there might be additional words affected. I found that out with another type of script.)

Let’s walk through what each part of the Go To code means. Or at least what it means to us.

<a href=”#here“>here</a>

  • <a (Tells the blog this HTML script is going to create a link up with another script on the page or another page. That’s what <a means, a link. Just like <p means paragraph.)
  • href=“#here“ (This is telling the blog the HTML script is looking for a Header Reference that is equal to a specific word. When you created the Anchor with the Anchor Code you created a Header. Now when a Reader clicks the Go To words your URL will change slightly. For example, when you clicked the word here in order to come down to this part of the page the URL now ends with #here. Notice in the following how it appears when References is used as the Anchor. https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/japan-manga-comics/#Tezuka6-8)
  • Now this is the cool part. You can put that link, that URL since it has that Header in it, with that #, in your Go To code where it says here, and now Jump To that spot in that page. Because that URL is an Anchor on that other page.) But what would that Go To code look like? <a href=”#https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/japan-manga-comics/#Tezuka6-8“>here</a>
  • >< (Anything between these two will appear to the Reader of the article/post. This could say here, or Return to Top, or Banana. As long as there is one something in there for the Reader to click, they can Page Jump.)
  • /a> (This closes the script. If you don’t have the / in there, then there might be additional words affected. I found that out with another type of script.)

Now you can see with just these two codes you can do a lot.

Anchor Code: <a id=”unique-identifier“></a>

Go To Code: <a href=”#unique-identifier“>word for readers to see and click</a>

Return to Top


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

 

 

Success will follow happiness. #BeWoW

Ronovan #BeWoW, Blogging, Writing , , , , , ,

be-wow-bloggerBeing positive is a difficult thing to do at times. Even with a lot of practice, you still have to practice some more. A week or so ago I was in the hospital and I will be honest, blogging wasn’t on my mind. Now, I’ve added a blog.

Writing is my life. I can’t sit around feeling sorry for myself even when dealing with Fibromyalgia or a white cell count double the normal. While in the hospital I was thinking of how to do a new beginning to my novel. I wasn’t happy the previous 3 or 4 versions.

Sitting and dwelling in misery only increases the misery. Now I have been back a week and am busier than before. Three websites, four if you count one I don’t post on unless I am moved to do so. It’s that kind of site. I don’t force it. I am also posting daily, Monday-Friday, writing tips on my Facebook page.

Why? I have lots of reasons.

  • The more I write the better I get.
  • Leaving a paper trail of memories.
  • Supporting authors.
  • Making friends.
  • Supporting bloggers.
  • Inspiring people to try new writing styles.
  • Hosting a Challenge where people have met and become friends.
  • Writing to leave something for my son to be proud of some day.

I noticed as I finished I never mentioned wanting to be famous. Even as an author I don’t really want the fame associated with the success. I just want to be a success as a writer, an author.

I look at writing the way I look at blogging. Do your best, ignore statistics. Get the job done. Be happy doing it. Success will follow.
Let’s connect.

https://twitter.com/RonovanWrites

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

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

ronovan-profile-bw

 

 

 

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

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

Ronovan Blogging How To , , , , , , , , ,

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

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

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

Ronovan Write Bio Photograph

 

 

 

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

 

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

Ron_LWI

 

 

 

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

 

Are you a Blog Hijacker?

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , ,

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

Ron_LWI

 

 

 

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

Sincerity & Integrity in Blogging & Life

Ronovan Thoughts , , , , , , , , , ,

sincerity-integrity

This is a rather unusual Thought this week. It rambled in my mind over so many areas that I decided to see how it rambled out in words. This will be about Blogging and about Life. For me the two are mostly the same. What dictates what appears on my blog is also what dictates my life.

The Reason

I don’t know about you, but I receive emails asking for tips on how to build a successful blog. They then go on to define successful by how to increase Followers, Likes, people to Comment on their blogs. Well they normally do it through the comment form on my About page but it shows up in my email.

Success is a term that is defined differently by each person. For some reason people think I  have successful blog. I am not exactly sure why. I don’t know really what measures you would look at for that. And in all honesty, I don’t concern myself with it unless I am doing tips. It’s not something I think about every day. People don’t know my numbers so I suppose they have an impression of what they must be. If you have been following me long enough you will have noticed I don’t do Follower milestones any longer. It’s just not a thing. Perhaps I should do Comment milestones but I don’t think WordPress has those.

The Secret

Anyway, here is something people might find surprising that I have done. I don’t look at my stats any longer. Well, I did once this past Thursday because of a recent hashtag movement I started and wanted to see what happened, but that was more out of curiosity than hope or gauging success because the hashtag part is secondary to what I am doing on Wednesday.

How do I know if I am doing okay with my blog in regards to reader visits? I look at ‘Likes‘ and ‘Comments‘ IF I have a desire to know. And I notice in the notifications if I have people ‘Following‘.

What does this have to do with a Sunday Thought?

“In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”~Titus2:7-8

How I write and what I write about I do with honesty, sincerity. I don’t do that intentionally most of the time. I write what I think and see what happens. If I have an opinion I write I will go and check some facts before I move on with it.

Sincerity

I can read a post by someone and tell if it’s sincere or not. Or I suppose I should say I can get a feel of sincerity or not.

How? Well there is something you have to consider, does the post match the personality that’s been displayed? There are some great posts out there but when I read them I can’t quite fall in to the grasp of them because it doesn’t fit with the regular content or the actions, or the comments of the person. There is just something missing.

Integrity

Another part mentioned above is integrity. There are just so many ways you can say something about blogging. It’s difficult to be original, however I don’t steal ideas. I experience the things I put out there and then write about them. In fact I intentionally don’t read the experts blog tips because I want to discover things on my own.

And if you really want to know the truth, those experts aren’t so expert at times. I like to give tips the real bloggers can do, not those with nothing but blogging to do in their lives.

I write novels, so I can’t blog all the time. It seems like I am around a lot but I’m not here as much as people think. Also with my health issues I am actually unconscious for more hours than I care to comment on.

Many people can read tips from me and know who wrote them when they are on another person’s blog. Imitation is not the highest form of flattery when it comes to things like that. At least not so much to me.

The Work

Sure, people notice I can write an article in 10 minutes and put out 20 of them in a day with no problem so they don’t think I work at it, the thoughts behind it.

I think all the time. It has taken time to develop my style and voice in my writing and although I don’t say anything to people that copy me, I still am not a big fan of the blatant copying. You know, if you do something, if you copy an idea, if you even copy phrasing, why not put a footnote in the post giving credit? I’ve done that. (Yeah, remember I was a History teacher that graded reports and gave a zero to a kid for taking a book and writing word for word. And yes, it was 40% of his grade.)

I wrote a poem once that was inspired by two other posts I had read. I gave the two bloggers credit and linked back to their blogs right at the beginning.

The Why

Why do people click Like or Comment on my things and perhaps not the copycat’s? Everyone that visits my blog knows that I put every ounce of heart into every sentence. Even if it might make me look bad or it means the reader doesn’t agree with me, they are fine with it because they KNOW I am for real. That’s the only reason I can think of.

Sincerity and Integrity goes a long way in your life. If you follow those two things it’s difficult to be spoken against. We all mess up, but we all should try to get back to the S&I in our lives.

I’ve messed up over time but I’m good now. I stick to what I am and don’t stray from it, even when people are angry at me for being the who I am now.

Ronovan Writes

 

 

 

 

@RonovanWrites
on Facebook
on GoodReads
on Google+

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

 

Blogging Personality: The Key to Success.

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , , , , , , ,

blogging-personalityThere is something that I believe has been overlooked in the Blogger Community. The Blogger Personality. What key role does Personality play in the success of a blog? We’ll get to that shortly.

I want to mention a few Blogs I see as Successful. Before I do, do not confuse large numbers of Followers with success. Once you do that you head down a path that leads to a never to be satisfying Blog World experience.

Why?

  • People Follow you Hoping you will Follow them.
  • People stop reading your work and just don’t stop Following you.
  • People aren’t really part of your Blog World except for a number.
  • If numbers and not activity are your idea of success, then be prepared for some anxiety.

Let’s then define Blog Success. I see Blog Success as a Blog that;

  • Keeps its Readers coming back for more.
  • Keeps its Readers entertained.
  • Keeps its Readers engaged.

Notice the the three common words, ‘Keeps Its Reader’.

You may have 10,000 Followers but only 50 actually show up or even engage in your Blog. 50 is a good number to have show up daily, but if you look at the percentage of the Followers, something isn’t being Successful.

SuzieThe Matter-of-Fact personality: Suzie of Suzie81Speaks has this personality in her Blog. She combines it with just enough humor to make it all work together. Suzie was one of my earliest friends in Blog World. She may very well be the longest surviving one. Having been one of my first interviews ever I learned that what you see is what she is. 

The Humble-and-Helpful personality: Chris Graham the Story chris_the_story_reading_ape.jpgReading Ape. One click to his Blog and you know there is not a single thing about his blog that is about him. The Blog is devoted to helping others with their careers. Having interviewed Chris I can tell you the Blog Personality you see is the Life Personality he is.

Jo Robinson (2)The Devoted-to-Their-Craft personality: Jo Robinson of Africolonial Stories/Jo Robinson, or at least that’s how I am spelling it today, is an Author who does something many Authors might not do. She shares her space with other Author Bloggers. When you go to her Blog you may not see a personally written piece from her for several Posts. That’s Jo. Yes, I’ve interviewed Jo and worked with Jo and that’s Jo.

The Caring-for-Their-Friends-and-Fun-Loving personality:  Anyone Hugh Loadedhaving visited and or had interactions with Hugh Roberts of Hugh’s Views & News knows he is the epitome of this personality. Hugh has been interviewed by me and works with me as well. He’s for real.

I used examples of people I know personally to show you the genuine personalities it takes to have success. People can take on a personality for a Blog but eventually it breaks down. You will see the cracks form and you will leave that blog.

There are many other personalities and names I could have mentioned. No one was excluded to be slighted. Perhaps I will do further Blog Personalities in the future.

Each personality is different and neither of the four could do a Blog like the other. Chris and Jo are similar in their author support but then selection of Posts and writing of Posts are different. The backbone of purpose is different. You would need to read of them in order to understand.

For every Extroverted personality there are at least 100 Introverted ones. Often times those Introverts overcome their shyness in order to Reply to Comments or more often click Like on a Post of a friend.

For the Introverted Blogger the mere process of Blogging itself is a huge accomplishment. Sharing held in thoughts and creations with the world is something very therapeutic and very scary at the same time. Exposing rawness with the world with the possibility of harsh or cruel feedback is a chest tightening moment as the Introvert clicks Publish.

I appear to be an Extrovert in many ways but really I’m an Introvert in the biggest possible way you can imagine. But why should that have anything to do with how a Blog, my Blog operates? Or how should it influence what my Blog is?

I’ve written a great deal about how interaction with Readers is essential to Blog success. Well, I am not a big interactions person. I was at one point but in truth it was something I seriously had to push myself to do. That is one reason I don’t expect every Blogger to be the same.

Let’s look at Commenting and Replying. This is a huge area of possible disconnect and either a win or lose with a reader. If you reply to a comment and make it personal then there is a connection, maybe. If you don’t reply then you may not have that reader return. Some people almost insist on a reply to their comment.

Unfortunately I personally am not that great at replying these days. Does that make me a bad blogger or mean I am unappreciative? Does that make you that way?

For some that would be a yes. Various Bloggers have an opinion on the matter and are willing to share it, quite loudly. “If you don’t reply or comment then you suck as a blogger and don’t deserve Followers.”

In that case, “Hello, my name is Suck, you may unFollow me now.”

However, I believe my Reader Friends know me. My personality comes through in the Content, the Writing on my Blog. Part of that personality is one that deals with very deep emotional feelings. I share that in all its rawness in my poetry and even in commentary of letters I write.

Those who appreciate what I have done know how much that takes out of a person. They aren’t just words put out there. There are poems I have written where I agonize through every word and am a wreck for days following.

I would like to Reply to Comments on poems like that but sometimes I am not sure how and am not mentally able to. A ‘Thank you’ is sometimes all I manage, but I am not certain if that is enough considering what some people write. I click Like on their Comment to at least show I have read and appreciate what they have said.

For me when I see someone’s heart and soul laid bare for all to see, I appreciate it. I understand what they have done. I don’t do it myself in order to have people Comment. I want them to enjoy it,yes, take something from it, yes, but I am not demanding a Comment. Nor do I expect a demand of a Reply. My wish is for them to return another time and see what else I have to share with them.

What makes a Blog a success is what a Blogger puts into their Blog. You can use all the technical aspects to bring more people TO your Blog but it’s YOUR PERSONALITY through your words in what you write that keeps them coming back.

For more about the Blog World, I would recommend reading How to Survive the Blog Life.

much-respect-ronovan

Ronovan Writes

@RonovanWrites

RonovanWrites on Facebook

followmeonbloglovin

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

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

Ronovan Life , , , , ,

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.

 

Ron_LWI

 

 

 

 

@RonovanWrites

RonovanWrites on Facebook

followmeonbloglovin

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

 

How do you write?

Ronovan Writing , , , , ,

How does one go about writing a novel or an article? They’re both the same thing of sorts, just one is a shorter story than the other. So how? That’s a question a lot of people hit search engines and begin asking. And you will find so many different answers you wonder how a book gets to be written at all. To be honest, every way you read is the right way and the wrong way. It all depends on who is doing the writing. In fact the right way for you to write a novel may not have been written yet. You haven’t written your novel yet. Until then you don’t know for certain what way is the right one for you.

Of course I have an opinion on the subject, sort of. Well I guess I do when it really comes down to it.

First of all, find a good source of how to do the basics of writing the correct way.

I read Self-Editing for Fiction Writers recently before starting my most recent project. The book showed me some things that are signs of a professional writer and an amateur writer. Taking care of a few of those basics from the beginning makes it so much easier going in to the next draft.

I listened to my book on a free text to voice download from Microsoft you can get.

I can choose male or female and even robotic sounding voices. You can also change the pace of the speech. I was happy to hear the dialogue and everything flowed well. The aforementioned book really helped. You need to listen to your book before you are finished with it. Whatever software or app you use, use one.

Things I’ve learned to do, especially that helps me:

I keep a separate word document open or even two. I keep them open for Things to Remember for the next draft and URL’s to websites that I find useful. What I am currently writing I need maps and some diagrams of types of transportation. I recalled finding one great site and I lost it. I didn’t copy the URL down. Now, if something looks even remotely good I copy the URL before I go any further. You may not think you will need that site again, but until your book is finished and in the hands of the reader, you will need it again.

Another thing I keep up is a spreadsheet.

As I create a new name, city or anything that has a name I make note of it. I do so in order of creation. I even make note of relationships if need be. This saves a lot of time when trying to recall the name of someone or where they appeared in the book.

But you still want to know how to write a novel.

Styles vary. Another author and I are writing books at the same time and we read for the other just to see how things are going. I write chapters of a certain length while they do it another way. Our genre is the same but my story has an entirely different feel to it than the other author’s story. Both stories work. Both stories tell what they need to tell and fit the type of story being told. We both like the other person’s story.

One thing you MUST do is find your writer’s voice.

I think I have created my own style of storytelling and so has the other author. Which way should you write? What length of chapters will work for you? You need to ask yourself a few questions.

  • What type of books do you like and how are they written?
  • What type of story are you going to write?
  • What voice are you going to use?
  • Who is your audience?

After you determine all of that, start writing and let the story tell you where the chapter ends and what voice to use. It doesn’t matter who your audience is. It matters how you tell a story. Can you tell a story? And if not, don’t worry, you will.

Why do I say you will? If you have a disappointment in something you write, that dream novel of yours and no one signs you to a deal, start writing. One thing you want to do is write everything. Dabble in every kind of writing genre you can and even every length of writing. Once you find that writer’s voice you are almost there. To me that is the key to it all, finding that voice.

People that have read the novels I’ve written have told me that even though there may be different genres involved they still hear me. I take that as a compliment. The genres work, but my storytelling comes through even if it is a Romance or a Middle Grade Fantasy.

One place you can try out your writing chops so to speak is writing.com. They have prompts of various kinds. It takes a little getting used to but I took steps outside of my comfort zone and wrote some stories I never would have otherwise. It’s a good way to have people review some of your writing and just write.

So how do you write a novel? The way to write a novel is to write. That’s it. Just write and learn to write the correct way. You know, an imagination is a terrible thing to waste when all you need is to know how to properly put it into words.

 

Much Respect

Ron_LWI

 

 

 

 

@RonovanWrites

RonovanWrites on Facebook

followmeonbloglovin

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

Tips to Increase Followers and Views.

Ronovan Blogging , , , , , , , ,

Followers and Views, two different aspects of blogging that go hand in hand but at times do so in ways that you may not think about.

People like that Follower number to grow even if they don’t like to admit it. But not all of that number View your posts. Many did at one point but over time things happen and blogs slip through the cracks. That’s one reason I try to Follow the ones I really, really can’t miss by email. That being said, I don’t WANT to miss anyone’s posts, but I have developed some relationships that have been good for me that I don’t want to let slip away for certain. If you are new here, I have retro grade amnesia and short term memory problems so I have to do certain things to make it easy on me. I just didn’t want anyone to take what I was saying the wrong way.

Here is an article which touches on our subject today.

Blogger Psychology: Views vs. Likes, Which Satisfies you?

We will start with Followers.

A big place for a blog to initially get Followers is through their blog’s platform. I will be referring to the WordPress platform for the purpose of this article as that is the platform I have this blog on.

WordPress has a Reader. This is where the In House Readers or IHR as I call them come from. You can use the Reader to see the blogs of the people you follow or you can select a Tag to see and read anyone that comes up with that Tag attached to their post describing what their post is about, even if you don’t Follow them. I can put in the Tag Haiku and see all of those posts with that Tag. Even if the post/article is about jelly beans they can put Haiku as a Tag and it will show up under Haiku.

Here comes a problem. If you have a very short post, Images or a Haiku poem for example, people can see that in the Reader and simply click Like from there without ever having made it to your blog and registering as a View. For a blogger who often writes Haiku that can really take a chunk out of the potential Views even if I get 50 Likes for a Haiku from the Reader.

If people go to your blog you have a better chance of them Following you and of course you get the Views. For me, well I suppose it’s the Views that show me people are interested in what I do, not just Likes.

Likes are nice but Views make news.

But to be honest when I see certain people Liking my Haiku and the Views are not matching up, I don’t freak out. I know they are reading and I know they didn’t just click Like because they click Like on every person they see. There are people that do that in hopes of having people Follow them or in hopes of keeping Followers.

Increasing Followers and Views go hand in hand. Someone has to Follow something somewhere in order to get to your Blog. It could be a Tweet on Twitter or a link in someone’s blog post. I can’t talk about Views without some reference to Follows. That’s why I went into all of that.

Here’s a checklist of things you might want to keep in mind.

  • Make your posts longer-That sounds opposite coming from someone who wrote an article called Short and Sweet Keeps Them in Their Seats. Well, in this case you want posts to be longer so the WordPress.com Reader cuts them off and thus makes the reader need to click to your blog. I don’t mean way long though. This is not something I actively do, but something I am pointing out to you so you are aware of it. With a Haiku or image you can see everything on the Reader and no one need visit your blog.  But you say you don’t want to do that. So what should you do? Well if you are writing an article make the opening lines count. I don’t normally have short articles but if I want people to click on something that might say 1,275 more words at the end of the cut off point in the Reader, I best make those first words count.
  • Writing counts-Make certain you are putting quality out there. Regardless of what it is, make it the best writing you can do.
  • Subject matter-You will have visitors from your other social networks but you want to go for the IHR. One way IHR find you is according to the Tags you use. We know tagging is important. I’ve discussed it many times. I even have an article Tag So You’re It. But let’s move on from there. What are you writing about? Are you turning off your current Followers and Viewers with a sudden change in interest? I recently became passionate about the plight of a Blogger who is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Since that day my Views have dropped big time. Perhaps I offended someone. Well more than some ONE. But as I have said, I will write what I write and whatever happens happens. So that’s a decision for you to make. But I write honestly. I don’t write popularly.
  • Social networking activity-Usually the more involved you are the more likely you will have increased Blog activity.

The key to more Followers and Views?

The secret all Bloggers want to know?

Time

  • Time as in effort you put in regarding the quality of work you do.
  • Time you put in for social networking activity.
  • Time in waiting for the Followers and Views to find you after you have worked on the first two Times. The Three Ts.

But honestly you need to do a little of all three to get the job done. And one of those you MUST do. Quality.

For more articles on Increasing Views and Followers:

Why Isn’t Anyone Reading My Articles?

3 Ways to Increase Views And Make Your Life Easier

Blogging Tips: 3 More Ways to Increase Your View . . . The Easy Way

5 Image Things To Know For SEO

How To Increase Your #SEO Results And Get Your #Blog Noticed

 

 

Ronovan Writes

 

 

 

 

@RonovanWrites

RonovanWrites on Facebook

followmeonbloglovin

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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

 

Choose to Let Go

Ronovan Inspiration & Motivation , , , , , , , ,

I remember a time long ago when . . . wait a minute. No I don’t. I love amnesia jokes. Only an amnesiac can tell them though, so don’t get any ideas. I’m looking at you, what’s your name. You know who I’m talking about.

Over a year ago I had an epiphany, well actually I had an accident in my home. I think of that day as “A loss of” my mind and think how it turns out that it was the best thing that could have happened to me in many ways. I got a chance to do something many people wish they could do but just don’t seem to find the time or maybe even courage to do. I got the chance to . . .

Choose To Let Go

You see, I have these writings about my past. I can delve into them daily in an attempt to become who I once was. I can read memories including old grudges. I can stumble over great long forgotten, even before last summer, nuggets of wonderful. Being able to choose, in someways, is “Finding Freedom” from all of those influences that led me to have certain opinions about things that were muddied with opinions and thoughts not quite as straight forward as they are now.

Yeah, I could become that old me.

Or and this is a BIG or.

I can choose to let go of a past and concentrate on becoming someone that I want to be. I have the important parts of that past in front of me so why not concentrate on those and making my life better? The important memories return as they need to, such as “Church Playground Memories” I wrote about several months ago about my son.

You know there are a lot of things in life you can’t control. I’ve discovered that. The one thing you can control is how your mind works. Do you love? Do you hate? Do you pick this meal or that meal? Do you read this book or that book? There are a great many things you can control.

One of those things you can control is choice. Choose to let go of those things in your life that just get in the way of you moving forward and becoming that kind, loving, creative, inspiring and whatever other positive words you can think of, person.

I had to let go of a lot of things. I even let go of family. Sounds bad doesn’t it? This part of my family was a negative influence on my recovery. Each time I see this family member’s name now, I think that negative thought. Some minds that have been damaged CAN’T let go of some things. So I did something I COULD do. I chose to remove contact with that person. You know when a family member makes jokes about your amnesia it’s a bit cruel. I’ve moved on from that, but I remember it. I chose to instead of being in contact with a relative I didn’t remember anyway and apparently didn’t have contact with for almost 20 years to focus on people that care about me now.

The mind, the heart, the body, all of you cannot heal without a positive environment. That is something I have discovered this past year. You have a problem? You can’t move forward? Look around you and see why. Then make a choice. Either stay and stagnate or move  on and heal.

Choose to lose to Gain Image

You’ll notice a few links today. Those are links to articles I’ve written about my dealings with my Amnesia.

Much Respect

Ronovan

For a different take on Choose To Let Go visit Meanings and Musings article of the same name by clicking the link.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2014