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But I’m even a firmer believer in sharing with others.  Whether it’s clothing, money, food, or advice - we should never hold onto anything that could help another person.  That’s why I thought of an idea that might be kind of cool.  If you have a blog, I propose that you do this:  In an upcoming post, write about One of the Smartest Things You Ever Did.  Then, encourage your readers to do the same.

Take out marrying the right person or having great children.  Those were at the top of my list, and I’m sure they would be yours, as well. 

Hopefully, you’ll have many, many “smartest things” to choose from.  Just pick one that you think could help another person.  After you’ve written your post, let me know and I’ll link to it….after I’ve read it and gained the wisdom for myself, of course!

I’ll get the ball rolling:

One of the smartest things I ever did was instill a love of reading in my daughters.  They have been very, very successful in their studies and they score way above average on any test set in front of them.  I think a lot of this comes from the fact that they’ve always been voracious readers.  

I believe that’s what’s lacking with a lot of kids these days. We need to get back to when a book was a child’s primary handheld.

It’s not that tough to instill a love of books and reading.  Here’s what seems to have worked for us:

1. When our girls were tiny - as early as 6 months - I’d read to them.  I went all out, did the crazy faces and voices.  We made a production of it!  By the time each of our girls were 4, they were already reading.  They wanted to be a part of all the fun - so, soon, they were reading to me as often as I read to them.
2. I made Library Trips as big a deal as going to the zoo or park.  We’d go out to eat right before going to the library, and we’d talk about the kind of books they wanted to find.  Then, we’d go and lose ourselves in the library for about an hour.  They We still get excited about going to the library (and eating out).
3. When our girls were between 4 and 6, they had to be in bed at 8:30 (that may seem early, but you should have seen what time they liked to get up!).  However, we’d always tell them, You can either turn the lights off and go to bed now, or you can stay up and read for 30 minutes.  Always…always…always, they chose to stay up a little longer reading.   As they got older, of course their bedtime was moved back - but the same deal was always in place, turn the lights off and go to bed now, or stay up and read for 30 minutes.

I’d check back in 30 minutes, and if they were in the middle of a book or a chapter, I’d give them a little more time.  It was rewarding to have a child asking to stay up a little later because they were enjoying a book so much.

I’d always talk to them about what they were reading, too.  Ask questions, probe for their opinions, etc.  I’d often ask them to draw me a picture of how they pictured the main character(s) to look - anything to show that I was interested. 

Books are a wonder, in themselves.  If you can just get them into your child’s hands, the book, itself, will win them over.  For a lifelong love of reading.  That, of course, is one of the greatest gifts you can give your children. 

And one of the smartest things I ever did.

First of all, i want to give you a link to a wonderful article about making money from your blog.  It’s by Steve Pavlina who knows a thing or two or zillion about the subject.  How To Make Money From Your Blog was written nearly a year ago, but the information is as dead on now as it was then.

Here’s what amounts to my favorite piece from the whole pie:  If you do decide to generate income from your blog, then don’t be shy about it.  If you’re going to put up ads, then really put up ads.  Don’t just stick a puny little ad square in a remote corner somewhere.  If you’re going to request donations, then really request donations.  Don’t put up a barely visible “Donate” link and pray for the best.  If you’re going to sell products, then really sell them.  Create or acquire the best quality products you can, and give your visitors compelling reasons to buy.  If you’re going to do this, then fully commit to it.  Don’t take a half-assed approach.  Either be full-assed or no-assed.

Love the last part - it goes for all things in life, doesn’t it?!

Several of my blogs were put up because I truly do suffer(?) from Change-the-World-itis (This one and Out of Bounds.).  One was put up because I wanted a perfect place to keep all of my recipes and cooking passion for my daughters to feed off of. One stemmed from my love for cats.  Others were honestly put up solely for the purpose of generating income.  This is my job, after all, so making money at it is pretty much something I insist upon.  It’s the difference between shopping at Kohl’s and the Dollar General Store.  If I go into the Dollar General Store for something, I want it to be because I want to, not because I have to.

I don’t pretend for one second to know even half as much about blogging for money as Steve Pavlina.  Having said that, I have picked up a little knowledge along the way.  You truly can’t write and maintain 14 blogs without learning something along the way! 

Below are a few of the nuggets of wisdom that have fallen into my lap:

1. Don’t be afraid to take chances.  We all know that a lot of people let fear of failure keep them from even trying things in life. But when it comes to blogging, I think the #1 fear people have isn’t a fear of failing but rather a fear of making a fool of themselves.  I’m not saying that it’ll never happen, it very well might - I know I’ve made a total clown out of myself before.  But, it doesn’t hurt, heck you might even get a good laugh out of it.  If you make a mistake, you join the rest of the world and say, “I blew it…”   If you have an opinion, state it.  Don’t let the fear of what others might say or think hold you back.
2. Express yourself - not someone else.   If you want to make your blog purple and red, go for it. Don’t let conventional practices hold you back.  So what if everyone else seems to be in hues of blue or green, you’ll stand out and that’s almost always a good thing.
3. If possible, get a great domain name for your blog.  When we first started, we already had about 10 websites up.  So I used some of them as a “home” for relevang blogs (for example, my food blog went off of my cooking site, my cat blog went off of my cat site, my dream analysis blog went off of….).  I wish, now, that I had given each its own domain rather than making their url http://www.whatever/blog.   That was quite a few years ago, however, and I had no idea where the world of blogs was heading.
4. Don’t choose a subject area based on what’s most searched for or where you think the most money will lie.  If you saddle yourself down with a subject you care nothing for, or know nothing about - you’ll be miserable and your blog will die a slow death.
5. If you have a blog already up and running, go to it today as though you’re a new visitor - seeing it for the first time.  What things do you like?  What things do you dislike?  Would you be able to find everything you’re looking for?  And, the tough question - the one that might just hurt a little…. What’s your initial opinion, are you struck by the friendliness of the blog, the professionalism of the blog, or are the first words to your mind, “Someone’s desperate to make money.”  Sure, money’s cool but desperation’s not
6. My favorite affiliate programs are Commission Junction and Linkshare.  They have the best merchants and are, by far, the easiest to use.  I honestly can’t think of any reason that they shouldn’t be your one-two punch - behind GOOGLE, that is.  Which brings us to…
7. Google isn’t dead!  Sure, there are a lot of people saying that it is, but I’m here to promise you that it isn’t.  Does Google work better for some subjects than others? Absolutely.  But, if you’re clever about it - that is, if you test out different colors, different placement, and different image ads, Google will show you just how alive it is.
8. Go to forums to see what’s hot.  I started hanging out in various Style and Fashion forums a while back - mainly as a way of linking my Keira Knightley website and blog.  I admitedly also have a killer interest in the subject, including a lifelong fascination with purses and jewelry.  I couldn’t even begin to count my jewelry collection and my purses number over 100.  I’m not being all flossy, flossy - I mean, we’re not talking diamonds and Channel, here.  Anyway, while on the forums, I kept seeing subject lines that read, “Looking for new fashion blogs!,” “Anyone else addicted to fashion blogs?,” “Know of any great fashion blogs?…”  I mean, I literally saw these types of posts everywhere I went!  Then I started seeing a lot asking for specialty blogs - for shoes, jackets, formal wear, high-end, low-end, handbags (!!!), teen fashion, etc.  I set aside a day and put up a fashion blog of my own, Arm Sweets.  It’s brand new, so I don’t have any success vs. failure statistics - but I can say this, I’ve had more fun with it than I’ve had with a blog in awhile!  Forums can give you a great idea of what makes people tick - then if you find something ticking that you share a tick for, go with it!
9. Something that I sometimes have to remind myself of - this isn’t life or death. If you get a negative comment, if you never get comments, if you show up first in GOOGLE or on page 12 in GOOGLE, if you make big money or chump change - this isn’t the be all and end all of life.  If it ever gets to where it seems like it is - do me and, more importantly yourself, a favor and step back for a little bit.  Gasp! Let the blog sit for a week while you work in the yard, have a picnic in the park, work on your tennis serve, go to the movies…..  You betcha!  You, your serve, your yard, and even your blog will be better off.   I’ve said it before (I’m just not sure if it was on this blog or on Out of Bounds):   If your family sees the back of your head more than they see your face, things have gotten away from you.  Personally, my mind is frying from the positions my images take in ie vs firefox.  The fox, as cute as the little guy is, screws just about everything up!  I’m still trying to figure out if there is any theme in the world that looks the dead on same in both browsers or not - but until then, I’m not sweating it anymore.
10. Finally - don’t stress over the little details.  Most people never notice.  The longer you look at something, the more it’ll slip away from perfection.

And never, ever be afraid to ask questions.  I think speak for most people when I say that I love to receive e-mail and when someone asks a question, it’s very flattering.  It feels good to think that someone’s coming to you for your opinion and it feels even better to think that you’re helping them.  Not too long ago, I had a young man e-mail me asking what celebrities I thought were “hot” right now - he’d seen a few of our celeb sites and wanted to put up one, himself, that’d “get mad traffic.”  I felt so honored to be asked that I ran a few tests and found the most searched-for 10 celebs over the past year.  I showed him who was consistently searched for, who was currently on top and why they might not stay there…and even showed him who would have new cds/movies soon.   

His site is in the works, and I’m sure he’ll get “mad traffic.!”

I know, I know, I’m probably the last person on earth to know about Newsgator Online.  It’s not the first time I’m late for something.  In fact, sometimes things fly past me so fast it’s a wonder I don’t fall down.

At any rate, I stumbled onto Newsgator Online recently.  I was searching for a new Feed Reader and Google (the Starbucks of search engines) listed Newsgator first.  So, off I went to check them out.

I registered (free, of course) and then the fun began.  I started rounding up feeds to my favorite blogs and categorizing them.  They offer a list of blogs, and I even added some of the ones they listed to my folders.  Most, however, were my own regular hang-outs.   

I love the way everything is set up and the thought of having all of my favorite blogs, websites, and news, in one place makes the time management part of my brain very happy.  It beats the heck out of scrolling through my Favorites and opening up a gazillion pages. 

This seems, to me, to be the best way to stay on top of everything - especially useful if you’re a blogger.  You can subscribe to any and all of the news feeds that pertain to your subject(s).

I heard recently that most people don’t subscribe to feeds at all.  They just try to keep track of their favorite blogs and visit them when they have the time.  As further tangible proof of my acute bringinguptherearitis, I went for weeks, months,  years before I subscribed to any.  My husband would be at the computer across the room, sorting through his reader (Pluck) with the organized percision of a chess champion.  And here I’d sit sorting through my ridiculously long list of Favorites with the organized percision of bat shyte.

Anyway, if you’d like a little more organization in your day and better management of your time, check out Newsgator Online’s Web-Based RSS Aggregator.

I know I’ve written about Write a Book Now.com on this blog before - but like all truly great things, it deserves a second mention.  I’m really excited about the author, Steve Manning, and about his amazing program.  In fact,  attribute a great deal of my ability to write for 12 blogs and 14 websites to the information in Steve Manning’s program.

When I realized just how much I had bitten off of the blogosphere, I realized that I’d have to chew like I’d never chewed before….. or choke like a loser.  The whole choking like a loser part didn’t appeal to me, so I started rounding up information to educate myself.  Like the quote says, “Genius lights its own fire, but it is constantly collecting materials to keep alive the flame.” 

This particular flame-feeding information was the deal maker.  I printed out the PDF and quickly devoured the information - leaving many, many yellow-highlighted paragraphs in my wake.  I actually started out reading it on the computer, but I kept reaching for my pen and paper so many times (to write down everything I was learning), I soon stopped reaching for them and just reached for the printer button.  And that was the second above average decision I made that day.

As I said, I didn’t buy the information for the purpose of writing a book - although I’ll let you in on a little secret, it  has motivated me to do just that.  I keep my black, white, and yellow copy on my desk and we have every intention of getting started after the first of the year.

If you’ve ever wanted to write a book (either fiction or non-fiction), but faced one of the following problems…

• You’re certain you don’t have the time
• You can’t think of a plot
• You’re afraid you don’t have enough words at your disposal
• You’re afraid of writer’s block
• You don’t know where to start
• You aren’t sure you can do it

….this information is ready to get you started.  And it’ll help you write your book faster than you ever thought possible. In fact, everything’s at your disposal to propel you to write your book in 14 days!!  Two weeks.  If you have several ideas kicking around inside your head, do you realize how many books you could write within a year?!  This time next year, you could be giving your loved ones Christmas gifts like they never expected!

I apologize for all of the exclamation points, when I’m excited, they flow like coffee in a dorm room.

Speaking of writing many, many books, I know you’ve heard of Mark Victor Hansen (he’s a co-author of the amazing Chicken Soup for the Soul books as well as dozens of others).  When he saw the information, he not only said it was some of the best stuff he’d ever used, he even asked the owner of the website to speak at his next seminar! And Mark is using this information to crank out still more books!

This stuff is so powerful that folks all around the world, even absolute novices, are using these techniques to write books faster than they ever thought possible. There’s even a free email course that gets you started FAST! So if writing a book has always been your goal, your dream, your desire, scoot over to Write a Book Now.com and have a look for yourself.

The information is more of a writing course - except it’s cheaper than what you’d have to pay at a University, and you get to stay in your nice, warm home….with coffee nearby and a highlighter in your hand.  I fully, fully, fully encourage any and all writers and would-be writers to get this information.   For what it’s worth, I recommend it 100 percent, without any reservation whatsoever.
Joi

Alert the proverbial two birds that the proverbial one stone is headed in their direction. 

Stone #1.  I feel frustrated when I see great posts/articles that I’d like to put in front of your smiling faces.  Frustrated because I don’t feel right about posting a new post for each and every great brainstorm I want to put in your mental forecast.  After all, if anyone subscirbes to the e-mail or RSS alerts, they’d get a tap on the shoulder with each one - and tapping someone on the shoulder for one or two links doesn’t set pretty with me.

Stone #2.  I want to pull the readers out of their RSS readers and invite them in.  I think of people who are ”inside” RSS readers as people who are ”inside” cars - it’s like looking out into your driveway and seeing company….but they never get out of their car. 

I’m just being honest here, we all want people to join us on our blogs - so, giving them incentive to do so seems like an idea whose time has not only come, it’s gone.  So I’ve been trying out a few things on my blogs - like news scrollers.  I put a Mental Fitness news scroller on my Mental Fitness Blog - and it has gotten a lot of great feedback.

An even bigger hit has been the Food TV schedule and rotating recipes on my Cooking Blog. 

The Self Help Alerts I’ll publish in the sidebar will be the best blog posts and articles I’ve come across.  Information that will help all of us as we demand the most from life by first demanding the most for ourselves.

The last post listed in the alerts is especially good (about Positively Hating People).  So good, in fact, that it was the first time in a very long time I looked for a “Print This” button on a blog post.  I wanted to make a copy for everyone I know to read. 

Yep. That good.

Joi

I’ve got to let you in on a dirty little secret I have.  I get a bigger kick out of About Pages than I should.  Sure, it’d be fine and good if I just happened to like peeking underneath other people’s lids - but that’s only half the story.  Here comes the part I’m not proud of:  I get an evil, unnatural amusement from watching people get the bloats.  You know, when they’ve allowed themselves to get so totally full of themselves that they must surely bloat.  Why are we bloggers so suspect to these gloat bloats?  I dunno.

Anyway, tonight I came across a blog titled “Barefeet Allowed” (If that’s not an invitation to a Kentuckian, nothing is.)  True to form, I headed for the About page. Not an ounce of bloat gloat, heck, this gal would probably need help spelling ego.  As I was reading along, several things occurred to me. 

1. For one thing, the absence of gloat bloats is even better - even though I’ll have to look for the evil, unnatural amusement elsewhere. (Fortunately The Bachelor picked back up last night.)  It’s refreshing to know that people actually exist who aren’t scared to show that they have a few less than perfect traits.  Come on, no one’s perfect….Okay, aside from Beyonce, no one’s perfect.
2. When I was reading this particular blogger’s about page, I found myself thinking things like, “Oh, I’ll bet you’re plenty good at sports……..No way, you don’t seem like you’d be sarcastic or stubborn…”   When smug bugs take themselves too seriously, we tend to think a little bit less of them, somehow.  Our impression with them never catches up to their own.  But if someone isn’t afraid to show that they aren’t a robot - that they’re actually a flesh and blood human, we tend to come away with a higher impression of them.

Humility’s a grand thing, you know.

Joi

 I got an e-mail recently in response to the ABCs of Blogging posts.  The e-mailer is a new blogger and she wanted to know my opinion on something. 

After I moved past the, “Why would anyone ask my opinion on anything outside of cooking, cats, shopping, or coffee” phase, I thought about my reply, then I replied my thoughts.  She answered back and said that out of the 12 or so bloggers she had approached, she and I were the only ones with this particular opinion!

And now I’m worried.

The question:  Do you think a blogger HAS to blog every single day? 

The most common (Okay, every other) answer she got: 

1. You HAVE to blog daily for the search engines to find you.
2. You HAVE to blog daily for people to keep coming back.
3. You HAVE to blog daily or you’ll get out of practice.

I told her that, personally, I don’t think a blogger should ever blog just for the sake of blogging.  I think you should blog when you have something to say worth reading - and only when you have something to say worth reading.

My thinking is this:  If someone subscribes to your rss feed, or to your e-mail alerts - each time you post, it’s like you’re going up to their front door and saying, “Stop what you’re doing, Come out here, I’ve got something to tell you…”  If you pull them away from what they’re doing, even if it’s just for a minute, I think you should have something for them that was worth the inconvenience. Some news, information, motivation, inspiration, or at least a laugh.  Laughs are good.  If you’re really on your game, you’ll have something that makes them think.  That’s always worth answering the door for.

A Get me, I’m posting a little spider bait….watch me drop those keywords…. post, in my opinion, isn’t cool and isn’t worth darkening someone’s doorstep.

Having said all that, I admit - I don’t approach any of my blogs from a business stand-point.  Maybe if I did, I’d have an orange Hummer parked in the driveway of a  little  big gargantuan mountain cottage or lake house.  With a fireplace crackling and a big large  giant screened television to watch the Food Network on.

I approach my blogs like I approach everything, from a “Let’s save the world” standpoint, so my trips to the lake or mountains involve hotels and Alton Brown and Paula Deen aren’t life-sized in our living room.  I guess I’m cool with that.

My husband’s always telling me that I think from an emotional center, which I’m also cool with. That’s just how I’m wired - I feel…then I think. 

I’m just curious as to how everyone else thinks about this matter. 

Do you think a blogger should blog everyday, or only if they have something really worth reading, worth seeing, or worth thinking about? Does it depend upon the subject of the blog?  If you subscribe to rss feeds, do you get annoyed if there isn’t much there after you’ve gotten up and gone to the door?

What thinketh thou?

Joi

Picking up at M and hoping Q’s dressed and ready when I get there…

M. Lay all meanness and malice aside.  Isn’t there enough of that in the world?  If you feel yourself getting worked up and on the verge of getting offensive or obnoxious - take a break.  By all means, if you have something to say, say it.  But say it to be helpful, don’t say it to belittle - that’s only being little.

N.   Carry a notebook and pen with you at all times.  You never know when you’ll hear or read a quote, get an inspiration, or have your thoughts provoked - with pen and paper handy, they won’t get away from you.  Otherwise, Hasta la vista good stuff.

O.  Be open-minded.  Open your mind to others and their opinions.  If you don’t open your mind, nothing new will ever get in.  The old stuff will just keep bouncing off of one another.  (Can you say dullard?)

P. Passion!  If you feel passionate about what you’re writing about, it’ll come through every word, every picture,  every :), and every !.  Fan the flames and keep them alive.

Don’t ever be afraid to let the passion show through.  You say, “Oh, I’d ne-ver do that…”  Well, if you’ve ever erased a ! to replace it with a ., you’ve done that!

Join my daughters and think about Johnny Depp.  When he signed on for Pirates of the Caribbean, he envisioned Jack Sparrow as a flamboyant, over the top, zany character.  The suits had pictured him as something altogether and though The Depp had lost The mind.  But, he’s who he is, so he won the argument and, in the end, played Sparrow as he wanted to - with as much passion as I’ve ever seen a role played.  His passion came through every swagger, every facial expression, and every “Weeerd he zaid.”  He didn’t play it safe or keep it on the low.  I’d wager that the suits are delighted that Johnny Depp doesn’t erase !s.

Q.  This one’s a toughy, but periodically ask yourself which is at the heart of your blog:  The quality of your information and the quality of your purpose or the quanity of traffic and the quanity of money.  Said another way, don’t sell out.  Yes, we all have to make a living, put kids through college, buy new waterbeds (feel that brick upside your head, Michael?), and so on…but if that becomes our #1 goal, it will be woefully obvious to even the most naive readers. 

Some blogs have more commercials than the Super Bowl. If I’m on a blog and I’m having to search for the content - I don’t search long, I just change the channel.

R.  Read twice as much as you write.  Twice as much should go in than comes out - it’s when the opposite is attempted that people, and blogs, dry up.

S.  Starbuck’s (Or your coffeehouse of choice).  Each of my blogs could read “Powered by Starbuck’s and Beyond the Brim.”  You know you’ve got it bad when you have two coffehouses in your life. I don’t sleep much.

T.  Truth.  Tell it.  Don’t stretch it.  Don’t manipulate it. Sharp people see through the smoke and mirrors, I promise they do.  Then they put a wall of mistrust up between you and them - and if you cause the erection of enough walls, you’ll never see the light of day.

Even if you’re telling the truth, guess what - no one reallllly cares about what car you drive, the size of your house, or the vacations you take.  One thing’s for certain - just like kids on a playground, people care about their own toys.

U.  Be Uncommon.  Booker T. Washington said it best:  “Do a common thing in an uncommon way.”  Don’t try to be, sound like, or look like anyone else.  Put your own twist on what you do.  If your inner Nervous Nellie whispers, “But no one else is doing it this way….” - you’ll know you’re getting warm.  Run with that.  I zip and zoom around the internet all day - not only researching information, designing, writing, and coding - I also observe.  And I had MUCH rather see someone going a bit too far trying something new than to stay in a predictable, safe mode.  B-O-R-I-N-G. 

V.  Use visuals.  Try to make your blog as visually colorful and appealing as possible.  Change things up every now and again - change colors around, rotate banners and images…you know, that sort of thing.

If finding pictures or having a place to upload them is a problem, consider this little trick:  Get a few affiliate accounts.  When you’re ready to create links, you’re ready to create art for your posts and you blog. (Affiliate pictures don’t have to be uploaded - just used.)  Click HERE to see what I’m talking about in action. (It’ll open in a new window) You put the image at the top, then a link at the end - your post looks spiffy and you might just make a little money.  All Posters.com is an excellent place to start - their pay rates are amongst the best, they’re easy to work with, and you couldn’t ask for more beautiful images!

W.  Post at least weekly.

X.  EXplore the world around you.  Don’t get locked into the seat in front of the computer or the one in front of the television.  If that’s all the world that you ever experience - you won’t have much to say unless your blog’s about tv shows, internet surfing or chairs! In order to have something to say, you have to have something worth saying.

Y.  Yes, you can!  If you can write an e-mail, you can write a post.  You’re simply writing an e-mail that (hopefully) many people will read!

Z. Keep it Zippy (Full of energy and vim.) - try to make your blog crackle with excitement. I realize that can seem virtually impossible if your subject matter is buttoned up.   Just inject your personality in there somehow. After a visitor leaves your blog, make sure they know they were there.  Try to give them something that’ll stick with them - a quote, a phrase, a word, a thought. Something zippy.

Joi

I’ve been thinking a great deal about blogging lately - probably a good thing, since my family owns a Blog Publishing biz and I have 14 of my own.  Like everything I’ve ever done in my life, I’ve been learning as I go along - and, yes, over a year into the venture, I’m still learning. Learning’s a good thing, so I’m happy.

Anyway, below are the ABC’s of Blogging as I see it.  They’re just some observations I’ve made from blogging, myself, and from seeing others do it.   I’m not claiming to nail all of them - in fact, as I was working on the post I’d often think, “Oops, need to do that…” and  ”Ummm, I never do that..”

A.  Affiliates - if you want to recommend a book, read it first…a movie, see it first…a coffee, drink it first.

B.  Be honest.  Not only with your facts, but with your feelings.  If you’re dead-on for the war, say so.  Don’t worry about visitors who may be turned off by your feelings.  If you’re dead-on against it, say so.  Again, don’t worry about turning people away.  Think about it - if they’re the sort of people who’d abandon someone for having different views, do you really want them hanging around anyway?  Go after the ones who appreciate and applaud all views - even those different from their own - they’re the most interesting people!

C.  Comments?  Don’t stress over them.  If you don’t get many, it’s not a biggie.  Different people in different niches comment more than others.  It’s funny, with all of my blogs - I get tons of more e-mail than I do comments.  Fortunately, I LOVE e-mail - love getting it, love responding to it.  Most of the time, though, the thoughts are so fantastic I wish like mad they’d leave them in the comments, too, so everyone could read them!

D.  Don’t try to be an imitation of someone else - let your personality and originality shine through.  They’re the best things you have going, show them off to the point of strutting.  Afraid that people won’t get you?  Face it, some won’t - but many more will.  And even the ones who don’t will keep coming back and trying if you keep things interesting.  They’ll see it as a challenge…maybe even a game they look forward to!

E.  Okay, this peeve’s a pet.  Put your e-mail address in plain view! Afraid of spam? Manage it.  Overwhelmed by contact?  Handle it.  Afraid of people?  Get out of blogging.  Blogging’s all  about people connecting with people. If you don’t want to be “bothered” by your readers, don’t bother them!  (Sorry for the bold - but I’ve had to search one time too often for e-mail addresses.)

F. Frequently post.  The more often you do something, the easier it becomes.  A lot of people tell me, “I want a blog but I don’t know what to say..”  My response?  You’re talking now - you can do it then.  The trick is to keep at it.  Every post doesn’t have to be a work of brilliance - thanks be to God on the truth of that phrase!

G.  Try to stay on top of grammar problems.  I’ll admit, snap happens - sometimes a : will come out when you needed a ” or you’ll type to when you know full well a second o was called for.  (By the way, a quickie:  “Too” is the the word that can be used interchangably with also or as well….”My favorite actress is Keira Knightley, but I like Angelina Jolie, too.” That’s two beautiful actresses and I linked to one of them.  I don’t have an Angelina blog to link to….I have a Keira one, and I’d like an Angelina one, too!)

Check up on yourself - but having said that, let me re-emphasize yourself.  Don’t go grammar policing other people’s blogs - uncool. Some people are typing in a language that isn’t their native language….I’d like to see me typing in Spanish or French!  I’d be able to say good day, good night, and I love you.  Short blog.

H.  Be Helpful - try to actually serve a purpose.  Whether you have a save the world fixation that no one can talk you down from (I see you out there, my kindred spirit..) or not, be helpful to someone other than just yourself.  Self-servers can be seen coming a mile away, which is good because it gives you plenty of time to run in the other direction.

I.  Include links and credit when necessary.  Treat other people’s info as you’d want your own treated - we’d want credit, a link, and name-dropping that left a thud!

J.  Just keep going.  DON’T STOP AND DON’T SLOW DOWN.  When you take that first week off, the next one’s easier…then the next one’s the easiest. Before you know it, you’re working on your Patriot’s Day post - and your last post was about New Year’s Resolutions.  Just talk.  Just share.  Just post.  And Just keep going.

K.  Keep it legal, baby.  Keep it all above board (as in the legal board).  Legal headaches are headaches you don’t want - the asprins cost way too much.

L.  Link Leak.  What’s link leak?  This is Link Leak>>>>

M - Z = Tomorrow!  Why?  For one thing, to break up the post so you don’t have to read for two forevers….for another, Q’s proving Quite problematic.  

Joi 

P.S.  If you have any questions about blogging - e-mail me at Joi @ selfhelpdaily.com.

…You read the post on the other side of the link below.  It’s that good. On second thought, it’s twice that good.

Do You Make These Mistakes With Your Blog?

While there, look around at the other posts.  That’s actually what I’m in the midst of doing, and why this post is super short - I’m in class!

Joi