Tips for bloggers

I often get emails from new bloggers looking for advice on how to gain readers, what to write about, etc. Here are my top tops for ALL bloggers (new and old):

1. HAVE AN EMAIL ON YOUR PROFILE! It is so easy to create a gmail or yahoo email address for your blog. Add your email to your profile by going to your Dashboard (when you sign in to your blog). Then hit Edit Profile. Click Show my email address. Your username (the email you used to create the blog) DOES NOT need to be the same as the email shown on your profile! Why this is important: if you comment on someone's blog with a question, they can reply to you DIRECTLY if you have an email associated with your profile! If you don't then it says reply to no-reply@blogger.com (or something like that). If you don't want to show your address on your profile then list it on your actual blog!!! I get frustrated when someone asks me a question and they have no email listed!

2. Schedule posts IN ADVANCE that post AUTOMATICALLY! When I first started reading blogs (and writing my own posts) I just couldn't see how people were writing these super creative posts at 6 AM. EVERY MORNING! Then I found out you can schedule posts in advance! I often don't have time during the week to blog. But there might be a Sunday afternoon when I can write 2-3 posts. So I just schedule them to post AUTOMATICALLY the following week (when I won't have time to write something the day of).
To do this: When you are writing a blog post go to Post Options (bottom left, just above Publish Post). Change the date to whatever date you want this post to be published. Then hit Publish Post. You can find the scheduled post under Edit Posts (Posting Tab)

3. Use something like Statcounter or Google Analytics to see how many readers you have, how they are finding your blog, what posts are most popular etc.

4. Under Settings, Allow Blog Feeds: choose FULL. This way readers see your WHOLE post if they are reading through google reader, etc. I do not like when people only have part of the post (Short). Full is best!

5. For new bloggers: Comment, comment, comment! Comment about what the post is about! DO NOT comment with something like "I am a new blogger. Come read my blog." It is fine to write that but connect it back to the blog you are reading: "I just started blogging and would love your opinion on the nautical dress I found." At least attempt to sound interested in the blog you are reading! We are all guilty of doing this when trying to advertise a giveaway or promotion-make sure you aren't spamming and actually commenting on the blog post too.