H is for Help

How-to blog:

I often have folks sign up for my classes thinking they'll learn to blog. You have to know how before you sign up - the point of the class is to learn about blog BOOK TOURS. So you need to be fairly adept at blogging to sign up. The best way to learn how to blog is to simply Google "how to blog". Then see what comes up. Here's one example to try on YouTube, and you might have to search around for updated links since last year's Blogger upgrade, but the information is at your disposal. Seek and ye shall find.

Hit counters:

Everyone needs one and two favorites are Statcounter.com and Sitemeter.com. I prefer Sitemeter, and like to show actual hit count since a good high number makes the blog more attractive to readers.


Holiday blogging prompts:

Last week, I found a really great site that lists all those crazy holidays we're always hearing about like National Naked Rat Day and National Black Licorice Week. This site lists hundreds of those holidays by month, and what great writing prompts for your blog! Go here for more and be sure to bookmark this site.

Hurdles like word verification:

I've noticed during this month's A-Z Challenge that quite a few of the blogs have word verification and moderated status activated. I would definitely get rid of the word verification, as I and many people, don't return to blogs that create comment hurdles like that. I've even turned it off on this blog, despite having the blog shut down for six months by Blogger for excess spam visits. Bloggers new spam filter is really quite adequate for the job. If you're still not sure, then moderate comments, but even this is a mental hurdle for your fans. You'll lose too many to make it worth the bother. Remember, you WANT comments, because it makes your blog stickier to the search engines.

Hint-of-the-Day:

Collapse your archive in the sidebar. It's ugly, takes up too much space, and nobody uses it anyway. Make it a nice tidy little box like mine in the sidebar. See it? Now compare it to yours. Which is better?


Finally H is for Happy blogging!