Challenge

Blogging from A-Z – A-Z of Blogging – I

| Suzi Stamp

I2020

Todays Blogging from A-Z letter is I, which in my A-Z of Blogging stands for Ideas and Instagram.

Ideas.  Every blogger no matter what stage they are at in their blogging journey will have times when ideas flow really easily and other times where you think you will never have an idea for your blog again.  I like to keep a notebook to hand and jot down any ideas that I may have, no matter how small they are.  You can get ideas for your blog from so many different sources, I like to read news articles, books and other blogs but have got ideas from searching Google or Pinterest for different challenges and prompts too.

Instagram.  Instagram, the photo-sharing, storytelling social media site can be used in so many ways by bloggers and it is really up to you how you utilise it alongside your blog.  Some ways you can use Instagram are promoting your blog posts, giving your audience a glimpse into your life, doing challenges and adding them to your “story” such as the 30 Day Song Challenge,  running competitions and giveaways, interacting with your followers and seeing what they are interested in and communicating with them in a different way.  I love using Instagram to share bits of my life, outfits and things I am doing that may not get shared on the blog. (You can find me on Instagram here).

How do you generate ideas or use Instagram?  I’d love to know, or any other thoughts you have on my topics for “I” so let me know in the comments!

Blogging from A-Z – A-Z of Blogging – H

| Suzi Stamp

H2020

The letter for today’s Blogging from A-Z Challenge is H which stands for HTML, Hosting and Housekeeping.

HTML.  HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is used to control how most web pages appear, from things like colour, font, margins, paragraphs, spacing and a whole ton of other things.  A lot of bloggers will never really need to understand much about HTML other than copying and pasting certain bits of HTML code into their blog so that things can appear when viewed by the audience.  Occasionally, adding in HTML will bring up errors but they can be easily fixed by doing a Google search on the error or asking in a forum dedicated to HTML coding.

Hosting.  Hosting is where your blog is housed, where all the files are stored and where all the technical “background” things are looked after for you.  There are 2 ways to get hosting for your blog, either through a dedicated blog platform (such as WordPress.com or Blogger for example) or you can self-host and take care of all the technical aspects yourself (such as through WordPress.org).  Depending on your level of technical expertise and the amount of time you have should be the main factors in which you choose.  I have my blog hosted through WordPress as I like to know that I have support from the WordPress team should anything go wrong.  There are lots of pros and cons to self-hosting vs hosted and you should weigh them all up when making the decision.

Housekeeping.  Housekeeping or blog admin (I like to call it Blogmin!) is all the things that you do on a weekly or monthly basis to keep your blog running smoothly and looking the best for visitors.  Blogmin things include checking that all posts appear in the same format – things such as how and where images are placed, headings, paragraphs, that all links work as they should, that each post has been categorised and tagged properly and that the text used is legible and big enough.

What are your thoughts on HTML, Hosting and Housekeeping?  I’d love to read about them so let me know in the comments!

Blogging from A-Z – A-Z of Blogging – G

| Suzi Stamp

G2020

Today’s letter for the Blogging from A-Z April Challenge is G.  G in my series for this challenge, the A – Z of Blogging stands for Goals, Graphics and Guest Posts.

Goals.  Goals differ from blogger to blogger and can depend on many different factors including how long you have been blogging for.  If you are setting yourself any kind of goal it is useful to follow the “SMART” rules – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely.  Breaking down your goal like this gives you an idea of how you will meet that goal.  There is no point in saying, for example, that you want to reach 1000 followers and then do nothing about it aside from post to your blog once in a while, you need to think about what you can do to make that goal reality, how you will get there when you want to reach that goal and if you can do it in that timeframe that you want.  Getting 1000 followers in a month maybe attainable if you have been blogging for years and gain a few hundred followers a week, but as a new blogger, you need to be realistic and set a goal of maybe 10 followers in a month then increase the number of followers you would like month on month.  My advice is to be realistic and re-assess each month how your goals are going and re-adjust the figures and your strategies accordingly.

Graphics.  Graphics are images that are added into a blog post or to parts of your blog, such as your blog banner and should always be legible and fit with the theme of your blog or the post you are writing.  You can use images you have taken, create graphics using software or add in stock images.  Most bloggers will add at least one graphic to a block of text to draw in the reader’s interest, illustrate what the post is about and to add in a break in between a lot of text.  There are a few simple rules when using graphics, that they are relevant, good quality and add to the text.  If the graphics don’t make sense to the text, don’t use them, graphics are not always necessary.

Guest Post.  A guest post is a post that you write for someone elses blog or that you invite other bloggers to write for your blog.  This kind of post is usually asked for by the person who owns the blog and, should you be asked or chosen to write a post will usually follow a topic of the blog owners choice.  If you want to find bloggers who are looking for guest posters I would search for tags such as #guestposterswanted on Twitter or other social media sites.  Guest posts are a brilliant way to build backlinks (Which I spoke about here), reach new audiences, build connections and networks.

Do you have any other blogging terms for the letter G?  Or do you have any thoughts on Goals, Graphics or Guest Posts?  I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

Blogging From A-Z – A-Z of Blogging – A

| Suzi Stamp

A2020

A is for About, Advertising, Audience and Awards.

Your About Page is probably one of the most important pages on your blog and is one that you should spend time carefully constructing.  It is the page that most people will find their way to in order to find out more about you and your blog and a place where you can let people know the sorts of things they can find on your blog such as topics you cover regularly and what they can get from your blog (for example, if you run tutorials the things they can learn).  I like to think of the about page as being similar to the back cover page of a book where you can find out about the author.  There are lots of helpful sites on the internet that have guides for writing a good About Page but the basics for building a page are to give a little information about you that are interesting, such as your hobbies and interests, where you are from, why you started your blog, the topics you write about and what you hope your readers will get out of the blog.

Advertising.  I spent a long time shortly after I started this blog, researching ways to drive more traffic to my website and in the end I decided that using social media was a good way to advertise my blog.  I’ve never paid for advertising but my blog has a Facebook Page, a Twitter and and Instagram which I share blog posts and images to.  I search relevant hashtags and will follow people in my blog niche.  Advertising, as a blogger, is more about getting your name out there rather than paying for an ad to appear in targeted social media group.

Audience.  When starting a blog, before you have even written a word of a blog post it is worth thinking about who you want to read your blog.  It is all well and good to want everyone to read your blog but each person is different and you can not write for the masses.  Think about the types of post you want to write, what they will be about, the tone of your post – will it be serious or light hearted, chatty or business like, and start building up a mental picture of the persons who would be likely to read your posts.  If, for example, you are writing about technology – computers and mobile devices you are likely to have more appeal to the younger generation and the tech savvy, you start to imagine what the typical reader would look like, what sort of job they may have etc, which will help you to pitch your blog post in just the right way, using language, words, phrases and tone to attract them.

Awards.  Awards are fun things that bloggers share to other bloggers that they consider to be worthy of the title, for example, “The Sunshine Blogger Award”, and usually come with a set of questions written by the person giving the award.  These awards can be fun to take part in as they can give your audience a little more insight into who you are as well as introduce them to new bloggers as many awards ask for you to share the award with other bloggers, this in turn can attract further readers when the award is accepted as you usually have to thank the person that awarded you with it.  These are brilliant networking tools and I encourage you all to give them a go when you get nominated!

I hope you enjoyed the first part of Blogging From A-Z – A-Z of Blogging!  What are your thoughts on the about page, advertising, audience or awards?  do you have any other A’s that are important?  I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!

I shall be back tomorrow with the letter B!

Planning for April’s A – Z Blog Challenge

| Suzi Stamp

I have decided to take part and attempt the April A – Z Blog Challenge, it is a challenge where you start on the 1st April with a topic beginning with A and work all the way to Z through the month, blogging every day, except Sundays leaving your last post – Z being published on the 30th April.

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Attempting a blog challenge seems like a nice way to push myself in my writing and topics that I may not normally cover and might be a way for you guys to learn a little bit more about me along the way!  I’m hoping that my writing skills will improve, that my photographs and images will get better and that I may learn something about myself through the whole challenge.

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But today, I’m focusing on planning for the challenge.  I had to sit down and think really hard about undertaking this challenge as I don’t really like starting something and then not finishing it, and I wanted to know that I can give my time to crafting posts and getting them up in a timely manner through the whole of April.  I have decided that I would like to run the challenge alongside my usual posting schedule so, on some days, not only will I be creating and sharing 2 posts I will also have twice the amount of preparation to consider.

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So far, in preparation for the challenge I have added the alphabet to April’s calendar alongside ideas for my usual posts and also created a spreadsheet with this information on it.  To the spreadsheet I have started putting topics against the letters that I could write about, some letters have several topics I could cover and other letters (here’s looking at you – X…) have none what-so-ever.  I like to be prepared rather than writing ad-hoc as it helps me to prepare content and decide which topics will be the most interesting.

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The next plan of action is to go through the list of topics I have and start drafting out more concrete notes and make a plan for what the posts will need (graphics/photos/headings etc) and once I have all that done I just need to sit tight and wait for the challenge to begin!

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Are you taking part in the April A – Z Challenge?  How have you prepared so far?