All this talk at Northern Voice and during the “Writing and Editing for the Web” course I just finished has me itching to work on the backend of the blog. I’m trying out some new things and updating some things that I’ve been neglecting. I also have some questions that perhaps other bloggers can help answer.

Uploaded Images and Photos on Flickr

I have gone back in all my uploaded photos (here on the blog) till October of last year and altered the titles and alt text. I’ve been naughty and haven’t been keeping that up to date. But as suggested by Alexandre in the SEO session at Northern Voice: start using good practices immediately and they will start to come naturally.

I’ve been adding photos to my Flickr and have removed almost all photos from my Facebook. I bought Flickr Pro in February and I am loving it. I’ll still be posting photos on the blog but now, I’ll try to link to the appropriate Flickr album for more photos when it isn’t necessary in a blog post.

Speaking of Facebook, I also deleted all my videos and will make sure to keep my YouTube channel up-to-date. However, most of the videos I upload to YouTube get embedded here. Which leads us to our next topic…. plugins.

WordPress Plugins

I am using Viper’s Video Quicktags plugin right now, but I just downloaded the Apture plugin to make these cute little icons in front of my links. But Apture also has an embed function, so do I need to keep Viper? Also, if I uninstall Viper, will it break my current embeds (mostly YouTube).

I already love how AddThis Social Bookmarking plugin works. I also recently activated the All in One SEO plugin and I’m exploring that more too. I’ve also been making sure to add tags to all my posts. This how-to video from WordPressTV that was suggested by kmore on Twitter has been a big help for doing all this tag updating.

Do you have any plugin suggestions that are vital to your blog well-being?

Improving my Workflow

I am interested in exploring Evernote to keep track of things. I already really like my “To Do” list on my iTouch and I use my iCal religiously. I’m interested in how Evernote can be integrated into my workflow. (And maybe it will make me less dorky at conferences when I whip out my pad of paper and favourite pen).

All over the blogs participating in the Blog Improvement Project, I’ve been hearing about Social Media people use: Twitter, StumbleUpon, Technorati, LibraryThing, GoodReads, Shelfari, Ning networks such as NaBloPoMo or BookBlogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Deli.cious, Digg, YouTube, Reddit, Flickr… really the list is endless.

But I have decided to talk about the Social Media outlet that everyone is taking for granted: your blog. Because it is so easy to set up a free blog and run it, many people are unfamiliar with simple practices and habits that make blog surfing, reading, and commenting so much more enjoyable. Your blog is an aspect of social networking and you should not take for granted the small steps you can take to make it more connected.

Buttons:

• Buttons should link to the blog/project/website it is about. When you put a button on your sidebar, or in a post such as here with the Blog Improvement Project button, if you click it, the button should link to the specific website about it. It is completely useless to have your image link to itself (so when you click, it just reloads the image in a new page).
• Not having a button link at all frustrates your visitors if they want to join in the challenge / along / carnival / blog. With most blog interfaces, all you need to do is click on the image so it is selected, and then click the link button on your blog template. Here are some great instructions to make a Button into a Link.

Links:

• Where possible, include a link. If you are talking about another blogger, or a website, or some group that has a website. Link to it.
• The second best thing to know with links is targeting. This means where the link opens to. If you don’t specify anything, the link will open on the page the user is currently on (ie. your blog site) So when you insert a link, be sure to target it to “open in a new window or tab” because this way no one is automatically/accidentally removed from your website. You want them to stay there as long as they want and opening any external links in a new window or tab is the best way to ensure this.
• Another thing to remember is to include the full URL from the http:// to the .com. This is important so that your blog doesn’t think you’re trying to link to another page within your blog.

Content:

• Be honest with yourself. Your blog is for personal use, creative expression, and public viewing. Be aware that anyone, anywhere in the world, can and may see your blog. Do not put heavily personal stuff on your blog if you don’t want the whole world to see it. An especially touchy situation is when you write about something from your real life (versus online life) and someone IRL sees it. Remember what you say is public and cannot be taken back.
• Hooking your RSS feed up to your content is pretty important. On most free blogs (WordPress.com, Blogspot, etc.) this is done automatically. But if you would like to learn more about optomizing your RSS feed, check out this awesome tutorial.
• Having an easy way for people to find content on your blog is key. There are 3 main ways to address this, and if you look on my blog, you can find all three: 1. Have a search bar (see my top right hand corner); 2. Have your archives linked somewhere (see bottom of my left sidebar); 3. Tag or categorize your blog posts and have a tag cloud or category list (see drop down menu in left sidebar).

Design:

• Your blog layout is best clean and simple so as not to detract from the content. Build your blog on what you like, then your design and layout will have a personal slant. If you don’t know how to do design, you can either teach yourself through online tutorials (try Blogging Basics 101) or you can hire someone to do it for you (hint hint nudge nudge)
• One of the most common questions I encounter is “How do I add stuff to my sidebar(s)”. Click here for a very detailed answer with different blogging hosts covered.

Images:

• People love visuals. The way we read on the web is drastically different from how we read on paper. On the web people tend to skim and view things in a Z-shape — across the top, down the page, across the bottom.
• Here is a fantastic tutorial on how to add photos to your blog.

I’ve done some minor updates around the blog as suggested by the Blog Improvement Project Week 4. Nothing too hefty, just some minor maintenance I’ve been meaning to do. After my rant about Social Media sites, I thought about being connected and getting the blog out there. I also thought about making it easier for people who do use those kinds of sites to share my blog with others. So I’ve decided to stick with the AddThis social bookmarking widget. It is fairly widely used and I appreciate that it’s design is not intrusive like the other widget I was using.

I have an issue with my sidebars: what should go “above the fold” … or to use a non-newspaper term, “above the scroll”. What fits in the sidebar before you have to scroll? Should my Knitting Widget be so high on the right side? I think my feed is important to have on the left. I have participated in so many things (Swaps & Challenges in particular) that I moved all older buttons onto the pages. But what’s different from Weeklies and Participating? And do you (as users) prefer Categories or Archives better? I don’t like WordPress.com Tags since it doesn’t show me everything on the blog I’m viewing that has been tagged, so I was also more into categories.

I’ve also been working on my blogroll. If you have added me to your blogroll and I have forgotten to add you (not intentionally), please let me know so I can add you! I tend to forget that adding people to my Feed Reader does not equate to my Blogroll.

This week was all about the different types of posts we write: links, reviews, how-to’s, long, short, etc. Now, I admit to being a one-topic-per-post kinda gal. That’s just the way I like things — organized and slightly obsessive. I’d rather do three small posts over the span of two days then mash all the topics into one post. I find that people spend less and less time actually reading on the internet and just skimming. Therefore, I feel that shorter posts, straight-to-the-point topics, and smaller paragraphs lend well to the skimming style.

Kim posted several links about types of blog posts; some boiled the points down to just five styles, others detailed as many as 20 types of posts. Kim made a list of 10 for “Blog Post Bingo” for the Blog Improvement Project this week. We were to try to post as many different types of blog posts in an effort to mix up our styles and see if anything new worked well for us. Surprisingly, I managed to do a few of these without realizing it.

1. A Link Post – I wrapped up the Throw Away 50 Things challenge…. on the Declutter Blog! (does that count?)
2. A Short Post – Just sharing a blog post that Dewey’s husband wrote
3. A List Post – An unconventional list
4. An Opinion Post – With only one year to go, I shared my thoughts on the 2010 Olympics
5. A Poll or Question Post – Damn! wait just a couple more weeks and I have a reeeally good one planned!
6. A How-To Post – Mmm not really what I tend to do. I sort of explain how I’ve done things myself…
7. A Long Post – My thank-you post to Penny, my Cocoa Swap Pal!
8. A Review Post – I read and reviewed a book, Y in the Shadows
9. A Definition Post – I wrote about Freedom to Read Week! I think this counts because I blogged about the topic (and defined it).
10. FREE SPACE – I would have to say just a photo post, such as my Valentines one, or my Henry post!

So that’s 8/10 posts. I’m not going to rush to do a How-To or Poll/Question post because with things like that, I’d like to have something to actually post/talk about rather than just doing it for the sake of posting. You know what I mean? I think I already have a good mix of posts, but it’s always neat to be more aware of what you’re putting out there!

This week, Kim has brought up the topic about what to blog about; more specifically, brainstorming ideas and what to do when we can’t think of anything to blog about.

Well, as you may have noticed, I don’t seem to have this problem. I blog nearly daily… and I always try to make it something new, interesting, or unique. I’m trying to cut back on the pointless memes. For example Tuesday Teasers; while it’s interesting to know what other people are reading, picking a random quote from a random page just doesn’t do it for me anymore. However, I really enjoy Friday Fill-Ins, mostly for the final question which talks about weekend plans.

Kim posted some links to websites that have ideas and suggestions about what to blog about. If you’re just starting out blogging, this might be helpful, but to be honest for me, if I don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Kinda like Thumper’s mom’s motto (from Bambi).

I don’t think my problem is the ideas or how often I blog, I think it’s the quality/interest-level of my blog posts. So I’ve decided to become more connected in the blogisphere by 1. Doing sort of an “in the news” / bloglines kind of post every so often; and 2. developing and marketing my blog designing skills and hopefully doing some freelance work.