1

Blog with Bree presents

Blogging 101

by Bree Hesterwww.blogwithbree.com

Blogging 101 by Bree Hester

The copyright of this e-book belongs to Bree Hester.

All images are protected by US copyright and belong to Bree Hester.

2

My Story:

Blogging changed my life. Dramatic as that may sound, it is true. Blogging gave me a voice. It gave me a creative outlet to share what I know and to teach others. I had no idea how much I would love the community that surrounds Baked Bree.

I started Baked Bree in February of 2010. I was at my best friend’s house helping her after the birth of her third child, it was cold and snowy, and we were house bound. I was playing around on my laptop and had some images that I had taken of my husband and son making peanut butter pie. I was going to put it up on my photography blog, but on a whim I decided to start a separate food blog. I had no plan, I knew nothing, and that was okay with me. It was intended for only me and my friends and family to see.

As far as my technical skills go, I would give myself a B-. But I knew how to set up Wordpress (my web host has a feature that installs it for you) and I knew enough to figure out how to install a theme and get it to look the way that I wanted. That being said, I am not a coder and do not know how to use html or CSS. I learned everything else about customizing my website from Google. There a lot of great tutorials out there and kind people that are willing to help you.

I never thought that anyone would read it. Maybe my mom and a handful of friends. From the beginning, it was intended to be for me, and only for me. I never thought that I would make money from it, or have opportunities presented to me because of it. I never thought I would make such wonderful friends both online and offline.

I wrote this e-book to help you navigate the world of blogging. I will share with you what worked for me and what helped me have an incredibly successful first year blogging. Here is a disclaimer: this is what worked for me, it is not necessarily the right way to do things.

Whether you are a first time blogger, or have been blogging for a long time, this guide will help you to have good blogging practices, blog well, and save time doing it.

Happy Blogging,Bree

3

Why Blog?

For me, blogging started 5 years ago as a way to connect with my family when we lived overseas. We are a military family and move often. Blogging kept our friends and family connected and became a lifeline. We shared pictures, stories, and even videos of our kids. We could share bits of our days and our families could feel like they were a part of our life even when we lived 3,000 miles away.

Later, when I opened my photography business, blogging became a way to reach out to new and potential clients. My blog became my real-time portfolio and a true gauge of my work. Clients would be excited to see their images on my blog and share them with their family and friends. Other photographers would visit and it helped me grow my business. I liked blogging and tried to blog often. I would alternate between client sessions and a peek into who I was and my life. I truly believe that people that are successful are that way because their clients or the people who buy their product connect with them. Together you build a relationship, and from there you gain a customer and a faithful blog reader.

To have a successful blog, you need to be passionate about what you are writing about. If people cannot get the sense that you are passionate about the topic, they will not continue to read. I write a cooking blog and I cook nearly every single day. I believe in eating well and using the best ingredients possible. If you follow my blog, this theme is present throughout. I might not write every single post about eating well, but you will know that it is one of the core values of my blog.

Blogging is a way to showcase your skills and hobbies. Some of my favorite blogs are about things that I know nothing about, but they teach me. I love to read a blog and take away something new from it. Whether it is a new idea, a place to visit, a DIY project, or a recipe, I gain something that someone else took the time to share. If you make a handmade product, a blog is a great way to showcase and market your merchandise.

Blogging is also a place to share your insights and thoughts. Blogging is therapeutic. It can be a journal for you to record your thoughts and feelings. Sometimes, just putting them out to the world is healing and productive. When I blog on my personal blog, I write for myself; and when I am open and honest, the feedback that I get is supportive and comes from an honest place. I wrote a post once where I had just had it. I was tired, frustrated, and spent. I wrote from my heart and put it all out there. What I did not expect was that I would get so much love and compassion from people that I have never met in real life. I never expected that I would get so much in return.

4

Who is reading your blog?

The goal of a blog is to get people to read it, right? So you need to make it easy to read and relatable. You want people to come back. You want your readers to become invested in what you have to say. You need to have a clear voice and message. It is important to sit down and ask yourself who your intended audience is. Who are you writing for? Is your blog for you; a journal to record images and thoughts? Is it a blog meant to teach people something? Is it a place to market your products? Is it an online portfolio? It is important to understand who will be reading your blog so that you can cater the content to the intended audience. If it is for yourself, then you can share 800 pictures of little Timmy and talk about your trip to the dinosaur museum. If it is intended to teach something then you write it with the purpose of giving someone information. If it is to help you sell a product, then you need to write it to showcase and market your products.

How do I know who is reading my blog?- Google Analytics or whatever stat counter you use. I prefer Google Analytics

for a lot of reasons, and I love that I get a lot of valuable information about my readers. I see where my referral links are from and what posts get the most traffic.

- Ask them. Ask your readers to fill out a short survey. You could have a small giveaway as an incentive to have them respond.

We have a general idea of who is reading, however the Internet is open to everyone. Early on, it is a good idea to set your boundaries. Some people put it all out there. I am one of those people. I have been blogging for a long time and it never occurred to me to guard myself. I have never had a problem with the Internet knowing my name and where I live, and I will continue to write the way that I do. Do I give me home address? Of course not. But I am who I am, and my readers can relate to me and my family because they feel like they know us.

Some people do not use their name or the names of their children. That is perfectly okay. I have been to blogs where the kids are referred to as their nicknames or even by number. Whatever works for you and your comfort level. It is your blog, and you set the rules.

That being said, I do keep in mind that I am writing about my family, my children, my friends, and myself. I would never make something public that I think would hurt them in the long run or something that they would be embarrassed to read. It is easy to write what you are truly feeling in a given moment and hit publish. Once it is out there though, it is out there, you cannot take it back.

5

How to start a blog.

There a few decisions that you need to make before you start a blog. You need to decide if you want a self-hosted blog (Wordpress, Moveable Type, ExpressionEngine) or a service that includes web hosting (Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress.com). What is the difference?

Self-hosted blogs:

Pros:- You have total control, you can customize your blog to fit your needs- Your blog is located on your personal domain - More plug in options to make your blog function the way that you would like

Cons:- Can cost about $100 a year depending on what hosting plan you choose- You need to have some technical knowledge or pay someone to help you- You are in charge of all backups and maintenance

Typepad, Blogger, etc:

Pros:

- You do not need any technical knowledge- Easy to set up- The services provides all updates and support- You are on a domain with established ranking, so indexing can happen quickly

Cons:

- You are very limited in how you can customize your blog- Some people view using a generic URL (ex. .blogspot.com or .typepad.com) as

unprofessional- Ultimately, you do not own your blog- If you decide to monetize your blog, you may be limited in your advertising

options

Whatever platform you choose, you can always change your mind. If you are a new blogger and do not want invest the money, you can start on Blogger or Typepad and migrate your blog to Wordpress at a later time. It is a very easy process.

6

My preference is Wordpress. (Wordpress.org not Wordpress.com) Yes, the learning curve can be a little steep, but it is worth it in my humble opinion. The ways that you can customize a Wordpress site are endless. Find a good theme that works for you and fits your needs. There are a million plugins out there that can help you make your website function the way that you want it to.

Some of the hosted services allow you to use a personal domain. You can purchase your personal domain for about $10 a year. I suggest purchasing the title of your blog if it is available as soon as possible as well as your own name. I also pay for my domain names for a few years at a time. If your domain lapses, it will open to the public and you may have to spend a considerable amount of money to get it back. I have thankfully not had to go through the process of buying back my domain name, but I have friends that have, and it is a nightmare.

If you visit a blog that you really like, see what platform it was created on or what template was used. This information can usually be found in the footer at the very bottom of the page. Go from there and make it your own.

If you are looking for templates to customize the way your blog looks here are some resources:

etsy.com - inexpensive templates and custom workmakincuteblogs.com - custom web services and illustrationsCinnamon Girl Studio - cute templates for Blogger and WordpressPro Photo Blogs - designed for photographers, but easy to use and customize

Wordpress Themes:

Thesis - If I can use Thesis, anyone can. Amazing support in the forumsGenesis - Beautiful templates that can look customWoo Themes - lots of themes to choose from and can be customized to suit your needs

7

Design:

Design can make or break a blog. I don’t just mean how the site looks, although that is also important, but it needs to be easy for the reader to use and navigate. I will skip a blog if it makes my job as a reader difficult.

- Keep the design clean and simple. Of course, you should showcase your personality, but it should not distract the reader from the content. Now is not really the time to experiment with busy fonts and dark backgrounds. Your blog should be visually appealing, it will be the first thing that the reader notices and it will be the thing that makes them decide to stay or go.

- To find a color combination that works for you and works together, try using kuler.com. You can choose a color that you like, and kuler will find complimentary colors that go with it. It is a very useful tool for finding a color story for you to work with.

(color story from The Creative Mama)

- Make sure that the font is dark enough against the background so the reader does not have to strain to read it. It should also not be so small or too large that it is difficult to read. It should also be font that is easy to read. Some people’s blogs give me a headache. I know that it can make a blog look pretty to have interesting fonts, but if it is hard to read, you are not doing your readers any favors.

- Use a font that is easy to read. Not all fonts can be read on all browsers. Stick with fonts that are simple. I like Typekit. Typekit is a service that gives you more options when it comes to choosing fonts for the web. I like this service because it allows me to keep all of my branding consistent. The font I am using for this document is Museo Slab as is the font on blogwithbree.com. It is simple to install and to customize for your website.

- Music on a blog really bothers me. I understand that your blog can be an extension of yourself, but I really don’t want to hear your music when I am reading. I usually have Pandora playing in the background as I am going through my Google reader and I do not like having both playing at the same time. Or, at the very least, keep your playlist widget at the top of the screen so that your reader does not have to scroll all the way to the bottom to turn it off.

8

- Your blog should be easy to navigate. Ideally, you would be able to plan out how you want your site to navigate before you make it live, but that is not always the case. Sometimes you start a blog quickly and do not realize what your needs are going to be. At the very least, you should have an about page, an archive, and a contact page.

- Widgets are like apps for your website. They serve many functions and can

customize the experience for your reader. Widgets can be fun and offer your reader some insight into who you are as a blogger, but too many just distracts the reader. Be very selective about how you use the space in your sidebars.

- Every month or so, you should take a long, hard look at your blog. Use fresh eyes and see it as a new reader would. Perform some housekeeping: clean up anything distracting, fix broken links, update your about page.

- Ideally, people will come to your blog to read a post, but then they will be interested and want to take a look around. Make it easy for them to do so. Perhaps have a featured posts link in your sidebar or links to the most popular posts so people can get to know you.

- Make it easy for people to find you elsewhere. Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Add those icons linking to your pages. Put a subscribe button so that people can add you to their reader.

- Make sure that you have a search feature. I get so frustrated when I am looking for something on a blog and cannot find it. The search bar is extremely helpful and should be on every blog.

- Find a template that works for you. I like clean and modern design. I chose a template that I felt could easily achieve the look that I wanted. As I said before, I do not know any HTML or CSS so it needed to be easy for me to use. Once you set up template the way that like, and it works for you, leave it alone.

9

Where do you find inspiration?

For me, finding content is the hardest part of being an active blogger. It can be a challenge to come up with new material day after day. I have four blogs to write for, so finding interesting content is the most important thing that I can do to build and keep my readership. So where do you get ideas for good content?

I find inspiration everywhere. I keep a notebook on me all the time and write down anything that I think that might be an interesting blog post. When I am planning out my posts, I refer to the notebook and either write directly from the notebook or do some research on the topic to explore it further. I can write something as simple as “Roast chicken from Zuni”. From that, I know I want to make a chicken similar to the chicken that I ate at Zuni and will try to recreate the lunch that I had.

What are you interested in? I originally had a photography blog, but I shared more than just pictures. I liked to cook so I wrote about that, I like to do DIY projects, so I included that as well. Did you go to the art museum this weekend? Tell us about it. Pull things from your life that interest you and share them with your readers. If you are interested in something, there is a very good chance that others are as well.

I use my camera phone all the time to keep track of ideas and cool things that I discover when I am out and about. There are so many ways your camera phone can be useful. I can snap a picture of something interesting in a magazine. Take a picture of a book that I want to order at a later date. A photo of an amazing dish that I just had at a restaurant that I might want to recreate at home. Take a picture of a shop that I might want to return to later. I use my camera phone to help jog my memory later when I out in the world. It helps me remember the things and details that I would normally forget. It has become an invaluable tool for me to use.

Evernote has changed my life. Evernote is like a digital version of my handy notebook from above. I use the web clipper feature and when I see a recipe that I like, a picture that I love, pretty much anything that I find interesting. I add it to my Evernote notebook. You can make separate notebooks for different topics. I have a kitchen idea notebook, a DIY notebook, parenting article notebook, the list goes on and on. Evernote syncs with my desktop, laptop, and phone, so it is always updated in real time. Pure genius. I also can share Evernote notebooks with friends and see what they have been adding. You can use your camera phone as well and add images to notebooks. Instead of ripping an article from a magazine, now I will scan it and add it a notebook instead. I have so much less clutter since I have far less paper.

Mind mapping - Mind mapping or brainstorming is a very useful activity when it comes time to find new content. You can start with a very general topic and

10

brainstorm new ideas from it, sub-topics, and ways to enhance the topic. I can generate many, many new ideas from one topic when I do a free thinking activity like this. There are programs that you can use, but I find it more useful for me to do it on a piece of paper

Live your life. The life of a blogger can be isolating at times. We spend a lot of time behind a computer. Blogging may look effortless sometimes, but you and I both know that it can take a ton of time and be all encompassing. When I am tapped out creatively and am not able to come up with some new and interesting content, I know that it is time to shut down the ol’ laptop and get outside and enjoy life. Sometimes it only takes an afternoon, or sometimes you need a few days, but shutting down and going offline can be more inspiring than you can ever imagine. I cannot write about life and my experiences if I am not living it. I promise that when you power up again, you will have new content and stories to tell because you have gained experience worth writing about.

Other blogs also provide inspiration. I do not mean that you copy what another blogger is doing, but seeing what is out there may inspire some posts. I like to see what is trending and what people are reading. I like to look at some of the most popular blogs in my niche and see why they are popular. Why do people like to read this blog so much? How does this blogger engage with the reader? See what they are doing and see if you can take away some ideas for your own blog, and make them work for you.

When I want to see what is going on in the blogosphere, I head to technorati.com. There you will find what topics are popular and what is trending. You can check out other blogs and see what posts are popular. From there you take a few ideas and make them your own.

Go through your old photos and scrapbooks. A look at the person you once were or events that you have been to might stir up some things to reflect on. Write about these past experiences. They might give you some new insights that might be worth sharing with your readers.

11

How to make blogging a little easier.

Do you ever wonder how magazines can pump out new content month after month? Or how they manage to run a Christmas image on the cover of the December issue? They plan out the year and create an editorial calendar. This is hands down the most helpful tool when it comes to writing new and compelling content day after day. I will sit down with a blank calendar and make a very loose framework of what I want to cover and write about in a given year. For my food blog, I need to make sure that I cover the big holidays, so they go on the calendar. For the new school year, I will add some quick and easy breakfast recipes for my readers trying to get out of the house. I add things to the calendar that will jog my memory when it comes time to write timely articles and posts. It can be a quick list of things that happen in the month of March, or it can be a theme that you assign to the week or month. However you go about making an editorial calendar, it will help organize your thoughts and where your blog is going.

Sometimes, I will write four blog posts in a day. I don’t want to publish them all at the same time, so I will save them for another day, or have them auto-publish at a later date. When I am on a roll and pumping out posts, I will write until the inspiration is gone. This is especially helpful when I am going on vacation, or when I have a busy week. I like to publish new content every other day and this helps me achieve this goal.

It is a good idea to always have a few evergreen posts done for just in case purposes. These are posts that you have on hand that can be used any time of year or for any reason. Sometimes life happens. You get busy, your interview falls through, whatever the reason, you have an evergreen post that you can publish so that you do not get off of your posting schedule.

If you prefer to write only once or twice a week, that is perfectly fine, but consider making sure that it is on the same say each week. Choose Monday and Thursday (or whichever days work for you) and consistently publish on those days so your readers will know when to expect new material.

I typically blog at the same time every day. I put the kids in bed and get comfy on my couch with my laptop and a cold beer or a Diet Coke. I edit my photos in large batches so I have my photos edited, sized, and ready to go before I start. I will do a bit of prewriting before I get down to business and organize my thoughts. This helps me not forget things that I want to write about. This ritual is something that I really look forward to. I love getting my head in the right space and enjoy the process. I do not look at it like a chore, I actually love doing it.

My house can be a crazy place. It is loud, and there are a million things going on at once. It can be very difficult to keep my concentration long enough to plan

12

and write a blog post. If I am able to, I will stick my laptop into my bag and head to the nearest Starbucks. I get myself a fancy coffee and get to work. At times, it feels like a vacation. It can be amazing how much more I can get done in a shorter amount of time without the distractions from my home. I turn off my email and focus completely on the task at hand. If I cannot get away from the distractions of my everyday life, I will walk away and come back to my blog post later. In the long run, I waste more time trying to fight the distractions than if I stop what I am doing and coming back to it at a better time.

13

Content.

If you take away nothing else from what I telling you, take this: Content. Is. King. If your content is not compelling or interesting, people will skip over you and keep going. In order to have a successful blog, you need to post regularly. To gain readership, your readers need to have something to read. They need to know that every few days, there will be something new for them. Finding a posting schedule that works for you, say Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, or every other day not only is beneficial for you, but also your readers.

Before I actually write my post, I do a little prewriting. It helps to organize my thoughts and it makes writing the full post easier for me. I will decide what keywords that I want to target, and I will title my post accordingly. I only spend about 5 minutes prewriting, but it really helps me to remember all of my key points and it makes the process so much more efficient. Writing a blog post is different than writing a magazine article or a news story. When people are reading off of a computer, they have less of an attention span and are more prone to move on the next thing. Drawing in your reader in with the first few sentences is extremely important; you want to want them to stay with you.

If you want to be taken seriously, you need to take your blog seriously. Make sure that you use proper grammar and make sure that you edit each and every post. Sometimes I will write a post and step away from it for awhile and come back to edit it. The time away gives me fresh eyes to see things that I would have missed ordinarily. I will also ask other people to take a look before I publish. I work with a lot of public relations firms and major brands; I need to represent myself professionally not only for myself, but also for them.

The voice that I write my blog in is my own. It is what makes people return again and again. People can identify with me and have gotten to know me by reading my blog. Bloggers have the advantage that we can write using our own words, in our own style. We do not have restraints on what we can and cannot say. I like to read blogs that are humorous. They can tell me a story and make me laugh out loud. That never happens when I am reading CNN.com. The thing that I love about reading other blogs is that the writing can be conversational and still written well.

Your content is also important because it is what makes you searchable in Google. This is not a book about SEO (Search Engine Optimzation), but there are some things that you can do within your blog posts to help. A few nicely placed key words within a post (and in the title) go a long way in the searchability game. Also tag your post with 4-6 appropriate tags. Google Wonder Wheel is a really useful tool for finding appropriate tags (not to mention topics) for your posts.

14

So what kinds of things can you write about?

how to/DIYreviewsresourceslist postinterviewbest of postpersonal storynewseducationalopinionindustry newsbreaking newsawards (ex. 50 most interesting bloggers)

(DIY Project - Advent Calendar)

15

How to Increase Readership.

It can be really frustrating to spend so much time planning, designing, writing, editing, and organizing blog posts to have no one but your mom and maybe a few friends read them.

Here are a few tips to help:

1. Post frequently - if you post randomly or every blue moon, people will not invest the time to come back. Post regularly and often. Find a posting schedule that works for you and stick with it.

2. Make your blog easy to read. Aside from the design elements we already discussed, make sure that your posts are not too long and not too short. Find a number of words that works for you and your readers and try to keep your posts within those limits.

3. Encourage your readers to comment. Ask them a question and encourage community.

4. Ask them what they want to read about. Ask them in a blog post, send them a survey, engage them and ask them what they are interested in hearing from you.

5. Have your readers relate to you. Tell your stories, share your life and readers will identify with you. You will have a relationship and they will continue to read.

6. Good writing. Good writing goes a long way. There are some blogs that I read every day that are about things that I am not necessarily interested in, but the writing is so good that I want to read. And I do. Every. Single. Day.

7. Compelling subjects. Blogs that are about things that I am also passionate about are blogs that I visit again and again. When people are passionate about what they are blogging about, it shows in your writing and readers will come back to support you.

8. Guest post and have guest posters. A way to expand readership is to tap into other bloggers readership and vice versa. Make friends with other bloggers and offer to guest post for them.

9. Use a service like Networked Blogs to publish your new posts across all social media. When I publish a post, Networked Blogs publishes it on my Facebook pages, and my Twitter feed.

10.Advertise your RSS feed. Encourage readers to subscribe to your feed. Your blog posts will update in their blog readers.

16

How to Encourage readers to engage with older material.

New visitors are just that, new. They have never read the hilarious post that you wrote about Aunt Suzy at the family reunion. Or the one where you share a DIY project on organizing your spice cabinet. So how can you get them to look around and read what else you have to offer?

One way is to use a related post plugin or Linkwithin. It is a plugin that shows up at the bottom of each post showing readers what other posts that they might be interested in. It is really a useful little plug in and in all honesty, it sucks me in all the time.

Interlink older blog posts in newer blog posts. By linking to older posts, you are showing your readers that you have other topics and posts relevant to what they are reading about. It encourages them to look around and build a relationship with you. For example, a sentence in a post might look like this:

Remember in my last post about making raspberry cupcakes? Today it was so nice out that we decided to take those cupcakes out on a picnic.

Make sure that when you are linking your post, you check the box to “open link in a new window”. This a pet peeve of mine. When you do not check that box, the reader is being taken to a new website and away from yours. In order to get back to where they started from, they repeatedly need to hit the back button in their browser. When you click the “open link in a new window” box, you are opening the link in a new window or tab and they are still on your webpage. It gives the reader less opportunity to get lost and wander away from where they started from.

Write a series of posts. Write a blog post in parts and interlink them together. I did a series on how to host a Mediterranean-themed dinner party and when I was done with the five part series, I added a final post pulling it all together. It forced the click on other links to get the rest of the information.

17

Photography.

People are visual. People like pretty pictures. People like to see pretty pictures on blogs. Pictures and images are the thing that pique the reader’s interest initially and keeps them there to read the blog post. I firmly believe that having strong visuals relates to the success of a blog. I know that is why Baked Bree is successful. There are thousands of wonderful food blogs out there, but they get skipped over because their pictures are horrible.

I take all of the images on my websites. I am a photographer and it is something that I love to do. Not all people are photographers. And I am not expecting them to be. You do have a few options. 1.) You can learn to take better pictures and spend some time learning how your camera works, or 2.)you can use other sources to find and lawfully use images.

There are some things that you can do to take better pictures.

- Use natural light whenever possible. Turn off your flash and use the light available to you. If you are shooting a person, food, or a still life, move the subject towards a window.

18

- Play with your camera. Read the instruction manual and see what all of the buttons actually do. Take your camera out of auto and use different settings to get different looks.

- The beauty of digital is that it is free. Take lots and lots of pictures. It is the only way that your photography will improve. Even if you shoot 100 frames and only have 1 keeper, that is great!

- Play around with perspective. Move around your subject and take pictures from each angle. You will surprised at how different your picture can be from many different angles.

- Take your camera everywhere. The more you shoot, the better you will be. The more you shoot, the more images you will have to use on your blog.

- Learn some basic photo editing. There are free photo editors like picasa.com or picnik.com where you can adjust the brightness and contrast to improve the quality of your images.

If you decide to not take your own images, there are a few places where you can get images. If you decide to go this route, you must give credit to the original source. A simple link at the bottom of the image is all you need, but not doing it is unethical and just plain rude.

istockphoto.com - you can purchase royalty-free images to use on your blog or whatever project you need images for.

flickr.com - you can browse through photos and if they fall under the Creative Commons, you can use them in your blog posts. (With credit given to the photographer of course.)

Ask - I get people all the time asking my permission to use one of my images on a post of theirs or for whatever reason. I always say yes (as long as it is not going somewhere inappropriate) and thank the person for asking. It is just good blogging etiquette to ask permission to use an image then just taking it and using it anyway. And not only that, but when they source my image, I get a link and possible new readers. Win. Win. Win.

Photographs are also important when it comes to ranking in the search engines. Google likes images. When you upload your images into a blog post, there is a place to add alternate text. Alternate text is for when people have turned the images off in their browser or for visually impaired people that use a screen reader. By adding the keywords or a description of the image, you are adding important key words that will help people find your post.

19

For instance, this is a picture of fried chicken.

Here is what I would write in the alternate text box:

20

Comments.

Commenting is how we get our readers to engage with us and build community. It is what validates us as writers and encourages us to keep going. You are more apt to continue to post if you know that there will be comments in regards to what you wrote about. While I do not equate blog comments with success (some bloggers do,but not me), it is a way for you see what your readers like to read. You can determine what readers are engaging with and what kind of posts they respond to by the comments that they leave.

The readers of my blog are fiercely loyal. Some comment on every single post that I write. These commenters have become my friends and biggest cheerleaders. I am so grateful for them, they encourage me every day to keep writing and to put out my best work. When I have gone a few days without posting, they email me to make sure that I am doing okay. How amazing is that? Without the conversation we have in the comments section, we would not have a relationship in which people fear for my health and safety.

Whether you are writing a blog post or reading one, you should also read the comments. My readers are smart and have great insight. If I make a mistake with a recipe, they let me know and I am grateful for that. I love to hear what works for them or what doesn’t. I also find out ways to improve upon something in the comments section. If you are writing an opinion post, the conversation will be in the comments section. If you are asking your readers a question, that is where you will find the answer.

How do you get people to comment? I find that if I ask them a question at the end of a post, they will answer it. I also have found that the more honest I am in the post the more responses I get from my readers. I wrote a post about being overwhelmed on my personal blog and I was overwhelmed again by the support and love that I got in the comments section. People that I have never met, but they understood where I was coming from and felt compelled to respond. Make your post relatable to your readers and they will be more likely to chime in on the conversation.

Early on, I decided that I would respond to every comment that someone writes to me. I still do. It is time consuming for sure, but I feel that if someone takes the time to leave a comment, they deserve a response, even if it is as simple as a thank you. If someone asks me a question, I answer it. It is how you can have a conversation with your readers. When you respond to blog comments, you are building a community and gaining new and loyal readers. These readers are more likely to come back and participate because they know that you will engage with them, and you are the reason why they are there in the first place. You never know who is commenting, it could be your grandmother or another famous blogger who is discreetly trying to encourage you. You just never know.

21

Do you want to increase readership? You do? Then start leaving comments on other blogs. Just like people comment and support you, you should do the same. It is a way to build a relationship and gain new readers. Another way commenting can help you in the long run is to build a relationship with another blogger and ask them to guest post on their blog or have them post for you.

When you put yourself and your life out for the world to see, you are opening yourself up for criticism and the occasional hater. How you deal with this is entirely up to you, but I do not delete these comments. I feel that unless something is truly offensive or hateful it is okay to leave it. I will respond accordingly but after that I let it go. The way that I see it, if someone is taking the time to be negative then I am doing something right. That being said, it is entirely in your control. A wise person once told me “let your haters be your motivators”. I take that advice to heart and keep blogging in the way that I want and move forward knowing that I am putting out my best work.

Here a few little tips that I think are helpful when it comes to commenting:

1. Use Gravatar. Go to gravatar.com and sign up for an account. Upload a picture and that cute little picture will show up next to your blog comments. It is nice to put a face to a name and it is more personal. I love gravatar.

2. Thread your comments. I like that when I respond to a comment, the response shows up directly underneath and slightly indented. It looks nice and makes it easier to read.

3. Make it easy for people to comment. If they have to register, they are not going to do it. People (me) are really lazy. If I even have to use CAPTCHA, I will skip over the comments section and move on. Make your comments form as simple as possible.

4.Use an anti-spam plugin. I use Askimet. It is a couple of dollars and worth every single penny. It does a great job of filtering out my spam comments from my real comments. Using Askimet allows me to skip the CAPTCHA that I dislike so much.

22

How to market your posts and yourself.

So you wrote a heartfelt post today, it is moving, and the best thing that you have ever written. How do you get people to see it and read it? Good question.There are a million ways that bloggers promote themselves. This is what I do. I am not saying that it is right, but it is what I do.

Make sure that you have your RSS feed subscribe button prominently displayed on your blog. Having your readers subscribe makes them more inclined to read every day because they don’t have to think about it. Your feed shows up in their reader and that is that. Having a working RSS feed helps to automate other services that will make promoting your posts easier. Use Feedburner to burn your feed and to optimize your feed. You can also track how many subscribers you have.

I need to be honest with you. I am not the best at social media. I love Facebook and use it constantly, but I am not so good with “the Twitter” (that is what my grandmother calls Twitter and yes, she is better at using it than I am). I have noticed that within my niche of food blogging, my fellow food bloggers are very active on Twitter. I have been forced to use it more and it has helped me in a lot of ways. For starters, it promotes my blog posts with other food bloggers. The food blogging community is incredibly supportive of each other and will share something delicious with everyone that follows them. My theory as to why food bloggers are so nice is because they are never hungry. Secondly, I don’t have to say a lot. I only have 140 characters, so there is not a lot that I can say. A little blurb about the post and the link and you are good. Thirdly, it gives me a way to support other bloggers. If I read something that I like on a blog, I will tweet it out to my followers, which most likely are meeting you for the first time. Lastly, it gives me an opportunity to share things other than food and recipes with my followers. Twitter is starting to grow on me, the more that I use it, the more I appreciate it

Another thing that you might consider is to share video or vlog. YouTube uses 25% of the Internet’s bandwidth. That is an amazing statistic if you think about it. Add a few short videos and use some of your blog’s keywords and it will quickly be picked up in Google. I know that the idea of vlogging is downright scary, but there are a lot of things that you can share on YouTube. I like to do photo editing tutorials. I use a program called Screenflow (it is a Mac based program, CamStudio is an example of a Windows program) and quickly describe how I edit a photo. You can use YouTube for so many things. Set up your channel to match your branding and you are in business.

I love Facebook, I love my fan page. I like the layout better than Twitter, it is easier for my readers to share with me. They can tag me in posts describing something that they made from my website. They can post pictures and show the rest of my followers what it looked like. I love how interactive it can be. Set

23

up a fan page for your blog and then you can separate your blog readers from your friends and family. After you have 25 people “like” you, you can get a vanity URL (www.facebook.com/bakedbree) that looks professional and matches your branding.

I also have an opt-in on the home page of my website where people can subscribe to my email newsletter. I use MadMimi. It is simple to use, set-up, and the price is right. I use it for more things than I ever thought that I would. It has proven to be one of the most useful ways to directly engage with my readers. I will send them special subscriber only information, a holiday message, or a heads up if I am about to run a giveaway. It is a very personal way to communicate with your readers. They have to sign up to receive they newsletter, which tells me that they want to read it. To encourage new subscribers, I give them a reason to want to sign up. When they confirm their subscription, they get a download link to an e-book that I wrote. I change out the incentive every so often to match the season or when I have something new that I want to share. If I change out the book, I will also make sure that I send it to the readers that are already subscribed. They feel loved when I do that.

I like to make my life as easy as possible. I am busy and as much as I would like to sit in front of my computer all day and grow my blog, that is not possible. I like things that are automated that help me promote my new material. I have my blog posts linked with Networked Blogs. I use Networked Blogs through Facebook. You set up your blog up and you can have your posts automatically published on all of your Facebook pages (I have a personal page and a fan page), and Twitter. It is great because I do not have to link my posts all over the place, Networked Blogs does it for me. Since I post every other day, I will relink it to my Twitter feed and Facebook page manually on the in between day, but the hard work has already been done.

24

SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

This book is not about SEO. I am not an expert in SEO, and truthfully, the words send a chill up my spine. But I feel that I would be remiss if I did not mention it at all. As I have said before, this is what I do, not what you should do, but so far, what I am doing is working for me, so here it is.

I do not spend a lot of time worrying about SEO. I believe that good content is what makes for good SEO, so that is where I choose to spend my time. I did optimize my website as much as I felt comfortable doing (I cleaned up my links and have an extensive ping list) and then I left it alone.

I choose to focus my energy on the design and content within my website. I really do not write my posts with the idea of what will be search engine friendly; I just write. But I have learned that you need to decide what keywords you are trying to target before you hit publish. Your keywords and targeted phrases should appear organically. For instance, if my post is about strawberry shortcake and that is the keyword that I am trying to target, then that phrase should be in the post a few times. “Today I made a strawberry shortcake for my sister’s bridal shower.” If you have a picture of strawberry shortcake, you should name the image “strawberry-shortcake” and when you upload it write the keywords in the space for alternate text. Google really likes pictures and indexes them as well, by labeling the picture appropriately, it will also be included.

I recently started using a paid plugin called Scribe. It has been really helpful when it comes to optimizing my posts. I run the optimizer after I have written the post and Scribe tells me where I can improve and make the post more search engine friendly. It also helps with link building. The Internet is called “the web” for good reason. Pages are linked to each other, and from there they are linked to another website, and so on and so forth, like a giant spider web. Google ranks you higher by the amount of links that come into and out of your website. Google finds you to be more trustworthy when people link to you. I will link to other websites and other websites link to me, therefore we are helping each other rank higher in the search engines.

That is it. That is all that I do for SEO. If you want to do more, I will add some SEO resources at the end of this book.

25

How to make some (okay a little) money blogging.

It sounds easy enough doesn’t it? Start a blog, and then make millions from it. That is not really the reality, but there is some money to be made from blogging. However, sometimes the compensation does not necessarily come in the form of dollar bills. It can be in sample products, trips, or review opportunities. There are pros and cons to monetizing your blog and you need to decide if it is ultimately how you want to run your blog.

If money is what you are after, there a couple of options for you. You can sell ad space on your blog. The way that I think about it is like this, your blog is real estate. You are asking people to pay rent in exchange for giving them a little piece of property. They put a link (usually always with some artwork) and leverage your traffic to advertise for them. The nice thing about this option is that you control who advertises with you. You can make sure that your advertisers are a perfect fit for you and your brand. The downside is that you have to do all the work. You need to invoice your advertisers each month and change everything out when you add and subtract new vendors.

You can use an ad network (which is what I do). I have an ad network that has a few spaces on my website. They gave me pieces of code to put on my website and they feed the ads that they want through the set up spaces. It is really easy, it set up the spaces once and that is it. At the beginning of each month, I get a deposit into my Paypal account. The best part is that I do not have to do anything each month, but the downside is that I have no control over which ads are fed through my website. Sometimes the advertisements go against the values of my blog.

Sponsored blog posts are another way to make a little money on your blog. Sometimes companies will pay a fee to have you use their product and write about it. For example, Sargento got in touch with me to create a recipe using their product. I was compensated for my time and I had some new content to post. Works for me.

Product reviews are a fun way to try out new products. A company will send me a product to try (I make them send two, one for me and one to giveaway) and I get to keep the product and build up some traffic by hosting a giveaway.

I have also worked with brands where they sent me to events to represent them on their behalf. I will then write about the event and promote their brand. I like this because I get to go to events that I would normally not get to go to, the company pays my expenses and I get new knowledge and experience.

All of these opportunities are contingent on a few things. You need to have a steady flow of traffic. You need to focus on growing your readership and your reach before PR companies and brands will want to work with you. Focus on

26

putting out quality material. Companies do not just look at your blog traffic, but also your Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Do you get comments on your blog posts? Do you interact with your readers? There are a lot of factors that make you marketable.

If you are interested in working with PR firms, then you need to have an about page describing yourself and your blog. You also need to include a contact page. Include where you are located and at the very least an email address. I recently was putting together a blogging series and I was shocked at how many people had no email address on their websites. I skipped over them and looked at the next site. If you want to work with people, you need to make it easy for them to work with you.

Another thing that you need to consider when you decide to monetize your blog is that now you need to be concerned about your image and how you come across to the world. Advertisers will not want to work with people that do come off as trustworthy and professional. You need to mindful of the language that you use and some of the topics that you choose to blog about.

A peeve of mine is blogs that have so many sponsored ads and giveaways that the content seems contrived. I think that there needs to be a delicate balance between blogging for money and blogging for yourself. I limit myself to two sponsored posts or giveaways a month. I want my blog to make a little money, but I still blog for me. Even if I did not get a cent for blogging, I would still do it anyway, so money is not my motivating factor.

27

I hope that you have read this book and learned some new tricks and tips to make your blog more successful. My wish for you is to write from your heart, use your own voice, and be open and honest with your readers. The rewards that will come from building a community through your blog are nothing short of amazing. Recently, I posted a story about my grandfather passing away and the love and support that came from strangers was so moving and appreciated. The blogging community is like none other. I hope that you will be a part of it.

I decided to give this book free of charge as my way of giving back to a community that has been so wonderful to me. If you like what you have read, please pass along where you got it from. I would love some feedback from you.

You can find me all over the web, please stop by and say hello.

Happy Blogging,Bree

Blog with BreeBaked BreeBree Hester - My Personal JournalThe Creative Mama

28

Resource List.

Hosting Services and Domains - godaddy.com - I have used godaddy for years and the customer service is great. The prices are right too.

Wordpress - wordpress.orgThesis - diythemes.comGenesis - studiopress.com

Feedburner - feedburner.comGoogle Analytics - google.com/analytics Statcounter - statcounter.com

Kuler - kuler.adobe.comTypekit - typekit.com

Creativity Included - great Wordpress tutorials and help with Genesis customization -Mad Mimi - madmimi.comMind mapping - mindmeister.com

Suggested reading:

Problogger - The authority on blogging, Darren Rouse. Try his 31 Days to a Better BlogBlogging with Amy - a great website about all things blogging. Great tutorials and information.

29