Blogging Tips & Tricks - Part 2

I'm still a really small blog and definitely have a lot to learn! But I love sharing my little tips and tricks that I learn along the way. I wish I'd known some of these things earlier. It would have made reaching some of my blogging goals a lot easier. You can find part one of my embarrassing blog mishaps here.

1. Don't be afraid to switch up your button.

If you keep doing blog hops, and you aren't getting anymore followers, you might want to change your button. My last button was just fine. It was nice. But as soon as I changed it to something a little more eye catching, I got way more responses.

Let's pretend that you already have a freaking awesome button and everyone loves your button. You still might want to switch things up every once in a while.

Why?

Because if you visit the same blog hops over and over, chances are everyone has already seen your button and they look right over it. They might even think, "Oh yeah. I've clicked on her blog before. Meh."

Let me tell you how people tend to analyse at blog hops: New Button = New Blog. Even if they weren't super impressed with your blog the first time, tricking attracting them with your fancy new blog button gives you a second chance to impress them.

2. Name Your Photos

This makes it so much easier for people to find you through Google image search! I've got a tutorial that explains how to do that and why it's important coming soon!

3. Don't Compare Numbers (Obsessively)

Don't worry. We all do it. I'm super curious and always click on people's sponsor pages to read up on their stats. Sure, it's ridiculously nosy. But I also like to think it's business savy. If that blogger has a ton of page views or followers, she's probably doing something right, and I should figure out what that is.

Just remember to keep things in perspective. Don't let the numbers make you feel bad. I've seen some of the least interesting blogs, with terrible designs, who have 1000+ followers. I've also seen some of the cutest blogs who have less than 50. Don't get me wrong. Most big bloggers are really awesome. Some just have a lot of money to invest in their blog and not much else. You can normally tell the difference after 5 minutes of scanning through their posts.

4. Make sure you do a comment test run at least once - No longer how long you've been blogging.

If you haven't already, try commenting on your own blog and make sure it's not a complete pain in the butt. If you have one of those Captcha things, your blog is a pain in the butt to comment on. Sometimes comments are automatically set up to do that. It's not your fault. But you should go change the settings right now, because that's super annoying. You want to make commenting as convenient as possible for your readers.

5.  Please don't ever type the words "Follow Me Back."

Most bloggers have done it (before learning better), but it makes you look desperate. Also, it technically makes you a spammer, and some commenting systems will start blocking your comments. If you copy and paste the same message with your free self-promotion blog link included on several blogs,  then you are spamming them. It's rude.

Putting your link at the bottom of a nice, thoughtful comment? Sure. I'm totally fine with that, and will probably check out your blog! I like making friends. However, saying, "Hey I'm following you. Please Follow Me Back {Link}", tells me that you didn't even take the time to read a single post of mine and make an educated comment about it. However, this still rests under the category of forgivable, because maybe you really didn't know that you were spamming people!

The worst offenders? People who let you know that they are expecting a follow back or who threaten to unfollow you if you don't follow them back. Unfortunately, this really happens. It does not make me want to follow you. It makes me click on the spam button.