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I have a blog, now what?

I am by no means an expert on site promotion, but I am asked this question pretty often:

“I have a blog. Now what do I do?”

The basics of blog promotion aren’t difficult concepts, but the process requires time, attention to detail, and focus. Most of the things I’ll cover here are pretty common sense stuff about which many of us probably would never think twice.

Is your blog REALLY done?

Once you decide, “I’m finished! Now to promote my blog!” Take a step back for a moment and look closely at your blog. Are you sure that you’re really done? Before you can start any heavy-duty blog pimping, it always helps to make sure your blog is optimized.

What does this mean?

Optimization is pretty much any little enhancements that make your blog “friendlier” — whether for your readers, or search engines, or marketing, etc.

Things to consider:

Try to keep in mind that your visitors may not be as familiar with your site’s layout as you are. Pass your link on to loved ones and friends, ask for feedback. Discuss any problems they ran into, such as problems finding specific content, getting lost / navigation issues, etc.

A friend of mine used to say, “Make your site navigation so easy a child could use it” — if needed, borrow a child!

Ok, just kidding, but you see where I’m going with this, right?

Ok, done. Can I start linking now?

Yes, I think at this point you are ready to start promoting your blog. Take careful consideration though. You do not want to go crazy adding links to “every Tom, Dick, and Harry”, nor do you want to ignore the whole blogosphere. Let’s start small — build your blogroll.

What’s a blogroll?

A blogroll is a list of links to other blogs that you like. Having a blogroll allows you to feature a list of favorite blogs, usually in your blog’s sidebar. One might consider blogrolls to be a sort of new “link exchange” programs. The biggest difference is that all sites who participate benefit from the added exposure of being displayed on another member’s site. It’s a good way to gain new readers and repeat visitors for your blog.

It’s an unwritten rule that if a blogger adds your blog’s link to his/her blogroll, you should reciprocate with the same. Of course, everyone approaches this with their own blogging goals in mind. Sometimes it may simply be that you may not like a blog that links to you through its blogroll, and therefore choose not to link back. Whatever the reason may be, it is considered “proper” blogging etiquette to at least review each blog that links to you through its blogroll to decide if you’ll want to add that blog or not.

Blogrolls are often used to express connections between blogs. By having a blogroll on your site, you are telling your visitors:

If you are new to the blogosphere, a quick way to get your bearings and branch out is by joining open blogrolls. An “open” blogroll is simply a blogroll that is open to new members. Some blogrolls are general, others are specific. Most will have a set of guidelines or criteria posted to allow you to judge for yourself whether or not you belong, or would want to join.

How do you find open blogrolls?

I enjoy adding blogrolls to many of my own sites. However, I found it increasingly hard to find blogrolls pertaining to certain topics and had yet to see a directory or index of blogrolls that are out there, available to everyone … so I decided to make my own: BlogrollDirectory.org

There you will find blogrolls grouped by topic or interest. Simply click the Location link posted and follow the directions posted on its website.

Now, on to Blog Directories!

Submitting your blog to blog directories is perhaps one of the easiest ways to gain exposure to your blog. Blog directories can often drive a good bit of “new” traffic to your site that you wouldn’t have found otherwise.

In the vast and infinite sea of the Internet, there are literally thousands of repositories and directories of links. Rather than try to list them all, I’m going to give you a few to get you started:

Start with those and branch outward. The goal isn’t to spread your link around to anyone and everyone as fast as possible, it’s to garner quality repeat traffic.

Note: Keep in mind that some directories may require registration and/or a reciprocal link!

To be continued …

I’ll be posting Part 2 of this article next month, so keep an eye out! I’ll most likely cover topics such as SEO and social media, as well as any topics requested here.

As always, feedback and constructive criticism are welcome. Simply leave your remarks via the comments form below!

New WordPress Theme: Furry Family

This is a theme I’ve spent the last several months tinkering with. I had wanted to create a theme with customization options — more specifically, different color schemes and header images for the user to choose from. I had struggled getting the options to “stick” and recently ran across this how-to which showed me a round-abouts way to get it done (think going through Atlanta to get to Texas). But it took a hand from Otto42 in the WordPress forums to get me straightened out and back on track. (Thank you, Otto!)

I’m toying around with the idea of modifying some of my previous themes to have multiple looks and/or other options. This will take time — something I’ve not had an abundance of lately, so we’ll see …

I’ve held off on “publicly” releasing this theme until after it was approved by the kind (and extremely patient, LOL!) editors at WordPress’ Theme Directory — however, it has been available on my themes page for a short while. Now that the theme is available via the WordPress Theme Directory, I’m announcing it to the Blogosphere!

So without further ado …

Details

Furry Family is a slim kid-friendly animal theme for WordPress version 2.1+ (recommended for 2.3+). It includes Gravatar support down to version 2.1. With four different options for header images with matching text and background coloring to choose from, you can change the theme style to fit your taste.

This theme is dedicated to Jessie for her love and devotion to all of God’s creatures.

Screenshots

Here are the four styles available as well as a shot of the Theme Options page:

Live Preview: via the WordPress Theme Directory

Availability

Download from the WordPress Theme Directory

Back in the Heart of Dixie

Well, things are slowly returning back to “normal” … I was greeted this morning with 600+ emails in my work Inbox, 100+ in my personal, and ~3000 feed entries waiting to be read.

LOL! Miss me much did they?

I see that WordPress has released 2.6 finally. The blogosphere is all a-buzz with the news. Suggested reading: Doug Campbell, Keith Dsouza, and Ryan Boren. So now I’ll have to update all my blogs, themes, and plugins.

Yay … I’ll get around to it (hopefully!) this week …

We had a great time in NOLA. The drive down and back was pretty pleasant. We took the “scenic route” passing through Montgomery, stopping by Jim’s mom’s both ways (she kept Jessie for us). I was reminded why I love living in Alabama. I remember thinking to myself, “My God, we live in a beautiful state!”

We stopped briefly in Waveland, Mississippi, and in upper Louisiana. It’s been nearly 10 years since I’ve been down there … everything I remember is gone. Katrina and Rita really kicked the collective asses of coastal cities in lower AL, MS, and LA.

Otherwise the drive down to New Orleans was nice. We had great weather (outside of the heat and OPPRESSIVE humidity!) I took the time while in New Orleans to see some sights, have some great food, partake in local (and interesting) spirits, and just enjoy myself in general. The reunion was a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see the people Jim grew up with.

I was lucky enough to meet up and have lunch with two of my Cotillion sisters: Greta Perry and Conservative Belle. I would have liked to have spent more time with them, but the heat royally kicked my butt and Jim and I had so much planned, LOL!

Hopefully I’ll be making another trip down that way pretty soon!

We stopped by so many shops in the French Quarters that I loved! Many had beautiful clothing and jewelry that I could have easily gone “ga-ga” over. We stopped in one vampire shoppe that had many cute novelties and some interesting books covering local and Southern folklore. The shop owner had a BEAUTIFUL German Sheppard (the “head of security” LOL!) that was just as sweet as he could be!

I want another dog!

We also stopped by a local mall to pick up a few amenities that were forgotten in the hurried packing process. It was pretty much like what we have here back at home. I checked out one store that sold a lot of cell gear, drooled over some bluetooth cell phone headsets and considered getting another micro sd card for my Helio Ocean. (nah, will wait and get them cheaper online! LOL)

One thing that really sticks out in my memory is how “available” alcohol is down there. I kid you not, we walked into a Wal-mart and there was a HUGE section with every type of liquor and beer I could ever want! And you can’t walk 50 feet without coming across a daiquiri shop!

There’s so much more to tell, but we’ll leave it at this for now …

It’s good to be home!

Getting to Know Your Friends

Teresa sent me this, so I figured I’d post here instead of emailing the whole world.

Welcome to the 2008 edition of Getting to Know Your Friends. What you are supposed to do is copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it onto a new e-mail that you will send. Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!

1. What time did you get up today? 5:15 am CST.

2. Diamonds or pearls? Both.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? I Am Legend.

4. What is your favorite tv show? MythBusters, Dirty Jobs, CSI, Animal Cops, Smash Lab, The Closer, Saving Grace, Inuyasha, Futurama, … I have several more

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Either a biscuit or a protein bar.

6. What is your middle name? Nicole.

7. What food do you dislike? Ooh, I have a lengthy list … I’m a picky eater

8. What is your favorite cd? Right now it’s a mix CD of Seether and Three Days Grace songs.

9. What kind of car do you drive? Hyundai Santa Fe.

10. Favorite sandwich? Either a BLT or turkey and provologne.

11. What characteristic do you despise? Deceit.

12. Favorite item of clothing? My new ‘Bama jersey.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Ireland, Japan, Galopagos…

14. What color is your bathroom? Mostly blue.

15. Favorite brand of clothing? Right now, Chicos.

16. Where would you retire to? Nowhere. The South is where it’s at!

17. What was your most memorable birthday? Last year’s.

18. Favorite sport to watch? Football. ROLL TIDE!!

19. Furthest place you are sending this? The internets. :mrgreen:

20. Favorite saying? WTF?

21. When is your birthday? April 15th.

22. Are you a morning or night person? Definitely a morning person.

23. What is your shoe size? Don’t you know never to ask a woman that?

24. Pets? Not anymore.

25. Any new and exciting news you would like to share with us? I’m in the middle of fscking up my website, isn’t that great?!!?

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher.

29. How are you today? Can’t complain, and yourself?

30. What is your favorite candy? Oh, I have many favorites. Let’s just say chocolate … that should cover most of them.

31. Your favorite flower? Roses.

32. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Saturday.

33. What is your full name? Are you a census taker?

34. What are you listening to right now? The Essential Ozzy Osbourne.

35. What was the last thing you ate? A piece of Altoids gum.

36. Do you wish on stars? No, I leave that to Jessie now.

37. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Flame red.

38. How is the weather right now? Kind of soggy.

39. Favorite soft drink? I dumped soda … but he still calls sometimes.

40. Favorite restaurant? Oh, I have several! Cajun Steamer, Bento, BK, Doodles, El Carreton, China One, Styx, … there are several more, but can’t think of them at the moment.

41. Siblings? One brother.

42. Favorite day of the year? Any of the “eating” holidays.

43. What was your favorite toy as a child? My NES.

44. Summer or winter? Definitely summer!

45. Hugs or kisses? Both.

46. Coffee or tea? Tea is my poison of choice.

47. Chocolate or vanilla? What kind of question is that? Chocolate, fool!

48. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? Sure if they don’t wanna comment.

49. When was the last time you cried? This morning.

50. What is under your bed? Dust bunnies, a baseball bat, and probably the odd sock or two…

51. Who are the friends you have had the longest? Let’s see … Big Jim, Teresa, Mara, Jeff, John, … I’m sure there’s a couple more…

52. What did you do last night? Vegged out.

53. Favorite smell? Lavender.

54. What are you afraid of? Why do you need to know?

55. Salty or sweet? Definitely sweet.

56. How many keys on your ring? 10.

57. How many years at your current job? Not quite 1 year yet.

58. Favorite day of the week? Payday.

59. How many towns have you lived in? 5.

60. Do you make friends easily? Usually, yeah.

61. Many people will you send this to? The whole internets.

62. How many will respond? If I lie and say ‘10,’ will you come back later to check?

Check out my tiara!

I’m VERY happy to announce that today I had the extreme pleasure of joining the ranks of some of the most talented (and gracious) ladies of the Blogosphere — the Cotillion. I’ve been an avid follower of many of their members’ blogs, including but certainly not limited to: Beth of My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy fame, ca Marks of Alabama Improper and the very spicy Sex and the South, Greta of Kiss My Gumbo and Hooah Wife, … there are many others, well worth reading, so if you’re so inclined give ‘em a gander. There is a lot of talent in this bunch!