This is a post I've been wanting to write for a while. Blogging is a very social medium, and is designed for interaction. There are a few basic tips you can take to help this process out for yourself and for those who visit your blog. Now that blogger has switched to "new blogger" I thought it was a good time to write this, since a lot of the tutorials for this stuff I've seen in the past are now a little out of date with the new format.
1. SAY NO TO WORD VERIFICATION!!!
You may have seen this campaign on Ashley's blog and a few others, but its worth repeating. The captchas (which are the codes you have to put in in order to leave a comment) are really difficult to figure out sometimes! There have been times where its taken me 2-3 tries to figure it out, and honestly if it takes any more than that, I'll give up and not leave a comment. Everyone loves getting comments, so why not make this process easier!
Simply go to Settings, click on Posts and Comments, scroll down to where it says "show word verification" and change it from yes to NO. It's so easy, and it'll make everyone's life easier!
2. Make sure your e-mail address is visible!
I'm sure you've all gotten comments with a question you want to respond to, but when you go to respond, the email says noreply-comment@blogger.com. This is so frustrating, because there is no way to respond, which really hinders the whole point of being social with your blogging!
Go to your blogger profile and click Edit Profile.
Go to "Show my Email Address" and make sure it's checked and that you have an e-mail set below.
Going along with this, it helps to have it set so that comments are e-mailed to you. That way you never miss a comment, and you can easily reply to the comment.
Under Settings, click on Mobile and Email, and under "Comment Notification Email" Make sure your email is set.
3. Make your columns wider and your pictures bigger!
This is especially important for photography blogs. Its so hard when people's columns are narrow and their beautiful pictures are tiny. If you have a typical blogger template, this is really easy to fix. I have a custom template, so this method doesn't work for me, but I want to show you anyways.
Go to Layout, and Click on Template Designer.
Click on Adjust Widths. Like I said this, doesn't work for my template, but you should look and see if it works for yours. If it does, simply drag the bars that will appear to widen your column, and then you can start fitting larger pictures on your blog.
If this doesn't work, you can try adjusting your html to widen your blog. I don't recommend this unless your familiar with editing html.
Go to Template and click on Edit HTML. Before you do this, make sure to hit the back-up/restore button, so if you make a mistake, you can easily restore it to your last back-up. (On a side note, you can see I also have the mobile version of my blog disabled. I hate the mobile versions for blogger. You can't see someones template at all, just the post text and pictures, and you can't use your fingers to widen the page to make a picture bigger. If you try to touch it, it tries to load the picture in a separate window, the same size, and it takes forever. So if you don't like this either, you can disable your mobile version here.)
When your html window is open, hit ctrl-f to search for text and search for the word "width." It'll come up many times. Look for the one under main-wrapper. I settled on 810 pixels out of trial and error, and it's just what worked for me. You can experiment and see what works for you. Hit preview before saving and see how it looks. If it gets messed up just hit clear edits!
Another important tip is Watermarking. As you can see, I haven't been doing this, purely out of laziness, but it really is important, and I vow to start! See Gina's (The Chic Homeschool Mama)
Tutorial on Watermarking for more info on this!
Ok, I hope these tips were helpful! Can't wait to see what you've been shooting, link up your pics below!
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13 comments:
Thanks so much for leaving these tips. I have spent the summer teaching myself about having a successful blog. I have learned so much but as someone who only knows what I've taught myself on the computer, it can be hard! Drive you crazy hard! I love the tutorials that are simple and easy enough for me to understand. This is a great post and if you add the pin it button to the post (detailed on pinterest) I guarantee you'll get some pins!
Have you ever thought of switching to Wordpress? I've debated it a LOT, but am not ready to make that leap. Have a great day!
Great post!!
I agree with all of these. Thank you for the reminder! xo
Great post, thanks for the tips! I agree--the word verification drives me nuts.
Great tips, Jaymi! I always look forward to your blog posts! Thanks for sharing.
I completely agree with it all. These are all the things that drive me batty when trying to visit. Great post Jaymi!!!
These were some great tips. Went back and made sure all my boxes were checked ;)
Oh I'm going to have to share this with my readers, I agree on all of it and nothing is more frustrating than to have the nicest comment and not be able to respond!! Thanks Jamie for putting this together.
Yay! Great tips! I hate trying to comment with word verification.
Ohhh boy, why oh why are people STILL using the word verification pop ups... I don't leave comments if I can't read the letters.. Blogger actually weeds all spam out anyway. I have never had a problem with spam.
Great post ... I widened my blog and it differs as to HOW wide it looks depending on what I'm viewing it on - laptop or desktop, but yep GREAT post, very informative. X
I've linked up a photography craft idea... Polaroids etc. :-)
Jennie. X
Great tips. Every blogger should know these. :D
Great tips! Thank you,
Jaymi!
so true about the word verification - it is SUCH a pain when I am trying to comment on someones blog using my iphone ... as a matter of fact, i usually end up skipping over it. It does nothing but create issues. I have never used it and blogger is smart enough to kill the spam before it gets published as a comment.
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