How To…Keep A Conversation Going on a Blog You Have Commented On!

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This is the third guest post by Karen from Blazing Minds. She’s a recording artist with the Electronica Duo band Remergence and a top-notch blogger. Karen’s blog is DoFollow.

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Most of us who are reading this blog have commented on a lot of blogs and sometimes it can be quite hectic trying to remember where you may of last posted a comment and sometimes you would like to keep an eye on the conversation that you may have started.

My tip for anyone who is new to blogging and even those have blogged for a while is this:

When you are commenting on a blog, look out for tick box that says something in the lines of “email me with follow-up comments” or something along those lines, these are really useful as these are perfect to keep an eye on what is going on the blog post you have commented on.

From the moment you submit your comment, you are now ready to receive followup comments made, there are also other options that you may see on blogs that ask if you want to receive all new comments made on the post you have commented on, I would recommend using these options.

Not only does this bring you more chances of commenting on the blog and the possibility of giving you some more back links from the blog as you reply to comments made to your comment or other comments made on the post.

So don’t lose out when you see these tick boxes on blogs, tick them and don’t just comment and run, never to return again, as a blogger myself I appreciate the constant return of many of the commentators on my blog and I know other bloggers generally feel the same.

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What’s More Important? Your SEO or Your Readers?

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This is the second guest post by Karen from Blazing Minds. She’s a recording artist with the Electronica Duo band Remergence and a top-notch blogger. Karen’s blog is DoFollow.

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We all consider the SEO of our blogs and I have personally found that sometimes it takes a lot effort to find those correct keyword and or key phrases to add in to your blog post to try to produce those magic results for the search engines to pick you up and give you a good SERP.

Then you have to work on which search engines you want higher rankings on and work on producing your posts to gain better SERP in each engine. But, is this really that important, isn’t there something else you should be considering as well, your readers!

Take into consideration that it is your blogs readers that bring you the traffic and by keeping in contact with them via replying to their comments and finding out what your readers are saying as well as what they are searching for also helps with the overall way that your blog is purveyed.

Ok, so I know that a lot of bloggers will say, “keep to your niche” but, what if you enjoy blogging about anything and everything, I know I do, so I look at my stats in WordPress and see what everyone is looking for and usually go from there with my ideas for a blog post and recently I don’t try to go to over the top with searching for those magically keywords, I now have the tendency to look for related searches in Google and go from there and since doing this my hits from Google have improved as those of you who read my blog will have noticed from the weekly round-up that I post.

So at the end of the day my recommendation is listen to your readers, communicate with them via the comments they leave and find out what they find interesting, your blog stats will show the posts that get more hits than others, check those out and see what caused them to get more traffic/comments than others and use this information to improve your overall blogging.

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Dealing with Negative Blog Comments

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This is a guest post from Alison Moore Smith. Alison is a homeschooling mom of six amazing children, ages 6-22. Married for over 24 years, she and he husband are best friends and business partners. Alison is a public speaker, author, blogger, web designer, singer, actress, ballroom dancer, and chocolate lover. She helps people start blogging and wants you to make your life amazing.

Her goal is to be ready for anything!

The first time I ever spoke at a convention, my intent was to get through the ordeal without being pelted with overripe fruit. The fact that attendees would later vote on the speakers was a tidbit I chose to pay as little conscious attention to as possible.

A number of weeks later I was informed that I had been voted favorite speaker of the convention. But it could easily have been otherwise.

Currently I’m performing as Buttercup in Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. Having spent most of the last 20 years behind the scenes, I’m greatly relieved to know that the community theater I’m performing in gets fact-related newspaper coverage as opposed to serious arts reviews! I’m not sure I’m ready for a prime time critique.

Blogging is the most public of venues. Forget “worldwide web,” it’s a worldwide stage. And when you decide to blog, the very format of blogging software says that you are not only committing to share you thoughts and ideas with the world, but you’re open to hearing the world share back with you.

If you write interesting and insightful posts, if you make claims — if you have an opinion about anything — someone will have an opposing view. And if you can broaden your circle of readers beyond those reading out of familial obligation (generally a desired goal!) your readers might speak up to challenge you.

Are you ready to handle that with civility?

Blogging Legacy – Have You Considered Yours?

[tweetmeme source=”ileane” style=”compact”]This is a guest post from Jimi Jones. Jimi is an Internet Entrepreneur and his blog is Jimi Jones Dot Com and on his about page he states “My focus is Online Business Start-ups and Branding.“ You can also find Jimi on Blogging Wire at Jimi Jones.

As bloggers we are often too close to the content we produce to realize it’s true value, not in a monetary way, but from a historical aspect.

When we think about our ancestors there are often huge voids in the timeline of their lives and we turn to family Bibles and old photo albums in an attempt to fill in those gaps and have a better understanding of who these people really were and what life for them was like.

For many, we only know of the stories shared by family elders at reunions, cookouts and those sad final goodbyes.

In today’s technologically advanced world we can leave a full and complete story for future generations. Passing on our life’s values and stories can more accurately depict the times in which we live.

The written word is an all powerful thing, communicating ethics, religion, love for family and yes, even the negative aspects of the times. But these things are more valuable than any fortune of money.

Have you considered your legacy?

As a blogger we write with great regularity about tips and techniques, ways to broaden our social footprint and a host of other topics. We should also write for those beyond the audience of our blogs, those yet to be born into the world.

Think ahead 75 or 100 years, what would you like for your descendants to know about you and the quality of life you experienced? Would you like to be more than a long ago placed photograph in the family album?

Legacies are extremely important and are influential to those who are a part of the family bloodlines. Everyone wants to know where they came from and what drove their ancestors to be who they were. It is a powerful thing to know your family history and for far too many, this history is incomplete.

Our blogging skills can be a tool of rediscovery, a way to close the gap. Legacies are a gift to be handed down to future generations. Our legacies are gifts that reward today and tomorrow. You benefit now while building something for future generations.

Step back from the keyboard for a moment and think about your family members that you will never meet in your lifetime. Think about what you could do to contribute to them.

We are all somebody so be somebody not only today, but well into the future.

Keep Blogging!

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