This was guest posted by Rob O at 2 Dolphins. 

Character.  It is the standards, principles, and distinctive qualities that distinguishes one’s effort from those of others.   Certainly few goals are more worthwhile as to blog in a manner that demonstrates those attributes.   Indeed, character is very likely the thing that keeps readers coming back to your blog.

But as worthy and productive a topic as that is, I’m actually here to talk about a different kind of character.   ASCII characters.  Y’know, the symbols, letters or punctuation marks that make up the set of computer characters that most of us are at least somewhat familiar with.

Whether you’re crafting a blog post about Älmhult (the Swedish birthplace of global furnishings icon, Ikea), waxing nostalgic about when soda pops were only 25¢, or trying to inject a little international flavor (¡Hola!) into an article, there’ll probably come a time when you need to use special characters in your blog.   Even with a fairly basic blog, there may be instances where you need to nest a double quote within a TITLE or ALT tag, for example, and this can cause all sorts of unintended effects.

Fortunately, once you know the trick, using ASCII characters in your blog posts is easy to do!

ASCII character charts are abundant on the Internet, but none so straight-forward and readily usable as Vincent Heemskerk’s HTML Codes - Characters and Symbols.  Referring to Vincent’s chart, you can see that the ASCII decimal number for the copyright symbol is 169, which translates to  &# 169 ;  for the HTML code for that same symbol.   So, to insert a copyright sign in a blog post, you’d use:

&# 169 ;  2007 MyCompanyName

…to get:

© 2007 MyCompanyName

And as the chart linked above shows, there are ‘friendly’ HTML names for some special characters.   So you could also use:

& copy ;  2007 MyCompanyName

…to get the same results.

The same technique can be used to place other special characters, such as the greater than (>), ampersand (&), or even common fractions (½) into your HTML code.

So, now that you know how to insert special letters & symbols into posts, the possibilities are endless.   Go give your blog some character!

Be yourself! Be honest! Be real! Be opinionated! It’s your blog afterall. And be anonymous (safety first)! Don’t try to imitate another “popular” blogger’s style and don’t look at sitemeter all the time or try to cater to the “masses” in order to get “popular” or gain a readership. If you do, you’ll become a slave to other’s whims and you won’t be yourself anymore.
-Spit Out the Cat

This again, builds your character; how much do you want your character to be built or revealed? Do you want readers to know the real “you”?

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Redesign your site often. Visual boredom breeds textual complacency.
-9 to 5 Poet

This actually depends on what you want to achieve– if you want to build a brand for you and your blog, do not change your design too often; your brand is your design!

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Networking isn’t just for Fishermen.
-Bookie Monster

You will need to network even if you don’t like to fish! (And remember to throw in a little humor like a fisherman!)

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

There is no “dumb” question about blogging, if you don’t know ask.
-Nise Fun Pages

A lot of people are afraid of being called “dumb” so they keep their questions. But you learn by asking questions! So those people never improve. Don’t become one of those.

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Your two most important tools – enthusiasm and dedication.
-The Gravel Pit

Enthusiasm and dedication are two very important tools! A very boring article doesn’t have enthusiasm and dedication. Try to implement these two features into your posting.

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Don’t hold back.
-Aidan Mother

“Don’t hold back” can mean a lot of things. I asked the author about it and this is what she said:

What I mean by “Don’t hold back” is that you should post what you want, the way you want to.

• Don’t be afraid to post a review just because you didn’t like the book and don’t want to offend the author
• Be willing to ask the tough questions in an interview
• Try new things
• Go after the big scoop

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Self-promotion is only good in small doses. (Deliberately creating a “meme” to get your URL spammed across the net is a large dose.)
-Antick Musings

This is an interesting one, particularly since it was found in a meme, telling bloggers not to participate in memes. What do you think about it?

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

What the world needs is content. Provide it.
-Matthew Jarpe

It is up to you to provide the content that the world needs! Have your own writing style, write about your passion.

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Look, read, and learn.
-http://www.neonscent.com

Since this tip is from me, I’ll naturally know the exact meaning:

Look at others’ blog design.
Read others’ blog posts and emails.
Learn from others from blog posts, emailing, etc.

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.