Let’s have a little fun here. “A Blogging Scenario” is where I start a blogging scenario, the first person reading this can add to that in their comment, the next person would read on from my scenario to the first commentators’, and this can go on. Sound fun? Remember: Be creative! It doesn’t really matter if a UFO suddenly starts flying in either. Here goes…

On a Saturday morning, I’m sitting at my computer, trying to think of a new topic for my blog post. A dog starts barking outside my front door, so I run to see what it wants. On the way, I forgot that I had set up my castle of cards there, along with the cherry with whipped cream on top. I opened the door, and the dog started licking me. Oh great. I’m in a pile of 5 packets of now-bent and ruined cards, whipped cream, a cherry, and a dog climbing all over me.

Comtinue this story in your comment!

Take out the bad parts.

According to Stephen King, novelist, is the ultimate secret to suceeding in writing.

But what does it mean? Soften the fall when reporting bad news? Not write bad points when writing reviews? Not exactly. It means choosing the right words.

How do you choose the right words? Simple. Take out the bad or unneeded parts.

Which words are Needed? Wording is Everything.

All the fun is in how you say a thing. -Robert Frost

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Blogging is fun. Especially when you’re blogging about your interests. How about spreading the love and blog on your friends’ blogs? Or maybe invite a friend to blog for you! But why?

• Comes with benefits. Most people aren’t willing to blog for nothing. They usually are offered a service or product or maybe even money!
• More exposure. Opened up a new blog and need more exposure? Guest blogging is a good way to let people know that there is a new blogger in the community.
• More friends. You have friends from your blog, and you have friends on your friends blog (where you guest blog). Isn’t that double the friends?
• Wider audience. Besides blogging for your blog, you’re also guest blogging, so your audience is twice the usual size!
• Gain experience. Experience is priceless… where else can you get an established blog with an audience who’s willing to read?

Hiring a guest blogger comes with many benefits, too, including:

• More opinion, different viewpoints. Surely, not everyone who reads your blog is objected to your opinion, but it’s nice to have different viewpoints once in a while to get their minds working on which side they want.
• More topics. Not a good accountant? No worries! Just hire an accountant blogger to guest blog for you! It gives your audience a wider range of topics to read about.
• A break. Everyone needs a break once in a while for something different.
• Less work. Relax! Have fun! Do something else for a change!
• New friend. Or improved relationship.

When choosing guest bloggers…

• See their previous work. Can’t risk having poor content! Even if they don’t offer it, remember to ask!
• Get to know them a little first. You should know the blogger at least a little, if you’re going to trust them to take your blog in their hands, even for one post.
• Have an idea of what they’re planning to write. Ask them about what they’re planning to write if they’re chosen. This way, you know for sure you get what you choose. (Or see next point.)
• Have them submit and article beforehand. This way can be a little hard, and can cause disputes if you don’t have a regular amount of readers; remember to state that once submitted, you have the right to use or not use the article, all rights given (or something similar).

Lastly, getting the word out to the world that you need guest bloggers may sound hard, but here are just a few tips.

• Announce it. You have a blog, so where else can you get free advertising?
• Tell your friends. Offline friends, online friends, friends’ friends. Tell anyone and everyone!
• Forum posting. Make a new topic on a forum announcing your news. Put it in your signature. Send it to everyone in your friends list. If you aren’t in a forum, search “Blogging Forum” on any search engine and they will come up.
• Visit others. Maybe if you offer to blog for your friend, they will do the same?
• Create a “Write for Us” page. This page should include the contact form, email, any terms and conditions you have, any benefits, extra information, etc.
• Do it on a special occasion. Sometimes, when there is a reason, people are more likely to volunteer, e.g. your birthday, because they will more likely be thinking they are doing you a favour in honour of the occasion.

Has anyone had any special guest blogging incidents? Please share!

P.S. Would you like to guest blog here? Subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified!

Timeless posts usually feature tips, techniques, thoughts, stories, whereas news posts focus on current news and a certain news event.

News posts can be used for reference in the future, and a few minutes of enjoyment when reading the post. Other than that, it’s going back to the archives.

Timeless posts are timeless; you can have as much time as you want to push it to the front page of a social networking site.

Why you would want News Posts:

1. Grab headlines. The latest news, on the latest posts.
2. Attract new readers. Even though these have an expiry date, you can use these to attract readers by using catchy headlines such as “How name Could have Saved Millions” and including your own views and tips.
3. Be “in”. You don’t want to be all focused on certain topics; a news post to let readers know you’re still connected with the rest of the world may be helpful.
4. Become a reference. Remember the phrase “Oh yes, I heard about it on so and so’s blog!”? Now you can be mentioned.

Why you would want Timeless Posts:

1.  No expiry date. These can be read whenever– in April, in May, in December, after elections– anytime.
2. More chances of making it big. A lot of people have made it big because of one extreme post, and usually those posts are timeless. They also give you a lot of time to work on advertising.
3. More time. Because there is no expirty date, you can take as long as you want to tell your friends or edit it.
4. Help others. Help your fellow bloggers. Help friends. Help, help. When others get better, you do too.

Everyone has a preference– one, both, or something else? Which one would you prefer, and why? Tell me in your comment!

“A form of expression (not using `like’ or `as’) in which a quality or characteristic is given to a person or thing by using a name, image, adjective etc normally used of something else which has similar qualities, etc.” -Dictionary.com

Or Wikipedia, for those who prefer…

“In language, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope where a comparison is made between two seemingly unrelated subjects.” -Wikipedia

1. Connect with readers.
   You can compare your topic with a common everyday issue, and if your readers are familiar with that issue (you have to be familiar with it too), you and your reader can chat about it or even become friends!
2. Learn something new.
   If you’re not familiar with your comparison, a reader can give you a comment on it, or if they don’t, you at least will leave an impression.
   For example, “Blogging is like climbing up the corporate ladder. You go step by step. And if you slip up, you end up at square one again.” You might not know a lot about the infamous corporate ladder, but maybe it will leave an impression on your readers, and they’ll remember to come back again.
3. Show off, share.
   Most bloggers like this part, unless, of course, you’re shy. If you know a little more about your comparison, you can let everyone know a bit more about it (if the topic comes up) in your comments area.
   *Be careful not to go too off-topic in your post. Readers are reading about your post because of your title; not neccesarily your experience, whether it be good or bad; reserve it for the comments area!

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Sometimes we change things too much with our blogs, and lose sight of what made us successful to begin with. Depending on what we do, we could lose money, rank in search engines, or the worst thing, readers.

So, if you are fearing there has been a change in your blog, here’s a three step plan for how to return to your more creative self.

1. Do Nothing

Are you just being paranoid? Surprising as it may seem Blogging is not the most important thing in the whole wide world. People are able to disconnect from the internet and do other things, often for days on end. So if one or two regulars haven’t posted for a few days, don’t worry. They may have better things to do.

2. Read Previous Posts.

Usually however, your regulars would suggest that they don’t like what you are writing (mine do, in the nicest possible way, the sods). Depending on the vocal nature of the readers, and the amount of them there are, it may be worthwhile to check previous posts and see how they differ from now. Is there a definite niche change? If so, that could explain it. How about if there has been a monetization? Have you started sponsored posts? If so, maybe that doesn’t sit well with your current readership.

3, Don’t Beg Your Readers Back

If people do disappear, and never visit your blog again, forget about them. You can calmly say that what you previously talked about no longer interests me or you have evolved or you have decided to monetize your site to pay some bills, but nothing more than that. They’re gone, probably forever. Just move on and carry on blogging. You did something for a reason, even if it’s a complete change of niche.

—————
Rhys Wynne is a 5 year blogger who has had thousands of different blogs, most of them rubbish. His current one The Gospel According To Rhys isn’t, as is his project to help you get more traffic at your blog with Fair Review.

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.

Veganize favorite recipes from your childhood!
-Where’s the Revolution

A veggie blogging tip from a veggie blog! What do you think?

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.