How long have you been blogging is a darn good question. I think this would be my 4th or 5th year blogging and I have to say that it gets more exciting every single year. Making money from your blog is one of the most exciting feelings out there, don’t let someone tell ya otherwise. I think I have been making money online with blogs since March 2007. Man, how things have come, gone, changed and shown up! You wouldn’t believe what happens in such a short period of time! Haha.
Blog Fading and Thoughts
Some bloggers have told me that this blog was beginning to “blog fade”. Now I have heard the term thrown around before but I strongly doubted that me not posting anything for a couple weeks would really hurt anyone. I think its great when people take a break and step back to look at where they are in their lives. I just think that they should let their readers know that they are not going to be updating their blog for a while or have some guest posters coming in and help out.
Krispyblogs was always about blogging. I have looked at that and thought what can I do with this domain. It has so much potential when compared to some of my other domains. Krispyblogs has been a blog network, and another blog network and then a smaller blog network and finally a single blog. I think that the best part of it all is that blogs were always involved. Through thick and thin I have been blogging. Heck, I have been blogging since I was in the eighth grade!
On that note, I am going to continue taking this blog on the path it is currently on and see where it takes us. I am always interested in seeing what I can do and what challenges life will bring. I have set but one simple goal for this blog in 2008:
Try to act on every idea I have
What are your blogging goals for 08′?
Writing Longhand: A Lost Art
For those bloggers who have not been in someplace that has lined paper, that is a piece of it. With the role of technology becoming more and more prevelant in today’s world it is not wonder that that more and more bloggers who write online are not perfecting their art offline. One of the most intricate parts of society that is in danger of being lost is handwriting.
Computers have all but taken over most of the things we need to use handwriting for. Writing checks, paying the bills, writing a letter, and school papers have all been put into a format so that they can be done on computers. Handwriting has suffered from this as more and more people are writing less and less.
I would like to encourage all bloggers to try to write a weeks worth of posts out by hand. See how your quality of writing is, and how long it takes you compared to typing it up. It’s truly amazing the difference that computers have made in our lives. Take the time to enjoy the finer things in life, handwriting being one of them.
Proper Writing: Your readers will love it
By now in your blogging adventure there I do seriously doubt that you haven’t come across a “blog in need of work” One that is infested with unintelligent comments, poor English skills and a train wreck of grammar mistakes. Well, the key to starting any blog that avoids this is by writing properly.
Spelling
Most American bloggers will agree with me that when you were in elementary school that you learned how to spell. We all had to study for the weekly spelling tests to make sure we got those “A’s”. Well, just because Elementary school is over doesn’t mean that spelling no longer counts. In fact, now that your are blogging it is more important than ever. You are setting an example of yourself in the online world, do you really want to be remembered as someone who spells horribly? Run your posts through a spell-checker! Whether it be in Microsoft Word or with a built in tool in your web browser, spell check is a wonderful tool and should be used by every blogger!
Fragments, and grammatical mistakes
Bloggers, I cannot stress that reading your posts is VERY important. You do not want to have a sentence that makes no sense in your posts. Heck, if the sentence doesn’t make sense to you, how will it make sense to your readers? I have been told by some bloggers that this doesn’t matter. That is NOT true! Every blog has a chance of hitting Digg, or being seeing by your idol. Give them a stunning impression and the rest with follow.
Asian Foreign Language Bloggers
I have nothing against Asian Bloggers. The more the merrier. However, please blog in a language you are fluent in. Do not expect a translator to be your crutch to blogging in English. It is well known that translators work for nouns but cannot figure out the complex context of some verbs. I have taken 3 years of French, but you don’t see me Blogging en Français do you? Non, you don’t.
Look at what you write
Look back over what you write. Sure, I am being repetitive, but it is for the good of your audience. The more you look at your writing and change things in it the better you will reach out to your audience. Images and Videos also SHOULD be used in your posts. It helps break up the monotony of reading text for pages at a time. Give them something relevant to your subject and they shall come. Check your spelling, know the grammatical nonsense and keep working towards a brighter blogging future!
Pick a Topic, Any Topic
While picking a topic for a blog might not be a terrible challenge, it is an important one. Without your core topic your blog is NOTHING. So let us look into how to have a idea that sparks a great blog.
Make it KRISPY
Even with Krispy Blogs being called that KRISPY, fresh, unique whatever you wish to call it is what people want. No one wants to read the same story over and over! They want to see your unique view on the topic, you audience wants to see your opinion. A blog is a web journal, a place for your thoughts. Make it truly yours by saying what you think.
Broad but not too narrow
Some people start a “general” catch-all blog. DO NOT DO THAT! Who cares about a blog where you throw things about dogs, your son Zach, SEO and baking the perfect apple pie. When you pick a topic, make it smaller. If you want to blog about news, pick U.S. news, celebrity news, or something similar.
Turn up the heat
Once you pick a subject that is KRISPY and Broad, make sure you put some research into it. Sure, you may have experience or knowledge but who cares if you cannot apply that to what is happening today. You have to be an active learner to truly enjoy what is going on in your subject. That is why I read nearly 75 RSS feeds EVERY SINGLE DAY. Because I blog for more than one blog, that number might be higher than truly wanted. Go for the Gusto, do more than is necessary. I am TELLING you that you, your blog and your readers will thank you for it!
Blogging Generes can be very confusing. But do not let them get the best of you! Be creative, and be YOU!
Make the Time
The problem with so many “blog faders” is that they say they do not have enough time. Let’s be honest, if it took them ten minutes to setup a blog on a free host, why can’t they dedicate ten minutes a day or even ten minutes a week to work on their blog.
Blogging is EASY!
Seriously, if you think writing is difficult, blogging is not for you. Even if you write just 100 words a week, you will at least contribute something. Like I said above, it will take you all of ten minutes a day to write 100 words. Heck, if you are good at writing it might take you just five! Plus, Wordpress and other blogging solutions have extremely little maintenance, if you don’t have the time, just don’t upgrade!
Blogging is NOT stressful
As much as some people want to make you believe, how stressful is it to write? Poets, and Authors know that writing is a release for them. It allows them to spill their words into text on a screen or page. Writing takes them to a different place, where problems of the real world doesn’t affect them. You know what, imagine that for a moment….
Are you still with me? Good! Hopefully you can realize what I was trying to say.
Work on your Writing
Sure blogging might be easy but that doesn’t mean you should write like you are a first grader! Use spell check, which is conveniently found on all Microsoft Word applications by hitting “F7″. Also, if you are using Word as your blog editor of choice(I don’t agree with this but more on that in a future post), there is a somewhat useful grammar checker. Not that it will catch much, but it is better than nothing.
FireFox includes an on board spell checker. All you have to do is right click with your mouse and you can tell it to spell check a field, including your online blog editor.
Take the time and write yourself a great post. Writing is a great release and allows you to reflect upon previous events. I will be writing more posts in the future on how to improve your writing, it is a pet peeve of mine. Hope you all are having a non-stressful blog writing day.
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT BLOGGING IS NOT AN OBSESSION! If you are blogging 24 hours a day, you have a serious addiction. You need to move on with life, blogging is important but your real family and life comes before the internet.
