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When someone stumbles upon our blogs, our goal is to keep them there as long as possible which is quite often easier said than done. This is your chance to show them how witty, clever, smart, charming, and any other adjective here you are and really hook them in. So we know what our goal is, but how do we achieve it?

• Link to older posts - When you are writing, always keep your older posts in the back of your mind and look for opportunities to link to them. For example if I ever mention blog design, I should always link to the appropriate post on the topic…as I just did. Slick, aren’t I?.
• Show popular posts - Another strategy I have seen used is showing your most popular posts in your sidebar or in your footer. You can make the judgment call yourself on which to show or use a plugin like popularity contest which bases the most popular posts on the views, comments, etc.
• Show related posts - At the end of a post, you often see a list of a few “related posts” which are related to the topic being discussed. You can either choose these your self or use a plugin like WP 2.3 Related Posts Plugin which chooses them automatically.

These are just a few ways to expose more of your blog and refresh some of your older posts. I am curious to know what strategies everyone else uses so please share yours!

Happy New Year!

The new year is always a great reason to take stock of your blog. Look at what you’ve accomplished during the last year and set some goals for yourselves. Most bloggers resolutions will consist of one or more of the following:

• Increase subscribers
• Increase visitors
• Write more frequently
• Develop a writing schedule
• Monetize your blog

While there is nothing wrong with those, I have a few suggestions if you are trying to stand out from the crowd.

• Get a unqiue design - If you don’t have one already, getting a unique design is a huge step to setting yourself apart from your peers.
• Write unique content - I think so many of us got really burnt out seeing the same content time and time again. Think hard on your topic and really come up with some good, solid, and NEW content that will leave your readers wanting more!
• Give back to your readers and commenters more - Our readers and commenters are what makes our blogs grow and thrive. Find a way to give back to them for giving so much of their time to you!

What are some of your blogging resolutions for the new year?

A lot of people know that I run the Random Bits Podcast over at Search-This.com. This podcast is aimed at web developers but this last episode is one that I think bloggers can also appreciate. My latest episode is with Matt Mullenweg who is the creator of popular blogging software WordPress. Let me know if you liked the episode.

Some more episodes that bloggers may enjoy are:

• Alex King - WordPress Guru
• Chris Garrett part 1 and part 2 - Blogger
• Peter Flaschner - TheBlogStudio.com Founder

Do you have any podcasts that you would recommend for bloggers?

One thing my husband has told me numerous times is, “For someone so smart, you can be really stupid sometimes,” and boy is he right. I’ve got a photographic memory and typically I can pick things up very quickly, but there are those times that some things just don’t sink in and I wonder if I will ever get it. When I hit these road blocks it is usually because I am unable to relate the information given to me to some kind of real-world experience and I really need that.

There are so many blogs giving information out there and everyone is trying to look like an expert in their industry, but is anyone really learning anything? Quit talking AT your audience and talk WITH them. Make it easy for people to understand your message by telling them a story. I recently read two blogs that did just this, and both posts struck a chord with me.

• Linda Jenkinson writes about freelance tips and she recently wrote a post about measuring your success in the freelance world. This post stood out to me because she found a way for me to relate to it. She starts out by first telling me a story about fishing. She then makes the transition and connection to her message.
• The Foo today posted an article about taking things one step at a time. He took a similar approach as Linda in that he told us a story and then he went on to relate the story to his message without missing a beat.

As children we are all told stories by our parents, and all of these stories have a message in them. If my mom simply said “Don’t lie”, I wouldn’t understand WHY I shouldn’t lie. So instead she told me the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and I began to understand the reasoning behind it all. Many of us still need that extra hand-holding and even for those that don’t, telling a story goes along way to allowing your readers to relate to the subject matter, and in result, with you.

How often do you use stories in your blog posts? I’d like to see your best one.

Everyone is trying to get into the “premium themes” game and apparently, WordPress.com is no different. They are thinking of having a theme marketplace to sell “premium” themes. These themes will need to be of a certain quality in order to make it in the marketplace, but it’s a way to let designers earn a little something from their themes. If it is sold for $50 and 20 people download it, that’s $500.

Sounds like a win/win scenario right? Not exactly. All themes will be free for any WordPress.org user but WordPress.com user’s, you have to pay. This doesn’t make that much sense to me for a couple of reasons.

1. A big reason people have their blog at WordPress.com is because they don’t want to pay for hosting. Why would they pay for a premium theme?
2. To me the people you would want to target are WordPress.org users. I know if I pay for a premium theme, i will want control to modify it, if even a little bit.

What do you think about this? Who really benefits from this? It will be interesting to see how this plays out and what percentage of the cut WordPress.com gets. The idea in general, is a good one, but I just don’t quite get the business model they may use.

Holidays give us a great excuse to add a little fun and personality into our blogs. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays as it’s just so much fun! One of our members, Sam Woodfin, created these awesome halloween survival tips for her site which I loved. So, I commissioned her to make something for TBE and she came up with what you see here today! Nice job Sam!

Are you doing anything for Halloween? If so, show me!

Well, Blog Action Day is here. I am writing a couple of topics on other blogs so I will use the opportunity here on this blog to bring attention to the cause as well as link to our member’s posts who participated in the event.

The idea behind this is to take one day, and have as many bloggers as possible get involved in writing about one topic. This year’s topic is a great one, the environment. If you’re a member here in our community, post a link to your blog in the comments and I will link to your post within the body of this post. If you aren’t a member yet, feel free to join (only takes a minute) now. If you aren’t able to join, please still post a link in our comments as I’d love to check out your post.

So tell me, who is getting involved?

Member’s Posts

Do you ever go back and read your old posts and wonder where your head was when you wrote a specific article? Have you written a post in the past about a topic, yet your opinion has changed on the topic? Some people will say you should edit your post, but I disagree. I think you should leave it in tact and handle it another way.

We all make mistakes and sometimes our opinions change; there is NOTHING wrong with that! Instead of hiding them, we should embrace them and explain them. When we write something on our blog, unfortunately, it is usually there for good and if you edit it or delete it, sometimes it takes a long time for the search engines to catch up and you certainly can’t erase any mention of it from other blogs or websites. The best way to handle this is to create a new post with the following:

• Mention your original stance - Give the readers a little background and explain your original position on the topic or why you felt a certain way. Link back to any relevant posts if applicable.
• Explain your current position - Take the time to explain what your current belief is.
• Detail why your stance changed -Here is your opportunity to really explain what changed your mind or what mistake you made. If another post or a news headline, for example, prompted this post, acknowledge it!

Just remember, we all make mistakes, and it’s ok that our mistakes are exposed to the world; we’re human! Just remember you don’t have to hide from your mistakes and instead just correct them. Something like this could definitely endear you to your readers.

In July, I talked about how important your blog design was, well a good way to stick out from the crowd is to get yourself install your own custom design. As a general FYI, I have only had experience creating and modifying themes for WordPress so if anyone has experience with other platforms, I would LOVE to hear about it!

When people choose a design or theme for their blog, quite often a custom theme isn’t even considered as people just assume it will cost a lot of money. I will show you how you can get a really good UNIQUE theme for $250 or less.

Do it yourself

Obviously, this is the cheapest way to get a unique or semi-unique blog theme. When I first learned how to code WordPress themes, I looked for a theme I like (general layout) and I would open up the css files and just start playing. I first played with the colors, then I added my own pictures and images. Eventually I got brave enough to look at the .php files and play around with them. I learned a ton about the software and everything that goes into making a theme. My end result looked NOTHING like the theme I started with which is what I was going for!

Buy a pre-made theme

Another option is to buy a pre-made theme that you get full rights to so no one else could use your theme unless you gave them permission. I actually purchased a pre-made theme for my personal site, ilovecode a few months back. I had been wanting to re-design it myself, but just didn’t have the time and when I saw the theme for sale, I couldn’t resist and for me, it was a great value. I think I paid $100 for it, but it was worth it. Here at TBE, we have also bought several pre-made themes to give away to our members here (this section is under development). The amount I spent ranged from $50 - $175 which was perfect for me. These themes are unique and have never been sold before and will never be sold again. I think the best part of it is, not only do you get the design, but the theme is coded so I just ftp the theme to my server and activate it; it’s as simple as that! The downside to going this way is you have to really look around and wait until you see something that you really like. It’s not like having one custom-made for you.

You are probably wondering where to get one of these themes, well you can get one in the SitePoint Marketplace in the Templates for Sale section. I regularly check in on the blog themes for sale there, in fact I subscribe to their rss feed which lets me know when something new is listed there. It is an auction-based system, but most sellers do offer a “Buy it Now” price, which I wouldn’t recommend starting with unless you are in LOVE with it.

Have a custom design made and coded for you

I know you’re scared but you can have this designed and coded for as little as $250. SitePoint also has a section where you can hold a design contest for as little as $150. I would recommend offering more but if your means are limited, then it’s okay. Once you have found a design you like, you could place an ad looking to hire someone to code it for you. It shouldn’t take more than 4-5 hours so for $20 - $25/hour you could probably get your new design sliced and diced and ready to serve!

So tell me, do you have a unique design? Do you want one? What has stopped you from getting one?

Over the past few days I’ve taken a couple of flights and while I’ve been waiting in the airport, I decided to make the most of my time and write a couple of blog posts. So, I pulled out my laptop and while it was booting up, I just started looking around. I am a people-watcher so looking around and seeing what everyone is doing is nothing new to me. This is the first time, though, that I found myself wondering WHO of these people were bloggers, like me.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that bloggers might be one of the most diverse groups of people out there. I know several people who blog, and you wouldn’t know it by looking at them. If you were to see me walking down the street, kids in toe, I doubt you would think I’m a blogger. Bloggers defy all stereotypes which is an awesome thing.

Anyone can blog. You don’t even need to own a computer as you can hop down to your neighborhood library and write a blog post if you want. There are plenty of bloggers with a technical background, but I am going to bet that there are even more without one. Bloggers are not defined by their age; as long as you have the capability to type or have voice recognition software, you are all set.

The more time I spent thinking about it, I just started looking at people wondering if they blogged, and if I decided they did or should, I would guess what their blog would be about. The gentleman two seats down from me is in his early 40s, wearing a suit with laptop on his lap. If I had to guess he blogged, I would say he blogged about beer and sports. I am imagining this because he looks like his day jobs requires a lot out of him so this would be a nice escape when he gets home. The woman sitting across from me, wearing a paisley-print shirt is in her 50s and has a very school-teacher look. I could guess that she blogs about her family, but I’m going to guess she is a kickboxing grandma who inspires her peers to stay fit.

I have obviously completely made those up and could be completely wrong, but that is such a cool thing because it really demonstrates how diverse bloggers can be and what you may perceive someone to be from looking at their outside, could be dead wrong.

A good friend of mine is a blogger and in fact, we becamse friends as soon as we found out the other blogged. We were in french class together and we had to tell a little bit about ourselves and we both mentioned we were bloggers which was really cool. By looking at her, I would have never guessed she was a blogger, though her blog is amazing!

How many bloggers do you know in person? Is there a certain stereotype they fit in to?