Surprise
You have a blog dedicated specifically to help you learn about all this “blogging” stuff. I’ll be posting notes, instructions, videos, tutorials and hopefully so will other people. You can ask questions, cause really there are no dumb questions. You can practice some of the things we’ll talk about, make mistakes, stick out your tongue and generally just have fun.
How cool is that?
Moving On UP
Ok, I’m not going to waste any time, onward and upward. We’ve still got to cover our topics. In fact we are going to roll two very related steps into one thinking step and one doing step. How’s that for easy learning?
Remember, I asked you to think about how you would like to introduce yourself (step 1) and also asked you to do a search for some blogs on topics that interest you (step 5) in the previous email? Yes, you are nodding your head, you remember, good.
Thinking Step
Step 1 – Introduction, on a blog is done using the “About Page”. You are now a blogger (a person writing blog posts). It’s important to have an About Page on your blog. Of course this is my personal opinion and preference, but when I am trying to connect with someone by leaving comments and responding to things they’ve written, I want to know something about them.
The “About Page” for ItyBites is sort of long and I gave it a different title than “About”. I called it “Consume Elephants?”. It tells people what will happen on this blog and why it’s happening.
The About page can and will change over time, as often or infrequently as the blogger (that’s you) wants it to change. Some suggestions about what to put on an About Page:
- why you are blogging
- what you are doing
- what you will focus on in the blog.
- a poem about yourself or the subject of the blog
- a short glimpse into your life
- anything you want people to know about you
You decide. The About page needs to exist. Pray about it and listen to what comes. Then write it down, and you’ve got your About page.
Don’t worry, I have a video to send on Saturday showing you how to create/edit/publish the About page on your blog.
If you happen to be feeling a little adventurous, log into your blog and click buttons. Just play with it. Don’t worry about messing anything up. Seriously this platform has been designed to be played with, so have fun with it.
That is the end of this weeks thinking step.
Doing Step
Lets start connecting with some people and commenting on some blogs.
- Type Ctrl and T at the same time – a new tab will open in the browser (that’s called a keyboard shortcut by the way).
- Go to the search box and type “start marketing my book”+blog the search should look just like that with quotes, a plus sign and the word blog
- Select a blog that looks interesting from the results page
- Read blog post and get ready to leave a comment
Leaving comments on blogs is pretty simple, first, have something to say or a question to ask which is relevant to the blog post. Leaving comments is one of the best ways to connect to people.
You are wondering how to leave a comment right?
Blog Commenting in 5 easy steps
Comment links are either at the top of a blog post above or just below the title of the post or they are at the bottom of the blog post at the end after ads and annoucements.
- Find the word comments which might be in a sentence like, “No comments” or “2 comments” the number of comments may vary
- Click the words with “comment”, which will take you to a form. You might have to scroll down if there are already a few comments
- Complete the form with your name, email address and url. A URL is also known as your blog website address. Most blogs don’t make you register to leave a comment. If a blog does ask for registration, look through the options and usually you can find a “Name/URL” or an “Anonymous” option. I suggest using the Name/URL option. It will allow you to use your name and to put in the website address of your new blog. Sometimes you will see a weird looking box called “Captch” on blogs. It’s a test to make sure you are human and not a bot, trying to leave a spam comment. Yeah, blogs get spam comments just like you get spam emails. Just decipher the letters/numbers in the “Captcha” and enter them in the box where it tells you.
- Type your comment and read what you have written to make sure it makes sense,
- Hit submit or enter and your comment is now sent.
NOTE: On some blogs comments show up right away. On other blogs comments are moderated, so they take a while to show up. Bookmark the blog and go back to your search or read some other blogs posts on this blog. In general just practice commenting.
That’s it. Action task is complete.
Do this for as many blogs as you want.
I honestly can’t think of anything else technical about comments. So that’s it. Do you have any questions, if so, leave a comment. 
[Now, any lurkers reading this, do you have any suggestions, questions, concerns, tips? Seriously, Are you being a blog comment pussy?, Speak up, let me know what you've got to say. Heck I'm learning too.]
Mom, no, lurker is not calling anyone a bad name. It’s a word bloggers and people online use to describe people who read but don’t comment. It happens. Some people are shy about speaking up, or don’t want to say anything or can’t think of anything to say. It’s not a problem. They still connect with what you write. I’m a lurker on quite a few blogs myself.
Well, we’ve come full circle on our two topics.
Step 1 – Introduction
Step 5 – Conversing and Connecting
So far we’ve talked about
- What blogs are,
- Why and How blogs connect people
- About Pages
You’ve learned
- How to comment
- Lurker is not a bad word
Your homework is to
- Comment on more blogs
- Write your About page
That’s it for now. You’ll hear from me again on Saturday.
You have a dream. You set a date for it to become real. You’re taking Ity Bytes, Practicing the Art of Consuming Entire Elephants.
~LaShae
P.S. Remember, PEOPLE buy books, just keep that in the back of your mind since we do want to promote your book using the blog. You want to connect with other people, outside your circle of friends and family, who also share common interests with you. Believe me there lots of people who would love to get to know you and love for you to get to know them. Getting to know new people is fun and getting involved with new people online is easier than you think.
I’ve Got A Blog and I Still Don’t Know What To DO! July 15, 2008
Posted by LaShae in Blogging Basics, Conversing & Connecting, Introductions.Tags: basic blogging, blog search, book marketing and blogging, commenting on blogs, getting started blogging, ItyBite How Do Guide, ItyBites to Blogging, never blogged before
add a comment
Surprise
You have a blog dedicated specifically to help you learn about all this “blogging” stuff. I’ll be posting notes, instructions, videos, tutorials and hopefully so will other people. You can ask questions, cause really there are no dumb questions. You can practice some of the things we’ll talk about, make mistakes, stick out your tongue and generally just have fun.
How cool is that?
Moving On UP
Ok, I’m not going to waste any time, onward and upward. We’ve still got to cover our topics. In fact we are going to roll two very related steps into one thinking step and one doing step. How’s that for easy learning?
Remember, I asked you to think about how you would like to introduce yourself (step 1) and also asked you to do a search for some blogs on topics that interest you (step 5) in the previous email? Yes, you are nodding your head, you remember, good.
Thinking Step
Step 1 – Introduction, on a blog is done using the “About Page”. You are now a blogger (a person writing blog posts). It’s important to have an About Page on your blog. Of course this is my personal opinion and preference, but when I am trying to connect with someone by leaving comments and responding to things they’ve written, I want to know something about them.
The “About Page” for ItyBites is sort of long and I gave it a different title than “About”. I called it “Consume Elephants?”. It tells people what will happen on this blog and why it’s happening.
The About page can and will change over time, as often or infrequently as the blogger (that’s you) wants it to change. Some suggestions about what to put on an About Page:
You decide. The About page needs to exist. Pray about it and listen to what comes. Then write it down, and you’ve got your About page.
Don’t worry, I have a video to send on Saturday showing you how to create/edit/publish the About page on your blog.
If you happen to be feeling a little adventurous, log into your blog and click buttons. Just play with it. Don’t worry about messing anything up. Seriously this platform has been designed to be played with, so have fun with it.
That is the end of this weeks thinking step.
Doing Step
Lets start connecting with some people and commenting on some blogs.
Leaving comments on blogs is pretty simple, first, have something to say or a question to ask which is relevant to the blog post. Leaving comments is one of the best ways to connect to people.
You are wondering how to leave a comment right?
Blog Commenting in 5 easy steps
Comment links are either at the top of a blog post above or just below the title of the post or they are at the bottom of the blog post at the end after ads and annoucements.
NOTE: On some blogs comments show up right away. On other blogs comments are moderated, so they take a while to show up. Bookmark the blog and go back to your search or read some other blogs posts on this blog. In general just practice commenting.
That’s it. Action task is complete.
Do this for as many blogs as you want.
I honestly can’t think of anything else technical about comments. So that’s it. Do you have any questions, if so, leave a comment.
[Now, any lurkers reading this, do you have any suggestions, questions, concerns, tips?
Seriously, Are you being a blog comment pussy?, Speak up, let me know what you've got to say. Heck I'm learning too.]
Mom, no, lurker is not calling anyone a bad name. It’s a word bloggers and people online use to describe people who read but don’t comment. It happens. Some people are shy about speaking up, or don’t want to say anything or can’t think of anything to say. It’s not a problem. They still connect with what you write. I’m a lurker on quite a few blogs myself.
Well, we’ve come full circle on our two topics.
Step 1 – Introduction
Step 5 – Conversing and Connecting
So far we’ve talked about
You’ve learned
Your homework is to
That’s it for now. You’ll hear from me again on Saturday.
You have a dream. You set a date for it to become real. You’re taking Ity Bytes, Practicing the Art of Consuming Entire Elephants.
~LaShae
P.S. Remember, PEOPLE buy books, just keep that in the back of your mind since we do want to promote your book using the blog. You want to connect with other people, outside your circle of friends and family, who also share common interests with you. Believe me there lots of people who would love to get to know you and love for you to get to know them. Getting to know new people is fun and getting involved with new people online is easier than you think.