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10 Tips for Personal Bloggers

April 25, 2011 By

This was a guest post that I originally wrote for Ben Barden’s blog Top Ten Blog Tips. I recently got an email from Ben saying that he’s consolidating everything over to his blog Quick Blog Tips, which is an excellent blog full of blogging tips for everyone. This is also the post that also saw me starting my Personal Blogging series. I hope you enjoy it!

I’ve been blogging for many years now, and in addition to finding interesting blogs to read, I’ve seen lots and lots of blogs and blog posts on how to help make your blog bigger and better. But every single one of those blogs and posts appear to be targeted towards professionals, or those who hope to become professionals and earn a ridiculous amount of money from blogging. But what if you just want to blog? What if, instead of having a blog that preaches your expertise in a subject, your niche is YOU? Here are some tips I came up with to help myself see through all the pro-blog babble and stay focused on my own little blog.

1. Why are you blogging?

If you don’t have a reason to be blogging, then you won’t find satisfaction from it. I started my blog as an extension of my journal, hoping that maybe, just maybe, someone in the great wide interwebs would see it and provide some feedback. It worked – I’ve made some great friends in the time I’ve been blogging. I started blogging because it’s therapeutic, and I continue to blog because of the relationships that I’ve made. Others I know blog to keep far-flung family and friends updated on their lives. Why are you blogging?

2. Don’t expect to make money.

In fact, don’t even try. It’s extremely rare that a personal blogger can make any money at blogging. If it happens, it usually amounts to pocket change. Don’t worry about signing up for affiliate marketing or other advertising options. If you get to a point where you have a decent number of readers and want to start sharing some favorite products through advertising, that’s great. Just don’t set out with the goal of making money, because it won’t happen.

3. Forget about the most popular tips.

SEO, Content is King, get your own domain, etc. Every pro and pro-wannabe preaches this gospel. If all you want to do is talk about your life, what does it matter where you rank in the search engines? And your content will be about your life. People will either like it or not, just like in real life. As for your own domain, this is a decision that only you can make. The free options out there are really decent options for personal blogs.

4. Don’t ignore the pro advice.

This seems to contradict tip #3, but there is a lot of advice that the pros give regarding blog design, commenting, etc that is relevant to all blogs, personal or not. You don’t have to stop listening to the pros altogether, but you also don’t need to worry about every single piece of advice they dish out. Pick and choose what’s relevant to your blog and situation, and ignore the rest.

5. Be yourself.

While the anonymity of the internet can be an opportunity to let hidden parts of your personality shine, don’t try to create a persona that is nothing like you. Unless you are extremely creative and tenacious, eventually the real you is going to want to come out and one of two things will happen – it will show on your blog, which could affect your readership, or you’ll end up abandoning your blog instead of showing your real face. Being anonymous and protecting your identity are one thing, but being fake is quite another. Be the real you on your blog, which is what people want to see on a personal blog – a real person.

6. Don’t listen to the naysayers.

There will be people out there who will tell you that personal blogging is not a worthy endeavor. Personal blogging is dead, they say. These are probably the same people who wouldn’t be caught dead in last season’s fashions. I say, if it’s something you enjoy then go for it. Because a personal blog is meant to communicate your thoughts about your own life, it’s not meant to be a trendsetting moneymaker.

7. Think like a storyteller.

Some people are natural storytellers, and a post about the most mundane things will appear as a great adventure. Other people, not so much. To make your blog more fun to read, think like a storyteller and be descriptive. Imagine you are telling your stories to a large audience (which you are, since you’re on the internet). Try to come up with some creative language to spice things up a bit. Which would you rather read?

a) I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

b) I realized that the absolute freshest bread is not good PB&J material. As I was spreading the peanut butter, then came apart and stuck to the PB coated knife, until the knife was covered in a giant wad of peanut butter and bread. Now onto the jelly.

8. Be careful.

I don’t think you need me to tell you how accessible the internet is to the entire world. Think hard about how much personal information you want to reveal about yourself online. I’m fine with people knowing my first name and what city I live in, but I don’t reveal my workplace and keep my family and friends way more anonymous than myself. Also be very careful if you decide to blog about your workplace or anyone you work with. You don’t want to jeopardize your job because of what you write online.

9. Get out there and make friends.

I have to admit, I’m not that great at making friends. However, I’ve found it much easier online to be social and make friends. Blogging gives others a chance to get to know you, and vice versa, before that first comment is made. By the time someone comments, you’ve said something that someone else wanted to hear or that struck a chord with them. Comment back, say hi, and visit their blog – and click on the links in their blogroll. You’ll find this is the best way to just get out there, meet people online, and make friends all over the world. That, to me, is the most fun thing about blogging.

10. Keep at it.

If you’re blogging to get out there and make friends, or just to be heard, keep at it. It will take you some time to build up a network of blogging friends, so don’t give up after the first few posts. It can be lonely when you start out, because you feel like you’re talking into a void, but sooner or later people will come across your blog, read what you’ve written, and be compelled to comment because they felt a connection. Don’t feel pressured to become something you’re not just to gain a readership (see point #5). Just tell your story, say what you’re feeling, and get it out there.

Personal blogs are extremely popular, and extremely underserved when it comes to “how-to” advice. I hope this list was helpful to all the personal bloggers out there!

What do you think? Do you have a personal blog? Do you agree with these tips? Are there any others you’d like to suggest?

Filed Under: Personal Blogging

Pin Me

April 14, 2011 By

I’ve been sucked into a black hole of digital eye candy.

Have you heard of Pinterest? It’s a website that lets you pin things to a virtual pinboard, which you can use as inspiration, reference, share with others, and waste more time than you ever thought possible. I’m talking the kind of time you wasted when you first discovered the internet.

At first I resisted getting sucked into yet another site to keep up with. I just didn’t need it, I said. But I kept seeing other people’s pinboards and thought about it. No, I have Tumblr, I said. But Pinterest lets you visually categorize things. I’m a visual person. And suddenly I wanted one.

Since Pinterest is still invite-only, I clicked the button on their site and waited. And waited. It seemed like my invite would never come, but a week later, as I was trying to wrap up my internet surfing so I could go to bed, I checked my email and there it was. My invite. My bedtime flew out the window as I quickly got to setting up my account and started pinning things with reckless abandon.

The cool thing about Pinterest is that you can follow other people’s boards – either an individual board or everything they pin, and you can repin their pins or comment on them. You can also tag people when describing your pins and use hashtags, which work exactly as they do on Twitter. It makes it way easier to feed the addiction, that’s for sure.

I’ve been spending way too much of my time online browsing through any pinboards I can find. Mine are here. Do you have a Pinterest yet?

Filed Under: On the Internet

The Best Friends I’ve Never Met

March 25, 2011 By

Years ago – too long ago now – I started hanging out on an internet forum. I liked this one because it seemed to be full of people who were just like me. People who were at about the same stage in their lives and who just seemed to understand any and all weird things that I posted, no matter where in the world they were.

It’s been at least ten years, and the people on this forum have remained friends. Ten years is an eternity in internet time, but we’re still on the same forum, sharing our lives with each other. We also found other ways to connect online, and some of us have even met each other. One of the girls got married here in Vegas not long after I moved to town, so I went to her wedding. It was funny when she introduced me to her husband. “This is Kirsten, but, uh, I’m not going to tell you how I know her because it’s kinda creepy.”

We’ve seen each other through thick and thin, marriages and divorces, births and deaths. We’ve been there to celebrate the good times and support each other through the bad times. Baby and wedding showers have been planned, collections taken up when needed, and random gifts have been exchanged.

Recently, one of these friends posted a few things that got us worried. Her posts were in the past tense, apologetic, and seemed to have a finality about them. It didn’t take long for about 20 of us to get in chat to discuss the situation. Some of us had talked/chatted with her privately, and shared some concerns that came up during those discussions. Someone decided to call, but her phone was busy. After a bit more discussion (like a minute’s worth) someone called the authorities in her town (in a different country from most of us, btw). They said they’d check on her.

We also racked our brains to try to remember her husband’s name (she had deleted her FB profile that morning) and who else we knew that was in her town. Her husband and a friend were contacted. Her husband left work to go check on her. More waiting, discussion, etc. Finally, the police called back and said that she was OK and getting help. That was probably when you all heard a huge sigh of relief coming from the internet.

What I love about this group of amazing people is that they do care so much. No matter how lonely I’ve felt in my life, they were always there for me. It fills my heart with joy that we were able to come together and help save the life of someone that most, if not all of us, have never met. These are the kinds of friends worth having.

I remember years ago, in the days before I knew about the internet, I was on a plane going to visit a pen pal that I had all through high school. I was chatting with the woman across the aisle about it, and stated that I was nervous because I didn’t know my pen pal. The woman said, “Oh, but you do know her. You’ve met through your letters!” That’s what it’s like when you find friends on the internet. We may not have all met each other in person, but we probably know things about each other that our real life family and friends don’t. The most important thing is how much we care for each other and are willing to put ourselves out there when it matters, because we all matter to someone out there.

I love you all, internet friends – you know who you are. And I hope that when we’re old and gray we’re still the tight-knit group that we are today.

Filed Under: Friends, On the Internet

Five Years Later

March 15, 2011 By

Yesterday was my blog’s 5th blogiversary. Can you believe I’ve been blogging for five whole years? Me neither. Here’s how far I’ve come since then.

Then: Single and alone
Now: Married with a Mister and a dog

Then: Working as an administrative assistant for Mad Scientist
Now: Working as a number cruncher for Big Company

Then: Trying to figure out what my next move in life should be
Now: Mister and I are trying to figure out what our next move in life should be

Then: Was a bit lonely as I had few real friends in this town
Now: Have a Mister and real life friends in Vegas and tons of online friends

Then: Didn’t know html from my elbow
Now: Can figure out html, css, and have even touched (just barely) php

Then: Ate mostly pasta
Now: Still a picky eater but have expanded my palate – though it still doesn’t include sushi

Then: Had a free blog on Blogger
Now: Self-hosted on WordPress

Then: 29 years old
Now: 29 years old (some things never change!)

Filed Under: Blogaholic, My Blog

Technical Foul

March 1, 2011 By

Ever since I upgraded my blog, I’ve been having a little issue with posting. It goes a little something like this:

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/kirstenl/public_html/wp-includes/post-template.php:54) in /home/kirstenl/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 890

My post still gets published, but I get this error message and have to back out of it then look at my front page to be sure it went. This also happens if I edit a post. To avoid it, I schedule posts in advance (even if just a few hours) because I don’t like seeing it.

I Googled the error to see if I could find a fix, and found a bit of conflicting information. But I tried all the ones that made sense to me. The only one I’m having trouble with is editing the file. I use Notepad, and I adjusted the settings on there to get my line numbers, but I still can’t find the proper line to edit – probably because I don’t have proper programming geek software. I’ve been lazy about reaching out to see if someone else can help me, so this is where I do that (Jordon? Ben? Anyone?) Help would be very much appreciated!

In other news, there’s my phone. Before our vacation last year, Mister and I went to the cell phone store to upgrade mine. I was dying to get a smartphone, and had my eyes on a particular Android model, which is what I ended up with.

This particular mode, I found out later, has SD card issues. Trying to use the camera has been frustrating, because I’d get a message telling me to insert the SD card. I’d end up having to shut the phone down and restart it, which doesn’t bode well for impromptu pictures, and we all know that’s what having a camera phone is all about.

A few weeks ago, I was keeping updated on Twitter when the app crashed and froze up my phone. I couldn’t do anything with it (and yes, I tried for about half an hour do do something). I couldn’t even power the phone down. So I did the only other thing I could think of – I pulled the battery. I reinserted, started the phone, and all was fine. Almost.

My SD card won’t format now. I get a message that says, “SD card blank or has unsupported file system.” Again, I Googled the message and found a few forums with suggestions. None seem to work. I even did a factory reset, but that didn’t work either and I figure that if that didn’t do it, then the file that accepts the SD card is permanently hosed. So, no camera phone for me. It’s like living in the olden days. Not only can I not take pictures, now I can’t even view them if someone sends me one. I have to email it to myself, which is the only thing that works, to see it bigger than the 1-inch preview. I’m eligible for an upgrade in April 2012, so unless a bundle of cash comes my way, I have to wait until then for my phone to be fully operational.

I don’t usually have such major technical issues, and when I do, Googling the error message usually helps me solve the problem. But these two have me perplexed and frustrated. Any ideas?

Filed Under: I Like Things, My Blog