I spent a decent amount of time today reading various blogging tips blogs. I’m always interested in what I can do to make my blog better, but it’s also got to work for me. I’m not an A-list blogger and never will be. I’m not an expert on anything and don’t claim to be. I only have one niche – ME, as evidenced by my blog’s title.

I’ve played with my blog’s template and gotten it to where I’m satisfied with it. I have a lot of ideas that I’d like to try, design-wise, but lack both the time to try them out and the expertise to figure it out.

My pagerank isn’t where it could be. I don’t have time to dedicate to heavy social networking, like Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, del.icio.us, etc. If I did I’m sure I’d have more readers than I do now. As it is, I don’t even track my stats, so I have no idea how many readers I get. I do have counters and such, but I don’t have time to pay attention to them.

The biggest mistake I make, according to all the pros out there, is that I don’t have my own domain. I can’t be a serious blogger if I don’t, right? Sure, I’m here on Blogger, and I am serious about my blog. I’m just not serious about making this my full time job (full time hobby would be nice, though). I’ve checked out other blog services. I have a LiveJournal that I rarely post on but visit at least 3-4 times a week to see my friend’s blogs. I like Blogger in that it’s the only free service (that I know of) that allows full customization of the html and css code. Free is good for me. Now, I can get my own domain name and continue hosting it on Blogger. I can also get a domain, have a bigger website, and link to the blogger blog. That’s still a thought. But I like Blogger, it’s been good to me, and I have no intention on leaving it just yet. Besides, the work to move everything is just too much for me, and I’ve already established that time does not grow on trees.

What do I do? As far as publicizing my blog goes, I make sure I let my friends and family know it’s the best way to keep up with my goings on. This past year I put labels in all my holiday cards to advertise my blog. Also, as of 5 minutes ago, my blog address is in my email signature. I’ll also check out the message boards I visit frequently and make sure it’s in my signature there also. I’m not looking for a huge audience, but the people who are interested in me, like friends, family, and internet friends will likely want to know if I have a blog and where to find it.

Link-Love and Comments – sure, I practice this. If I like your blog, I’ll link to it. I don’t expect reciprocal links, though blog etiquette says this is the thing to do. Comments are also nice. I try to comment as time allows, but I don’t feel compelled to comment on every single post you have. If I have something to say, I’ll say it, but even in person, I’ve never been one to talk just for the sake of talking. I’m also trying to reply to comments more. I enjoy this kind of dialogue.

Now, for the feedback. What do you all think of my blog? Is there anything that doesn’t work for you? Does it load ok? Let me know, and if it’s a load issue, let me know about what OS, browser, and all that technical stuff that you have so I can pretend to know what to do about it.