How To: Start Writing Again

Christmas is over and if your like me you've realized you haven't written anything, in well, a month. Since being stuffed with turkey your blog hasn't been stuff with anything. Here are some great ways to get your writing grove back.

Participate in a link up:
Link up are a great way to not only write something, but meet other bloggers. Most bloggers out there host a link up or participate. Link ups are easy to use. There is normally some sort of writing prompt,  a place to add your link, then a list of people who have "linked up" where you can ready what they have posted.

Read:
Reading goes a long way. Reading gets those wheels turning, rattles off the dust and can inspire you.

Journal/ Free writing:
I love these two! I not only have a blog, but keep an actual journal. The act of handwriting helps my brain focus. Many times I use my journal as a free writing tool. Free writing is a simple exercise where you just start to write with out any thought of structure. Sometimes when you read back over your writing you find some great quotes you can use, but most of the time is just random writing. It doesn't matter because it gets you writing again.

Let's have a Voices link up!

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

How To: Track your blog/ Google Analytics

There are many ways to track your blog stats, the best one being Google Analytics. Blogger does have a tracing system with their blogs but they also count spam hits and actual hits, so Analytics is a more accurate count.

Google Analytics is simple to set up. You sign in with your Gmail/Blogger account, select your url type (most of you will be a single url) and add your url. Then you simply add the tracking html code on to your blog and it will start tracking. 

It will take a day for the numbers to show up, it refreshes every morning.

 

The next time you sign into Google Analytics you will see this crazy graph and chart.

The line graph shows you how many visitors you had each day, and the pic chart show you who was returning and who was new. 

On the side you will see this:

Visits: 560

 The total number of hits to your blog.

Unique Visitors: 338

Unique Visitor report counts visitors to your website (counting each visitor only once in the selected date range.

Pageviews: 977

A Pageview is the standard unit of Web traffic. Each time a webpage is viewed, it counts as one page view.

Pages / Visit: 1.74

 The Pages/Visit (Average Page Depth) metric displays the average number of pages viewed per visit to your site. Repeated views of a single page are counted in this calculation. This metric is useful both as an aggregate total as well as when it is viewed with other dimensions, such as country, visitor type, or mobile operating system.

Avg. Visit Duration: 00:02:19

 Average link some one is on your blog.

Bounce Rate: 69.46%

 The Bounce Rate is the percentage of bounced visits to your site.
A bounce is calculated as a single-page view or single-event trigger in a session or visit.
The following situations qualify as bounces:

• A user clicks on a link deep into your site sent by a friend, reads the information on the page, and closes the browser.
• A user comes to your home page, looks around for a minute or two, and immediately leaves.
• A user comes directly to a reference page on your site from a web search, leaves the page available in the browser while completing other tasks in other browser windows and the session times out.
•  

% New Visits: 60.36%

The percent of your viewers that are new.

I hope this helps break down the numbers for you. Google Analytics gives you a lot of information for your blog. But the information is useless if you don't know what you are looking at. 

Please remember to use these numbers to make your writing better, not as a bar or standard for where you should be as a blogger. 

How To: Build Followers

Every blog, and writer for that fact wants to build their platform. There are multiply ways to build your platform, but I believe the best way to do so is simply.

Follow Others!

Shocking I know. Writing, blogging, and all this social media falls back on one thing- relationships! The easiest things to do is things I am sure you are already doing.

Follow other bloggers. The best way to meet other blogger/writers is follower their blogs. Nothing says "hey I like you, lets me friends" like a follow. It takes a few seconds to follow on GFC, HelloCotton, Bloglovin, Rss Feed, or by email. 

Comment, Comment, Comment. Leaving someone a comment is just sweet. As a blogger it really makes my day when someone leaves me a comment. Many days blogging seems like I'm talking to my self, I question if anyone is listening, or if what I am saying even effects anyone. Just getting a comment that says "great post" is enough. Plus when you comment you are opening the door to communication. 

Chat with them on Twitter & Facebook. You know you are already on both of them, use them! I love when some one just tweets me "Hi!". It's fun to follow some ones life in 140 characters all day.  

Jump on our directory page and start following the blogs! 

We would love for you to comment on this post with your blog, so we can follow you back.

How to: Format with Photos

I believe that a photo is a must in almost every post. Now not everyone agrees with me, but as we talked about last week with eye strain, and the fact you want your blog to stand out, a photo adds character and a sense of "knowing" the blogger.

But not every photo is a good blog photo. When adding a photo, just throwing some random shot up is not going to have a beneficial effect. Many times a photo can make the reader walk away from your post, not drawl them in. Every blogger has made the mistake of using a too dark photo, a blurry image, or an image that is just too small.

Here are some photo tips:

Edit your photos first:
This one is a huge pet peeve for me. It is amazing how a few tweaks in google photo, or on your iphone can change a image! Pretty pictures pull in readers.

 Here is an image I took of my youngest (you can ohh and ahh, he's adorable.).

Image taken on an iphone 4

This is the edited image, see the difference? Don't look at just the way it is edited, but the way it draws you in more than the first image did.

Image edited in instagram- Sierra filter, blur around face.

 Now look at a project I was working on. Just a quick shot.

Image taken with iphone 4

After a quick crop and edit, doesn't the image look more inviting?

Image edited in instagram, Sutro filter, blur around hoop.

A big photo is best:
Just like using a normal size font, a large photo is the easiest on your readers eyes. You don't want them to squint to see what your posting. Not only is the photo easier to read, but gives the readers a place to rest their eyes and really take in what you are writing about.

Center your photos:
Now this might be a personal belief, but I truly believe a centered photo is the best.  When you justify a photo to one side or another, and let the text wrap around the photo it becomes a distraction. Your words and images fight each other for the readers attention. Also typically if your photo can be justified and text is wrapped around it, your photo is too small.


I hope this helps you tweak your images, and see them as a way to add to what you are writing. Also please keep in mind you can not just take an image from any where you want! There are copyright laws! I just use my own images, that way I do not even have to think about copyrights.

How to: Format a Blog Post

Formatting 101:

As a writer we all know that format is very important. There is a very correct way to write, and a very incorrect way, not a lot of gray area. With blogging it is different. Now I know the "writers" out there might not agree with me but think about the differences between printed work, and screen work. In print your eyes can read page after page with out eye strain, on a computer screen it doesn't take long for eye strain to set in.

Take The Cannoli

Size matters.

Your blog post size does matter. Think of your blog as a conversation with your readers. Would you feel like you have a relationship with someone that post once a month and only a paragraph at a time? Now I am not saying every post has to be an epic, but keep a mixture of sizes. Constant super long post are just as annoying as a reader as constant super short post.

Add photos! 

Pictures are a great way to add depth to what your writing. They say pictures are worth a thousand words, and they are right. A blog post is limited to size so why not use a photo or two to help make your point or convey your emotions?

Mrs Pate Writes

Break up text.

By changing up fonts, colors, sizes,and adding photos, it gives your readers a place to rest their eyes. Blogs are read on computers, shocking I know, but with that you have to remember eye strain can set in every quickly. You know what a read to walk away from your blog with a headache.

Remember 12 point.

Keep your the main part of your font 12 point. Just like changing your font, changing your size can cause a reader problems. The last thing you want is your reader to squint to read your post! On the other side is you don't want your readers to be able to read a word a screen, because you chose such a huge font. Use larger (or smaller) fonts to break up a post or add emphases on your writing.

Rags to Stitches

Location, location, location.

Never forget your readers are reading on their phones, tablets, or computers, so make your post easy for those devices to load. Stop using those crazy fonts! I know they are cute and adorable, but a whole post in a crazy font is hard to read, and hard for the computer to load. Not every computer is created equal some will take longer to load those fonts! Want to use those cute fonts? Keep them for your blog title or to break up the text. The majority of your text should be in a readable font. Think the classics, Ariel, Times, Courier, even Verdana.

I hope you keep in these things in mind as your writing. Look at others blogs, make note what you like and implement that. Have fun, make your blog yours, and keep your readers in mind! 

photos used with permission.

How to: Be a Blogger

Every time someone finds out I'm a blogger the first thing they say is, "Oh my life is not interesting enough for someone else to read about". That always makes me laugh because, honestly neither is mine. There is this image of a "blogger" as this mystical person that has the most adventurous life. People flock to their blog to read all about their amazing insight, hysterical stories and touching moments. All while some how making enough money solely by blogging, that they get to just stay at home and write.

Ready to have your bubble popped....
It's not true. I wish I could say I was that cool. That I had people flocking to my blog, that I made some sort of substantial money, or that my life had some adventure. But its none of that, blogging is just writing. It's writing that human element that we all share. Its just Life. Its human interest. Its meeting friends over a cup of coffee and instead of being face to face, your reading their words.

Their words, your words can be about anything. That is the great thing about words, you can make them what you want. If you want to write about food, recipes, and all that yumminess do it! Trust me I will read it and pretend I can cook.  Love fashion? Write about it. Are you a poet, stringing words together in a melody? WRITE IT!

Be a blogger, it gets your writing out there. You get feed back, your hone your skill, and you can "meet" a lot of amazing people. Some of the people out there that I feel the closest too are fellow bloggers! Have I ever meet them face to face? No. Is there a connection there, yes. When you share you life, you connect. If it is just one piece of your life your still sharing.

Isn't that what writing is all about?

How to Create a Blog

Last night at our Third Thursday I spoke with some of you ladies about blogging. A few of you wanted to know more about starting a blog. Today we are talking about how to create your blog.
It is not complex, but it does take a few minutes and filling out a few forms.

Here is How To: Set up a Blogger Blog!

Go to www.blogger.com. Fill in your email (if you have a gmail account) if not you can register for one. If you already have an email account, you can set the gmail to just be your blogger account. I'll go over that in a min.

Next, you can pick if you want a google+ profile or just a blogger profile. 

Next is where you create your blog by picking a Blog Title, then a URL. Your Blog Title is what your blog will be called and they do not have to match. For instance my Blog Title is Mrs Pate Writes, but my URL is mrstmpate.blogspot.com.  Your Blog Title can be changed at anytime, but your URL should not be changed. 

Once you pick a name, and URL, the next step is to pick a template. There are amazing, easy to use templates on blogger and can be changed at any time, and can be customized.

 When your blog is "created" your next step is to simply post! A post is what you are writing.

 Hit Publish, and volia! You are an official Blogger!

Every week we're going to walk you wonderful ladies through different aspects of writing, blogging, and anything else you have questions about! I want this to be something that is truly beneficial to you, but for that to happen I need to know "what do you need"? What are the things you want to know more about? Please leave a comment below and we will take them a week at a time. There is no question too big, to small, or too silly! We want each of you to grow in this process, for that to happen we need to know what you need! I would love to know if any of you start a blog! If you do and would like to share it, copy your URL into the comment section below! 

How To: Google Analytics

There are many ways to track your blog stats, the best one being Google Analytics. Blogger does have a tracing system with their blogs but they also count spam hits and actual hits, so Analytics is a more accurate count.

Google Analytics is simple to set up. You sign in with your Gmail/Blogger account, select your url type (most of you will be a single url) and add your url. Then you simply add the tracking html code on to your blog and it will start tracking. 

It will take a day for the numbers to show up, it refreshes every morning.

 

The next time you sign into Google Analytics you will see this crazy graph and chart.

The line graph shows you how many visitors you had each day, and the pic chart show you who was returning and who was new. 

On the side you will see this:

Visits: 560

 The total number of hits to your blog.

Unique Visitors: 338

Unique Visitor report counts visitors to your website (counting each visitor only once in the selected date range.

Pageviews: 977

A Pageview is the standard unit of Web traffic. Each time a webpage is viewed, it counts as one page view.

Pages / Visit: 1.74

 The Pages/Visit (Average Page Depth) metric displays the average number of pages viewed per visit to your site. Repeated views of a single page are counted in this calculation. This metric is useful both as an aggregate total as well as when it is viewed with other dimensions, such as country, visitor type, or mobile operating system.

Avg. Visit Duration: 00:02:19

 Average link some one is on your blog.

Bounce Rate: 69.46%

 The Bounce Rate is the percentage of bounced visits to your site.
A bounce is calculated as a single-page view or single-event trigger in a session or visit.
The following situations qualify as bounces:

• A user clicks on a link deep into your site sent by a friend, reads the information on the page, and closes the browser.
• A user comes to your home page, looks around for a minute or two, and immediately leaves.
• A user comes directly to a reference page on your site from a web search, leaves the page available in the browser while completing other tasks in other browser windows and the session times out.
•  

% New Visits: 60.36%

The percent of your viewers that are new.

I hope this helps break down the numbers for you. Google Analytics gives you a lot of information for your blog. But the information is useless if you don't know what you are looking at. 

Please remember to use these numbers to make your writing better, not as a bar or standard for where you should be as a blogger. 

How To: Blog a guest post

This week one of our voices girls Bonnie, wrote a blog about what she has learned in the first four months of blogging. The post has some great information and is perfect for this weeks How To.

 How To: Blog

I have been blogging for approximately 4 months now, and I have learned A LOT!  I really had no idea about the blogosphere before I started. Sure, I have had a few blogs in the past, but nothing I was serious about. I was not a consistent blogger either.
Once I decided I wanted to get serious about blogging I really didn't know where to start. I started seeing things called blog hops, and the word linky being thrown around. I was seriously at a loss.  If you are new to blogging I have a few tips for you.  I'm no expert by any means, but I can tell you what I have learned so far and maybe I can be some help to you.  So lets get started, shall we?

Be consistent
 You don't have to blog every day, but you do have to make a presence. My goal is to blog 3 days a week. A good week is when I can blog everyday, but I don't always have the time, or anything to say.

Get started on a site that helps women grow their craft
The Sits Girls have an awesome sight. They have a daily featured blogger, and tons of tips on their sight on how to make your blog better. They have tutorials on how to do all kinds of things from making your own blog button, to having images on your sight that are pinnable to use on Pinterest.
Participate in blog hops
 What are blog hops? Many bloggers host blog hops. Blog hops are a way to get yourself out there, as well as meet other bloggers. It's really quite simple. All you have to do is type your web address into the designated area on that persons blog and boom there you have it. A link to your blog is there for everyone to see. Other bloggers can go to your site, and if they are interested in what you have to say, then they can follow your blog.
Have an appealing blog design
This brings me to my next point. Design. For me blog design is very important. You know how they say you only have one chance to make a first impression?  If a persons design is not visually appealing to me then I usually won't stay very long. You might think it's expensive to have someone design your blog, but it really isn't. Their are a ton of bloggers out there who are really good, but just starting out and want to do some pro bono work, or do a design for really cheap.  So far I have been really pleased with some of the designers I have worked with. Please check out Yours Truly,  Royal Daughter Designs, Naptime Diaries,  Little Homemade Housewife, and Mrs. Pate Writes.These ladies have produced awesome desings for me, from full blog design, to blog buttons, and I highly recommend them, especially Yours Truly who did my recent blog design.
Comments
Comment, comment, comment. I have learned that commenting on other peoples blogs, as well as responding to the comments that people make on your blog is very important. If you comment on someone else's blog, they will usually visit your blog and comment back. The more traffic you get, the better. If someone comments on your blog, try to comment back. I kind of think of it as proper ettiquete. If someone calls you and leaves a message, or sends an email, or shoots you a text and you don't respond, it's kinda like hey why didn't you respond to me?? If someone takes time out of their day to read your blog, comment back. I don't always get around to it, but I do try.
Particiapte in social media
Social Media is important. I adamantly believe if you are a blogger, then having a Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest account are vital. You can use these resources to let poeple know when you have posted a new blog. There are many social networking sights that you can sign up for such as HelloCotton.  I think those sites are helpful too, but I have seen the most traffic from Twitter and Facebook.
Advertise on someone else's blog
Last but not least sponsor a blog. Sponsoring a blog means paying for advertisement on someone elses blog who has a lot of followers. Sponsoring a blog can get pricey, but you can find some really popular blogs out there that don't ask you to pay an arm and a leg for advertising. After all, it is just a blog people! I have found out through trial and error who is awesome at helping to promote you, once you sponsor them. Some bloggers have not been helpful, and it's been a waste of money. Here are the bloggers who I have sponsored so far, and who I would recommend and definitely sponsor again in the future. Covered in Grace, Mom 4 Real, and The Fontenot Four. I'm going to do a post in the future on what makes a good sponsor, so stay tuned.
Last but not least, don't take yourself too seriously. If you can't blog as often as you want to, then that's fine. I'm a wife and mom so blogging takes a back seat to all my other responsibilities.  Remember to have fun. This is an outlet for most of us to express ourselves. Once it isn't fun anymore then what's the point? 
I hope I have been helpful. If you have any more questions you can comment below or email me at bonnboutiuqe@ymail.com

How to: Klout

Today we are going to be talking about Klout. Klout is an up and coming site that links all your social media and ranks your influence across the board. Many people are using Klout to see "where they rank".


Here's the catch. A Klout score is on a scale of 1-100, with the average score being 20. How can the average of 1-100 be 20? Well Klout is set that once you hit 20, it takes more "influence" to move up then before you hit 20. So if you had four new people follow your blog and that moved your score up a point, once you hit 20 you need 10 more people for your score to move up (this is just an example and not actual numbers). The higher your score is the harder it is to get a higher score.

So what is in a score? It is a combination of all the social media outlets that you link up, and how many people you can get to give you k+(K+ are similar to a facebook "like"), how many mentions you have on twitter, likes on instagram, followers on you tube, ect.

Klout is marketing. Flat out marketing. It is a tool to get your name out there. It is not the end all be all of where you "rank". It will not track how many readers you have on your blog, who is a new reader, who is returning. It will not show you where your readers are coming from. It sole links up and 'scores' your social media usage.  Basically, if you want a way to have more of a social media presence Klout can help with that, but know its "score" doesn't really mean anything in the way of actual impact.

Klout can be fun, for example companies gives out "perks". Perks are awarded for using Klout. I have received free business cards from MOO (which did have a small Klout logo), a photo book, and I know a friend received a herb garden, all for just using Klout. Know there is a "dark" side to it.
There are somethings about Klout I don't like, for example there is an option to "rank" your friends. It places two friends "against" each other and you are suppose to pick who has more influence on a certain topic. It also tells you how you "measure up". As in it compares your influence to that of your friends. Klout shows you who tweets more than you, who has more k+ on topics, and who is just "influential" than you. For me it just creates unnecessary competition so I leave those options alone.

If you are wanting a way to really track your online presence, you want to use Google Analytic, and we'll set that up next week.