Here’s a great article from Problogger: “ProBlogging – 10 Things I Wish I Knew when I Started”

Though the article is specifically for those who are seeking to build a ‘pro’ blog that makes $money, most of the suggestions also golden for those of us hoping to make a different with some type of online Christian presence. The principles for building traffic and authority are largely the same regardless of your topic and major focus.

Here’s the 10 things—you’ll have to read the article for the full explanations:

1. Good design is crucial

2. Narrow Your Niche

3. Comments Really Do Matter

4. Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Your Knowledge

5. When You Have a Blog, You are the Authority

6. Consistency Counts

7. Have a Plan

8. Start Networking Early!

9. Be Everywhere

10. Hustle

There is nothing really new here but it is a good reminder for those of us who have been around a while to refocus are efforts. Plus for those starting out the suggestions are particularly timely indeed.             *Top

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Here’s something to think about if you are planning to start some kind of online ministry. A great article by Paul D. Watson found on his ministry blog-reaching the online generation: “Eight Questions for Starting an Online Ministry”

It is short, sweet and profound from someone who is majorly involved with starting and implementing online outreach ministries to different groups of people around the world—and taking it to the next level.

I actually heard Paul speak at the Christian Web Conference a couple of months ago on the subject- “Taking the Gospel to Every Online Segment” –it certainly opened my eyes to possibilities I never considered before and also some of the dangers since he had recently lost a number of his team church planters to martyrdom.

You are probably asking how someone involved in an online outreach ministry could be martyred. The answer of course is that a ministry online could eventually gain converts that need to be discipled in churches with a real actual physical presence in this case in a country that does not welcome Christian missionaries. Remember the Gospel is to be taken to every nation, people and group whether it is legally acceptable or not.

The Internet provides an opportunity to reach people all around the world in countries and places that are all but difficult to reach for a number of different reasons. Online ministries to unique groups of people can kick it all off and get it started and eventually you have churches being planted where they never have been before.

Take this article seriously if you are starting out. The 8 questions in the article come to you by the way of experience. Paul Watson and his group have started an untold number of different online ministries to reach the unreachable.

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The coming of this book is long overdue—a definitive manual on using Blogger. This is bound to become the essential book for those using the Blogger program whether one is starting out in the blogosphere or has been around a while. There is something for everyone in this volume—if you now use Blogger or intend to in the future.

<Read my complete review>

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(Image by Mexicanwave via Flickr)

Started thinking on this subject after reading: “5 Blogging Etiquette Tips for Beginning Bloggers” by Melanie Nelson

When I started blogging I couldn’t even spell ‘etiquette’ much less practice it on my new blog but I did try to learn the best procedures by observing the best. Along the way I naturally picked up some important do’s and don’ts—a lot by just experiencing stuff that I didn’t like others doing to me.

A lot of Christian bloggers first started using the internet to find stories and issues that they want to share with friends and relatives via email. I still have several who are close to me that browse the net and send me stuff that they found. Sometimes they just copy an entire story and send it on—other times just a link, a video, or a cartoon.

Later, some friends have transitioned from email to social media or even blogging with little change in what they do. If it is maintained in social media just among friends a lot of what goes on is forgivable.

The problem comes when folks start blogging and their new sites are all of a sudden beamed to the entire world potentially. In reality only their close friends and relatives are reading the stuff but others do eventually come aboard once the blog is indexed by Google and it all takes on a more permanent ‘life of its own’. A case in point–I have one personal blog that has been visited by folks from over 182 different countries in the last 4 years–many I didn’t know even existed!

Here’s some basic ‘golden rules’ to consider:

1. Linking Sources

Always provide proper links to sources that you refer to or use in preparing your posts. That way your readers can check out the story and documentation for themselves. Also, the sources should receive credit and linking makes that possible.

Note: It is always best to use permalinks to the actual post or story rather than just referring or linking to the home page or blog.

2. Linking Rather than Just Copying

It is a violation of both blogging etiquette and copyright rules to copy an entire article and post it without permission, even if you do link to the original source. ‘Fair Use’ allows for quotes. If you think the whole article is important and you want folks to read it than provide an anchor text or quote from the article with a link to the rest.

If you post the whole article than your readers have no reason to visit the original site and that is completely unfair to the original author.

3. Commenting

This is the bread and butter of blogging but with all of the spam out there it is beginning to become a problem for every blogger. It is getting harder to differentiate between spam and actual comments sometimes. Some spammers used to leave trite comments like: “nice blog”, “great article”, “beautiful site” and etc. Now they seem to be leaving more extensive comments like: “I’m going to read your blog from now on”, “You have some great information here that I can use”, “ Your have really added to the conversation on this subject” and etc. 

As a blogger making comments on other blogs you should always be relevant to the discussion and add to the conversation. Some no-no’s:  Leaving trite comments that don’t really add to the conversation. Leaving insulting personal comments. Worse–posting an entire pre-written article of your own on the same subject in the comment section. Less worse– linking to one of your own without permission. A grey area– Linking to a relevant post of your own or on another blog. If you are a regular commenter on that blog it is probably less of a problem.

As a blogger moderating the comments on your own blog is it mandatory to post all comments the way they are? Generally yes, they are really the property of the writer and not the blog. However, in the past I have personally deleted some inappropriate words on a couple of occasions with an inserted note: (expletive deleted) and self-serving links that were not helpful to the discussion.

It is a good idea to have a commenting policy in place with your expectations clearly identified. 

4. Pictures and Images

Another area that new bloggers in particular have difficulty with is in using and borrowing pictures and images. Pictures and images are also protected by copyright laws and not always available for free use without permission. It really isn’t right just to grab a picture or a graphic off of another site and paste to your own. Care should be taken to insure that it is in public domain and available for general use.

Also care should be taken to down load any images to make sure you are not ‘hot-linking’. Every image and picture on the internet has its own link and if you just copy and paste and leave the link intact then you are actually stealing someone else’s hosted bandwidth.

Sources like Flickr, and apps like Zemanta, Apture, and PicApp can make life a whole lot easier for bloggers when it comes to images and picture. 

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By Lisa Sabin-Wilson (Hoboken,NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2009, 394 pages)

Second Edition is quite an improvement over the already excellent original. It is the essential book for those using WordPress in publishing a blog. This edition is updated to feature version 2.7+ which reflects the last major program change.

The writer introduces one to the basic WordPress blogging program. Then follows with a section covering the WordPress hosted service, next a section on how to set up a ’self-hosted’ blog with the WordPress.org program, and finally, a chapter covering the WordPress MU program used in setting up and hosting entire blogging communities.

This is a great book for all those starting out with WordPress and explains in detail everything one needs to know to properly administer and publish on a blog using the program. For those who have been around a while, it outlines procedures for adding plugins and widgets to a WordPress site—also where to find the best WP themes.

Then, for the more advanced blogger, the book gives tips and procedures for making a blog unique and shows how to customize themes and templates. In easy to understand fashion, the writer presents all the basic CSS code needed to make changes that will make your WP blog different from all the rest.

WordPress For Dummies 2nd Edition is the most complete manual for using any WP program to date– providing good detailed help no matter whether you are just starting out, been doing it for a while, or more advanced—this is now the one essential book.

If you are just starting out however, you might also consider getting: "Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read" by Scott McNulty. It is the easiest and best illustrated book on WordPress for complete beginners though it does reflect the earlier WP 2.6 rather than the current version. Nevertheless, WordPress For Dummies 2nd Edition is the best single overall book for all WP purposes.           *Top

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Here’s the first 2:

1.  Mistake: Choosing an uninteresting or redundant blog name.

2.  Mistake: Not owning your domain name.

<<Read the rest>>

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(Image by Lloyd Budd via Flickr)

Here’s some very good advise from Melanie Nelson for anyone starting a new blog: “Beginning Blogger Checklist: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a New Blog”

Here’s the first two:

1.  Mistake: Auto-loading music.

Please. I beg you, your readers beg you: ditch the auto-loading music! Auto-loading music is not only annoying and surprising, but it’s a bandwidth hog. It makes your blog load slowly. Do you really want to lose a reader because she couldn’t wait for your site to load? And if she waits for your site to load, will she be annoyed because she didn’t know there would be music, had her speakers on high, and a sleeping husband (or child) right beside her? I can tell you this: She won’t be back.

2.  Mistake: Using a design with a dark background & light text.

This issue is less about your aesthetic and more about usability and readability. Reading online is harder on our eyes than reading traditional paper. Using a dark background with light text makes it even harder on your readers’ eyes.

<<Read the rest of the article>>

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After checking everything out with my hosting co. and doing a bunch of different things to get a grip on the reason for the slow load I finally figured out that it was my dated theme that was not working so well with the WordPress 2.71 upgrade and with the latest Firefox browser which upgraded about the time when I started noticing the problem.

In the meantime, overnight I had lost nearly 1/2 of my traffic on those sites using that particular WP theme. I checked it out on Internet Explorer and found that it still loaded ok using that browser, that’s why I still had at least retained half of my normal visitors. Then I checked out how the sites worked on Safari and found that they would not load up on that browser either.

So here is a lesson to be learned at my expense:

It is a good idea to check out how your blog or website reacts and loads on different browsers!

I have known this in the past and have noticed that by blogs look somewhat different using different browsers. My daughter alerted me one time a couple of years ago that my site looked somewhat distorted on her Mac–she was using Safari as many Mac folk do. After that I had her checking it out once in awhile. Also another time by accident I discovered that some of my blogs looked different on IE 6 than they look on IE 7. So it is important to even check out different versions of the same browser at times.

Right now I have the current versions of Firefox, IE 8, Safari, and Chrome installed on my computer just for a quick check. However, it takes up a lot of memory. Here is a great site where you can check out how your blog or website resolves on all of the different browsers and versions currently in use:

<<<Browser Shots>>>           *Top

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Image via Wikipedia

Melanie Nelson @ Blogging Basics 101 has a screencast tutorial on “How to Set Up a Blogger Blog”

Real helpful—she walks you through all the steps and makes helpful suggestions in setting up a new Blogger blog.

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