Ever want a do over? A chance to start from the beginning and make things happen a little – or a lot – differently from what you did the first time around?
Yeah, me too.
For the last theme day of the 2012 Blogathon, bloggers could choose to write on the same subject: “If I started blogging today I would….”
I shared what I’d do differently, including starting out on my own website instead of a free blogging service, and using more pictures in posts. Read all of my blogging blunders in this post: 5 newbie mistakes I’d avoid if I started blogging today.
What Bloggers Say They’d Do Differently
In today’s edition of the Blogathon recap I’m doing every Saturday during May, I’m sharing what other bloggers would do differently if they had a do over:
Blogging Tools
1. Register a domain name right away. “I wish I’d had enough time and confidence to register my domain name from day one so that all my outreach, publicity and business cards had pointed to that web address from the very start. I probably will go self-hosted soon to give me more control over my own writings, since BooksYALove is meant to be a searchable archive of great books for young adult book fans.” – Katy Manck, on BooksYALove
2. Choose a blog name more carefully. “Naming a blog is almost as difficult as naming your child, though Google may be slightly less flexible in assigning a nickname or terms of endearment. Once you choose a name, that’s it unless you want to move all of your blogs to date to a new title.” – Tere Scott, on Teachable Scotts Tots Homeschool
3. Choose a blog name more carefully, part 2. “I chose Writer Granny’s World because it is pretty descriptive of me. But after awhile, I got to thinking that the name might turn off a lot of young writers. I considered changing it, but then I feared losing some of the followers and readers already established. I am a writer granny, so I left it as is. The sub-name – My Writing World With Tips and Encouragement For Writers – tells exactly what this blog is about. I like it as is and maybe younger readers will respond to that.” – Nancy Julien Kopp, on Writer Granny’s World
4. Choose a custom look. “So finally, last fall….I took the time to figure out what look would be most “me.” I found a few blogs whose design I wanted to emulate. I sat down with a designer friend, and we came up with my look, customizing a Blogger template with a banner that can be updated periodically by switching out the pictures. According to my blog statistics, page views increased by about 50% after I customized my blog. Is that a direct consequence? Of course I don’t know, but since I wasn’t doing any other special blog activities like a blogathon or a class, evidence probably supports the idea that a more individualized blog draws in more readers. Improved readability helps, too.” – Annette Gendler, on Annette Gendler
5. Use fewer labels (or tags): “Recently I saw a blog where there were 20 different categories, all lined up neatly. I was thrilled to stay on his blog following the links. I realized that less is more and revamped my labels on my blog. If I started blogging today, I would list the categories I wanted and have my blog posts use only those labels.” – Cheinle, on Lazy Bone Running
6. Resize the images before uploading them. “It saves gobs of space on the server. Oh, and tag, title, and name the images for better SEO. (It can’t hurt, right?) This also makes images MUCH easier to find when your site explodes and needs to be rebuilt from scratch.” – Liberty Montano, on Liberty’s Yarn
7. Watermark photos. “I would definitely mark my work as my own, from the beginning. I watermark everything I post now, but I didn’t start out doing that. As far as I know no one stole anything from me, but that was a pointless risk to take. I started watermarking my work when my sister encouraged me to do so, at least a month after I’d started blogging. It seems so obvious now, but I had little idea of how to actually go about the whole blogging thing, and how easy it is to steal and pass off work as one’s own.” – Abra Alani, on The Magical Miss
8. Use social media for promotion. “I would learn how to use Twitter and all the other social media sites to promote my blog. I only feel versed at Facebook.” – Beth Zare, on Beth Zare
Blogging Strategies
9. Follow a 3-4 posts a week schedule. “Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and the occasional weekend day. Since I booted my blog with last year’s Blogathon, I set the expectation of blogging daily. It’s tough, and depletes a lot of my creative juices. I’m writing more than I ever have (bonus), but I want to focus on the two novels I’m working on.” – Tia Bach, on Depression Cookies
10. Own who you are. “Joining a blogathon was going to be a challenge. Would I be accepted for who I am and what I write? At first it really mattered to me, but now 23 days into the challenge, I’ve changed my way of thinking. It doesn’t matter if I’m accepted or not, I hope my followers enjoy my writings, but at the end of the day, if I’m happy with my blog post, then I’m happy. I won’t allow the anxiety that was once a part of my blogging, be a part of it anymore.” – Mimi, on Wife, Mom, Writer, All Blessings!
11. Don’t over-apologize for not posting. “When I switched from Blogger to WordPress, I re-read all my old posts and was appalled by how often I apologized. “I’m such a bad blogger.” “I’m so sorry I haven’t posted in awhile.” “I haven’t forgotten my blog. Just been so busy lately. I’m sorry.” Geez. Get over yourself, girl! Just blog!” – Jan, on SimplyJan
12. Write with abandon. “Truth be told, one of the big reasons I didn’t blog much last year was because I was self-censoring my posts before they were even written. It’s one thing, I think, to be conscious of how much you share about your life and family online. It’s quite another to shut yourself down completely due to fears of what other people might think. The Blogathon has taught me that people respond when I write openly and honestly.” – Jennifer Fink, on Blogging ‘Bout Boys
13. Choose a different subject. “I always wanted to write about my experience in English as a Second Language. I studied English in Australia and New Zealand for six months from February to July in 2002. It’s so common to hear (about) a college student’s travels (to another) country. I was easily considered being a daughter of well-off business man. At that time I thought it was better to be seen a spoiled girl who’s got all the opportunity to explore the outer world. The truth is I was in the deepest personal turmoil from a dysfunctional family, financial down turn, and heartbroken.” – Sun Hee Yoon, on Fiery Memoir
14. Listen to your gut: “So at this point, I’m happy with my blogging journey, and I guess the advice I can impart is to not take it too seriously. Follow your instincts, enjoy your blogging, and see where it takes you.” – Alison Preston Baldyga, on Lady Moxie
Thanks for the roundup — I love these insights! Especially “write with abandon” … that’s a work in progress for me. Thanks for validating the challenge that it is to share freely, without oversharing, of course!
Jennifer, I agree with you about Jenny’s post. Write with abandon. Isn’t that where the real stories emerge, the ones that people remember and tweet and retweet? Yes, I loved that one, too.
Great roundup, Michelle! I think that pacing ourselves after the big confidence boost of daily Blogathon posting can be a challenge in itself, as Tia said.
And huge thanks for organizing and running Blogathon which finally lit the fire under me in 2011 to begin blogging; I do love the community feeling and support of this blog challenge!
**Katy Manck
Recommending YA books beyond the bestsellers at http://BooksYALove.blogspot.com
Follow me on Twitter @BooksYALove
You’re very welcome. It’s a pleasure to be surrounded by so many talented people – that’s what lifts me up!
Michelle
Fabulous posts. Very inspiring and funny.
Michelle, so far this was my favorite day of the Blogathon! I read everyone’s posts on this, commented on many, and it was great to share in other bloggers’ journeys. Thanks for mentioning my observation on creating an individualized design.
This comes at the perfect time for me — so many of the points this post recapped capture perfectly the things I’m dealing with… which voice am I going to use, the “official” writer who works for other people or the unofficial just plain me who wants to share information the same way she does when friends or people she meets in TRW (The Real World) ask about these topics? It’s scary taking the risk of just being that everyday me, but what I’m seeing in the Blogathon is helping me grow confident.
Reading other people’s blogs is so inspiring. (How can you read any of Jackie Dishner’s posts, to pick just one example, and not come away thinking, YES!!! I *CAN* DO THIS –whatever your “this” may be.)
I also love the part in this recap about blogging frequency. I didn’t have the problem of draining creativity with daily blogging but I definitely have drained energy – still have tons of ideas and know what I want to write about but getting it done is the hard part for me. But then again, I remind myself, that’s a big part of why I took the plunge and joined the Blogathon this year. I know I can do it and now that little voice in my head that pops up all those gazillion doubts is getting to believe it too.
Thank you — to Michelle for doing this and for putting together these great guides — and to all the bloggers whose sharing of what they’re going through is so helpful.
-Peggy