Today is a blogging milestone for me: This is post number 1,500 on this blog! It's been a few years since I wrote my first entry one snowy winter's day when I felt trapped inside. Blogging has added interest to my daily routine. I never think: I wish I could tell my kids about... [whatever]! I simply write about it in my blog.
About a year after starting, I began posting daily. The only way I can do that is by varying the subjects I write about. But this accurately reflects my life: I occupy my time with a variety of interests.
Blogging has been a learning experience for me. Whenever I encounter a problem, I ask one of my kids what to do! My daughter, in particular, reads a lot of blogs and has been very helpful.
What advice would I pass on to aspiring bloggers?
First, that if they want a larger audience, they should focus on one topic, like gardening, quilting or travel. (But if they wanted to post daily, they might need a writing team.)
Second, to avoid spam comments, they should moderate comments before they are published. (This can be indicated when setting up the blog site.) I also added the security feature of having a person copy a word before the comment is submitted. This has eliminated hundreds of spam comments I used to receive from automated roving computers, computers that simply go through blogs entering random comments with potentially dangerous links.
It is always interesting to discover how people find my blog, and it is possible for a blogger to check out a blog's stats. But avoid clicking on (and going to) a referring site before checking it out on google. It could contain viruses for your blog or your computer. Instead, google the site, asking: What is [site name]?
That's how I discovered that an innocuous-sounding site like "topblogstories.com" is in fact a porn site that aims at hacking or hijacking blogs.
Blogging is a joy! (But it is not without its hazards!)
No comments:
Post a Comment