I ran across a very interesting article the other day which listed several tests that you could run on your blog. Tests like:
- the reading level of your blog
- predicting the gender of the blog author
- how well the HTML or XHMTL of your blog validates
- is your blog available behind the Great Firewall of China?
- how accessible is your blog?
- how would your blog look on iPhone?
- check for broken links
- how much commercial intent does your blog have?
- make your blog render in gray scale
- get an estimate of how many visitors your blog gets every day
- see how your blog looks in different browsers
- extract the colors and their names from your blog
- catch potential plagiarists
- convert your blog to text only
- translate your blog into another language
I've seen a few of these tests in my wanderings about the Internet, but several of them were new to me, and I'd never seen them all in one place before. If you're interested in taking any of these, click here.*
Thanks to Alisdair for his photo!
One of the bonuses of joining Kim's Blog Improvement Project is meeting even more great book bloggers. People who commented on my first post for the project expressed an interest in the three-column footer I added to my own blog template, so I thought this might be a good opportunity to share one of the resources I've been referring to over and over.
Any of you who have a Blogger blog as I do might want to subscribe to Amanda's wonderful Blogger Buster. I think I've worn out the tabs for Widgets and Tutorials there! I'm just starting out with HMTL, so I'm not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. I needed someone to go to for help who gives step-by-step instructions in language that I can understand. Amanda has filled that role brilliantly. Then I started really looking through her blog and discovered a gold mine with tons of tips all in one place: her free eBook, The Blogger Template Book.
She covers so much in here: different styles of layout and blog design, how to install different types of Blogger templates, how to maintain your widgets when changing templates, how to speed up the load time of your blog, how to optimize it for search engines...and lots more!
This is where I learned how to install the three-column footer, to compartmentalize my header, and how to use one of my own photos as the background.
If you have as much to learn as I do about personalizing your blog, this is a fantastic resource.
The award-winning Amy asked these questions as part of Book Bloggers Appreciation Week:
What is one thing you wish you knew about blogging when you started or what advice would you give a newbie blogger?
I wanted to say that I am a newbie blogger, so what on earth would I have to say that's of any value? But newbie or oldie, I think we all have something of value to share. Here's what tidbits of advice I can think of at this particular moment:
- Be true to yourself. The book blogging community is so large that your voice is just as important as anyone else's. Yes, look at other blogs, find the ones that you like, read them, and see how they do things. But the end result on your own blog should be your words, your opinions, your thoughts.
- Blogging can be addictive. If you don't want to be chained to your chair and computer 24/7, set aside blocks of time that allow you to blog--and still have a life. I don't know about the rest of you, but I want it all!
- Try to update your blog daily. Blog readers like to see that you have new things to say. (Now that I've said that, I'm wondering how to handle when my husband and I go on vacation! Although I can be very outspoken, I can still be a shy child and nervous about asking how to set up guest bloggers.)
What is your best blogging tip?
- If there's something you don't know how to do and you want to do it--ask! I wanted sections of my sidebars to scroll like Wendy's at Musings of a Bookish Kitty. I asked her, and she was more than happy to help me. Book bloggers are some of the most helpful people you'd ever hope to find. So if you want a 3-column layout, a slideshow, more traffic to your blog, or instructions on how to insert a link when you comment on someone else's blog, ask!
- You're going to have blogs that you want to keep track of, and setting up Google Reader is one of the best ways to do that. I know that it saves me a ton of time.
- I've found that two of the best ways to bring traffic to my blog is by participating in memes and by making thoughtful comments on other blogs. If someone takes the time to comment on something I've posted, you know I'm going to head on over to their blog to check it out. There are a ton of memes out there, so try to choose the ones that are a good fit for you and that won't overwhelm the rest of your content.
- I tend to be a very visual person and want my blog to look "just right". Trouble is, I don't want to be tinkering with it when someone might be trying to read what I've taken the time to write. I have a "dummy blog" set up just for tinkering and tweaking. I have it set to be invisible, and that way I can try new things without having a catastrophe on my "real" blog(s) or disturbing my readers. Which reminds me...I'm still trying to solve that stubborn header problem of mine...!
- Proofread...use your spellchecker!
Thanks, Amy, for posing such interesting questions! I know I've gotten some great tips by reading other bloggers' answers.
