The chinks and kinks of being a new blogger

Blogging Advice for Newbies: From My Blog Audience

~ memeethemuse ~ Leave a comment

via Daily (w)rite
Author: Damyanti Biswas

Ray Bradbury via Daily write

Daily (w)rite is a 6-year old blog now, a fair number of turns of the hourglass. Write Every Day was my motto when I started it, but over the years I find I like listening more than talking on this blog.

From time to time, I’ve asked my audience for their opinions and advice on blogging related topics. The community has been generous in providing responses. I’m posting the links below for those new to my blog, or to blogging in general, who write to me asking for blogging tips. Continue reading →

Linking up: It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3!

~ memeethemuse ~ 18 Comments

I love it when I see people linking up to my linky parties!

So you like the idea of my poetry party but think it is probably beyond your scope of ability to actually participate. The truth is, in fact, that it is remarkable easy to add a link, but extremely time consuming to put a linky party together and spread the word around, which is why I feel thankful for every single link brought to my punchbowl each month.  I get an email telling me when a new link has been added and I feel a burst of excitement and an energetic surge of satisfaction knowing that I am helping them to find new, inspiring blogging friends, increased traffic and, I hope, it generates an excitement in them as well.

You see, I find there are a ton of people writing poetry on the Internet but no real spot where they can come together and meet, share and inspire one another. And that is the hole I have been trying to fill ever since.  Please take a look at this wonderful infographic made my Rhondaa over at Oombawka Design. It shows you all there is too linking up: You add the link to your post, you supply your email address, and you choose your thumbnail. It’s that simple!  Continue reading →

Maria Saves The Day Again!

~ memeethemuse ~ Leave a comment

Maria is the customer support person over at Inlinkz, the linkup hosting site that I use for #memeespoetryparties. And today she once again found the answer to my linky party problem. She is always super quick about getting back to me when I submit a ticket. I find that with most tech companies I will receive an automated response that says they will get back to me within 24-48 hours. Not so with Maria at Inlinkz. Within 15 minutes of my request she had already begun investigating the situation and initiated troubleshooting with me.

I like Maria!

The first time I had a party snafu it was brought to my attention by my poetic friend and partygoer Jarrod. I wrote about that problem in The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat. And I wrote about its resolution and my gratitude to both Jarrod and Maria for helping me to overcome my first linkup snafu in #memeespoetryparties — Solved Problem!

This time the problem took more time to resolve, but she got it done. It turns out that it DOES MATTER what type of link you are trying to utilize for the linky party. Apparently there has been an increase in spammy links by way of WordPress shortlinks and so they have therefore been blocked from the Inlinkz site. So, if you wrote a slamming poem for #summertimeblues be sure that you’ve used or will use the permalink (super long link in your URL bar) or your submission will not be visible to others and therefore will garner you no new followers and no votes. I do not want your enthusiasm for participating to lead to disappointment so be sure you are not using the shortlink when you try and upload your poems. Thanks!

I made several new goals for this next blogging year July to July which I’ve listed in Registered, Enrolled and Attending. The first goal I listed was to create a successful linky party for poets of all ages, languages and skill levels to share with and inspire one another. And to do that, it means work harder at getting the word out, and trying to make it more streamlined. Getting the word out, that just means more time on my end and more help from you. But as for the streamlining, that’ll definately take time and patience. I tend to be long winded and as I have a pretty steep learning curve in all things computer.

Everything in life has a learning curve and when it comes to anything computer or math related I am usually way behind that curve. Inlinkz receives tens of thousands of new links every day and their customer service totally rocks. And Inlinkz makes hosting a linkup as easy as I can imagine it being. So regardless of whether you are hosting a linkup or trying to participate in one, the Inlinkz customer service staff is ready to help resolve the issue with fast, friendly and successful results and the Contact Us button is super easy to find. (Bonus points for Inlinkz!)

Maria is modest. I told her I was writing this post and she said, “Thank you so much, but I just try to make it as painless as possible for all parties involved and keep track of any bugs that may surface in the process :)”

Well, Maria, that’s why you are an asset to Inlinkz and that is why I appreciate you and the company you work for!

Bloggers, if you think you’re ready to begin your own blog hop or linky party click the image below to get started!

 

And lastly, and maybe most importantly, I’d like to thank Lori Hamilton of ChronicInk for drawing my attention to this most recent poetry party snafu. Without her being the kind of Commenting Commenter I’d asked for, I would not have known there was a problem to be remedied. So, Lori, thank you so much for speaking up, not giving up, and working with me to get it working. Your patience is so appreciated! This is a new event, but it is one that is close to my heart so thank you for helping me to iron out that unforeseen knot!

Commenting Commenters, this one’s for you!

~ memeethemuse ~ 2 Comments

visitorSo most of us know that being a good blogger also means being a good neighbor in the blogging world, which means saying hi and inviting in those people who stick their heads in our virtual front doors. And of course if we’re going to be more than just good neighbors, but also develop blogging friendships we must also find our way to their doorways.

In the blogging world we do this by leaving sincere comments with one another, having real discussions about the topic at hand, participating in events, and sometimes nominating awards of appreciation to one another. For the most part, I believe this etiquette is just a matter of having good manners and using common sense. And since I began this post (unintentionally) beginning it with blogging etiquette I figured I should go look for some tips. So I went searching on Pinterest and decided that I liked most what Jennifer Hall of Dancing in the Rain had to say on the topic. She not only gives 8 tips she explains her reasoning. Check it out!

Confessions of a Blogger: The Etiquette Edition

Well, a couple of days ago I learned that commenting can be much more than just good manners, it can be quite useful too! Some of you are, I’m quite sure, thinking, “Well, duh!” But having blogged for just under 9 months now I have for the most part experienced only the niceties of blog commenting. I don’t mean to infer that commenting has been insincere, not in the least because it has been. What I am trying to say is that I received a comment (and I am not even sure she was aware of it, though she is extremely intelligent) that I found to be beneficial. No, not beneficial, crucial.

I had been inadvertently leaving out important dates on my postings about the event I put on each month! Hosting #memeespoetryparties takes an extraordinary amount of work and although I was posting the event start and end dates along with voting dates at the link-up, I was not always posting them in my subsequent blog posts. Without posting those dates outright I was not giving every individual an opportunity to participate because they’d have to work hard, searching my site to no avail to get the relevant dates. A BIG mistake on my part.

But don’t worry aspiring poets, I’ve remedied that for this month’s announcement #summertimeblues.

Now, for those of you Commenting Commenters who’ve excellent commenting habits I would like to ask for your assistance. Please, if you ever see a link that doesn’t open or goes to a blatently wrong address; missing information on events; a truncated post or maybe the HTML is visible, could you please let me know. I’d appreciate it! And, of course, don’t forget those sincere comments of appreciation, I still enjoy those very much and try my best to respond to everyone 😉

Thank you so very much, in advance,

Memee

p.s. The photo above was obtained from Scott Sanfilippo’s blog post entitled, “A Holiday Visitors FAQ.” Or, “Read Before Visiting. Please.”

Here’s what I do not understand about WordPress

~ memeethemuse ~ 1 Comment

wordpress question markI use WordPress as a writing and publishing program. I have my own domain address: www.MemeesMusings.com, which I pay WordPress to host for about $70 a year.  If I am paying WordPress seventy bucks to host my site why can I not also utilize WordPress plug-ins to make my site even more cool, functionally as well as visually?

And, taking it a step further, why can I not monetize my off-Wordpress domain using something like Google Adsense for example? I am paying for a domain offsite, offsite, it’s not their site, it is my site. I totally get them not wanting us to make money on their site, but on my own site which I am simply paying them hosting fees for using their servers? That is how the rest of the web works, isn’t it? We pay, GoDaddy or whomever to use their servers but the site is ours and we can make money, sell stuff or whatever we want within the boundary of state, federal and world laws? Couldn’t WordPress make it so if someone is viewing our site via WordPress it is ad-free, but if it is viewed directly from the exclusive domain address couldn’t it have ads if we so choose?

It bugs me. I am writing content and WordPress is making money off my writing… or is it my vanity?  I mean, I could be writing content for other websites and they would pay me for it… but I want my own site.  Why can I not also make money off of my writing? I feel that I am giving all my money away to WordPress and yet feel like I am getting little for it other than a processing tool.

Anyway, just my rant for the day… perhaps I am about to spiral downward (ah, bipolar, I love you!)

P.S. (aka an added afterthought) I am sorry WordPress family and community, I do get a TON from you!  I certainly did not mean to disregard the value all of you have in my growth!

UPDATE: I just found this article helpful and so I am going to share it with you: com vs. org>

Yay! I Finally Did It!

~ memeethemuse ~ 3 Comments

I did it!As some of you know I have struggled, and struggled, and struggled and struggled* to create links inside of my blog posts that once clicked upon did not redirect the tab, misdirecting my readers away from my site.

How frustrating it is to click a link because you want it to open a new tab so you can read it too, only to lose the location of where you have been. Frustrating, I know, I’ve been there dozens of times myself!

I posted in Blogging U about it. I mentioned it in comments on other people’s blogs who had it working the answer I got was always the same and it never, ever (ever ever ever) worked for me.

But I got the answer now and here is what it looks like:
<a href=”http://linkhere&#8221; target=”_blank”><b>topic title here</b></a>

For those freshman bloggers that don’t know, the <b> symbol is the old HTML code to bold the text. WordPress automatically changes it to say <strong> so I go with what I know and it works.  Both ways work, do what is best for you.  Oh, and if you didn’t know that, then I should probably tell you that the slash indicates “end.” So basically, the <b> and the </b> are optional for your blog’s aesthetics.

So, it is my mission to go back over all my old content and update those links for future readers and those of you who found themselves frustratingly getting lost in a tangle of cyber-messiness (myself included) and have it remedied by the end of March (2015).

Oh, and PS: I figured out what “time” my schedule is set for: Greenwich Mean Time (8 hours ahead of me).

*Four “struggled”s for 4 months!

How You Can Use Your Blog Readers to Get More Blog Readers

~ memeethemuse ~ 2 Comments

via Reflections
Author: Janice Wald

use-your-readers-1Like many bloggers, are you concerned with your stats? Do you frequently check your number of blog followers and page views hoping to see them rise?

During your visits to your stats, do you ever click the “shares” tab to see if people are sharing your writing with others?

If the goal is to grow your blog, you need more exposure to other readers. If your current readers share your writing on other forms of social media, their followers will be able to see your link, and you can potentially get more blog followers.

This post will explain how your current readers will be motivated to share your writing with their social media followers. Continue reading →