Blogging Tips – What I Wished I Knew When I Started Blogging ~ Carissa from {Dear} Good N Crazy

Twitter is a WONDERFUL place!

I say this because it’s where I met our next guest blogger, Carissa!

She’s funny and has a lot of great advice….

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Hi TaraDara Fans!

It’s super fun to be sandwiched between Tara’s fabulous UBER crafty pals on this blogging advice column! {Tara, Can we call it “Dear GoodNCrazy”  just for today?? Purty PLEASE?!}

But…

I need to clear this up first. I am a recovering craft junkie. I’ve been craft free for 2 years, 3 months and 17 days. I used to sew up custom designer fabric totes and bags. And I was good. And I burned out, plain and simple. Note to all you budding crafters: PACE YOURSELF!

{And go buy a TaraDara iPad case instead. I ♥ mine!}

Okay now that I’ve aired my crafty laundry…

Let’s move on to the Advice Column.

Carissa’s GoodNCrazy Top Ten List
Things she wishes she knew way back in the beginning.
{Feel free to stop me at any time and ask questions… }

10. Blogging is synonymous with Narcissism.  And that’s O-KAY. (Does this photo make my butt look big?)

9. Images make the blog a happier place to be. (Corollary: even a crappy photo is better than a lot of words.)

8. Humor makes the blogosphere go round. Extra doses please. And try not take offense at anyone. Remember it’s VERY hard to show body language in 140 characters. (I tried once, I was stiff for a week!) And sarcasm, satire or even simple silliness can be taken the wrong way when you can’t see the wink and shoulder shrug.

7. “Twitter is networking on RedBull” *. If you don’t get it. Ask Tara, heck, ask your teenager, but FIGURE it out. I’ve been known to sign my checks as @CarissaRogers lately. Don’t judge.

6. The Blogging Gods created Italics, ALL-CAPS, m—dashes, BOLDness, and H2 tags for a reason. USE them people. Some would say sparingly, but I say if you’ve got it, flaunt it! In fact, the Google machine considers things the human eye is drawn to as more worthy of serving up to searching readers.

I write like I talk. (Only I take out all the ums…) And maybe it’s not for all people but in the blogging world it really works.

5. Other bloggers are people too. They are. Really. REAL people. So when you feel intimidated by a blogger’s impressive stats or followers (or little bit too perky life…) always remember her boobs droop after babies the same as yours do.

In other words: “Be brave, leave a REAL comment!”. If it’s a humor post, leave a silly/fun comment. If you are touched by the post, don’t say.. ‘Nice story’.. Say: “Wow, I’m so glad I read this… it made my whole morning crunchier. Thanks!” And don’t be surprised when you get an email response from the perky blogger herself. Tell her Carissa says hi!

4. Blogging Karma. When you genuinely appreciate a blog post share the love. I’m talking about Stumbling IT! Go create a StumbleUpon.com account, download the toolbar and begin ‘thumbs upping’ posts. (Shameless link insertion alert: I wrote two posts titled: What is StumbleUpon and Why Should I use it?)

3. Post titles are boring. I’m totally being serious here. Make. your. post. titles. boring. Descriptive, Clear, Keyword Rich titles are sexy SEO. Then open with a funny, light, ZING of a tag line. Dress up your tag line with an H2 heading, bold it and change the color! (Note: it’s best to keep up a certain amount of style guidelines here, not willy nilly—I open with the same H2 and the same red color and other headers are the same bright blue matching my theme.)

2. YOU are your brand. I wrote a whole treatise on why you should use your REAL name in social media. Scary? A little. But sometimes it’s hard to know who’s behind the curtain, if you always go around by ‘SkippyBritches’**, I’m never quite sure who I’m talking to, are you a thin man? A woman with peanut-butter jeans? Tell me your name in your profile at least. And for the love of all that is HOLY. DO NOT. (if you take nothing else away from my list) DO NOT use your blog/business or other pseudonym on your personal facebook account. Please!

SIDENOTE: Maybe it’s just a pet peeve of mine, but honestly on facebook go with the naked you. (Not literally.) But be yourself. I likely will not follow you if your facebook username is: Susie SkippyBritches. Even though I’m sure you are nice and all.

1. Remember this stuff is all supposed to be fun dangit! My friend @Chaotic_Barb*** calls all this blogging/business/schtuff:  a JOBBY. I could not agree more. Don’t take it so serious. It’s called self publishing. It’s yours. Take charge and don’t let anyone else steal the joy away!

There you have it. My blogging top 10.

I’ll be here til SIX to answer any questions. After that you’ll have to speak to my in box.

*—I stole this quote from @BarbaraJones, I am forever in her debt.
**—SkippyBritches is my own creation. However: The URL IS available and it is NOT taken on Twitter. Feel free to take up residence and make it your own. I would SO want to know more about someone who used that username.

***—Two Barbs in the same post, it’s a record for me.

***—That is a VooDoo Donut in the photo above. Yes. With Fruit Loops. You’re Welcome.

About the author: Carissa Rogers is a crazy mom of 3 and blogs at GoodNCrazy.com. When she’s not playing photographer, leading the PTO, or chasing kids to and fro she’s connecting, consulting, freelancing and lots of other -ings …a mom of all trades.

She’s been blogging since 2008. If you leave a comment on her blog she WILL respond. She’s a real person, I swear.

© 2011, Tara. All rights reserved.