Wednesday, August 22, 2012

10 Things I Did or Wish I Did when I Started Blogging

So I will have been at this blogging game for 18 months come September 1 and accordingly, I think I am at least now qualified to look back and tell you what I should have done with this little baby..  I don't know about you, but I love blog posts about blogging.  I literally lap them up, as there is always something new to learn.

Today I am going to make a list of 10 things I would do if I was starting my blogging journey tomorrow, knowing what I know now.  Luckily I did a few of them from day one, probably more by accident and it has made my journey much easier and enjoyable.  As for some of the others.....well nothing is perfect!!!!!

Oh and today's post is brought to you by some beachy vignettes around my home.




1.Think hard about what you are going to call your blog.  Once you are some months down the track and you have a following and people are getting to know you, it's very difficult to change your name. 

Here's a comment I got recently, from a big American blogger, when I asked my audience about what they would like to be called as a gang, so it can happen to any of us.

"I'm so bad with names, so no advice there DIY Show Off? Really? If I had known what I know now...I'd have something cute. lol!"


 Think about what your niche is and try to think of a name that encompasses all that you are. Although I am a coastal blogger, I wanted  to include posts about all things related to house and home.  So that's the Empire bit.  The Desire bit was more about wanting it all to be pretty and beautiful and sharing some of my hopes and dreams on here.
18 months on, I'm still pretty happy with it, but do wonder whether it would have been good to have something about the coast in there.



2. In relation to the name of your blog, I would even go as far as registering it as a business name, with your government authority.  I registered Desire Empire as a business name with ASIC, which cost me about $110 for three years, before I registered it as a domain name.  I didn't want to be contacted by someone who registered it down the track, on the back of my success and then told, I could no longer use it.

I would definitely register a domain name too.  It looks more professional if you are a dot com rather than a blogspot.com and if you decide to go back and register it later, your name of choice may not be available.  Sites like Go Daddy provide an inexpensive option for domain hosting, which are easy to set up. Although beware of trolls that are lurking to snatch your domain name if you fail to re-register it on the day it expires.  Go Daddy will charge you a fee to reveal who has reregistered your name and then you will need to pay that person or group $$$ to get your name back.  Yes there really are horrible people like this in the world, who are lurking just waiting to make money off your success.



3. Back up your blog weekly.  You will see many examples of people who have logged onto their blog one morning, only to find the whole lot gone and without any possibility of it being retrieved.  All that hard work, your whole archive gone..  It would be devastating.  Here's how to back it up, if you use Blogger:

In your blog dashboard go to

Settings> other> blog tools>Exports Blog>download blog

It should save to your down load file with a date and if you ever lose your blog content, it should all be there to reload.



4. Decide on a blogging platform and think long and hard before you sign up and start publishing.  Many bloggers prefer Wordpress once they get there, but most people seem to start with blogger, Which kind of  locks them in, as making the switch from Blogger to Worpress down the track must be a bit tricky.  I really like blogger, although there is no support from them if anything goes wrong.  It seems to work much better under the Google Chrome browser than the Explorer browser, because Google owns both Chrome and Blogger.  Oh and although Blogger is free, you will get hit up for money once your photo limit is reached, although it is a nominal fee to increase it.



5.  Have the graphics and layout of your blog professionally designed.  This is going to be the view you present of yourself to the world.  It is your brand and it needs to be easily recognisable, very attractive, well laid out and professional.  Of course if you are blogging with a view to not working with brands and you are just diarising your life electronically, which is actually why I started blogging, you may not need to worry about this.  But being me, I did.   Even though my motives were not commercial, I am now very glad  I put lots of effort into the design  from the start.  Now I am working with sponsors, it's something I don't have to go back and re jig now.

I used Shari from Little Blue Deer.  She has been an absolute delight to work with and even now, helps me when there is a problem.

Before you approach a blog designer, you need to have a good idea interms of style, colours, fonts and shots you want to use in the design of your blog. Although Shari has a wait list, once she begins a project she is very quick, so you need to have done your research.  My blog design cost $US200 and I believe that it is still lovely 18 months into blogging.  I may do a little tweek soon, but I have not felt the need to do a major overhaul.



6.  Start up other social media platforms such as Face Book, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest in the name of your blog, not your own name, and use only one or two profile pictures maximum, to keep your branding streamlined.  And don't do as I did and start up your blog page in Face Book as a person.  Make sure you start up your blog page as a business.  I wasted 6 months making friends in Face Book with Desire Empire as a person and then decided to close it down to start as I should have originally, with a business page.  I then lost lots of those followers for a while and it was a hassle explaining to them what had happened, when I asked them to rejoin me on my business page.

Choose the social media platform that you enjoy the most.  It's impossible to be across all of them constantly even though I think you should touch base with the biggies once in a while at least. It's possible to link your Facebook posts so they automatically share to your Twitter, which I think is a good idea. You can also post your Instagram shots to Twitter and Face Book, so it looks like you are across everything, even if you aren't. It's worth linking them in order to save time and to capture a greater audience, which helps to build traffic.

If you do try to be on them all constantly, you will have no life and therefore won't have anything to blog about.  I love Twitter and find if I tweet my current posts plus a few archive posts, then my stats increase by 20 percent on that day.  I wrote a post on Twitter for virgins here if you are not sure on how to play.



7.  Gather up the social media icons in a group and put them at the top of your blog with a link to all your accounts.  If someone lands on your site and decides they want to follow you or come back at a later date to read your post, make it easy for them to follow.  I have only just bothered to do this (although they are still a work in progress and the links are still not all in place) but it is interesting that the rate at which my followers now increase for Face Book is better, because I finally decided to make it easy for people to follow me that way.  Also make sure there is an email address up there, or use the envelope icon with a link to your address, so that you are easily contactable.

Also use the share buttons for social media,  at the bottom of each post, so that if a reader wants to share your post over to their Face Book or Twitter or to pin it or whatever, it's easy for them.  You can also easily share your posts over to these sites as well.  Here's a website that may help you with this. And this is a post I found about the share icons, to cover all blogging platforms.  Mine still needs work, as you will see I don't have a 'pin it' button down at the bottom of this post, which I should have.



8.  Expect people to act in the blogispere the way they do in life.  Most of the people you will encounter  are completely lovely, but there are nasty people lurking around as well.  I have only ever been bullied by one person, who has been relentless from the start of my blogging journey and  also to many others', it seems.  Thankfully I am very strong and confident in my own skin, so I have never felt the need to respond.  As long as you write in your own voice, about your own experiences, you can feel confident that you are on the right track.  Don't let the nasties bring you down.

With regard to leaving comments, I have never seen the point in leaving nasty ones.  If people are generous enough to share some of themselves with you, why be mean?  I think rude and nasty comments only reflect badly on the writer, although they are often written anonymously, which says much more about the commenter than the blogger.  If you don't like something just move on, there is no need to comment at all.  The best advice here I think, is as my mother always says,   "Remain a lady at all times."



9.  Whilst we are talking about your own voice, lets talk about photography.  I am very definite about only posting my own shots. Although, I do post shots of  houses for rent or sale in my region  and have informally spoken to real estate agents about my concerns.  They are fine with it, because it's promoting their clients' home.  However, the rule of law in Australia is that you do not own the rights publish a photo online unless you  have purchased them, been given express permission to publish or you took the shot yourself.  That is basically the law of copyright, as it applies in Australia. I like people using my shots and allow them to do so free of charge, as long as they are credited with a link back to this blog, but not all professional photographers feel that way.  Remember they have families to feed as well.



10.  If you like to get comments, turn off word verification.  We all love to get comments and word verification is such a turn off.  The code is hard to read and I often find myself having to do it twice or three times, as it's so easy to muck it up.

Here's how to turn it off for Blogger:
Settings>Posts and Comments>Show Word Verification>No



And of course with my lists, there is always a bonus tip

11.  The most important tip, although this is one I knew back when I started, as it's how I try to live and that is to have FUN.. I have made some lovely friends online and some of us get together regularly.  Attend all the blogging conferences you can, with a stack of your business cards.  Network like crazy and enjoy yourself. Blogging has opened up so many wonderful opportunities for me and the day it stops being fun, is the day you will not see me here any more.

So what are your tips?  Leave a comment below, feel free to let me know if I am wrong on anything here, as I would love to learn more.

If you would like Desire Empire posts to come straight to your inbox every ten days or so, you can sign up here for my Newsletter.

You can pin any of these shots by hovering over the shot and clicking on the  'P'.

You can also find me on

81 comments :

  1. thanks Carolyn! all very useful info. Kate x

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  2. This is a really great post Carolyn.
    I found it very helpful as I am still a complete novice.
    Thanks so much!!! ;o)
    Tania xx

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  3. I keep debating about a domain name and I also need to get my social media act together!

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  4. great tips! i agree about turning off word verification. i find it annoying and difficult to read the code!
    x

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  5. Great post! I'm happy with what I've done and especially glad I've always used my own photographs. If I were to change anything, I would not use the "&" in my blog name. I would be Jeannie Marie and Company instead of Jeannie Marie & Company. The "&" seems to confuse many computers and I always see the extra letters accompany it thereby making my blog name look odd.

    This is a great post to bookmark!

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  6. A great list, thanks for sharing it Carolyn!

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  7. Thanks for these tips Carolyn. I'm mostly happy with my blog but I think some tweaking may be in order :)
    Have a great day
    Cas x

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  8. I backed up my blog for the first time ever thanks to your instructions.
    Thanks again. Much appreciated,
    Tania xx

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  9. Hi There!! I've been reading your blog for ages and always enjoy the tips you give. Specially today about backing up my blog! I always imagine your accent when reading your words....heheh...!!

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  10. This is a really great post - and my blog is now backed up (phew!)
    You have such a gorgeous home, I think your blog style and name really do reflect your home so mission accomplished x

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  11. These are all excellent points!!! I started out on Blogger but didn't stay there very long so it didn't really affect the number of followers I had. I changed over to WordPress in September of 2010. I had a much clearer idea of what I wanted as a "brand" as well as other details. I thought long and hard about how to maximize readership and make it easy to boogie around my blog. It seems to have worked, although there are things I still think I will change at some point. I am not a big social media person, and I know I will have to change that someday soon. I don't have one of those fancy cell phones for Twitter, so that may not happen for a long time! As for those "trolls" out there, I read something about them on one of Susan's (BNOTP) recent posts. I am so grateful that I haven't had that on my blog. I have the controls set, though, so that I have to approve new commenters before their comment will publish. If I was ever to get anything like that, I would shut their silly behind down immediately!!! :-) This was a really useful post that ought to set a lot of people's minds churning. I know it has me reconsidering a couple of things already! Have a great week!

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    1. Hi Alycia
      You can play on Twitter from a PC, ipad or a phone. It is so worth it for blog traffic. I've only recently discovered its value to my blog

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  12. Interesting points Carolyn! Am totally going to back up my blog now! x

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  13. Hey girls thanks for all the interesting feedback. It seems you too like posts about blogging. And jmac thanks for reading me in an accent. I do that too, especially for Southern Americans.......funny, but I do wonder what the accent is for me????. Australian I guess.

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  14. I think in September I would have been blogging for 18 months as well. You have written some excellent advice here. I'm going to back up my blog right away. And I agree with you re the captcha thingy - how annoying is it! I also can't read them and am often wasting precious time just re-doing and re-doing the captcha. Great post!

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  15. Excellent post - thank you so much for your time and sharing this information. It was really worth it! Great for us newbies (too old to be called a virgin ;-)). Echo the comments that your home is just lovely.

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  16. Great post - I've never backed up my blog. Agree on the photos and the word verification.

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  17. I have made so many mistakes with my blog and still do. The
    biggest was the name of my blog-should have given it more thought.

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  18. Hi Carolyn, great post especially for such a newbie as myself! I just backed up my blog, thank you for explaining it so well :) I'm not on Twitter and have no clue where/how to start, I may have to check out your post for that! I do love Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest... but not sure my hubby will be amused if I add another social media thingy to my life... hard to keep up with it all :O! Jo x

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  19. Hi Carolyn, thanks for the great tips - I think I am way behind the mark on most of them but I now have something to work towards! Next time you post on blogging tips - I'd love to hear your thoughts on advertising & sponsors. Now I'm off to go & back up my blog - never thought to do that until now!
    x
    Melissah

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  20. awesome tips...I will definitely save this post to refer back to again!
    I thought I was the only one who got put off by the word verification....seems not
    thanks again
    Bec x

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  21. Brilliant post hun - well done. Ans I love seeing that little box on your tea chest :)Your post is up tomorrow - thank you so much for doing it. Sorry I have been slack in commenting this past week. i have been working like a mad woman to get everything tied up at work so I can take a few days off for Flynns op tomorrow. xxx

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  22. Check this paris food blog out. He also writes for the Pommy "Telegraph" - http://hungryforparis.squarespace.com/

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  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  24. Uh oh - not the Tory "Telegraph" - the leftie "Guardian". http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/may/06/top-10-paris-restaurants-dining The first restaurant on that list - "le Meurice" on Rue Rivoli - is where the Nazi military Governor of the Paris occupation, Von Choltitz, stayed.

    Degustation Menu - €260. Lunch Menu - €120. Plus wine, of course. You could easily spend $1000 a couple. But what memories you'd have eh?

    Have a look - http://www.lemeurice.com/le-meurice-restaurant

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    1. Hi Malcom
      Have book marked both sites. You are tempting me to get on a plane to Paris today. I wish. Just saw it was 22C in Paris at 11pm. Are you having a hot one???? Or was that just the maximum for the day?

      Caro

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    2. Just looked at the Guardian site for the top 10 in Paris. OMG a girl can dream right????

      Caro

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    3. 38.7°C yesterday where we are in St Sauveur de Cruzieres, Provence. There was a big celebrated "Brocante" fair at Barjac last week (Google it) - a beautiful medieval village near the Ardeche Gorges 10 minutes from us. Has been going since 1931. You would love it. You would also love another "Brocante" near here that I go to regularly. They have antique armoires from €150 to €550 - a bargain. Bit hard to get back to Paris though. I'll take some photos if you like.

      Last night we had "Magret de Canard" (duck breasts) barbequed. Tonight it's Filet Mignon. With the local Rosé - €3.85 a bottle - I bought 2 Dozen straight from the winery.
      I'd tell you more but that would be cruel non?

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    4. Well yes a little cruel but I do love to hear it just the same. Why not send me photos of a day in your life in Provence with some text and you can do a guest post for me. But it would have to be clean Malcolm as most of my readers apart form you are ladies. My readers would love it.

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  25. Fantastic advice, thank you for sharing, will definately be implementing lots of your suggestions! And thanks to Techie Mum for sharing your post :)

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  26. Great post! Thanks for sharing your tips and ideas - just did a long overdue blog back-up so thanks for the reminder :)

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  27. Yeah, my biggest regret is that I let my domain registration drop - I used to own affordyourpassions.com, but neglected to re-register it, and now if I want to own it, it will cost me $850 to buy the domain.

    So, my URL is nothing related to my blog name (www.livingbytheshore.com, versus "Afford Your Passions" - I don't want to change the name of my blog to "Living by the Shore", because that's not what I'm about - that's more of my pipe dream!)

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    1. Oh Susan I wondered why the names were different. What a pain in the A
      Carolyn

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    2. On another note - I could probably take an educated guess and not be too far off the mark if I were to think about who your "bully" is :)

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    3. Lets not go there. So not worth the time waste.
      Carolyn

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    4. Agreed! Feel free to remove my comment if you think it's appropriate :)

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  28. Love your blog and love your posts.My blog is mainly a family based journel but I will use some of your tips.I also am thinking of using Blog to print to get a hard copy of my blog.I thought it would be nice to have a hard copy-dee

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  29. Oh dear, I have so much to do! Now I'm worried about my name which my husband tried to talk me out of. Always been a bit worried for the reasons you said. Great advice. Where do we find the time to do all this and stay on top and in touch. It's a full time job this blogging thing,particularly to do it well and grow it the way we want. Thanks for the tips.

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    1. Actually Mel I love your name and your style..... well that is priceless.

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  30. Such great words of wisdom! There is always something new to learn out there and you have just brought a few things to my attention. Thanks so much!!
    Angie
    www.swede-dreams.com

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  31. Great tips there - thanks you so much!! I'm a newbie so all info a bonus to me - especially the word veridcation. Just one question - i've really been struggling with FB - I registered my blogname thinking it was a community/blog but it's been published as person. I've got a secondary community page but I can't call it the blog name as it says it taken (by me -weird!!). If i delete myself will i be able to register as a business? Sorry for asking such a long question but i've asked a few people with no joy. I'd really appreciate any leads. Many thanks for any help and no probs if you don't have time.

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    1. I had the same problem and in order to start the blog page as a business I had to use a different email address. FB didn't seem to care that the name Desire Empire was used twice, which makes sense as there are lots of John Smiths or businesses with the same names across different countries I guess.

      I did this when the Desire Empire as a person was still running. When you shut down the person one it takes 14 days I think to delete. So you would probs have to wait 14 days and then start again.

      If it still doesn't let you you may need to start up another email account using gmail or hot mail.

      It's a complete pain I know!!!!!

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  32. Great tips. I'm a big believer in using your own photos too. Sometimes it's hard. But I figure if I can't find a photo...I won't post one at all.

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  33. great tips, thank you. I only ever use my own photos, it part of the reason why I started my blog. Love your photos from todays post.

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  34. Thanks for the tips- I wish I read this a month ago before I inadvertently purchased a domain name that was close to the name of a porn star!

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  35. Awesome tips!
    There is a lot I wish I had done differently, but honestly, I'm pretty appy so far. :)

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  36. Love your tips! I love using posts as inspiration to be a better photographer, and to get more creative, I rarely if ever use others pics.

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  37. Great tips. I have to look into the buying domain thing and I don't have the money to have a professional do my blog. I'm just slowly changing things myself putting my own touch to it. Gives me a sense of accomplishment. But I also am the kind of person who will get sick of things quickly so need to change it and I have to stop that.

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  38. Hi. Thanks for this. I tried the back-up thing, but when I opened it to see if it worked, it looked really crazy! Any suggestions for how I should save it on my computer. I think the default was Internet Explorer. Help?!?! :)

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    1. Yes it will look crazy because it saves in HTML code. So if you ever need the back up, paste it into the HTML part of your draft section. Hopefully it won't come to tat.
      Caroltn

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  39. Wonderful tips-and all very, very true frommy experience as well! Thank you for sharing-I'm new to your blog, visiting from TT&J!

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  40. Thank you so much, I so needed this. I just started my blog 3 weeks ago so I am very new to this.

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  41. Great tips Carolyn! I like to use my own photos as well although it takes up enough time to really irritate me

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  42. Thank you for this! I'm brand new to blogging and need all the help I can get! Visiting from TT&J
    Stacia@http://feathersandsunshine.blogspot.com

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  43. Great wrap up! I also love posts on blogging- I agree- there's always something to learn. I've been blogging the same amount of time as you and I only put the shareaholic share linkies on my site 2 weeks ago! :o

    One thing I really feel strongly about is making sure it's easy for readers to comment. Sometimes there's no easy way to do so and you need to join a site or open yet another account just to leave a message. If in doubt, I love the Name/URL/email option immensely- wish everyone had it :)

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  44. Very interesting! I don't mind if a blog isn't professionally designed, homemade are fine with me! I usually don't even notice, I go right to the post.

    I would add how important it is to visit those who leave comments. That's how we get to know one another, which is the point, I think, or at least to me. Put a name and personality with the blog.
    So agree about the word id, ugh! And music too!

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  45. Thanks! I didn't know you could back up your blog! Great advice!
    Nat :)
    doodlecraft.blogspot

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  46. These are great tips! I hate word verification, I wish it was always turned off on every blog! Visiting from T&J!

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  47. What a great tip! Wish this had been around when I first started blogging. I think I do pretty good with most of these! I know this will help so many bloggers. You've shown us some lovely snaps too.
    Be a sweetie,
    Shelia ;)

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  48. Great tips! And thanks for the twitter for virgins link as well - I will be reading that next! New GFC follower via The Sunday Showcase. I would love if you stopped by my blog sometime! Have a great week! :)

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  49. Thanks for sharing this!! I'm really working to find my niche. It's hard! :) I feel like I'm 'ok' at a lot, but not 'great' at any of it....and I love so many areas. It's tough to fill the blog with 1 theme because I don't have enough resources...

    http://munchtalk.blogspot.com

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  50. Thanks for the tips. I've been blogging about 6 months and I am having fun, but sometimes get frightened by all the bad stuff I read - people stealing your content, leaving mean comments, etc. Really? I just don't get that! I will for sure start backing up I didn't know about that.

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  51. Awesome advice! Thanks for sharing!

    I would love it if you linked this up at my link party! You can find it here:

    http://thewellcraftedhome.blogspot.com/2012/08/well-crafted-wednesdays-18-link-party.html

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  52. Have just backed up my blog, all thanks to your reminder!

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  53. Thank you so much for sharing! Great information!

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  54. Bullies make me want to barf. Loved this post. Had no idea about backing up my posts. Thanks x

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  55. Great tips - I love posts about blogging too and I even went one further than ASIC and trademarked my blog! Possibly a complete waste of between $300 and $400 dollars but you never know what lies ahead!

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  56. thanks for the tips! I didn't know I could or needed to back up my blog. going to do that NOW!

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  57. Good tips - especially about grabbing the social media platforms in the name of your blog. I think get them all and worry later whether you'll use them all.

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  58. !! Starting to see how easily things could have gone wrong. I'm a bit of a blogging newbie so thanks for the suggestions!!

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  59. Great tips. I really need to remember to back up my blog more often!

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  60. Awesome tips! ESPECIALLY TURNNING OFF WORD VERIFICATION IN COMMENTS. IT MAKES ME ALL SHOUTY! Sorry about that.

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  61. Argghhh... you've reminded me that I need to back up my blogs myself as well as have the hosting company do it. Curses! But great tips. Like you I love to use my own photos, very rarely do I use someone else's, that's really important to me, glad I am not alone!

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  62. Thanks for the info on backing up a blogger blog. I've been blogging for two years (I just realised I missed my blog's anniversary!!) and I've NEVER backed up. Until now, I didn't know how to do it. Off to back up now. Cheers!

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  63. I still refer to this post from time to time as I grow into my blog more (although I had fun finding it as I couldnt locate the search box on your site?!). Iv just registered my blog Jarrah Jungle as a domain name and so glad I did. And backed up! Such a helpful post, thanks so much :)

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    1. Hi Michelle
      Thanks for reminding me I needed to add a search box to this blog. I have done it now in case you need to search Desire Empire again. I really appreciate your feedback.
      Carolyn

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  64. These are great tips and I've saved this link for future reference! Thanks :)

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  65. These are great tips, thanks Carolyn.
    I agree whole heartedly about word verification - it's so frustrating when you're trying to spread the comment love but get blocked at the pass!

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  66. I read many how to blog, etc. This one was one of the most helpful! It was real and not too technical. I did back up my blog bec. your instructions were clear and simple. Thanks. Happy Mother's Day for this US mom.

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