Helpful How-To: Making a Blog User Friendly

Let's face it.

I am a novice when it comes to blogging.

And web design?!  Fa-getaboutit....

As evidenced by my clearly high-tech blogger template with as few buttons and widgets as possible.

But there are a few things that I am relatively opinionated about when it comes to blogging. 

And I am here to disperse them to you.

It came up in a Facebook convo several months ago.

And I have been stewing on it since.

I started thinking...there are things that annoy me about blogs...

Things that I wasn't aware of until I started blogging, reading, commenting, etc. 

And then I learned.

Quickly.

For those of you who aren't bloggers or don't care...I apologize in advance for this post.

It's gonna bore you.

What can I say...it's been an off kind of week.

And I realize that this information may be different based upon what browser you are using...so take that into consideration as well.

In my opinion, blogging is primarily for 2 things - entertainment and business.

If you have a creative business, it is in your best interest to blog about it.

Photography?  Blog.

Decorate?  Blog.

Craft?  Blog.

Home business?  Please don't blog.  That's what Facebook and Twitter are for.

Talk about randomness?  Blogging is appropriate.

Draw funny pictures and have quirky things for them to say?  Obviously, blog.

Coupon like a superhuman?  BLOG PLEASE.

Take adorable pictures of your children and post them for your grammy in Tulsa?  Blog it up!

Cook like Pioneer Woman in the Top Chef kitchen?  Do I really need to say it?  BLOG!

From a business standpoint, blogging is primarily for exposure.  And it's awesome exposure.

But even if your blog is for recreation, there are some things you should really be thinking about.

Like comments. 

Do you want people to comment on your blog?

I do! 

But have you ever tried to comment on your blog?

Because there are alot, aaaaaaaaaaaa lot of blogs out there who have the most ridiculous commenting settings known to man.

i.e., One of my favorite blogs makes me "log in" every time I want to comment, and then in turn, I end up logging myself out of Gmail.

Pain.in.the.butt.

So...

I blog about it.

And encourage you to make commenting on your blog awesomesauce.

Or actually, to let someone else tell you how to make your blog awesomesauce.

Because if someone else has created genius, why would I recreate it?!

Which, clearly is the case. 

Because Sarah, at Thrifty Decor Chick did an excellent job of explaining it here.  

And for all those entreprenurial minds (i.e., Techy)...

Rather than reinventing the wheel, if you are interested in running ads on your blog or making any money from your blog, Sarah has also given a great plan for how to do that as well.  

Hopefully, you learn as much from these as I did.

For those of you who don't have blogs...I apologize for the boring material.

Come back tomorrow for more of my randomness, k?

I promise it will have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Wow...that's alot to live up to.  Hope I can make that happen....