BlogMunch

Texty.com - a new way to blog?

I test out texty.com to see if it offers any advantages to my current editor and Wordpress editor. Mike Elgan introduce it on his site with the post “Easy like blogging”

So far, I don’t see any advantages on using this service over any other blog platform. Maybe if you have a website, but did not install any blog software, maybe this will be useful to you. It is easy to edit static pages.

It uses javascript to publish your content, which will not be index by search engines.

It is now at beta ver .01, so the final product could be far away. Let’s hope the site doesn’t fold before it comes out of beta. Good luck!

The other website, also mentioned on the above post, WriteToMyBlog seems better. Might review it later.

[edit: Initially, I pasted the javascript on this post, but it is extremely ugly with the comment form tagged to the content. I decided to remove it.]

Improve my blog navigations

The first time I find that my blog is a bit clunky in terms of blog navigations is when August 1st rolls in. That’s when I find the calendar from my sidebar only shows this month’s post. So if there is only one post on the calendar, it will only show one post on the sidebar.

To find my previous posts, I would have to click on the July at the top of the calendar. That requires an additional click and furthermore not intuitive. Although you can use the search functions to search for the post you want to read, I want to make it easier for my readers to find what they want. That’s when I decide to tweak my blog navigations.

I decide upon a three pronged attack:

1. Clean up my labels - include limited broad categories
2. Add Popular Posts to sidebar
3. Add Related post to bottom of each post

Clean up my labels
I find that the labels on my sidebars are too haphazard. They are single word labels that don’t mean anything without the context. I will decide on some broad categories like Blogging or Writing Contents that will describe a range of posts. This will also help in my third point about related post. Currently, I have not done so and plan to do this on the weekends. Alternatively, if I can find a script for tag cloud, I might use them.

Add Popular Posts to sidebar
I will add some of my popular posts as determined by statcounter. Currently, I am doing everything by hand (ie. copy/paste). I plan to update this once a week. as this is quite tedious, I need to search for a script or a widget to do this for me. Any suggestions?

Related post at the end of post
I have started to add in related post so that after reading current post, you will be able to see post that is related to this topic. Again, I am doing this by hand. My disorganized labels doesn’t help too. Makes it difficult even to look for my own post.

I know that the self hosted Wordpress.org have plugins that can help tremendously in this area. You can read Lorelle’s blog post about related wordpress plugins here.
I wonder if I am reaching the bottleneck for the free hosted Blogger and move on to hosted server and Wordpress.org.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Have you blog with Windows Live Writer?

If you have been reading my blog regularly, you would know that I have been searching for a desktop blog client after a accidental deleted post at Blogger. Well, I settled on Windows Live Writer (WLW).

You can say that this is the Microsoft Word of blog publishing. Once you set up your account (Blogger, Wordpress, etc.) , you will be able to write a blog post in web layout view (WYSIWYG).

I had complain about Blogger’s autosave feature being to helpful, while in WLW, you will be able to set the minutes before it autosave. That gives me a bit of allowance in case I made a mistake.

What I love best about WLW is how easy it can retrieve draft post from my Blogger and also the ability to save draft to Blogger. That is so useful to me as I don’t need to copy/paste from my draft to WLW to start writing. By posting draft to your blog, you will always have a copy online so that you can start blogging anywhere. That’s sweet.

Some of the other features that I like include:

1. Image manipulation - you can add in effects like color pop, B&W, sepia and even your own watermark.
2. Create and edit tables easily
3. Add categories - in Blogger terms = labels
4. Add tags from Technoratic or del.icio.us
5. Use fonts from your own computer - you are not limited to Arial or Times Roman
6. Ping server (eg. Ping-O-matic) when you post
7. Easy hyperlinking using the link glossary
8. 50+ plugins from Live.com

WLW has really simplify my blogging process so much that when I use the Blogger editor, it feels so clunky. As it is still in beta, I wonder how good will it be come full version. Let’s hope it is still free then.

Technorati Tags: windows live writer, blogging

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

3 mistakes I WANT to make as a beginner blogger

There are dozens of postings about blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog. I have made quite a number of them especially on content writing. But I believe some mistakes needs to be made. The experience you earn will let you understand each topic better and imprint them permanently in your mind.

Not moving to a self hosted server
Or this could be translated as using a free host account like Blogger. I am quite surprised that one of the top mistakes various bloggers say they made when they start blogging is not moving to a self hosted server. I start this blog on Blogger. It takes so little time to set up and create your first post. I understand that if you are serious about blogging, eventually you should move to your own domain and paid hosting. But between thinking up ideas, creating contents, social networking, template meddling, there are just too much for a beginner to handle. I would suggest staying in free hosting for at least 3 months to learn the ropes, then decided if you want to go for paid hosting.

Spending too much time with blog templates
I spend a lot of time at the start meddling with my template. Its really fulfilling if you have only have basic HTML knowledge and want to learn more. You learn how to insert pictures and align to wrap around your text. You learn how to add social networking buttons like Digg, stumbleupon to your page template. All these I learn while meddling with my template.

Monetizing the blog from the start
I believe in if you want to do something, do it right from the start. Yes, you will “frighten” away some of your potential readers who are adverse to ads on a blog. But you are going to turn away more of your subscribers if you add in ads in the future. When you do it right from the beginning, any subscribers will know what they are in for and avoid further misunderstanding in the future. Earning some petty cash right from the start doesn’t hurt either.

To read more about mistakes by bloggers, here is a list compiled by DailyBlogTips.com.

If you like my post, you can subscribe to my feed here.

Do you blog every day?

There has been a small furry of posts in the blogosphere relating to blogging frequency. For me, I try to set in a pattern of posting at least once a day, but this has been increasingly difficult as I have a full time job and kids to play with during the weekend. As you can see from my calendar, I have miss two days since I start blogging.

At first, I was quite disappointed with myself for not hitting the target of posting once a day. But blogging really takes time and time has become scarce around my life. I will still try my darnest to write something everyday and hope you will enjoy reading.

Here are some links from both camps (for and against):

www.Mpdailyfix.com

www.Bloggingtips.com

Lifehacker.com

www.Successful-blog.com

www.Chrisg.com/

www.Dailyblogtips.com

www.Problogger.net

Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.
Emile Coue, French psychotherapist (1857 - 1926)