Craft Wednesday #6 An Intro to Blogging

This blog needed a place for talking about writing. "Craft Wednesday" will be me talking about all things writing: how to write, why to write, and my own craft journey. I hope to learn and share experiences with you.

Things I Learned About Blogging
(in two months)

I was fairly new at using blogging platforms when I started this creative blog at the beginning of the year.  I had dabbled in a few for my coursework, but I had not consistently kept updating a webpage - besides Facebook. In that time I learned a few things about this particular blogging platform, but also about blogging in general. I hope this entry becomes a great help to beginning bloggers.

Entries Sometimes Get Weird Looking

"Taking Tolls at One" appeared with a weird HTML format that was visible on the live page. I tried fixing it by cutting and repasting the text. Then I tried cutting it an retyping it altogether. Both times that I viewed the page again the original problem returned.

I decided to just forget about it and revert the page to a draft form.

 A few days later I tested the page by publishing it. Lo and behold the problem of the HTML text was gone. I am still not sure if it was because I was viewing it on a different computer, or if the issue was with the platform itself on that particular day. It could also help to try to learn HTML speak, which at this point looks like a foreign language spoken by English-challenged extraterrestrials.

Formatting Can Look Different Than Intended

Poems can get all the wrong stanza breaks and stories can lose all indentation when cutting and pasting from a word processor. Sometimes the spacing between lines becomes uneven, too. To fix these problems I have learned to either type my work directly into the blog, or copy and paste the work and then use the Remove Formatting button. Then I can format the text as I want.

Check Blog After Changing Its Look

When changing the cosmetic appearance of the blog, check and double check for readability.

 Just recently I changed the colors of this blog from pink, white, and blue to colors that I hope are less for little girls. However, much of my text was barely visible against the new color, so I had to reformat that, too, with the tools the platform provides.

I also checked for random highlighted sections. When I craft a post I sometimes highlight what needs correction or changing. In other words, I will comeback to it later. The number of white highlighted text surprised me. I had not seen it when my blog's background was white, but now that it is a cross between a mustard color and the color of a monarch butterfly the white was glaringly obvious.

 I have now changed the highlight color to that same mustard/monarch yellow, since I have not yet found a way to remove highlights, and in the future resolved to change the color of the text instead.

Random People Will Look at a Blog

People as far as France, Venezuela, and Pakistan have found my blog. I think it might be because my blog was considered new and searchable in what I like to call "What's New" pages, the same way that some websites list the most recent posts first. Now that my blog is not so new, I only get U.S. hits. And the occasional United Kingdom skimmer.

Anyway, the fact of a worldwide audience means writing in clear terms for the world, probably with less slang and regional idioms. Anything that Google can translate successfully, essentially.

Promoting a Blog, Step One

In my first two weeks or so I had a good number of daily hits for my daily inputs, but I had not started promoting my blog. They were people I did not know, which means that my audience was unknown to me.

Consequently, I started trying to create an audience by advertising. I posted links on Facebook and LinkedIn for all of my connections to see, with the words "I have a new blog [insert link here]. Check it out!" Or something similar. In the forty-eight hours after I post an announcement like this, I see an increase in the number of hits to my blog.

The Next Step

Now it is trying to obtain a steady audience that is the trouble. If anyone has tips, let me know, I would love to hear them.