If you asked this question around 2005, not many people knew what blog was and what that word meant. Now many people are writing on blog today and blogging has became a huge phenomenon. There are many free ways to start a blog such as from blogger and wordpress sites. There are hosted sites you can get from website hosting companies.
While my blog is surely not about how to start blogging or making money, I do often get asked by new readers who may want to start a blog, either to express themselves, show off their recipes, poems and what not. I am certainly not blog expert, but I know a few things since blogging since mid 2009, it has been over 3.5 years so I have picked up things that I want to share.
One caution is, blogging is never get rich quick thing for most of us, I am blogging for a few years and making money takes time and true passion. If one want to make money, then keyword and seo is important. I recommend expert such as Pat Flynn at smart Passive Income blog and Darren at Problogger to find out more on how to blog for making money as they are far better and expert in the blogging to make money field.
I started out on free blogger site first. However, I personally prefer to have my own site hosted on web hosting account, as it give me more control over design and content of my blog sites. I use BlueHost for hosting and I am quite happy with them. However there are many web hosting choices to choose from.
If you are starting out check out how to get blog set up and website tools needed to get you started off on right Path.
Various Types of Blogs and Sites
As long there is a internet alive, blogging will be too and it has future. It may change with time as internet changes.
Type of Blogs:
Personal Blogs: This is where people write about themselves as a journal, to keep in touch with long distance friends and families, to create a online journal to keep a goal such as losing weight or saving money etc.,
Information Blog: These type of blogs are great for sharing and learning about some particular topic such as gardening, cooking or fitness.
Some people do it for fun, some do it for making money. I like to do it for mostly fun, however it would be nice to make money to recover cost involving hosting, domain and time spent a little for most people.
Details about Type of Sites:
Static Websites: These type of website do not change, they are usually few pages long and have information about one subject and people can learn, click and go. Example includes many bank sites, picture images site, how to articles.
Blog: Blog is where content is often updated and posted. Some on daily basis or some on weekly basis. People can blog how often they like about one subject to multi subjects they like. Fresh content makes it easier for search engine to find and rank your site. That is one of the reason many site including corporates site now has a blog section.
Forum: Some site has a blog and forums and some sites are only forums on specific topic. Even many money and parenting sites has several forums which are quite popular among people. It could be addicting. Forums are best for asking questions and learning from it.
Knowledge/Wiki: Some sites are open for others to share their reviews or point such as IMDB or wikipedia, where people may learn and post knowledge they have.
Podcast Blog: These type of sites have audio based postings, such as interviews you can listen to, music you can listen to and so on. It seems to be popular with many people who can listen to podcast while driving or doing other things.
Video Site: You tube, Vimeo are popular example of these sites that are big. One can start his or her video blog by recording a topic or places to put on the blogs and share the knowledge on subject they are expert on.
I think it is best to use all or some combination of above types of site to get more exposure! What is your view on blog sites?
I wrote this article originally when I was blogging for less than a year, a few years ago. I believe in slow blogging movement then and I still do now. I blog for passion and not as a business, so it makes it easier for me to do that. As a mother for 2 young kids, my priorities are different. I rather write when I have time and something worth while to say. Read on and I feel it is still relevant as it was then.
I have been blogging at Heart and Mind at snail’s pace. Recently someone asked, how come I do not post every day. I said I am into “slow blogging” jokingly, not knowing how much time we can spend doing blog related activities. Here are a few things that are in blog time black hole.
Many of us are busy bloggers and also blog readers. Blogs are now easy to set up for free and for a few lucky ones have became very famous and made some money in the process. With social network sites such as twitter, facebook, digg, stumble upon and many other social media out there, many bloggers are working crazy hours on internet. Starting a blog is easy but Being a successful blogger is not, as one needs to be out there to market themselves and their blog. A few bloggers have quit their 9-to-5 job and make enough money to survive just from blogging. Good for them but are they burned out? Can they relax for a few weeks without posting on a vacation or take care of Family in time of need.
Here are a few ways we blogger can spend long and crazy hours on our blog and blog related work; If we are not careful, we can easily spend over 60 hours in a week, that is more than a full time job!
1. Many blogger post article once a day, and some other hard working people like Trent at Simple dollar posts articles twice a day, including weekends and Trent does long posting and great quality content posting. That is lot of writing time! I am always impressed by sheer quantity and quality posts on his site. And there are many good blogs are like that, who are posting good quality content regularly.
2. Many blogger write original content, that requires a some research, typing up and proof reading and editing each post before it goes live. It generally takes about 1 hour to 5 hour for each post as I read it somewhere over the net. (I am unable to find original link, so can not give credit, if you know it, let me know)
3. Many blogger, often write guest posts for other popular and similar niche subject blogs. Generally Guest posts are the best of best stuff and requires great research and time. Also, asking and getting approval of guest posts takes some time.
4. One way we keep in touch and market our blogs is to comment on other blogs, in similar niche subject. That means, really going through RSS or feed burner feed, or actually going on the website to read and leave, thoughtful, maybe helpful and relevant comment on the blogs you read. If you are like me, you read lot of blogs, commenting on each one can take lot of time. Some time I see many commenter leaving generic comments, and one can tell who really read your post and who browsed through it 🙂
5. Many bloggers are on social media, I am told it is part of necessary evil of blogging world. Many times we follow people, read and comment and reply to tweet and face-book fan. It is very easy to spend hours a day on it, if one is not careful. That is one of the reason, I am not on ANY social media for now.
6. Maintaining your own comments, spams, emails takes time each day and must in your blogging-to-do list.
7. Adding new plug-ins and features and looks on your site can take up lot of time. For example, my website, even though Zenguy and web designer did most of the work, I had to supply and give ideas on what I wanted. That meant, I needed to know what features and plug-ins and features are available.
8. For people who have advertisements on their blog, will have to maintain in that area as well.
9. One of my blogger friend is obsessed with Google analytic and keyword search and other site statistics, he is always tweaking and seeing stats, that can hinder creativity and put focus on wrong thing such as traffic, ad revenues and Alexa ranks, instead of following creative writing juices.
10. Some people also attend blog conventions, get together and social in-person meeting, that can be fun to really meet people only you know through their blog only but requires time. If you are doing only as strict business sense, you may miss out on true friendship.
11. Many blogger can create e-books or other valuable content to sell, which requires either time or money to get it written by someone else.
12. Reading and browsing through many blogs, this is my biggest weakness. There are so many wonderful blogs out there, and I have interest not only on personal development, self improvement but also food/cooking, parenting, crafts, news, finance, blogging itself and much more. I may not comment on each blog I read, but I spend lot of time reading cool blogs out there. I am always learning something from everything I read, and there is so much to learn.
As we can see, there is many ways to spend so much time on the blog or blogging related activities. I blog about once or twice a week at Heart and Mind , not because I am not serious about my blogging but I do not want to make blogging a chore, it should be fun or something you value. No, I am not telling others to stop writing everyday, I enjoy all these posts, but if you think, you are being burned out, you can choose to slow down. I am sure, many loyal readers will stick by you, if your blog content is good enough.
There is also slow blogging movement going on that I was not aware of, read the New york times Article Slow Blog here. Apparently I am not the only one who feels this way. Do what works for you but give a slow blogging a try, you may like it, or at least get some much needed rest.
How do you blog, if you have one? If you are reader, how many blogs do you read and how often? I am curious to others point of view on this. Are you in to slow blogging movement like slow food movement? I am doing it since I started about 9 months ago, so far I am satisfied but am I am successful? Only time will tell. But, I am enjoying the pace and liking it so far.
Web Hosting: If you are looking for a hosting for you blog, the only one I feel comfortable recommending Bluehost as my Heart and Mind Blog uses Bluehost for hosting.CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR BLUEHOST.COM A few of the benefits they offer are;
Unlimited hosting space and file transfer, free domain, multiple blogs hosting
30 days money back Guarantee, after 30 days pro rated refund
Theme: There are many free and premium themes out there for blogger and websites. Heart and Mind uses Bavotasan Theme. Some of the neat things I like about them;
They offer free and low cost Premium theme for $40, a great value
They have great customer forum and support where they get back to you quickly
Web Design and Customization: Many of bloggers like me are not programmer, if you need a help with colors, logo, transfer your blog from one platform to another like I did, I would strongly recommend Krissoft Web Design . They are friendly, affordable and reliable and I have used them personally for my site here and very pleased with the result. They are still my go-to-team even now. I do not make money on this, I am simply a happy customer.
See their services hereKrissoft Web Services .
Very affordable and reliable, a few I had called were charging 10 times of what they are asking
Friendly staff, who answered my silly nitpicks without making me feel like tech-fool that I am
——————————————————————————————————————- How to Organize: I would not be able to survive without my to-do list and planner. I have taken Franklin Covey Seminar and since then I use for organizing my life with it.
I use it for my family organization planning, but you could use it for work/job or business
It comes with quick start guide, 52 weekly compass cards and pouch page finder plus more
I am taking a little break from blogging this week as it has been crazy few weeks and my mind can use some down time. I also wanted to leave you a some articles on life improvement to make our life little more enjoyable.
Since I started blogging on WordPress, from March 2010, I learned a lot about plugins and blogging. One of the plugins I love, is Akismet. If you are blogging for sometimes then you know how it is helpful to keep spams away from your blog. I also wrote about it in my blog post 10 plugins to boost your blogging , a guest post at Virgin Blogger Notes.
I loved Akismet as it is free plugin that does a great job of keeping spam away from a blog, may be too great job. Lately, my comments to other blogs have been going in to SPAM folders or getting deleted by Akismet right away. I did not notice it at first and slowly it became evident that most blogs running akismet were blocking me as a spammer. Let me repeat: “I am not a spammer and never have been and do not plan to be one“. Akismet occasionally gets this “false negative” and it affects someone like me who is genuine commenter. I am working with Akismet folks but help from akismet is little and slow so far.
It seems I am not the only genuine commenter who has been affected by Akismet, there are many others who has been affected in past and current times; check out below for folks similar in my situation. If you get a chance read comments inside the articles too, as there are many who are stuck in Akismet hell for wrong reasons.
Is akismet wrongly blocking your not spam blog comments?
Punished by Akismet, what do I do?
I thought it might be bad case of IP (new one after rebooting computer) or akismet. Problem seems to be Akismet as for now. I have since send contacted the bloggers to take my comments and rescue from SPAM folder. Many of my friends were kind enough to un-spam my comments but yet it is happening in same blogs again, it has been very frustrating to say the least.
According to Akismet, some blog owners has to un-spam comments a few times before it will make better and if someone by mistake marks my comments as spam the whole thing will start off again. Luckily, I comment on blogs whom I consider friends, but telling them again and again to un-spam me is not a right thing and I do not want to annoy anyone with my frequent requests. A few of my comments are getting deleted all together and you know what is the worse part? that my own comments on my own blog (when I am not logged in) are going in to Heart and Mind’s spam folder? My own blog, can you believe it? Only other person I know personally who has gone through is, Farnoosh from Prolific Living, Farnoosh gives me hope that this might be fixed sooner or later for me as it did with her.
So what is the solution? While I do not have all right answer but some idea so you as a blogger do not have to go through it. Here are some suggestions if you are a commenter or blogger. Read on to see if that might be helpful. What to do, if your comments are going in spam folder? I did checking and found these answers which might be useful to some of you, who are in similar position.
If you are the blog owner:
If you do not like the comment or commenter, just delete the comment. Be careful as who you consider as a spammer. Although I have read that what you do in your blog, should not affect that person on other blogs but based on my experience opposite is true.
Check your spam folder to check if there are any genuine comments to make sure and mark them as “not spam”.
Sometimes you may have to click “not spam”, twice before blogger can truly comment without falling in to your spam folder.
If you are the blogger:
Check your comments once in awhile to make sure, it is showing up on that blogs.
If you do not see your comment after sometimes, politely contact the blog owner to check his or her spam folder to make sure.
Get a gravatar to make yourself look more “real” and unlike “spammer”, based on a few experts. You can get gravatar for free at Gravatar.com .
If it still persists, you may want to contact Akismet, to let them know about this issue and get it corrected. I have not done it yet as I hope it solves it soon.
Your turn:
Has your comment has been considered as a spam before? What worked for you? I still do not have much knowledge as to why it happened and what to do to avoid it. I sure would like to know any tips any of you may have.
Meanwhile, check your spam folder to see if me or any other authentic comments are not showing up by mistakes in your spam folder!
I still love Akismet plugin but I will be more careful as in internet world, I still have lot to learn. I will be more careful mark someone as a spam, and when it doubt, just delete it instead of marking as a spam.
Today I want to share my three guest posts that are now live on three blogs which I admire and enjoy reading. I am so thankful to them for an opportunity to guest post in their blogs.
(6/27) Please check out my guest post How to Stock a Vegan Pantry at Holy Cow, Earth Vegan Blog by Vaishali, who shares her love of food and animals without mixing them. I have been a loyal and long time reader of her blog for years! All the recipes you see on her blog are created by her, made by her and photographed by her husband Desi. She is thoughtful, compassionate, creative and wonderful chef, who inspires me to be go completely vegan. She has journalist background and it shows in her witty write up in her blog.
(6/28) Also my another guest post 10 Plugins to Boost Your Blogging at Virgin Blogger Notes By Jean. Jean has a great sense of humor, very diverse career choices (including fiction writer, truck driver and growing up on a farm), she shares wonderful blogging tips on her blog. Make no mistake, her tips are great for newbies as well problogger too. What makes her unique is that she has easy going and friendly persona where everyone thinks Jean is their best friend. I know I do.
(6/30) My third guest post 5 quickest ways for you to be happy right now at Make it Happen blog by Arvind Devalia. Arvind is one of the kindest, very helpful and calmest soul I have met on blogosphere. On his blog, he writes about personal improvement articles that make you want to better yourself. Arvind also has guided me with my blog’s over all look as well, and he has helping nature to help not only me but others as well.
If you are visiting from Vaishali’s Holy Cow! Earth Vegan site or Jean’s site Virgin Blogger Notes, or Arvind’s Make it happen blog, welcome to Heart and Mind . Here you will find life improvement articles that focuses on finding a simple harmony between heart and mind. If you are new here, check out About me and Heart and Mind and If you are regular reader, you will also enjoy some of my favorite posts from the past, as I am looking back Blast from the heart and mind’s past.
Currently I am doing No Spend Month challenge where I am on strict budget of $300 for the whole month.
I also have 101 changes series where I recommend small and doable changes in our life to make it better;
101 changes: change 1 – Reduce drinking soda 101 changes: change 2 – Getting to email Zen 101 changes: Change 3 – Slow blogging movement 101 changes: change 4- Plant something 101 changes: change 5 – smile when you wake up
There are still many more changes to come. Stay Tuned.
Blogging Philosophy for new and Pro bloggers: Real heroes are the readers Thank you for reading!
Life balance in 6 critical areas is one of my core balance article that you will enjoy.
10 simple things that make me happy , want to share yours?
We are what we eat , That is true, why not eat better and be better.
10 ways to simplify your health , simple steps to health.
How to find your core values : Part 1 and Core values: part 2 .
7 ways of overcoming overwhelm . Let’s get back to Zen
Screw productivity at least for a day post. So take a break and enjoy.
simplifying your financial life Simplifying money
8 ways to be content . It is not about settling for less, it is about being happy with what you already have.
13 ways to be compassionate article.
These are just some of the articles that I like. Hope you liked and enjoyed reading through these articles. If you like what you read, you can subscribe to Heart and Mind via RSS or email .
First I read about 7 links challenge was from Karen Ruby, then I saw my another friend Marion also posted her 7 links. The idea originally started at problogger.net, a blog I read often whenever I get a chance. So, I thought why not I also do some sharing with my 7 link challenge with little bit creativity to dig through my older posts and here is the result. Hope you like it.
My very first posting day
I started out on free blogger platform because it was super easy. I was so excited to share my knowledge and reasons for writing about finding balance between what my heart and mind wanted. I did not know anything about blog or blogging world at the time I wrote my first post. Matter of fact, unlike my slow blogging now,I wrote 3 posts then in one sitting; even though I had no readers.
This post I enjoyed writing the most, as many of us want to be helpful to others but we simply do not know how, when we have never been in similar situation. Where we live, there are quite a few who are out of job or worse foreclosed upon. While we are so fortunate, I wanted to write something that will help others even when you do not have extra money, we can still help.
10 ways to help during bad economy
The post which had a most discussion
After writing for almost 10 plus months under a pen name of Zengirl, I finally decided to reveal my real name with pictures of myself and family. Al though I always was 100% honest about me and family, except names, it was finally great to come out and share 101% about me here on heart and mind blog that I really cherish.
It was a great feeling to finally write under my name and I got lot of support from blogging friends on that post.
The post on someone’s else blog that I wished I had written
There are lot of blogs I admire and read so picking one was not the easiest as I truly liked many posts and have bookmarked it often to read it again and again. I have narrow it down to 2 posts out of many that I like. I am believer of sharing knowledge is better so I am breaking a rule and sharing 2 links here!
How not to hurry By Leo Babauta. I really believe in slow balanced life so I really wished I could have written it, but I doubt I could have been as persuasive as Leo.
My most helpful post
I like to write a post where I share something from my real life, like my recent life lessons series. One of the reason I was writing under a pen name was due to a fear, a fear of rejection that I got as a high school student trying to publish my short story on New York Magazine. It scared me for awhile and made me feel worthless compared to my grandfather and my mom who both are published authors. It took some courage to feel better about my own writing and I shared a few ways to overcome fear, no matter how different your fears maybe, solution is the same, check it out.
I have been married to my best friend Zenguy and have kids, sure my life is more kid-centric but romance is still there and should be for everyone. I wrote an article to keep romance alive no matter how busy we might be, even if you are newly married or married for 60 years, we can take time to show someone we love in simple ways from the heart always.
We have been simplifying our lives for past 5-6 years slowly, even before being simple and minimalist became new media darling that everyone talked about. The biggest benefit of minimalism in my life has enabled me to stay home with my young kids without worrying about income much. When 100 things minimalist came I was intrigued but when there was 50 things minimalist movement along with one of our local friend, I thought it has gone too far and lost the real meaning of minimalism. This is one of my longer post, that I wished more people had read as I still think minimalism comes in many shapes and sizes.
Did you enjoy this? I surely enjoyed going through my old posts and dig through various posts to find the right one to fit in each categories. Even though I did not started this challenge, If you are reading here, I wish for you to join this 7 links challenge so we can learn more about you and your blog. It could be fun for you as well.
In addition to 7 blogging links, I want to share ebooks from Bloggers I admire. I may make little money if you buy from these link.
eBooks from Great Bloggers and Experts
I love everything Leo Baubuta of Zen Habits does and has created. Here are some of his ebooks that I like?
Simple Guide to Minimalist life : Its sells for $9.95 only and believe me it has great many information that is worth lot more.
Zen to done Guide: This is best of “getting things done” by David Allen with Zen habits view point, one of the best guide I have seen in productivity: $9.50 only.
If you want to buy all thress ebooks for one low price, click here: $19.99 only.
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Adam Baker of Man Vs. Debt has 2 great ebooks that tells you how to get out of debt and make money selling your stuff.
Sells your Crap: Clutter Crusher Edition: This edition has extra videos and details on how to sell on craigslist, ebay and more. Sells for $47 but promises that you will make $100 or more following his methods, and we agree.
Unautomate your Finance: Adam knows his debt and money and this guide sure it helpful to get your finances in order, sells for $17.
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I am a big fan of Rachel from Simple Notebook and she has released a ebook about simple blogging.
Click here to visit Simple Blogging.: Only sells for $8 and it is perfect for people like me who blog part time between kids and life.
Image source: http://profalbrecht.wordpress.com/2008/12/26/why-accounting-profs-should-blog/
Leo Babauta does not know me, but like many others, he has inspired me to more minimalist and simplified life, you can read his interview A call for simplicity in this age of chaos by Tammy Strobel of Rowdy Kittens blog.
I talked about reconnecting with our neighbors, and other people we meet everyday during, filling gas, standing in grocery lines, at post office, and so on, To see original post click here . Blogging is also like online community that we meet on world wide web, how do we connect with them all, get to know them?
Many people blog for different reasons, for some it is connecting with far away relatives for family update, for others it is making money, or writing about subject close to their heart, place for rant, rave and other life’s philosophy, some people use it as an online journal to some people write about things they want to change in their life such as debt reduction, getting fit and so on.
Whatever, your reason might be, none of us could survive without people’s support, real people behind the screen. These people could be in the same city or be in different country, be it readers or blogger. Wherever your readers are, they are “REAL” people, how to be sensitive towards them? Continue reading →
Welcome! This blog will represent my thoughts on how to have a happy heart and happy mind together. As usually for most people, heart and mind do not want same things at the same time. Finding a perfect balance in life is to find a balance between what our heart and our mind wants.
See what heart desires and 20 things that mind desires articles to see how our heart and mind can want different things. Finding a harmony between heart and mind is the key to happiness in life.
Would you like to join in my journey? More the merrier.
