Official blog of Clark's Blogging for Journalists class, Mass Communication department

Thursday, September 11, 2014

10 Ways to Make Your Blog Shine

Read this article on blogging. How does yours measure up? Comment below today.

17 comments:

  1. My blog is missing #s 6,7,9, and 10, but I don't really want to connect my blog to my other social media sites outside of the google+ account. I will think of a possible signature to tack on to my blog entries.

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  2. 1-5,8 - I wanted to keep it simple and clear, easy to recognize that it's THE WANDERDUST not some other blog.
    6- I never thought about it and I'm still not convinced to that idea
    7- I have one, it's my profile picture so it identifies my blog with me, but I'm thinking about creating a new one
    9-I'm thinking about it...
    10- I love my navigation menu, I believe it's easy to use and if someone is interested only in one of the topics I'm covering on my blog it's easy to avoid other posts not connected with it.

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  3. I am missing 6, 7, and 9. I am learning how to add the original signature for each post and I'd really love to add a favicon and social media icons whenever I figure out how to do that. I like searching the internet figuring out all the different aspects of blogging and I'm glad I have most of the 10 on the list already mostly figured out.

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  4. I have a lot of the design elements set up for my website as a whole, but not necessarily my blog page, which is simple, leaving room for each blog to design itself. The cleaner the better. I do use the social media icons so my readers have easy access to my separate accounts. I like the idea of a signature at the end of each post. I might work on getting that up.

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  5. I have almost all the elements from the blog. I could still work on cleaning it up a bit, but I feel like my blog is very easy to navigate. I'm still working on an "author" icon for after my blogposts, since other people may be posting on my blog as well. I think my blog is just going to be a continual work in progress and will keep evolving and changing throughout the semester.

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  6. I have a blog header (on the left side) which also doubles as a navigation menu with my archive and social media buttons. Tumblr puts my avatar photo as my favicon by default, so I didn't have to change that. I have one font throughout my blog, however, I create a sense of variety by using uppercase and lowercase letters. I only have a few colors because I want to keep things simple.

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  7. This made me feel like I need to vamp up my blog, but not so much so that it creates a sense of chaos. I am now searching other blogs for ideas for layout, type, and esthetics. I figure that I should work on making the blog memorable. I think I have a good grasp so far on what I need to change.

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  8. 1-5 I feel I have covered, even though 5 isn't a custom divider, but instead reveals more of the background image I chose for the blog.
    6 I'm not particularly interested in adding, though 7, the favicon, I need to look into and find something unique to fill that space.
    I feel like I've got 8, 9, and 10 pretty much covered as well.

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  9. I think my blog has some of the aspects this article was talking about, but I do really need to work on making it more personalized and design it to draw the reader in through the pictures and the header. I like the idea of having the background a picture that tells the story of the blog, so when I go out and shoot I will work on getting a photograph for the background. I also like the signature idea. I have a signature I stamp on all of my pictures, so I may look into imitating that for the signature on my posts. I liked this article and it gave me a lot of good ideas to help me develop my blog.

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  10. I have many of these elements on my blog. I have a nice theme that isn't boring and two good fonts that are used (one in the title of blog posts and the other actual texts). I'm still searching for different types of themes/backgrounds for my blog because I'm still unsure if I think this one is the right fit. My blog is linked to my Instagram so that pictures can be seen on my blog. It is also linked to my twitter so that every time I post, it tweets the link for me so that my followers may see my blog. I think my navigation menu is very simple. There's the home page with all my posts and my about page with information about myself and the blog. On my sidebar is a follow button, all the categories I blog about and links to my social media. For now, I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible but unique and interesting. It's still a work in progress.

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  11. I think I'm starting out well with my blog. I have the large header, and the only thing I really need to work on is that when I type in my url my picture doesn't show up at the top. So I will need to play with that feature, other than that I'm doing well

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  12. I feel like I have 1-5 presented well on my blog. I didn't think about adding my social media links/icons to it! I also like the idea of adding my signature in a unique way to the end of all my posts. I feel like reading this really helped me view my blog in a good way and helped me come up with and think of new things to add and ideas to think about for my posts.

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  13. I feel as though as of right now it seems I am getting most of them. I think the idea of having dividers is a neat idea I did not think of at all. I really do not know how to do that, so I really want to figure it out. I really want a signature, that is pretty neat also. Overall, good article to read!

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  14. Overall my blog includes most of these components to a blog. It has a header, a good background along with colors and fonts (simple to stick with kindergarden theme), blog post dividers, and sidebar titles.One idea that I thought would benefit my blog was to have a blog post signature. This could tie in all my blogs and end on a catchy note. I also do not have social media icons but I think it would be a good idea to link it to Facebook since a lot of moms and teachers have Facebook and might want to read it. I think that these were all great suggestion to take into consideration when making your blog stand out.

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  15. I need to go more in depth in my blogs and change the font of my blogs overall. But, for the most part I feel that I have everything I need to have a successful blog besides that. I never thought about having a signature at the end of my blog until now but will differently work on that for my new blog I write! I feel that my favorite part of my blog is the layout and setting of each picture, I feel that all my photos and backgrounds express my personality and age quiet well.

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  16. My blog is missing 6,7, and 8. I have been trying to think of a clever signature to sign off with but I have not thought of one that I 100% want. As for the little picture by the url, I am pretty sure I would have to pay money for that.

    Susan Miller

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  17. I believe I have most of these ten aspects going for my blog. My header only contains links, but it’s something that draws attention to each post. My blog’s background, colors, and fonts all help to tie in the variety of things I post. The tags at the end of each post serve as good post dividers, and although it’s not an image, I sign each post off with a simple “88” in italics. Numbers 8, 9, and 10 are all present on my blog as well.

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