I started this blog just a few months ago and till that time I only has static websites and so I was very clueless about the whole blogging gig. The more I blog, the more I learn and goodies just keep popping up.
Important Blogging Lessons
Pick a design with at least 2 sidebars - This is one lesson I learned the hard way! You don’t have to use both right away, but believe me you will need space later. And it is not easy to add sidebar’s to an existing theme, it takes code knowledge and often times the layout needs to be tweaked entirely to make the new sidebar look right.
Use Feedburner to Burn your Feed -I know many of you are thinking DUH! This is obvious, but I keep running into blogs that are not using FB!!
The default feed in Worpdress, is limited and does not offer enough options to please a wide variety of subscribers. Burn your feed with Feedburner and enjoy tons of benefits, for yourself as well as your readers.
Benefits for bloggers: Customize your message to subscribers, tracking, subscription management, subscriber count widgets, analytics, monetize your feed with Adsense and much more.
Benefits for Subscribers: Many more RSS reader options, email option.
Feedburner is free and very reliable! Visit Feedburner.
Provide an Email Subscription Option for your Blog: You may lose significant amounts of subscribers if you do not offer an email option for delivering your posts to subscribers. Not everyone likes to use readers! I am one of those people.
Honestly, I do not need another thing to check everyday, so email is the only way I get blog updates. Also, those that do sign up with a reader because they have no other option, may very likely forget to visit their reader and so they will miss your content!
I have over 200 subscribers now and 100 of those chose the email option!
Blogging Goodies - Very Nice Free Wordpress Themes:
30 + 3 Column Wordpress Themes
Simple and Clean SEO Themes - with Tutorials for Customizing
Fun Stuff for Bloggers
Typezealer is a cool little site that checks the personality of your blog, it is extremely accurate, at least it was for me 
Useful Plugins and Tools for Bloggers
Theme Test Drive Plugins - Here is one of the greatest plugins of all time! Allows you to safely test drive any theme on your blog as admin, while all other visitors still see the original one at your live url. No one but you will ever know that you are testing a new theme.
Screen grab to WordPress - Firefox Add-on - If you like to use screenshots in your blog posts, as I do, and I found them to be a great tool for enhancing my posts, or for any other purpose, then get this add-on!
A little button is added to your bottom nav bar and with one click you can save, post to blog, copy a screenshot and much more.
XHeader - Free Header Maker - This is a free software to make website and blog headers.
Cool Text Button and Logo Maker - Free and fabulous! I made the button in my header that says For the Dot Comer in All Of Us with this tool, took about 10 minutes.
One more subscriber increasing plugin
WordPress - Thank Me Later- Sends an automatic fully customizible thank you message to commenters on your blog. Perfect for those one time commenters who comment and never come back. This plugin can really help to increase subscriber counts, as you can add an invitation to subscribe in the message.
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January 6th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I’ve gotten where I like 2 and even one column theme layouts more although I’ve tried as many as 5 column layouts. I like to keep it simple if I can.
The Typezealer is funny. I ran it on several niche blogs and had a different personality on each.
I’m not a big fan of auto-email for comment plugins. They seem a little desperate and spammy to me.
Frank Carr@Online Product Reviewss last blog post..Power Screwdriver Buying Guide
JR reply on January 6th, 2009 3:36 pm:
@Frank Carr
re: auto comment…You think so? I have not tried it myself, but I got a couple thank you’s from other blogs and I did not even realize it was automated, it was so personalized that I thought the blogger hand wrote it for me.
re: columns, I too chose the 1 column originally because it looks so much cleaner, but now I feel like I have to cram everything into the 1 column I have, which also happens to be so narrow and that means everything gets pushed down instead of across.
Dennis Edell reply on January 6th, 2009 9:01 pm:
@JR,
Mostly spammy from those that have it set to deliver after EVERY comment.
Another excellent post for newbies, good job.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Do You Have Blank Blog Advertisement Slots?
JR reply on January 6th, 2009 11:52 pm:
@Dennis Edell
Yeah I could see that, but one email per comment I would think is pretty cool
Dennis Edell reply on January 7th, 2009 10:24 am:
@JR, One email per commentER perhaps. The first comment someone makes. NOT an email for every comment a particular commenter makes…just wanted to be clear.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Threaded Comments Have Arrived! Edit Comments Is Coming…
JR reply on January 7th, 2009 12:57 pm:
@Dennis Edell
Oh yeah, one email for the first comment ever and that’s it!
January 6th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Ratio of email to RSS subscribers can be very different depending on niche. I also have over 200 subscribers but only 5 by email. It’s important to have both options but it’s more important to be aware what your readership prefers and push that option more.
Rarsts last blog post..Free Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool
JR reply on January 6th, 2009 3:52 pm:
@Rarst
Yes you are right, it’s all about options.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I wish I had read yours and other blogs before I ever started a blog! One of the big projects I have for this year is to transfer my blog from blogspot to a self hosted WordPress theme. Thanks for the great ideas!
Steve@Success Factorss last blog post..Do You Need More Power?
JR reply on January 6th, 2009 5:10 pm:
@Steve
I was just writing a blog about this topic of self hosting vs free blogs. But, I know how you feel, there are some things though that can only be learned through experience.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I cast my vote in favor of email subscribers versus RSS. I can’t seem to remember to check Google Reader and when I do, the post is usually 4 or 5 days out of date. I always look for the option to subscribe through email and am less likely to subscribe if I can’t find it. But the question remains, why don’t I have that option on my blog ???
Thanks for the new Wordpress themes, too. I’ve been struggling with the ones i have and your suggestion popped up at just the right time.
Eunice
Eunice@Simple Internet Strategiess last blog post..Easy Social Bookmarking Tool
JR reply on January 6th, 2009 11:56 pm:
@Eunice
LOL, that is ironic Eunice, so why don’t you? I really liked those themes, they were different and very professional looking.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Absolutely great resources once again JR. I have been wanting to experiment with the theme on one of my blogs so I downloaded one from 30 + 3 Column and I will see if I can figure it all out. It is really great to have someone like you to give me ideas and inspiration.
Thanks so much once again.
Andy@onlinechristianbusinessopportunitys last blog post..Christian Home Business To Make Money
JR reply on January 7th, 2009 12:08 am:
@Andy
Thank you again, you are very good for my ego.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Two side bars? As if one side bar isn’t enough! LOL
JR reply on January 7th, 2009 12:58 pm:
@Sacramento Weddings
Believe me, it gets pretty crammed in there.
Dennis Edell reply on January 7th, 2009 3:25 pm:
@Sacramento Weddings, it was never enough for me lol.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Threaded Comments Have Arrived! Edit Comments Is Coming…
January 7th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Great post!! I love that your posts are always full of great material with something for everyone!!
Feedburner definitely rules, and I love being able to see the number of subscribers change daily!!
Taris Janitenss last blog post..Websitegrader.com - Find out Where you Rank!
JR reply on January 7th, 2009 3:00 pm:
@Taris Janitens
Most bloggers do
January 7th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Wordpress blogs give you so many options, there are thousands of widgets available to you to use. I just upgraded my blog to the Ultimate Blogging Theme which only has the one sidebar but also a totally customizable top side bar aswell . As you can see with the UBT there is a built in Feedburner subscription there .
Jason
Jason @ Legitimate Home Based Businesss last blog post..Network Marketing – Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make
JR reply on January 7th, 2009 10:37 pm:
@Jason
Thank you Jason, did you lose any subscribers in the update? I have been wondering this about doing new theme redesigns?
Jason @ Legitimate Home Based Business reply on January 7th, 2009 10:44 pm:
@JR, LOL i don’t have a lot of subscribers to lose but the couple i had still remained so , no
Jason
Jason @ Legitimate Home Based Businesss last blog post..Network Marketing – Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make
JR reply on January 7th, 2009 10:47 pm:
@Jason
LOL, I just wondered, because I imagine there might be a slight loss when you go with a completely different landing page all of a sudden. I wish I would have done it a few months ago.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I am glad I checked here, I have to get the auto comment responder, sounds like a great thing.
@Jason and @JR: We recently went through a large change to our own website and didn’t lose any subscribers (we have a large blog just like you), just make sure you do all the right 401 Re-directs and you should be good to go. We’ve have a lot of good feedback about our new site and new landing page, without complaint…..yet.
JR reply on January 8th, 2009 7:23 pm:
@Link Builder
Thanks that is good to know, I appreciate it.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
hi JR,
All good points (especially the subscribe by email option), but I had to laugh at your opening to this post. I can’t tell you how many thing I have just started doing, and then later, looked back and thought how much easier it would have been had I been “trained” before starting. I guess it’s that old saying, “if I knew then what I knew now…” But as you also said in a reply above, somethings are best learned (and only learned) through experience.
Steve, Pinnacle Trade Show Displays
JR reply on January 8th, 2009 7:24 pm:
@Steve
LOL, if I had 5 cents for every time in this biz and life in general, I said “if I knew then…” I would be a millionaire and would not need to work.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
hey JR,
Seriously though, there was something above in the comments about emailing comment replies. Whatever you’re doing, I like it. I got a reply from you on my comment above. That I like, and I wish all bloggers would do that. I don’t “subscribe to comments” anymore because it only takes one or two 40 or 50 comment posts to overwhelm my inbox. What I want is just to get the bloggers response, not everyone else’s (no offense to everyone else, but that’s my preference). Anyway, a plugin that would do that would be awesome. Hope this comment makes sense…
I think I’d need a quarter for each time, and then I’d be a millionaire too!
~ Steve, Pinnacle Trade Show Displays
JR reply on January 8th, 2009 11:09 pm:
@Steve
I know what you mean about subscribing to comments, it does get overwhelming. I agree with you about blogger response, many times I have left a comment and especially a question for the blogger and get no response, that is a total turn off, I personally love interacting with my readers.
Dennis Edell reply on January 9th, 2009 10:57 am:
@Steve | trade show displays, did you get into my discussion on bloggers not responding to comments? If not, it’s currently sitting at #2 on my most popular list.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Threaded Comments Have Arrived! Edit Comments Is Coming…
January 11th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Thanks for all the tip. I’m just putting together my first blog and they will be a great help. I don’t understand a lot of the terms yet but I’m sure I’ll get there.
JR reply on January 11th, 2009 8:30 pm:
@Chris
For sure you will, just takes some experience.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:30 am
[...] is still a great way to get some experience in the world of Internet marketing and to see if blogging is for you. I do not believe that blogging is for everybody, it does take a lot of discipline, [...]
January 28th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Ok, I was one of the “Duh” folks that haven’t been using Feedburner. For several months I’ve been meaning to post my feeds but the to-do never made it to the front burner, at least not until today. I just finished posting a couple feeds. With Google’s acquisition of Feedburner, the process was painless (assuming a person had an account with Google).
Regarding picking a theme that allows a third column. I purchased a developer’s package for the Thesis theme and have been very happy with it. The theme allows for many variations and options, the least of which is the number of columns.
Just my 2c.
Kennewick Real Estates last blog post..How I Spent Inauguration Day
JR reply on January 28th, 2009 6:45 pm:
@Kennewick Real Estate
Thanks for the Thesis resource, I will check it out!
February 3rd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I’m in the same boat as Steve - I wish I had known about Wordpress before I got sucked into a Typepad Blog.
Tom @ Law Firm Business Developments last blog post..Food For Thought on Surviving the Current Downturn
JR reply on February 4th, 2009 1:21 am:
@Tom
Is Typepad that bad?
February 4th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I think they are very useful tips you give, I think the most important thing is to write and write well make content relevant to the blog because if you have nothing original to tell you that it is better to spend other things.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:55 am
I agree with bolas. Write good content is the most important thing. But I don’t deny that your above tips is also important to develop a blog.
April 4th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Good content is the key to getting sales and converting more earnings. Ideally this is what Google is looking for, and if you provide that, in time you will get what you seek.
Alberts last blog post..Top 21 Article Directories Worth Submitting