contd... Valerie is spot on, write about what you think is right. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, in fact it's differences that create the interest. I only started Blogging a little while back, and was advised to write about what I knew about... I know precious little apart from Me, moi..Me,me,me,me. So I just write as would 'discuss' things down the pub, from the heart .. no Wiki to hand, no one will criticise your thoughts, or style...it's not done in conversation... write from the heart, gut feel, don't prepare..just write...
Hi Maria, I have just noticed Sheila's comments above who rightly so points you to her Group on WebDesign which you will find packed with handy hints.
As to 'contributing' it is a fact that the 'interaction' of Post comments is key, and if you were being contrived you could engineer this to your advantage, so treat posts such as this is much like a 'real' conversation, rather than the word heavy Blog-speak that we are told gets results.
As a by-product you will find ( even without hyperlinks ) keywords that Sheila has used ie SEO and SFN have tremendous Google visibility power... try Googling those, and conjour up your own too.
The trick however is to maintain a quality of word-craft which you can echo in your Blogs and website...and of course on the photos you use. I took the liberty of dragging some pictures off of your Blog.. some are un-named and others are well named. So this too becomes part of your armoury in the swamp that we call the word wide web.
You have to develop that 'Spider' sense..think like a web bot. Their brief is to seek out coherent 'information' so name your photos to 'tell a story' The pics I publish here for archiving and retrieval purposes I often code SFN-this-is-how-cheat.jpeg the preceding acronym testament to the sheer reach that the network achieves, purely down to the tireless efforts put in by the Admin guys.
You are right Valerie, it is personal, I'm not too worried about what people think about the content, as you say it's your own personal point of view, it's more - is it crap or poorly written. I will continue as it is a great way to keep track of "life" - the older I get the more I forget what happened when! x
I have actually been a member of SFN for quite some time now, I just don't post much - a full time job and unexpectedly becoming a business owner (the gites) and all that is associated with that including maintaining a website and adverts on holiday letting websites, responding to enquiries, precludes me getting involved in more of the "fun" stuff that goes on here - also the chat facility is blocked at work (for some reason they actually expect me to do some work...).
I will look at the webdesign group, though some of the more technical stuff goes over my head (despite working for a software house, though I hasten to add I am not a developer!) Part of my reason for restarting my blog was because I knew it should help improve my rankings on Google too - so we are singing from the same hymn sheet so to speak - thanks again.
Blogging is such a personal thing - experiences, life's daily goings on, your own feelings on particular subjects etc - I wouldn't let other people's feedback sway you too much. You will always come across someone with a differing viewpoints and criticism in any form, especially when it's in plain black and white, can seem harsh. Just go with your gut and enjoy. If people read and follow it, you're doing something right. If you haven't had a lot of views yet, it's not that it's bad, it perhaps hasn't shown up on searches yet or is a subject people are currently looking for. If it's something you want to do, just go for it. x
No problem. I'm new to blogging. Only started it because I was told that fresh content improves your rankings with Google, etc. We had just launched our painting holidays in France website, and couldn't find it at first on Google under any combination of search terms, so I started looking into SEO. This led me to start a group here on SFN, http://www.survivefrance.com/group/web-design as a place where we could post questions like SEO, etc.
It can take a bit of time to get to know SFN, but I promise you it will be worth it. Contact me any time if I can help. Quickest way to find me is via live chat or put a post on my page.
Phew, glad it's not just me Valerie! We will get there in the end - it just takes time!
I'm with you there. Much of the time I read what's happening but others seem so much more knowledgeable on particular subjects sometimes I stay out of it. Unless I'm on a roll...
Thanks Shelia, I know it's not a forum and it felt I was wrong calling it a forum but wasn't sure what else to call it really.
I was just looking for some guidance in general on how the blogs work as I see there is a blog section on the home page and the rest of the questions on my original post are pretty specific, i.e. do people use blogrolls, if so, have they found any benefit from doing so etc. I suppose being a newbie to blogging I am looking for some positive feedback from more experienced bloggers, what I am doing right, what am I doing wrong, is it worth persisting with?
I find that I feel quite exposed writing a blog so perhaps I was being a bit oversensitive with the "invisible" comment - I just see so much interaction on other posts (is posts the correct term?) on here - at least I know that someone cares now ;-) - thanks again :-)
Thanks Ron, I'm a quiet little mouse really ;-) (well the cat that got the mouse...)
I try to pitch in with discussions but sometimes feel there is not much I can contribute. I will check out the posts as you suggest.
Cheers
Maria
I agree with Ron, and you are not invisible, but I'm unsure what your query is. SFN is NOT a forum. Think of it as a community or to quote Catharine (co-owner of SFN) "a social network designed to help people connect, interact, do business, network, socialise and exchange information in a mutually supportive and helpful environment". I hope this helps.
What's that noise? lol Far from invisible Maria, I read your post earlier today, and in fact subscribed to Blogpatrol...thank you. I'm afraid I don't know much about blogging skills at all, I'm a newbie, but there are plenty of SFN-ers who know what they are doing. I do know that posting here is a great idea, and pitching in with discussions, helps. I believe that direct 'links' to commercial entities from posts is not allowed although if you can steer readers to your Profile Page you can have out-links to Blogs and your website there. Check out too the Posts regarding the naming of Photos too.
I'm beginning to think that I must be invisible on SFN...