Jan
16th

It’s easy to get traffic to your blog but it’s definitely not easy to keep readers from coming back. Here are some tips:

• Write short entries (something I’m not too good at) or use paragraph breaks if you have to write a lot. Nothing is more intimidating than one long paragraph jumbled all together and unless I’m reading my Terry Brooks books, I don’t want to be reading a novel of your blog.
• Everyone loves looking at pictures but but don’t overwhelm the reader with too many. Show a couple and upload the rest somewhere else like Flickr . Choose pictures that are relevant to your entry but try to avoid using boring stock photography that everyone has seen before or open up Photoshop and compile an original and interesting collage instead. This also helps with breaking up text if you tend to write long ones like I do. Example: Image on the right is totally relevant to this entry.
• List-style blog entries. Everyone loves lists because they are easy to read.
• I’ve said this before but this is one of the reasons why I return to a lot blogs— HUMOR AND A BIT OF SARCASM GOES A LONG WAY.
• If you hardly update or if you just don’t spend a lot of time on you blog, don’t stick a gazillion advertisements and paid posts all over the place because it’s gets obvious when making money is your only objective and not the quality of your blog. Instead use your blog as a vessel to other projects so you can maintain quality and promote yourself at the same time. If you already have an established audience for your blog, use it to spread the word.
• If you care about traffic and statistics (and if you lead a boring life like me), at least write some interesting and engaging entries. You may run a “personal” blog but face it, no one really wants to read about your day-to-day activities in every single post. I remember finding my little sister’s diary when I was little and every entry began with a “today I woke up and brushed my teeth…”and fortunately for her, I stopped reading it because it made me fall asleep. The term “personal” blog is very vague which gives you a chance to write about any topic you want under the sun and you’ll eventually find out what your readers are coming back for; then write more of that. I use to think I didn’t care about traffic but I’ve come to realize that I was in denial all those years. I think that most bloggers are narcissistic; we blog because we want people to read therefore we care about traffic. I don’t want my blog to ever become as big as say, Dooce’s(imagine the pressure!) but I want enough readers because it motivates me to write which I do have now.BUT if you are 100% sure you don’t care, then go ahead and write about what kind of toothpaste you used this morning.

Dec
10th

This is somewhat related to my previous entry, Recipe for Successful Personal Blogging. Here are more of my biggest peeves related to blogs (design/function-wise):

• “Continue reading” or “read more” links are annoying! I only use it from time to time, for example if an entry contains a lot of images but it annoys the hell out of me when blogs use this link for all their entries. I know it’s a matter of personal preference but I like having all content laid out in front of me so I can just scroll rather than click (I’m lazy). Screw the excerpt… give me the whole thing! If you run a popular blog and loading time is an issue for you since you don’t want new visitors to wait, then that’s understandable… *whiny voice* but I still find it extremely annoying and I find that I don’t visit blogs with that horrible link unless it’s super-omfg-awesomeness like Smashing Magazine.
• Blogs with only one entry on the index page. Same comment as above: give it all to me at once! This works for information blogs but definitely not for personal blogs because their latest entry maybe zZzzz; I’d leave right away without checking out the archives if quality entries do exist. Shame.
• Clutter is overwhelming and intimidating. When I visit blogs with 2-3 sidebars filled with content, links, advertisements and everything you can imagine, I tend to get overwhelmed and end up leaving because I don’t have time to dig through that mess! Note, the culprits are usually design/tech/business/etc. blogs. The key is to use keywords, list main/popular categories, the top blogs in your blogroll and then put everything else on a separate page. I know you want the visitor to see all you have to offer [and all the ads you want them to click] but don’t scare them away by showing them too much! Tease them and they’ll come crawling back for more. That sounded dirty, didn’t it? But whatever, when Big Bird says it’s true, then it’s true.
• Tiny fonts and tight line-spacing… WTF are you thinking?! I know I said this a billion times but this is one of my biggest peeves; you need to make your writing legible for your visitors! If I go blind reading your blog, I might just sue you… but then I don’t think I’d be there in the first place. The culprits are usually blogs who still think it’s 2003. Remember that trend when all personal blogs was doing that 8pt Arial + tight line-spacing thing (this is where I look away and hang my head in shame).
• Billions of pictures? Please use thumbnails! Or resize them. Or organize them in a way so they don’t turn the face of your scrollbar into a microscopic grain of sand. Or reduce the number of entries that appear at once. Or this is a case when you should use the annoying “continue reading” link.

I can list a billion more but I’m going to “tease” you guys so you come crawling back for more next time. Kidding. I use to be guilty of some of these but I’m still learning.

What do you guys like in the design of a blog and what annoys you?

Nov
22nd

The Coolest Blog powered by WordPress competition got me thinking: WHAT THE HELL IS COOL? The competition in itself is extremely vague because everyone’s definition of cool is different. Is it the design that makes it cool? The blogger’s personality? The writing style?

Nicely designed blogs are super cool but to me, a “COOL” blog to me is more about the blogger.

Funny, witty, makes me laugh my ass off and accidently bang my head against my keyboard. Tiff, Helga and Jen are THE cool.

Strong, in-your-face personalities that will probably intimidate-the-hell-out-of-you-in-real-life-yet-you-can’t-help-but-admire-them. First person that comes to mind? PINK a.k.a. the Asian-Kendra-Wilkinson (I hope she doesn’t kill me for writing that). But seriously, I love K-Dub (except when she tries to rap ).

People who inspires me to look good: beauty/fashion blogs! As an added bonus, these blogs usually come with extremely sexy people and since when was sexy not cool? J, J(es), K(im) and L just to name a few out of a gazillion I read daily.

Design blogs where the writer really interacts with their readers and gives off a “nice” vibe. I lurk a million design blogs, too intimidated to comment but I think John and Jacob‘s are the only ones I ever hesitantly left a comment or two on. I’m not saying the rest of them aren’t nice, I’m just saying that they all intimidate me because they’re so damn talented! Maybe if I actually had a design blog of my own and not one of these personal blogs with a lot of LOLZ and HAHAHAZ, I would comment on more of them.

Sorry, I know I missed a gazillion cool blogs out there but it’s 4am and I gotta sleep. I guess if you want a list of cool blogs, check out my blogroll (which I still have to update… sorry!).

…Wait, I guess I’m wrong. Cool is apparently in Iowa.

Nov
18th

I know everyone writes about this topic sometime in their blogging career and despite me trying to be “different” (FAIL!!), I’m going to take advantage of my writer’s block and hop on the bandwagon. Here is what I think makes a successful personal blog:

• Good design. Yes I know it should always be content > design but I’m a designer and one of the things I use to judge whether to stay at a blog or not is the design. Besides, you basically have 3 seconds to capture the user’s attention before they click on the X button. It’s a shame because some people have great entries but I CAN’T READ IT because their font is too tiny for my half-blind-self and there is no absolutely contrast anywhere. And I don’t like the fact that the Hanson brothers are glaring at me while I read your blog (wait, are they still alive?). You don’t have to be an awesome designer and create incredibly sexy graphics but some things you should consider:
  

  • White space – The reader will need somewhere to rest their eyes especially on a blog with a lot of text. Clutter isn’t really attractive and unless you can make it work, don’t.
  • Color and contrast – Light text on dark background and/or vice versa. I personally prefer white/black/neutral background colors for blogs because it doesn’t hurt the eyes after staring at it for a long time. Can you imagine reading my incredibly long ramblings on a bright red background? Ah.
  • Line height & text size – Tiny 8pt fonts and tight line-spacing is NOT user-friendly and so 2003.
  • Refrain use of celebrity blends – Again that is SO 2003. I used those at 14 *hangs head in shame* when I was still mall-ratting with my bestfriend at Metrotown and creating layouts for my xKube page (shameless plug for my good old beloved online community).

• Use a common/friendly writing style and tone. I’m inclined to sojourn beyond from blogs accompanying superlatively scholarly chirography peculiarity. I tend to stay away from blogs with over-the-top academic writing style. Good, I get that you are smart but I don’t care because I have a billion other blogs to read and I don’t have time to look up every word you write on Dictionary.com. If your blog is conversational in tone, it will draw in more readers because they can relate to you and people don’t get bored by your super long words most of us won’t even use in real life conversations. Also, a little bit of sarcasm, humor and wit goes a long way. Have some fun, don’t be too serious (life is too short… blah blah blah). Oh and I used Thesaurus.com for every word in the first sentence so obviously I’m not academic at all because it doesn’t even make sense. Muhaha.

• Don’t blog about your break ups. Nobody cares.
• Don’t post lyrics. That’s just lame.
• Pictures. Everybody likes pictures! Just make sure to resize and compress them so they don’t slow down the loading time and if you’re going to have a lot, use thumbnails, pretty please.
• Link others! If another blog/website inspired your entry, it’s common courtesy to link and you might get a link back in the future. It’s all about NETWORKING baby!
• Listen to your readers. If they like something you write, write more about it. It doesn’t mean you have to turn your blog into a niche blog (read next point) but if you balance out your topics, you can keep those readers coming.
• Blog about stuff you actually enjoy. Everyone is telling me I should narrow down my blog topics and cater to a specific niche but I can’t because I HAVE BLOGGING A.D.D! I have way too many interests to concentrate on one specific topic and if I do, it’ll probably bring down the quality of my entries because it’s not something I want to do. Besides, I don’t have time to run multiple blogs and making money off my blog isn’t one of my top priorities. You know how to say once a hobby becomes your main stream of income, it sucks the fun out of it? Totally true. So what do I think? Write about whatever you want and if you’re patient, you’ll find people who will enjoy your blog.
• Ignore last point if your priority is to make money from your blog. Because then you’ll probably want to target a specific niche market.
• Write for yourself first. And then write for your readers. Who cares what others think; what makes you different will make you stand out and people will remember you. Be controversial and stir up some drama if needed (as in controversial topics, not shitting on somebody for no reason). Once you start blogging, you’ll start getting haters but they’ll keep on coming back because they’re intrigued by you and they say that once you start getting them, that means your blog is getting popular. Not that that’s entirely a good thing but at least you’re getting somewhere.
• RSS Feeds. I didn’t start using Google Reader until about a year ago because I preferred going to someone’s actual website but as my blogroll grew, that started getting harder and more tedious to do SO THANK GOD FOR RSS. ? Make sure you have a visible link to your RSS feed somewhere on your blog so people can subscribe.

To be continued (maybe in a year or so if I ever get to it)…

Nov
10th

I wrote an entry on guilty pleasures earlier this year but here’s part two… well because I like a lot of things.

• White Spot’s Monty Mushroom burger. Not the new one though where they have the bigger beef patty… that one is gross but the old one is heaven (and one I can actually finish). *drools



• False eye lashes. Yes I know, I sport fake everything from fake hair, fake nails, fake eyes (just not fake clothing brands) … but it’s not like I care what anyone thinks since we all live in a superficial world. But anyway, I can’t seem to buy enough false eyelashes even though I only wear them about 5-6 times a month!! It’s a bad addiction… and I always think I’ll run out but I probably have enough pairs to last me a good 10 years.



• Watching friends play videogames. I don’t play games myself because I tend to get heart attacks everytime my character is about to die (which is often) so I’d rather watch people play. I’m super weird though, I don’t like videogames for the game-play experience but I like to explore worlds in adventure/RPG-style games so that’s why I don’t mind just watching people and if I do play, I’ll use cheats so I can get into every nook and cranny there is. My favorite are horror games like Silent Hill.
• Black bean chicken feet. Cannot find the words to describe how good this is… and all your haterzzz out there don’t believe me!!
• Chinese herbal teas. I’M A TEA ADDICT!!!! Although I have to admit I’m picky; I only drink green tea and Chinese herbal teas— mostly super strong and bitter black teas. I think English/Western teas taste weird— especially fruity teas… nas-tay! This contributes to the gradual yellow-ing of my teeth which leads me to my next point…
• Crest White Stripes. L* got me addicted to these and now I can’t stop using them since they work wonders even though it makes you feel like you have a gazillion holes in your teeth. *shudder. I have sooo many boxes at home it’s not even funny (free, thanks to ******)… but don’t worry, I don’t use them daily anymore because my life is starting to become a boring routine and I don’t need 30 minutes of these everyday to contribute to it.
• McDonalds’ Filet burger. I haven’t had McD’s in like a year but I can still dream (and wet-sloberry-drool may accompany it)!
• Country music. Most of my friends think I’m weird because I listen to country music (they’re your regular hip hop/ R&B crew) but I don’t care, slow country music is soooo good! I blast it from my iPod in Boyfriend’s car when his friends are in it to embarrass him. LOL. It’s okay though, I think he’s learned to tune it out (or he secretly likes it too).



• Disney shows. This is a little more recent but I”ve been catching a lot of kids’ Disney programs because I’m always up late and there is nothing else to watch. My favorite is Cory in the House; I’m embarassed to admit how many times that show made me laugh until I practically rolled off the bed and banged my head on something. Plus Madison Pettis is the CUTEST LITTLE GIRL EVER!! ♥
• Cheese and crackers. I go out and buy my own havarti/cheddar cheese and whole-wheat crackers but I wish adults eating Lunchables were widely accepted in today’s judgemental society. They’re so convenient.
• Experimenting with hair colors. I have something semi-crazy planned for the end of November if I can get myself to shell out the money do it since I should really be saving for Cali and Asia coming up but once I get my mind set on it like this, I think I’ll have to do it! It’s not too crazy (like dying my hair pink and green) because I’m usually too lazy to maintain it but it will be different than people I usually chill with. Also, I definitely want to go blond again maybe sometime next year but I’m going to wait until my beautiful [Asian] blond friends dye their hair a darker color so we don’t look like a group of clones…. I just tend to get bored faster if I look like everyone else! I’ve also had an urge to dye my hair bright blue for quite some time now but many people have argued with me from doing so (probably because they won’t want to be seen in public with this anime-like character/thing).
• Naps. I don’t power nap. I NAP. For hours. And hours.



• Boyfriend’s mom’s udon. Udon? UDON? Yes, udon. It’s just your typical udon cooked in chicken broth, MSG and some random beef balls, shrimp and whatever is around the house but it’s SOOOOO good and for some reason mine never taste as amazing as this, probably because I don’t have any MSG to sprinkle in mine. I don’t even eat the meat and stuff in it; I ONLY eat the udon. Mmmmm. But seriously, what’s so special about udon? I don’t know… BUT IT’S SO GOOD.



• Dreaming about smashing my boyfriend’s computer. This virus-filled, ancient piece of **** I’m writing this draft out on is sooo slow it’s not even funny!! I can’t even publish this until later on when I get on a computer with Photoshop so I can beautify this entry with pictures because it will die a long agonizing death along with me trying to fix it so I can finish my useless ramblings. He bought it a billion years ago when we first met (well… only about 5 years ago) although it’s my fault I put myself through this since he wants to buy a new one but I tell him not to yet because he’s never home anyway and doesn’t need it … besides he can use my super computer (*wishful thinking) at my place.

I tried to spread out all the food-related pleasures so it looks like there are less but after re-reading this, I think I failed. If I were one of the 7 Deadly Sins, I’d definitely be Gluttony!

Blog about YOUR guilty pleasures!