Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The best length for a blog post

The best length for a blog post gets discussed a lot and it seems like the general consensus nowadays is that longer posts are the way to go. Are they really? It turns out you need to know you audience and cater for them. See these groups:
Those writers who are for the epic length post recommend writing over 2000 words with detailed step by step explanations and instructions, including all the info your reader wants to know about the subject and some that they didn´t even know they needed. Those posts are for people looking for in depth information, who yearns for knowledge. One example of this type is the series of 26 Tips on many social media related subjects by Debbie Hemley.





On the other hand some mega famous bloggers write less than 300 words per post. They write for an audience that is looking for instant Fastgratification and quick fixes. They believe you have just 7 seconds to grab someone´s attention and you have to make them count. Reader´s attention spam is getting shorter and shorter.
And then there are the infographic posts, chock full of valuable data, easy to read, easy to share. Clear and to the point.


It all boils down to quality. Here are some tips for writing THE epic post:
* Include key information at the beginning. Tell the website visitor who is looking for instant clarification they are in the right place.
* Spend time working on the blog post, even if it is super short.
* Craft the title. Write several before actually choosing one.
* The post feels too long? Turn the blog post into a series.
* Add bells and whistles: pictures, bullet lists, quotes, videos, infographics (which can be posts on their own if you are going for focused posts)

More? According to Social Triggers this is everything your blog post needs to have:
PerfectBlogPost
Like this? Learn how to use psychology to get more traffic and sales with Social Triggers.
Me? I am the “Say what you need to say and then stop” kind. ðŸ˜€
Brittany Bullen from brittanybullen.com
In my opinion a post should only be as long as it needs to be to get the message across. There’s no need to add length for length’s sake. Brittany Bullen
Shana Sutton from Technotini
I think a lot also has to do with how you format your post. You want to make it very easy to read so people can pick out key information and be excited to keep scrolling.

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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The must have plugins for WordPress

After  blogging for 9 years at Blogger I decided to move and the first thing I looked up was what were the must have plugins for WordPress. must have plugins for wordpress
I asked web designer Ana Lynn Amelio, the author of WordPress Blog Design Course for her advice.

This is the list of must have plugins for WordPress Ana sent me and I added to my site:


  • Shareaholic (for sharing buttons under your posts, and related content)
  • Simple Social Icons (to display your social media profiles in your sidebar)
  • WordPress SEO by Yoast
  • Wordfence Security (the main thing you need to do here is enable the caching service under Performance tab in Wordfence menu)
  • Contact Form 7 
  • Comment Luv or Disqus for comments
  • GrowMap AntiSpam Bot plugin 
  • Jetpack it’s nice for some additional features like notifications when someone replies or comments on your post, stats, and the ability to push your posts to your Facebook, Twitter, Google +…  – you will need to sign up for WordPress.com account to use it
I also asked the #ibabloggers at the International Bloggers Association blog which were their must have plugins for WordPress and both Giada and Megan agreed with the Disqus point but
Joanne T. Fergusson from “What´s on the list?” was the dissenting voice about the Disqus commenting system:
I agree with most of them, but not the Disqus; as some one who literally visits hundreds and hundreds of sites each week, commenting etc…slows down the process big time for me!

Want to know more? According t WordPress these are today´s most popular plugins and these are the highest rated plugins. And here you have a list of must have plugins for WordPress divided by what they do that keeps getting updated.

3 tips to help you choose plugins:

Tip #01: start your search by looking at the official WordPress plugin directory  Have a look at the ratings, updates and support.
Tip #02: when you are looking for technical blogging info on line always check the date the blog post was published. Things change so quickly on line!
Tip #03: as tempting as it is, do NOT download every plugin you can think of. Every plugin weights into the loading time of your site and people get impatient and leave if it does not load quick enough. Choose wisely.

Your turn: tell me your own must have plugins for WordPress and one plugin you have uninstalled and why.



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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Should you turn your blog comments on or off?

I took everyone, including myself, by surprise when I became a chatterbox in my mid thirties, right after having my daughter. Since that moment I haven´t stopped talking neither on line nor off so having a comment section here in my blog made sense. That being said, I noticed other blogs had decided to shut their comment section.The scribes decides if he is turning the blog comments on or off
For example Copyblogger mentioned several different reasons to do so. Their first point was that the conversations weren´t really taking place in the blog, they were moving to the social platforms which is indeed a good thing for bloggers as a potential wider audience is reached there. Plus the commenters who went to great lengths to answer and contribute would benefit from doing so at their own blogs. And then of course, the biggest problems in comment management: spam.
They are not alone in their decision. Matt Gemmel turned his comments off many years ago on the grounds that the commenters were a tiny minority and therefore the contribution to the blog was minimal and Lisa from elembee was happy after a few months because she felt she had more time now she isn´t checking his comments so often.
When I asked the International Bloggers Association´s blog readers whether they had the comment section on the answers were 100% positive.
About the spam problem Nicole from Blast Off Blogging gave us a good tip:
I do have WordPress set to close the comments section on posts older than 30 days to discourage spammers.
Giada from Crafty Tasty Geeky said she answers the comments she receives immediately, which prompted me to ask her whether that interrupted her daily work flow . It turns out she has a cool system to manage that:
Of course, if I am in the middle of a work meeting or doing something important, I mute my phone and I don’t even look at the notifications. When I’m done, I grab my phone, check every push notification and respond. If a comment needs a broader answer I keep the notification (or mark the email as unread) to remember that I have to answer.
Personally, as I started my new blog I wondered if I should turn my blog comments on or off from the beginning or if there was a “cutting limit” to the amount of comments I should get before turning the comments off. Today I´m still at a point that I can get to answer all the comments and all the answers to the questions I get are later turned into more content to help people out. A win-win situation in my opinion. My readers guide me.
Do you have your blog comments on or off?
Interested in more blogging debates? Read the International Bloggers Association´s blog on Mondays when I post another question for the Conversation of the Week.

60 thoughts on “Should you turn your blog comments on or off?

  • October 28, 2014 at 5:49 am
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    Hi Paula, I have my comments “on” as I don’t do other forms of social media and I have found that I have received some very helpful comments in the past which I wouldn’t want to dissuade.
    Spam can be a bit of a pest but as my comments section requires moderation before publishing I haven’t found it to be too much of a problem.
    Toni xx
    Reply
    • October 28, 2014 at 8:46 am
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      Good to see you Toni! Blogger is great at catching spam, even with an open system which is what I had in place. It is lovely to see familiar faces in the comments when I go to your blog! ðŸ˜€
      Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 9:10 am
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    I think to each his own., I would never personally do it because I love the interaction on my site.
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 11:14 am
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    There are some cons and pro about that. You need to open the comments to have more people to interact with your articles. and the disadvantage would be spammers.
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 12:10 pm
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    I always leave my comments on. I know it can open me up to spammers, and it can be a pain to keep it clean. I really like the interaction, though.
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 2:41 pm
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    I like having them open to allow for interaction. Spam is outrageous, but it’s just part of the game.
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 2:53 pm
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    I use blogger so I have mine turned on so that they allow Google+ comments as well. This way, the commenting takes place on social platforms and the blog. Since I did this, I don’t get spam!
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 3:42 pm
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    Great article! I have tried it both ways. For a long time, I encouraged readers to join me in my FB group to continue the discussion. Within recent days, I decided to return to host those valuable conversations on my own platform where I ultimately own and control the content.
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 4:13 pm
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    I leave my comments on, and I always read comments on other blogs. I’m kind of addicted! I just love to read what other people have to say.
    Cheers!
    JoAnna
    foreverinparadise.net
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 7:04 pm
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    I personally love being able to comment on people’s sites and chatting about whatever the post may be, but if some feel it is better to turn them off, more power to them!
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 9:00 pm
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    I love to hear what others have to say. It also helps with some future blog posts, when I get questions. I wish I had the time to reply to all of them, but I DO READ them ALL! I’m on blogger, so I think the spam control is better?
    Reply
    • October 30, 2014 at 9:19 am
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      I do the same with the questions, using them as base for another blog post. I agree on Blogger having better spam control as I´ve been on both platforms and I see the difference.
      Going back to your first point, maybe the next questions should be not only if you have the comments on but if bloggers answer the ones they get! ðŸ˜€
      Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 9:00 pm
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    I like turning it on to keep an interaction with the audience. I know, spammers will flood! I can deal with it though.
    Reply
    • October 30, 2014 at 9:20 am
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      Do you feel there is a “cut off” number of spam comments you might get before you consider them out of control and shut the feature?
      Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 9:12 pm
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    I have my blog comments on but it’s monitored. I have to admit what upsets me more is my phone pinging from the continuous messages on . facebook.. It drives me absolutely nuts. Glad to see that I am not the only one.
    Reply
    • October 30, 2014 at 9:21 am
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      Michelle, there is a way to turn the sound of the pinging off in Facebook! It´s in the general settings. If you can´t find it, drop me a line and I¨ll help you out. :)
      Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 9:28 pm
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    I don’t think I could ever turn my blog comments off. It may be true that the percentage of people who comment is small, but I love reading the comments that do get posted.
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 10:00 pm
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    I know I couldn’t turn them off. I’ve wanted to on occasion, but never have. I’m sort of addicted to them too. :)
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 11:27 pm
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    I would have to check with my sister on what she does. I would be worried about all the spam if I had it on.
    Reply
  • October 28, 2014 at 11:47 pm
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    A huge benefit to comments is that it keep those users on your page longer, reducing your bounce rate. I think that has value that is being ignored in a lot of these assessments.
    Reply
    • October 30, 2014 at 9:25 am
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      True, I haven´t seen it being mentioned Jon. In that case the more comments you get, the better as people tend to read those as well after the post.
      Reply
  • October 29, 2014 at 2:08 am
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    i guess it will be downright lonely to turn comments off on our blogs. i love reading feedback from my readers, whether good or bad. i have installed an anti-SPAM plugin, though, to keep the spam comments at bay + have set for my comments to be pre-approved for safe measures.
    Reply
  • October 29, 2014 at 3:08 am
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    Great information indeed . I would think most would want the comment section on for their readers. Thanks for sharing.
    Reply
  • October 29, 2014 at 4:01 am
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    I still leave my blog comments open. It can be tedious to answer questions and moderate them since it’s a family blog. Sometimes the spam (ugh those ray ban pushers and trolls!) drive me bonkers but the regular followers on my blog are true supporters.
    Reply
    • October 30, 2014 at 9:30 am
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      Lol at the spammers description. It´s nice when you get to the point of the small tribe of loyal followers. Even better when it is a big tribe. ðŸ˜‰
      Reply
  • October 29, 2014 at 10:44 am
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    I love having my comments on so I can interact with people. Plus it is nice to be able to answer any questions that people have about something I have written about.
    Reply
  • October 29, 2014 at 11:12 am
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    I feel that every site should have their comments enabled, because it’s good to see the people who visit your site interact.
    Reply
  • October 29, 2014 at 6:53 pm
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    My blog comments are turned one but I do have to manually approve them that way I know what is Spam, ect.
    Reply
  • October 30, 2014 at 12:02 am
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    There are many wordpress plug ins that prevent spam comments. Thank God for that!
    Reply
    • October 30, 2014 at 9:36 am
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      I don´t ise that one Cassie as it tagged me as spam because I comment too much for their standards! Lol. Which other things do you do?
      Reply
  • October 31, 2014 at 1:06 am
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    That’s tricky! I used to have my blog on blogger and never really had to worry about spam (much). But since moving over to WordPress I find that I don’t have a choice but to turn my blog comments off. I do it on post older than 15 days. I once had to deal with 300 spam comments in 1 day and I was like “NOPE!” lol
    Reply
  • November 3, 2014 at 1:52 pm
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    This is very interesting! I keep my comments on because for me, comments tell me that people are actually reading the content. Anyone can click a share or tweet button, but taking the time to leave a comment is a little more personal. I do like the idea of automatically turning off the commenting option on older posts to discourage spammers. That’s a good idea. Thanks so much for linking up at Come Along Ponds!
    Reply



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