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2.10.2011

Book Blogging 101 - Quickie Answers



Welcome to Book Blogging 101, where you ask a question and I try my best to answer it. I'm not an expert -- so if I get it wrong, shhh I don't want to hear it! LOL. No let me know in the comments if you have a difference of opinion, or know a better way.

Spawned from the Big Sis, Little Blog program, Book Blogging 101 was born. Do you have a question? Leave it in the google docs form and I'll try and answer them in the order they are received.


actually, in my country, there are lack of book blog. I really want to make a book blog network but it seems i dont find the right way yet. Do you have any suggestion how to start to make a network book blog? -- anna

A:  Anna, I would first search out other bloggers from your country, send them an email and say hi. Maybe get an idea of who is out there. Then I would make a GROUP on the NING book blogs group or on facebook, or even start a forum where you can all sound off. This way you guys have a central location where you can meet and exchange ideas. Once you get the group up and running, go back to those emails and comments and invite all your fellow countrymen and women to the group. Once you have that group together you can throw around the idea of a book blog with you all participating.

What's your opinion on music on a blog? Whenever I see it, I get so annoyed, because I may be in middle of listening to something, and if I have a bunch of blog tabs open, I have to go through each one to find the music and pause it, or I'll close the tab if I can't find the widget. What's YOUR view on it? -- Riv

A:  First thing I usually do is mute it. Unless it is a really good song. But, music can be an annoyance, but more importantly it slows the blog down because of the larger file size. If you think about it, the song has to download and then play, you are streaming music from a secondary site. I really can't think of any benefit that adding music has towards a blog, except to create ambiance. Yet, I would really make an effort to try to create ambiance with design and content, instead of music. Or...if you are insistent on having a music player on your blog, have it set to not play automatically, make it optional. Win. Win.

How do I get people to fill out my questionnaires? You know, those google docs forms? So, I have a few forms in my sidebar, for people to fill out to make my blog better. One of them is a simple question to find out how many people actually pay attention to my blog.
How do I get people to fill out those forms? -- Riv

A:  Offer them an incentive. Fill out the form and have a chance to win a $5 amazon GC, or something of that order. You can make a general petition on your blog, tweet it out or just let people know about it. But think about this. Do you get survey petitions in your email, or from a store on their receipt? What are the ones that you make sure you fill out? The ones that offer some kind of incentive. Bribery always works. ;)

Is there a program that can aggregate all my blog comments? -- Dominique

A:  Two comment moderators that I can recommend:
Disqus.com
Intensedebate.com

Bribery always works. ;)

I hate blogs that do memes. What is the point, they are so annoying and ignorant. What is your opinion.  -- Anon

A: Well considering I happen to do memes this comment is both offensive and insulting. Great way to pay attention there. I usually wouldn't post this, delete works wonders, but I figured I would give this one a shot. There is a very simple simple solution to your problem. Don't follow those blogs that so annoy you, isn't that easy? No reason to hate, life is too short for such a negative emotion.

I'm out of here! Hope ya'll's day is going splendid...

 Life's too short. Read more. Talk less.








Ask your BB101 Questions here...

14 comments:

Mariya said...

Hates Memes? The point is there are fun to do and also connect with other bloggers that you may not even know are out there. I wouldn't have found Parajunkee if it wasn't for Follow Friday XD

Tales of Whimsy said...

OMG I had to laugh at the last one ;)
GREAT answer.

I must admit, music on blogs does bug me.

Tales of Whimsy said...

BTW, thanks for using a regular blogger comment box. I don't dig the other comment types.

Lillie (AliseOnLife) said...

I like the blogger comment box, but I've wondered about using one of the other types, where I can see the email address for the commenter, but it isn't in the comment body. Have you tried disqus or intense debate?

Stephanie H. said...

Whatever I love memes. I love reading everyone else's too. It's a fun way to be active other than reviews and has helped me meet other bloggers.

Midnyte Reader said...

Thanks for answering that last one. Memes *are* fun and they are creative and besides it's the blogger's blog...they can put whatever they want on it.

ParaJunkee said...

@Mariya - I've found a ton of new blogs too via memes. I think that was a comment just to see if I would answer it LOL

@Juju - I have actually found a song or two that I liked from blog music - but most of the time I do just mute it. Or I click off the page because it loads so slow. People really should be aware of how long it takes for their blog to load. All these tons of sidebar widgets, music and stuff slows the blog down and hinders people from reading your stuff.

@Lillie - I haven't used any of them actually. I've installed them in other people's blogs, but I haven't felt the need to use one for me personally. What are the pros and cons???

@Stephanie H - It is a GREAT way to meet other bloggers.

@Midnyte - exactly. It's your blog do what you want. If they don't like it, they don't have to visit.

April (BooksandWine) said...

Well, for the most part, I think memes are stupid. However, I'm not about to yell at people who do them, as I realize it's my choice to follow someone or not.

Also, music on blogs is the worst. I especially hate those widgets that automatically play music (one reason why I don't have count down widgets).

BLHmistress said...

I had to take a few countdown widgets down because it was causing my blog to load slowly.

If it weren't for meme's I wouldn't have met have the fab bloggers I have met.

Anonymous said...

I think memes are great if they feature something fun or intersting on your blog. I love the new release memes...saying they are stupid and ignorant is pretty thoughtless seeing how thousands of blogs do it....

When I first started I had music on my blog and I loved it...I shortly found though how annoying it made me while looking at my blog so I took it off...it also caused slow downloads. That was my first lesson in blogging...no music or countdown widgets.

Enbrethiliel said...

+JMJ+

I don't have a music player on my blog, but I occasionally embed YouTube videos of tracks which make up a "playlist" for a book I've recently read.

There are so many different kinds of memes out there that an "I hate memes" comment is seriously silly.

ParaJunkee said...

Countdown widgets, anything with flash embeds hosting from a third party site --- all slow your blog down. When it loads...look at the bottom bar, see what is still loading, if it catches on something that is what is slowing your blog down.

Kat said...

*Ouch*-- concerning the last question about the memes. But a fantastic answer. I like memes, because they bring the blogging community together and let us share opinions and talk, yet I see so many people talking about how annoying and 'brainless' they are.

I've often thought of uploading a playlist before, but on my sidebar, because it's hard to have music on your blog which loads automatically, because even if it was the most popular song in the world there's always plenty of people who will be annoyed by it. Anyway, great answers. :)

ann said...

hhaaha, i like your last answer dear. :p

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