3 Quick Tips to Keep Your Blog Reader-Friendly

 

I’ve only published a few how-to posts before so bear with me. It’s short. And has three easy tips to increase your readership.

Okay, I can only promise it will increase readership by one.

That would be me.

Hopefully that one flower (that would be me, again) will become a garden of readers.

There are some of you (I won’t name names) who have the most sweetest blogs and the most loveliest things to say. And yet…

There are a few things I’d like to discuss with you. Three, actually. I’ll be quick. Promise.

I’d like to ask a favor, my bloggy friends. Could you do something for me? That is, if you don’t mind and I ask nicely? (I usually offer cookies or something as my “nice” may not be as nice as I think it is. So, cookies will be involved. Or cake. Your choice.)

When I read your post and there’s a link, it’s wonderful if that link is a word or two (or even five), not an enormously long URL.

And then, when you have your cute, little word that is now a link, it’s quite charming if it doesn’t kick me off your blog. I’m reading your blog because I like it. And I don’t want to leave. And you don’t want me to leave. There might be other posts I’d like to read on there.

Finally, when someone leaves a link in your comments, it often flies off the side of the page and makes your blog literally swim before my eyes. And not in a cute, “Aw, look, it’s a dolphin” sort of way. No. It moves and is difficult to read and (apologies) I often click off the post. I sometimes manage to finish reading if it’s short but I certainly don’t enjoy it as much as I would if it were, say, staying in place.

So, if you’re interested (and use WordPress), these are super-quick fixes:

 

Turning a long link into a short word or phrase:

• Select and cut link from your post
• Highlight word(s) you would like turned into a link
• Click on link button in the toolbar (if you hover, it says ‘insert/edit link’)
• Paste link into the space provided

 

Having a link open in a new tab:

After you have turned your long link into a short word or phrase, have it open into a new tab so I can stay on your blog. (Unless you want me to leave. I can take a hint.)

• Keep box open where you just pasted your link
  
• Click on gear icon (it will say ‘link options’ if you hover) Skip this step if using the Reader
  
• Find the tiny box that says ‘Open link in a new tab’
• Put a check there

 

Adding/editing links in comment sections:

• Go to Dashboard and into Comments
• Click ‘Edit’
  
• Click the ‘Link’ button
• Cut and paste link into URL space
  
• Find the tiny box that says ‘Open link in a new tab’
• Put a check there
• Click ‘Update’

OR

• Go to Dashboard and into Comments
• Click ‘Quick Edit’
  
• Cut and paste the following into the comment box:
• <a href=”www.hello.com”>Hi</a>
• Change “www.hello.com” to link in the comment
• Change “Hi” to whatever text you want to display
• NOTE: This will not open the comment link in a new tab

 

So long and thanks for all the links! 🐠

 

If you don’t do these things, is it by choice? If so, why? Does it bother you to have a link open in a new tab? Do you think it’s more likely people will click on longer (obvious) links?

 

The Blogging Snow Globe

 

 

Lemon Shark’s Blog Tip (for WordPress).

Let’s have a bit of silliness. ‘Tis the season to be silly.

 

The Blogging Snow Globe:

My blog started snowing a little over a week ago. I was way too excited about the whole thing.

I realized I had never turned the Blogging Snow Globe off and it announced December in the most delightful way. (Please don’t search for “Blogging Snow Globe”—I made it up.)

If you find these blog flakes hideous and annoying, swim away…

For those of you who are seeing other blogs with bits of snow and are jealous bitter curious, keep reading.

Okay, bloggers, hold on to your winter hats. We’re gonna make it snow. It’s really difficult so try to keep up. Ready?

 

Go to your Dashboard (through WP Admin).

Dashboard > Settings > General

If you see Title, Tagline, Timezone, Date…you’re in the right place. (FYI: Your site icon is there so, if you’ve been looking for that, boom! There it is.) Scroll down until you see “Snow”. Seriously. It actually says “Snow”. And, next to that, it says: “Show falling snow on my blog until January 4^th.”

Click the box.

 

Your blog is now snowing. ❄️ And will automatically stop on January 4^th. You are like a frickin’ weather wizard. (You know you want to do this in real life.)

 

Go to your Dashboard (through The-Powers-That-Be Admin).

Dashboard > Life > Weather

Scroll down until you see “Show falling snow for the weekend that melts by my Monday morning commute.”

Click the box.

 

 

❄️ Happy blogging days, my friends. ❄️

 

Have You Cleaned Your Book Links Yet?

 

 

Everyone loves cleaning, right?

Yeah.

Here’s a quick and easy (don’t you just love those words?) way to clean something super important: buy links for your books.

 

Hmm… Long, messy link. (Clean-up on aisle five!)

Happy, clean, pretty link!

How did I get that? Easy. Delete everything highlighted in yellow. (That would be everything after your ASIN.)

What are those reference, encoding, string of letters and numbers thingies? Why are they there? If the link works without them (it does), why include them? You need your ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) but after that…?

You could take out the “https” or the “www” (or even the title of your book if you’d like) to shorten it for sharing or just to look nice. But, for now, I’m thinking that stuff at the end there would be great to, you know, not be there.

I don’t know much about the mumbo-jumbo techie stuff like algorithms or backlinks or tracking or, actually, anything of the sort but I still think cleaning links is a good idea. If there’s even a potential problem, why risk it? I read this post on D.G. Kaye’s site a few months ago regarding Amazon links. She gives info on what all this stuff might mean for you and your books. If you haven’t read it, you really should.

And, though I’ve seen many people write about this, I’m still seeing lots of long links out there. Perhaps it’s not crucial to remove that gobbledygook but…what if it is? Get rid of it.

I guess that’s all I’m saying.

So now you’re saying, “Yah, well my links are clean, lady!”

Then I say, “That’s great! What about the links to other people’s books? The ones you’re promoting on your blog or posting on social media?”

Uh-huh.

Clean those up, too, you know? Because. You’re nice that way.

A global or universal link will eliminate the need to do this for your books but a lot of people haven’t gotten around to that yet. *raises hand* Also, that doesn’t help when you’re sharing other people’s books or they’re sharing yours and don’t have your link. If you get into the habit of dropping that gunk after the ASIN (see the highlighted link up there ↑↑↑), it won’t be an issue. You’ll always have clean links. And your fellow authors will, too.

 

Are your links clean? If not, why? Is this a choice or have you just not gotten to it yet? (P.S. Even if you use clean links in your posts, please check your sidebars… Just saying.) 🙂

 

P.P.S. I’m just taking a shot in the dark here but you should probably clean before creating a universal link. I mean…who knows what happens if you use a long link with all those encoded reference thingies to paste into a global link? Does it clean for you? Does it forever track you? No clue.

 

I’m sharing Debby’s comment in the post here for more info:

“it’s important to clean off the links of other’s books when you’re promoting them because anyone who…decides to buy from the link provided to get to Amazon can be misconstrued as a ‘friend’ of the author…it’s a target and flag to Amazon that the book was purchased from a tracked link making you look like you knew the author because it was a trailed link, not the clean link you’d see if you actually just went to Amazon direct to the book page. 🙂 [Also]…Universal links should be clean…”

 

Why You Should Embed Tweets in Your Blog Post

 

 

I shared how to embed tweets in a blog post but you may be asking yourself why you’d want to.

 

You: “So, Sarah, that was cool and all but why would I need tweets on my blog?”

Me: “What?! Because!”

You: …

Me: “It’s awesome, that’s why!”

You: …

Me: “Okay. I’ll tell you.”

 

These embedded tweets are… Psst… Come closer… *whispers* Interactive.

I know, right? How cool is that?! Readers can do anything right from your blog.

• Open your tweet
• Visit your timeline
• Check out a hashtag
• Follow
• Like
• Retweet
• Reply

Everything is clickable. It’s basically a live tweet. One that you’ve highlighted. One that you want to share with your blog readers.

I do like Twitter but, let’s face facts, that thing moves like ticker tape. It’s so easy to miss tweets from your tweeps. Depending on how often you post, that tweet is going to be much more visible here.

And it doesn’t have to be just one. You can make an entire post from tweets. Maybe you’ve had an interesting conversation about traditional vs indie publishing. Or the best way to make brownies. Or whether spiders or rats have had better PR. (I’ve had that last convo quite recently: Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man. It was weird.)

Regardless, it makes for a fun post and people can interact with each tweet by liking, retweeting, and even replying to it right from your blog.

• Catch tweeps who may have missed your tweet.
• Reach blog buddies who may not be following you on Twitter.
• Create synergy between your blog and social media.
• Highlight content from Twitter.
• Create a blog post composed entirely of tweets (e.g. a compilation of micro fiction).
• Get inspiration. Transform a tweet into a longer piece.
• Promote your writing…new releases, cover reveals, trailers, etc.
• Ask a question on your blog with a Twitter poll. *

 

FOLLOW:

This allows readers to…well…follow you.

Click to enlarge

 

TIMELINE:

Your name/avi brings readers directly to your timeline. (They can open a specific tweet by clicking on the time/date of the embedded tweet.)

Click to enlarge

 

LIKE:

Click to enlarge

 

RETWEET:

Click to enlarge

 

REPLY:

Readers can reply to your tweet right here.

Click to enlarge

A pop-up box appears, they write 140 characters (or less) in reply to you, then click “tweet”. This shows up on their timeline and yours. Nice!

Click to enlarge

 

Let’s try this, shall we? I’ll embed a tweet or two, you have fun:

“No, no. Look,” she grabbed the spoon. “You have to stir it slowly. Poison isn’t instant pudding! Pay attention.”#FP

— Sarah Brentyn (@SarahBrentyn) October 21, 2016

 

Everyone has emotional baggage, some just refuse to fill out the ID tags. #FP

— Sarah Brentyn (@SarahBrentyn) July 31, 2015

 

* I tried a poll a few years ago and, when I posted about it, most bloggers said they hadn’t seen the poll on Twitter. If you embed it, both your blogging friends and your tweeps can vote.

The worst way writers procrastinate (instead of finishing their WIPs)… #amwriting #writerslife #socialmedia

— Sarah Brentyn (@SarahBrentyn) May 28, 2017

 

Hope you found some fun ways to use a tweet on your blog. Remember…a well-placed tweet can make a good post great. (I just made that up but it’s kind of cool.) 🙂

Happy blogging (and tweeting) days, my friends!

 

How to Embed Tweets in Your Blog Post

 

 

Tweets aren’t just for Twitter anymore.

Here’s a neat thing you can do with those tweets right here on your WordPress blog. It’s wicked cool. And easy. 3 steps…done.

All of you lovely bloggers know I’m not a techie but I wanted to share this fun find with you.

I have visuals, too, which is awesome. Admittedly, I went a bit bonkers with the arrows but…you get the point. (I know. I’m hilarious.)

First we’re going old school with a “cut and paste” URL option, then we’ll embed an html code like we know what we’re doing.

No need to hurt your eyes squinting at the screenshots—you can click to enlarge them. Let’s get tweeting on our blogs.

 

Copy Link Option:

STEP ONE:

Choose the tweet you want. Click on the cute, little grey v-shaped thingy in the top, right corner.

Click to enlarge

 

STEP TWO:

You’ll see a drop-down menu with all sorts of neat things like “pin to your profile page” (or “unpin” if it’s already pinned), “share via DM”, and “delete tweet” (for those times when Twitter decides to add a typo after you’ve posted). Click on “Copy link to Tweet”.

Click to enlarge

Here is what you’ll see. Select and copy. It’s a URL so you can use this anywhere you’d use a link. (UPDATE: OCTOBER 2017 – There is no longer a URL to cut and paste. Once you click on “Copy link to Tweet”, the URL is automatically copied.)

Click to enlarge

 

STEP THREE:

Open a post and paste the copied link. You’ll be in “visual” view for this. Hey! There’s a tweet!

Click to enlarge

Copying the link works well on WordPress but may not work on other platforms. On a website, for example, this option will simply create a URL to the tweet.

 

Embed Code Option:

STEP ONE:

We’re going to embed that tweet now. Hold on to your hats. Choose the tweet you want. Click on the cute, little grey v-shaped thingy in the top, right corner. There’s that drop-down menu. Click on “Embed Tweet”.

Click to enlarge

Here is what you’ll see. Select and copy the html code.

Click to enlarge

 

STEP TWO:

Open a post. Switch to “text” view. Paste the code. Hmm…there’s a bunch of html stuff there I don’t understand. *shrugs*

Click to enlarge

 

STEP THREE:

Let’s switch to “visual” view and see what happens… There they are! Except, erm, they look different. Click “Preview”.

Click to enlarge

No worries! When you preview, they look the same.

Click to enlarge

Embedding has a few more options and benefits but, for the sake of brevity (and for those who don’t play well with html), these are two ways to get a tweet into a WordPress post. Pick one, have fun, and tweet on.

Tune in tomorrow, Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel, for my follow-up post on embedding tweets. What they are and why you want to use them.

And…here it is: Why You Should Embed Tweets in Your Blog Post (the what and why of embedding tweets)

Happy blogging days, my friends.

 

How to Get Your Blog Post Back from the Depths of WordPress

 

 

I was minding my own bloggy business when I messed up a post that I had spent some major time setting up. I don’t know how I even did it but I turned the entire thing into one big link to a Google search. Huh? Right. Moving on.

WordPress would NOT let me ‘undo’ as I usually do when I muck something up. I was stuck. In the muck. Oh…

And non-techie me figured out how to fix it. Little ol’ me! Most of you probably already know this but I thought I’d share just in case I could save a fellow friendly blogger the trouble of rewriting a post. (I even have visuals. This is all mind-blowing, I know.)

I made up a Wonderful New Post to walk you through this super easy process.

 

STEP ONE:

Write an awesome post and be proud. Fix those typos, polish, and click “Save Draft”, as always.

Click to enlarge

 

STEP TWO:

Mess up your awesome blog post and panic. Then notice how you now have “Revisions” over to the right. You didn’t have that before. You must “Save Draft” at least twice before that shows up. This “Revisions” is your key to salvation. Or your post’s salvation. Same, same. Click on “Browse” over in “Revisions”.

Click to enlarge

 

STEP THREE:

You get a choice here. You’ll now see two versions of the post. Click on “Previous” on the left of your screen OR slowly move the sliding arrow in the middle of your screen over to the left.

Click to enlarge

 

STEP FOUR:

Cool! You’re getting closer to your original (or the version you want back). It says this was my “9 minutes ago” revision. But…it still has my mistake in the green there, see? I don’t want this.

Click to enlarge

 

STEP FIVE:

Neat! You’ll notice the big, blue button that says “Restore This Revision” is now clickable. (It wasn’t before.) Click that button when you see the post you want. Ah! My mistake is no longer in that green area.

Click to enlarge

 

STEP SIX:

Look! It says “Post Restored”. I have my Wonderful New Post back. Click “Save Draft” then “Publish”. (Or schedule, if that’s your thing.)

Click to enlarge

 

Happy blogging days, my friends.