Since some time before Christmas, I have really been contemplating whether or not I Home with Heather was something that I was going to continue with. This is not a decision that I have come to easily as you can see from some of my previous posts: Perspective, Happy New Year, and Getting My Groove Back. I’ve tried, but I can’t seem to get my groove back…

Home with Heather is just not where my heart is right now, and I am not the kind of person to do something half-way. And so with that in mind, I have made the decision to stop writing for Home with Heather, for the time being. I will leave it up for you, and may even pop in with a post from time to time.

This decision has made me sad, relieved, and excited at my new ventures. I would love to keep in touch with you through my MySpace page at http://myspace.com/wahmbuddy or you can visit my other site at Our Kids Are Special.

It has been a wonderful experience to create and update Home with Heather. I have learned a lot of valuable things, met many great people, and have hopefully been able to share some of that experience with you through my posting.

Expect the Best,

Whats on my Mind?

My recent post on “Why Dont You Leave a Comment“, was to help show readers how to leave comments on blogs.

In conversations I had with my 3D friends, they felt uncomfortable leaving comments because they didn’t know how, and because they thought nobody wanted to hear what they had to say anyway.

There was quite a mixed reaction to the post by way of comments with readers explaining why they do or do not leave comments. It’s an interesting read. One of the comments left by “Mini” was asking for more information:

I dont leave comments cuz I feel it is unfamiliar territory - I am not blog wise - so if you are trying to educate since you explained how to comment, please educate me also as to RSS, Shin, Plug and Zoom - or are those areas only for the blogger-knowledgeable folks ?? You see, if I am confused about all the terms, commenting does not come easy.. thanks for the education

That’s really a two part question. The first is dealing with RSS, and the second is dealing with the social site buttons being displayed on a blog.

In this post, let’s talk about the buttons that are displayed on the posts. There are so many different buttons that any blogger can choose to display on a post, some cater to Internet Marketing, and Blogging while others cater to different “niche” topics.

The purpose of displaying the buttons is for the blogger to get your “vote” on the article. The more votes an article receives, the higher it advances in that particular social site, and the more publicity it gets.

The buttons are on display for all readers to use, though admittedly they are mostly only used by other bloggers who know what they are for. Some networking sites require that you become a member before you can use the buttons, others allow any reader to click them.

The 3 buttons that Mini asked about are on my posts.

This button to a social networking site called PlugIM. “PlugIM is a user driven internet marketing community. Submit content, share articles, comment on projects and promote your favorites to the front page”. With Plug IM, you do not need an account to promote an article that you like. All you have to do is click the plug button, and the counter will increase.

Sphinn.com is a newer social site that is all about Internet Marketing News. “It’s designed to allow you to share and discover news stories, read and take part in discussions, discover events of interest and network with others” In order to use this button, you must have an account with Sphinn.

Blogging Zoom is a newer social site dedicated to bloggers, and at present is my favorite of the three. “We are here to give every blogger, popular or not, a chance to showcase their content and talents. BZ was created by bloggers for bloggers, and we are dedicated to providing people with the tools and knowledge they need to increase their blogs’ popularity”. With Blogging Zoom, you do need to set up a profile in order to be able to zoom articles, but you dont need a blog to be part of the community. You can join just as a way of finding great info, and then start zooming it.

There are hundreds of social networking sites like these and many of them have buttons that will displayed on a blog. The submission process should be relatively the same for all of them. The questions of course would be whether or not you have to be a member of the site in order to click on a button and vote for that article. The way to find out would be to try. It certainly won’t hurt anything, and you may find a community that provides great information that you want to be a part of.

Look for upcoming posts to where I will be showcasing certain social sites. I also will spend more time on RSS and how it can be used to save you time, and keep you up to date on your favorite blogs.

BTW - If you like an article on Home with Heather, go ahead and click on the buttons. It would be greatly appreciated.

Expect the Best,

Blogging, blogging zoom, bz, comments, plugim, reader questions, Social Networking, social sites, sphinn, su

This question is directed to readers of blogs everywhere (not just mine), and it is inspired by a conversation I’ve been having with some of my 3D friends as of late.

I’ve noticed that very few comments are left by readers that do not have a website of blog to link back too. And it’s got me curious, so I started asking my friends that don’t have blogs or websites but still go online for fun. The answer I’m getting is that they are not sure how, and the whole process is a bit intimidating to them.

I started checking around on other blogs. I looked at blogs in the Internet Marketing niche, money making niche, but I also looked in others areas like cars blogs, home schooling blogs, mom blogs, weight loss blogs, pet blogs and the list could go on. I even looked at some of the really high traffic blogs.

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blog comment, blog readers, Blogging, community, how to leave a comment, leaving a comment