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

How crucial is making a daily post to the overall success of your blog?

In the past, my goal was to post a new blog each and every day. If not a minimum of 5 days each week.

Sometimes that is very difficult.

I like to put up content that is going to bring some kind of value, but some days it felt like I was just blogging about anything and everything just to put up that daily post. And of course one of the ‘golden’ rules of a successful blog is Quality Content.

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blog success, Blogging, daily posts, game plan, rss, traffic, unique visitors

Admittedly, I am a bit rusty at this blogging thing. I also seem to have a bit of blogger block. In fact, I’ve been playing around for a week trying to figure out something I wanted to write about.

Reading around the blogosphere this seems to be a bit of a common problem at the moment. People have great intentions and expectations for the new year, but are a bit sluggish after the holidays.

So, what do you do when you have blogger block, or are feeling unmotivated, or just don’t know where to start?

Well. For me, it’s completely a matter of getting back into the swing of knowing what’s going on online. I’ve been out of it for almost two months. This week I’ve spent a lot of time visiting other blogs, looking at news sources and just deciding in what direction I want to go with Home with Heather.

When that didn’t work I decided to write this post, just to get started again, and go from there.

My friend Lisa Marie Mary wrote a post the other day, and I couldn’t agree more with it. Working at Home can be so strange True. You can be going along great guns with new ideas and motivation, and then, bam. Something from real life gets in the way. It can be for a day, something as fun as a snowstorm in Alabama. Or, it can be a family crisis, something is wrong with your kids. I guess that IS the great part about working from home though. You can allow yourself to take breaks for all those kinds of things.

When I need a bit of inspiration, I always stop by Lynn Terry’s blog. She’s a single mom like me, and has been at this for 11 years. True to form, Lynn had some great posts as of late to inspire me and help me get my groove back. Getting Back On Track When You Feel Derailed was a really helpful post and got some good discussion going on the topic. It’s good to know that I’m not the only one that feels ‘derailed’ at the moment, and that it is possible to ‘get your groove back’.

The key is just to start. Do something. Do a little bit each day, and as you (I) do, the momentum will start to increase again and the rustiness will go away.

Expect the Best,

blogger block, Blogging, getting derailed, inspiration, motivation

What is the secret to getting more RSS subscribers?

I’ve tried different methods, and though the number of subscribers to my blog is increasing, it’s doing it very slowly.

My traffic is increasing, quite a bit actually. So what’s the difference in getting traffic and getting subscribers?

I think the answer may be quite simple. Many people are not yet using RSS. I know my offline friends don’t really even have a clue as to what it is. Surfers that are accustomed to hearing the words are typically in the same niche that this blog is about… Internet marketing. They know what RSS is and are doing every thing they can to increase their own subscriptions.

Others? Well I think they are still using bookmarking as a way to save their favorite blogs and websites. I think this is true because I’ve talked to some of them (off line friends). They don’t know what RSS is, and frankly it’s scary to them. They have me bookmarked in a nice safe spot, where they know what to click and it’s all easy for them.

When I look at my stats, 68% of my visitors are from direct address or book marks. So it doesn’t mean that my visitors aren’t returning, it just means they aren’t using RSS to do it.

So you know what that makes me think? I’m not going to bust my ass trying to increase subscribers.

All my readers are very important to me, whether you come to Home with Heather through a bookmark, a direct link, RSS feed, or whether you just randomly found me. I’m glad you’re here. And love to see you keep coming back.

For those that do need some education on the benefits of using an RSS feed. Take a look at this great video put out by the Common Craft show back in April of this year.

RSS isn’t scary. It will save you huge amounts of time. It is addictive to add blogs and sites that you like into your reader. All you then have to do is grab your coffee in the morning, open your reader, and scroll up and down to see what new and interesting things you want to read about.Easy.I like to use Bloglines as my reader, although I’m sure any of them are just as good. To get a free account with bloglines. Go Here. Follow the simple instructions to set up your free account.Once your account has been created it is simply a matter of going to your favorites blogs and websites, and subscribing to the feed. At Home with Heather, I have a really big orange button at the top of my sidebar. Just click on that. Or, you can click on the link at the end of each and every article.

Bloglines also allows you to set up categories so that it’s easier to organize you favorites sites. It’s really cool.

Hope that helps.

As I said earlier. All of my readers are important to me. But coming to visit through and RSS reader will save you valuable time. Just a thought.

Expect the Best,

blog sites, Bloglines, feed reader, google reader, news sites, rss, RSS Reader, subscribe, time saver

Way back in June I posted an article, What Makes You a “Plugin Geek”. This highlighted some of the plugins I was using at the time and really enjoying. Since then I’ve added some other really awesome plugins. You’ve been emailing me and asking me about them so I thought I’d share a new list… part 2 as it were.

Plugins are something that when added to your blog enhance the user experience as well as giving the blogger more option to display, track and promote different things.

Here’s my list of top 10:

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blog pimping, Blogging, enhance your blog, plugins, Tips and Tools, top 10 list, word press, wordpress

This site is only a few days old, but it’s already getting some major buzz. And it’s already helping drive traffic to your site.

Blogging Zoom is a brand new social networking site that has been created by Courtney Tuttle and Vic Frankqui.

This site has been specifically designed for blogs. The purpose of Blogging Zoom is to have a place that allows you to display content that you have written. It only accepts content from blogs.

I found this site through Grizzly at How to Make Money Online for Beginners. He has only had an account for a few days and is already seeing traffic from it. Another of my blogging friends Alex said in a post that it’s sucking more traffic than BlogRush.

I played around with it a bit yesterday and signed up for my free account. It looks like a great way to network with other bloggers and get your content read.

Just from reading the information on the site, I’ll give a few tid-bits of information that will help you get started.

1. You can register for your free account here
   
2. Add the wordpress plugin to your blog to display the Blogging Zoom Button here. This will help you get more zooms.
3. As with any social network, you want to make friends and help others by zooming there blog posts.
4. Play around and have fun.

I haven’t actually zoomed any of my own posts yet. This will be the first. It will be interesting to see how blog zooming compares to the other sites like plugim, sphinn, digg, and bumpzee. A true test and only time will tell.

Thanks guys for creating such a great tool.

Expect the Best,

blog promotion, Blogging, blogging zoom, free traffic, making friends, social media, Social Networking, traffic, web promotion