New Blogger Mentorship Program + How to's & Why not's

[Parajunkee]

Have questions that need to be answered? Stop by and post a questions.

As I have been scouring the blogosphere and finding more and more new bloggers out there I have noticed there are a few things that new bloggers tend to forget - like to put a following button on their site. Also the comment section is messing up so they aren't getting any comments. Links aren't working etc. I have been trying to email people if I see problems like this. If you are a new blogger and have questions...or if you just want someone to come and check out your blog and give you a critique...I thought this could be the place to do it.

Why haven't I gotten a comment on my blog?
How do I host a blog tour?
Any question you have, I'm sure if I can't help you find the answer, someone might stop by with the right info.

I'm also going to start posting tips and tricks that I've learned along the way.

XOX - Parajunkee

[Seak]

Great idea here. I'm pretty new and I'd love to have some feedback at: seaks.blogspot.com

I also have a question (or two or more). When's a good time to have a contest? And, what's the best way to promote that contest? I'm a member of some forums, but they seem to have lots of rules about self-promotion. But, it seems like bloggers are a pretty friendly lot since no one's blog really hampers anyone from enjoying another's blog.

Thanks in advance for any feedback or help.

[Parajunkee]

Ok, the best thing to do is put some thought into that contest. You want to give away something that people want. Because shipping a crappy book costs the same amount as shipping the hottest YA novel to hit the states that everyone is clammering to get their hands on.

Secondly, there is no magic hour for starting a contest. I would probably start during the week, since activity seems to go down on the weekend. (Everyone is sneaking on blogs at work)

Promote your contest everywhere you can. I recommend twitter. If you don't know how to use it. LEARN. Network through twitter I AM PARAJUNKEE. I'll follow you back if you DM me.

Here is an example of what a good contest can do for your blog.

I started my 200 follower contest yesterday. http://parajunkee.blogspot.com/2009/11/200-follower-giveaway.html

Within 2 hours I had increased from 200 followers to 220. 55 people had submitted for the contest. By this morning the contest has been tweeted 35 times. My follower count is now up to 235 and there are 75 entries into the contest.

Contests can be very helpful to your blog.

[Seak]

Sweet, it looks like I've got lots to do. Thanks for the advice!

[Emily]

I'm doing my first contest now as well, and one major thing that I've learned is that you have to be persistent in whatever venues you do choose to promote your contest. It's great to post once, but you need to post again after that as well. If you tweet about your contest, you need to tweet repeatedly- not to spam your followers or anything, but bear in mind that people are online at different times so some people will get your tweet or community post and some won't.

Another way to promote your contest is to make promoting the contest a way for people to get extra entries. They can post about it on their blogs, tweet about it, put it in their sidebar, refer people, the sky's the limit really. If you're giving away a really excellent prize then people will really want those ways to get extra entries.

Anything can turn into contest promotion, too! Like I said, I'm having my first ever giveaway at my blog now, for the first six books in the Midnight Breeds series by Lara Adrian- check it out! http://whatbookisthat.blogspot.com/2009/11/lara-adrian-giveaway.html

Emily

[Margaret Skipper]

I'm new to blogging and have decided im ready to run some 2010 challenges... Do you all have any tips or tricks to make the challenges successful? Also, any tips for blogging in general?

Thanks so much for your time and suggestions! Here's my blog if you'd like to critique it: http://margaretsbookstbr.blogspot.com/

Margaret

[Parajunkee]

Margaret sorry it took me so long to reply. I've been down and out with the flu. I personally have not run a book challenge before - but like anything if you make it interesting and things that people will want to read - well then people will join it. You also have to promote your reading challenge. Everything is all about networking, visit other sites with similar interests and comment comment comment.

-Parajunkee

[Corra McFeydon]

Hello Parajunkee!

What an amazing offer this is! I just started blogging a couple weeks ago and am still feeling my way. I'd love it if you could take a quick peek and offer some pointers:

http://corramcfeydon.blogspot.com

Also, a couple questions:

-How can I enlarge a picture to use it in my header? Know of any sites?

-I see a lot of blogs with a hotmail link feature for their blog 'buttons' so folks can grab the code quick and link the blog with a button (in their own sidebar.) Where can I get that link gadget/widget for my blog?

I feel like I have another question but I can't recall it at the moment. :)

Thanks so much for doing this!

All the best,
Corra

[Parajunkee]

Hi Corra,

To try and answer your questions.

#1 No, you really can't enlarge images for your header. Raster images (photos) are set up in dots per inch, the smaller the file, the bigger the dots. You can always go from a bigger image to a smaller image, but vice versa just doesn't work that well. It will distort the image and make it look very blurry. There are programs that you can buy to "blow up" images but these are usually expensive and run in programs like Photoshop.

#2 The link features you are seeing underneath blog badges are using coding, here is a tutorial that I set up that can tell you how to do it:

http://parajunkeedesign.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-to-have-grab-my-ba...

Anything else, let me know.

[Corra McFeydon]

Thank you, Parajunkee! I'll check out that link.

(And thanks for the follow.)

Corra :)