Help Me Help My Blog! (June/July thread)

[Trish Collins]

Since the Help Me Help My Blog threads are slowing down, I'm going to start grouping them 2 or 3 months at a time. We're still happy to help! You don't have to have a new blog to ask for help. :)

This thread is a place for us to ask specific questions about our blogs and get your input! So if you would like your blog critiqued, then feel free to post here your url, your goals, and what type of input you are looking for. The more specific you are the more we can help. I'm sure we'll all be nice! And remember, it's your blog. Just because somebody mentions something doesn't mean it will be right for you.

There are a lot of tips and helps found within the blogging tips group. I'd also suggest you take a look around.

Keep the comments threaded underneath each blog that is getting reviewed, that way it's easy to figure out the conversation. Thanks!

[angela ambroise]

I love blogging, but I had no idea it took so much work to get traffic, etc. My first question is: how can I get a button. A very nice blogger told me to go to paint.net, and to another free place. I went, but have no idea what to do with the stuff.

Of course, the other question is: how do I get traffic. I've done lots of things on Google's Webmaster tool, except optimize. I don't understand how to do the test pages.

I've just sumbitted a couple of my articles to various sites of like-minded readers/bloggers in hopes of getting a following.

Thanks

[Nicola O.]

What kind of button do you mean?

My best advice for traffic is to visit blogs with audiences similar to the one you want, participate in the comments, and link generously.

[Trish Collins]

Hi, Angela!

I, like Nicola, am not sure what you mean by a button.

As far as traffic goes, we've done a whole thread about that in this forum. If you poke around for it, I'm sure you'll find it.

However, getting traffic isn't *really* about doing things with Google's Webmaster tools. In order to get traffic, you need to write great content, and go to other blogs that are similar to yours and leave comments, like Nicola said. I wouldn't suggest submitting your articles to other blogs. You just need to hope the bloggers where you leave comments will come check out your site.