Learn Blogging

You know one of the things I constantly have to keep in mind while writing tutorials is the Newbie or Beginner Blogger.Whether it's tutorials for WordPress or Blogger blogs I always try to write posts as if I was writing them for a complete newcomer to blogging.Indeed I think this has been one of the reasons behind the success of Spice Up Your Blog.I have published many Basic Blog Tips and Video Tutorials specifically for new bloggers, along with this the steps in tutorials are usually accompanied by a Video showing the steps required.

But there is only so many posts we can publish which cover the basics of Blogging.For this reason I have often thought of putting together an Ebook on the topic.I never really got around to it but fear not Amanda Kennedy of Blogger Buster has recently done the job and a fantastic job at that.

Blogger Buster was one of the few Blogger tips blogs around when I started Spice Up Your Blog and is still as good as ever.I'm sure you have seen the now thousands of sites trying to break into the niche with low quality and copied content (There have been some good exceptions).

Download The Free Blogger Ebook

All Blogger users need to get their free copy of Amanda's Blogger Ebook, it covers everything from starting your blog to the post editor, comments, feeds and so much more.

To get your free copy follow this link to the Download Page On Blogger Buster.

Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.

Guest Post - Our host is Bev Sninchak, Bev is looking at using a style guide on your blog.

So, you've taken the leap and decided to jump into blogging, whether for business or personal reasons. You've got plenty of content and information to offer, but do you have a style guide yet? If you're scratching your head and aren't sure what that is, you're not alone. Unless you have been involved in the writing or publishing community for a while, you may wonder what a style guide is and why it's used.

Simply put, a style guide is a set of rules and regulations you follow when writing your blog posts. For instance, a style guide makes sure you maintain conformity when dealing with numbers, punctuation, citation, quotes, and much more. Style guides are used for many things, including by publishers to maintain consistency in content published in magazines, newspapers, books, and more.

By developing a style guide for your blog, you can ensure your posts are uniform in their execution and delivery. Readers will appreciate that your content is understandable and doesn't vary wildly from post to post or from blog to blog (if you host more than one).

Here are some pointers - as well as a list of pros and cons - that will help you decide if you need a style guide and what to include in it.

Using a style guide can help your blog stand out from the rest.

Pros

There are many benefits to having a style guide for your blog. Some of the main benefits are to maintain consistency and to add an air of credibility to your blog. If you want your blog to be taken seriously, and especially if you are trying to keep a professional blog rather than a personal one, you'll need to adhere to a standard style and voice in order to gain your readers' trust.

For now, you may not use guest posts. However, over the coming months and years, you might consider offering space for guest posts. In fact, having guest bloggers is a smart marketing idea, so if you're not yet doing that, it's something to consider. When you do have guest bloggers, a style guide is a must. Why? Well, since each person writes in a different way and may use various ways to express information, a style guide can keep all bloggers on the same style page.

An example would be if you write all numbers up to ten as words, but every number after that in numeral form. Some bloggers may use all numbers and not write them out; if they write a guest post for your blog, you'll want to be sure they follow the same style rules as you do in your posts. Another example would be serial commas. Some writers adhere to AP Style and eschew the serial comma (Example: apples, oranges and pears), while others follow Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) and use the serial comma when writing out a list of items (Example: apple, oranges, and pears).

Finally, it's good to have a solid foundation of guidelines for your blog so you can keep on track and refer to them on occasion. Having a style guide you've developed will help you feel more organized, prepared, and professional. If your target is to grow your audience and, perhaps, eventually use your blog to build clients for various products and services, you'll need to appeal to the business side of their intellect. Abiding by your blog's style guide can help you do just that.

All blogs are not the same. A style guide will ensure your yours is unique, consistent, and uniform.

Cons

The biggest drawback of using a style guide for your blog is that you're limited to following certain rules. Many people chafe against too many rules and regulations, and referring to a guide for all your blog posts can seem to stunt creativity or expression. While this is a valid concern, you must also keep your readers in mind. For what audience are you writing? Are you delivering content to a business-minded audience who craves more conformity, or are you writing for a more laissez-faire audience of creative who will allow more stylistic variation? Before you decide whether to use a style guide, think about this element first.

Another drawback to using a style guide is that you'll need to keep up with maintaining your style guide. Rules change in word usage and for online writing, so you'll need to remember to keep up on any updates or trends. And while it may cause you to spend more time and energy, the benefits of having a style guide far outweigh this minor disruption.

Tips

What should you include in your blogging style guide? First and foremost, decide on the rules of punctuation, grammar, and syntax. Will you use serial commas? How will you treat quotations marks - in other words, will they be single or double marks? In addition, will you allow sentence fragments, or will you require full, formal sentences?

These things you may be familiar with and may know for yourself, but once again, consider that you may use guest bloggers in the future, and they'll need guidelines on these things as well.

In addition to words, if you use photographs or images, you'll need to address those in your style guide. Will you require only royalty-free or Creative Common images on your blog, or must the photos be taken or images be created or rendered by the blog poster themselves? Will you require a permission statement for images or photos to protect yourself? Be sure to address the use and crediting of images in your style guide so there's no confusion over your blog's policy on these issues.

Finally, if you are developing your own style guide, take some time beforehand to research and read other style guides, such as the Yahoo! Style Guide, AP Style Guide, or the Chicago Manual of Style. Here areten free style guides you can check out to get started.

Consider what is included in each style guide, and determine which items will be included in your guide, and which ones may not apply. Your guide does not have to be large and cumbersome to be effective; in fact, you can compose your style guide and continue to add to it as time goes on. Don't be intimidated by the thought of putting together a document that will assist you in maintaining regularity in your blog posts. In the end, it will provide you with a steady, reliable framework that you will appreciate again and again.

By using a style guide, your blog can help maintain consistency across all entries you post. You will have guidelines to follow and readers will know what to expect as far as voice, style, and information delivery. If your goal is to make your blog more professional and less casual to attract business, developing a style guide could be the route for you.

Guest Post - Our host is Ness Aquino, Ness is taking a fresh look at Infographics and the best practices when designing the perfect Infographic.See How ToBecome a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

If you are trying to provide information to your audience or want a way to get creative with it, then making an infographic could be your solution. There is proof that infographics are a better way to provide information than normal text. Since people are attracted to colors, animations, and other visually appealing aspects, they will be more willing to focus and will easily comprehend the content within the infographic. So, to help you create a good one, we are going to cover 10 great tips.

Do Your Research

You should always make sure to research the topic you are creating the content for. The last thing you want to do is to provide your audience with wrong or inaccurate information. Not only will it ruin theinfographic, but it will also ruin your creditability and your audience might not trust your future work. Before placing the information within the graphic, just verify everything is correct before you finalize it. There are so many ways to research topics nowadays since we have full access to the internet, so use those resources.

Keep it Simple

The simpler you can get your point across, the better. Everyone learns and processes information differently, so making it simple to understand will provide more people with information they are able to understand and digest. Some topics might be highly confusing, but there are always ways to make it easier to understand.

Stay on 1 Topic

A big mistake people make when creating a graphic is they try and implement multiple topics within one graphic. This could be one of the worst thing you can do because it can easily confuse your audience. If you want to provide information about 2 separate topics you are should be creating a whole separate graphic for that other topic. If your topic includes multiple different aspects, you are going to need to make the graphic clear on how they are all different aspects that all have to do with the topic. It will take some extra work, but will be worth it in the end.

Keep Your Designs Original

Your infographic shouldn't seem like it was stolen from another graphic or anything else. Everyone likes an original design. They will be much more attracted to your content if they are looking at something they have never seen before. You can always look at graphics that other people have made to give you some ideas or to inspire a theme, but never try and steal anything.

Keep Your Text as Short as Possible

If you can express your topic without using as much text, then that will be much more effective. Since people consume other types of media much easier, then having as little text as possible will make them more interested and able to understand it better. You just need to make sure that your other forms of explaining the topic are well done and easy to understand. A good example that we have all probably seen is when you are going to the bathroom in a restaurant, there will sometimes be a inforgraphic that shows how to properly wash your hands. A lot of restaurants require a full infographic to ensure their employees wash their hands.

Use a Good Color Scheme

You should pick colors that match well with each other. While you might like to have a few colors that are you favorite, they might not be attractive when they are put together. You should use a color scheme toolto come up with effective colors that match your topic. If you know what type of demographic your audience will be, then you can also use colors that they are more attracted to.

Don't Include History if You Don't Need it

If you are trying to explain something, you shouldn't provide the full history behind it if you don't need to. You may want to provide the information to your audience, but will it actually help you explain the topic you are creating the graphic for? If it is a requirement that the history is there, then it makes sense to have it... But if there is no extra value or doesn't help prove your point, then it is just a distraction and useless.

Optimize the Infographic to keep the file a Small Size

When you are finished with your graphic, you will probably end up posting it on the Internet or sharing it with other people that you know. You will want to make sure that the size of the file is as small as possible. There are a couple reasons for this. First is loading times. You will never know if someone is trying to view your graphic from a slow connection, so a graphic that isn't optimized will take a very long time to load. They might end up just giving up.

The second reason is because if you upload it to your website you will have higher bounce rates and could end up hurting your SEO efforts. search engines use load times in their algorithms which means the faster you load, the higher you rank.

Don't Be Like Every Other Infographic

Using line graphs, pie charts, and other commonly seen things won't give your infographic a unique feel. You should do everything in your power to try and create something that doesn't seem similar to other graphics. Like I stated before, keeping your content original is extremely important. There have been plenty of successful graphics that that use unique ways to provide statistical information without using the traditional ways of providing them.

Keep Everything Legal

You should always keep in mind anything that could legally hurt you in the future. Providing misinformation, stealing content, and plenty of other things could be pursued if your infographic wasn't made properly.

There are plenty of other tips to help out with infographics, but following these 10 will greatly increase your chances of creating a successful one that will be remembered.

10 Tools You Can Use to Create Awesome Infographics

Guest Post - Our host is Jamaica Sanchez, infographics are a great way to convey a message or tell a story here we have the 10 best tools to make your own infographics.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

As cliché as it sounds, a picture is worth a thousand words. Now infographics are trending than ever. The boom of website using graphics to convey further information has astounded many. Less people want to read lengthy content with only plain text, especially if the article is about statistics and behavior comparison of different groups and concepts. Infographics help readers to visualize and enhance their understanding on the idea or message given by the article. In this post, we will share 10 tools that you can use to create awesome infographics.

10 Best Infographic Tools

1. Visual.ly

Visual.ly is one of the most preferred apps when it comes to creating infographics. Through this tool, you can have creative Venn diagrams and tons of other graphics used for inspiration. This website offers a lot of eye candy graphics you can incorporate in your canvas.

2. Piktochart

Piktochart is another web-based application that has a drag-and-drop feature. You are not required to be an expert of web design or graphic design to complete an infographic. You can use all materials in Piktochart as much as you want but using the free version, the end result will have a watermark if you wish to download it to PNG, JPG and print formats with different quality specifications. The paid version has more themes for your customization.

3. Infogr.am

Infogr.am is free, inforgraphics maker for your liking. It has great themes and friendly interface. However, you are limited to using only simple graphics like charts, graphs, images and video. When completed, you can freely upload and share your finished work on social media or on your blog aside from the infogra.am website.

4. Easel.ly

Notice that Easel.ly is another web-based app for creating infographics with a “ly” suffix. This tool gives you freedom to choose among different backgrounds, images, objects from a photo library. You can also upload your own photos from the computer. These items will all help in your storyboard, map, infographics, etc.

5. OmniGraffle

OmniGraffle is quite unique in the sense that it’s a desktop-based paid software in this list only for Mac. This is the best one for you if you intend to create infographics that will be heavy on utilizing of data to make charts and diagrams. This application is noted most effective tool in wire-framing in detail.

6. Balsamiq

Like OmniGraffle, Balsamiq is your other desktop-based option in wire-framing. In contrast, this creates simpler diagrams for both web and mobile interfaces. It has a free version that can be accessed through the web that is helpful if your only goal is to make simple infographics. The paid version which is cheaper than the pro version of the OmniGraffle offers more.

7. TimelineJS

Infographics can mean a lot of things and this includes timelines. If your content requires an enumeration of dates and times in history, readers will be bored reading through a narrative composition without visuals. With TimelineJS, you can create an interactive timeline via an online Google spreadsheet.

8. Present.me

Regardless of the industry, your business can benefit a lot from Present.me to create inforgraphics in the form of slides for presentation to clients, partners and potential stockholders in the enterprise. In Present.me, you can even have infographics in the form of video with your own voice recorded in the slides.

9. Venngage

Want to engage readers and at the same time track analytics of the infographics? Then Venngage is your best bet. This web-based tool lets you make great infographics and gives you numbers on the growth of your audience for analysis.

10. Gliffy

Gliffy is an infographics creator that has a wide library of objects such as symbols of flowcharts, drawings and lines for floor plans, technical diagrams and more. The end result would appear professionally-made, through drag and drops of shapes to the whiteboard.

Conclusion

These are 10 of the best examples of tools you can utilize to create your awesome inforgraphics. By drawing things for visualization, your audience can better can a grasp of your verbal script. Explore them all and decide which one works for you.

Guest Post - Our host is Chad Goulde, here Chad takes a fresh look at some of the Social Media Mistakes bloggers make be making.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Today, there are so many social media sites, which all operate completely different from one another. For beginners, choosing the right one for your blog marketing can be very confusing. What’s even more confusing for beginners is figuring out how to use these various social media networks effectively.

Social Media Mistakes for Beginners to Avoid

There are some pretty common mistakes that social media beginners tend to make. Avoiding them from the beginning could help save you time, money and frustration in the long-run. Plus, your networking efforts will start to reap great results right from the start. Here are 10 common mistakes beginners should avoid when using social media as a marketing tool:

1) Using Facebook Only

When people think of social media, the first site that usually comes to mind is Facebook. Yet, this is not the only network that can effectively help market your site or blog. When it comes to business networking, you need to utilize other networks where your target audience can be found. Play around with Google+,Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube as well. That’s the best way to determine which platforms are best for your industry and reaching your target market.

2) Trying to Use Too Many Social Networks

Although you should concentrate on more than just Facebook, you don’t want to use too many social media sites at once. Why? Because it’s impossible to be engaging with too many audiences at ones. At some point, some of your networks will begin to suffer, along with the content you share, post and tweet. Determine which 1-2 others to concentrate on. Then, focus on quality, not quantity when posting.

3) Your Website and Blog Have No Social Media Icons

Your audience want a simple, on-click method for joining your social networks, as well as sharing your content. Add social media buttons/icons to give them this in very prominent, easy-to-spot areas on your website and blog.

4) You Only Share Your Own Content

Only savvy, established, famous bloggers can do this without bringing down their popularity. Beginners are in the process of building their online presence, trying to get noticed and increase social media network members. Sharing relevant content from other industry leaders is a very effective way to provide your target audience with even more valuable content and resources they can actually use.

5) You Simply Refuse to #FollowBack

If you never make an effort to follow people who are already following you, many will simply leave your network altogether. Although this is not a social rule set in stone, it is considered to be social media etiquette when trying to build your networks on social media sites.

6) You Confuse a Personal Profile with a Business Profile

Just about all of the most popular social networks have separate versions for business and personal profiles. Facebook and Google+ require you to have personal profiles before setting up your business profiles. Twitter and Pinterest business profiles can be established without personal profiles. No matter which platform you choose to use for social media marketing, make sure that you’re using a business profile, not your personal one.

7) You’re Don’t Engage Your Audience

Social media marketing is all about networking with your target audience, as well as engaging them. One of your goals should be to interact with your audience to create interest in your brand and solutions. This will encourage them to visit your blog for more valuable industry insight, follow it and share your content with their social media networks.

8) You Think All Your Fans and Followers See All Your Posts

Let’s break down how your post views actually work. Say your Facebook business page has 2,000 fans. You publish a new post on your business page. Only about 10%, or 200 of your fans will actually see your post in their individual timelines. All of the other popular social networks have very similar rules. Want to increase your posts’ reach? You’ll need to pay for advertising?

9) Your Posts Don’t Contain Interesting, Relevant Image

Images help to break up text, making your posts more pleasing to the eyes. According to social media marketing studies, these posts get more pins, G+s, likes, tweets and shares than those without images. So, include quality images in your social media posts when possible.Pictures also help get shares on Pinterest.

10) You Don’t Utilize #HashTags

Hashtags make it easier for people to follow social media discussions about particular topics. For example, let’s say you’re posting NBA Finals updates. Using the hashtag #NBAFinals in your posts will ensure that people searching for this info can find it quickly and easily. All they have to do is conduct social media searches using the hashtag, and related posts will automatically appear in results.

What do you think ? Add your comments below.

In the past I have written a few tutorials on different styles of the share this social bookmark egg.Today just in time for Christmas I have a Christmas version.A cool Christmas ornament sits on the corner of your blog with social bookmarking options for readers.On hover the ornament slides open with share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Email and the ShareThis button that offers even more options.Check out the demo below :

OK if that's something you want to greet your visitors this Christmas heres the tutorial.

Add The Christmas Bookmark Gadget To Your Blog

Remember Always Back Up Your Template Before You Make Changes - How To Back Up A Blogger Template

Step 1. In The New Blogger Dashboard Click The Drop Down Menu For Your blog And Choose > Template > Under your blogs screenshot choose "Edit Html" > Then Proceed,

Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html : (Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - How To Find Code In Blogger Template Template)

</head>

Step 3. Copy and Paste the following code Directly Above / Before </head>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/gallery/shareegg/shareegg.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/button/buttons.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">stLight.options({publisher: "bea50586-2b9f-448d-947a-01385f28e305", onhover:false});</script>
<link media="screen" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="http://w.sharethis.com/gallery/shareegg/shareegg.css"></link>

Step 4. Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html : (Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - How To Find Code In Blogger Template Template)

</body>

Step 5. Now Copy And Paste This Code Directly Above / Before </body>

<div style='position: fixed; bottom: 2%; left: 2%;'><div id='shareThisOrnament' class='shareEgg'></div>
<script type='text/javascript'>stlib.shareEgg.createEgg('shareThisOrnament', ['facebook','twitter','googleplus','pinterest','stumbleupon','linkedin','email','sharethis'], {title:' <data:blog.pageTitle/>',url:'<data:blog.url/>',theme:'holiday'});</script>
</div><a href="http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/">Blogger Wordpress Tips</a>

OK That's it Happy Christmas ! Also check out the Cool New Christmas Snow Storm Effect For Blogger Blogs.

Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.

In this tutorial we have a new way for posts to be viewed on your blogs homepage, namely infinite scroll.Infinite scroll has been a popular trend in web design for some time and now you can have it on your blogger blogs.On Blogger we have on the home page by default 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons to load a new page of posts.Now this tutorial takes another step with adding Infinite Scroll to Blogger blogs.

This is user friendly and will cut down on load time.So I have the demo and a quick add button for you to add it to your blog in seconds.

This script comes with thanks to Manki's Weblog, you can check out the demo below.In the demo I have the home page set to show three posts, when you scroll to the end of the posts you will see the link to "Load More Posts".If you stay scrolling more posts will load automatically.

Add Infinite Scroll To Blogger

To make it as easy as possible I have a 'Quick Add' button below.

Simply click on the button and you will be brought to the add gadget page, choose the blog you want to add it to then confirm.

You can move the gadget to the bottom of your blog on your layout page as the positioning of the code is not important.

Quick Add Button :

And that's it, really simple.Check out your blog with infinite scroll.Check out more of our Blogger tutorials here.

Drop your comments and questions below.