Template Faerie

So, You Want to Guest Post on My Blog? Forget It!

2011-09-08T22:36:00.000-04:00

Everyone's into guest posting these days. It's great for lazy bloggers. People send you content, and all you have to do is mindlessly hit the publish button. Traffic soars, comments appear out of thin air, and people love you. It's magic.

If so many other bloggers have great success with guest authors—but perhaps not to the degree that I just described—why don't I try it? Couldn't I get the same results? No.

Yes, guest blogging has benefits. But obviously, it's not for everyone. Here's why I'll never accept guest articles... well, probably.

I want only high-quality articles

This is a no-brainer. You probably want the same thing. Unfortunately, the blogosphere is bursting at the seams with crummy content—the stuff I try to avoid. But when I asked for guest articles, that's all I got.

There was a time when I wasn't so picky about quality. In fact, I deleted 17 of my old posts last week, and although that sounds dreadful, it was necessary. I've decided that an "okay" article is never good enough.

I have a particular style I'm looking for

It's obvious. I draw silly post images. I say silly things. I openly admit that I'm a horrible blogger. I can't help it.

This doesn't mean I'm completely opposed to the idea of guest articles on my blog. If somebody ever comes along with a guest article that knocks my socks off, I'll seize it for my blog then and there. In fact, I've always wanted to collaborate with other bloggers, and I would love to have additional authors on my blog, but I would worry too much about them ruining it. So, unless you're a nutcase like me, and you know where to put your commas, you can forget about being a guest author on Template Faerie.

Maybe I just had bad luck with guest articles. But at least I've learned from my mistakes. So, here are some warnings for those of you who are interested in allowing guest authors.

Don't rush into it

You shouldn't start advertising the fact that you accept guest articles until you have a large following. Take if from me—this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Fortunately, I learned my lesson and I'll never do it again. Nobody in their right mind is going to want to post on your blog, because most people who are interested in guest posting want more exposure, and your blog, being in such a sad, lonely state, won't give them that. It would only be a waste of time for them.

From a different point of view, guest posters can give you a leg up by pointing their followers to your blog. But unless the guest poster is some nice person looking to help a little newbie like you, anybody interested in publishing an article on your blog won't be giving you quality content. People who can actually write would much rather publish their articles elsewhere. If you start advertising that you accept guest authors now, you're only going to get the lousy stuff.

So, if you're just getting started as a blogger, you should be the one doing the guest posting.

Be prepared to say "no"

When somebody sends you an article, be prepared to say "no". It's only a two-letter word, but for me, it's hard to turn someone down, especially when I know how much work was put into the article. Just send them a nice email and tell them it's not right for your blog.

Don't be afraid to make edits

You should treat guest articles as if you wrote them. That means making corrections. I'm talking about small edits, like spelling, grammar, and punctuation. If you're unsure about what the author would think about you making changes to their article, let them know in advance that you'll be correcting any errors you come across. You can also show them the changes you've made before you publish the article, and ask if they're okay with it. Major changes, on the other hand, such as modifying points and rearranging paragraphs, should first be discussed with the author.

Never publish unless you agree with all the author says

You're the only one who's responsible for the content that gets published on your blog. That content reflects what sort of person you are and what sort of blog you have, which is why it's important that all your blog posts are consistent with each other, and also with you, regardless of who wrote them.

Never publish unless you're 100% satisfied with the article

When you write a lousy article, what do you do? You throw it in the trash, right? The same should be done with guest articles. If you're the least bit uncomfortable about publishing the guest article, don't. The last thing you need on your blog is a mediocre article.

Now it's your turn. What's your experience with guest authors?

P.S. I just installed a on my blog. I hope you'll take a few minutes to let me know what you think of Template Faerie. (By the way, you feed and email readers will need to visit this actual post page to see the form).

How NOT to Design a Blog

2011-07-08T20:01:00.005-04:00

Have you ever visited a blog with high expectations, only to throw up on your keyboard when you see the shocking combination of colors and fonts cluttered onto a sloppy layout? If so, you're not alone. It happens to me and many others every day. It's a sad fact that a majority of blogs are horribly designed.

How ugly a blog is doesn't necessarily have anything to do with a bad design, because even the most gorgeous templates can be turned into a horrendous horror by a lazy or ignorant blogger. To prove my point, I'm going to take the Atlas template, which I gave away for free in my last post, and I'm going to turn it into an eyesore. This is going to be fun...

(Click on the images to get a full view of the ugliness!)

What makes it ugly...

Besides looking like ketchup and mustard, the colors of this template are too contrasting to be readable, and the small font size doesn't help matters. It definitely needs a larger variety of fonts and more muted tones for the backgrounds before it begins to be appealing.

What makes it ugly...

This template is in desperate need of a header image. It would also benefit from some color. The links and images add some, but it's not enough to keep people from thinking they've gone colorblind.

What makes it ugly...

While this template is readable and not so much on the ugly side as the previous examples, there is only one color that makes up the template, and even though the shades vary, there isn't enough contrast between the main elements. I like monochrome color schemes, but I have to be careful not to make my designs too boring, as in this example.

These three templates are illustrations of some common design mistakes: too much contrast, a bad choice of fonts, not enough color, and not enough contrast. There are many more mistakes bloggers make, but it would take me millennia to name them all.

Now I want to hear from you!

What's the scariest blog you've ever seen? What do you think are the most common mistakes bloggers make when it comes to design?

By the way, don't forget to check out the Atlas template. It comes with multiple variants and header images!

Introducing Atlas: A Free Blogger Template

2011-06-27T10:59:00.037-04:00

There was a day, long ago, when I didn't know how to edit a blog template—the main reason being that I was too lazy to learn. But the default Blogger templates were incredibly dull and I didn't want to use them—and by the way, once the Template Designer came into existence, along with new, incredible templates which are used by almost everyone nowadays (I don't mean that as a good thing), people realized how bad the default templates were, gave them the "classic" label, and forgot about them. I don't miss them.

Because of my laziness, I searched for free third-party templates and made a discovery. Not only are most templates sloppy and ugly, but even the code is sloppy and ugly. Ugly templates are ugly, but sloppy code is horrendous. I wouldn't be caught dead using one of those templates on my blog. And so I overcame my laziness and learned to create my own templates.

(FEED VIEWERS: Visit the actual post page to see the interactive color scheme thingy!)

I showed you a couple months ago that default templates don't have to be boring, but those weren't my original designs, and I have long been itching to create a template that's far more customizable than the default templates. And so came Atlas—my first free template.

Whoa! You mean Template Faerie can truthfully be called Template Faerie now? Yep.

Gray variant (click to enlarge)

Why you should want it

It's customizable! In fact, you may notice that I went overboard with customization. But, seeing how boring templates are these days, I wanted to make sure that the people who download Atlas have no excuse for having a boring template. Unlike most third-party templates, Atlas is compatible with the Template Designer. The layout and all fonts and colors can be edited to your taste.

It's not one template—it's TEN! I know, I'm insane. When I was creating Atlas, I wanted to show off how customizable it was, and so I made 10 varying color schemes. I then realized that if I was going to the trouble of creating them, I might as well give them away with the default template.

Headers are included! Each variant has a matching header. All you have to do is upload.

No messy code! Atlas has wonderfully clean CSS and HTML. So, if you would like to do any editing, there's no reason to fear.

If that's not enough to make you want it, check it out live!

Download Atlas 4.22 MB

What do you think of Atlas?

I would love to hear your feedback on this template. What's your favorite variant? Are you having any problems with it?

And, if you have any ideas for another template you would like me to design, just let me know in your comment!

Blogging is too hard. I give up.

2011-06-02T10:49:00.005-04:00

Fact of the day: I'm a horrible blogger. That's a harsh statement, but I've discovered it's true. Now you know that when I don't respond to comments, post regularly, or answer your email, it's because I'm a horrible blogger. I blog almost every day, during every spare moment, but I don't have a schedule, and no matter how hard I try, I can't post on time. That's why I refrain from saying "I will" on my blog.

I began being a horrible blogger—well, from the beginning. The main problem was that I wasn't prepared to do everything that a blogger has to do to be successful. I wasn't prepared to be a blogger. I thought it would be easy, but when I realized how big of a job it was, I became frustrated and overwhelmed. It wasn't fun.

Before I get into chattering, I want you to know that this article is aimed toward the amateur approach to blogging (the good kind of amateur, that is), rather than the all-about-moolah approach. Not that there's anything wrong with the all-about-moolah approach, except when it's taken to the extreme, which is when writing loses its value, web design loses its creativity, and as a result, blogging as a whole loses it's glamour. But that sad story ~~will~~ may be told another time. Today I'm going to tell you a different sad story.

A few months ago, I had a "brilliant" idea. I thought that since blogging tutorials are overdone, not to mention boring to read, I would create videos. Not only would it be an entertaining way to tell my viewers how to do something spectacular, but it would also help me gain new readers through YouTube. Great idea, right?

Then I visualized the number of voice recordings I might have to do to get it to the point of where I didn't sound stupid. Not fun.

That's when I decided to make an animation and use synthesized speech (if it's supposed to look and sound stupid, stupid is okay, right?). I cringed at the idea of an animation, but I told myself I would keep it simple. I recorded all the voices, things were going great, and so far I liked the idea. But, when the animation application I planned to use didn't work and I had to resort to a different application that was less than suitable for animation, things stopped being simple.

Day after day I worked on the animation. At first it was fun, but by the end of the week I hated animation. I hated blogging. I wanted to quit. I said to myself, "why did I create a blog if I don't get anything out of it but frustration?" I was only halfway done with the video when I wanted to be finished, and at the slow rate I was going, I expected it to take another week.

Yesterday I remembered the day when I enjoyed blogging. It seemed so long ago. What happened to that? Why wasn't I enjoying it now? It was then that I realized that it was me causing the problem. I was making it difficult for myself.

Blogging is hard, so get used to it!

Of course blogging is hard. I'm not going to say it's not, because that wouldn't be true. With blogging comes the time-consuming promotion, web design, and writing—and writing is the the worst, right? Half the words you write must be rethought, rearranged, replaced, or when worst comes to worst, removed. Words are present in blog posts, comments, tweets, and newsletters, and somehow, you have to generate those words, because your readers will be upset if you don't, your reputation will be ruined, your traffic will plummet, and everything good will turn bad.

So hard—poor you. But face it: writing is hard. Learn to cope with it. You'll never get anywhere if all you do is gripe. After all, you're not trying to...

Please your readers (they don't care)
Make life difficult for yourself
Write a masterpiece
Take over the world
Kill yourself

But, what you should be trying to do is...

Write well
Have fun

What? That's it?

Good writing is hard to produce. I'm no expert, but I've learned that good writing is not made of the words that make their appearance on the paper (or in a text editor) the moment after they register in the brain. Good writing is constructed of value, common sense, and character—things that don't usually come naturally.

Is writing fun? It's not fun when words don't come and ideas aren't as great as you anticipated. I enjoy writing, but only when I can actually write. It's when I do nothing more than smash my keyboard in frustration when I detest it. That's when I feel like quitting and never looking at a word again.

Unless you have a vlog or photo blog, writing is a necessary part of blogging. You may not like writing, but that doesn't mean you can't like blogging. Blogging isn't all writing.

Giving up isn't always the best solution

Have you ever come to the point where you ask yourself why you're blogging at all? Do you ever feel like giving up and trying something else?

Here's a startling fact: blogging is supposed to be enjoyable. This means that all the frustration and misery you go through while blogging isn't required for your success. It means that the minute you hate blogging, quit.

But before you throw your computer in the trash, think back to when you started blogging. If you started blogging because you enjoyed it, it's doubtful that you really hate it. After all, hate is at the other end of the spectrum, and such a drastic change of mind would be unlikely.

Don't confuse abhorrence with overwhelmingness (and yes, that is a word!). Here are some reminders:

Blogging takes patience. Getting the hang of blogging takes time. If you're new to blogging, the haunting need to publish content regularly and the lack of means to do so, the learning of promotion techniques that seem to never work, and remembering to email so-and-so before a month slips away and everyone figures you died, can be difficult to handle—and it will always be difficult until you learn the best methods for making your blogging tasks easier and faster. (Sorry for such a mouthful.)

Blogging takes determination. You've probably heard this one before. Everyone should know it. It's the secret ingredient of success for anything you want to do, not just blogging.

Blogging takes time. Everyone complains about the lack of time. Every task related to blogging seems to take forever if you don't know how to manage your time. Note to self: what about that schedule you were talking about?

Blogging takes human interaction. I'm not just talking about interaction on your blog, but also on social networks. Building relationships is, from what I've found, the best way to get exposure and gain new readers.

Blogging takes enthusiasm. Blogging without enthusiasm is like music without instruments. If you don't get any enjoyment out of blogging, it's not worth it. Your writing won't be compelling and you'll be boring on Twitter. Nobody likes a boring blogger.

Blogging takes frequent breaks. Do you think your readers have nothing better to do than wait for that post all day? No, I didn't think so. They can wait, and so can your blog. Besides, you're hungry. And look at your dog. He's more dependent upon you than your blog is. Dogs can beg for food, eat your dinner, yell louder than you can, keep you awake at night, and manipulate you—and those are things that only dogs should be able to do. So don't let your blog take control of you.

And the solution is...

Unfortunately, there's no way to make blogging easy. It will always be time-consuming. There will always be the occasional frustrating moment. It will always take more effort than you would like. But, there are ways to make blogging easier.

First of all, stop thinking about how hard it is. You already know about the difficulty of blogging, and there's no point in complaining about it. In fact, doing so will only make it harder for you.

I don't mean you should say "blogging is easy" twenty times every fifteen minutes. That's stupid. What I do think you should do is learn to deal with the difficulty of blogging. Find a way to manage your time efficiently. Don't burn yourself out by blogging non-stop. Stop complaining about the process of blogging. If you need to write a post, write it. If you have comments to moderate and reply to, moderate and reply to them. But remember, in most cases, you won't die if you put it off for a while when you need a break.

I'm sure you can relate to a time when an idea didn't go well, and the finished result was either horrendous, or you lost focus and it never got to the point of being finished. That's when you need a plan B, and maybe a plan C and a plan D. This way, if you discover your idea stinks, you lose focus, or you get bored with what you're working on, you can switch to something else, and work on the original idea later. Or, if worst comes worst, it may be a better idea to just abandon it.

So, what happened to that video I was working on? Nothing. It will sit and collect virtual dust until the day I feel like working on it again. I decided it was more important to have fun than to kill myself with plan A. Keep that in mind next time you think you hate blogging.

If you've come this far to be reading this, I'm amazed. Thanks for taking the time to read all 1500+ words of this article!

Here are some things to think about. I hope you'll tell me your thoughts in a comment!

Why are you blogging? Do you enjoy it?

Have you ever considered quitting blogging?

What do you do to prevent a blogging burnout?

Edit (06-04-11): I've been amazed that some of my readers haven't sensed the sarcasm in this post. So, just so you know, I'm not really giving up!

Add-on: Easy Tweet Box for Your Blog Posts

2011-05-13T21:38:00.003-04:00

I'm always looking for interesting ways to encourage retweets on my articles, and when I saw Ana's How to Entice Your Readers to Retweet Your Content article on Traffic Generation Cafe, I loved the idea for the tweet box. But, I was disappointed when I discovered that it was a Wordpress plugin, so I set to work on figuring out how the same could be done with Blogger. If you're a Wordpress user, head over to Ana's blog—but if you use Blogger, here's how you can add a tweet box to your blog.

The first tutorial I came across on how to add the tweet box to Blogger was on Blogger Plugins, which automatically retrieves the post title and URL and inserts it into the text box. But this causes problems when the title and URL are longer than 140 characters.

I use a different technique, which gives you control over the tweet box title and text. The disadvantage is that unlike the add-on on Blogger Plugins, you have to add it to each post. Fortunately, there's an easy way to do this, which I'll explain later.

Step 1

Register an @Anywhere Application for your blog. If you have no idea what that is, why you should do it, and how to do it, don't worry. Just fill in your blog's information, like I have for my blog in the preview below. Be sure to select "Read & Write".

Step 2

Once you register your application, you'll be given some javascript code. For the tweet box, you only need the first script, as shown below.

Step 3

Under the Design tab in your Blogger dashboard, click on Edit HTML. Using your browser's search function (command + F for Macs, or control + F for PCs) search for </head> in your blog's template code.

Directly above that, paste your javascript code. It should look something like this now:

Obviously, you'll need to save your template.

Step 4

Below is the code that you need for the tweet box. Just copy and paste it directly into your post.

<div id='bp_tweetBox'>
</div>
<script type='text/javascript'>
twttr.anywhere(function (T) {
T("#bp_tweetBox").tweetBox({
width: 560,
label: "Tweet Box Title",
defaultContent: "RT @TemplateFaerie Your Post Title http://bit.ly/jQtXt2"
});
});
</script>

A few tips

Depending on how wide your blog is, you may want to change the width of the text box to a more suitable size.

The label is the caption that appears over the top of the text box. Be sure to choose something catchy that will encourage readers to retweet your post.

The defaultContent is the text that will be tweeted. Change it to include your Twitter username, and your post title and URL. Obviously, you'll need to publish your post before you know your URL. Use bit.ly, or any other site you prefer, to shorten your link, then edit your post and add the URL to your tweet box.

It can be a hassle to add the tweet box code every time you create a post. So, instead of wasting time, just head over to your blog's Settings tab and click on the Formatting section. At the bottom of the page, you'll find the Post Template. Paste your tweet box code in this text box, and it will automatically be added to all new posts you create, saving you the time of adding it manually.

Adding a tweet box to your blog posts is a great way to encourage your readers to retweet, because it grabs their attention, and it's easy to use. What do you think of this idea? How well is it working for you?

By the way, if you need any help installing it, let me know!

5 Awesome Bloggers and Blogs You Should Know About

2011-05-04T20:35:00.002-04:00

There are many—too many, in my opinion—blogs about blogging. But today I've sorted out a few that are actually worth reading. It's always a good idea to get more than one view on a topic. That's right—you're not forever imprisoned at Template Faerie. I won't be mad at you if you subscribe to another blogging blog. After all, these are awesome blogs, which is why I'm recommending them.

Here they are in no particular order, so if your blog ended up at the bottom, please don't let it ruin your day.

Kiesha from WeBlogBetter

Most articles I read on the internet aren't memorable. But Kiesha has a unique way of bringing her personal experience into her writing that makes it unusually memorable. The post titles are good too, and they almost always are eye-catching. They work like a magnet. Or a toy to a cat. Or a food bowl to a dog. Or a finger to a turtle. They're irresistible, and so is the content. Anyway, on WeBlogBetter, you can be sure that Kiesha will always be giving you tips on how you can blog better. Plus, there are plenty of guest authors who can give you a fresh perspective on blogging, and who knows—you could be one of those guest authors!

I've always liked the design of WeBlogBetter. It's simple, but best of all, it's unique. I can't believe how well it does without a header image. In fact, I think a header image would ruin it.

Here are some of my favorites from WeBlogBetter:

Ileane from Basic Blog Tips

If you haven't heard about Basic Blog Tips, where have you been? I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't visit this blog until recently, even though I had passed by (if such a thing can be done on the internet) the link more times than I can count. Don't think that Basic Blog Tips is for beginners only. Beginners can certainly learn more than enough to fill their brains from this blog, but Ileane shares tips that are worth reading even if you think you could blog in your sleep. She'll prove you wrong—there's still more to learn.

She also has a YouTube channel, so if you're too lazy to read, all you have to do is sit and watch, and the knowledge will flow from the computer speakers into your brain. So easy.

Here are some must-reads. In other words, read these now—or else!

Daniel from Reviewz 'n' Tips

I followed Daniel on Twitter for a long time before I realized what a great blog he had. Reviewz 'n' Tips always has clear, straightforward advice for bloggers of any kind, and the content is unique—you won't find any of that regurgitated content you would on most other blogs. Plus, it's a Blogger blog, and you know how big of a fan I am of Blogger—and if you didn't, well now you do! I know, that's a silly reason to like it.

The articles are always top-notch, even the guest articles. You can count on Reviewz 'n' tips to help you become a better blogger! Here are a few great articles:

Brian from Blog Engage

Of course I'm going to include Blog Engage in this post—it should have been expected. For those of you who haven't been observant enough, or who have a short memory, Blog Engage is much more than a blog. It's actually a community for—duh, bloggers. And, better yet, it's also a community for engaging with bloggers. You never would have guessed that, right?

"Oh great," you're thinking, "all I need is another community to keep up with." Well, here's a tip. Forget about all the other spammy communities you've joined. Blog Engage is the best of blogging communities, because it's made of bloggers who are serious about promoting their content and engaging with others. Spammy? No. While most other communities are made of spammers—and not just the bot spammers, but human spammers, which in my opinion are even worse—Blog Engage is a thriving community of real content. It's great for keeping up with your favorite blogs, promoting your blog, and connecting with like-minded people. I still can't figure out how Blog Engage has managed to retain its quality content all this time. Obviously it's something that Brian's doing, and other communities aren't.

To find out more about Blog Engage, visit these pages:

Tristan from Blogging Bookshelf

I came across Blogging Bookshelf at—guess which website! I'll give you a hint. You were just reading about it. Can you guess?

The first post I read was Why My Last Guest Post Got 150 Retweets and a Million Impressions. My first thought was that it would be one of those incredible claims of "everyone can do this in their first day blogging". I thought it would be boring too. Tristan blew me away (not literally). He used my favorite technique (story-telling) to keep me interested, and believe me, keeping me interested all the way through a post is an amazing feat when I have an attention span of about 30 seconds. My favorite thing about his "101 Ways You're Killing Your Blog" eBook is that it has more text than any other ebook I've ever downloaded—it isn't just white space.

Tristran's writing is clever, interesting, and informative. Here are some examples of what you'll find on his blog:

Now you've got five new blogs to keep up with! Just don't forget to check on Template Faerie every now and then, okay?

So, what do you think of these blogs? Tell me what your favorite blogging blogs are! I would love to hear from you!

3 Ways to Get Criticism on Your Blog

2011-04-23T16:27:00.103-04:00

If you had a choice between getting criticism or compliments on your blog, you would probably choose the compliments, right? It's easy to see why this is the case for most people. Criticism is often discouraging, and discouragement is the last thing you need when you're working hard to turn your blog into success. But if you always avoid criticism, you'll probably never see the things that are working against your productivity. Learning what other people would do differently is the best way to get ideas on how to improve your blog, and today I'm going to tell you about a few ways you can easily do this.

Why is criticism important?

One of the biggest lessons I've learned as a blogger is that criticism is the best way to get ideas on how to improve my blog. I really don't think I could have come this far without it. Other people can see your blog's deficiencies more easily than you. Ask for criticism, and you might discover that your content is boring or mediocre. You might learn that the design of your blog makes it hard to use, or your widgets are slowing it down, or that your blog doesn't work properly in all browsers. As discouraging as it can be to get this kind of feedback, you can learn so much from it. Your blog's flaws could be turning readers away, which means less traffic and comments for you. Once you know the problems with your blog, you can set to work on fixing them.

So, where do you go to get criticism?

1. Forums

Most blogging forums have a section for you to share a link to your blog and ask for opinions and advice. The main problem with forums is that some members don't like to be critical, and will only tell you what they like about your blog, whereas other members won't tell you much of anything—good or bad—except that you should take a look at their blog.

Something to keep in mind when asking for criticism is that blogging forums are usually rampant with spammers—the ones that come for self-promotion, and leave a while later. With so many people like that coming and going, the "check out my blog" threads get numerous and monotonous. They often get ignored by the longtime members who have grown bored of the lack of real discussion.

You don't want to be one of these spammers, which is why you may want to spend some time participating in conversations and getting to know a few of the other members before creating a thread about your blog. Some bloggers want something in exchange for their feedback, so you can expect that you'll be reviewing other blogs too.

If you're not already a member of a blogging forum, I recommend Bloggeries. It's the best one I've found, and you can find me on there as RabidReptile.

2. Surveys

Another way to get criticism is by asking your readers. This way, you can learn what you can improve from the people who know your blog best. A survey can be used for getting in-depth feedback that you probably can't get using any other technique. The only disadvantage of a survey is that people who browse the web are often lazy, and a long survey is a hassle to fill out.

To create surveys, I recommend JotForm. It's a free WYSIWYG form builder with tons of options for surveys.

3. Polls

Polls are a quick and easy way to get feedback. Most blogging platforms have poll widgets, but you can also use a site such as Polldaddy.com. It only takes about two clicks for somebody to vote in a poll, which is why you probably would have more success with a poll than you would with a survey. The disadvantage of polls is that you aren't going to get a very good idea of what your readers think of your blog, but they're excellent for asking simple questions, such as what article they would like to see next, or if they think your blog should be green instead of orange.

Just a few tips

You can use just one of these techniques, or you can use all three simultaneously. It's up to you. Just remember that you don't have to use all the suggestions people give you. After all, it's your blog and you know where you want to go with it.

Most people are happy to give their criticism, but not all criticism is constructive. For this, I recommend you check out an excellent article over at Reviewz 'n' Tips on How to Deal with Criticism.

So, how do you get criticism on your blog? Is there a technique I forgot about? I would love to hear from you!

There's No Such Thing as Competition in the Blogoshere

2011-04-18T18:25:00.000-04:00

If you remember the day when you created your first blog, you probably remember it as being easy. If you remember the months afterward, you probably remember them as being strenuous, monotonous, and maybe even discouraging. You might have watched the other bloggers, who published content daily—maybe even twice daily, like they had a content machine. How was it so easy for them? Why wasn't it easy for you? How would you ever get noticed when you were constantly being lost in the crowd by your competitors? That's a question I asked myself many times when I created Template Faerie, and that's what my guest post on Blog Engage is about.

My guest post is called There's No Such Thing as Competition in the Blogosphere. I'm using it as my entry for the Blog Engage 500 USD Guest Blogging Contest. I'm really excited about this contest. Brian has been doing some great things with the community lately, and I'm glad to take part this time. I think I had more fun writing this post than any other post I've written.

One of the things that will determine the winners of this contest is how well the guest posts are promoted. I hope you'll help me out with this! If you have the time, I would be very grateful for any comments, tweets, Facebook shares, and Blog Engage votes.

Thanks, and happy blogging!

Image credit: I Can Has Cheezburger?

The Blog Engage 500 USD Guest Blogging Contest

2011-04-17T19:13:00.002-04:00

For those of you who don't know, Blog Engage is a community for bloggers to share their content, discover new blogs, and of course, engage with bloggers. I've been a member for several months, and I think it's the best of blogging communities, because of the abundance of real content and amazing bloggers, rather than the spam that you will find in most other communities.

Blog Engage has hosted other contests, and I considered entering, but I didn't think my blog had a big enough following to stand a chance. It wasn't until the 2nd $500 Guest Blogging Contest of 2011 was announced that I had a sudden urge to enter. I figured there wasn't any harm in entering, even if I don't win. Besides, I've been looking for opportunities to guest post, and the promotion I'll get from this contest will be good, so why not?

My guest article is called There's No Such Thing as Competition in the Blogosphere. How well it's promoted is one of the things that will determine if I'm a winner, so I would be forever grateful for all comments, tweets, Facebook shares, Blog Engage votes, or anything else you can think of that would help!

Contest Prizes

First place	250 USD
Second place	150 USD
Third place	100 USD

Here is a long list of the contest sponsors:

Ana Hoffman from Internet Marketing Tools
Kimberly Castleberry from WordPress and Facebook Marketing
Justin Germino from justingermino.com
Amogh from The Funky Chunk
Don Power from sproutsocial.com
Kavita from SFIhomebizz.com
Latief from Simple Blogging Tips
Sheila Atwood from newbielifeline
Matt Conlon from Matt Conlon.com
Aswani from aksindiblog.com
Kharim from Free Blogging Tips
A. Tatum from maddencorner
Tuan from Technology News
Omer Greenwald from webtechwis
Aybi from social media for business
janwong from janwong.my
Robert Bravery from integralwebsolutions
RowenaBolo from AsianMarketer
Ileane from basicpodcastingtips
David Leonhardt from SEO consultant
tonyknuckles from 113tidbits
Cosmin Stefan from themilliontwister
Joyce Oladipo from joyceoladipo
Jon from Essex Portal
Jon from jonalford
Mavis Nong from attractionmarketingonline
Dahlia Valentine from That Internet Marketing Thing
Jan Rossi from getyoustartedemarketing
Janet from The Natural Networker
Dennis Edell from Direct Sales Marketing
Vijayraj Reddy from Make Money Online
Alex from Jocuri from jocurile
Tony Hastings from thetop10blog
Neeraj Rawat from expertsgalaxy
Kristi from Blog Marketing
Mani Viswanathan from DailyBlogging
Alex from make money with amazon
Estava Morioka from estavamorioka
Shiva from Webmaster Tips
Robert Dempsey from Internet Marketing Strategies
kbharath from Techntricksonline
Steve from Lifestyle Design
ndreas from Online Advertising
Saket Jajodia from SJbn.Co
Bican Valeriu from smarketools
Wong Chendong aka The Bad Blogger
Nishadha from Make Money Blogging
Dave Grimes II from thesisready
Devesh from Blogging Tips
Matthew from Home Based Internet Businesses
Paul Salmon from Technically Easy
kirapermunian from geekster online
John Paul from Blog Resources
John from Hypertransitory.com
Michael Aulia from CravingTech.com
Daniel Snyder from fireproof safes for data
Deepak from Lead Generation
Nicholas Wind IMer from cashflowduplication
Sarah Lam from writingconsultation
Catarina Alexon from catarinasworld
MtnJimFisher from outsourcing
Peppy from The PeppyWrites Chronicles
Felix Albutra from Blogging Access
Gloson from social media and blogging tips
sajeev kumar menon from sajeevkmenon
Argie Monroy from Live Life More
Andrew Williams from The Billionaire's Butler
Memoirs of a Single Dad from Memoirs of a Single Dad
Gera from SweetsFoodsBlog
Togrul from Income Streams
Jennifer from emptypockets01
ptaylor98 from ptaylor98.jottit
Doc Sheldon from docsheldon.com
Goran from Black Hat Source
Ninure from Ninure da Hippie's Blog
Christine from christine.biz
Sarah from templatefaerie
Alison Moore Smith from Affordable Web Design for Small Business
Dave Lucas from dave-lucas.blogspot.com
Sean Supplee from Seansupplee.com
DazzlinDonna from making a living online
Pablo Lara H from pablolarah.cl
Tia Peterson from bizchickblogs.com
Dr. Rus Jeffrey from General Sarge
Sietse from allyouneedislists.com
Blazing Minds from Blazing Minds
Typhoon from make Money Online
Kiesha from WeBlogBetter
Bryan Hollis from News for Bloggers
Harleena Singh from FreelanceWriter.Co
Tristan from Blogging tips
Andi from misadventureswithandi.com
Dr. Hansjörg Leichsenring from der-bank-blog.de
Big Cajun Man from canajunfinances.com
Imran from shariffdotorg
Melinda from findingthehumor.com
Martha Giffen from marthagiffen.com
Dani Nir-McGrath from danimcgrath.com
Pit from pureinfotech.com
TS Redmond Mize from Element Content
Raj Agrawal from Upcoming Technology
Ryan Hanley from Albany Insurance
Kev From kevsproreviews.blogspot.com
Dana from Cell Phone Reviews
Michele Welch from new biz blogger
Josh Thompson from Boom Serve
Ryan Biddulph from Home Based Success
Fletcher T. from emailfletcher.blogspot.com
Jimi Jones from Jimi Jones
Dwight from FinanciallyEliteBlog.com

So, are you entering the Blog Engage contest? The sooner you do, the better!

Designing a Blog isn't Rocket Science

2011-04-09T11:31:00.003-04:00

It's true. With Blogger's Template Designer, you don't have to know HTML or CSS, you don't need any Photoshop skills, and you don't need a heap of books that give you step-by-step instructions. All it takes is you, your eyeballs, and a computer. A keyboard and mouse is helpful in most cases. To show you how easy it is, I'm going to give you six examples of default templates I improved using nothing but the Template Designer. Best of all, I'm giving away all six of these templates for you to use on your blog!

Default doesn't have to be ugly

If you keep up with Template Faerie, I'm sure you've heard me complain more than once about the countless number of blogs using unedited default templates. Well, here I go again. There's no excuse for this. While a beautiful blog probably isn't required for your success, I'm sure your readers would appreciate something more appealing, and you would like to stop losing sleep over your ugly template.

At first, I was skeptical about the Template Designer, and I thought it was very limiting. But, after playing with it for a while, I realized that it's actually capable of a lot, and that all the new Blogger templates are very customizable (I admit they could be improved, though). I then decided that there was no reason for ugly blogs to be in existence, and that any in existence must be improved or be banished from the internet forever. Well, not really, but you get the idea.

I don't have the power to improve all the ugliness in the blogosphere, but I can show you that designing a good template isn't hard. My last week was spent editing each of the default templates so I could show you that it really is possible to create something appealing out of something boring. I didn't touch any HTML to create these templates. All editing was done using nothing more than the Template Designer.

I thought that if I was going to all the trouble of creating these templates, they should be put to some use. So I'm giving them away for you to use on your blog. Below are preview images of each of the templates. I had lots of fun making them!

The Stripe template, as I call it, is based on Travel, and as you'd expect, is a stripy template with a clean design of muted colors. It would go perfectly with a cloudy day. Or with your Siamese cat!

Download Preview

Spring Green is based on the Simple template. Forget what I just said about cloudy days—this template is a mix of bright green and red, and it's just the thing your blog needs in time for spring! What, you don't think your blog needs to be in the mood for spring like the rest of us?

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I was skeptical about Ethereal at first, and I wasn't sure if I could do much to improve it. But somehow, this template popped out of it. Mosaic is a dark template with subtle blue tones and a stationary background.

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This template is based on Awesome Inc, which makes it awesome. I had lots of fun choosing colors for this one, and I decided to call it Pale Autumn.

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I was inspired by a background I found in the Template Designer to create Grunge, which is, of course, a grungy template based on Watermark.

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The Butterfly template is a mix of blues and purples, and is based on Picture Window. I don't know how I managed to add a hint of lavender to it. I hate lavender.

Download Preview

Keep ugliness out of your blog

I hope I've shown you today that you don't have to be a genius to design a blog. Anyone can design a blog. The only question is, can you make it look good? Fortunately, you don't have to be a genius for that either. A good design is nothing more than a combination of coordinating colors and graphics (such as the header and background images), and simple navigation. Blogger's templates have navigation that's simple enough—but how good the rest of the blog looks is up to you!

I hope you'll make it your mission to keep the ugly out of your blog. It may only be one less ugly blog on the internet, but it makes a difference.

Let me know what you think of these templates, and if you liked them, I hope you'll share the word! I'm forever grateful for any tweets, stumbles, diggs, and Facebook shares!

Why You Shouldn't Use Disqus Comments

2011-03-26T12:11:00.003-04:00

Several months ago, I decided I had had enough of the default Blogger commenting system. I looked around for an alternative and finally settled on Disqus. While it was an improvement over what I was using, I think it was a bad choice for my blog, and I discourage other bloggers from using it. Today I'm going to give you a few reasons why you shouldn't use Disqus. Whether you're thinking about using it, you're already using it, or are just looking for something to be grumpy about, this article is for you.

It's too complicated

I chose Disqus because I thought it looked nice, and the style went well with Template Faerie. But I soon learned that when it comes to commenting systems, looks aren't everything. I think it's more complicated than other systems. Even when you want to comment as a guest, you have to click on the "Post as..." button, which opens a window for you to log in and comment using one of the services listed, or type your name and email address, but you can't add your website address. It's lousy.

EDIT: I just realized that with Disqus, you actually can add your website when commenting as a guest. But it's such a small link that I didn't realize it at first!

First-time commenters may not understand how it works. They may not be the sort to try hard, which means you could be missing out on a lot of comments. Other systems such as Intense Debate have the name, email address, and website fields right next to the comment box, and this, I think, is superior. It's very fast and not a hassle for commenters.

It slows down the page

You probably already have enough images, styling, scripts, and widgets slowing down the page, and you don't need any more of that. I think Disqus is slower than a commenting system should be, and unless your blog is a bland page of text (not that that could attract commenters anyway), it could drastically effect your load time—in a bad way, that is.

Some people avoid Disqus

I've heard from several places that some people won't comment on blogs using Disqus. I find this odd, and I've never understood why, but if it's true—and I expect it is—why would anyone want to use Disqus? If you're one of those people who avoid Disqus, I hope you'll leave a comment and tell me your reasons.

You'll lose your comments if you want to remove it

If you decide to use Disqus and change your mind later, you'll experience even more lousiness. I don't know about other blogging platforms, but with Blogger, there's no tool on Disqus's website for removing it. Fortunately, you can easily remove it from your blog by deleting the widget you installed, but it's still lousy.

To make things worse—and even dreadful, if you've been using Disqus for a long time—there's no way to save your Disqus comments. When Disqus goes, the comments go with it. At least, that's the case for Blogger users, but I expect it's the same for all blogging platforms. Yeah, it's that lousy.

EDIT: David Cramer left a comment and reminded me that you can export your Disqus comments. It's been a while since I switched from Disqus, but now I remember that the reason why I lost my comments was because Blogger doesn't have the option for uploading comments. So, it was actually Blogger's fault. If you decide to use Disqus, and you're also using Blogger, keep in mind that if you eventually decide to revert back to the default system, there's no way to keep your Disqus comments on your blog!

What's a good alternative?

Disqus isn't what I would call horrible, because it does its job, and if you can overlook its problems, you could live with it. But when there are better systems out there, I see no reason why you should be using Disqus. Overall, I think it's lousy, but you probably already know that by now because I've used that word more than necessary and it's getting repetitive. At least I got my point across, or so I hope.

If you're using Blogger, I recommend that you use Intense Debate, which is what I'm using. It's a big improvement over the default commenting system, and over Disqus too. The main problem with any non-default commenting system used with Blogger is that right now, there's no way to import your comments to Blogger. Hopefully Blogger will add this must-needed feature very soon!

If you're using Wordpress, you can use Intense Debate, or you can use the default comment form.

I'm sure some of you disagree with me about Disqus. I'd love to hear your opinion of the best commenting system, why you think it's good, and why you use it instead of anything else.

Your Blog is Unique, Just like all the Others

2011-03-17T20:36:00.004-04:00

You have a blog. You think it's great. After all, you put so much work into writing content regularly and promoting it on social networks, so it must be great. It probably isn't. Of the millions of blogs on the internet, there are very few great blogs. The rest are boring. Of course, that's just an opinion, but I think you probably don't regularly read a hundred blogs, simply because you don't know of that many blogs worth reading—and even if you did, a hundred is only a small fraction of the blogs on the internet.

The problem is that many blogs are about the same thing, and therefore, say just about the same thing. Unless there's something amazing that catches my eye, or unless I have a really good reason for being there, I'll close the page. I'm tired of hearing the same thing over and over again.

Writing something yourself doesn't make it unique

You've probably heard that you should never copy content, and it's true. But there's more to writing unique content than just writing it. Think of all the other bloggers who have already written about the same thing, and said the same thing, just with different wording. Why would a reader choose your blog out of so many others?

It's not necessarily the topic you choose for your blog, but the way you approach it.

Be unusual

There are too many articles about Twitter. Usually, it's not the ones on how to get more followers that catch my attention, but rather the ones on how to lose them, because those sorts of articles are uncommon... or at least they were. Try to find something to post about that isn't frequently discussed, because I'm sure you agree with me that reading the same thing on every blog gets boring fast.

Depending on what you're blogging about, you may be able to offer more than just articles. Everyone likes freebies. I'm not big on ebooks, but if you can manage to create one that's actually useful, it might be worth giving away to your readers. Eventually, I'd like to have freebies on Template Faerie, such as templates, social media buttons, and emoticons.

Be yourself

You may think it's strange that first I told you to be unusual and now I'm telling you to be yourself. But really, they're two different things. Being unusual is about publishing content you can't find anywhere else, while being yourself is about building relationships with your readers and showing them there's a real person behind your blog. Both play important roles in defining your blog.

Find your writing style and let it flow. Write and read, then rewrite and reread. Remember, bad writing has a tendency to come easier than good writing, which is why rereading and rewriting is so important. In my opinion, this article is sloppily put together, and could use some rewriting. But I figured I wouldn't keep you waiting any longer for a new post. Don't be lazy like me.

You know yourself better than anyone else does (most likely), and you can be yourself better than you can be anyone else. Use this to your advantage. Include your personal experience in your posts, and if possible, add humor. Even on business blogs, readers like to know the human who wrote the thing. Every blog should have an About page that not only tells the readers about the purpose of the blog, but also about you.

Default looks... well, default

I really wish people would stop using default templates. Ever since the Template Designer came out, many bloggers have switched to the new templates, with the Simple template being the most common. I've also noticed that many bloggers don't even bother to change the colors or add a header image.

A boring or ugly design will never do. If you're one of the people using a default template, either get a new one or customize it so that it won't resemble a default template. Or, if you're really serious about being unique, and know (or would like to know) HTML and CSS, your best bet would be to design your own template.

I hope these few suggestions have helped you come up with some ideas for how to make your blog stand out in the incredibly dull blogosphere. It may also be helpful to keep up with blogs similar to yours to see what you can do differently.

I'd love to hear what unique things you've done with your blog, or will do, or could do, or should do, or might do, or won't do. Let me know in your comment below!

Image credit: Connor Sauve

Is Blogger Really a Piece of Junk?

2011-03-06T11:24:00.002-05:00

When you see that most of the successful bloggers are using Wordpress, most of them telling other bloggers to use nothing but the wonderful Wordpress, saying that Wordpress beats all other blogging platforms, and saying that you can't be a pro without using Wordpress, doesn't that say something about Blogger? In fact, most blogging blogs are aimed only toward Wordpress users. So, are other platforms too lousy to even mention?

Blogger has made some big improvements over the last few years, but despite that, all I hear is criticism. Is it true that Blogger isn't for the "serious" people? That it looks cheap and amateurish? Do you get what you pay for?

The other day, when I was reading an article on rules of blogging, I was stumped by one of the first sentences:

AVOID FREE
In order to become a successful blogger then you must avoid free hosting.

What? What ever happened to free being better? What is it about free that makes you unsuccessful? This statement makes no sense at all. Your chance of success depends on your determination and the amount of effort you put into blogging, not how much you spend on hosting.

By the way, when I say successful, I'm talking about popularity. Different people have varying opinions of success, many thinking they're successful when they're able to make money off of their blog, but I think that if money is your aim, it tends to come with the readers. Of course, that isn't my aim, since I have no intention of getting anything out of Template Faerie.

As discussed in one of my previous posts, Why I Chose to Use Blogger, and on my Squidoo page, I don't believe that any blogging platform will give you a better chance of being successful, or that any platform is better than another. But why does Blogger have such a bad reputation?

Why the pros hate Blogger

Take a look at Blogger blogs. Most of them use default templates, and therefore, most Blogger blogs look the same, or at least similar. The people who dedicate five minutes to improve their template's appearance, don't usually improve it, but turn it into a hideous mess. They use mismatched and distracting colors, clutter their blog with unnecessary widgets that slow down the page, and place ads in every empty space. They write about things most of us wouldn't care to read, or maybe their choice of colors and fonts make it almost impossible to read. I often wonder if these people ever bother to look at their blog.

It's a sad fact, but these people will likely never become successful bloggers. That may not be their plan either—they may be blogging to keep their friends updated with their life. There's nothing wrong with that, except that because Blogger attracts these sorts of people, it gives Blogger a bad image. The "pros" think that Blogger is too simple and not professional. But that's not true.

Because Blogger is free, it attracts everyone wanting to create a blog without paying for hosting: the beginners, the hobbyists, the people who don't even know what a blog is, and unfortunately, the spammers. It's not that these people can't be successful. Plenty of beginners learn to blog like the pros. The hobbyists blog for fun, because that's their idea of success. And yes, there are plenty of successful spammers out there too!

Use Wordpress, and you're automatically successful!

Wordpress should really use that headline on their front page. There probably are enough people who would believe it. Is it true that the people who use Blogger are incapable of creating a nice-looking blog? Do the Wordpress users have a natural ability to combine good colors, images, and fonts to create something amazing? No and no.

The reason why Wordpress users tend to be the ones who succeed, and why you hear about Wordpress being the best blogging platform in the world, is because people spend money on it. But it's not the money that makes it better.

It's common sense!
Don't begin to think that people who use Wordpress are smarter than those who use Blogger. It's only common sense to get your money's worth out of something. If you're going to be paying monthly to have somebody host your blog, you don't want that money to go to waste. You're probably going to keep at blogging longer than you would if you weren't paying for it. You're going to take the time to design a good blog, even if that means spending $87 on the Thesis template.

If you're spending money on your blog, you probably want to get something out of it. You want your blog to get noticed, and so you'll put a lot of time and effort into promotion.

Can Blogger shut down your blog?

Another reason why many people avoid free hosting is because they have a phobia about Blogger shutting down their blog without warning. Yet another reason for people disliking Blogger that makes no sense.

Blogger has a system to detect spam blogs, but there have been some cases where legitimate blogs have been incorrectly flagged as spam. This isn't the end of the world though. Blogger gives you plenty of time to request a review, and as long as you're not a spammer, they'll unlock your blog and everything will be hunky-dory again.

I hope I've shown you that someone who uses Blogger can be just as successful as somebody using Wordpress, or any other blogging service for that matter. Which platform you use makes no difference. How much money you spend on hosting doesn't matter either. There's no magic behind Wordpress that makes your blog superior and automatically popular. Success comes with continuous effort and a lot of time.

So, what are your thoughts on this?

Don't Know What to Tweet About? These 3 Tips are for You!

2011-02-28T14:55:00.002-05:00

Though I haven't been using Twitter for very long, I've realized that it can be extremely effective in attracting readers to my blog and meeting like-minded people. But, like me, you might have discovered that using it only for self-promotion will never be effective for anything. This problem is frequently discussed on other blogs, so I won't bother discussing it now. One thing that isn't talked about often is finding the things worth tweeting about, and in today's post, I'm going to give you a few tips that will help you find new and interesting articles and blogs to tweet about, which will lead to an increased number of followers.

The best way to keep followers interested and attract new ones is to reach out and advertise other bloggers. Here's why:

It gives you something more to tweet about, and the more often you tweet, the better. Followers like when you tweet regularly.

Followers like variety. Your blog posts may be worth reading once, but no more than that. Keep tweeting about your blog to a minimum.

The really nice and grateful people will thank you for tweeting about them or their blog. If they find your tweets interesting, they might follow you. And if they have 10,000 or so followers, a thank you can give you a lot of exposure.

Now that I've discussed the importance of promoting others, you may be wondering where you can find the stuff to tweet about, besides the occasional interesting article you happen to come upon. There are some days when I don't feel like searching Google or browsing the upcoming blogs section of Blog Engage for something to tweet about. So, when I realized that my tweeting frequency was badly effected by this problem (though it may have been just laziness, it was still a problem), I decided it was a good time to develop a method for finding new things to tweet about, and here's what I came up with. Just remember that these are actually some new ideas, but so far, they seem to be working very well.

1. Watch what other people are tweeting

This is probably the most logical of them all, but when I was new to Twitter, I often found myself overlooking what those I followed had to say. My head was too full of what I had to tweet next, what blog post I was going to write next, and what social network I would join next since Twitter wasn't working the way everyone said it would. Big mistake. If that sounds like you, get those things out of your head and replace it with this: Twitter is not about you.

So, here's a tip. Stop staring at your low number of followers, your low number of tweets, and the high number of people you're following. You follow people for a reason—because you're interested in what they have to say, right? So tell your followers you're interested and retweet. Believe me, even if somebody doesn't thank you for your retweet, I think the majority of tweeters are grateful that you took the time to advertise them.

There are two ways to retweet. The first and easiest way I'll mention is to simply click on "Retweet" when you hover over the tweet. I, however, prefer to send an @message, because first and foremost, the original tweeter can see what you retweeted in their @Mentions tab, and secondly, it makes it more noticeable that it was you who retweeted the tweet. I like to select their tweet and copy it, then paste it into the tweet box, and type "RT @tweeter's-name" before the tweet.

2. Use a feed reader to keep up with your favorite blogs

Use Google Reader or your browser's feed reader, if it has one, to subscribe to your favorite blogs which publish content relating to that of yours. Then, if you see something your Twitter followers would be interested in reading, tweet about it!

If you're using Firefox, I recommend an add-on called Feed Sidebar. It's a button that sits by your location bar and turns blue to alert you when new posts are published.

3. Use StumbleUpon to find new articles and websites

I've saved the best tip for last! As I've recently discovered, StumbleUpon is among one of the best ways to find new websites and blogs in your area of interest. If you don't have an account on StumbleUpon, I recommend getting one now. Then, you can select your interests, and click on the "Stumble" button to begin. Most sites have a retweet button, but if not, you can use the button on the StumbleUpon bar to do the same.

I hope these few tips have been helpful to you, and that soon, you'll realize that Twitter doesn't take very much work—just a little time. But the experience can be very rewarding. If you have any thoughts or tips you think I should have included in this article, I'd love to hear about them.

If you found this article helpful, I hope you'll check out my Twitter page for more tips on blogging, social media, and web graphics, and my StumbleUpon profile for all my cool finds on the internet.

Until next time, happy tweeting! ;)

Why I Chose to Use Blogger

2011-02-22T19:47:00.002-05:00

I was originally going to call this post "Why Blogger is Best". But I have since realized that not only would that be an extremely controversial topic (not that that's a bad thing), but also that Blogger really isn't the best. "So," you may ask, "are you finally realizing that Wordpress is the better platform?" No, because Wordpress isn't better. I'm only saying that all the people who say Blogger is best—and the people saying Wordpress is best too—are wrong. They are only giving their opinions.

So, if you're trying to decide which blogging platform to use, I'm not going to tell you which one I think is best, because that won't be any use to you. Instead, here are four of my best reasons why I chose to use Blogger over any other option.

It's free

While there are other blogging platforms that can be used for free, Blogger offers the most options. Because my blog is hosted by Blogger, the only time I'll ever have to spend money on it is if I decide to use a custom domain name, otherwise it will be a subdomain of blogspot.com (for example, blogname.blogspot.com). Some people feel safer with self-hosting, but I don't mind Blogger hosting Template Faerie, so why pay for something when I can get it for free?

It's simple, but versatile

Blogger is made for both beginning and advanced users. The Template Designer makes it easy for me to change my template and customize it with only a few clicks, and I can view my changes instantly with the real-time preview. But I don't use the Template Designer much more than to make small changes to the text and colors, because I prefer to play with the code and create a custom template using the Edit HTML feature. I would never use Blogger if it didn't come with that feature!

It's Google

Because Blogger is a Google thing, they are always adding and updating features to make it better. I always keep a close eye on Blogger Buzz so I won't miss out on anything new. It also integrates well with their other services, such as Google Friend Connect, Feedburner, Google Analytics, and probably many others that I've forgotten to mention.

It's reliable

Royal Pingdom tested five blogging services over a two month period (October 15 - December 15, 2010), and they saw that during that time, Tumblr was the most unreliable with 47.5 hours of downtime, followed by Posterous with 2.1 hours, Typepad with 0.2 hours, Wordpress with 0.1 hours, and Blogger ranked the most reliable with zero hours of downtime. I can also say that for as long as I've used Blogger consistently (I think it has been over 2 years), I only remember one time when Blogger was having trouble.

These four reasons sum up why I'm such a fan of Blogger. Of course, Blogger has its problems, but it's always improving. It works great for what I need to do, and I think it's great for almost any sort of blogger.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Why did you choose to use Blogger? Why did you choose not to use Blogger? What are your likes and dislikes? Leave your comment below!

If Content isn't King, What Is?

2011-02-17T15:01:00.003-05:00

When I was very new to blogging, I read and believed that content was king. I thought as long as I wrote good content, it would be recognized, my blog would get good amounts of traffic, and it would be as popular as I dreamed it could be. This, however, from my own experience, and from research I've done, has been shown to be untrue. If you create a blog, people won't come just because the content is good and that it exists. It doesn't work that way in the blogosphere—at least, not unless you're really lucky, and somebody comes across your blog and advertises it for you. But even then, content isn't king. That's mostly chance, and not much work on your part.

If you haven't heard somebody say it before, I'm sure you'll hear it soon enough. From what I've seen on the internet, people who say "content is king" tend to believe that you should put all your effort (or most of it) into content. It is true that good content gives someone a reason to read your blog, and it keeps them coming back. But how do you expect the reader to find the content in the first place? Good content alone won't do that.

Relationship is king

In an article on Famous Bloggers, Chase Brumfield disproves the popular belief that content is king. He says relationship is king.

If you have created a blog, chances are you want it to be noticed. That's the whole point of a blog. This means you must promote it, but not in the "check-out-my-blog" sort of way that comes to mind. You need to build relationships, a process that takes time—a lot of time! I'm still working on it. Are you?

I like bloggers who publish great content. But what I really love is when they talk to me directly. When I leave a comment, they make a reply. When I send them an @message on Twitter, they send one back to me. When I follow them on Twitter or retweet their tweet, they thank me and follow me back. What's even better is when they remember me or when they initiate a conversation with me. It feels good when a somewhat new blogger like me gets noticed.

Whether you're a new blogger or not, it's extremely important to build relationships with both your readers and other bloggers. Here are some reminders for how you can do this.

Reply to every comment on your blog

Well, almost every comment. If somebody asks a question, answer it and be as informative as you can. When somebody thanks you for sharing some tips on your blog, say "you're welcome". Not only do many readers appreciate this, but it also increases the comment count on your posts, which is always good if you like that.

Be a part of the community on Twitter

By saying this, I don't simply mean you should get an account on Twitter. You should get on Twitter, but what I really mean is that you should stop sitting in the corner (if that's at all possible on the internet) away from everybody else and promoting yourself and yourself only. You need to be a part of the community, and just "being on Twitter" is not the same thing. Twitter, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to interact with other people, and that's exactly what you need to do. Initiating conversations, thanking people for tweeting about you, and retweeting interesting articles are only a few ways to be part of the community.

Most importantly, be a human!

You will never be able to easily build relationships on the internet if you don't act like a human. Regardless of where you're writing—on your blog, in your comments, or on social networks—write how you talk. Be warm, friendly, and informative.

I believe that if you focus on connecting with your readers and other bloggers with similar interests while writing compelling content too, you will be able to improve your traffic and get noticed in the blogosphere. This is actually a new concept for me, but I think it sounds promising, and my traffic has improved in the short time since I began putting it into action.

So what do you think of this? Do you agree with me, or am I crazy? I want to hear your opinions and ideas. Leave your comments below!

5 Reasons Why Only Some Bloggers Succeed

2011-01-26T08:03:00.003-05:00

I want my blog to succeed and I'm sure you want the same for yours. You might put a lot of time into your content and promotion, but despite your effort, sometimes it seems like your blog gets drowned in all the others. Then you see the bloggers who have managed to survive. They are the ones that we always talk about, the ones that inspire us, and the ones that we hope to be like someday. What if one day it wasn't just a dream? What if one day your blog succeeded? Is it possible?

What is a successful blog?

To start, I think it would be best to define a successful blog. The only problem is that I can't. Every person has a different idea of success. But, regardless of their specific goals, I think most people want to be recognized in the blogosphere, have a larger readership, more comments, and more subscribers.

So, how do you achieve this? I haven't written a complete guide on how to be successful. I don't intend to either. Instead, I encourage you to learn from the bloggers who are already successful. How did they do it?

1. They chose a good topic

The bloggers who succeed have chosen a topic they are knowledgeable and passionate about. This way, they can provide information or express their views in writing better than if they were to write about something they didn't find enjoyable. By choosing a good topic, they will also be able to continue blogging about their subject without becoming bored.

2. They actively promote their blogs

Everyone has their own ways for promoting their blogs, and their opinions of what works and what doesn't. Some say to avoid Twitter and use Facebook, some say to use Twitter but not Facebook, some say not to use either of them. But, whatever their opinions may be, they find what works for them, they create a formula for promotion, and they stick to it. Most don't sit and wait for the readers to come to them. They go to the readers and build their community.

3. They write well

The bloggers who are successful are known for publishing only high quality content. They know that whatever it is they write next, it won't be as simple as typing what comes to mind—it must meet their readers' expectations. They must formulate ideas that will attract new readers, and keep the old ones. Over time, they learn what subjects and writing styles work best.

4. They are determined

As discussed in my Why You Shouldn't Be a Blogger article, determination is success. Many bloggers give up after a few months when they realize blogging isn't giving them the results they had hoped for. But obviously, some people have figured out that any blog in any category can be successful.

5. They are unique

There are millions of blogs on the internet, and the bloggers who manage to stand out in that crowd are the most likely to succeed. It's not easy to get noticed, especially when you're competing with the already "famous" bloggers. Who is going to read your blog when there are other blogs that discuss the same things but have been around much longer and have a reputation for always publishing valuable content?

I admit that when I started my first blog—that would be Template Faerie—though I knew a lot about blogs and blog design, I didn't know there would be so much competition. The problem I ran into was my topic: blogging—it is overdone and overflowing with the same information. I don't mean to say that successful bloggers are the ones who choose topics with little to no competition—instead, they find a way to be unique. They are able to offer something that no one else does. The only problem for the rest of us is finding that "something".

So, if you were to ask me if I consider Template Faerie to be successful, I would say, "not yet!". What about you? What are your goals for your blog, and how do you plan to pursue them?

You're a Human, so Write like One

2011-01-18T15:42:00.007-05:00

In my blogging experience, I've learned that my voice is my most important tool. A voice in writing is like your personality, and what makes it so important is that each blogger has a unique voice. You don't have to try to be different—all you must do is be you, and you'll be different. In comments, your voice shows that you really care about your reader's feedback. On Twitter, it helps you to engage with other tweeters and attract more followers. On your blog, your readers can almost hear you talking to them. This, I hope, is what your voice can do. But the truth is, many bloggers fail to use their voice in writing. The result is that the reader doesn't feel like a human wrote what they're reading. It's boring to read.

I like to know the person who writes what I read. Unfortunately, I'll never know who they are if they fail to let me know through their writing, and if they remain hidden behind their awkward words. I'm not an expert writer, and I'm nowhere near perfect. I do, however, try to improve my writing, and I hope you do too. So, here are some of my tips for you.

Write how you talk... with exceptions

The best way to sound like yourself in writing is to write how you talk—that is, without the ums, uhs, and stuttering. Your voice will naturally come out through your style. Don't use words you wouldn't normally say.

Many people believe that your style of writing should adjust to fit your audience. I don't agree with this, because your style of writing is your style of writing, and you can only have one. If your audience doesn't like your writing, that's their loss. You shouldn't be writing for them anyway, so don't try to impress them.

Here is a quote from On Writing Well, an excellent book on non-fiction writing. If I ruled the planet, it would be a required read for everyone.

     Soon after you confront the matter of preserving your identity, another question will occur to you: "Who am I writing for?"
     It's a fundamental question, and it has a fundamental answer. You are writing for yourself. Don't try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person. Don't try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don't know what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they're always looking for something new.
     Don't worry about whether the reader will "get it" if you indulge a sudden impulse for humor. If it amuses you in the act of writing, put it in. (It can always be taken out, but only you can put it in.) You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment, you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for. If you lose the dullards back in the dust, you don't want them anyway.

Quit being so formal

Formal writing uses more elaborate and technical words than those normally said by human beings. It is also, in my opinion, a jumble of unnatural words that could easily be exchanged for the shorter, simpler, and more understandable words. It doesn't matter how technical you think your subject is—there is no good reason why you should be formal.

Formal writing often contains an excess of unnecessary words as well. It seems that some people believe that the longer an article, and the more words and the longer the words used to describe something, the better. The opposite is true. For example, below is a sentence taken from the article Why is Business Writing So Bad? by David Silverman. (Beware of the large and scary ad you might encounter if you decide to check out the article.)

It is the opinion of the group assembled for the purpose of determining a probability of the likelihood of the meteorological-related results and outcome for the period encompassing the next working day that the odds of precipitation in the near-term are positive and reasonably expected.

This sentence makes me laugh every time I read it. It can be translated to, "it might rain tomorrow".

On the other hand, informal writing can be exaggerated to the point of being improper English. I don't consider made up words such as "gonna" and "whaddya" to be proper. I don't think they should be used at all.

Informal writing, in my opinion, uses more contractions and shorter, simpler words that mean the same thing as their longer counterparts. You don't "utilize" something in informal writing, you "use" it. You don't "consume" an apple, you "eat" it.

I don't have any statistics to prove it, but I believe that informal, when not taken to the extreme, will attract more readers because it is easier and more interesting to read, and sounds like a real person. Being informal doesn't mean you can't be technical or state facts. It doesn't mean you can't use proper English. Informal is just a style of writing.

To be a blogger is to be a part of the community. You need to interact with your readers like a real person, and a stilted, formal writing style will conflict with your humanity.

Now that I have shared my crazy opinions, I want to hear yours. Leave your comments below!

Image credit: Matt-Richards

5 Reasons Why I Won't Read Your Blog

2011-01-10T16:59:00.003-05:00

If you're like me, you visit a lot of blogs. And like me, you might pass up a lot of blogs too. Maybe it's the topic that doesn't interest me, but many times, there are problems with the blog or it's content that discourage me from reading—problems that the blogger may or may not be aware of, but can be and should be addressed. Have you ever considered that you might be one of these bloggers? Today I'm going to discuss five common problems which give me five reasons why I won't read your blog.

1. Your content is full of spelling and grammatical errors

An occasional typo is understandable. We're human—we make mistakes sometimes. But there are some blogs out there that are full not just of spelling errors, but grammar errors too. It gets to the point of being intolerable and unreadable. This is especially true with people in which English is not their first language.

The best thing you can do is always read and reread your posts before publishing. Because I already know what my posts say, I have a tendency to read too quickly when I read silently, and I easily miss errors. Reading aloud can usually help me catch these mistakes. Once you've proofread your post, let a friend read it too. Even if they don't understand your topic, they will have a fresh outlook and can point out mistakes and tell you if your writing is clear.

2. The fonts and colors make your blog difficult to read

It doesn't matter how well you write—if your blog's text color doesn't contrast enough or contrasts too much with the background, reading can be difficult. Fancy fonts and exceedingly large or small text can cause problems as well.

The solution to this problem is simple. Use good colors on your blog. Even the common black text on a white background isn't the best. It's actually better to use a very dark gray on white, or black on a very light gray.

As for the text style, stick to the common fonts, such as Arial, Verdana, Georgia, and Times for the body of your posts, and use bigger and bolder (and fancier if you like) fonts for headings.

3. There are distracting ads

These days, almost everyone who is blogging about blogging is talking about making money with ads. The idea of making money with blogs is overdone and overrated, if you ask me, and as a result of this craze, many people are using ads in hopes that they'll get lucky just like the successful bloggers tell them they can be. But many, if not most, of those blogs with ads are an annoyance to the reader. This includes animated ads, pop-ups, and ads that are large enough to get in the way of reading and navigation.

You may be trying to attract the reader's attention, but attract their attention with good content, and use ads that are suitable to the content.

4. The posts are too short or aren't as useful as they could be

There's a big difference between a post that's short and one that's too short. A post needs to be long enough to offer the necessary value to satisfy the reader. A few lines of text won't do that, and neither will just one link. If that's how you want to be, fine, but save that post for Twitter. Don't post for the sake of posting either—post because you have something useful, humorous, or interesting to say.

Of course, there's nothing that says a lengthy post is always a good thing. There are many long posts which could have been shorter and gotten the same point across. My suggestion is to plan, write, and read your posts carefully, and ask yourself questions. Does the post give what the title promises? Will the reader find the post interesting? Does it offer enough value? Could it be improved by adding links to other websites?

5. I can find plenty of better places to get the same information

You've probably heard it before: don't copy content. But that's not all I'm talking about. There are many bloggers who publish posts about the same topic as so many others. For example, if I type "Firefox reviews" into Google, I get exactly what I'm looking for: lots and lots of Firefox reviews. The internet doesn't need any more Firefox reviews. You could try to be different in your review, but Firefox is always the same, and chances are, your post will go unnoticed. If anybody does notice it, it will be just another Firefox review.

The solution is clear: publish content that is unique—content that nobody else has published. Google will be your best friend when it comes to finding a unique topic. Before you start writing, do a search for your topic. If Google gives you a page full of websites saying the same thing, and unless you can offer something that nobody else does that will make you stand out from the others, forget about publishing it. For this post, I Googled "reasons why I won't read your blog", and I found that nobody has published anything similar enough to make me throw the idea out.

Okay, now it's your turn—tell me 5 reasons why you won't read my blog. But of course, if you've come this far in the post to be reading this, I guess you are reading my blog.

Suggested Reading
Cultivate Your Writing Skills to Improve Your Blog
Light Text on Dark Background vs. Readability
Serif vs. Sans-Serif Fonts
The World of Annoying Ads
How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
13 Ways to Create Unique, Original Blog Content

Review of JotForm.com: A WYSIWYG Form Builder

2011-01-04T06:27:00.001-05:00

I have long been in search for a good contact form for my blog. Being a fan of customization, I wanted something I could easily edit, but would also look professional and upload files without limiting submissions and costing money. A simple search in Google told me I was dreaming of something that didn't exist. So I had to resort to finding the best I could get, a task which took many pages of many searches, reading multiple form builder reviews, and experimentation. It all led me to JotForm.

Why JotForm is the Best

I've tried more form builders than I would like to remember—every one just being identical to the last—and by far, JotForm is the best. It offers the most features for free, and while most form builders can be used for free, they often limit you to the most basic features. JotForm is different, as it lets you take advantage of all the features at no cost. Of course, they have to make their money somehow, so if you want more than 10 MB of available space for uploaded files or expect more than 100 submissions per month, you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan. The free plan, however, is probably adequate for the average blogger.

JotForm makes building forms easy with its WYSIWYG editor. Adding fields is as simple as a click, and the drag-and-drop interface allows you to arrange the fields in whatever way you please. Using the Embed Form Wizard, you can insert your form into any type of web page. JotForm is a perfect editor for people who have no knowledge of HTML.

I mainly use JotForm as a way for my readers to contact me, but it can do so much more than just contact forms. You can use JotForm for almost any form you want, including surveys and applications.

JotForm lets you interact with your users too. You can display a thank you message after a submission or send an automated email to let them know that it successfully submitted. You can also reply to submissions right on JotForm's website.

One thing I really love about JotForm is its professional look. Unlike other free services, there will never be any ads and you'll never be directed to their website. You can customize the look of your form with the given themes, though I often complain about the limited number of styles. The Default theme works well for Template Faerie, but other bloggers may want something more customized. While the remaining nine themes offer more color variety, I think many—if not most—would clash with the colors and style of numerous websites and blogs. The form can be customized using CSS, but of course, not everyone is capable of that.

I'm using JotForm for both my contact form and guest post submission form. I like the form builder's simplicity and ease-of-use, and I recommend this service to anyone who is looking to create a form for free. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Visit JotForm.com today, and start building your first form. You don't even need an account to get started!

3 Things I Think Blogger Should Change

2010-12-30T10:29:00.006-05:00

Why is it out of all the applications I use and websites I visit, I can always find something to complain about? Could it be true that all these things are never done as well as they should be, or am I just being too critical? I tend to think it's the latter, but who said criticism was a bad thing? Without it, nothing would improve. Today is the rare occasion of when I complain about Blogger. I like Blogger, not only because it got me into blogging such-and-such many years ago, but because it makes blogging easy while not limiting me too much. But Blogger has it's flaws.

1. Navigation

Blogger uses tabs and sub-tabs at the top of the page that, as most tabs do, allow me to navigate between different sections, such as Posting, Comments, and Design. I don't like this. Tabs usually work well for websites, but for a blogging platform, it takes too long to get to where I want to go. Wordpress has better navigation. All the links are on the sidebar, and by clicking on the arrow next to a section, I can view all the subsections without having to load more pages than necessary. I definitely think that Blogger needs something similar.

2. Advanced Editing

I understand that Blogger is trying to make things easier and simpler for beginners, but I think in the process, they are straying from developing more advanced features for advanced bloggers. Blogger has many features that are great for beginners, but I hardly touch these. They aren't bad, they just aren't as full-featured as they could be. This is probably one of the reasons why some people believe Blogger isn't right for you if you're "serious" about blogging. Blogger, actually, is very customizable when it comes to editing your template, but in all the time I've been blogging, this feature has never been improved.

I wish the Edit HTML page had a bigger text box (though I have my own fix for that), more specific error messages, and was like a real HTML editor, with numbered lines and colored text.

3. Commenting

Perhaps if the comment form wasn't so ugly and difficult to use, and if Blogger allowed me to customize it, post threaded replies, and edit comments, I wouldn't have switched to Disqus. While Disqus isn't as customizable as I'd like, it makes commenting simple. See the difference:

The default comment form

The Disqus comment form

EDIT: I now use IntenseDebate as my commenting system. Read my Why You Shouldn't Use Disqus Comments article to find out why.

Every blogging service has its flaws, but these listed in this post are only minor. None of these things would make me want to stop using Blogger. Blogger is always looking for ways to improve their service and they have already made some great changes. With 2011 right around the corner, I'm sure they're already making plans.

That's all I have to complain about today, but I might find more to say tomorrow. In the meantime, post your rant as a comment below, and let me know what you think Blogger should change.

Image credit: Iconspedia.com

Enlarging Blogger's HTML Editor

2010-07-28T07:12:00.003-04:00

I don't normally get annoyed with Blogger, and when I do, it's usually because I did something without realizing and don't want to blame myself. However, one thing about Blogger that drives me crazy is the HTML editor. Sure, it's great because it does what it's supposed to do: it allows me to customize my blog. But I hate the tiny textarea. I've always hoped that Blogger would someday make it bigger, or allow it to be expandable. Well, I got impatient. So I decided to end my frustration and take matters into my own hands.

As a fan of Firefox, I have several add-ons I use occasionally, but there's one that I never really took the time to learn about (until now, that is), and that add-on is Greasemonkey. Maybe I was too lazy to learn how to use it… I don't know. I guess I thought it was complicated. I'm not sure what made me change my mind, but I decided to read the manual and it suddenly hit me: “Wow, this is easy!”.

But enough with the chatter. I'll get right to the point. I wrote a script for Greasemonkey that enlarges the editor textarea. I also moved the Clear Edits, Preview, and Save buttons over to the right of the page and gave them a fixed position, so they'll always stay in the same position of the page, even when you scroll. You can see the results below:

Before

After

How to Install

It's really easy to install the script. Just follow these steps.

Instructions for Firefox Users

1. Download Greasemonkey.

2. Download the user script for enlarging the HTML editor and you will see a window pop up that looks something like this:

3. Click the Install button and the script will immediately be installed. You can now view the results in the Edit HTML page in Blogger.

Instructions for Other Browsers

It's actually possible to run Greasemonkey scripts on other browsers too! Check out this article to find out how: Run Greasemonkey User Scripts in IE, Opera, and Safari.

Please leave your comments below and tell me what you think of this script. Do you find it useful? Is there something you think should be changed that would improve it? What kind of scripts would you like to see in the future?

To find out more about Greasemonkey, visit these sites:

Wikipedia article on Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey's blog
Find more scripts on Userscripts.org