Saturday 14 June 2008

blogging

I went out for a meal this week, with 2 school friends, and dinner conversation turned to friend 2's brother who lives in the US and how he has a blog about his MG (car) and how he writes tutorials about how to change the oil, and other car type info. my friend was most disparaging about him, her main excuse for why he shouldn't be doing this blogging thing (evil blogging thing was the tone.......) was that he had kids! like you can't have a life of your own, or interests that don't involve them at all times........... now neither of these friends have children, so it bemuses me how they can be experts on what parents should or shouldn't do! I tried to defend the brothers actions which apparently involve lots of pictures of how to change the oil - and how this might be very useful if you needed to know how (although isn't that what the garage is for?), but in the end I became quiet, and no I didn't say "well I have a blog!" although perhaps I should have... because my blog means a lot to me, and so do all you who read it, so thank you.

and now this post has turned into a post about blogging I recently found these posts about blogging, which are full of great info

how to start a craft blog

how to market your craft blog

how to make your blog look cuter

nice blog manners

and I also read a great post about comments, and I'm useless because I can't find it to link back to, but it basically talked about the dreaded noreply-comment that is the misery of blogger, and which I fell foul of recently by messing with my profile. Basically there's a setting on blogger profile which if you set to "show email" then when you comment one someones blog then they can see your email and reply to your comments which is so lovely, I love to do it, and it means a lot when someone responds to my comments. The post referred to this as "fan mail" and the post writer talked about how she had a seperate "fan mail" account for her blog, to keep it seperate from personal mail, which is a great idea, and such a great name for it!

also in the blog world Rachel Rabbit is organising a cupcake and tea themed sway, stop by, and join in - I have.

and just because there are too many words in this post here's a picture!



less rambling nonsense next time I promise....

13 comments:

  1. You can ramble on any time you want...that is one of the joys about having a blog!
    I haven't been blogging long but I so look forward to it every day, and also reading all the other blogs, it is such good fun.
    I am also looking forward to the cupcake swap it will be really fun.

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  2. Oh now I feel bad. I've been really crap at commenting anywhere recently but sneekily still reading! I think we pretty much started out at the same time didn't we?

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  3. Those no reply email comments drive me crazy...i feel like I'm not being polite when I don't respond to comments...i wonder if folks know that they are no reply people?

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  4. Thank you for that link - it is really useful because I had a couple of people ask for advice when they started their blogs and that says severything important much better than I could.

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  5. :o) hehehe My post yesterday was the same - waffle, waffle, waffle but no pics.
    Must go back and read the post about blog manners. It's a minefield sometimes learning the etiquette. I usually reply to comments but it's knowing where to do it. If you reply in the comments section will the 'fan' check back and look for a reply? If they don't have an email then you're a bit stuck.
    I'm sorely tempted by the cupcakes challenge but I need to stop signing up for swaps 'cause I spend too much time on them and won't have anything ready for my craft fair next month.

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  6. Great post! Not rambling at all. Isn't it funny how non-bloggers just don't get it?
    I've read through the links and they are spot on.

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  7. Thanks for the links to posts about blogging. I am going to have a look at them now!

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  8. I think this post is great, it is for this reason I haven't told friends or family about my blog. I must admit it does get to me sometimes when you post and post on a certain blog and never get a reply, for this reason I always like to try and reply if i can.
    Lisa x

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  9. Thanks for the great links! I know what you mean about being hesitant to admit to friends that you blog - I am exactly the same. I'm not sure what many of my close friends would make of the whole thing!

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  10. Rambling is good! I'm off to check the links. As to replying to comments, I think it's a really personal thing - I very much enjoy getting responses to comments I leave(and try hard to respond to comments I receive - it's like writing thank you letters!); and I have to confess that if I never receive a response to comments I leave I am far less likely to comment much in future. But I can see that people who receive huge numbers of comments couldn't possibly respnd to them all, and also that many people don't expect responses. Perhaps the links will answer it all!

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  11. I'm a new blogger so I really appreciate any comments. In fact Driftwood left me a comment on my blog so I followed her link here and am so happy that I did.
    I see that 10 people commented here before me...so now I have 10 new blogs to check out!!

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  12. Hi! Thankyou for writing this post- its had me clicking away reading the 'meet me at mikes' posts too...Has given me lots to think about- thanks! ( I came across your blog from a link from Gingerbread's blog)Marnie

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  13. I was thinking for awhile about noreply-comment setting as I had it set to yes, but sometimes want to email people who also don't show their emails. After reading your post I finally found time to open another email account and change my profile settings.

    If I wasn't blogging/reading other blogs in the early days of my motherhood, I would probably slide into depression. So who cares about others say :-), lets keep on blogging.

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