Works for Me Wednesday: Blogging Tips

I thought I'd share some of my favorite blogging tips from around the blogosphere. These are tips that most definitely work for me.


1. Enable easy replies to your comments and questions. I never knew this was even an option, but since Jolanthe pointed it out and showed me how to change things on my end, it has made life so much easier! I love seeing an email address in people's comments. It makes replying so much easier. Although I'll sometimes reply in the comments section on the original post, I love being able to reply directly (and easily) to an individual commenter.


Darcy also recently offered a step-by-step tutorial, with pictures, on how to make replying to comments easier.


2. Give yourself more control over the photos in your posts. Want thick frames around your posted photos? Thin frames? No frames? I love that I can now have much more control over how my blog photos look thanks to this simple tutorial from Dawn.


3. Turn off Captcha filters. I understand the desire to cut down on unwanted spam, but captcha filters (a.k.a. "word verification) is more likely cutting down on legitimate comments, rather than spam. If you want to filter your comments, use comment moderation so that your readers don't have to jump through hoops to connect with you. I use comment moderation and hardly ever have spam comments.


4. Number your comments for easy blog giveaways. I've posted about this one before, but it's become one of my favorite hacks this summer since I've done lots of giveaways. You can follow this simple tutorial to number your comments.


5. Add photos to your posts. Photos (a.k.a. "eye candy") make your posts more visually appealing to readers. Here are some great tips for finding and using photos in your blog posts.


6. Use short paragraphs and bold important text. I've read over and over that many blog readers are "scanners." It's true. I confess: I can be one of them. If I'm in a hurry or have lots of posts in my reader, I can be a scanner. Bold text and short paragraphs help keep my attention and go a long way to ensuring that I'll read an entire post.


7. Music. I know some people love music on blogs, while others hate it. I have a tendency to do the majority of my blog hopping while the other people in my house are asleep. Sudden, loud music and people sleeping don't go well together. If you're going to have music on your blog, at least make the pause button easily (and quickly) accessible.


Do you have any favorite blogging tips?


Visit Kristin at We Are THAT Family for more Works for Me Wednesday tips.