New to Blogging? I am Too!

Buggal1989 aka Polly Pocket Addict

As an experienced blogger, of two whole days as of Aug 12, 2006 I thought I’d pass on what I have learned and my opinions on blogging. 

I now have updated this, being a little more experienced now - stop back again and see what I've added.

First create your blog

This will be your "home base" where all your start-up posts will reside. Think up a cool name for it and a short, in my opinion TOO short of , paragraph to introduce yourself to your fellow bloggers.

You can customize the blog banner, but as of yet I haven’t tried too hard. My first effort failed, so I guess I should read the constructions (my son’s term – he also used destructions and met the definition BIG time) better. My suggestion is to find someone’s blog you really admire and hit him or her up for help. One thing I have found is EBayers are great people and very helpful, on the most part. I have had several great experiences with sellers and fellow bloggers.  You may also purchase a blog banner from someone who designs them.  I've included some links below in the "getting fancy" section.  You can also pay a small fee and get someone to do a banner for you - whitewave did mine and I love it!

You can find someone's blog by searching for the by their ID on the main blog page.  Be sure to change the search parameters to "member" from "posts". 

You can also search for blogs by typing in keywords and then searching the posts and titles or members. 

Then it’s ... off you go, start off with whatever topic floats your boat and go with it.

Write about yourself, your family and pets. Write about what happened to you that day, who was a jerk to you, cool and bizarre stuff you found on E-bay, how to do something you excel at, your hobbies and just whatever comes to your sick little mind. Be careful to not provide too much informaion, like your kid's pic and data - it may not be safe.  Hopefully other people will read your post and comment on it. Be sure to visit others posts and comment. It’s what we live for!

How does anyone keep up with all that is happening on EBay blogging?

There are about a bajillion, technical mathematical term, posts each day! Wow! I just try to skim after first hitting more posts to see what might interest me – so come up with a catchy title and let your first sentence draw your readers in to get my attention.  I have found most bloggers blog at night.  This seams to be the busiest time.  Most bloggers read about 4 pages back from the main page. 

You can also bookmark blogs you like to go back and see what the blogger has written next - or jot down key terms (like mother, fibromyalgia, etc) and search for these to find a post you were following.  Ellenillustrates has written a guide on tracking your guides through Yahoo.  Tracking Your Guide

As of yet EBay does not have a way to subscribe to a post so you will know when something has been added to the post but they are working on it.

I found out you can make an About Me page.

Wow! Some great ones out there, I feel my page is severally lacking in joujous (the little extra bells and whistles you add to your page. But I’ll get there one day with the help of bloggers.

What else can I say, this is the most fun since I won my first auction!

I haven’t sold yet, mainly because I can’t bear to part with my goodies. May explain to BIG shed in our yard chock full of things to good to trash. But I sure learned to bid quick enough. I simply love it. I can find al kinds of cool stuff I didn’t know I needed.

Plagiarism

One thing you want to be careful of is copying someone else's posts, guides or reviews.  This is not only unethical, but will get you expelled from EBay.  The report this is to be used to report problems with plagiarism.

Getting fancy

When you are ready to get fancy, add pictures, buttons, counter, etc. to your blog page the best instructions I can give you is to go to shipscripts blog (clink link below) and follow the instructions.  I cannot praise this blog enough.  Shipscript has been so helpful and these instructions are easy to follow.  She also has a tool that will let you change the appearance of your blog.   Link to shipscripts blog

When you want a pretty banner, either you know HTLM code or you hire someone to do it for you.  White_wave did mine for me.   It was $9.99 and well worth the cost.  Please go to my blog and view my banner (link below).  White wave's Blog Page

To add pictures to your blog read this guide by frogmom1010.  She is the only one who was able to teach me to add pictures to my blog.   How to Add a Picture to Your Blog

Spell Check

There is no spellcheck for the blogs like there is for the Guides and Reviews, but if you download the Google toolbar you can use the spellcheck there.  Finding this has REALLY improved my spelling on my blogs.

Last Words

A lot of people want to know their blogs are being viewed.  People often view your guide and don't comment so they get discouraged and stop blogging.  If you want to know how many visitors you have had to your blog you will need to add a blog counter.  The one I use is amazingcounters.com.  You must subscribe to the service, then simply copy and paste the URL code into your message.  Be sure to check your View Source button, then paste, then uncheck the View Source box.

Well, that’s about alI can think of to share with you about blogging. Be sure to stop by my Blog and say Hi!  I am buggal1989.

Stop by Buggal1989's Blog 

Except get in gear and join us – you’ll met cool people and find out things you never knew you never knew!

Thank you for reading my guide.  If you enjoyed my guide or found it helpful, please vote. 

If you have any questions or comments or if you did not find my guide helpful, please let me know why by contacting me through the link below. 

http://blogs.ebay.com/buggal1989/entry/Post-Comments-to-My-Guides-and-Reviews-Here/_W0QQidZ35422019