Hints for bloggers, 4, What’s all this SEO stuff? Or, how do you get people to your site?

Let’s start with a confession.  When someone says “SEO” to me, I want to get out the Holy water and sprinkle them to see if they’ll disappear in a puff of greasy black smoke.  Then I want to go take a shower.  Still, as an old saying has it, “If a man has a thing to sell And simply hollers down a well He’ll never, never make the dollars As the man who climbs the tree and hollers.”
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Hints for bloggers, 3, Who you talkin’ to?

Really, who ARE you talking to?

Arguably, this post covers material that you should consider before starting your web site or blog.  Can I just say “site” from now on?  Thanks.  Of course, you can rebrand or reinvent your site as you reimagine it.  (I’ll use some more content free buzzwords later.)  All sites rebrand and reinvent, or they become – or remain – irrelevant.  It isn’t necessary to tell people you are doing that, just move forward with it. Continue reading

Hints for bloggers, 2, USE social media

This is the second piece on driving traffic to your web site or blog.

From the point of view of a blogger or webmaster, the sole reason social media exists is to drive people to your website or blog.  You tease them with something cool you posted and provide a link.  What’s the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?  If you’re a Hitchhiker fan, you already know it’s 42.
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Hints for bloggers, 1, OWN your website or blog!

I recently realized a friend’s blog, which I really like, has less than half the traffic of www.sourdoughhome.com When I realized that, I promised my friend I’d offer some suggestions.

To be honest, I don’t do all the things I’ll suggest.  There are only 24 hours in a day, between work, commuting, being a loving husband, a loving owner to our dog, tending to the minuitia of day to day life, preparing and eating food, trying to keep a web sire or three up, and sleeping, well, not everything gets done.  Not as soon as we’d like, and, often, not at all.  Still, I’ve been to many classes and read too many books, websites and blogs, so I have some ideas about what I should be doing, and how.  I hope my hints help you.  Please, leave comments.

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A New Appliance, Part II

Candy Cane Pepermint Ice Cream

Candy Cane Peppermint Ice Cream

I should have written this when it happened.  Instead, I’m writing it a little over a year after it happened.  In a previous article, A New Kitchen Appliance!, I talked about getting our DeLonghi GM6000 ice cream maker, and the delight that we were experiencing with the ice creams we were making.

We were making two batches a day.  And that delightful state of affairs continued for two weeks.  We were Continue reading

A New Kitchen Appliance!

On Sept 23, 2010.  Amazon said they’d shipped it.   I watched theOur new ice cream maker! FedEx tracking notes on-line, almost breathlessly.  Then FedEx told me it would be waiting at home!

Beth called to tell me a VERY big box had arrived.  I got home, moved the VERY big box into the kitchen and unpacked our new DeLonghi GM6000 ice cream, gelato and sorbet maker.  It wasn’t cheap, but we’d developed a two scoop a day habit, and I was becoming less and less thrilled about the ice cream we were eating. Continue reading