BlogHer - Blog Tips: LabPixies, Blog Stats, FeedFlare - Comments

Love it!

Kalyn Denny — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:46:47 -0500

I'm writing about it right now for Food Blog S'cool, pointing them to your post and Amanda's blog.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Way to go

Virginia DeBolt — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:55:20 -0500

Hope it's a big help to you.

http://www.webteacher.ws/ http://first50.wordpress.com/

Did it!

Kalyn Denny — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:43:56 -0500

Just added the new feed flare that shows blog author. I'll see how it works tomorrow, thanks again!

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

I see opinions are mixed

Virginia DeBolt — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:27:39 -0500

on the value of gadgets. But I expected that.

FeedFlare helps protect you from splogs, but it's also good for SEO. Glad some of you found that tip helpful.

http://www.webteacher.ws/ http://first50.wordpress.com/

I hate clutter

Vered — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:31:13 -0500

In my home and on my blog, so I avoid gadgets and buttons as much as I can (my Adsense ads create more than enough clutter) in an attempt to keep a clean look.

Thanks for the FeedFlare tip. I am bookmarking this page for possible future use.

Vered DeLeeuw
www.momgrind.com

I love gadgets. The problem

biggirlblue — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:05:02 -0500

I love gadgets. The problem for me comes when I go off to play with them for an hour or two or more. I think they are very distracting and addictive features. If my readers are going to spend their time doing anything I'd rather it was with me and not playing somewhere else. But sometimes you just have to have one. :)

Moe

Big Girl Blue, M.E. Wood lens, Large and Lovely

"Women are going to form a chain, a greater sisterhood than the world has ever known." ~Nellie McClung, 1916

Great advice for a newbie like me!

TCMom — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:17:33 -0500

I am such a newbie blogger and lots of blogger jargon flies riiiiight over my head. But alas, I dig in and swear to learn! Anyhow, I love fun bling but try so hard to hold myself back and not just add every widget I see out there. I really feel that your page should reflect your personality while making a clean, comforatable "reading space". Keep posting more tips like these - we newbies need all the help we can get! :)

Caroline

http://morningsidemom.wordpress.com/

LOl @ Diet Comment

JennaHatfield — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:08:30 -0500

I recently got rid of an entire sidebar, trimming down to one instead of two, because it felt too crowded. "Too much." I now only have the GoodReads gadget and my shared Google Reader stuff. (Along with my tags, asides, BlogHerAds and a few other things... believe me, it was MUCH busier. Sigh.)

FireMom from Stop, Drop and Blog

Also: Birth Parent Blog and The Chronicles of Munchkin Land.

Thank You!

Kalyn Denny — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:44:44 -0500

Love that new feed flare option that lists the author. I've been agonizing over switching to short feed after I found yet another blog copying my entire content. In this case they had a tab that said "food" and when you click on that tab it had my entire blog, which they'd gotten from the feed. I already had a blogger feed item footer saying the content was from my blog, which was clearly visible.

I really would prefer to keep the full feed (especially since so I haven't figured out how to have the feed stop after the "read more" link and Blogger's option of just cutting off at 255 characters doesn't appeal to me. I'll be trying this for sure!

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Blog Tips: LabPixies, Blog Stats, FeedFlare

Virginia DeBolt — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:51:49 -0500

Have fun playing with LabPIxies, also known as gadgets for your website. LabPixies gives away free gadgets for everything from news, games, fun, or tools.

One of the most popular gadgets you can get from LabPixies is this calorie counter.

Gadget by LabPixies.com

I personally love the TechBlogs gadget. You can get a similar gadget for general news.

Gadget by LabPixies.com

LabPixies has dozens of other gadgets. Check them out. There may be the perfect item for your blog waiting there for you.

Not everyone thinks adding gadgets to your blog is a good idea. My Blog Coach by Shonnie Lavender says she thinks it's Time to put your blog on a diet. She argues that gadgets can be distracting, may not work 100% of the time, and lure readers away to the gadget maker's site. Her tips for gadgets include,

Ask yourself these questions to determine which widgets/add-ons to keep, which to toss, and which to limit in some manner. If you answer “yes,” this widget is good for your diet. Any “no” answers mean it’s time to wean yourself from the widget or not consume it in the first place.

* Does this add value for my readers?
* Does this add value for me?
* Is this the most simple/pretty/clean way to add the functionality I seek?
* Can the look of the add on be made to complement my blog’s theme?
* Do I get enough control of the widget to create a professional blog presence?
* Is this add-on being used by my readers now?

These are the gadgets I use on my Web Teacher blog. I have a job listing gadget that I think is important because people who are interested in teaching web design should know the kinds of skills hiring managers in the real world are looking for. I have an Amazon book recommendation gadget because reviewing and recommending books for teaching web design is a big part of the mission of the blog. And I have a Flickr gadget, just to show off. I think they add something worthwhile.

What's your opinion on gadgets for your blog?

The Cyclical Nature of Blog Stats at Lorelle on Wordpress contains some good advice for those of you who obsess over your blog stats. Lorelle urges you to remain calm about daily stats and look at the big picture.

Many stats watchers freak out when they concentrate on the day-to-day stats. Like watching the stock market too closely, decisions are made without looking at the big picture. I’ve heard panic from many bloggers who scream their stats have suddenly plunged. When you change the view from day-to-day to week-to-week, or even month-to-month, the picture changes. It’s now about the big picture of trends, not the daily fluctuation, some of them normal but noticed for the first time.

The Blogger bloggers out there can find help at Blogger Buster where Amanda dispenses helpful ideas, including this recent tool for those who use Feedburner: Author and Permalink FeedFlare (proof of original source for SEO).

I have created a FeedFlare unit which can be added to your Feedburner feed. This generates a link to the permanent page for each feed item, using the post author's name and the title of your blog as the link text.

Amanda explains why this is a good idea–not just for Blogger blogs, I must add.

Scraper sites are blogs which are made for Adsense. Rather than create original content, such splogs prefer to source content from other high ranking sites and present it as their own.

Where duplicate content is found in search results, the one which appears to be from the original source will rank most highly, while any sites which appear to be duplicating this content will feature much lower down the page (if their result even appears at all!).

By using this FeedFlare, you can add a link to the original source (the 'permalink') for each of your blog posts. This helps Google understand that your article is the original content.

If you are interested in learning more about FeedFlare, here's FeedBurner's Help Page about it.