The Sewing Mom

While I know it is well deserved, I must say that I am so envious of Kate. I would love to have a few days to myself, no ties, no puppy, no duties.  I can picture myself in a beautiful hotel room overlooking a beach with a pool and a bar at the pool.. even better, a bar IN the pool.  In my vision, there are NO kids running around the pool, just some quiet adults in need of some quiet time.  Oh to dream!

I found this wonderful outline of 10 ways to improve your blog at Life in the Country.  This goes along with what I have said about step 3 in the 101 steps to better blogging, write posts that will make readers want to come back to visit you.  Here are 10 ways to do that better:

1. Write a Summary - A good introduction will outline your main points and make the reader want to read more.

2. Use the Thesaurus - This is very helpful if you tend to use the same words over and over.

3. Write down you post ideas - Do you ever walk up to your computer and have absolutely no idea what you’re going to post for the day? I for one keep a pad of paper on my bathroom counter because for some reason I tend to get my best ideas while I’m getting ready in the mornings. If I don’t write them down, I will forget them by the time I’m dressed for the day!

4. Record it – you could record your thoughts and type them into your computer later. I have read of one blogger who discovered she had voice activated typing software on her computer and has been posting that way!

5. Edit Your Post- Reread your post before you publish it. Sometimes it helps to read it outloud, you may hear your mistakes (if there are any!).

6. Don’t Edit Too Much! – Editing can be addictive, don’t cut too much or change your originally feeling of your post

7. Use Headlines – This is especially helpful when you’re writing a longer post.

8. Use Paragraphs – Don’t let this intimidate, but do you like reading a long essay that is all one giant block? Well, your readers probably don’t either. Paragraphs break your writing down into your main ideas and make it easier to read and follow.

9. Size Matters - It’s okay to write a small post, it’s better than babbling on about nothing just to make your post longer! If you do write a longer post use #7 and #8 above.

10. Invite Comments – This speaks for itself and the point is to start a conversation.

Okay, my sister Karen has been so great about setting up my blog and getting me going. She’s been able to answer many questions for me and if she doesn’t know the answer she finds someone that does. She has posed my question on her site and I felt I should ask for help myself as well.

My most recent question I posed to her is about my blog presentation. I use IE and when I see my site there is a box next to each post that looks like it should be a small picture, it has a border outline and an “X” in the middle of it. I am not sure what it looks like if seen in Firefox. I’m trying to figure out how to make it appear correctly, but have no clue. I am not a code writer but if someone out there can look at it and give me a suggestion I’ll be happy to give it a try. Anyone?

Step 9 is basically a combination of step 1 – Ping and step 3 – Blog. That’s it, Ping and Blog. As explained by Kim if you are using Wordpress, it has built in SEO and pinging functions so you are all set. As for step 3, it is important to attempt to post at least once per day. Even more important is to make your posts interesting to your readers so they will want to come back for more.

As for Microsoft testing, nothing can get you through with your Microsoft test 70-528 or 70-431 and many more other than test king preparatory question and answers. Test king also provides short training programs on tests such as 642-845 and 642-523 and of course likewise. Citrix is made easy by attending to the regular preparatory short questions of similar tests as N10-003. Cisco training is done by tests analogous to 350-018 and 640-863 and is thus made peanuts at test king training sessions which train for various networking positions.