Blogging Tips & Tricks

I have learned so much of my years of blogging and gathered so many helpful links that I wanted to create a central spot for you all to go to glean from what I have learned!  I hope you find this page helpful and easy to navigate!

Book Reviews
These are some of my favorite book review sites.  You just pop on over and sign up and will generally be able to start reviewing books almost immediately!


Blogging for Books - WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers


I review for BookSneeze


I Review For The Tyndale Blog Network


Product Reviews
While most of the reviews I have hosted have been those that I have received through direct contact with the company, here are some helpful resources for getting products to review on your blog (more to come soon!).

Customizing Your Blog
Customizing your blog is a skill that, I have found, mostly comes with time and familiarity with your program.  There have been a few places that have been extremely helpful in this process, however, and I want to pass them on to you!


Adori Graphics- She offers weekly tutorials to help you custimize your blog and I have found quite a few to be helpful and have given me that edge to really make my blog my own!


The Cutest Blog on the Block Secrets Page- this is the place to go for some wonderful and easy to understand tutorials on things such as creating your own backgrounds, siggys, page dividers and more!  Just click on the "Tutorials" tag!

This is the link to the page that gave me the instructions to customize my template for The Research Years into a three column blog.  I would give you the site I used for The Mama Kenz Studio, but quite frankly, I have had a lot of trouble with it and don't recommend it!  Once you get familiar with HTML, though, I think you will be amazed at what you can figure out!





MckLinky is the best source for adding linkys to your posts (for carnivals and memes)- plus it's FREE! 
 
Blogging Communities



These are some places you can go to get into directories for other moms to find you, but I have to admit, I don't get many hits from them.



Work at Home Moms




Blogging Statistics
Let's face it- we all want to know how many hits we are getting and where they are coming from!  I recommend Google Analytics to keep track of your blog's stats but I have also used Site Meter with fairly good results (it just doesn't offer everything that Google does).

Comments
I have found Disqus to be a wonderful commenting platform!  Easy to use and install and has really reduced my spam!