How to Become a Professional Blogger

For my New Years resolution, I decided to stop half-assing it with my blog and start dedicating serious time to it.  Organize it.  Clean up all the widgets and add on stuff. Oh, and mustn't forget organizing blog posts and categorizing them for easier reading.

But today is the first so I'm going to start tomorrow. Then again, Mr. Rant travels tomorrow night so we'll be busy. The 3rd. Definitely going to start the 3rd, once the kids are in bed.

Have I mentioned that I suck at New Years Resolutions?

At the same time, I am pretty damn good at googling. And as the professional half-asser that I am, I decided that I should share some of my finds with people who may actually use them.

Maybe I'm not a half-asser but more of an information finder for other people.  That's a nice way of looking at it.  Let's try that line of thinking again.  Maybe I'm not lazy but just don't want to take up the gym slots that other people need more than I do...

Sweet!  New New Years Resolution, keep up with putting a positive spin on things!

As for the links, here we go:

I would start with rating your blog first:

At http://blog.grader.com/ they will grade your blog and give you some great improvement tips. I recommend pouring a stiff drink first. I was like 437,000 out of 547,000 or something like that.  Sure, I beat out around 100,000 bloggers but am still 300,000 peoples' bitch.  Try putting a positive spin on that! Anyway, live and learn.

Next check out these widget, gadgets, gizmos, whatever the hell you want to call them links:


http://www.kludgymom.com/great-articles-on-blog-plugins-and-widgets-b2sb2b-extra-credit/  A friend of mine (The Little Hen House) did the "Back to School, Back to Blogging" thing mentioned on this page. Her blog is now read by the entire world.  It also helps that she rocks.  I swear, I will get around to doing it to.  Remember, I am not a procrastinator, I just like to let other people go first. It makes them feel good.


http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/facebook-share  Here's a facebook share link. I'm not 100% sure how good it is. I already have a like button on my page (which I like because of low self-esteem issues).  Let's face it, Facebook is cooler than all our Moms combined and everyone who's anyone restricts their number of friends on it.  So dude, plug in and be rejected like all the cool kids.


http://www.addthis.com/web-button-select This is an add button site where you can get the buttons for people to share, or not share, your page on a number of things. I love these!  It's like the opportunity for your blog popularity to spread, even though it won't really work unless your blog rocks in the first place.  It's like buying the cool shoes in high school. Just because you have them doesn't mean you still won't be the last one picked for dodge ball teams. Trust me on that one.

http://www.tipsblogger.com/2008/11/how-to-add-feedburner-email-subscription-widget-to-your-blog/ This is a link for you to add the blog straight to your email feature. That way your Grandma doesn't have to surf the web to find your site.  It'll go straight into her email.  I'm going to add this right now and call mine to let her know!

And last but certainly not least:


http://www.scarymommy.com/a-better-blog/  Essentially this page is the same post as mine, only written better and with more direct points. Again, laziness just bit not only my ass, but yours too. That is, unless you check out her post.  Seriously though, it does break down strengthening your blog to the basics, ones we should all follow. Now to add to my to do list...

Happy 2011 to all you Readers and Bloggers out there!  I hope this post helps you as it will eventually help me, once I get around to do all these things.

Please feel free to share reviews of the above sites and/or recommend your own.