Friday, June 8, 2012


Armchair BEA, Day Five:  Ask the Experts

I consider myself a newbie blogger, even though the blog has been somewhat set up for a few years.  It's only recently that I decided that I need to get off the fence about my reading blog, and, well, blog.  I'm learning a lot of new tricks, but sometimes I still feel lost.  I'm hoping that it will all get easier with time.  I only have one bit of advice so far, and that is you have to be committed to your blog if you want to have any success with it.  Reaching out to other bloggers and finding ones that inspire you to improvement are essential, too.

I have so many questions for the experts, but I will limit them to five here.
1.  I am having trouble with feedburner, trying to establish a feed for my blog.  It has something to do with my web address, but it works fine everywhere else.  I really want to add the option of email subscriptions, but I'm unable to.  Any suggestions?
2.   Any preferences for a blog provider?  I'm using eblog by Google, but I'm wondering if Wordpress is better?
3.  Is a blog designer worth the price?
4.  Is there such a thing as a blog mentor?  If so, where would I find one?
5.  Is there a blog template site that caters to books and reading?

I so hope that I receive some replies to these questions.  I need all the advice that I can get! 

8 comments:

  1. oooo great questions!
    1 - wish I could help you there but I'm always having problems with technical aspects of blogging which leads me to....
    2 & 3 ~ My blog was hosted at blogger for the first 2 years...this week I moved to Wordpress and I would never go back...fortunately the person I work with as my blog designer helps me with all the technical aspects plus she is pretty incredible period...Lori at Pure Imagination - check her out
    4 ~ yes. I had the very same question when I first started blogging...then I figured out that you just have to find a blogger you really like and ask her (or him) to be your mentor - I did and it worked out great
    5 ~ not that I'm aware of???but it's a great question!

    btw, I really like the name of your blog and the header! Happy Armchair BEA Week!

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  2. Stacy, your comments have meant a lot to me today. I feel encouraged and inspired by your sharing. I will check Lori out, as I feel that if I want my blog to be successful, I need some guidance. Thank you, too for the nice comment on my blog name and header. You have made a blogger happy today! Now, I will go to your blog and become a follower.

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  3. I've heard great things about Wordpress and plan to make the move myself. As far as mentoring programs, I don't know if it's still going but there was a website that had a big sis/lil sis type of program that helped bloggers. If I can remember the name, I'll definitely come back and leave it!

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    1. Thanks letting me know that you've heard positive feedback on Wordpress. I'm seriously going to take a look at it sometime this summer. I like the idea of the big sis/lil sis mentoring. If you do remember the name, I'd really appreciate you sending it my way. I love the header on your blog and the introduction to the word, "preet."

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  4. I'm no expert but if you want to email me regarding your feedburner we can see if I can figure out what your problem is. Perhaps it's just an odd letter or number or spacing.

    I had my blog at Typepad for years; however I did finally make the move to wordpress and it was surprisingly easy. Technology has really grown. Anyway, for many, many reasons I recommend Wordpress. There is a learning curve but if you just choose a simple theme and don't get all caught up with geeky techno stuff you can do it. I love Wordpress and you can grow with it at your own pace.

    One caution: I always suggest wordpress.org and not wordpress.com. You cannot do anything that even has a whiff of monetary on wordpress.com. And while you may not want to right now, should that day come when you do you will be in a bit of a problem. Wordpress.com will shut you down without notice if they decide you're doing something "illegal." I know folks who have struggled with this.

    AS for a designer, I'd wait until you know this is what you really want to do and have a strategy or plan in mind. There are some really nice themes out there for free for Wordpress that many bloggers use without designers. Just a thought.

    Blog mentors come in all shapes and sizes and predominately as friends. You can spend a lot of money for the big guys but do you really need to at this point in time? You just need someone who knows the next thing you want to do that you can't do. :)

    I'm clueless about your last question. Anyway, those are some suggestions off the top of my head. It sounds like you're on the right track. Relax and enjoy. It does get easier. That overwhelming feeling is quite common. I can so totally relate.

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    1. Wow, Vikk! You have some great advice, and I visited you blog where I found more great advice and information. Giving me a heads-up on the Wordpress.org vs. Wordpress.com is absolute gold. My feedburner problem seems to revolve around my URL, but I'm using the one here, www.readingroom-readmore.com I've tried variations of it, such as http://www.readingroom.com and www.readingroom-readmore.blogspot.com (not quite sure that one is accurate, I'll check on it). I am going to check and get back to you on exactly what comes up when I try to add the URL. It will probably be next Tuesday before I get back to you. Family is coming in for the weekend and not leaving until then. Thank you so much, Vikk for making me feel like there is hope in the situation.

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  5. I moved from Blogger to my own domain and am using WordPress software. I'm glad I did because Google, in their infinite wisdom, disabled my account a few weeks ago.

    http://www.ManOfLaBook.com

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    1. Love the name, "Man of la Book!" Your blog looks great, so there's yet another reason to go with WordPress. That's rather scary that Google disabled you. Did they tell you beforehand? Yikes!

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