My Blog = My Life: BLOG

When you start any Blogger blog, it automatically installs a navigation bar or banner running across the top of the screen with the links: "Follow," "Share," "Report Abuse," and "Next Blog." This is called the "navbar" and is a real eye sore to most visitors. The good news is, removing the navigation bar in Blogger is easy.

"But, wait? Don't I want those links?" you may ask... Not generally. The only two links that are really useful to you are first the "Follow" link, but you took care of that in a much sexier way when you installed your classy and sexy follow buttons, right? And the "Share" link, but there are much better ways to setup sharing on your blog (which I'll discuss soon).

The "Next Blog" link takes visitors away from your blog. The "Report Abuse" button let's people report your blog to Google which could lead to Google taking action against you (and, subsequently also leaves internet trolls the easy opportunity to try and sabotage you, though this isn't generally a problem).


But more than anything, it's amateurish and ugly. It screams "I have an out-of-the-box Blogger blog!" So, my advice is to ditch it. Here's how you do it (please note that this doesn't work in the old version of blogger, but you can still do it. Check out this page for more info on that. Be sure to scroll down to the section about Classic Blogger templates).
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Well, I just went on my first major vacation as a blogger. It was a 20 day vacation to visit my brother in England, far from my home battle station PC. And with summer in full-swing, chances are you'll be going on a few vacations of your own. So, what have I learned about blogging while on vacation? And what will I probably do differently next time? A few things. On both counts.

There were three ways I could go about blogging while away. First, I could not blog at all and pick it up when I got back. Second, I could repost some of my older popular posts (a common thing to do in the blogging world). Third, I could keep fresh posts coming each day. Obviously the third option would be the biggest commitment. And, despite what some women might think, I'm not afraid of commitment, so I took door number three. ;)

To not blog at all while on vacation is to shoot yourself in the foot (as I learned by not blogging here on WW4F). A big rule of blogging is that you should post often enough that people always have a reason to come back. In this big, fat, crazy internet world we live in, people will forget you pretty quickly if you disappear. It will probably take me a little while to remind everybody that was following that I still have posts coming on WW4F. Others will never find their way back, I'm sure. If I had it to do over, I would have prewritten and pre-scheduled several posts for WW4F.
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I know I said I wasn't going to write on WW4F until I got back from England, but I had a few extra minutes so I thought I'd discuss an interesting phenomenon that I've seen take place since the end of May/beginning of June. It seems that summer has changed my best time to post on Single Dad Laughing in a big way.

One way that I have gauged what time is best for posting is how many of my friends are currently available on Facebook chat. Since I started using this as one of my measurements, 8 AM MST has been just as good a time as any other, and often better than any other time.

The last few weeks though, I haven't been watching it too closely and my traffic has been dropping even though I've been posting at the same time I usually do. I was surprised when I realized this, and so I started looking at different traffic influencers to see where things might be causing the dropping. What was the first thing I noticed?
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Well, I'm outta here for the next three weeks while Noah and I travel on a very overdue vacation! While I'll still have daily posts going on Single Dad Laughing during that time, I'll won't be posting to Will Work 4 Followers until after we return.


Until now, most of what we've covered here on WW4F has been foundational and blogging constructive. We've been working on the look of our blogs, the setup, feel, functionality and more. While I'll still be uploading many posts that are instructional and foundational from here on out, I'd like to start moving WW4F to what it was originally intended for... real discussion about blogging life, growing blogs, etc. So, here's your big chance to let me know what you'd like me to write about in the future here at WW4F. If you'd like to be as awesome as I know you are, take a sec, and answer the following three questions in the comments section of this post:
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Last week we talked about the need to make your blog posts look good. Today, I want to talk specifically about resizing your Blogger images to fit perfectly within your content. This will apply to bloggers on other platforms if they use Picasa to host their images. Making your images look right is key to having blog posts that people will like and will want to share.

If you blog on blogger, you probably are aware that you have five size choices after installing your images. Small, Medium, Large, X-large and Original Size.

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When is the best time of day to upload and publish new blog posts? This is a question that readers keep asking me, and the answer is simple... it depends.

Each person's blog is different. Each person's content is different. Each person's audience is different. And, each person's best time to post will be just a little bit different. Some bloggers will do far better posting in the evening than they will in the morning. Other bloggers will see a lot more traffic if they post early in the morning.

Over the past ten months, I have heavily experimented on my best times to post, and I can tell you that there is no exact science to it. I believe there are a few different times of day almost anybody can post to get maximum traffic to their blog, and that each blogger needs to pick a time that works best for them, and for their audience.
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To all of my awesome, faithful compadres... I haven't been able to get anything new out on WW4F since Tuesday as I've been trying to get on top of the aftermath of the launch of my new book The Real Dad Rules.

I promise next week I'll have some great stuff for you! Until then, everybody have an awesome weekend full of rainbows, blue jays, and kettle corn. Or whatever else makes you happy...

Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing

We've talked about having a nerd blog, and how that can affect your ability to attract followers. Today I want to talk more specifically about the time you take with each post and what you need to do to make your posts look good.

Too often I visit other blogs and leave before reading anything because the posts themselves are visually unappealing or headache inducing. And I'd be willing to bet a lot of other people leave after landing on those blogs as well. The sad thing is, no matter how good they are, those posts never get read, and so I never know whether the blogger is worth reading or following.
So, today I want to give you my six big rules for making each and every post look awesome.

1. Break your blog post into readable paragraphs. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that will send me away from a blog post (or an email) faster than something that was written with few or no line breaks. Looking at a huge, solid chunk of text will make your blog unfollowable. Even paragraphs that are too large will be an eyesore. My advice, keep your very longest paragraphs to around 125 words and your average paragraphs to 40-60 words.

At the end of each week, I run a feature here on Will Work 4 Followers with a rundown of the last week's worth of posts on Single Dad Laughing. The purpose of the feature is to discuss any lessons I've learned, as well as the reasons behind each post so that you either a) learn from what worked for me, or b) learn from what didn't work for me. Sometimes the lessons will be extremely simple (and almost seemingly non-important), sometimes they'll be bigger.
Since the ultimate goal is for us all to get better at blogging together, I hope everybody will participate in today's discussion below. After all, I'd like to learn from you and your blogging successes/mistakes as well!
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One of the big differences between the average blogger and an exceptional blogger is that an exceptional blogger always keeps a finger on the pulse of his/her blog.

Thoughts for the average blogger:

What would be good to post today?

Now, take a deep breath...

Thoughts for the exceptional blogger:
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One of the questions people often ask me is, "how do you come up with fresh content every day?"

To many people, the thought of coming up with something new or different every single day is overwhelming. I've had a lot of people ask, "what's going to happen when you run out of content?"

I'll tell you right now... coming up with fresh content every day is easy, if you keep your thoughts organized and easily accessible.

Every time I have an idea, or I find myself laughing about something noteworthy, or I have a life observation, I hurry and add it to a list in my phone or iPad (which sync together). I have different lists for Single Dad Laughing and Will Work 4 Followers.
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