Becoming a Blogger

I enjoy all the blogging I've been doing lately and decided that I'm willing to explore upping my game and digging into this as a more serious hobby. 

I recently joined The Lady Bloggers Society (TLBS). It was really easy. All I had to do was post their logo on my blog and  provide my email address and blog url. I'm in!

There is so much more to blogging than I realized. I've been doing it like an online journal or extension of my facebook status. I'm planning to convert the blog to a book after a year. I want to keep these thoughts like I currently keep my hard copy journals from my college days. 

Looking at the blogs of the members of TLBS, I see that people are making money off of their blogs with advertising. There are blogger conventions and tea parties! Tea Parties! ( Wait- not the political tea party.)

Unlike a number of The Lady Bloggers, I'm not turning my blogging into a business. I am not considering give aways or other means of making money through my site. You may see references to Amazon here but I don't get paid from clicks or purchases using those links. Perhaps I should, but I'm just not interested. 

More research has exposed me to a good number of things that are entirely new to me.  Blog badges, for example, I don't really "get" how they are used. Here's an example,

There is also something blog-related that has to do with scrapbooking and I haven't figured that out yet either. There are blog awards that people can give each other. Lots of bloggers invite people to follow them on Twitter or Google and Like or Add them to Facebook. There are product giveaways that earn bloggers money. Apparently these folks get tons of inquiries concerning giveaways and/or conduct product reviews because lots of the blogs I saw made reference to their openness or distaste towards these things. I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.

I'm intrigued but I'm not sure I can live up to the membership. I'm not sure I'm interested in being a hard-core blogger. However, are a few characteristics I'd like to adopt for my own blog. I have incorporated blog prompts (see the when prompted section) and I will participate in then next TLBS tea party.

Most of members of TLBS have blog titles are catchy and use templates that are customized.  To blend in a little better, my blog needs a bit of work and I'm happy to do it.  I've made a few changes to my blog template. I've incorporated a new font style and color for Page and Post Titles. I'm considering changing the name of my blog and creating my own custom header banner.  Expect some noticeable improvements over the next few weeks.

 I'll report my experiences here.

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Updates:
5-6-11 Added my own blog header image (and figured out how to center it!)

5-10-11 Added a favicon (shot outs to Chester)