Also... A Few New Things Around Here

Now that I am not working like a slave have some time on my hands, I've gone back to the good 'ol days of being obsessed committed to blogging. Don't get me wrong, this is what I love 'yo. So because I've been "working" here again. I've added a few things, removed some others, and I'm here to let you know all about it.

First things first, I finally deciphered how to use feedburner, WHEW! It feels good. So basically now you can subscribe to my blog via e-mail. YAY!

Where the red arrows are, just in case you missed them.

Thanks to those of you, who answered to my demented tweets while I was learning/figuring it out. Besides that, I finally got to post my blog button. Feel free to grab it, I know some of you already have [and you are awesome]. What I want to do is look around for everyone's buttons and add them to a different page, sort of like a tab [that I will create] for buttons. But meanwhile I will have them up here in the main page. So hit me up if you wanna exchange botones buttons.

Thanks girl for showing me how to do it :)

And another great milestone that I achieved today [I'm a bit on the dramatic side, huh?] was creating my own favicon. What's that? Well it's the little heart you now see besides the name of the blog on your browser.

LOL. No need to see my tabs.

Seriously, I felt so accomplished. I've been wanting one ever since I saw it on her blog and learned that bloggers could have that too. I found out what it was called and how to do it and is as easy as 1-2-3. Literally. The only sad thing is that I found out a bunch of "web designers and blog designers" charging even $10 for doing this!!! Com'on people, let's help each other out, isn't it easier to just put the instructions on your blog? Sigh...

Other minor changes and tweaks I did was remove my Polyvore badge. And of course now this lady here's making me wanna go back to being majorly hooked there. We'll see. I  am running out of synonyms for also, joined a community called Blogs by Latinas, it's a directory of blogs, by female Latin writers. AWESOMENESS. I added the button to my blog as well, and not to be redundant, but I also created it. I strongly recommend browsing through there, and if you fit the profile, join!

And now, to what really matters the most....YOU GUYS! I updated my blog roll. Now, if for some reason, I erased someone, and you'd like to be added back. LET ME KNOW. If you are not there, but you'd like to be, LET ME KNOW. If you are on the list, but you wished to be removed, LET ME KNOW [hey! you never know].

Be sure to scroll down that list, there's a lot of new people. Even some IRL friends of mine have opened up their own blogs. So look, look, look. Have fun.

I think that's it for now, loveys.

Kisses XOXOXO

Also.... jajaja just kidding!

Making Your Blog Fashionably Professional

I will start by saying that I am not a very computer oriented person. Yes, I use my computer all the time [remember how I don't watch TV] but I don't think Facebook, Twitter and MSN Messenger count. So venturing into having my own blog, the way I wanted it and actually making it work has been hard but extremely fascinating at the same time. I have learned so much about computers, the blogsphere, gadgets, widgets, and all things imaginable. I will now share all this knowledge with you. Hopefully this will b ethe first of many posts to come, since I hope to keep learning. Actually programming makes me feel all important and computer savvy.

I am going to post a link to all the sites I'm using at the moment to make my blog fashionably professional, and also, to the ones I've found so far on my journey this past couple of days.

Background

I think everybody should start by picking a background. STOP right here if you want a three column page layout like mine, you should change that first. See it doesn't make sense to go looking for a background, fall in love with it, and then realize that you want three columns instead of two, because then that background won't work anymore. Go here if you want to do that. You will also find how to remove the border lines behind headers, how to remove lines between your sidebar items, how to remove the navigation bar on the top [all of which I did] and a lot more other tricks that you can do to customize your blog.

Now, if you decided that two columns is fine for you, I did found a great place, shabbyblogs.com where you can get your background, blinkies, buttons, and all that extra shabby stuff.

Networking

We all know how to network, at least a lil' bit, I mean, who doesn't have Facebook, and/or Twitter? But the thing is, it doesn't stop there. Yes, you should definitely market your blog everywhere possible, but I found some blog targeted communities, that happen to be really useful [so far], so go take a look, and see if they work for you. There's technorati and blogcatalog where yo can claim your blog, as well as meet other bloggers, aheemm, increase traffic, anyone? I really like blogcatalog, it has really cool widgets that you can add to your blog, as well as groups you can join, and you can friend other bloggers, etc.

Widgets

I don't have a fancy definition of what a widget is, but if you know how to use blogger, you probably know already. They're all those little things you can add/remove from your blog (the archives, your profile, AdSense, polls, lists, etc) in order to customize it. Two of them that I'm using right now and I really like are LinkWithin which links related posts, and the AddThis button, which lets you do just that, add your blog to other places.

Google Tools

They're FREE! So take advantage of them. Google AdSense and Google Analytics. AdSense makes you earn money just for blogging... I know! They choose the ads for your page and everything, and Google Analytics, well they analyze pretty much everything for your page. You can see how many visits you got, how much time visitors spent on your page and all that good information that helps you be a better blogger.

I think I covered all the basics, because like I said, I am no expert and I'm also just starting, so this will save you days of searching, investigating, and reading to see what works, and what not, or where to find all those cool things, everybody seems to have, but you can't find anywhere.

Extras

Some other useful links. Enjoy

Pro Style Bloggers
My Blog Makeover
How To's For Your Blog
Make Money Blogging
Blog Tips
Blogs By Women
Templates