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Tool Talk Thursday Tools and Tips for Easier Blog Hopping


Today's blog post is focusing on some tips and tools in the Blogger Settings Section that will make blog hopping easier for your visitors and you.  These have been learned from past experience with the BOC Open  Studio Events.
Pictures of some of the ceramic bead work by BOC artists who participated in the last BOC Open Studio Event
The artist who made these beads from left to right are:
Melinda Orr Designs,
Summers Studio, Lisa Boucher, Mary Ann Carroll Beads
                        Micic Art, MarshaNeal Studio LLC
Chinook Jewelry, Mary Harding Jewelry, Clay Designs by Glee
 
How do you navigate and leave comments quickly when you are blog hopping?
With many beautiful pictures to look at and interesting content to read, you can get really slowed down when you want to leave a comment and you have to jump through several hoops to get your comment accepted.

Here is how to make it easier for your visitors.
Go to the Settings Section on your blog and choose Comments.  There are several settings here that you can change to make it easier. 
1.  Scroll down to Comment Moderation and Choose  Never  ( you can change it back after the event)
2.  Scroll down to Show Word Verification and choose No ( you can change it back after the event)
3. Scroll down to Comment Notification email.  Enter your email into the box.  You will then get an email after each person leaves a comment.  This way you can email them back or to go to your blog and leave them a comment.

If you have found some more ways to make navigating blogs easier, on blogger or other blogging programs, please leave a comment.
I would love to hear from you.

Just Added:
Below is the "Dry Run" Inlinkz gadget which is similar to what will be used by the BOC artists on Open Studio Day. This is just for testing. Main Open Studio Blog Posts for the events will be on the main BOC blog on March 6th.

9 comments:

  1. Great tips! Especially since there are a lot of blog hops happening right now. I would also say that one of my pet peeves (in general but especially on blog hops) is when you click to comment and it navigates to a full page showing just the comments. Sometimes when I am commenting I like to scroll back up and look again at the picture or the text to reference it and you can't do that if the comments are in a full page (like yours are doing right now!!!). From the same place you change your settings, select "Embedded Below Post" for the comment placement. Makes it much easier than going to a totally different pop up or window. Thanks for sharing! I will put some of those into action for the next week so that I can keep those comments coming! Enjoy the day!
    Erin

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  2. Great Comment Erin! And happy Mary got in there (I'm guessing it was Mary) to change it…. I like this way of commenting better too!

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  3. P.S. I wanted to also say that I am not a fan of the word verification. That is one hoop that I hate jumping through no matter what. I moderate all my comments, but I do not put that silly word there. I rarely get spam comments and when I do, the new Blogger holds suspected ones in a queue. Just my two cents! ;-)
    Enjoy the day!
    Erin

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  4. I took the word verification off my blog a few months ago, and adjusted the settings to "moderate to approve comments older than 4 days". I very rarely get spam comments at all, and they are usually only on very old posts. Which are removed and reported as spam by me...

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  5. I just had a thought - An artist had mentioned that because of their slow internet connection, it was hard to post live and keep up. I would suggest for them to try the stagnant post option this time around - even if they are in attendance. Sheesh - I sure hope everyone doesn't do stagnant. We'd miss out on all the giveaway action round robin style - that's part of the fun!

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  6. Thanks for the tips, i am a newby & could all the help i can get :)

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  7. if we are doing a stagnant post, do we put our links above to test?

    And thanks for all the tips. :)

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  8. Dana, Go ahead and practice the linking today with your blog url. Next Sunday there will be a separate link for live and stagnant. So just be sure to check next week. This time you will get a feel for how it works. glad you are joining in.

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  9. thanks Mary! I look forward to it as I really want to get more blog followers and customers. ;)

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