Regular content makes for regular traffic which is a good thing if you’re trying to build your readership. The easiest way to keep your posts regular is to write out a blogging schedule. A schedule will give you a clear picture of what needs to be done to get posts out on time and will make it easier to write posts in advance. It also can help you avoid accidently putting up your best post on a holiday or big event (like the Olympics) when very few people are going to be online to see it. A schedule can be incredibly useful if you can manage to keep up with it.

1) Make your schedule realistic and varied. Don’t plan more posts than you can realistically write. Use a variety of different post styles to keep your content interesting and to keep things manageable. Figure our how much crafting you can do in a week and base your schedule around that. I only do enough in a normal week to have 2-3 posts on what I’ve been making. Other posts in my schedule have to be made up out of other kinds of content like my mini series and that stuff generally has to be planned in advance.

2) Keep backup posts on hand. If maintaining a consistent schedule is important to you, write a handful of timeless posts when you find yourself with spare time. Keep them saved for days when you’re too busy to squeeze out a post or when a secret project pops up that you can’t blog about. The best backup posts are things like inspiration posts and technical posts that don’t age or need to be in chronological order with other posts.

3) Roll over extra content. If your schedule was meant to only have two posts on what you’ve been crafting and you happen to finish four small projects that week, save two of the projects to post the following week instead of lumping things into two extra long posts or posting more frequently than normal. That gives all of your projects a chance to shine, and it also gives you some wiggle room if the following weeks aren’t as productive.

4) If you decide to write a series, write your posts in advance. It’s weird when you start a series and leave things hanging or randomly have huge delays between posts. If you have to photograph things, photograph them as soon as possible so you don’t do something dumb like lose your swatches for a series before you get a chance to photograph all of them while traveling back to school from Christmas break . I might have learned that from experience………

5) Don’t worry if the schedule doesn’t work out. I tend to write my schedules when I have a lot of free time, but when school, work or life becomes too hectic, my schedule gets forgotten. I just try to squeeze out a post when I can. You know who notices when I deviate from my schedule? Probably just me because I never publicly announce my blogging schedule. Not keeping up with a schedule isn’t a big deal when other people don’t know about it. When life mellows out, I sit down and try to write a new schedule that will hopefully be easier to maintain in that period of my life.

Jealousy and envy are topics that comes up a lot in the blog’o’sphere. It’s easy to look at the snap shots of other people’s lifestyles and creative endeavors or the number of followers and comments a blogger has and get envious. You might wonder, “Why am I not getting the recognition I deserve and they are?” “Why can’t I be that creative?” “What am I not doing well enough?” “Why isn’t my life like that?” Those thoughts are neither enjoyable nor productive and aren’t worth your time. This is my unsolicited advice on how to avoid them. These aren’t perfect solutions, but they’ve helped make my internet time more pleasant.

1) Unsubscribe. Seriously. If reading a blog plagues you with jealousy and envy, just stop reading it. The internet is full of good blogs out there. Fill you feed reader with stuff that makes you happy, makes you feel good, and inspires you. It’s hard to break away from blogs with good content, but if you can’t read them without being jealous every time, they’re really not worth it.

2) Remember that you’re just seeing what a blogger chooses to show you. You have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes. A blogger can make their life look perfect by leaving out the negative and boring details, but let’s be real. No one actually has a perfect life, or learns a craft without trial and error, or does everything right on the first try. Just because they choose to not show you the unpleasant work and their failures doesn’t mean that they don’t happen.

3) Think about how much work it would take to do something yourself or get whatever you’re envious of. As easy as it is to imagine a lucky fairy that chooses to bless everyone but you, most accomplishments take a lot of effort. Promoting, networking, knitting, crocheting, writing, and photography all take time. You have to develop the skills and put them to work and those bloggers had to do it too. You could spend all of your free time doing that or you could make other choices that might be better for you. I’d like to have an amazing, popular blog, but when I have to choose between putting together good blog content and doing something fun with my friends, my friends always win. That’s a choice I make that more successful bloggers might not and I’m more than okay with that.

4) Learn from what you admire about other blogs instead of being envious over it. Envy comes from a desire to have something yourself. Since we’re just talking about blogging, why not make it happen? Look at what you admire and draw from it when working on your own projects or blog. I’m not suggesting directly imitating another blogger. What I’m suggesting is looking at how you can translate things you like about other blogs into your own work. Think about what the other blogger is doing well, why it works, and then use it for inspiration.

A lot of bloggers, myself included, occasionally post about stuff we have for sale. Some bloggers do it so well that I actually look forward to their Etsy shop posts. Some bloggers don’t and I just scroll right past their posts about products. Here’e what you can do to avoid ending up in the latter group:

- Don’t sound like you’re making a sales pitch. It makes your readers feel cheap. When you’re posting on your blog, remind yourself that you’re writing to your readers – not just potential customers.

- Don’t copy and paste the pattern’s page on Ravelry or you Etsy shop. That’s boring to read. A lot of your blog readers probably aren’t going to buy your product and therefore don’t care about how many balls of yarn a project takes. They just want to see the pretty pictures and hear about the project. Don’t forget to provide a link to the product’s page so people can click through if they want the detailed info.

+ Do make the post as entertaining and in line with your other content as possible. Talk about the process of creating or photographing it, or create a picture of a lifestyle that your product fits into by talking about styling or where you’d use the project. Remember that a blog post about a product is still a blog post.

+ Do subtly make your product sound appealing. You want to create the idea that the reader should want to know more or buy the product without directly telling them that. The product’s page in your pattern store is the place to tell them why they need your product. A link to more the page with more detailed information and a “Buy” button should be easy to find for the people whose interest you catch.

Every once in awhile I start to wonder how detailed I should write my posts. How detailed should I write tutorials or patterns? I tend to write for a skill level slightly below mine. I explain some things, but I don’t explain everything because I assume that most people reading this blog have a little knitting or crochet knowledge.

Do you consider the skill level of your audience when you write? What skill level do you target your blog towards? Do you think your audience reflects that?

Patterns and tutorials can be a lot of work, but the traffic they bring in can make up for that. Are they worth your time? If they bring in so much traffic is there any reason why you should write other content? Here’s a break down of the pros and cons of patterns and tutorial posts.

- They take a lot of time and effort to write.

+ They’re heavy traffic post because more people are likely to link to or feature this style of post.

- A lot of the traffic will be people who just want free patterns or tutorials. It’s unlikely those people will ever become regular readers, but you’ll still have to deal with their comments and requests for help.

+ Because they’re frequently linked to and tend to feature SEO titles, a potential reader is more likely to find them in a search engine.

- They’re boring posts to read if the reader isn’t interested in making the project.

+ They’re a nice way to give back to your readers if they are interested in making the project.

- Patterns and tutorials tend to be impersonal so they don’t make a reader feel connected to you, the writer. You need other types of content to do that.

+ Most patterns and tutorial posts can stand alone so they’re approachable for new readers. A pattern can draw them in and your other content will keep them around.

In my opinion, patterns and tutorials are great once in awhile, but they don’t make for the best regular content. What do you think? Do you like reading patterns and tutorial posts? If you’ve published ones on your blog before, do you find that they were worth the work?

After you put together an attractive blog layout, it’s important to think about how it functions. You want to keep your information as accessible as possible. Here is a short list of things should always be easy to find from the front page of your blog. I’m sure everything on this list sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many blogs I’ve run across without one or two of them.

1) Name. Include a name that people can attach to you. It doesn’t have to be a real name, pseudonyms and nicknames are fine, but people like to have a name attached to authors. It’s a little awkward to refer to people by their blog title (unless, of course, their blog title happens to also be their nickname).

2) E-mail and other contact info. Make sure your e-mail is easy to find. If someone wants to get your permission to feature your work, interview you, or ask you to guest post, they need your e-mail to contact you. If you’re active on other websites that relate to your blog like Ravelry, don’t forget to include a link.

3) RSS Feed. You want it to be simple for people to follow your blog. Some browsers like Chrome don’t auto detect RSS feeds without a plugin so if you don’t link to your feed, people can’t find it to subscribe.

4) Useful Stuff. Use pages to highlight useful posts and your favorite posts. If you’ve taken the time to write useful content, don’t let it get lost in the archives amongst other old posts. Organized and link to that stuff in pages or your sidebar so readers can jump to it easily.

5) Old Posts. Your archives should be easily accessible. Be sure to have a “More” or “Older Entries” button, and put it at the bottom of the page. People who have read through a whole page of posts won’t want to scroll back to the top to get to more posts. An archive list broken up by date is also useful for readers who are looking for a specific post.

6) Home. When readers go back a few pages, they’ll want an easy way to get to the main page. Make sure that you can get to your main page by including a “Home” button and/or by making your header a link to the main page.

Are there any other must-haves for blogs you like to read?

There are no hard and fast rules for putting together an attractive blog layout. A lot of it is subjective. That said, there are a few things you can do to make your layout more reader friendly.

1) Pick the right fonts. Don’t use a novelty font for your body content. Those are best used sparingly for decoration like in a header. Choose a standard font and use a reasonable size. Too large fonts can be as difficult to read as too small fonts; somewhere between 10 and 14 pixels works best. Use a font color that isn’t distracting for your body text. You want your readers to be focused on what the body text is saying, not how it looks.

2) Make your blog snap-judgment friendly. Your header shouldn’t take up more than 1/3 of what’s visible on your screen before scrolling so readers can immediately see part of your most recent post. If you blog title doesn’t explicitly convey what your blog is about, your header is a good place to do it. Use pictures or a subtitle to show what your blog focuses on.

3) Color coordinate with your projects. A craft blog is meant to show off your craft skills so your blog’s color scheme shouldn’t compete with your work. Pick a neutral background that won’t distract from your photos. When choosing colors for your layout, pick ones that work with the colors you most commonly craft with so your blog has a pulled together look. Instead of spending your time trying new colors on your blog layout, do your experimenting in a photo editing program by making palettes like the one above. When you find the perfect combination, make the changes to your blog. Don’t forget to save your color palette so you’ll have a handy reference to use when you need to design things that coordinate with your blog  like ads or banners.

4) Be sure that your blog works on more than just your favorite browser with your favorite settings. Try multiple browsers and compare your blog’s dimensions to standard display resolutions for computer monitors. Making your blog 1024 pixels wide is a safe bet, though wider resolutions are more common. This is a great time to hit up your friends for help. I almost always ask my sister to checkout my blog on her computer after I make changes to it.

5) Minimize the number of clicks readers have to make. People will get frustrated and move on if your blog is too much work. Avoid unnecessary cuts that require readers to click “Read More,” and include, at the very least, 3 posts per page (but more is better) so new  visitors can browse more easily. Make sure that your comment system doesn’t force your readers to go through more than 2 pages. This is something to be aware of especially if you’re using Blogger because the wrong combination of settings on Blogger can force a commenter to go through 5 pages in order to leave a comment and get back to the original post.

“What do I write about?” is probably tied with, “How do I get readers?” for the most frequently asked question about blogging. Here are my top five ways to find readers for your blog in.

1) Comment - Probably the most common answer to, “How do I get readers?” is, “Comment on other blogs!” It’s true, but not in the way most people think of. If you’re leaving comments on other blogs simply in the hopes that the other blogger clicks through and checks out your blog, you’re doing it wrong. That’s very slow and pretty shallow. Comments should be about conversation and connection and that’s what makes them a great way to build a network of blogging friends. Blogging friends don’t translate directly to more traffic, but they can introduce you to their readers by including you in their sidebars, introduce you to new opportunities to connect to more people, and give you support when you’re having problems.

2) Be Active – Actively participate on social networking websites. You don’t have to spam links to your blog in your posts to get readers. If you consistently write useful, witty, entertaining, and/or compelling posts, people will click through your profile to your website to see more of what you have to say. Craft specific sites like Ravelry are the best, but even Twitter is a good place. G+ and Twitter chats like Craft Social (hash tag #craftsocial on Twitter) are great places to connect with other crafters. Don’t forget to link to your blog on your profile!

3) Community Projects – You can participate in community projects like Knit and Crochet Blog Week or even host your own. When you host an event, you’ll generally receive more traffic than when you are just participating, but it’s a lot of work. I don’t recommend hosting an event just to get traffic. Do it if you can think of something you’ll enjoy that others will also enjoy. When it comes to participating in a project, short is best in my opinion. The long term projects like theme days that don’t have a defined end can get forgotten or stale, and there is constantly new content so there’s no time for other participants to revisit your posts that they might have been too busy to read while working on their own.

4) Get Featured – There are a lot of websites out there that feature bloggers’ content, and they’re a great way to get your work seen by a new audience. The more reputable ones feature a picture, maybe a blurb, and a link to your blog. If they want to repost the whole post, run away. With reposts, there is less incentive for a reader to click through to your blog, and there is no compensation for your work (More on that below). Since websites that feature other crafters’ work rely mostly on pictures, this is where gorgeous photos are essential because, unfortunately, very few sites will feature good crafts with poor pictures. Many of them require you to submit so don’t sit around waiting for someone to request to feature your work. Be proactive! Craftgawker.com and Craftzine.com are two of my favorite websites that feature great work.

5) Get Published – This is probably the most difficult thing to do on this list, but it also might be the most effective. Get your work published on another website to reach a wider audience, and be sure to include your blog in your author blurb. Patterns and tutorials are the most obvious things to get published because there are a lot of online craft magazine’s that are open to those kinds of submissions. Articles are also a nice choice, but craft related articles are a bit harder to get published. Getting published by a webzine is one of the best options because they have such a large readership, and you’ll get compensated for your time, but guest posts are also a good option. Guest posts can be less intimidating, but don’t volunteer to guest post for just anyone. Unless you’re paid for a guest post, you’re basically giving away free content that you could have used on your own website so I would suggest only writing guest posts for your blogging friends or bloggers who will return the favor somehow.

Does anyone else have any tips or tricks to share?

Whenever I fall into a blogging funk I always try to think about what I look for in blogs I like to read. It’s easier to look at other people’s work and recognize what I like about it than it is to do the same with my own. When I figure out what elements I personally like, it acts as a reminder for what I’m trying to do with my own blog.

What do you look for in a blog? Are you looking for inspiration? Relatablity? Conversation? Entertainment? Friendship? Patterns or projects to try? Do you try to make your own blog reflect what you like about other blogs?

Last week I wrote about different kinds of craft blog content, but a lot of craft blogs feature more than just crafty stuff and that sort of content tends to be more personal. When it comes to Untangling Knots, I don’t talk about my life very frequently. Aside from the fact that my existence is generally mundane, my problems and opinions that aren’t craft related don’t feel like they fit here. Sometimes I worry that by leaving out the personal stuff, my blog makes me come off as something that I’m not. I was brought up thinking that the internet (a) the internet is for everyone and anyone can read what I write publicly, (b) the internet is forever, and (c) it’s rude to put other people on the internet if they don’t want to be there. That makes me careful about what I write and who I include in pictures, but I find that it’s easier to just not write about stuff than deal with figuring out where things cross the line.

This leads me to ask how much personal is just right for you? How do you figure out where the line is for your own blog?