Blog views and other obsessions – the block editor

After a lot of talk and several blog posts about the new block editor, I finally made the switch. That’s why my blog looks a little different. I have to say, I mostly like it, but I’ve been frustrated about a couple things. I figured one out, but I’m pretty sure there’s no way to do the second one.

Shortlinks

Anyone have trouble finding where they are? After clicking around and around I finally looked it up and discovered it’s easy:

In Edit Post, click on the greet Jetpack icon located in the upper right of your screen. The Shortlink is about half-way down the vertical scroll sidebar. Problem solved!

Look for this icon.

Wrapping text around images

This has really puzzled me. That was one of the features in Classic Editor I used a lot. There’s a block called Media and Text that lets you put text next to an image, but it doesn’t wrap when the text runs below the image. Here’s what happens:

Here’s a nice image of a Thanksgiving turkey that I downloaded from Pexels. I used the Media and Text block. I selected Normal size font and you can see that once the text block becomes longer than the image, it doesn’t wrap around it.

Has anyone else run into this problem? How would you fix it? I’ve tried looking it up and after about twenty minutes, I gave up. I’m wondering if I care enough to figure it out or if I should just adapt to the new way of doing things. I guess you could end your text block just as it reaches the end of the image…

In general, I like the block editor and I really like the star rating block. That comes in really handy and I like how you can use the half stars.

What has your experience been? Leave a comment below and thanks for visiting!

Blog views and other obsessions – random thoughts

Hi Everyone! Today I’m sharing some random thoughts about blogging.

The blogging world is constantly evolving, whether we like it or not. Technology has changed dramatically since I started my blog seven years ago. I’ve always been interested in how things connect and for me, blogging and connecting though other social media is fun, but time and patience have their limits, don’t they?

I’m not dreading the new WordPress editor. I’ve already used it on my new blog, Books to Pen, but I’m in no hurry to convert Book Club Mom.

My blog has grown slowly, but steadily over the years and my focus has changed during this time. I’d like to have unlimited content ideas, but I don’t! That used to bother me, but now I don’t worry about it and wait for an idea to come to me.

I have a good idea for a new YouTube video, so stay tuned for that.

As for growing a blog – I wish WordPress would make it easier to follow and be followed. Even when I search for blogs and get a list, it’s still cumbersome. And it would be nice to see what blogs my favorite bloggers follow. Twitter has it all figured out in that department IMO.

I see a lot of swishy new blogs out there and I’m always looking for ways to update my look. I like my basic blog design but I’ve recently changed some of my banners. Last year I tried displaying book covers in more creative ways, but I moved away from that. I like the creative displays, but doing them myself felt like a force.

I’m getting ready to start an Instagram account. I resisted at first, but now I’m ready.

What’s new with your blog?

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

Blog views and other obsessions – coping with the coronavirus part 2

Source: brainsonfire.com

A month ago I wrote about how I thought the coronavirus was going to affect me. I said, “I’m planning to read and blog more and pay more attention to my Twitter account.”

Was anyone else thinking something like that? Although I’ve been reading about as much as I did before we started sheltering in place, I haven’t been reading voraciously or blogging any more than the regular amount. And my Twitter account has been pretty idle. Some of that is because I am tweeting on my library job’s account, a lot, and by the end of the day my brain is a little tired of coming up with tweets, liking and retweeting other tweets and finding new followers. I’ve also started contributing to a new library blog, writing about three posts a week over there, and by the end of the day…well you get the idea, right?

The other issue has been focus. One result is that I have been reading other people’s blogs less. That bothers me a lot, but I’ll be back to doing that soon too. I did manage to re-watch the first season of The Sopranos and I’ll be moving on to the second season next week. Seinfeld and The Office are also keeping us entertained.

But you know, being healthy and employed means there is no excuse for complaining about anything. It’s just a matter of adjusting to staying at home all the time. And this week I find that I’m doing better. I’m in the middle of an excellent book, A Hero of France by Alan Furst and you’ll be seeing a review on that soon. I also started a new audiobook today during my walk: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. It took me a bit to understand what I was listening to, but I’m already into the story and will blog about that soon too.

I hope you’re all doing okay and that your families are healthy. What has surprised you about all this time at home?

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

Blog views and other obsessions – coping with the Coronavirus

Source: brainsonfire.com

How are you at shifting gears? We’re all doing that right now! If you’re anxious about the Coronavirus and all the changes and restrictions we are going through, it may be tough to relax. But finding ways to “get away from it all” is a trick we’re all going to have to learn.

Photo by Alexavier Rylee Cimafranca on Pexels.com

Are you working from home? Do you have more family in your house than before? Are you or your kids shifting to online learning?

Our library is closed for the next two weeks. So I won’t be working there, but I’m also going to be busier with home and family things, like keeping the house cleaner and cooking more.

I’m planning to drink more water, more camomile tea (to stay calm – not joking, either), read and blog more and pay more attention to my Twitter account. I also want to binge watch a show or two (depending on how long we are home) and watch some movies.

Photo by Lina Kivaka on Pexels.com

I hope you’re all doing okay and that your friends and families are healthy. And I also hope that the grocery stores have everything you need, including paper goods (currently an issue here).

Tell me how you are coping and, if you are at home, what you are doing. Do you plan to read or blog more? What is the current situation and what are the restrictions where you live?

To cheer us all up, I’m peppering this post with a few of the free happy reading pics from WordPress. 😀

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

Blog views and other obsessions – Free Photo Library on WordPress

Source: brainsonfire.com

Have you noticed something different about your WordPress Home Page? My Home popped up on my blog this week, with a reconfigured format. I haven’t tried everything, but what caught my eye is that now WordPress offers a Free Photo Library of 40,000 stock photos, provided by Pexels.

I’ve been using Pixabay for a few years to find good copyright free photos, but now there’s an option built right into WordPress.

Another good thing I noticed is that you can also upload photos right from Google Photos. I like that! I’m not sure if that’s new, but I’d never seen that before.

And here’s how to access the photo library.

• Go to your My Home screen, open the Site options and select Media.
• Click the down arrow on the top left banner dropdown to see WordPress Library, Google Photos library and Free Photo library. Select Free Photo.
• Type suggestion in Search bar, select an appropriate photo and select Copy to media library.

Your image is ready for you to insert into your next blog post. Photo credits are included in the uploads.

Curious to see what kinds of free images are available, I did a few searches and here are some.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

They are generic like all the stock images out there but they are free and I can see myself using these for certain posts.

Photo by Aleksey Kuprikov on Pexels.com

How about you? Will you use this new feature?

Photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels.com

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

Blog views and other obsessions – followers, views, likes and comments

Source: brainsonfire.com

We all say we don’t care about followers, views, likes and comments, but let’s be honest, it’s nice when people show an interest in what we’re doing. For me, it keeps me on my toes and helps me figure out the best way to say things on my blog. I want to post interesting content, so I’d rather know if I post a clunker.

Recently, Facebook, owner of Instagram, announced that they will begin an experimental “hiding” of likes on posts. Account owners will still be able to see the stat, but total number of likes will disappear from Instagram’s main feed, profile pages and permalink pages. I don’t have an Instagram account, and I’m not going to get too into the details, so if you want to read more, check out this article on CNN Business. What I’m interested in is the concept of removing a public view of likes and other interaction on social media.

You can already remove likes and comments from WordPress posts and some of the blogs I follow do that, for all their posts, or just some. It’s easy to do: to remove likes, go on your Dashboard and select Settings, Sharing and turn off your likes. To remove comments, from the Dashboard, go to the Discussion settings and turn them off. If you want to turn off total views and followers on your page, from the Dashboard, go to Widgets and remove those options.

As an active blog reader, I like seeing all the faces of people who have liked posts I’ve read. Is that weird? It makes me feel like I’m part of a group! And I also like to leave comments, though I understand why some posts have the “no comment” status. It’s fun to scroll down and see what other people have said and more and more, I’ve noticed that commenters jump on to other people’s comments, making it a big conversation. That’s really fun!

Now I totally get the negative side of obsessing over your popularity. I think that’s really the case on other social media platforms. I don’t get too worked up if a friend posts a picture of her painted toenails sipping a piña colada on a chaise lounge, and gets hundreds of likes and comments, because that stuff isn’t important to me. I’ve never tried to do that, though, so I might feel differently if I took that risk and got minimal likes. I recognize the trap, especially for teenagers and young adults, so hiding likes on Instagram and maybe Facebook sounds like a good idea to me. I don’t know how brand influencers feel about that, but that seems like a silly career to me anyway (just an opinion!).

As for WordPress followers, I like seeing that number grow, although I’m resigned to a slow, gradual climb. On Twitter, it’s great to look at other people’s followers because it helps me find new accounts to follow.

I think it’s different on WordPress because we’re not trying to showcase our popularity or look beautiful. This seems to be a much more grounded group. I think bloggers are mostly interested in getting their words out, with a side of likes and comments.

What do you think? Do you ever turn off your likes and comments on WordPress? Tell me what you think – comments are turned on 😉!

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

Blog views and other obsessions – when the slump sneaks up on you!

Source: brainsonfire.com

It’s common knowledge that most blogs don’t make it a year before they go silent. But what happens when a blog that’s been going on for nearly six years suddenly stops?

I’ve been thinking about that a lot because last week, I didn’t blog and I didn’t even go on WordPress. What was happening? Nothing, really. I was busy with work and life and trying to exercise more and get the house in order. Spring has a way of making me want to clean things up a bit. And I took a mini trip.

Time is finite. I couldn’t do all those things and also spend the usual time on my blog. It worried me. Was I tired of reading books and talking about them? Was I burning out? As the days passed and I continued to find other real world things to do, those questions nagged me.

I think I just needed a break. Now I’m refreshed and ready to jump back in. I have 107 unread blog posts waiting for me, a bunch of comments to reply to and the regular feed, so it could take a while!

How have you been? Have you ever found yourself in a blogging slump?

Thanks for visiting – come back soon! 

Blog views and other obsessions – realistic blogging goals during the holidays

Source: brainsonfire.com

If you’re frustrated about having no time to blog, read blogs, comment, tweet and post on Facebook during the holiday season, relax. Holidays and other busy times in our lives have to take precedence over writing a clever post or spending a lot of time on other social media.

I say that but do I feel it? Ha! Not exactly! I had good intentions about reading, commenting, sharing and posting more this past week, but they all went out the window when I faced the madness of holiday preparations. And, because I’m in the habit of checking my stats all the time, it was hard to watch. I got a little salty mid-week, thinking about it, but why? I can’t explain it fully, but…

Here’s my statement of denial: I think I have a good relationship with my blog and the fact that I’m checking on WordPress and other social media is more because of a desire to interact with my blogging and cyber friends. It’s also a way to de-stress, so being able to walk the line between the real world and the blogging world is a positive thing. People who blog know this. Other people may think we’re a little bit crazy!

Image: Piixabay

But time is limited, especially now. And, as for stats, I know there’s a lot of end-of-year data out there, but you just have to let it go for the next week and not worry about how you measure up.

What do you do with your blog during the holidays? Do you take a vacation from it?

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

Blog views and other obsessions – worst posts

Source: brainsonfire.com

You can’t learn to blog unless you make mistakes and I have made plenty! It’s an ongoing adjustment to understand what works and what doesn’t. I’ve been blogging for five years and all it takes is a dip into my earliest posts (and some recent ones too) to see what didn’t work.

The cringeworthy posts – you can only laugh at them, make some changes and move on. Because WordPress is such a supportive place, I know it’s okay to be myself and try new things.

So in the spirit of full disclosure, I’m sharing my worst posts, in terms of terrible titles, zero likes and bad wording.

Read them if you dare!

8/20/13: The Idiot:  thought-provoking with an excellent plot  – I’m sure my approval would please Dostoevsky!

9/18/13:  Straight Man is well-written, but… – I guess I don’t need to mention the author.

3/1/14:  Headed off to Thornfield Hall! – Oops, no author or title! Many readers are sure to miss this Jane Eyre reference.

7/28/15: They grow to fly – better stick to book reviews, Book Club Mom!

Do you have any cringeworthy posts you’re willing to share?

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

Blog views and other obsessions – something is shifting!

Source: brainsonfire.com

Something is changing in my obsession with blog views. I’m still setting goals and trying to reach them, but it hasn’t taken over my life. I don’t live and breathe it. It’s a hobby and something that helps me relax and get away from the pressures of life. It’s fun.

But now I think less about how many views and likes I’m getting—though I do check throughout the day ;). What I think about more is this:

• What are my blogging friends up to?
• Will they comment about a book we’ve both read?
• Will my friends read and reply to the comments I’ve left on their blogs?
  

So what exactly is changing? It’s the sense of community. The positive feedback. The friendships. You might not get it if you don’t blog, but blogging is the best form of social media out there. In five years of blogging, I have experienced none of the following:

• Feeling inadequate
• Feeling unpopular
• Receiving snarky comments

See what I mean? Blogging, if you can get through the first couple years of figuring it out, defining your “brand” and writing posts, you will begin to understand. Most blogs, like new restaurants, don’t survive the first year. But the reward is all these connections.

So here’s what I say as I wonder whether the odometer on my car will reach 100,000 miles before I reach 100K on my blog:

“Hop in people, we’re going for a ride!”

Thanks for visiting – come back soon