A few posts from the ““Tech Tips”section of AmpleFound that helped me get started in these ventures were:

What Is Google Analytics And Why Should You Have It On Your Blog

How to Create A Contact Us Form

How to Add Social Share Buttons To Your Blog

Even though my blog still gets pretty minimal visits, I thought it would still be a good idea to set up a Google Analytics account for my site. I think this comes from a mentality of: “Well what if I make it big someday and traffic is through the roof and I’m making thousands on advertising?!”. Huge aspirations aside, I think this will be especially handy in a few months and I’m interested in seeing some historical data such as popular posts and traffic patterns.

Blogger has a very basic “stats’ section on the home dashboard that looks like this:

For a newbie blog, I love this and I think it’s awesome that Blogger provides this for free within their platform. However, going back to the “What if I make it big?” mentality, I think  having a Google Analytics account will be useful because of the wide breadth of

information you’ll be able to capture in the long haul.

So the next thing that I decided to explore on the backend was adding what are called “gadgets” Blogger. I first went to “Contact Me”  but decided to forego due to the $47.00 investment. Blogger happens to have a free Contact Form gadget, however it doesn’t include a CAPTCHA feature and it’s pretty ugly looking. For now, it will suffice in making my blog look somewhat more legitimate.

Another thing that I added was a some social buttons. The post, “How to Add Social Share Buttons to Your Blog” that Nico wrote was a perfect walk through. The Share This site is also very clear on how to add the code based on what blogging platform you use. I went through and tested out various styles and buttons that I would want to include and then voila! But ouch on no social love yet…

The last thing I decided to implement on my blog was a blogroll of other pages that I draw inspiration from not only food-wise, but also content and design-wise. However, this became one of the more frustrating tweaks I implemented. I rounded up a list of about 10 blogs and tried to add them to my blogroll to no avail. The Blogger gadget would only

upload one name or none at all. After spending about 30 minutes playing with it, I think I’ll be looking for an outside code to help me with this.

What I really want to know is how do I go from my plain Jane blog to something as sophisticated as this? So far the little tweaks I’ve made are small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. But these smaller steps have inspired me to do some digging on my own to see what kind of other options are out there to give my blog a little more sparkle and shine.

Goals of the Month:

– Upload 4 new posts

– Add 5 more recipes to the bank

– Explore at least 2 new design layouts

– Find a code for a blogroll

The post Tech Tweaks to Soup! There It Is. appeared first on AmpliFound.

I’ve been a bad blogger.

For the bloggers who manage to post 2-3 times a week and also hold down a full time job, hats off to you! Updating your blog is one thing, but I’m learning that there are a lot of other factors involved in keeping you blog consistent. I’ve found that in order to produce great and quality entries, I need to be thinking about my blog even when I’m not sitting down in front of my computer on a Sunday night. Two of the biggest mistakes that I think I made this past month with blogging were:

• Not taking my personal schedule more into account.
• Underestimating my time commitment.

In so many words – I was selfish when it came to blogging.

A great blog should be treated like a relationship. Time and dedication are major traits any relationship might require. And I haven’t been treating Soup! There It Is very well. I’ve made empty promises and haven’t put in the time to help my blog grow.  Before the damage is done I’d like to admit some of my shortcomings and mistakes I’ve made as a neglectful blogger.

Last month I created a list of short-term and long-term goals for myself. Here’s a recap from my last entry:

This Week:

• Post one new entry by Sunday 3/9 (actually posted 3/24)
• Promote latest post at least 2 times this week on Twitter, Facebook & G+
• Set up a short-term editorial content calendar for March

This Month:

• Have at least 5 complete posts on blog
• Create Twitter handle as first social media profile and engage with at least 20 followers.  
• Set up an Analytics profile.
• New layout for blog
• Identify a target audience.

As you can see, I only completed 2 ½ of the goals I initially set for myself. I think the first big mistake that I made for myself was assigning Sundays as my big blog day.  Looking back at my personal calendar, I realized that I had a jam-packed month in terms of weekend time.

This was the editorial calendar that I created for myself for this past month:

And then this is what that calendar looked like after I factored in my social calendar:

So there was a lot of overlap. I failed to recognize how weekend trips, family visits, and other social plans would impact my blogging schedule. I initially dedicated Sundays as my blogging nights because in past months, this day was typically my most laid back day that would also be the most ideal day to try out a new recipe. Well, in the month of March, Sundays became the nights that I just wanted to lie in my bed and not do anything at all apparently.

This is where I definitely should have paid a little more attention to the advice given by Lana in “How Frequently to Blog” to first build a beginner’s bank of content. She writes, “…it’s a good idea to have roughly 10 posts already written before you start actively promoting it.” If I have a small bank to begin with, I won’t have to worry about my social life overlapping with my designated post dates because they’ll be locked, loaded and ready to fire out.

So I think this should be step one to reclaiming my blog. This month, I’m going to get myself out of the mind set that “Sundays are for blogging” because that only sets up boundaries for myself. This time, rather than updating posts as they happen, I’m going to try to take a more methodical approach of pre-planned posts. Once my content is persistent and consistent,  I believe the other goals such as social follows and rankings will come.

Blogging Goals for the Month:

• Cook at least 5 recipes as outlined in the editorial calendar
• Write ups for at least 4 of those
• ONLY POST when you have at least 4 recipes ready to go.

I know I made mistakes this past month. I didn’t show my blog the love it needed. I know I’ve done wrong. I want to change. Something about this time tells me it will different for us. So what do you say, Soup!, will you give us another shot?

The post Treating My Blog Like A Boyfriend appeared first on AmpliFound.

The summer after I graduated from college, I had a lot of “free time,” so to speak. I filled that free time with inexpensive and time consuming activities; one of those activities just so happened to be cooking. I would go the local market, pick out some produce and food that I had no idea how to prepare, and try to make something edible out of it. As the summer dwindled and the cold set in, it was immediately soup season. I loved soup because I was able to invite friends over to share it, or freeze it for the week for quick and tasty leftovers. And that’s when the lightbulb went on — and I realized that this could be some good material for my first blog.

To compare my blog experience with cooking soup: all I know is that I’m hungry but I have no idea what to make. All I’ve got right now is a working title: “Soup! There It is.” This is where my role at AmpliFound comes in. The contributors to this blog are an amazing bunch who really know their stuff. They have extensive experience on what great content looks like and how it’s consistently managed… I, on the other hand, am just along for the ride. I’ve volunteered myself as the guinea pig for AmpliFound recommendations and will hopefully figure out what’s really easy and what stumps bloggers right along with you all.

I’ve outlined some goals for myself during this process. The first is to create a blog with a great user experience and get those eyes to revisit my blog from time to time. The second goal is to update on a consistent basis. I think this is really important and this is makes or breaks it for some bloggers. The third will be to find a community that equally reflects the previous goals. Oh, and of course the most important goal will be to make soup that’s good enough for seconds!

The post Intro to Soup! There It Is. appeared first on AmpliFound.