Top 10 WordPress Plugins for Beginning Bloggers

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When starting a new blog, trying to sift through the myriad of themes and plugins that are available can be overwhelming. Beginning bloggers should be free to focus on building valuable, unique content for their sites rather than worrying about the best plugins to install.

We’ve gathered a list of 10 of the best WordPress plugins to make the job of starting a new blog that much easier.

1. All-in-one SEO Pack

The All-in-one SEO pack plugin is at the top of the list. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how your page is going to get traffic and hits. By implementing SEO techniques, you are providing Google, Bing or Yahoo the tools they need to rank your site. This plugin gives each page and blog post on your site a unique title with related Meta tags. The settings are customizable and you can even insert your own Meta tags.

2. Akismet

Akismet is so important, it comes preloaded with every WordPress installation. It helps to filter out spam and keep your blog free of unrelated and annoying comments from spammers. Akismet also means that your readers won’t be required to verify that they are human before entering comments.

3. Google XML Sitemaps

The latest search engine algorithms make heavy use of a Sitemaps when cataloging a website’s content. Google XML Sitemaps will create a new sitemap automatically every time a new blog post or page is added. Once installed, you’ll never need to manually update your sitemap again.

4. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache can actually improve the overall performance and usability of your site. By caching your pages and providing temporary files to visitors, it can drastically decrease page loading times by removing the need for repetitive back-end calls to the database.

5. WordPress Database Backups

The WordPress Database Backups is a customizable plugin that can be used to manually backup your entire site, or it can automatically take a snapshot of your site on specified intervals. This will provide all website owners with peace of mind and remove the need for any kind of manual backup process.

6. WP Touch

People accessing websites from mobile devices now represent the majority of web traffic. This is not a demographic that you want to alienate. The WP Touch plugin will optimize your site for mobile devices and let you know that mobile users will have the best experience possible when visiting your blog. Pages will load quickly and be formatted properly.

7. Social Media Plugins

It goes without saying that social media impacts web traffic. Recent changes in search algorithms also places greater emphasis on linking from and to social media sites. Providing these plugins allows visitors to easily share your blog posts on social networks. It’s a great way to build traffic and increase visitors.

8. Subscribe to Comments

This easy to install plugin provides commenters with a simple checkbox option to receive email alerts whenever someone responds or comments on the same post. This is a great way to build a lot of discourse around your blog post and search engines will reward the activity by increasing your ranking.

9. WordPress Related Posts

One of the best ways to capture traffic to your blog posts is to organically build linking from other sites. The WordPress Related Posts plugin will provide a selection of related posts for each blog post on your site. Readers looking to get more information on a particular topic can easily click on a related blog post on another site. Similarly, you could be getting traffic back to your blog from related sites that utilize the same plugin.

10. Theme Switch and Preview

If you plan on updating the appearance of your blog to keep it looking and feeling fresh, then you’ll want to install this plugin. It will allow you to make theme changes while visitors are still directed to the old site. You can even edit and preview your themes without impacting visitors.

By starting with these WordPress plugins beginning bloggers, or even existing site owners, will be assured that they are providing visitors with a great viewing experience and an easy to use commenting system, while ensuring that their blog is optimized for SEO.

Quick Tricks to Speed up Your Writing

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Writing is something that can come naturally at times, but at other times it can take lots of willpower to muster. If you find that you easily run into writer’s block, there are a few strategies you can implement to get around the lack of creativity and spark productivity.

1. Make an Outline

Many writers make the mistake of immediately jumping into their piece without a plan or outline in place. They might have a solid introduction in mind, but when it’s time to start writing the meat and potatoes of the piece, they draw blanks. This is because there is no direction or outline in place. This can easily be combated by taking the time before starting the piece to create a solid outline with major points and topic sentences. This will help by showing you exactly what to write about, and it will greatly reduce the chance that you’ll wander off topic or get stuck.

2. Take Advantage of Your Spurts of Creativity

Simply enough – if you’re not feeling creative, then don’t write. Try to note your patterns of creativity. Maybe you feel like writing the most during the morning. Maybe you’re a night owl and you like to write at night time. Whatever the case, carve out some time to write when you feel most productive.

3. Write First, Edit Later

Many people make the mistake of trying to correct their mistakes and edit while they’re still in the writing/drafting phase of their piece. Jumping between writing and editing can slow down the overall writing process, and it can even cause you to lose your train of thought or motivation. Make it a point to not worry about the editing process until the piece is officially finished. Once you’ve created a basic draft, go back and spend some time solely editing.

4. Break Up Your Writing into Sessions

You can also try to break up your writing into sessions for easier flow and quicker production time. Trying to get out lots of content in one sitting can seem overwhelming, and in turn, it can dull your creativity and exhaust you. Either take frequent breaks or designate various times throughout the day to work on your piece. You will find that it’s a lot easier to look at your piece as a 10 part task rather than a huge chore.

5. Use a Timer

Lastly, try using a timer to get blocks of work done. For example, you can allow yourself an hour for each section of a piece. Using a timer to ensure this creates a sense of competitiveness, and it creates somewhat of a deadline to get your work done. You can set a timer for the entire piece, or you can break it up into smaller segments. Either way, you should see an improvement in your overall production time.

Speeding up your writing shouldn’t have to feel like a chore. Try implementing various strategies such as using timers, making outlines, or editing later to slash your production time into a fraction. Most of all, remember that writing takes practice and it will come more naturally and easily over time!

How to Work Through Writer’s Block

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Writer’s block is one of the most frustrating things that a writer can experience, especially if they write for a living. Unfortunately, it’s something that everyone faces now and then, no matter how creative or prolific they may be. The good news is that there is always a way through it. Here are some tried and true measures for dealing with writer’s block in a useful manner.

Write Anyway

Just like with any career or hobby, practice makes perfect so it is important that you don’t let a slump keep you from writing at all. Take the time every day to write at least a little bit, whether or not it is a part of a particular project. Keeping a journal is a good exercise for writers; just jot down any thoughts you may have about the day, along with any story or poem ideas that may arise. Set aside a time every day to do this, even if it’s only for ten minutes. If writing only for yourself is too uninspiring, try writing a letter every day, either by e-mail or longhand. This practice will also help you cultivate your relationships, which are very valuable for someone in a largely solitary profession. You could also sign up for a review website and write about books, music or movies.

Read

They say that great writers are great readers, so if you don’t feel like writing, why not read instead? Try to keep a list of books that you want to read and pull one of those out during a time of low creativity. You might try reading about writing, seeing what advice accomplished writers have to offer, or you could get lost in the pages of a great novel or some inspiring poetry. Not only will you be experiencing great writing at work, you may find that you find some new ideas for your own writing.

Have a Writer’s Group

Why not start a group made up of friends who enjoy writing? If you arrange to meet periodically, you can spur each other on. Your friends can offer suggestions on new directions that you can go with your writing, and you can feel good about reading and critiquing the work of others and thus being helpful to them. Talking about writing for a couple of hours can do wonders for revving up your writing engines. This might also be a good time to dust off an old story or poem and let it see the light of day.

Experience the World

The more you see and hear of the world, the more you are able to put pen to paper about it. If you don’t feel like writing, maybe it’s a good day for a field trip. Go into town and spend some time observing people and making note of their unique habits. Take a nice long stroll through the woods and soak in the beauty and silence of nature. Go to the movies and see the craft of storytelling from a different angle. A change of scenery is sometimes all that is needed to get the creative juices flowing again.

Nobody ever said that writer’s block was fun, but if you see it as an opportunity rather than a stumbling block, you can turn an afternoon of staring at a blank screen into something much more worthwhile.

Blogger vs. WordPress: Which is Right for You?

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Blogging is one of the most popular forms of self-employment to sweep across the world. Of course, with the increase of bloggers comes the influx of blogging websites. Needless to say, the difficulty for many bloggers today is selecting a blogging site that fits their needs. Quite a few find a home on Blogger, perhaps just as many turning to WordPress. Without a doubt, each has their advantages and disadvantages, but which blogging site is right for you?

Blogger

Blogger, owned by Google, holds the prestige of being one of the oldest publishing tools. Like others, this blogging site has a number of features, but one of the greatest benefits is Blogger is free. This makes Blogger the perfect place for anyone who is testing the waters or is strapped for cash.

Advantages of Blogger

1. Free Subscription with Benefits

  • No need for a domain name or hosting.
  • Provides wide selection of templates.
  • Available in more than 50 languages.
  • Mobile device applications available.

2. Google Support

  • Security breaches are unlikely.
  • Google servers ensure little to no downtime.
  • Time proven, reliable service.

3. User-friendly

  • Easy-to-use format perfect for beginners.
  • Simple drag-and-drop interface.
  • Support page available.

Disadvantages of Choosing Blogger

1. No Room for Growth

  • Limited design capabilities.
  • Few plugins available to improve site functionality.
  • Limited features.

2. No Ownership Rights

  • Google can use and distribute content.
  • Google will remove blogs for infractions.

WordPress

WordPress, released in 2003, is more of an Open Source Content Management System than a publishing tool. What is most noteworthy about this site is users can choose between WordPress.com, free membership, and WordPress.org, paid subscription. However, as WordPress.com is Blogger’s equivalent, we will primarily look at this version. In that sense, WordPress.com is just as welcoming to people just starting out and those unsure of blogging.

Advantages of WordPress.com

1. Free Hosting

  • Receive a domain name in the form of “yourdomain.wordpress.com”
  • Able to customize.
  • Automatic backups.
  • Wide range of plugins available.
  • Available in 70 languages.

2. User-Friendly Format

  • Free support through support forum.
  • No coding knowledge required.
  • Fast and simple set-up.

3. Room for Growth

  • Easily upgrade to WordPress.org
  • WordPress.org offers the same features as WordPress.com and far more.

Disadvantages of Choosing WordPress.com

1. WordPress.com Limitations

  • Strict about monetization.
  • Revenue strategies allowed elsewhere not permitted.
  • Not an ad-free zone
  • Restricts plugins for WordPress.com

2. Site Growth Requires Paid Subscription

  • Business growth means subscribing to WordPress.org
  • Limits on traffic and branding require successful businesses upgrade or move.

Comparing Blogger and WordPress.com comes down to a tit-for-tat argument. Each site
has its pros and cons, both serving their intended purpose. However, in the end, you must decide for yourself whether Blogger or WordPress is right for you.

Link Parties – How Do They Compare to Guest Posts?

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Guest posting is not the only way for a blogger to improve his or her SEO rankings. Many bloggers recommend something called “link parties” or “linky parties.” In fact, the method seems to be a favorite of “mommy bloggers.”

Link parties are established by a host publisher. Other bloggers add a link to one of their posts to the link party directory – in return, they must include the host’s URL on their own blog. Oftentimes, link parties have a theme, such as Halloween décor. Trading backlinks widens the audience range for both bloggers while simultaneously aiding their SEO – without setting off any of Google’s guest posting alarms. Link parties can also help you establish a community of bloggers that you can mine for guest posting opportunities or exchange advice.

What’s the Downside?

Link parties sound like a win-win situation, right? It is! All participants benefit from a link party. Yet there are still a few drawbacks.

Link parties are a TON of work. The host first creates a set of rules, then invites bloggers to backlink on his or her blog. The host then has to review every blog post and backlink to make sure they are following the rules. If any blog violates the link party rules, they get kicked out.

Generally, the backlinks from multiple bloggers are published by the host blogger in one post. Readers of the host blog see a long list of many links. Sometimes, pictures will be included. It is unlikely that any reader will click on every single one of those links – they’ll probably just scroll through until they find one they like.

Guest posts, however, have a much higher success rate than link parties for far less work. Writers get a chance to show off their style, voice, and expertise while publishers can mix up their usual content.

So Should I Use Link Parties?

There’s certainly no harm in participating in a link party, if you have the time and energy. If you have a favorite post on your blog, or one that you think will do well in a link party, go ahead and join! Just be careful not to break any of the host’s rules.

The one benefit link party backlinks have over guest posting is that traffic is driven directly to your site. Readers must click on the link to view your post, sending them back to your blog. With guest posts, readers may or may not click on the backlink.

There’s always the possibility that you will be invited back to another link party by the same host, or that someone else participating in the party will like your blog so much that they will ask you to guest post with them.

What do you think about link parties? Does participating in a link party help your SEO rankings?

Boost Your Traffic with Current Events and Pop Culture

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All bloggers, even niche and business bloggers, need to be aware of current events. Writing a post about pop culture or what’s happening in the news is a great way to gain more readers. Posts containing current events are more likely to be shared by your current readers on social media websites, but are also more likely to be found organically.

Take Miley Cyrus’s performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards. It’s been talked about to death. Even though there was “some situation” going on with Syria, all the news sources had multiple articles about how scandalous Miley was.

On top of that, I read at least 15 different blog posts about it. Everyone had an opinion, including bloggers. My Facebook friends would share blog posts they agreed or disagreed with, causing me to visit the page and join the conversation. These bloggers experienced huge spikes in traffic because they jumped on the bandwagon.

Finding Current Events

The best way to learn about current events is to be aware and engaged in the world around you. Hopefully you’re already using your social media presence to converse with your fans. You should also try a few of these methods for staying-up-to-date.

  • Take a look at Google Trends every once in a while and find out what users are Googling the most. There’s also an app called Google Currents that will give you articles relevant to what’s happening now.
  • Monitor trending topics on Twitter. Also use Pinterest and Facebook to keep up with what people are interested in.
  • Read news sites, like the New York Times.
  • Check out Buzzfeed for information on what’s popular on the Internet currently. This is a great source for pop culture.
  • Mashable.com is one of my favorite websites for finding out what’s new with Internet trends, social media, and technology. It also has a few serious news pieces and human interest pieces.
  • Read your competition every once in a while. They may have news that is relevant to your niche.

There are many great apps and websites that can help you become more aware of current events and pop culture (one of my favorites is Feedly.com.) Find one that’s best for you, and let the popular stories serve as inspiration for a blog post!

3 Places Where Bloggers are Missing Calls-to-Action

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Calls-to-action, or CTAs, are necessary for any business’s website. Believe it or not, “Click here!” “Buy now” and “Call for more info,” actually help persuade the reader to do just those things. A good CTA can vastly improve any business’s conversion rate.

But what does that have to do with bloggers? You aren’t trying to sell a product!

The truth is that every website, including blogs, has an objective. As a blogger, you are actually selling something – yourself! CTAs can be just as effective in starting conversations, generating engagement on social media, and gathering subscriptions as it can be for selling products.

Within Posts

Every blog post should end with some sort of CTA. It can direct the reader to another website, to a webpage within your blog, or to comment. Sometimes we think calls-to-action must be some sort of command, like “call now.” In fact, asking questions of your reader is a CTA. Something as simple as “what are your experiences with this product/situation? I’d love to hear your story!” can inspire the reader to leave a comment.

On Social Media

The most frequent CTAs you’ll see on social media are “like” “share” “comment” “+1” and more, depending on which website or app you’re using. You might see “Like our photo to enter a contest” or “Share if you like tacos!” Because these are the most common, they can also be the most annoying. You can use them, but be careful and only do so sparingly. Too many posts with those “cheap” kinds of CTAs will look spammy to your fans. If you want to start a conversation on social media, use the same question CTA that you would use above. You can even use the exact same one as the one within your post. For social media channels like Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest, directing the reader to your website is probably the only CTA you can use with your limited space.

On Your Website

CTAs on your website should either direct the reader to another part of your website, or get them to share your blog posts. For example, social media buttons are a CTA, even though they are images and not words. They still prompt the viewer to share your content or follow you. Include floating buttons within each post or static ones at the end of the post. Definitely have links to your accounts on your “About Me” page.

Many bloggers also choose to create badges or buttons for their most popular posts. WordPress plugins or design modifications can share your most Pinned posts, your most recent posts, word clouds, tags, related posts, blogs you read, and more on the sidebar of your blog. All of these will keep your reader where you want them.

Have you experimented with different CTAs? What works best for you?

Grow Your Blog Following with Instagram

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instagram-screenshot

Instagram can be an amazing tool for bloggers. It’s an easy way to create images for your blog, and you can edit your pictures to make them slightly more professional-looking. Bonus – they’re the perfect size for re-posting on any social media platform!

Instagram can also help you gain more visitors to your blog. It’s a little trickier than other social media outlets becauseInstagram will not allow you to link directly to your website. However, with the right strategy, you can gain a following on Instagram, then convert those to followers of your blog!

Your Instagram Strategy

When it comes to Instagram, it’s important to remember that your brand as a blogger is you. You are trying to sell your personality, tastes, and aesthetic vision to your audience. On almost every other social media account, part of your branding is your words. Unfortunately, your sense of humor and voice won’t shine through as much through images.

So what type of picture should you post on Instagram? Well, why do your friends share their pictures? Why do you follow those friends? The answer is that people like to connect with other people. They like to know what’s going on in your life. Even bloggers should share some of that. Pictures of you, your family, your friends, and your pet are appropriate. If you are a niche blogger, definitely share your finished products. Beauty bloggers should share daily makeup choices, fashion bloggers their outfits, chefs their kitchen, etc.

Some Tips for Happy Instagram Marketing

  • Watermark or put your blog URL on all of your images so that people know where to find more of them.
  • Utilize hashtags. On other social media platforms, too many hashtags is a huge faux pas that gets annoying quick. On Instagram, you can use up to 30 hashtags. It would not be outlandish to use 10 on one image.
  • Connect your Instagram account to your other social media accounts. Through your Instagram settings, you can link up your accounts and post all Instagram pictures to Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Twitter. Facebook has apps that can show your Instagram feed on your business page. And don’t forget to add your Instagram account on your blog!
  • Use a picture of your face as your profile picture, not your logo. Instagram users are more likely to follow and interact with a real person than a brand they do not recognize.
  • Instagram is a social network, so be social! Always respond to comments. Browse relevant hashtags and “like” and comment on other user’s pictures.
  • You don’t always have to share pictures you’ve taken on Instagram (though don’t steal others’ pictures!). You can also share memes you’ve created or graphics you’ve made through a picture-editing program. Create a graphic image for each new blog post you’ve written and share it.
  • Beware of becoming annoying: Instagram is all about sharing snapshots of your life. Don’t post too much too often, and don’t post mundane pictures. Share pictures that represent your style, your mood, your brand, and more.

Do you have an Instagram account for your blog? We’d love to see it! You can follow us here.

How Bloggers Can Avoid Plagiarism

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As a blogger, you have some level of expertise to share with your readers. Many of your post topics might come from your own personal experiences. But sometimes, bloggers might want to write about something outside of their knowledge. Whether it’s information that you’ve studied or statistics that you couldn’t have come up with on your own, you might need to use someone else’s expertise to help fill out your entries.

There’s nothing wrong with using an outside source in your blog posts. In fact, that’s the reason why bloggers and writers share their knowledge in the first place – so that you, as the reader, can find something useful from it.

So go ahead and use other articles and posts in your blog post. Just be careful that you aren’t plagiarizing.

How Do Bloggers Plagiarize?

If you’ve been a student in the past few years, you’re already very aware of the dangers of plagiarism. Students who copy the work of another published source are severely punished. Plagiarism has become one of the biggest crimes a student can commit.

Plagiarism is generally defined as passing off another person’s ideas or work as your own. Copying and pasting text is absolutely plagiarism. For a blogger, using someone else’s recipes, crafts, parenting techniques, or opinion on news and current events and pretending that you came up with them is plagiarism.

Why is Plagiarizing Bad?

Plagiarizing is the height of poor netiquette for bloggers. If you are caught plagiarizing on your blog, it could ruin your reputation in the eyes of your audience and your fellow bloggers.

If you aren’t worried about the morality of stealing from another person, worry about this: Google looks for pages that are too similar to each other and only gives SEO credit to the page that was published first. Google wants to reward only original, valuable content – if you plagiarize, your posts will fit neither of those two criteria.

If you steal someone else’s work, you’re also robbing yourself of a networking opportunity. A well-cited link to another blog can create a relationship and SEO credibility for both of you.

Bottom line: plagiarizing is not worth it for bloggers.

How Do Bloggers Avoid Plagiarism?

The best way to not plagiarize is to cite someone else’s work. Reference the blog post and add a link to it. Create citations at the end of your entries to your sources.

Unfortunately, there is no uniform way that bloggers can cite their sources. For many bloggers, simply adding a link is enough. APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and the Chicago Manual of Style all have formats for citing blog posts; these three citation styles are generally used by professionals or students. Bloggers can choose to follow those citations, but are not required to.

The most important part of citations, no matter how you decide to give credit to your sources, is consistency. Use the same format in each blog post. You can update how you source information every so often, but try to decide on a method now and stick to it.

Another idea to avoid plagiarizing is using guest posts. If you need another blogger’s expertise on your blog, invite them to write a post that you can publish. Search FreeGuestPost.com’s directories for guest posts by experts on every subject.

Sources:

Bailey, Jonathan. “Why Plagiarizing On Your Blog is Always a Bad Idea.” http://performancing.com/why-plagiarizing-on-your-blog-is-always-a-bad-idea/. (3 Dec. 2013).

5 Ways to Make Your Blog More Mobile-Friendly

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The number people using mobile devices to browse the web has gone up significantly in the past few years. A recent report by Forbes found that over half of all adults in the U.S. use smart phones. A significant percentage of them also use tablets or ereaders. As a blogger, you probably have a decent number of your online traffic coming in from some sort of mobile device. Because of this, it’s important to make sure your blog is mobile friendly.

FreeGuestPost.com is a mobile-friendly blog

What Happens If My Blog Isn’t Mobile-Friendly?

Do you remember the last time you looked at a website from your smart phone that wasn’t mobile-friendly? Websites that do not adapt to the new trend of mobile Internet surfing are much harder to read. You have to scroll a lot, or zoom in and out; pictures and videos can be difficult to view; and loading times take longer on a website that was not made to view from a mobile device. As a reader, you have to have a lot of patience to put up with that. Most likely, you left the website pretty quickly. If your blog isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re losing a lot of good traffic.

How Do I Make My Blog Mobile-Friendly?

There are actually a few options for making your blog mobile-friendly. Some of them will depend on the blogging platform you use; others will depend on your budget.

  1. Create a separate version of your website specifically for mobile devices. When someone visits your site from their smart phone, ereader, or tablet, they are automatically directed to the mobile version of your blog. It’s relatively easy and inexpensive. However, it’s also not a great option for a few reasons. When you upload new content or publish new posts, you have to do it for both types of websites. This is obviously more labor-intensive and time consuming. This website also won’t work for tablets – just smart phones. If your readers attempt to share your URL with their friends, desktop users will click through the link to the mobile website. Load time could be affected. And lastly, there can also be some significant issues with your SEO if you don’t follow Google’s rules for such instances.
  2. Build a website that has a responsive design. “Responsive design” means that the website is built using percentages instead of exact measurements. Choosing this method allows your blog to adapt to whatever device your viewers choose. This option is a favorite of Google’s and eliminates many of the problems of a separate website: you only need to publish content once and loading times also adapt to the device being used. However, the downside is that this type of website is more expensive to create initially. Depending on how old your website is, it might be impossible to convert it to a responsive design.
  3. Choose a blog theme that is mobile-friendly. Many WordPress themes now come with a mobile-friendly feature. They will automatically adapt to any mobile device. However, even the ones that don’t have that feature are still easier to view on a mobile device than a static website. Anyone who accesses a WordPress blog will see a mobile-friendly site, though it might not look the same as your desktop blog. That’s because your specific theme will not translate over; instead, WordPress has another theme that automatically applies. Blogger also has templates that are mobile-friendly. Using a theme that is mobile-friendly is easy to do, and you can do it without calling in for backup. It’s also inexpensive. The one downside is that you might have to change the entire look of your blog, or your mobile site will not look exactly like your blog. Look into individual themes and templates to find out more.
  4. Install a mobile-friendly plugin. One of the greatest parts about WordPress blogs is all the many plugins that are available. Fortunately, there are plugins that create a website accessible by mobile devices. The plugin also gives you the option of themes that are mobile-friendly. This is a great option for those who have had their WordPress blog for a long time. You don’t have to change your theme or your blog’s appearance, but you can still create a mobile-friendly blog.
  5. Adapt specific elements in your blog. If you want to keep your blog the same, there are a few individual parts you can change to still make it mobile-friendly. Try using smaller images that are easier to see from a smart phone without pinching the screen to zoom out. Smaller graphics also help cut down on loading time. Make your buttons larger so that they are easier for fingers on touch screens to press.

I’ve made my blog mobile-friendly. Now what?

Sit back and check out your analytics. Most likely, you had plenty of traffic coming in from mobile sources before you made changes to your blog. Compare how your visitor behavior changes after your adaptions. Is your bounce rate lowering? Are you gaining more mobile traffic? You may not see any major changes at first, but your readers are thanking you for making your blog easier for them to read.

What changes have you made to your blog to make it more mobile-friendly?

Sources:

Rogowsky, Mark. “More Than Half Of Us Have Smartphones, Giving Apple And Google Much To Smile About.” http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/06/06/more-than-half-of-us-have-smartphones-giving-apple-and-google-much-to-smile-about/. (5 Nov. 2013).

Brenner, Joanna. “Pew Internet: Mobile.” http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/February/Pew-Internet-Mobile.aspx. (5 Nov. 2013).

Clearly, Ian. “How to Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly.” http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-make-your-blog-mobile-friendly/. (9 Dec. 2013).

Olson, Derek. “CHOOSING BETWEEN RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN AND A SEPARATE MOBILE SITE TO IMPROVE MOBILE VISITORS’ EXPERIENCE.” http://www.foraker.com/choosing-between-responsive-web-design-and-a-separate-mobile-site-to-improve-mobile-visitors%E2%80%99-experience/. (9 Dec. 2013).

“Themes >> Mobile Themes.” http://en.support.wordpress.com/themes/mobile-themes/. (10 Dec. 2013).

Chan, Louisa. “How To Make A Mobile Friendly Blogspot Blog Site II.”http://www.louisachan.com/how-to-make-a-mobile-friendly-blogspot-blog-site-ii/. (10 Dec. 2013).

Sharkov, Daniel. “3 Simple Ways to Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly and Improve User Experience.” http://www.reviewzntips.com/mobile-friendly-blog/. (10 Dec. 2013).