Saturday Spotlight #12: Supportive Bloggers

If the only writing you do is with a pen, instead of reading this post about blogging, you may prefer an article I wrote exactly a year ago: The Sharpie Marker, An Indispensable Modern Convenience. 


Even non-bloggers however, might enjoy this glimpse into what it is like to be a blogger.  (Truthfully, I'd be flattered if you read both posts!)

If you have been following the most - - of every moment for long, you will have noticed some changes to this blog over the past month.

For example:

- the title banner is now a collage of photos.
- the photos in my posts are larger than before.
- I'm now publishing my recipes with a “printable version” available.

A few people have asked me where I learned to do these things. I am going to “shine my Saturday Spotlight” on my answer, which is  . . .

. . .  practically everything I know about blogging I have learned from other very supportive bloggers!  

Bloggers are an amazing community.  On some level we are all competing with each other for readers. Yet, rather than selfishly just promote our own websites, bloggers really tend to help each other out.  And from what I have learned, the more a blogger helps others, the more quickly that helper's blog actually grows.

Thank goodness for Pinterest!  Using Pinterest is like keeping a huge scrapbook. I have a “Blog Tips!” board stuffed full of links to helpful articles.  I am constantly pinning valuable information that I find. Without these tutorials written by other bloggers, I wouldn't have known how to do anything at all when I first started blogging!

In the year since I began this blog the most - - of every moment, I have received far too much help to give credit here to everyone who deserves it. I can at least tell you though, how I learned to make the recent changes I mentioned above. Perhaps you will find these tips helpful too.

Making a Custom Header Banner

Although I use the photo editor Ribbet instead of PicMonkey (and therefore didn't follow the tutorial exactly), the post How To Make Headers For Your Blogger Blog - Using PicMonkey from The Blog Guidebook provided exactly the motivation and information that I needed to create my blog header.

Making Photos Larger

My blogger friend Heather (heatheronhertravels.com) gave me a tip about how to change the width of my photos before inserting them into my blog. I then realized that on the Blogger platform, photos can be published as "original size" (somehow I had never noticed that before?!)  ... and in Ribbet, photos can be changed to a size that works! 

I found the post Auto-sizing Photos to Fit Post Area In Blogger by I Can Build A Blog really helpful. I'm too nervous to make any changes to the CSS code of my blog, but these tips worked well enough without having to do that right now.  

Making a Recipe Printable

I have always offered an option to print any part of my blog (once you click on a post title, the print button shows up under that post). This method still seems a little cumbersome for recipes though, so I was thrilled to discover the post How to Make Your Recipe Printable on Blogger by Confessions of an Overworked Mom.  It was a really easy tutorial to follow, and I like the print option I can now provide.  I hope you do too! 

I had been toying with switching from the Blogger platform to Word Press.  
I really like Blogger, but I was feeling limited by my inability to do some things on it.  A couple months ago though, I discovered Kim Six Blogger Support. 

Kim specializes in the Blogger platform, and at the time was offering to do free blog reviews for blogs hosted by Blogger.  I signed up immediately - and her review was unbelievably helpful and detailed. I have implemented a lot of her suggestions, and I am looking forward to working with her to get a little help with some changes I am unable (or too intimidated!) to do myself.  

Thanks to Kim, at least for now I am perfectly content to remain on Blogger! She just had new business cards made, and she posted a photo of them on Instagram. Pretty creative, don't you think? 

To everyone who has ever given me any blogging advice, information or support - I'd like to express a huge thank you!  

 I hope I can pay it forward.

What is the best tip from another blogger that you have ever received?

Did you remember to click the link and read my previous post about Sharpie markers? I learned a lot of fun facts about them when I wrote the article.  They can be used for all sorts of things; I even used one to make this wallhanging.

This post may be linked to one of the great link-up parties I follow and list on my blog. Check them out!