I have written several posts about better blogging tips and optimizations here on Active Rain. Some of them were very well-received by the community and many of them were FEATURED posts. I have attached some of them I feel would be a good read, especially for those who are fairly new here in the 'Rain.

Warning: This is a LONG post and I might lose you. But please bare with me. Bookmark this page and come back to it. It will take you step-by-step on making your blogs look better, hence increase your subscribership/readership.

1. Don't lose your audience.

We link to different posts and different parts of the Internet here and there. One thing I noticed is that some of these links are not opened in a NEW window. When you attach a link, your visitor clicks on it. It could take your visitor to that page either to open in a new window or same window. If you made the link in the latter, you could lose your audience into far, far away land. Remember that there are still some internet-not-savvy people who do not know about the Back button.

Highlight the text and click on the Link button.

The default should say, Open in New Window.

2. Take advantage of the Blog Customizer.

I am all about Branding and Individuality. I appreciate that Active Rain lets us customize so many aspects of our platform. I enjoy seeing the variety of blog customization here on Active Rain. Unfortunately, Barbara Duncan does not feel the same way as she expressed her view on her blog, A Few Favorites in the 'Rain and Why. Elizabeth, Lenn, Patricia, Steve, Charles... I am absolutely okay when a blogger chooses not to customize. I just like to see variety and more importantly, I enjoy seeing how others like to express their creativity.

Now, if only the Active Rain Outside Blog is as robust and as customizable as the main platform, I'd die and go to heaven. (I write a variety of blog topics and I use my Outside Blog as a pure Real Estate blog).

3. I love COLORS and lots of it.

I have been asked How I add colors to my blog. The fastest way for me (Note that I'm not highly internet/ HTML savvy like some of you) is to use Frontpage. It is pretty much like using Microsoft Word except that it has a back-end HTML code under the CODE section. The most updated Frontpage you could purchase is 2003 and it costs about $200. Web Expressions is the "new" Frontpage 2007 version. But I suppose Frontpage 2002 version costs about $90 on Amazon will do the job.

I understand that you may not want to spend any money at all, so you might need to understand some HTML.

Simple Example:

I Love Active Rain.

HTML Tag: Active Rain (or your words here)

To select the color and if you do not know the hexadecimal codes for the color you want, find it here on ColorSchemer Online. You could convert both ways, from RGB to Hex and vice versa.

You need to save your work and move to the HTML tab to add this.

4. I Love Buttons.

You could tell from my blog customization that I love Buttons. If you wanted a simple button, you could create one on Cooltext.com. You can create a button in a minute and it is a very user-friendly site.

For my more customized buttons, I first go to Microsoft's free Clipart and Pictures site here. Use keyword, Button and several hundreds to select from. Download the one you like.

Again, I am not very technologically savvy and there might be a smarter way of doing this. And if there is, please let me know and educate me. Otherwise, here is how I do it.

Insert clip art/ button into Microsoft Word. Add text on button.

Create a screen shot of your button with the text.
(Hint: Hit "ALT" and "Print Screen" at the same time)

Insert into your favorite Paint software. (I use Photoshop CS2).

If you use Photoshop, you will create a New Layer under File.

Paste the new button onto the layer.

Clean and crop your button. Then save your button as a .jpg or .gif file.

On your Active Rain blog post, insert the button file. 

Select the APPEARANCE tab and change the properties you want.

Right alignment, left alignment, etc. and also the dimensions of the button.

Select the Inserted Button by clicking on the image. Then insert the URL with the Link Button.

5. Insert Pictures.

This was Jeff Turner's blog that taught me how to flow text around the image. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, I will just point you to his blog. Read Jeff's post about AR Tutorial about Flowing Text.

Related Links:

All my FEATURED POSTS about Blogging Active Rain. You will become a better blogger if you apply some of these.

Much to your success.

Note: All contents are original. Consider subscribing to my blog for fresh business ideas, often creative and unique. It is my intentions to bring you effective blog contents that will could make you feel that it was worth your time to subscribe.

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Contact:
Loreena Yeo
Realtor®/ Broker of 3:16 team REALTY
(214) 783-2210
loreena@loreenayeo.com

I proudly serve and sell real estate in the northern suburb cities of the Dallas metroplex. If you are thinking about purchasing or selling your home in neighborhoods of Frisco, Plano, Dallas, McKinney, Allen, Little Elm, Prosper, Celina, Richardson, Dallas M-Streets, Dallas White Rock Lake area and other surrounding areas and more importantly, want to work with a local area expert, contact me immediately.

It is a competitive market, hence it is important that you choose to work with the realtor who knows these communities like none other. I employ a systematic market approach in selling your home - an intentionally unique proposal that most real estate agents do not use. If you care to be on your way to a successful closing, contact me immediately to see how different my proposition will be.

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Copyright © 2008 by Loreena Yeo (3:16 team REALTY). More Cool Active Rain Blogging Tips.
Do Not Copy. Serious actions will be taken. Re-blog is allowed for Active Rain members on the Active Rain platform when the content is taken in its entirety and credit be given to Loreena Yeo and 3:16 team REALTY.