As I sit on the plane coming home from Vegas, I am beyond inspired and amazed at all of the incredible educators that I had the opportunity to meet this week. Last year, I came to Vegas and made some wonderful friends. I had to soak it all in last year in order to prepare myself for this year.
This year, I was able to meet more of you and I am in awe of the caliber of teachers that I came in to contact with.
You all are just awesome. The end.
Yesterday, we sat on a panel at the TpT conference and talked about blogging. You all know Deedee, Greg, Cara and Erica. Right?
We sat down at the TpT conference yesterday and addressed some questions that you all had about blogging. Like I said in my last post, we can’t claim to know everything…but we do like talking about what does and doesn’t work on our blogging journey. Some of the topics that we covered were:
-How does your blog affect your TpT sales/store?
-What kind of content makes a good post?
-What’s the best way to enter blogging and have engaging readers?
Another topic that we discussed was the difference between wordpress and blogger as your platform for blogging.
I will recap the first three questions and then get in to some nitty gritty with wordpress vs. blogger. There were a lot of questions that were swirling around after the panel that I would like to address as best as I can.
The first question was about blogging driving traffic to you and your TpT store. Amy shared some statistics that showed how blogs really do drive traffic to your TpT store. If you look at the list, you can see that the majority of traffic is driven by blogs. If you click on the pictures, it will take you to the top 100 sites that bring traffic to TpT.
As you can also tell, if you aren’t on Pinterest or Facebook then you might want to get on that…
Then, we talked about what kind of content makes a good post. Some people were asking about a formula or ABC type of format when writing your post. This also ties together with the last point on making connections with those reading your blog.
Listen, you gotta keep it real.
I hope that when you meet me face to face you will hear my voice through the way that I write on my blog. I want you to know me through the stories I tell and the way that I don’t always (ahem) have it all together like I might like to. If you are pushing content and sales, then I can promise you that nobody is going to want to finish until the end of your post.
Other Tips for a Great Post:
-Utilize lots of pictures.
-Try to be overly protective of your students if you are going to have them in pictures.
-Write your post as if the parents of your students, your principal, fellow teachers, and superintendent would be reading it.
-Leave meaningful comments on other blogs with your
The last topic we touched on was the idea of hosting your blog on either blogspot or wordpress. I talked to my web-lady (that’s what I call her…she’s really my friend but she might be the smartest person on the face of the earth) about how to best explain the need for you host your own domain. She told me the main reason to host yourself is that you have more control over your web-site and branding. The other reasons are so that you have more functionality on your blog such as social sharing plugins, email sign up forms, advertising, image carousels, eStore, etc (isn’t she just the SMARTEST!?). You also can just simply be a .com instead of a blogspot.com. It helps with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and you are easier to find on the world wide web.
I used BlueHost to buy my domain from. They were the company that was recommended to me and I have been very happy with it.
Another reason to use wordpress is that you own your own content. Meaning, since blogger is owned my Google, you (gasp) don’t actually own your material on your platform. In wordpress, you do. I confirmed that yesterday. I wasn’t 100% sure when someone asked that question, so I thought I would address that now! I also found an article that goes way more in depth of comparing the two.
If you are just starting out, then I suggest you use blogger and make sure it is something that you are interested in. You don’t want to commit to something and then decide that it’s just not for you. Blogging is work and you have to want to do it. We can all tell if you are forcing it 🙂
A lot of people have asked how I switched over from blogger to wordpress. I am going to be really honest with you and tell you that I paid someone to do it for me. I am not a web expert by any means. I wasn’t willing to chance losing all of my content with the transfer. It is my little history book of my life in the classroom. Even though I attempted to learn how to do it, I would have been devastated if I had lost all of that content.
Has your mind been blown?
Let’s keep the conversation rolling! Leave me your thoughts and questions and we can all try to work this out together. I started a Pinterest board on the plane of good tips and ideas that you can read up on while you are trying to navigate your way through this fuzzy blogging world. You can find our handouts from the panel on this board as well. They are also in my TpT store as a freebie.
Things are always changing and we aren’t always going to have ALL of the answers, but we can help each other out along the way!
I *so* appreciate this post, especially the breakdown of Blogger versus WordPress! I had no idea that the content would be ultimately owned by Google, which is troublesome to me, even as a “small time” blogger! I’ll be looking into making the switch to WordPress [I used to utilize BlueHost for a domain and you are right — they are fabulous].
Good luck on the switch! If you need a contact for someone to help you, let me know!
Thank you so much for all your tips and creating a Pinterest Board devoted to this! I am very new to blogging and this is great information.
You are SO welcome!
I just paid someone to update the look of my Word Press blog and I’m just getting started with it. My son (who really knows his Internet 🙂 ) encouraged me to have a Word Press blog. At first, I wasn’t happy because I couldn’t find anyone to design it to look as cute as the ones I’ve seen on blogger. But the one I have now is simple but nice. I’m very excited to get on this blogging train. You girls are very inspiring!! I do have a blog on blogger that I’ve had for a couple of years that I only dabbled in but I guess I’m going to keep it for awhile because it is a slightly different idea than my Word Press blog. Anyway….thanks again for the info!! Linda Groce
Glad you listened to your son! The most important thing is that you are comfortalbe with whatever format that you use. If you want your design to move to wordpress so you just have one blog, that is an easy transfer! {I say easy because I paid someone to do it but I’ve heard it’s easy 🙂
Thanks, Ellizabeth! I may email you later on to find out who did yours for you! Thanks again for having such an awesome blog!
I”m so glad to hear that you switched to Word Press and are happy with your switch! I have been thinking about making the change for a LONG, long time and I might just bite the bullet.
I also had a chance to talk to Cara Carroll at the airport. I mentioned that I plan to attend BlogHer this month and that you LOVED it when you attended the conference. It was great to hear that another teacher-blogger attended and loved the experience.
I can’t wait to hear what you think! I would have loved to have gone this year but we will be at a wedding. Soak up all of the goodness there! There are so many brilliant business driven bloggers there that I KNOW you will benefit from it! Let me know how it goes!
Fabulous session. I bought my dot com domain name a few months ago and tried to figure out Word Press on my own. Let’s just say that I am nowhere near smart enough to do that. So…I am emailing you RIGHT now to ask who your contacts are. 🙂
-You rocked it and GREAT post!
-Sarah
A Rocky Top Teacher
Bahaha! I will e-mail you right back. I am not a web/code expert so I am impressed that you even made the effort to figure it out on your own!
Thanks so much for the oodles of information in this post. I was so disappointed not to make it out to Vegas to hear all of the good tips they were offering but this is a HUGE help. Thank you!
Hope you can make it next year!
Wow! Thank you so much for the info! I especially liked the link to the tpt info! It was very insightful! I am so thankful that teachers are empowering other teachers, and that together we are making a huge difference!
You are so very welcome 🙂
Hi Elizabeth!
Thank you for your post. I am SUPER BRAND NEW to this blogging thing. I read the FREE flyer you had from the conference, but I still need more information. I was wondering if you could gear me in the right direction on exactly how to get facebook, pinterest, instagram and all of those connected to my blog. I have each of them, I just do not know how to put those links to my profile. I am VERY new at this. I do not expect you to answer all of my questions either, so any pointers you could give me and or people or blogs to read on HOW TO BEGIN would be awesome.
You can check out my blog and see what I have so far. VERY LIMITED! But, it’s happening somehow! 🙂
Thank you so much and your blog and TPT is amazing!
Cassidy
Cassidy-
Those are plugins that I had installed on my blog. It’s going to depend on if you have wordpress or blogger. Did you have someone design your blog for you?
Oh. My. Word. This piece was so extremely helpful! I might add that it also helped alleviate some of the sadness I had over not going. So, thank you!
The numbers you posted are astounding! I had no idea of how much of an influence some of those sites were. I’m definitely entertaining the idea of just starting a blog and eventually a TPT (possibly). So, every bit of information that you just relayed is so helpful for rookies like me. I’ll be sure to follow you on Pinterest and your TPT!
Grateful,
Janice
@1islandlover 🙂
Thanks for sharing all these tips! 🙂 I SO wish I was able to make it to Vegas!
Sarah
A Sunny Day in First Grade
Thanks for sharing! It was great to meet you in Vegas, enjoy the rest of your summer.
Renee
I so wish I could have been at your panel. I am sure you rocked it! Thanks for such a thoughtful post. I have been thinking about switching to wordpress every since we had a conversation about it last summer. It is something on my to do list for sure! I will be picking your brain when that time comes!
Amanda 🙂
Hi Elizabeth,
I was at the panel and it was awesome. I learned so much that I am now trying to put into practice. Thank you so much for all of your tips and expertise.
I am thinking about buying my domain after hearing you talk about it. If you wouldn’t mind, would you be able to share the info for the person you used to switch your blog over?
Thank you so much!
Megan Shea
megansheatpt@gmail.com
Looks like you had so much fun Elizabeth! This prego body of mine just couldn’t handle a trip with this babe coming in a month. Tear. I am so sad I was not able to go. I am coming no matter what next year. Thanks for sharing some of the topics discussed on the blogger panel. I liked reading about blogger vs. wordpress. I am still using blogger now but not sure if it is something I will use for much longer.
Brittany
Lovely Literacy and More