Basic Blog Tips Takes The My 7 Links Challenge

When Dee Ann Rice contacted me about taking the My 7 Links Challenge, I'll admit that at first I was reluctant. But after taking a closer look at the requirements, on second thought, I realized it would be a lot of fun!

“THE GOAL

To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.”

When I read the goal, and saw that the first three words were “to unite bloggers” I thought to myself, “How could I possibly say “no” to this idea?” I gave Dee Ann the go-ahead to pass the torch to me in her My 7 Links Challenge Post and, with that said, let's just dive right in.

My 7 Links

Most Beautiful post: Bloggers – Time for a Yoga Break has to be my most beautiful post. That post is filled with the love that I have for my fellow bloggers. I know that we all work so hard on a daily basis and I think we all deserve a break and the chance to pamper ourselves. The yoga video I recorded and embedded in the post, was intended to sooth our spirits and put our minds at ease. I love the comment that Holly left  when she said “Ileane, your voice is like chocolate and I love the sound effects you make.” That's the first time anyone compared my voice to something so delicious and – beautiful!

Most Popular Post: One of my blogging friends, Joe Hackman, did an interview with Louis Gray last year (fast forward to 29:55 in the audio file). He asked if anyone had questions for Louis and I submitted mine and I was ecstatic when I listened to the interview and I heard Joe say – This question comes from Ileane and she wants to know how come you don't use CommentLuv on your blog. I was really amazed that Louis knew exactly who I was and he commented on how supportive I am of CommentLuv and how it's one of my keywords. LOL! Well Louis didn't take me up on the offer but he was right about CommentLuv being one of my keywords. I shared that little story because, as it turns out, my most popular post by far is How to Install CommentLuv on Blogger.

Most controversial post: Five Popular WordPress Plugins You Need to Ditch Now! It's amazing how attached we are to our plugins. It's as if we are ready to go to battle for them and the mere suggestion that WordPress bloggers remove their beloved Akismet and replace it with GASP did not go over well with some. I had to go to all lengths to demonstrate how Akismet deletes comments and bans users for no good reason. I went so far as to record a video to show graphic proof after some lengthy debates in the comment section. In fact, I'm sure the hardcore Akismet fans still have it installed, but you know that old saying “you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.” 🙂

Most helpful post: The Three C's Needed for Your Blogging Success Is very helpful for both new and veteran bloggers alike. Not only do I put my cards on the table, so to speak, about my blogging success, I also attempt to dis-spell that old myth about Content being King. The truth of the matter is, you can have the “best” content on the internet but if you don't have the right connections or the confidence to promote that content your blog will fail. And you can't get that fantastic content all by your little lonesome – you need to collaborate with other like-minded individuals who help you develop that “good content”. So those are the 3 C's – connections, collaborations and confidence. Besides “good content” is relative and what I think is good content everyone thinks is good content. Just kidding – wanted to make sure you were still paying attention. 🙂

Post Whose Success Surprised Me: Facebook Fan Page Photos Tutorial I knew this post would be helpful to some of my readers, but I had no idea that so many people were searching for this information on the web. I'm not a real fan of Facebook nor am I a fan of keyword research otherwise I would have realized how successful this was going to be. LOL! The other thing that surprises me is that Facebook hasn't changed their policy on this not one bit. Even with the introduction of the new Facebook timeline and the ticker and a slew of other changes, they still randomly rotate the images on Facebook Page headers. So I honestly didn't think this post had any shelf-life because I thought the rules would have changed by now, but it's Facebook, what can I tell ya.

Post that didn’t get the attention it deserved:  I know that many people are confused about RSS feeds basically because I was when I started blogging. I always tell the funny story about how I started my first blog because I thought I was subscribing to my daughter's blog by mistake. I have another FeedBurner post on my old Blogger blog that gets more attention than this one.

Post I'm most proud of: Promoting Your Content on YouTube is something I wish I could get every blogger to do. Personally, I'm a visual learner and at times I wish I didn't have to spend as much time reading as I do now. I'd love to just sit back and watch videos all day and I'd even settle for listening to audio podcasts of my favorite content. I'm also proud of this post because I introduced the concept of using video to a lot of my readers who never thought about using it in different formats, for example the website XtraNormal, whose tagline reads “if you can type you can make movies”.  Most people don't realize that there are YouTubers out there making a living off of the income they generate from their YouTube channels. But the most important aspect of the post is really the idea of challenging yourself and overcoming your fears.

Yeah! I did it. There's My 7 links and I was right, it was a lot of fun going down memory lane. Now it's time for me to pass the torch to 5 (or more) unsuspecting blogging friends and I hope they don't mind. And the nominees are:But wait, if you want your name to be added to this list, just let me know in the comments below. The My 7 Links challenge is open to bloggers from any niche and hundreds of bloggers have already joined in the fun.