photo credit: Matthew Oliphant

A contact form has numerable advantages:

1. It makes it easy for your readers to get in touch with you.
2. It looks professional.
3. It keeps your e-mail address away from spammers or bots.
4. Helps to make you accessible, which can foster a sense of connection for readers.
5. If there is a problem on your blog or you want feedback, the ease of using a contact form encourages people to let you know when they encounter errors or respond to you.
6. More and more people are using web-based e-mail so a “Contact Me” link may not open up for some folks and you may unknowingly discourage someone from contacting you if this is the case.

See?  Six reasons off the top of my head to make this simple change that will help you better your blog!  Are there reasons I’m forgetting?  Why do you think it is important to have a contact form?  Let me know in the comments! Additionally, and this depends on how you create your contact form and/or what e-mail you use, using a contact form will, in some cases, let you easily see the difference between when someone has e-mailed you directly versus contacted you via your website. If you are using WordPress, creating a contact form is as simple as adding a plugin like the one we use, Contact Form 7. If you are using Blogger, a Google search netted me this tutorial, how-to contact form for blogger, which seems like a clear and easy way to add a contact form to your blog. Here are a few more sites that had helpful info on contact forms:

• Adding a Contact Form to Your WordPress Blog
• Does your blog have a Contact Form?
• Add a Contact Me Page to Blogger BlogSpot Blog [Video Tutorial]

Of course, there are even more solutions out there and depending on your needs you might want something else, so feel free to do a search to find the right form for you and your blog. You can always make your e-mail accessible to readers in other ways.  Some bloggers like to type out their e-mail with extra spaces on either side of the “@” symbol to  discourage spam and prevent bots and, although there is nothing really wrong with this method it isn’t necessarily the most user friendly or professional looking approach. Your reader either has to copy, paste and adjust (delete the extra spaces) your e-mail address or type your e-mail address from memory – neither approach is foolproof however and if they type or copy and paste your address incorrectly, guess what?  Their message to you may get lost in cyberspace and you seem like a big jerk for never responding to them.  Or it may just seem like a lot of work to them because then they have to open their e-mail and all the rest of it just to send you a note.  Not ideal!

Other bloggers provide a “mailto” link on a contact page, sidebar or link bar.  This can have disadvantages (see number 6, above!) but it is better to have some way to contact you than nothing at all!

So, take a half hour and add a contact form to your site to Better Your Blog!

How do you encourage people to contact you on your site?  (you do encourage readers to contact you, right?) Leave a comment and let me know!  If you want to contact me, check out my own contact form!

Happy blogging!

Since we all handle balance differently, I thought I might add my own story of how I balance life with blogging…

I don’t.  At least, not always well.  Maybe I’m too hard on myself or maybe I’m just realistic and know my short-comings but, the truth is, balance is hard for me.  It isn’t because I lack organization or ideas or even motivation.  I don’t have a stressful full-time job or a houseful of kids that need my attention.  So why it is so hard for me to obtain balance?

Depression.

It’s an ugly word.  For me at least.  Sometimes people hear (or read it) and they become judgmental.  Sometimes they offer advice, they become uncomfortable or they blurt out “Everybody feels sad sometimes!” Some people think being depressed is just an excuse. For what, I’m still not sure…  Others know all to well the pain it can inject into your life and they share their own moving experience.

Depression still has some sort of stigma, though less nowadays, and it can be uncomfortable to wear this label.  For me, it is both a handicap and an incredible motivator for change.  Daenel, a member here, recently wrote about Better Your Blog in one of her posts, Day 9: Join a Forum and Start Participating. She said that Better Your Blog is:

A forum that proves when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  Created by Alyna to help out a group of women who were frustrated with a blogging workshop they were taking, this group incredibly supportive, understanding and nurturing.

The words were very kind, and her description was accurate on many levels.

It describes my character because, although I struggle against depression, I’m not negative and, in fact, I began blogging in an effort to make metaphorical lemonade.

I wanted to have a “job” that I could do despite having the bad days.  I started blogging as a way to try to overcome a deficiency with balance in other areas of my life.  Dealing with depression, I am often very tired and low on energy and leaving the house can feel more like running a marathon on most days. Many days I could barely take care of myself.  Even as it gets better, I still have these days and blogging is my attempt at figuring out a way to work with my depression instead of against it, since holding down a “normal” job is difficult when you don’t know whether you’ll be capable of getting out of bed.

I started out with a gift blog because I thought I could help people while also focusing on something that I love – finding gifts for people!

Daenel’s description not only describes how I began blogging, it also describes how Better Your Blog was born.  Whether it is a bad day or a disappointing “workshop” (those who were a part of that experience know why it is in quotes!), I believe in trying to make the best (or at least better!) of a situation and, failing that, at least trying to learn from it. Because, it is sometimes with the littlest steps that we make significant progress. In fact, I wonder if I have this attitude because of dealing with depression.  I have to make lemonade out of lemons more days than I’d care to admit.

Even though I lack balance, it doesn’t prevent me from trying to do my best. If you wobble, try to regain your balance.  If you fall, pick yourself up. Balance is something you can practice, whether it is balancing life and blogging, learning how to roller skate, yoga, etc. – just keep at it. Practice really does make better.  It never makes perfect!

There will be days that you will be productive and days where you’ll face all sorts of personal and/or technical challenges that will make you wonder if you can do this blogging thing.  You can always get help here on the forums (newly designed!) when you need help regaining your balance or just about anything else blogging related.  You ask, we try to answer.

You can try to find balance with the use of editorial calendars, time management techniques and even nurturing yourself and taking breaks from blogging when you need to.

The bottom line is this:

Balance isn’t about finding ways to cram more things into an already hectic schedule or setting your expectations of yourself so high that you always feel “behind”.  Balance is finding the place where you feel comfortably productive and happy. There isn’t a secret to obtaining balance that you will find in any book or blog. It is something that, with a little trial and error, you will define for yourself and will have to be flexible enough to redefine from time to time – sometimes daily (or even hourly on a bad day!).   Balance is not a static or predictable route from A to B, it is an ever changing adventure.

Try to visualize the days that you feel like you’ve achieved balance between blogging and the rest of your life.  What happened on those days?  Can you recognize some of the things that helped you achieve that balance?  (regular breaks, physical activity, making a list, setting a timer to focus on a certain task?) Are there specific things that derail you that you can try to avoid? (spending too much time on Twitter or Facebook, sitting down to work without a clear goal in mind, not setting a clear boundary to define your work time to friends or family?) I would love for you to share some of the ways you feel that you find or lose your balance!  Leave me a comment below – don’t forget to sign in first, if you are a member!

Happy blogging!

Now that we have that accomplished I will be back to blogging regularly along with Monday Mingles and Members Monday and the like.

Happy blogging!

Why should you read this post? Because, whether you are a new blogger or not, you might just not know this valuable information! Because sometimes we need a refresher or a kind reminder. Because you’ll be impressed at how well she did this tutorial and you’ll want to leave her some comment love telling her so!

Sometimes, if you link to a site more than once in a post, you can get away with a “Click here” type link – just try not to do that if it is the ONLY link to the site within your post.

Why link like this? Well, my understanding of it (and someone correct me if I’m wrong!) is that search engines crawl the web and linking to sites in the manner Jennifer outlines will help search engines recognize and rank the site you are linking to better. Plus, your reader is going to be more likely to remember to visit the link you suggested at a later date if it links to an actual site’s name, instead of a generic “click here”.

Happy blogging!

Living Outside the Stacks is one year old and a blog that runs the gamut – fun, humorous, serious, touching…you’ll find a little bit of everything at Daenel’s “home”.

Her other blog, which is now three years strong, is about her life as “Queen of the Histolibrarianivists” – try to say that five times fast.  I dare you!  Curious Child’s Library Wanderings, has more than just posts about libraries – you’ll find posts about current events, social networking and much more.

Both of Daenel’s blogs have her unique voice and strong writing style  - one is more informational with some thought provoking topics and the other has a more personal “grab a cup of coffee and chat with me” sort of feel – both are worth visiting and I hope you’ll do so and leave her some comments!

Congratulations, Daenel!!!

Now for my Monday Mingle!

After you watch the video I would LOVE, if you aren’t a Mingler yet, for you to answer the questions in the comments below.  If you are a Mingler, rest assured, I’ll be making my rounds to your vlog sometime – usually later in the week, but I always get there!   I notice many of my fellow Minglers watching my vlogs but not commenting.  Please comment! I would love to know what you think!

Oh, and there is a special link to an “Extra!” at the end of the video. I think it will make you laugh!

Want to join Monday Mingle? Just click this little button to head over to Eighty MPH Mom’s site and to learn how easy it is to participate!

Happy blogging!