A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Blogging helps

Why? Why So Many Tabs Open?

By 11 Comments

Did you know it’s a proven fact that women tend to have more tabs open in their browser then men do?   I see this in my family as well.  My hubby and son only have one or two tabs open at a time.  Me… at least 10.  Today it’s gotta by about 30.  So why is this?  Why are so many tabs open in my browser?   What causes this?

why so many tabs open in browser

The Why

There are a variety of reasons why we have so many tabs open.  In fact I’ve talked about tabs open in my browser before. 

For me it’s a “I’ll get to a later syndrome”.   Because there is something I want to keep or I want to look more into, so I leave the window open so I can go back to it when I have time.   Problem is… I rarely make time to do so and I end up having way to many tabs open. 

For others it’s a “I’m doing a bunch of things and want to have all the things I’m working on right at my finger tips”. 

And sometimes it’s just a matter of you are reading an interesting article with links to sources.  You click on them with the intention of following through.  One thing tends to lead to another in this situations.  

Browser meme
https://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMy03MzhkYjc5ZWUzZTY1NmQy/

Solutions for too many tabs

Bookmarks! 

Do you know that I am learning the value of bookmarking?  Just save it to a tab on my bookmarks bar.  I have things like school work, generic pages, my websites (and stuff that supports them), rabbits, recipes I want to try, info on diabetic cats and so forth.   It keeps things organized.  

Within each of those tabs I have other categories such as under school work I have “The lad’s current course work”, “curriculum for next year”, “interesting ideas”, “for me”, and so forth.   I would take a picture of one of them but can’t figure out how to do so.  🙂

When I remember, I use all those bookmarks wisely and it keeps my tabs open count much lower. 

Fingertips: Use trello or similar

Another tool I have learned to use is trello.  With trello you can organize your information so it’s all at your fingertips.  Working on a project and found an interesting webpage?  Save it!  Then you can come back to it and have everything right there when you need it.

Just X them out

Sometimes you need to make a choice.  Close that tab.  Let it stop being a distraction. Ask yourself: Can I find this information later?  Do I need this right now?  Is this really worth slowing down my browser?  Where can I bookmark it to?  Just call it done and a day!

why so many tabs open (text) computer screen background

What Tabs Am I Closing?

On-line Learning Resources

Avon Maitland School Board.  Help for K-12 while schools are closed for Covid-19.

PHET resources.  Just some interesting math.

Education Companies Temporary Free Subscriptions. Some companies are choosing to be kind during this Covid-19 scare. 

Ontario’s Learning Hub for highschool students. 

Homeschooling Links

I’ve been sussing out materials for learning about Anne Frank for my son’s next unit study.  List on TPT, Anne Frank lapbook,  Free unit studies, Stewart’s Unit Guide, and Penguin House Teacher Guide.

Of course I have SchoolhouseTeachers.com open as I continue to work through Inkscape. 

Architecture Unit Study that I thought the lad might be interested in. 

Animals of Fresh Water Marshes which I was intrigued by. 

I use Trello for different things, but I saw Airtable and I’m considering giving it closer look. 

My lad has been struggling a bit with his grammar book so I thought I would look into other options.  Not settled on getting something different yet, but just wanting to know what might work.  Easy Grammar, Daily Grammar, Grammar and Language Book, 

Look up things in Canada’s History.  Historica Canada. 

If you haven’t discovered Archive.org yet, I’m sad for you.  Lots of archived materials here. Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

A novel Study on Japanese internment.  Good unit for the lad. 

Homeschool Manager listed some vendors who are doing conference pricing with all the conferences that are not being hosted. 

Notgrass Catalogue.  Was looking at history and economics. Still thinking.  I’ve heard many good things about Notgrass. 

Dr. D Math Courses.  My son likes Dr. D. 

Non-homeschool tabs

Blog Helps

Miscellaneous

Curiousity Stream I often wonder about getting, and it keeps showing up in the facebook feed.  I just am leery about commitment, and wondering if it’s really worth it. 

Life Bible Booklets.  Discovered these, thought they might be helpful to some folks. 

Posts Where I am Mentioned.

abcblogging

Others in this Series

Making Facebook Easier

By 14 Comments

You know what happens when you aren’t feeling well?   You say to yourself “nuts to this facebook” and you start deleting pages and groups.  The end goal was very simple: to be about making facebook easier to manage.  Get rid of the old (unless you like the old) and making room for the new (should you find anything you like). 

Making Facebook Easier

Pages

I started with what seemed the easiest – pages.  People always invite you to like their pages and often I do without even thinking about it.  Not worrying about what might happen with groups I actually like, or how cumbersome it could be down the road.  But interacting with one new page can throw off the algorithms that facebook uses to show you new posts.  

I would far rather that facebook show me everything and let me CHOOSE what I want to see or not see. But it doesn’t.  It takes what you show interest in, or comment on, and shows you those few pages only. 

I had an on-line friend ask how I did this, so this post is kinda to help her out as well!  🙂

Step One: Go to your facebook home page

Making Facebook Easier
making facebook easier, finding sidebar

Click on your pages, which will open to a page showing different subsections.  You’ll want the liked page section.  Then it just a matter of either keeping the liked on or shutting it off. 

If you can’t remember what the page is about… click on it and it opens in a new page.  You might find some treasures you had forgotten about. 

OH.. and for fellow bloggers out there.  There were a TON of pages called Homeschool,  homeschool blog, or homeschool today.  I unliked them all.   Be original with your page names to keep them memorable!

making facebook easier, liked pages

Groups – Making Facebook Easier

The biggest time suck I have are the groups, but seriously I only have so much time you know?  No need to waste my day on facebook and the groups of others. 

Finding your groups is much like finding your liked pages.  Go to your sidebar and find them. 

Click on the link and you’ll see them partially listed on your sidebar.

sidebar, facebook groups

Unlike with pages I couldn’t get this section to open to a new page, I simply had to click on See More.  That would open another 10 groups in the list.  Just click on the group (so it opens in a new tab) if you can’t remember what it is or if you want to remain a member.  Click on the Leave Group if you no longer wish to be part of it.

I was surprised by the number of archived groups I had. 

leave facebook group, making facebook easier

Friends

I do still need to go through my friends list. There are a number of people on my list that I simply don’t know well and never interact with, so I want to (hopefully) increase the posts I see of people I actually care about.  I know I need to start just going and visiting them manually to help with this.  But less friends increases the chance right?

And in the end, making facebook easier is the whole purpose.  🙂

This post is part of blogging through the alphabet, Letter M. 

alphabet

Others in this Series

Banish Writer’s Block

By Leave a Comment

Oh, this chapter in Pep Talks for Writers made me smile.  Why did it make me smile?  Oh.. it brought me back to the joy of my Five-Minute-Friday writer’s community.   If you’ve visited my blog any Thursday or Friday you’ll almost always find a post written for them.  I find them fun and…. more importantly, they stimulate my thinking. Stimulated thinking is what helps me to banish writer’s block.

Banish Writer's Block

You see Writer’s Block doesn’t have to exist.  You can have moments of not knowing what to write or times when your creativity seems to lag, but if you figure out some tricks you can negate those times.  Every writer needs to have a few of these ideas up their sleeve for when times get a bit ragged in the creativity department. 

Ways to banish Writer’s Block:

  • Ray Bradbury would write out list of nouns and see how they connected to each other. 
  • Get out in nature, look around and just be out there.
  • People watch in a mall or well.. anywhere. 
  • Stop allowing yourself to be distracted.. turn off the tv, the cellphone
  • Allow yourself to become bored.
  • Become physically active.. run, garden, work out, go fishing anything…just get physically busy
  • Do something fun… play a game with your kids, build with lego, colour, solve sudoku puzzles etc.
  • Go away for a day or weekend, get out of the ordinary.
  • Read a book.
  • Join a writer’s community and talk with other writers.
  • Do some freewriting, either on your own or with other writers.
  • Listen to music, perhaps even a type you aren’t in love with.
  • Play with letter art, doodling or calligraphy.  Have fun with words artistically.
  • Figure out if having a routine helps you to write.
  • Get together with a friend either in person or over the phone, perhaps text a good buddy and chat for a while.
  • Make a bullet list of ideas or places.   Anything that remotely connects with a character, place or idea. 
  • Go to an art museum and muse about what you see in the photos, or wonder about an old coin.
  • Walk in a cemetary…not the modern new day ones, but one with graves from the past, and let your curiousity lead you. 
  • Read blogs, poetry, good books, bad ones (they might inspire you to do better), cartoons and cereal boxes.  You never know where inspiration might start.
  • Have a friend challenge you to write on something.  Currently I’m listening to a book where an author was challenged to write about a lost roman legion and pokemon.   It’s turned out pretty good!
  • Use a device like story cubes and pick out three pictures to base a short story on.
  • Teach a class or take part in one.
  • Spend time with a group of children and just kick ideas around with them about what they are interested in or what questions they have about whatever. 
  • Write a letter to yourself, or pretend that a long-lost friend is writing one to you describing their life’s explorations.
  • What can you think of?

Writer’s Block is only a problem if you THINK it is a problem.  Don’t let your momentary lack of creativity, or fear, or needing to take a breather be what stops you from writing.  Work around it and just move forward.  Something will click, it always will.  Just go on… stretch a little.  You’ll be glad you did. You will find that you too can banish writer’s block.

Alt tags on images, how to use

By 2 Comments

I have to admit that the alt tag in images is one of the most confusing things I’ve yet to learn about with blogging.  I’ve heard and read so many things about them that it’s left me feeling a bit “GAH” about them with not really knowing what to do with them.  Are you the same way?

optimize using alt tags with images

Here’s what I have heard before I did any research.

  1. It’s a great place to put your blog address.
  2. It’s where you put what the name of your image is.
  3. It’s for blind people so they can tell what the image is.
  4. It’s where you put SEO labeling in for your images.
  5. It’s where you fully describe your image.

This is what my research told me: what an the “alt tag” is. This is an abbreviation for what is an alt attribute (so like an alternative way of describing your image) on an image for blind readers. Screen readers use this to tell blind people what the image is about. This makes your images more accessible. 

Some of what I’ve heard is obviously not correct based on what an alt tag on images is defined then is it?  It’s not a place to stick your blog address, nor it is where you put your SEO labeling.   It is a place to describe your image, but to do it accurately in order to help the sight impaired. 

Yoast describes it this way. Each image should have an alt text. Not just for SEO purposes but also because blind and visually impaired people otherwise won’t know what the image is for. A title attribute is not required. It can be useful but in most cases, leaving it out shouldn’t be much of an issue.

Let’s say you have posted an image of a product you are hoping to sell.  In the Alt tag you would say something like “product x is available for $19”.   

If you are adding a picture like this one, you would want to use a specific alt tag of chocolate tort Holland lop

Chocolate Tort Holland Lop

You do this by clicking on the edit button of your image (at least in WordPress you do)
example of using alt tag

You need to do this with every image on your post, at least that’s what the recommendation is.  I have to admit, I’m still learning the best way to do this, especially with images that I’m using just to “pretty up” my post.  But mostly I try to make images work for me.  

One thing you don’t want to do (according to Google) is shove a bunch of SEO words in there. It looks spammy and could quite well get your site listed as spam if that’s what you do.  This means no putting in words like “rabbit bunny rabbits bunnies Holland lop Holland lops tort torts tortoise”  That just doesn’t look good and google doesn’t like it because it creates a bad user experience.  Help people like your photos and google says “YAY” more easily to your whole post.

Recently with a post I included this image, for the alt image tag I used this “Using Sound to write better”.   I honestly don’t know if that was the best way to describe it for the sight impaired.  I want them to know what my image is being used for. But it’s not truly describing what my image is, more what the image represents to me.  As you can see I still find this process a bit confusing. 🙂

Using sound to write betterBut from what I can tell, doing something is better than doing nothing and it’s better to have some words in there that accurately describe what the picture is, or what the picture is about, than to have nothing in there at all.   Help google use your photos, so people can better find your posts.   Makes sense that eh?

Other hints

  1. only tag images that are yours originally (so not a question mark tag you can find anywhere)
  2. using the alt tag is part of optimizing your website
  3. describe your image before you add your company name
  4. limit to 145 characters due to limitations of sight readers.
  5. use SEO rich language in your alt tag and titles in your title attribute spot.

I hope this post helped you make better sense of the alt tag for images.  In the end, use the alt tag to help people find your site regardless of their seeing abilities.   Just make it easier, that’s what they are there for. 

Raventools did a good job of explaining alt tags as well.  Good luck with optimizing your images and site!

The Value of a Media Kit

By Leave a Comment

If you are a blogger I have this question to ask you.  Now that you have your disclaimer written, how do you promote your blog?  Are you blogging as a business? Do people know the value of contacting you?  How will you answer people when they contact you wanting you to add a link to their blog on your site?

The value of a media kit for bloggers

I know I’ve had this a lot over just this past week, and I had a friend asking me how to deal with such people. It brought to mind the need for a media kit.   Of course, you may be asking yourself, like I did, when I first came across this term in relation to blogging.  What is a media kit?  And what is the value in having one?

What is a Media Kit?

A media kit is a document containing information about your business, product or event. You put them on your blog to give businesses a reason to pay you to promote their material (as long as it fits within your niche).  It’s basically a customer orientation into who you are and what you are all about.  Gives you a place to put your stats in, showcase your talents, and to give people a reason to contact you in a meaningful way. Blogger media kits also typically list  prices for the services you offer and how people might collaborate with you.  Here are some samples to help..

Why do you need one?

There are several reasons to have a media kit for your blog.

  1. Shows you are serious about your blog.
  2. A polished, well thought out, professional media  kit can lead to better brand collaboration which means more money in your pocket.   Also work that is more exciting.
  3. It showcases that work that you do.
  4. It gives you something that you can give to people who reach out to you for promotion.  It makes you look more professional in your response.
  5. Having a media kit gives you something to show businesses that you do want to work for.
  6. It is something you can print off and take with you to conferences and get togethers.
  7. You can have two different media kits…one that is longer and more comprehensive, and one that is basically a one page short form that touches on the basics.

How does one put one together?

Figure out what your blog is truly about.  What do you really like to write about?  How can you best describe yourself and your blog.   A media kit is an chance for you to show off the best of your blog: your personality, your style, and what makes your blog unique.  It’s a selling point, so sell yourself!  🙂

What do you need?

Images:

Oh, you do want to use your images well.  Consider the need for the following. 

  1. A photo of yourself.  A good one. Smile, make yourself look nice.  
  2. Your blog logo.  Preferably one you can print (remember how you can use a short form one as something to pass out at conferences?)
  3. Photos from your blog.  Make them the best photos you have.  Showcase your skills and abilities.  Photos aer worth a thousand words!
  4. If you have advertising space on your blog.. take a screen shot and show it!

Statistics

If you have been growing your blog, then you should be seeing an increase in your visitors.  Use that. 

  1. Do you know how many unique visitors you have to your blog?  How many monthly visitors?
  2. How many page views over the past three months?
  3. Where people come from who visit your site?
  4. Subscribers to email and social media sites. 

Now write it

You’ll need the best introduction you can come up with.  Write a personal introduction that tells a bit about yourself.  People love a good story, so tell them a good story about you.  Give highlights of your career if you have highlights.  🙂  Where your work has been featured.  Anything you can do to promote yourself and the good things you have done. 

Promote your blog.  What do you write about? Do you have specific things you talk about on a given day?  A pattern of information that can draw people in?  It’s okay to have a blog that covers different aspects/themes, but talk about them.  Talk about the readers who come visit you.  It helps business know how you can help them and who you can reach on their behalf. 

When you have this important stuff present your stats.  Showcase your reach as best you can. Make sure you keep these stats current.   Statistics from year ago won’t help you, statistics from the past three months will.   If you don’t have impressive numbers, show the growth you have gained. 

Outline your policies.  What are your rates?  If you give ad space, what will you charge?  If you write a blog post what’s the fee?   What if they write the post, is the fee different?   Do you have the right to refuse a post?  How will they pay you? When are fees due?  What word count will you provide?

Testimonials go a long way in helping you promote yourself.  If you go here you can find out how to get them.  I know, I know… that might totally intimidate you…but go, find them.  🙂

Don’t forget to add your contact information.  Use a real email service (not a gmail, yahoo, or Hotmail account).  

Are there free helps?

Of course there are!  🙂   Isn’t it wonderful how helpful the online community is?   Simply FANTASTIC!

Canva has some templates you can use. 

There’s a whack of them on Pinterest. 

Beautiful Dawn. 

Creative Market has 20 templates. 

Dana Nicole Designs. 

Find one you like and work with you.  Make a long form that has everything you need on it that you can encourage companies to send for. Have a shorter one you can use as a calling card for business you want to work with. Do whatever you can to make your efforts on your blog to pay off.  

I even put together a checklist for you to help you remember the details.  Click image below. checklist for media kit

Adding Plugins to WordPress

By Leave a Comment

We’ve talked about some different blog concerns one needs to take care of when blogging. Things like writing a disclaimer and being careful about copyright. But you know what?   If you don’t have a functioning site none of that matters!  With wordpress sites I’ve learned you need to use something called “plugins”.  Plugins are what make a wordpress site safe (from spam) and functional (like being able to put youtube videos easily). 

I am SO not a technologically savvy person that I was left feeling VERY stumped by this.  I actually was causing me a lot of stress trying to sort it out.  I talked about  I thought I would share the advice that Kim Mills shared with me, along with some pictures (and if I can find some) videos on how to install them.

How to install plugins for wordpress

What advice did I receive?

Kim’s advice was three-fold

  • Get what you need. If you want something you can probably find a plug-in that will do it. 
  • Don’t get more than you need.  Too many plug-ins will slow down your site. 
  • Only get things with good reviews that are kept up-to-date.

Then she very helpfully got me on with Akismet anti-spam, Yoast, and Updraft and a few others.   I was so blessed by her help.  🙂

There are so many things to consider when you have a wordpress site that you don’t have to think about with other blog platforms.   I am POSITIVE I haven’t even scratched the surface. Which of course brings me to the question of just how does one install a plug-in?

 

How to Install a Plugin

First you need to search out what you are looking for:

When you find one that you like, check out it’s details.

Make sure you check out when it was last updated.  I know from personal experience most plugins are updated at least once a month, and also after wordpress does any update.   Check out what other people think of the plugin and dont accept any that have more negative reviews than positive. 

Be aware of any warnings that might pop up.

I had thought about downloading this one based on the recommendations from others, but the warnings and lack of updating steered me away. I still haven’t found one that I like.  Any suggestions?  

Anyways, install your plugin, don’t forget to activate it!   Kim suggested trying things out on a child site (but I have really NO CLUE what she is talking about) because apparently some plugins don’t play well with each other and if you try it out on a child site then you don’t mess up your working site.   But I have no idea how to go about setting something like that up.  Something to research eh?

 I hope you found this helpful, it was good to remind myself of what steps to take with plugins. 🙂

I found this video that you might find helpful.

 

Seven Ways to Grow your Blog

By Leave a Comment

As one of my goals is to grow my blog I’ve been doing some research on it lately. I thought I would share seven ways to grow your blog. Increasing the readership of your blog is rather important eh?  After all, why write if no one reads it right?  Now, one thing I have learned is that growth of a blog isn’t always present in comments received.   So you mustn’t let comments be your sole indicator of the success or failure of your blog.  

Seven Ways to Grow Your Blog

What active steps can you take grow your blog?  Read on!

  1. Publish content your audience wants to read.  Sounds simple enough eh?   What do people want to read in the market you are targeting?   Are you focusing on preschoolers?.. then it makes no sense to right about highschool students.   If your focus is on homeschooling, tossing in articles about tentmaking in Africa doesn’t exactly fit your paradigm does it?   Or perhaps you’ve been happily blogging away only to discover that a series you are doing is garnering lots of attention… that might be just what YOUR audience is craving.   Feed them more.  Feed the audience that you have.
  2. Engage your readers.  Ask them questions.  Respond to their comments.  Make them feel like they are important, because you know what?  They ARE important.
  3. Build an email list… YES I KNOW.. I have to do this yet.  Still figuring all the little stuff out.  I should hire someone to do all the behind the scenes stuff for me cause GAH.. I hate doing that stuff.  🙂  BUT if you want to increase your outreach… you gotta do that stuff you know?
  4. Pretty up your blog posts.  Use images, pictures, graphics, colour, headers, and more.  Make your posts visually appealing.  Mind that you pay attention to copyright. 
  5. Reach out to other bloggers.  Offer to write a post for them. Do this with bloggers who are in the same niche as you are in.   Write what you know and write it well.  Share it on their blog, then cross promote.
  6. Use Stories. Oh people like a good story right?   Give them a story as you write your posts, give them a reason to keep reading on and coming back. 
  7. Share your posts on social media. This may mean learning new skills with developing graphics, or learning what hashtags are and good ones to use, or even opening up accounts. Use social media. 

What ideas do you find work for increasing the readership of your blog?  Share them in the comments below.