Category: Blogging

Posted on

Blog

Rose garden in flower during Rosemoor's Festival of Roses

If you’ve landed here in search of my blog you’re in (roughly) the right place. Thanks for being here – I hope you’ll have time to linger, have some fun, and come back often.

Click here to see my most recent posts.

Those who already know how to find their way around might like to skip the rest of this post.

By scrolling around, you’ll find ways to explore earlier posts, including some of the most popular ones. If you’re looking for something specific, use the search box. It is towards the top of the right hand column if you’re viewing this full screen or down towards the bottom if your device presents this page as a single column.

The words in rectangles below the search box are frequently used tags. These are a quick way to search posts by topic. Click on any that takes your fancy.

If you’re here to see roses, there are lots on my site. Use this link.

This post has been repurposed from my original note to let regular readers know I was changing my blog’s theme. The encouraging comments below relate to that.

Posted on

So Many Challenges, So Little Time!

Faded advert on a garage wall
Faded advert on a garage wall

…and that’s excluding real world challenges, as this post is about blogging ones. These pictures were inspired by Nancy Merrill’s challenge: Textures.

Nancy is one of several community-spirited WordPress bloggers who fill the breach left by the late (still lamented) Daily Post Photo Challenge. I met many blogging buddies through the Daily Post and loved seeing their sometimes wildly individual takes on each subject. The official WordPress format made it a cinch to navigate. When the challenge ended I felt dispirited, not foreseeing that the mantle would pass to so many other hosts.

Cee Neuner maintains a useful list of WordPress challenges in the For The Love Of Challenges section of her blog. My hat’s off to Cee – her list is more inclusive and up to date than the Daily Post’s list ever was. She lists photography and writing challenges and I’ve just noticed a couple of musical ones are listed too, although I know from experience not to inflict my musical taste on anyone not similarly afflicted. 🙂

Shell house grotto at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden
The grotto celebrates The Queen Mother and features her initials

Continue reading “So Many Challenges, So Little Time!”

Posted on

Embracing Change: The New WordPress Reader

I’m a big fan of WordPress. It never stays still. Any half-experienced WordPress blogger knows that every so often they’re going to be briefly blindsided by one of those changes that suddenly happens. Of course it can be disconcerting – a bit like waking to find out that Santa Claus rearranged the furniture overnight as a kind of thank you for leaving him such tasty mince pies with his glass of milk, and now the picture of Aunt Mamie seems to have disappeared.  Continue reading “Embracing Change: The New WordPress Reader”

Posted on

Making Less Say More: Microcopy for Bloggers

Microcopy
noun

Used by professional writers to refer to short but crucial snippets of writing, set aside from the copy (the main body of text). Used on menus, buttons, forms and widgets etc.

plural: microcopy

etymology:
micro- + copy (from the Latin root copia meaning plenty)

If you’re short of time, you’ll get my drift by scrolling down to see screen shot examples of microcopy. Click on the graphics to visit the original sites. For those able to linger, this longread post celebrates thoughtfully composed microcopy, mostly found here on WordPress.

Why use microcopy?

Microcopy is a modern day telegram: we use it to pass on useful messages to our readers in the least words. Partly we’re forced to be concise by space constraints, but we also know the more words we write, the less likely people are to read them. And we usually want microcopy to stand out enough to be read, for example:

  • Follow this blog
  • Leave a comment
  • Read my previous post
  • Buy this book
  • Follow me on social media
  • Contact me
  • Read more

Two of my passions come together in my admiration for great microcopy – language and marketing. It’s an overlooked art form: a fun way to finesse your blog – but there’s a serious side too.  Continue reading “Making Less Say More: Microcopy for Bloggers”