I always appreciate authors and bloggers sharing
information that makes my blogging life a little easier. Over this past year, I’ve picked up several tips and tricks that I’d like to share with you.

WordPress

1. Check comments regularly for Spam and Pending.

Many of us have experienced our comments on other blogs being relegated to spam. This is disconcerting, as the blogger might think we’re not visiting their blog; and we may have no way of
letting them know we are. Check spam first, because when a
comment is marked Not Spam, it will be moved to Pending. Then go to Pending and marked Approved.

2. Close comments when appropriate.

We might choose to close comments on our posts for several
reasons: e.g., we’re going on a blogging break; we’re reblogging and want readers to leave comments on the original post.

Comments can be closed in a draft by unchecking Allow comments in the Discussion section below the post box. To close comments after publication, go to your dashboard and click on Posts. Find the appropriate post, click on Quick Edit, uncheck the box next to Allow Comments, then click on Update.

3. Click on the Reply button when responding to
comments, in order for them to show in notifications.

When replying to a comment, the commenter won’t be notified
unless we click on Reply. This sounds like common sense, yet I’ve discovered ~ quite by accident ~ many a reply entered as a
comment to my comment.

4. Make post links open in new tabs.

This is especially helpful when on a blog that loads slowly. Having a link open in a new tab allows the slow-loading blog to remain in place while we investigate the link.

To create a clickable link in a post, click on the ‘paper clip’ icon in the toolbar. Enter the URL, and then click on the cogwheel to the far right. A window will open. Under the URL, check the box next to Open link in a new tab. You can do this with any link, even those in a reblog if you use Press This. Just place your cursor next to or anywhere within the link, and a small box will open. Click on the pencil icon (edit), then click on the cogwheel to open the window.

You can also have a clickable image open in a new tab, but you must do this after the image is entered into the post.

To create a clickable image, copy the designated URL and paste it into the Attachment Details when entering the image into your post. Scroll down to Attachment Display Settings → Link to and choose Custom URL. Then paste the link into the box below this.

NOTE: https:// is already entered into this box. Delete it before you paste in the custom URL, because it doesn’t disappear on its own.

To have the image open in a new tab, click on it, and then click on the pencil icon. A large window will open. Scroll down to Display Settings → Advanced Options, and check the box next to Open link in a new tab. Notice that you can also enter the custom URL within this function. Under Display Settings → Link To, click on the down arrow and select Custom URL. A box will open into which you can paste the URL.

If you’re on a blog that doesn’t have dedicated link tabs, you can open any link in a new tab by right-clicking on it, and then left-clicking on Open Link in New Tab.

5. Calendar

It’s helpful to have a calendar on your blog if (1) your home page isn’t your blogroll, (2) you don’t have a designated blog page, or (3) your most recent posts aren’t listed in a sidebar. Clicking on a specific date in the calendar will pull up all posts for that day.

6. Link your blog to Twitter

When your blog is linked to Twitter, Twitter will notify you when someone shares your post. This also makes it easy for the sharer to follow you on Twitter, because your @username will appear at the end of the tweet, and Twitter will ask them if they want to follow yiou.

Go to Settings → Sharing, and scroll down to Twitter username to include in tweets when people share using the Twitter
button. Type your Twitter username in the box.

7. Single space when creating posts.

If you have a free WP site, single-spacing isn’t an option in the tool bar. But you can single space by clicking Shift and Enter simultaneously. This works in (most) emails and word processing software as well.

Gravatar

Be sure to add your website and social network links to your Gravatar page. Also, if your name isn’t identifiable by gravatar or website, and if you’re not purposely maintaining anonymity, state your name in your gravatar profile.

Facebook

1. Open a notification or link in a new tab

This can be done by either tapping on the wheel of your mouse, or right-clicking on the link/notification and checking Open Link in New Tab. This is especially helpful with notifications, because it
allows you to hold your place in your notifications list.

2. Use See First (a News Feed function) and Close Friends (a profile function) to easily keep up with those you are close to. You won’t receive post notifications with See First, but you will with Close Friends.

See First

Click on the down arrow in the upper right corner of your FB page. Click on News Feed Preferences → Prioritize who to see first. FB will pull up images of your friends. You can select up to 30
people or pages. Selections aren’t ranked (the first selection isn’t seen first, the second selection isn’t seen second, etc.).

You can also use this function on profiles and pages after you friend or follow someone. Locate the Following button (bottom right of cover image) and hover your mouse over Following (or click on the down arrow), then select See First.

Close Friends

To select s person as a close friend, go to their profile page,
locate the Friends button (bottom right of cover image) and hover your mouse over Friends (or click the down arrow), then select Close Friends.

Add friends to your Close Friends list if you’d like to receive a
notification each time they post. You can turn these notifications off at any time. You can also add friends to more than one list or remove friends from a list.

News Feed preferences

You can view and adjust your News Feed preferences by following the instructions in the above link. By default, we’re taken to our News Feed when we log on to Facebook. To return to it after
navigating to your profile page, click on the f in the upper left
corner of your page (next to your name in the FB search bar).

Amazon Author Services

When encountering a problem with Kindle or CreateSpace, I’ve found it helpful to speak first with Author Services, and have them transfer me to Kindle or CreateSpace if needed. Issues
regarding manuscript upload will most likely be directed to the
appropriate department. But issues such as what appears on your author page will be handled more efficiently and effectively by
Author Services.

Bookmarks

All browsers save bookmarks in different ways. Some browsers call them favorites. Some allow you to choose the category in which to add them, while others do not.

If you want to insert a bookmark into a specific place, first copy the URL, then right click where you want to add it in your bookmarks list. Select New Bookmark from the menu. In the box that opens, type the name of the bookmark and paste the location of the URL.

When bookmarks are imported from a different browser, they tend to get listed under several other headings and are pushed to the right. If you’re like me, you prefer to have your bookmarks open in a sidebar while you’re online. But the farther right they’re pushed, the less screen space you’ll have. You can solve this to a certain
degree by adding bookmark icons to your browser’s toolbar.

First open the page you want to add, click on the icon to the left of the URL, and drag it to your toolbar.

NOTE: The above bookmark tips work in the Firefox and IE browsers. I don’t know if they’ll work in other browsers, but dare to try!

I hope you’ve found this information helpful. If any of it is incorrect, feel free to note this in the comments. And please share the tips and tricks you might have up your sleeve 🙂

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Namaste, my friends ❤ 

 ©Tina Frisco 2018

Featured Image is courtesy of Pixabay CCO