In a recent post at Problogger a guest post by Mark Patterson brought up some important legal issues for bloggers: Intellectual Property Law Tips for Bloggers.

I highly recommend all bloggers, even people just thinking about blogging, to read this post. I imagine some of it will be over your head (some of it went way over my head anyway!) and may not be relevant to you right now - but you may very well need it at some point in the future. You can always skim through it now, make a mental note of what's in it and bookmark it for sometime in the
future.

Copyright
One of the topics discussed in the post was copyright. Anything you create you own the copyright to, but you should really include a copyright notice on you blog also. Mark noted:

"Let's just say that if you ever had to take legal action against someone who blatantly copied your content, your failure to use a copyright notice will substantially devalue your case."

I know that I don't really display my copyright properly on my blogs - I should really be using my full name, but to keep a little bit of privacy, I usually just use my first name or a nickname. The copyright notice should include either the copyright symbol or the word 'copyright' and also include the year the content was first published or the range or years.

The code I use
I used to hand edit my year range to include the present year sometime around the first of each year. But it is easy to forget to change it, and I've seen many, many sites of others where they have apparently forgotten to update theirs too.

Rather than hand editing it each year you can use PHP code to display the current year. My copyright notice is written like this:

& copy; 2003 - < ?php echo date("Y") ?> ideasforwomen.com

The ampersand and the word 'copy' with the semicolon after it will give you the copyright symbol (©)- but and this is important - you need to get rid of the space between the ampersand and the word 'copy' - I had to put the space in here so you could see how I did it. The first year I had my site was in 2003, so that is listed first. Then the code within the php tags should give you the current year. And, like I mentioned above, you should really use your first and last name if at all possible, instead of your domain name like I do.

If you use this code on your blog, you don't ever have to worry again about changing the current year to January by hand!

How do you make use of it?
Within the WordPress theme you are using, find the footer file and at the bottom right before the closing body and html - place the code. And that's it! I hope it makes your like easier, as it has mine!

Keeping your readers happy and encouraging them to participate on your blog is a good way to start building community. For many people the first people visiting your blog - other than friends and family - are likely to be other bloggers. Why? Because to get the word out about your blog, it is important to leave comments on other bloggers blogs - and since they also want people to know about their blog - they may very well visit and leave a comment on your blog in return.

Why use the Commentluv plugin?
Commentluv is a very popular plugin and is a great way to show some appreciation and to give a little something back to other bloggers who have stopped by and left comments on your blog.

How it works
It works by parsing the feed of the commenter by visiting their blog and checking in the typical places for a feed. Once a feed is found the plugin then displays the title with the link to the person's last post on their blog beneath their comment.

Installing
You can dowload CommentLuv from the Wordpress pluging directory. The instructions for installing can be found there also and are very simple. This plugin does not need you to edit any of its files.

Customizing and Features
Once installed and activated, you can find a link for it in your Settings section of your dashboard. There are a few things you can customize. One is how you want the link to their blog displayed. They let you decide what text you want around the link and you can use [name], [lastpost] and/or [site] to have the plugin display a link to their name, most recent post and blog home.

You can also edit the text that appears under the comment form to let the user know that you are using CommentLuv. There is even a place where you can add CSS to style the text however you want.

Other
The only down sides to this plugin I can think of is that some people's feed it just can't find so it doesn't leave a link for some people. Of course, comment spammers would like to exploit this plugin to get an extra link from you but as long as you are moderating your comments that shouldn't be a problem.

If you do run into any other problems the author also has a FAQ that should be able to help you.

Do you use this plugin? Do you like it when other blogger use it? Are you more likely to leave a comment at a blog that uses it?

I'm sure many of you have on your own blog or have seen blogs with links to some of the social media sites either after their posts or before them. These can make it easier for people to submit or bookmark your site.

If you use FeedBurner for your feed, they offer their 'FeedFlare' to make it easier to put these links in both your feed and on your actual blog. I still use FeedFlare for my feed, but I didn't like the formatting and some other things about the code they generate for you to use on your blog. There are plugins to do this with too - but the one I tried anyway - didn't give me as much control of the formatting that I wanted either.

I eventually just found the code to use for the link from each of the sites I was interested in and hand coded the whole thing so I could make it look how I wanted it to.

Social media sites
There are many, many social media voting and bookmarking sites, but many of them are not used too much or are not relevant to my blog's topic. Based on some reading I've done, I've narrowed it down to just a few to use on my blog:

• StumbleUpon

- because many people use it and get traffic from it.

• Kirtsy

- because it is relevant to a blog for women.

• Delicious

- it's been recommended to use it and easier to do well in than Digg

• Reddit

- same as Delicious

• Digg

- because, well, everyone seems to have a link to it and some of my posts could do well there if I got enough Diggs.

The code I use
While I liked the small icons I saw on many blogs, I think they can be confusing sometimes - I forget which site goes with which image. I wanted mine to include both the name of the site and the small icon at the bottom of each post. FeedFlare didn't do it that way and neither did Sociable (at least I couldn't figure out how to make it do it this way).

I use the following code at the bottom of each of my posts:

<p class="smallcenterbold"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink();<br ></a> ?>&title=< ?php the_title(); ?>">Stumble: <img<br /> src="http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/16x16_su_round.gif"<br /> border="0"/></a> <br /> <a href="http://www.kirtsy.com/submit.php?url=<?php the_permalink();<br ></a> ?>">Kirtsy: <img src="http://www.kirtsy.com/badges/kirtsy_addicon.gif" mce_src="http://www.kirtsy.com/badges/kirtsy_addicon.gif"<br /> style="border:0" alt="add to kirtsy" /></a> <br /> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=<?php the_permalink();<br ></a> ?>&title=< ?php the_title(); ?>">delicious: <img<br /> src="http://www.ideasforwomen.com/graphics/delicious.med.gif"<br /> border="0" /></a> <br /> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink();<br ></a> ?>&title=< ?php the_title(); ?>">reddit: <img<br /> src="http://www.ideasforwomen.com/graphics/reddit.png" border="0"<br /> /></a> <br /> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink(); ?>&title=<<br /> ?php the_title(); ?>">Digg: <img<br /> src="http://www.ideasforwomen.com/graphics/digg.png" border="0"<br /> /></a> <br /> <mce:script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/IdeasForWomenNewsBlog?i=<?php the_permalink() ?><!-- " type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"> // --></mce:script> </p> <p>

You can style the paragraph tags to look however you want them to look. I center mine and keep the text small.

This code goes into the index.php file of your theme right after the div with class="storycontent" closes.

I also wanted something shorter and simpler to put at the beginning of my posts that uses just the icons. I figure this might be easier for people in a hurry and who are really familiar with all the icons used:

</p> <p class="smallcenterbold"> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink();<br ></a> ?>&title=< ?php the_title(); ?>"><img<br /> src="http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/16x16_su_round.gif"<br /> border="0"/></a> <br /> <a href="http://www.kirtsy.com/submit.php?url=<?php the_permalink();<br ></a> ?>"><img src="http://www.kirtsy.com/badges/kirtsy_addicon.gif" mce_src="http://www.kirtsy.com/badges/kirtsy_addicon.gif"<br /> style="border:0" alt="add to kirtsy" /></a> <br /> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=<?php the_permalink();<br ></a> ?>&title=< ?php the_title(); ?>"><img<br /> src="http://www.ideasforwomen.com/graphics/delicious.med.gif"<br /> border="0" /></a> <br /> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink();<br ></a> ?>&title=< ?php the_title(); ?>"><img<br /> src="http://www.ideasforwomen.com/graphics/reddit.png" border="0"<br /> /></a> <br /> <a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink(); ?>&title=<<br /> ?php the_title(); ?>"><img<br /> src="http://www.ideasforwomen.com/graphics/digg.png" border="0"<br /> /></a>  </p> <p>

This code goes in the index.php page of your theme right after the following code:

<br /> <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark">< ?php the_title(); ?></a><br />

The exact placement of the code may change depending upon the theme you use and of course where you want to put it. This is something you can play around with, try it different ways, until you get it where you want it and how you want it to look!

How frequently should you post?

In a previous post I wrote about "How long should your posts be?" and this time I'll discuss how often you should post, as these are both issues many people ask about.

And like I said before - it really depends upon you and your particular blog – but there are some things you will want to consider when deciding how often to post.

Too Frequently
If you post too often - like several times a day - and the posts are even kind of long, most people won't have time to read all of them. Personally I sometimes find myself getting kind of annoyed with blogs that post too frequently - I'm unable to keep with it and just get frustrated. I will sometimes even unsubscribe to blogs that post too much.

Most of us probably don't have that much to say that is of that high of quality to write multiple posts each day either. Of course there are exceptions!

Too Little
If you don't post often enough, people may either forget about you or think you stopping blogging. If you are trying to build a relationship with your readers and you want them to get to know who
you are, you may lose some momentum if you wait too long between posts.

The overall message you are trying to get across in your blog may get lost also if people can't remember your previous posts too clearly.

Just Right
I would say - and I'd like to hear your opinion on this too - once a week is the minimum frequency before you might start losing some people. 2-5 posts a week is real nice for building momentum with a
blog.

Consistency is Key!
The most important thing is to be relatively consistent in your posting frequency. If you are planning to change how often you post - either do it gradually or make an announcement to your readers that
you will be changing how often you post and let them know about what to expect.

I have not been a good example of this myself. Sometimes I go in spurts - post a lot for a while, and then nothing for some time. I don't recommend this!

Other Things to Consider
Realistically most of us don't know what to expect when we first start blogging. We may think we will have more time or lots of great ideas to write about and then find out - we don't! That's ok - it happens to most people.

Going from a schedule of less frequent posts to more frequent posting is probably easier on your readers than in the other direction. If they are used to you posting 7 days a week and you suddenly cut down to once a week they may think you've lost interest or something.

I used to think 5 or more posts a week was the best way to go. Lately, I noticed some really successful blogs that post once or twice a week and do quite well! I kind of wish I would have done that when I relaunched my main blog a while back. Less frequent posting gives you more time to spend on quality - and on promoting and marketing your blog!

How often do you post? What do you think is the best frequency rate?

In an earlier post I discussed the issue of using your picture on your blog: Building your Brand: Use a Picture. There I wrote about how using a picture of yourself helps your readers feel more connected to you as a person.

In this post I want to discuss a related idea – your 'About' page on your blog.

If your blog doesn't have an About page – it should. It provides a way for you to let your readers know more about you – what kind of a person you are, your motivation for writing your blog, etc. It is yet another way for your readers to feel more connected to you as a person.

How to Create an About page
If you are using WordPress, making an About page is easy – just go into your dashboard and under write, choose 'page', rather than post.  Depending upon the theme you are using, the page you create should have a link to appearing somewhere on your blog, usually in a side bar.

Two Types or Approaches
There are essentially 2 types or approaches to an About page. One is focused on you and is more of an About Me (or Us) page. The other is focused on the blog itself and could be considered more of an 'About This Blog' page. If you have a lot you want to say about both you and your blog, you may want to make it into 2 different pages. If not, you can combine it into one About page, which is what most bloggers do.

About You
Information that you might want to include about you are why and how you started the blog, what is your interest and experience in the topic you are writing about, some background information, etc. If you have kids you can mention it here too. Of course there are good reasons that you may not want to include their pictures or names – but you could still share their ages and other information that won't personally identify them.

For the purpose of transparency, you may want to include information concerning what interest you may have in your topic – do you work in a related industry, is someone paying or sponsoring your blog that could be influencing how you are writing, etc.

You should also include contact information, or a link to a contact page here. And yes, this is very important! I recently wanted to contact some other bloggers about collaborating on something but they had no way to contact them other than leaving a comment – I wanted to talk to them privately, and since comments are not private I was not able to follow through with it.

About Your Blog
Telling your readers about your blog is a great way to let people know what it is you hope to accomplish and the future plans you have for it. It also provides a way to direct people to posts or pages that you think are more important, or are starting places to understanding the rest of your blog.

You may also want to include why someone should be interested in reading your blog – what will they get out of it? How does it solve a problem for them?

This is also an opportunity to explain or link to a page explaining how to subscribe to your feed, or to explain what that means.

More coming soon in the Building Your Brand series!

We We all want more people reading our blogs - that's why we have them in the first place, right?

Readers who subscribe to your blog's feed are great - because they will probably keep coming back to visit again and again as your new posts show up in their feed readers or email software.

It just feels good too, doesn't it - knowing that there are people out there who like what you write enough that they want to keep reading more? It can also be a point of pride if you have a lot of subscribers.

So how do you get them?

Of course the standard answer is to write good content that people want to read. And you need to do that - but there are still some things you can do to make it easier - and hence more likely - for people to subscribe:

1) Get a FeedBurner feed. Why? They offer lots of nice features to make your feed better. And a way to track how many subscribers you have, regardless of the feed reader they use.

2) Make your subscribe button big and bold!
WordPress and other blog software tend to put the subscribe link down towards the bottom of your blog where it can't be easily seen. Put it above the fold of your blog so people can find it faster. Using a bigger button than the standard small one can help too.

This page has 51 RSS Buttons For Your Blog that you can use. You can also make your own with photoshop or other graphics software - or - make your own customized one with a Feed Button Image Generator (this is what I'm using on my blog now!).

Many people like to offer their visitors direct links to add the feed to specific feed readers - you can do that with just one button now at FeedButton.

3) Provide a way to subscribe by email.
Some people don't know what RSS or feed readers are or don't want to be bothered with it. FeedBurner provides a method for people to subscribe through email and can generate the code for you to add the form to your blog. It can be really helpful to add that form at the top of your blog near your 'big and bold' feed button.

4) Explain what subscribing and RSS are.
There are  still many people out who don't understand what is meant by subscribe and may think they need to pay something. Providing a page on your blog where you explain it to people may be enough to get some of them to subscribe. A couple of examples are Darren's "What is RSS?" and my "What does 'subscribe to my blog' mean?".

5) Add a subscribe option at the end of your posts.
Adding a link to subscribe at the end of your posts might catch the attention of people who just finished reading your post and liked it. Why make it harder by expecting them to scroll back up to the top of the page to subscribe?

6) Add your feed link to your emails.
When you are corresponding with people through email - don't just add your blog link to your signature - add the link to your blog feed too!

Editor Added:

This video gives a great & entertaining example of how to use your reader:

Video Source