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!

While blogging doesn't require a whole lot of extra tools and things to do it - in addition to your browser and either a account at a site for a hosted blog or your own WordPress blog - there are some tools that can be very useful to a blogger.

Graphics or photo editing software
It can be very helpful to have software to either make or modify your own graphics or edit photos. If you can't afford to pay someone you can make your own logo for your blog if you have some graphics software. You may also want to make other graphics to go with certain posts or pages. If you take photos for your blog, you may want to edit parts out for privacy, etc. I have been using Photoshop for a very long time, but I know it is too expensive for many people (I use a really old version!). There are also many inexpensive or free alternatives available.

Pencil and Paper
Using pencil and paper as a tool for blogging may seem silly for something you do on a computer, but actually I find I turn to them quite often. Sometimes if I having a difficult time writing, it is easier to get my ideas out initially on paper and then finish up on my computer. You never know when a good idea might pop in your head when your computer is not nearby either.

I get my best ideas while lying in bed - so keeping a piece of paper and pencil by your bed can be very helpful. I also get good ideas while in the shower - but paper and pencil don't work too well there! I also make sure I bring paper and pencil whenever I leave the house too - when waiting in a doctor's office or walking around in a grocery store I sometimes get good ideas too! And I've learned from past mistakes that if I don't write something down right away I usually forget it!

Dictionary and Thesaurus
A dictionary and thesaurus are really almost necessary tools for blogging. Of course, you don't have to use a printed one - unless you prefer a paper one - but it can be a good idea to keep a dictionary and thesaurus site that you like bookmarked so they are handy when you need them.

HTML editing software
Sometimes you may want to edit a plugin, some other script or even the WordPress theme you are using. There is software available that isn't too expensive and also some free alternatives for editing HTML, PHP, CSS or other code. You can also use Notepad for editing code - but you shouldn't use MSWord - it can add in characters that will mess up your code.

Statistics
At some point you will want to have some way of knowing how many people are visiting your blog, how they found it, who is linking to you, etc. Google Analytics is a great - and free! - service which works pretty well. You may also want to consider a log analysis software to get even more and more accurate information about your blog and visitors.

Feed Reader
If you are reading this and have a blog you probably already use a feedreader - but if you don't you should know that they are a great way to keep track of and read other blogs. I can't imagine how I could keep up with as many blogs as I do if I didn't use one. They are really necessary if you want to keep up with what is happening in the blogosphere, your friends blogs, your competitors, etc.

So - there's a few tools that can be really useful - even necessary for bloggers. Darren Rowse lists more here
and here.

What other tools do you use? Or what would you add to this list?

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've written a few posts here already about WordPress plugins. They can certainly be useful both to you as a blogger and to your readers. There are many other widgets, doodads and other thingamagigs you can add to a blog. I'll discuss a few here briefly, then go over why you may or may not want to use them.

BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog widgets
In a previous post I discussed BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog widgets a little bit. They can be helpful especially if your blog is new and you want to get new readers. At one time I was getting few enough visitors that I could keep track of anyone new who showed up through these two sites. Then I could go and visit their blog.

Polls
Adding a poll to your blog can be a great way to ask your blog readers questions about themselves so you can get a better idea of who they are and what they would like to read about. I added PollDaddy to mine recently. It was pretty easy to set up and use. There are many other quiz, poll and survey scripts to choose from also.

Chats
I added a chat script to my blog recently too. It can work as a great way to let your readers talk to you in real time. I haven't had many people use it though - which is partly my fault because I forget to change my status to 'online' most of the time!

Even more doodads
Many people add an image and link to technorati, have an entrecard link, display their feedburner subscriber numbers and sometimes even their pagerank. It is also common for people to link out to causes or sites they personally care about and want to support, like net neutrality, political candidates, etc.

So where does this lead us?
Like everything in life you have to draw a line somewhere. Some of these plugins, widgets, doodads and other thingamagigs are useful to either you, your readers or both. Or really express a point of view that is important to you.

Too many though - and your blog gets cluttered up and gets hard to read and find things on. Everyone has different opinions on how much is too much or too little. My opinion is that mine is getting borderline too busy at this point - least in some ways.

You will have to decide for yourself what is best for you and your readers. Don't add too much stuff or your blog will be too busy and confusing, but adding some 'flair' (or is it 'flare'?) gives your blog some personality.

What do you think? How much do you think is too much?

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!

It is very important to reply back to people who leave comments on your blog. I'll admit that I don't always follow my own advice here. I try, but don't always do so well. But it is good to do because it will help you to attract more loyal and regular readers. People who have really popular blogs with dozens of comments being left may not be able to reply to everyone, but until you get to that place it is a good idea to reply back to as many commenters as you can.

One question people often have is should they reply back to the person who left the comment, through another comment left in the comments section of your blog or email them back personally? If you reply back in the comments section there is a possibility that the commenter will never see it if they don't come back to check the blog post again. Using the Subscribe to Comments plugin helps, but it doesn't guarantee that any specific reader has actually subscribed to the comments.

If you email them only and don't respond in the comment section, when other people visit your blog it may look to them as though you never respond back to those who leave comments. Responding both in the comments section and sending each person an email can be kind of time consuming.

Why use the Comment Email Responder plugin?
The Comment Email Responder solves the problems mentioned above by letting you both reply in the comments section and email the commenter back at the same time.

How it works
Comment Email Responder works by creating a small icon of an envelope with an arrow on it next to each commenters name - but only you can see it when logged in as admin. When you click on it, it moves the cursor down into the comments text box. You then reply in the comments section - and the plugin will then also send your comment to the commenter in an email. But - and this is the really cool part - if the person has clicked the subscribe to comments box - it doesn't send them an email. So no one will get 2 emails sent to them.

Installing
The creator of the plugin has a good page describing how to href="http://www.u-g-h.com/wordpress-plugins/wordpress-plugin-comment-email-responder/">install
the Comment Email Responder. Installation is easy, and once activated, if you look under settings in your dashboard you will find a link to the plugin to customize it.

Customizing and Features
You can choose the name, address and subject you want the email to use. You can also write a short message to appear in the footer of the email. I use something like: "Thanks again for visiting my blog and leaving a comment! If you like my blog please consider subscribing to read updates in a feed reader or by email! "

Other
Keep in mind, there are times when you may want to respond to a comment differently on your blog than you would privately through an email. Sometimes I don't use it and instead reply more generically in the comments section and then send a more personal response in an email.

Overall I think its a very useful plugin. Sometimes I still don't reply in a timely manner like I should, but the plugin does make it easier to reply back to people - so I don't really have a good excuse!

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?

Previously I discussed how your About page on your blog is important for your branding. Today I want to go over your social media profile pages.

Why is this important and why should you do it now? Well - you never know when you might need it and you want to be ready when you do!

My Mistake
An example - recently Darren Rowse had a "Social Media Love-In" on his blog. I immediately started adding links to the social media sites I use the most. Then I realized that on some of them I still hadn't added any information about me on my profile pages, or customized where I could. So then I scrambled over to each of the sites and did it all in a hurry. I could have avoided that if I would have done it when I first had a chance.

What you should do
If you are like most bloggers you probably have accounts at Twitter,Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook and other social media sites. Most of them let you have a profile page where you can add some information about yourself. If you use these sites very often - they become part of your public image that you show to the world.

You want your profile page to convey a professional image, if you are blogging for a business. At any rate - you want it to reflect your goals and let people learn a little bit about you.

Most social media sites let you have at least have a short bio you can write and let you upload a picture. In a previous post in the Building your Brand series I talked about using your picture on your blog. You should use it on your profile pages also. And again, use the same one for consistency. It really does help people to remember who you are.

Usually they have a place where you can add the url of at least one blog. Sometimes more. Sometimes in the bio section you can use html and add links to all your blogs. Some allow even more customization of your profile page.

Twitter
Twitter is a good example. It lets you control some of the design aspects of your page. You can choose a background color and the color of some of the text too. You can also upload a background image! This image can be your logo or some other image you want people to see.

Keep in mind that because of the way the twitter page is set up, you want to either use a small version of your logo or create a version that is tall and skinny - rather than horizontal. In my case I made a tall skinny logo for my main blog and a smaller box with the logo of another blog of mine. Some other good examples of customizing their twitter pages are Wendy Piersall and Darren's.

Do you know of anybody else who has a nice twitter page? Any advice to share with others for customizing and adding information to your social media profile pages?

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!

Have you ever had the experience of commenting on an interesting post, leaving and then wondering if the blog author or other visitors will agree, disagree or add to what you said?

The only way you may have been able to find out is to remember the url for that particular post and to periodically return to it to see if or what anyone else added to the conversation.

That works if you only visit a few blogs now and then. But once you start visiting a lot of them and leaving lots of comments (which you will want to do to help get more readers) it becomes unmanageable and impractical.

Blogging is very much an interactive and social phenomenon. Communities can form around a blog based on the discussions that take place in the comments section. For this reason you want to make it as easy as possible for your blog visitors to leave comments and to participate in the discussion.

There are a number of plugins that make this easier. Today I want to talk about one of those: Subscribe
to Comments.

Why use the Subscribe to Comments plugin?
With this plugin people can get emails sent to them with any additional comments that were left at the post they left a comment at.  They can stay updated on the conversation making it more likely that they will return to your blog and participate even more!

How it works
Its quite simple – there's a check box that appears right after the comments text box that visitors just check before they leave their comment if they are interested in getting the additional comments sent to them.

Installing
This plugin is especially easy to install – there is just one file you need to upload into the 'plugins' directory.

Customizing and Features
In your dashboard under 'settings' – 'Subscribe to Comments' there are several options you can set:

• The from name that shows up in the emails sent
• The email address used to send them
• The text you want to show up for 1) visitors who are not subscribed; 2) Those who are and 3) for you, the author of the post

It also allows you to use a custom style for the Subscription Manager if you want to do so. Other feature include letting subscribers change their email address and subscribing without leaving a comment.

A cool thing I just discovered about it is if you are the author of a post you can click on the 'Manage Subscriptions' link under the comment form and it will a list of all the people who have subscribed to comments on your blog, how many comments they have subscribed to and the top subscribed to posts!

I was excited to see how many people had subscribed to something but a little disappointed that some posts hadn't gotten more people subscribed. Personally, I subscribe to most posts I comment at unless I either just forget or expect it will be one of those posts with dozens more people leaving comments.

A link is also included that lists all subscribers email addresses in a text box that you could use to send them all a bulk email. Pretty cool, but I can't see myself using that feature and I can imagine how it could be abused.

What do you think? If you use this plugin do you like it? As a blog visitor, do you subscribe to the comments very often?