Because I Said So – Mom Edition

For this week’s Because I Said So Buck and I are going to give our personal opinions on five points from ProBlogger’s post, 29 Debates on Blogging.

• RSS Feeds – Full vs Partial Feeds – I personally have my blog available as full feed via Feedburner and prefer to read full feeds.  I am more likely to read the blog post immediately in my reader or email if it is full feed.  There are a few blogs that are partial feed that have been sitting in my inbox for months.  I know this is a heavy debate and I do understand both sides.  Bloggers would rather their readers come to their site in order to leave comments and/or raise their traffic.  I click through to posts when I plan to leave a comment but when a blog is full feed therefore causing a higher read rate from me then I am more likely to comment than on a blog that is partial feed that I end up forgetting to read.
• Paid Reviews – Happy to Write Paid Reviews vs Not Doing Paid Reviews - I do not accept money for my opinion.  With that being said my first initial reaction would be to answer no, I do not do paid reviews.  However I know there are exceptions to every rule and I don’t think it is wrong of a blogger to accept payment for their time if they are doing extensive testing of a product and/or website.  Within the past year I have been cutting back on the reviews I do because to me it is a lot of work and promotion on my blog which the value of some products are just not worth my time.  Since I don’t accept payment for my opinion yet I still have to claim the value of the product at the end of the year as income, I always think twice before accepting a review.
• Blogger Name – Anonymous blogging vs Using Your Name - I personally wouldn’t blog as an anonymous blogger.  I understand why some people want to write as unknown but that just isn’t me.  I don’t think I could keep up with the double life or hidden secrets.  I also know that my blog is about sharing my life and what I go through so I wouldn’t be able to hide who I am and still be true on my blog.  With the way technology is nowadays I would assume there would always be someone out there that could figure out who someone is even if they tried their hardest to remain anonymous.
• Hosting – hosted vs self hosted - As you’ve noticed my blog is WordPress which is self-hosted using my own domain.  I prefer self-hosted and love WordPress.  Of course that means I spend money to blog which isn’t something everyone can do.  When I first started blogging I used Blogger which is hosted on Google and free.  As a beginner blogger I don’t see anything wrong with using Blogger.  I was still able to have my own customized design and the blog worked perfectly fine for me.  As my blog grew and I wanted more options as a more serious blogger I think it was best to switch to self-hosted WordPress.
• Design – Professional Design vs Templates - I highly recommend a professional design over a template.  I would even recommend creating your own header using free online programs like Picnik instead of using a common template that you may see somewhere else.  I know that not everyone can afford a professional design and some bloggers, especially in the beginning, have to use templates for their backgrounds.  When using a template I suggest changing as much as you can to give it your own touch and feel.  Try to customize what options are available to make the template your own.  Your blog’s design, logo and header are all part of your brand.  Your brand is what people remember you by.  If you have the same exact design as someone else then readers may mistaken you for another blogger when they are browsing.  Your design should be a reflection of who you are and the tone of your blog so claim it and make it your own. *Quick Tip: For lower budget designs, hire a design student who is building their portfolio.

I’m headed over to read Buck’s opinions on the topics, you coming?

Have a topic or question you would like to hear our views on? Have you always wanted to hear both sides of a topic or answers to a question, unbiased? You can submit topics or questions via comments or even anonymously to djane (at) mommadjane (dot) com. We will pick questions at random and blog on one topic per week.