Special Edition: WordPress Under Attack

Hello, fellow writers and bloggers. Happy Sunday!

Posting a quick missive today to make sure that you are all aware of the current hackfest that is going on with WordPress. We know that many of you have WordPress blogs and we’d hate to see anyone’s site compromised or posts lost.

Here is a great post from Forbes that outlines the top 6 precautions all WordPress users should take:

WordPress Under Attack: How to Avoid the Coming Botnet

Most of these fixes are simple and quick. I’ve been meaning to do many of them (including deleting my default “admin” account and installing a backup plugin as extra insurance even though my hosting company also does backups).

If you have a WordPress blog, please do take a look at this and then take the fifteen to twenty minutes to implement these recommendations.

Better safe than sorry!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Sunday activities which hopefully include writing!

 

AUTHOR UPDATE:

Here is a helpful article about some of the backup plugins that are available: 6 Top WordPress Backup Plugin Recommendations for 2013

And here’s a quick post on how to delete that default “admin” user: WordPress Security Tip: Remove the Admin User

 

 

 

Background Image Credit: Louise Docker

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Friday Fun – Keyboard vs. Longhand

Friday Fun is a group post from the writers of the NHWN blog. Each week, we’ll pose and answer a different, get-to-know-us question. We hope you’ll join in by providing your answer in the comments.

QUESTION: Early adopter or luddite? A shiny laptop and the latest writing software, or crisp paper and a fine pen? Which do you prefer? Why? If you use both, what drives your choice?

Lisa J. Jackson: Definitely not an early adopter. I wait for something to be out for a year or two before I dive in. My laptop is a few years old now, and my PC is a couple. Both need to be upgraded, since XP just isn’t hip anymore, but, well, I’ll keep plugging along. For journaling of any type it’s paper and pen for me. I find that I feel more creative writing with paper and pen, but I’m so much faster with a keyboard – so it’s a tough battle there. I can capture my thoughts as they happen when I type, writing, well, not so much. I like having options in everything, and this is just a good example.

Diane MacKinnon: I love writing by hand in my Clairefontaine journal with my handmade fountain pen (I buy the journals myself but the pen was a gift from a friend.) I occasionally journal on my computer but I love my collection of written notes from over the years. All other writing I do on my laptop, a 7 year old Mac. My husband replaced the hard drive on it when I ran out of memory, so it should keep me going for another while. I, too, type faster than I can write, but sometimes I need the slowness of the handwritten page to gather my thoughts. Other times I love the speed of my fingers as they fly across the keyboard. One of these days I’ll try some novel-writing software, but I just haven’t had a good reason to get it yet. My old-fashioned methods are working well for me for now.

Wendy Thomas: I used to be entirely long hand. In fact, when I was learning journalism skills, I was taught to literally cut and paste using scissors and tape. Well, I’ve come a long way baby. Although I carry a notebook with me at all times to jot down notes, typing is how I write these days. I just don’t have the time to write something out and then transcribe it later.

Of course as a result, my handwriting has gotten much worse prompting more than one person to ask me if I’m a Doctor when I hand them a note.

Deborah Lee Luskin: I bought my first Mac the day after Word was released for Apple – and have never looked back. As a result, my handwriting is nearly illegible. On the rare occasions I’m forced to use pen and paper, I transcribe it as soon as possible – while I still have an idea of what I wrote. The big exception is poetry: that’s strictly a pencil and paper affair for first drafts. But I keyboard my grocery list and email it to my phone. Lest this make me sound like a geek – I’m not. I keep my software updated, but use my hardware until it breaks. And I play the acoustic piano – no batteries or bits, just felt, wood, ivory and strings.

Susan Nye: How about a new laptop with a matt finish? And word because I know it and don’t want to take the time to learn a new software program. I so much rather spend my time writing. (Or skiing like today!) I only use pen and paper when I’m taking notes.

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Friday Fun – Ebooks vs. Print Books

Friday Fun is a group post from the writers of the NHWN blog. Each week, we’ll pose and answer a different, get-to-know-us question. We hope you’ll join in by providing your answer in the comments.

QUESTION: Our experience with these mediums is always changing. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of digital vs. printed ink – as readers and as writers. 

Jamie Wallace: We are reading and writing our way through an evolution of the written word. Not since the Gutenberg Press has there been such evolution and upheaval around the capturing and dissemination of ideas and stories. It feels like someone pushed the fast-forward button and we’ve all been propelled into a brave new world without warning. As a reader, I’d say that I spend half my reading time with printed materials and half with digital media. My digital reading consists mainly of blog posts and online articles with a few ebooks thrown in on my Kindle. My print reading is split between magazines and books (both fiction and non-fiction). I prefer print books when the material is something I’m studying. Navigating back and forth on the Kindle is too unwieldy for me, and although the idea of digital note-taking is appealing, I haven’t found it easy to do in real life. With fiction, I can go either way, the medium doesn’t impact my enjoyment of the message. As a writer, though I appreciate the expediency and economical efficiency of digital distribution, I still hope to eventually publish in both formats. There is something about holding a physical book in my hands that I know will be deeply satisfying. I don’t want to pass that up.

Lisa J. Jackson: I’m always going to prefer print reading. I just like holding the paper in my hands. That said, I got a Kindle as a birthday gift last year, and have a bunch of books on it – that I have yet to read. I can see the benefits of using an e-reader on a plane or on vacation to avoid having to pack a lot of books, but so far, I haven’t had the time or desire. And, to me, having to worry about ‘charging’ my book in order to read it makes me a little crazy. Will the battery die right at the good part?  E-books are big sellers, so I certainly want my writing to be in print and in e-book versions.

Julie Hennrikus: I used to be the kind of woman who used half of her suitcase for books. My Kindle (and Kindle app) have changed that. When I have a friend releasing a book, I pre-order it for downloading on my Kindle. Most of my entertainment reading is done digitally these days. That said, I still have too many paper books. I recently donated six boxes of books, and can donate more. It made me think a lot about this question. What books do I keep/value? Which don’t I? I kept non-fiction and reference books. I kept books I treasure. I kept coffee table books. And I kept books that had been signed to me. I love this digital age, and the ease of reading. My aging eyes love that I can bounce up the font size. But to ponder, to think? I need paper.

Deborah Lee Luskin: I own a Kindle, and I take it when I travel, which leaves  room in my suitcase for a toothbrush and a change of clothes, which is nice. But I was horrified the first time I took it on a plane and had to turn it off for take-off and landing. So now I always travel with a print magazine, as well – one I can leave on the plane when I arrive at my destination. I also prefer magazines and printed matter when I read in the bath – for obvious reasons! (I know, there’s a waterproof case available, but .  .  .) I’m impressed by my Kindle -  being able to download a new book from the middle of nowhere, to change font size, and to read for months between charges. But when all is said and done, I still prefer to read books. But digital books make sense – and money. It’s a fabulous method of distribution, and since I brought the eVersion of my print book out myself (never sold the electronic rights), I’m pleased by the higher royalties I receive for these.

Wendy Thomas – I have a Kindle and a Nook. I’ve downloaded and read many books on each device. (I have also watched many movies on my Kindle but that’s probably a different conversation.) The beauty of an eReader is that if I want a book, I can literally get a copy of it within minutes.

I also, however, continue to buy hard copies of books (far too many, if you ask my husband.) I personally don’t like reading an eBook it just doesn’t have the same experience for me as holding a book in my hands.  But I recognize that eBooks are the way of the future. It’s clearly a waste of resources to print books on paper when you can immediately deliver electronic files.

eReaders are also changing who gets published.  Now anyone who has a computer can write and “publish” an eBook. That means that we have access to an unprecedented amount of new writing – some of it very good, some it, well, not so good.

Moving to eBooks (and as a culture, that’s where we are going, do you think anyone under the age of 15 is ever going to buy a hardcopy book?) means that we are going to have to rely on new ways to get the word out on which eBooks are worth reading. eBook reviewers (good ones, not those who are being paid to review) are going to become very important and eBook marketing is going to look very different from the large cardboard displays we currently see in book stores.

Diane MacKinnon: I love books and magazines and all things printed. But, my Kindle has saved my back when traveling and possibly my marriage. The first time I traveled with my husband, he was horrified to see me packing enough books and magazines to last me a month if we were going somewhere where there was nothing to do but read–which we weren’t. And, we were going for a long weekend. When he asked me if I needed all those books, I said “yes.” When he tried to convince me to leave at least the hardcovers at home, all I could say was: “I need them. I’m not saying it’s rational, I’m just saying I need them.” He gave me a Kindle as soon as the first one came out. I love it. I download a book before I leave home and, if I’m feeling squirrelly in the airport, I download another one (or two) just to be on the safe side. Plus, I have all my archived books. I tend to download nonfiction books I know I’ll reread to my Kindle so I have them with me at all times. As a writer, I hope to hold my own book in my hands someday, but I’ll be sure to make it available for the Kindle, too.

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My Digital Age

I wrote a post on New Year’s Eve about my wrestling match with life, and goals for the new year. Here we are, six weeks in, and I’m still wrestling. But I am trying to make some small changes, and thought I’d share my recent experiment.

Like many of you, I wear many hats in my life. I spend about a third of my time in meetings, and had bought a great notebook from Staples that had easily removable pages. But work notes ended up at home, writing notes ended up everywhere, and I could never find that email address I had scribbled somewhere. Plus, my brain does not work in buckets. One idea feeds another–work and writing blend to a degree. Occasionally someone I meet through Sisters in Crime ends up being a theater contact. I have colored tabs, highlighters, and other ways of coding my notes, but they didn’t work, especially at the volume I produce notes/thoughts/ideas.

Additionally, I am teaching this semester, and have 30 students in my class. I knew two, maybe three students, and have a goal to know everyone by name before mid semester. There aren’t enough post its in the world to help me with that.

And finally, I keep reading blog posts, articles, and reports that I want to remember, but short of printing them all out (which I have done, and then left in a leaning tower for a months before recycling) how do I sort them all? And, again, have them available where ever I am?

At the end of January I read Beth Kanter’s blog post about how she takes notes. (She writes a great blog–highly recommended.) She pointed to an ebook about using Evernote, which I downloaded. And read. And implemented. I committed to using Evernote for three weeks. It has been ten days so far. Here’s my progress report:

• The ebook helped me figure out how to jump in and start using the program. I downloaded it on my phone, work and home computers, and on my Motorola Xoom. I also installed the clip function. I set up notebooks, and stacks. And figured out some tags. I played for a bit on the Sunday night before I test drove it at work.
• I brought my Xoom with me to work on Monday, and to class. On day one, my students did presentations. I took photos of each one, and labeled them with their names and took notes on the presentation. BOOM. I have my own face book. 
• The next day I had a board meeting. I took notes, and filed them under “board”. But I also tagged the notes with “conference” and “fundraising” so I could find them later.
• I also had a New England Crime Bake committee meeting. More notes, with some crossover to Sisters in Crime and a “to do” item for my list.
• Throughout the week I have been “clipping” blog posts, articles, and a couple of reports. And been able to find them all.

This isn’t rote yet. I went into a meeting this afternoon, and grabbed a yellow pad. Argh. But so far the experiment is going well. Not only is Evernote helping me keep all my notes in one place, it is also helping me find them easily. I am also trying to use it for jotting down blogging ideas, but that is less successful so far. I am learning more as I use it, but the ebook helped. And the system thinks like I do. Which is a little scary.

But it works.

***********

J.A. Hennrikus is the Executive Director of StageSource. She is a mystery writer. Her short story, “Tag, You’re Dead” was published in Level Best Book’s anthology THIN ICE. “Her Wish” is in Level Best Books’ DEAD CALM. And “The Pendulum Swings, Until It Doesn’t” was published in BLOOD MOON in November 2012.She is a social media fan, and tweets under @JulieHennrikus. She wrestles with allusions of athleticism, is an avid theater goer and a member of Red Sox nation. Her website is jahennrikus.com

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High Tech Notecards, or Scrivener

I blogged yesterday about my WIP, and the fact that I am rewriting my mystery. This rewriting was the result of two different writing seminars this past winter/spring, and the sense that what I needed to fix would be better remedied by a rewrite than an edit, since the “fixes” were piling up. And I felt that a rewrite would make it a stronger book. Since rewriting is where I was going anyway, I decided to take two more steps.

First, I rethought the plot. I condensed the timeline. I took out a character completely. I threaded two other characters through the narrative. I added a couple of more clues. And I clarified some of my settings. I printed out the original, and put stickies throughout with notes about what I wanted to do.

Now, the idea of taking my 72,000 word manuscript and making all of those changes made my head hurt. While writing it, I used notecards to keep track of scenes. To rewrite it, I decided to take Scrivener for a test drive. Scrivener is a writer’s tool. It has been available on Mac for a while, and the PC version came out last year. Once I decided to pull my manuscript apart, it made sense to try it out. I am still figuring the software out, but I think I may be in love.

Why? Let me count the ways.

First, there are templates for setting and character work. And the names stay in the left hand column. You can even group them. SO, no more forgetting someone’s name. And, when you add something you want to remember (a limp, hair color, broken nose) you can add it to the profile. You can even add reference material.

Second, my note card system works here as well. You create cards for each scene. On the card you can take notes on the goals of the scene, things that need to be added, characters involved, whatever. And those notes stay visible on the right hand side of the screen. You can have references for scenes as well.

Third, since every scene is a card, you can look at them one at a time, or as a whole board. I am still figuring out scenes and chapters and how they work in Scrivener. But here’s what I love–when you need to move a scene, you click and drag it. And everything associated with it moves as well.

Fourth, and this may seem minor, there is a typewriter function. So when you type, what you are typing stays in the middle of the screen. I love it.

Fifth, it takes your work and formats it correctly.

My top five, so far. I am still learning. And I need to figure out better ways of doing some things. I signed up for a Scrivener class in September, so I will learn more. But so far, I really like it.

Do any of you use Scrivener? Any tips? Suggestions?

 

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Time management – scheduling e-mails in Gmail

Did you know e-mails can be scheduled ahead of time like blog posts? Do you have a need to schedule e-mails? Do you ever create e-mail drafts and then send the e-mails when you need to? I’ve tried the drafts technique, but the busier I get, the easier it is to lose track of when an e-mail needs to go out.

Scheduling and forgetting is a great option.

There are some e-mail programs that allow scheduling, such as Microsoft Outlook, but if you have Gmail, scheduling isn’t an option…without a plug-in. And I recently found one with everyone’s favorite price tag –> $0.

It’s called Boomerang for Gmail. It’s compatible with Firefox 3.6+, Chrome 5.0+ and Safari 5.1+ and it works with Gmail and Google Apps e-mail.

In addition to scheduling, you can also set up automatic reminders on any e-mails. For instance, I schedule a lot of author interviews for my Reviews and Interviews blog and I ask that interviews be to me at least 7 days before the scheduled date. With the scheduling option, I can have the confirmation e-mail returned to me if the person doesn’t reply to the e-mail by the date I specify.

This definitely saves me time. I don’t have to:

• check my calendar
• determine which person I haven’t heard from
• search for the last e-mail I sent to them
• and then forward that e-mail asking the person to reply.

With scheduler, if the recipient doesn’t reply by the date I specify (for myself, which is called ‘boomerang this message‘), I’ll have my last note to them pop up as a new message that I can then easily forward again. Definite time saver! This is great to use for any e-mail that you need a reply to by a specific date.

Do you and your friends say, “We should schedule lunch some time?” Now you can say, “Pick a date. If I don’t hear from you by next Thursday, I’ll get back in touch.” User ‘boomerang this message’ and get that lunch scheduled!

A bonus I found with this plug-in is that if you have multiple Gmail accounts, you only have to install the plug-in to one of them.  I did one simple and quick install, and all my accounts now have the scheduler.

In related news, I saw an article yesterday about Google Chrome passing Internet Explorer as the most popular Web browser. I’ve been using Chrome for less than a year and am just starting to get used to it. What browser do you favor?

Do you see any benefit to scheduling e-mails?

Lisa J. Jackson is an independent editor and writer who is still striving to find the perfect combination of technology that makes her life most efficient. She’s also a New England region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. 

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Dear self-publishing writer …

Me – preparing to climb up on my soapbox at NHCC’s self-publishing event.

Self-publishing is big. Really big. Everyone is talking about it – writers, publishers, retailers, the press, industry analysts … everyone. It’s no surprise. Today’s technology gives anyone anywhere the ability to bypass traditional publishing and take her work to the street, so to speak. Three cheers for the emancipation of the artist!

Or not.

I recently had the absolute pleasure of speaking, along with two others, to a group of writers and artists at the New Hampshire Creative Club (NHCC). (Note to any creatives looking for a great professional organization – these people are super nice and super talented. Worth checking out.) The topic at hand was self-publishing. The other speakers covered things from the perspective of the writer and the publisher. Lee Richmond, a published author, told the story of his adventures in old school publishing as compared to his new adventure with self-publishing. Peter Randall, an indie publisher since 1970, provided an inside look at what goes into making a book – from printing to distribution. Me? I talked about marketing.

I got up on my soapbox a bit, too.

As an aspiring novelist (I can say that even though I haven’t written a word of fiction in three years), it pains me to see how frequently marketing is tacked on as an afterthought. I get that the creative piece is The Thing. Crafting the story is the soul of our efforts. It is driven by our deepest, most heartfelt “why.” There is a reason so many people compare writing a book with giving birth to a child. We put so much of ourselves and our lives into the process; it’s easy to be blind to anything outside our cocoon or ideas and words.

But, if our intention is to make the project profitable, we have to balance our inner work with the realities of the outside world. We have to tear our bleary eyes away from the screen, pry our fingers from around our lucky fountain pens. We must think beyond the creation of the book and consider the audience for the book. Who will read this story of ours? How we will get it into their hands?

That’s where marketing comes in.

In my presentation to the folks of the NHCC, I explained that marketing is not – as many people assume – about selling. Sales is about selling. Marketing is about connecting. If you do a good job with your marketing, if you create a strong enough connection with your audience, sales will take care of themselves. Nice, right?

So, how do you do that?

The answer is certainly longer than I can cram into this modest blog post, but I pulled together a few relevant posts and other information and created a resources page for the NHCC gang. (Oops! Their site clearly states that they are not a gang … just a club). I don’t think they’d mind if I shared it with you. (They really are that nice.) So, dear self-publishing writers and self-publishing writers-to-be, I hope that you will take a few minutes to peruse this selection of posts (many from my archives here on Live to Write-Write to Live) and think about how you can start getting into a marketing mindset for your book project. It’s never too early to start thinking about how to brand yourself and your work, how to build your platform and your network, how to get yourself and your book “out there.”

If you have any additional resources you’d like to share on the topic, please feel free to add them to the comments on this page or the resources page. Writers helping writers is what it’s all about – I’d love to hear your insights and suggestions. 

P.S. New England area artists and writers – don’t forget to check out the NHCC!

P.S.S. If any of you are writing books that need illustrations – there’s a serious pool of talent at the NHCC. You can cruise the NHCC business directory for more details.

 

Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who also happens to be a marketer. She helps her Suddenly Marketing clients discover their voice, connect with their audience, and find their marketing groove. She is also a mom, a prolific blogger, and a student of voice and trapeze (not at the same time). Introduce yourself on facebook or twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

Photo Credit: Kevin Harkins (Thanks, Kevin!)

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A tool for organizing your brain

Welcome to 2012!

I found a new tool last week that I find quite useful for organizing thoughts and ToDo items.

It’s called WorkFlowy and it’s used to “organize your brain.”

As I finalize any yearly goals, I find I have sheets of paper that are so filled with goals broken into tasks and subtasks  that the sheets are more chaos than useful, especially since the ideas don’t hit the page in the order in which they need to be addressed.

What I initially think is subtask 3 becomes task2 and may eventually be subsubtask 14. A lot of crossing out, drawing of arrows showing where to move an item, I can even use colored ink to represent changes. My sheets become an total mess.

I always intend to rewrite the lists to make them legible, but of course I don’t. Goals and tasks get lost, and so do the sheets of paper they are written on.

WorkFlowy eliminates the mess. You start with the top goals and then can indent several times, outdent if you need to, and then even add and remove items as your brain starts making the connections.

I love the ease with being able to organize my goals – if I realize a small item should really be a quarterly goal instead of a daily task, I can easily adjust the listing. No scribbling, no small writing, just a clear list.

And WorkFlowy emails my changes to me each day. I can download my list at any time. There isn’t any limit to the number of bullet points I can have. And when I just want to focus on one goal, I can – I don’t have to stare at the full list all the time or scroll down and down and down to find the point I want to work on. I can drill down as low as I want and easily get back to any level in the list that I want.

Working in WorkFlowy has made me realize that I have way more things I want to do than I have actual time to do, and that’s a great realization. It’s helping me focus more and narrow in on what is important.

I don’t have to delete any of my goals, but I can move them to the bottom of the list. I won’t lose the piece of paper, I won’t have to give up on the goal, I can simply focus on it at a different time.

I’m not a WorkFlowy affiliate, but I am a fan already. They have a blog that gives a lot of insight into the tool. It’s an online tool, nothing to download. Create a username and password and start working. You can even use WorkFlowy from your phone or tablet.

The product has useful Help and fabulous short tutorials that get you being productive in minutes.

You can tag items with when you want to address them, ie. #Monday, #Sep, #soon.

There are numerous tags for the tasks you have including #links, @contacts, #checklists, #issues, #projects, and so on.

Knowing I can print out my list at any time feeds my desire to have paper copies to carry with me.

Your list can be shared with others or kept private. You can add notes; mark items as complete; move items up, down, in, or out.

You can use it for annual goals, shopping lists, working out story ideas, the options are numerous.

If you give WorkFlowy a try, or if you’re already using it, let me know what you think of it. Do you find it useful for anything?

Lisa Jackson is an independent editor, writer, New England region journalist, and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom where she gets to chat with best-selling authors, non-fiction writers, publishers, and other writing professionals on a weekly basis.

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Some resources for editors and writers

As I am always either writing or editing, or doing a tango with both skills, I’ve found that having certain resources within arm’s reach is priceless.

Granted, most resources are online, so those are just keystrokes, or a couple clicks away, but sometimes a combination of online and paper works best.

So, here is a peek into some resources I use consistently for pulling an article together or editing a manuscript.

onelook.com - Type in a word and it searches numerous dictionaries, then click on the word next to the dictionary you’d like to use. I’m always using this. (online)

Merriam-Webster online - Merriam-Webster is the standard for the contracted editing I do, so sometimes using this specific online dictionary works best. I also have a hard cover of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition within reach at all times. (online or paper)

Chicago Manual of Style - Online version allows you to select 15th or 16th edition. Need a paid subscription. When I need to look something up in the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), I admit I’m challenged many times to figure out where it is found, so I go to the online CMS, type in the word I’m looking for and select 15th edition (since that’s what I’m using in hard cover).  I do the online search and I’m usually rewarded with a list of sections where I can find more information. I then open my hard copy CMS and easily find the reference I need. (online and paper)

For instance, I just edited a manuscript that had a lot of U.S. Navy, Navy, and USS ship name. I knew the “USS” was correct as written, but CMS does not require periods in “US”, and if a branch of the military is used without “US”, then it is lowercase. Instead of going to the hard copy CMS and looking up various ‘military’ categories, I went online, typed in “U.S. Navy” and discovered 2 referenced sections for “US Navy”. (example below)

Bing – I love this search engine for finding anything. Google is also good, of course, but Bing is my first choice. (online)

I need (and prefer) a combination of both online resources and paper-based. The variety works well for me.

What online and paper resources do you use on a regular basis?

Lisa Jackson is an independent editor, writer, journalist, and chocolate lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom where she gets to network with writing professionals on a weekly basis! © Lisa J. Jackson, 2011

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Make Your Blog More Engaging – Part 3

In the first two parts of this series, we covered identifying features and social graces. This installment is all about blogging “side orders” – all those widgets and extras that live, typically, in the sidebar of your blog.

First, in case you have no idea what a “sidebar” is, it’s the area of your blog – usually on the right-hand side of the page – that lives off to the side of your main content area. This is where visitors to your blog will automatically look for certain information about you and your writing. There are dozens of different things you can put in this space; deciding which ones to use can be confusing. There are, however, a core set of tools that can help you boost engagement with your blog and your brand around the web. Here’s my list of faves in order of priority (top to bottom on your blog page) and what they can do for your readers:

Help readers connect with you: Before anything else, give people an easy way to friend/follow you and subscribe to your blog and/or newsletter. You can get all the details in part 2 of this series, but the basic idea is to give readers one-click access to staying in touch with you.

Make readers an offer: If you’ve got something to sell or give away, don’t bury it! Have you published a book? Feature an image of the book with a link to your indie or Amazon page. Do you have a downloadable e-book? Put the image, a brief descriptor, and link front and center. Do you offer coaching, editing, or some other service? Write up a little blurb with a link to an offer-specific page on your site.

Welcome new readers: First-time visitors to your blog will want to know what you’re all about. In addition to the identifying features we talked about in part 1 of this series, you can give newbies a customized list of posts and pages that will act as a virtual tour of your blog and help them get to know you quickly. This is often labeled as the “start here” content and can include links to everything from your about page, a custom welcome message page, to your all-time top posts.

Keep readers up-to-date: Do you participate in real-world or virtual events like readings, classes, webinars, book signings, etc? Dedicate some of your sidebar space to highlight upcoming events with links to more information, registration pages, etc.

Encourage readers to dig deeper: In most cases, a new visitor to your blog will have arrived there because one of your posts attracted her attention. Once you have her on your site, you want to encourage her to explore more of your writing. For your sidebar, you can use “recent posts” and “recent comments” feeds to provide a snapshot of your most current topics and where people are engaging in conversation. “Most popular posts” is another common feed that features posts with the most visits or comments. Many blog themes come with these tools built-in, but there are also various widgets that will perform the function for themes that don’t include the functionality. Another popular tactic for getting readers to engage with you is to import your Twitter feed to your sidebar. This will take readers off your blog, but it has the benefit of engaging them on an additional platform. Finally, though not technically a sidebar tool, the “More posts like this” plug-in is another great way to gently lead people further into your site. Available in a variety of formats, the purpose of this tool is to serve up links (and sometimes image thumbnails) to other posts on your site that might be relevant to the post the reader just read. These links appear at the bottom of your posts and make it easy for readers to “hop” from post to post.

There are many (many!) more widgets, plug-ins, and tools that you can use in your sidebar, but these are some of the most effective for getting readers to engage more actively with your content (and you!). Although they can be interesting, I shy away from lengthy blog rolls, photo streams, badges, and tag clouds. I prefer to focus on side orders that will give my readers a way to actively participate in my community or interact with my content. Give these tools some real estate on your blog and you’ll be all that and a side of fries!

What are your favorite ways to encourage engagement with side orders? Have you had success with any of these tools on your own blog? Have you used these tools as a reader of someone else’s blog? 

If you missed the first two parts of this series, you can find them here:

• Make Your Blog More Engaging: Part 1 – Identifying Features
• Make Your Blog More Engaging: Part 2 – Social Graces

Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who, among other things, works as a marketing strategist and copywriter. She helps creative entrepreneurs (artists, writers, idea people, and creative consultants) discover their “natural” marketing groove so they can build their business with passion, story, and connection. She also blogs. A lot. She is a mom, a singer, and a dreamer who believes in small kindnesses, daily chocolate, and happy endings. Look her up on facebook or follow her on twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

Image Credit: waggaway

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