A couple of Bloggie Wednesdays ago, Ling asked me some questions about blogging in the comments. Instead of just replying her comments in the original blog post, I thought I’d answer them in a new one instead so that it’s shared with you too. First of all, I don’t claim to be an expert in blogging, so please forgive me if the answers do not make sense. Most of what I’ve learned is through experience, often painful ones.

Alright let’s go!

1. So, I arrive at your blog and leave a comment – and what do you know? My details are already saved! How did you do that?

I didn’t do anything, your computer did. More specifically, your browser. It’s called cookies. When you enable your browser to accept cookies, it saves the details of information when you’ve commented on a blog more than once. It’s the same when you click on “Remember My Login” for things like your email and any other websites that requires a login. When you delete your cookies via your browser settings/tools, all these information disappear and you will have to enter them again. Word of warning: when you do Internet banking (or anything that is information-sensitive), always delete your cookies after you logout.

2. I still don’t get the photo hosting sites vs hosting on your own server. The probloggers says use photo host sites…but most beauty bloggers I know use their own server. What to do?

It’s up to you on what you’re more comfortable with. I don’t believe there’s a right or wrong way to do it. Some bloggers believe that since you’ve already paid for your webhosting, you might as well host your images there as well. Nothing wrong with that at all. Plus, if you put your images on sites like Flickr, there are plugins which you can use to display them real fancy-like.

As for me, I started out on Blogger before moving on to WordPress a few years later (personal blog first, then beauty one), and I had all my images hosted on Photobucket. When I finally moved on to my own domain and webhost, I continued with Photobucket. All my images are already neatly categorised in their respective folders and I didn’t see the need to change. Plus I’m a firm believer of not placing all my eggs in one basket 😛

At the end of the day, again, it’s what you’re more comfortable with. If you prefer using image hosting websites, then go for it. If you want to try hosting it on your own server, then give it a go. If you don’t like it, you can always switch back.

3. People often say their website is down…or have downtime – how do you know when that happens?

I believe you answered that one, when you tweeted about it during the #bbloggersoz discussion on Sunday 🙂 But for those who’s not sure if their website is working for others as well, do check out Down For Everyone Or Just Me.

A good way to check is to enlist the help of your friends and beauty blogging community! When I’m not sure if my website is working or not, I’d send a short “HELP OMG I THINK MY BLOG JUST DIED CAN YOU STILL SEE IT?!” tweet and/or Facebook message. If your peeps can’t see it, well, it’s troubleshooting time. If they can see your website fine, then do a Ctrl+F5 (or Command+Shift+R on Mac) on your keyboard to force the webpage to refresh completely by clearing its cache as well.

4. What are we looking at in Google Analytics? It’s all mumble jumble to me.

I think this would require a separate post if I were to explain every detail, so stay tuned! People normally just say you should just look at your Page Views to know how many people has visited your site. It’s actually the Absolute Unique Visitors count that matters. More mumble jumble, you say? I’ll explain more next time 🙂

There you have it. I hope I’ve answered your questions correctly. If anyone would like to add anything to the answers above, or if I’ve made a mistake, please let us know. If you have any questions about blogging, do leave them in the comments below or email me directly.