Dear Janette the Jongleur,

I have never been so flattered to have someone offer to guest blog as when Janette did. She is the sweetest little blogger on the block. And I read her blog religiously! She has really great morals and values, she is funny, her blog is stylish, and there are all sorts of other good things that make her my favorite blog to read. And now she is here for you to read too! Ladies and gentlemen (do guys even read this?) Miss Janette!

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Hello Deidre's friends and blog readers!!!! My name is Janette and I blog over at Janette the Jongleur. It's a happy little lifestyle blog mostly featuring a collection of thoughts and photographs of my daily shenanigans as a SoCal resident, wife, and photographer.

I'm super excited to be here filling in for your lovely blogtress, Deidre, while she's off getting hitched and enjoying her first few days as a Mrs (Who's excited to see wedding pictures?!!Woo hoo!)....So what's the hot topic today? Well, I’m here to talk about how to potentially get more followers. It's the bloggers' question of the hour, right? So here's some tips I know have worked for myself, and others.

 Remove Spam Codes/Disqus Comments/Don't be a No-Reply BloggerMake it easy for visitors and readers to get connected with you... Seriously.. When I type a comment on a first time visit, the last thing I want to see is a captcha code. I can't read those.... EVER! If you get spammed, delete the spam comment and or enable the comment approval option. And don't even get me started on Disqus!!! I mean.. I know a lot of people use it, but it's a personal turn off. The less I have to type to get connected to someone, the better. (I hate having to type out my long-winded thoughts and then go back and add my name, email address, and shoe size.. Oy!)

Link Up PartiesWhether you participate or create your own, Link-Ups are a great way to direct traffic to your own blog. I've seen certain blogs e x p l o d e  after joining a handful of linkups. Also, if you do participate, try to be one of the first 5 to link up. You are more visible and likely to make some new friends the closer you are to the top! (Join my personal link-up soiree, Cool. Not Cool. Undecided!)

Button-Swaps!Buttons swaps sort of stress me out..But they are helpful in making new connections and getting your blog out there. Just make sure you specify uniform button sizes. Nothing is worse than getting a ginormous button from a blogger that doesn't fit your side column width...Make it look organized!

Signature LinkWhen you leave a comment on someone's blog, leave a link that leads to your blog home page. Do not just copy and paste your URL in the comment. Leave a LIVE link for easy access. Here's the HTML for that:

<a href="YOUR BLOG URL HERE">YOUR NAME HERE</a>

Just Keep Blogging!Sometimes we become too obsessed with how many followers we've gained in a week, when we really shouldn't worry about that stuff.  Honestly, if you just keep blogging and attempt to make real connections with other bloggers, new readers will come! It's a fact! Just be yourself and keep doing what you're doing! THEY WILL COME!Please share any ideas that you've seen work in the comments below! Thanks so much for reading! And before I go, I just wanted to give a big juicy thanks to Deidre for having me! Congrats woman! Hope you have a magical day! Please feel free to visit my blog, Janette the Jongleur, any time!

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See what I mean? She is very smart at blogging. And now I really really really want you to go to her blog and just read all the posts you can so you can see why I love her blog SO much.

Love,

Deidre