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Greetings Bloggers!

April showers bring May flowers, or at least that's what is said. It totally depends on what part of the world you live in whether or not you are getting flowers or the leaves are falling. Even in the parts of the globe where this might be a true saying, it isn't always the truth. Some places will witness the blooming of beautiful flowers as early as March while others will not enjoy those same flowers until closer to the end of May.

However it works where you live, spring is a great time for gardening bloggers. Everyone who has an interest in planting, landscaping, and anything that involves growing things loves this time of year and will be devouring all the blogs about this subject. If you are someone who has a gardening blog, you have probably noticed a jump in your traffic lately and you should take full advantage of that. Knowing your audience and meeting their demands is all important when it comes to maintaining a successful blog.

This month, in Blogging 101, you will learn some things about setting up your blog. It's never as hard as you think and, once you get on the right path, you will wonder why you ever panicked at the thought. For veteran bloggers, this may be a visit to your past that will bring a smile or two.

You want to draw readers to your blog over and over again. The way to do this is through having something interesting to say. Our Feature Article this month offers some ideas on keeping your blog fresh, new and exciting for your readers.

After a long day of blogging, you and your family will still need dinner. This month features a quick and easy dinner that everyone will love, and you won't have to spend hours in the kitchen.

Be sure to check out what your Horoscope says for the Merry Merry Month of May! You may like what you see!

It's time to let you start reading now. We hope you find something useful as well as enjoyable.

Happy Reading!

How to Set Up Your Blog

Once you have made the decision that you have a subject that you're passionate about, and that you have something important to say about that subject, you're probably ready to set up your blog. This may cause some people to become panic stricken while, for others, it is highly exciting and some of the most fun associated with blogging. You get to choose what sort of theme to use for your blog, which will be the colors, the pictures, logos and fonts that you get to select from the many thousands of them available. Finding the perfect ones that resonate with the subject of your blog is a lot of fun, but don't let that blind you to how very important it is to get it all just right.

Some of the most popular blogging tools and publishing programs are B2evolution, WordPress, and Nucleus. Of these three software choices, WordPress is widely chosen. It is easy to use and offers a lot of different options to help you keep up with the amount of traffic you're getting as well as where that traffic is coming from.

Many WordPress themes are available online for all types of topics for blogs. Some of these charge a fee to use while many are totally free. People tend to enjoy designing these themes and get a sense of pride when bloggers choose them. Plan to spend a lot of time figuring out which theme you want to use for your blog because it will take a lot of time to go through them all. It's so easy to get lost in the sea of designs.

Once you have the design chosen, it's time to decide what sort of font you want to use. Font styles and colors are all very important as well because they help to create a page that your readers will be excited to visit. Use your topic in choosing the best ones. For example, if you are doing a blog on meditation, you will want to select a calming background as well as colors that will bring about a feeling of serenity and peacefulness. A blog about green living will benefit from lots of green colors involved. You get the idea. The goal is to evoke the feelings of what your blogging topic is.

Use your creativity when setting up your blog so that interested readers will flock to it. There's no hard and fast rule about keeping your first chosen theme in place forever. If you feel a facelift is in order, there's nothing that says you can't do it. This is pretty much a "learn as you go" process when you are starting a blog for the first time. Enjoy the experience and it will show.

Next month: Publishing Your First Blog

How to Keep Your Content Fresh and Interesting

One of the hardest things about blogging can arise when the blogger runs out of things to say. As words are what keep your blog going, if your mind goes blank, so will your blog page. While this is a common occurrence, it does not have to be a fatal one. There are some ways to dig yourself out of this problematic hole without losing your blog.

A great way to get fresh content is to invite guest bloggers to your blog. Invite one or as many guest bloggers as you need. Even though you may blog about the same things, everyone thinks differently and has different opinions whether the issues are the same or not. Don't worry that you will lose your readers to the guest blog as loyal readers will always be interested in what you have to say!

If you are having problems coming up with new things to say about your chosen topic, try a contest of sorts. Come up with a topic relevant prize for the person who invites the most new visitors to the blog, or who is responsible for the most comments on a post. Use your imagination and come up with something that will make the blog exciting to visit. In fact, you can even make THAT a contest. Invite your readers to come up with a contest idea. They love to be involved.

A lot of times you just need to research your topic. While you may know many things about your chosen topic, there are always new things to find out when you look. So, when you run low on material that comes from your brain, try looking around at OTHER material. A very high percentage of the time you will find a spark of an idea in this new information and you will be off and blogging again.

Whatever path you take to find new and fresh material for your blog, remember that it's much better to choose an alternative method of blogging rather than just not doing anything for any length of time. When your readers visit your blog too often only to find nothing new written there, chances are you will lose them. Therefore, when you run into a block, try something to keep things going until you have regained your voice.

Creamy Mac and Cheese Ham Bake

When you are busy blogging or working at whatever job you do, it can make for a very busy day. However, you and your family both need to eat. Following is a tasty, nutritious, and easy to make dinner. Not only is it fast and easy to put it together, but it lets you save money by using leftovers.

Ingredients:

• 1 7.25 oz. package of macaroni and cheese dinner mix
• 1 ½ cups of cooked ham or chicken, cubed or chopped
• 1 ½ cups (6 oz.) of shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup of cream style cottage cheese
• ½ cup of sour cream
• ½ cup onion, chopped
• ¼ tsp. of ground black pepper
• ¼ cup of soft bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp. snipped fresh parsley or 1 tsp. dried parsley flakes (if desired)
• 1 tbsp. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Fix the macaroni and cheese mix by following the package instructions, only exclude salt. Stir in the ham or chicken, 1 cup of cheddar cheese, the sour cream, cottage chest, pepper, and onion. Mix well and put into an ungreased 1 ½ quart baking dish.

Using a small bowl, mix the bread crumbs, and parsley, if desired, along with the melted butter. Sprinkle this over the mixture of macaroni. Top with the rest of the ½ cup cheddar cheese.

Bake 30 minutes, uncovered, or until entire mixture is thoroughly heated and the crumbs have turned golden brown.

This recipe makes 4 servings but can be increased by increasing the recipe ingredients. Serve with a salad or cooked vegetable.

Have a look at your personal Zodiac sign below to find out what lies ahead of you this month!

	The month of May has you brimming with new ideas and chomping at the bit to get them in writing. Go ahead and get started so as not to lose your momentum. Someone has been watching you for awhile now and wants to get to know you better. It might be time to find out who it is.
	Magic and mystery keep you thinking that you need to do something useful this month but, at the same time, you don't know quite what that is. Everyone knows you're a dreamer and they accept you as you are. Those who don't are not that important in your life anyway. Forge ahead with whatever comes to mind.
	No one knows what you need better than you do, or at least that's what you think. Give people a break because they have things they need to do, too. Concentrate on your future and see what your goals need to be. Once you know the questions, you will find the answers.
	May can be a fantastic month for you if you just sit back and let it. There are many special things you need to take care of this month and you already have a list of what they are. Passions run deep and you will know just what you need to do with them. Expect happier times than you've had in awhile.
	Your fickle side comes out this month and you can't seem to control where it leads you. Hurting feelings was not something you ever meant to do but you just can't help looking over the fence for greener grass. Professionally, you do pretty well this month. Ideas run rampant and you take charge of implementing them.
	Even though you are known to be somewhat of a crab for the most part, this month you need to fight those urges. People will get tired of being around you unless you perk up a little. Do you really want to be alone all the time? Of course you don't! Start smiling, even if you have to FORCE it. Soon, it will be a real one.
	You have a tendency to display a lazy streak sometimes. But that's ok. People expect a great leader, such as yourself, to be a bit laid back at times. You'll still be asked to be the leader of band on more than one occasion and you should take that as the highest form of flattery. Give the people what they want.
	Stop being such a fuss budget this month. It's the month of May and you need to let yourself feel a bit of that spring fever. Take time to pick the roses and make a bouquet or two with them. Too much order in your life can actually cause a stressful disposition at times. Loosen up a bit.
	You're known for your fair judge of situations and people come to you for advice on many occasions this month. Be honest and tell things like you see them but do try to have a bit of compassion when you do it. Something exciting is coming your way and you will be hard pressed to contain an unusual burst of excitement.
	You feel like you want to break free this month and not be tied down to anything. However, there is someone who wants nothing more than to tie you down in many different ways. It seems that you mesmerized the wrong person this time and now you will pay for that error. Don't worry, though. It won't be ALL bad.
	This month promises to give you the chance to get many projects completed that you thought would always be up in the air. Accept help where it's offered and don't feel guilty about taking it. These are still YOUR ideas, no matter how many it takes to get them implemented.
	The entire month of May promises to have you excited about many things. It seems that as soon as one thing is completed, another one swoops in and begins. Your energy level is going to be quite high, which is a good thing because you will need it. Be aware of someone peeking around corners at you.

That wraps things up for May, Bloggers! We hope you enjoyed this month's newsletter and will maybe take away something new with you. Please feel free to let us know any comments and suggestions that you may have.

Until next month,
Happy Blogging!