If you were to go back to the moment you decided to start a blog, what 10 blogging tips would you share with yourself?
1) When you think of something to write about, draft a post. Right then. Don't wait. You will forget what you were going to say, I promise.
2) Try to keep your content consistent. It's super annoying to fall in love with blog, only to check it day after day and be disappointed to find no updates.
3) That said, if you don't blog every day, it's not the end of the world. How many readers do you really think you have? Don't sacrifice sleep for the sake of uploading blog photos.
4) Go ahead and write about whatever you feel like. Don't forget, you're doing this for you.
5) Use tags to sort your posts, but try to keep your number of tags under control. It's easy to label each post something different, but it quickly becomes overwhelming. Consider your content.
6) Comments are awesome, so share the love. When other bloggers take the time to leave a note, venture to their blog and write back. Even better, join a group like SITS where you can meet and converse with lots of fun bloggers.
7) Use photos to break up long, wordy posts. Try to resist the urge to just grab one from Google Images. You don't have be a pro. Try Picnik for easy edits.
8) And when you do use an image or text from elsewhere, ALWAYS give credit where credit's due.
9) Keep it simple. So many blogs are loaded with so many graphics that it's hard to see the content for the clutter.
10) Please, please, please consider the rules of grammar, at least a little bit, before hitting the "publish post" button. Nothing makes me unsubscribe faster than a blog filled with spelling mistakes and zero regard for the English language.
What are your blog tips?
Thanks, as always, to Mama Kat for the writer's prompt.
I thought of a couple more things ...
ReplyDelete[+] Share the blog love. Link up to your favourite bloggers. If people like the blog you write, they'll probably enjoy the ones you read, too.
[+] Write a welcome page. Let everyone know who you are and what you're all about. We're friends, after all.
Number 10 is the biggest reason why I will not follow somebody. Especially since Google and spellcheck are SOOOO easy.
ReplyDeleteI was nodding along with this post the whole time. Number 1 is so true, and yet I still fail to do it. I'm working on number 5, I didn't realize how important tags are. I'm also working on #10. I tend to start sentences with "And". Kind of a style thing, but I think it might turn people off, I'm trying to stop.
ReplyDeleteI usually keep a list of topics I want to cover. I then make drafts to fill out the topics. Many times I have topics that span more than one post. What usually happens is that those posts are stuck in drafts because I want to post them around the same time and they can't be posted until they all are finished. Arrg.
ReplyDelete