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April 9th, 2007 | Posted in Blogging 356 Comments »
I’ve been doing research on what distinguishes good blogs from poor ones, especially by reading “lessons learned” posts by bloggers. I’ve come up with 20 principles I think are worthwhile. Let me know which ones you agree or disagree with.
1. Pick a topic for your blog.
Pick a general topic you are passionate about, and stick with that focus as you post. Near the title of your blog, identify your blog’s focus so new visitors can know immediately whether your blog aligns with their interests. In the following image, the blog identifies its theme in the tagline and provides an explanation of the topic on the home page. Paradoxically, having a specific focus actually gives you more to write about. Like a novel, your blog takes on direction and purpose.
2. Encourage comments.
Allow comments, and respond to comments. Blogs are dialogues, not monologues. If you turn commenting off, you lose out on the Web 2.0 aspects of your blog. Comments enrich your thoughts and take you to a higher level of analysis. You benefit from the additions, corrections, tips, and other feedback from readers. To encourage comments, don’t require sign in. Activate Akismet and this math plugin to avoid spam. Add the Subscribe to Comments plugin so users can be aware of follow-up comments. When people comment, respond to their comments, and keep the dialogue going because this is what Web 2.0 is all about: connecting users to each other and sharing information.
3. Make it easy to subscribe.
Make it easy to subscribe to your feed by placing an orange RSS button in a highly visible location. Route your feed through Feedburner so you can keep track of your subscribers. You can also offer an e-mail subscription using FeedBurner. In the example below, subscription information is prominently displayed in the upper-right corner.
4. Include an About page.
Include an about page to let people know more about you. Are you a technical writer based in Seoul, a developer working at Microsoft, a Russian open-source business mogul? Your blog reveals your personal views, so introduce yourself to your readers. Don’t blog anonymously. You can include a photo in your About page — some think it makes you more real to your readers. Include some basic facts, such as where you live, your job title, your interests, and other biographical information. You may want to omit the company you work for, if content on your blog inappropriately reveals company information.
5. Present your ideas visually.
In this culture of scanning and clicking, long blocks of text aren’t read. Break up your text with visuals—graphs, charts, photos, blockquotes, and videos. Annotate the images to reinforce your meaning. Creating Passionate Users always reinforces its message with visuals. If you get photos from other blogs or from Flickr, include a link back to the source. Most popular blogs are visually rich.
6. Keep posts short and to the point.
Keep the text in bite-sized chunks that readers can quickly consume — brevity forces you to get the point quickly. A good post can be 1-2 paragraphs long. Even if your posts are lengthy (like this one), remove all filler and communicate your message concisely. You can also chunk up long posts into several small posts, or use subheadings.
7. Use subheadings for long posts.
If you do post long, use subheadings to break up the text. Copyblogger is a great example to follow. Also use the “Read more” tag so users can scan down the front page without having to scroll eternally. In the example below, Copyblogger breaks up his lists with subheadings and keeps his paragraphs short.
8. Link abundantly.
Links increase readership and let others know you’re writing about them. Others can see incoming links in their blogs. Links also enable trackbacks and pingbacks, allowing your content to appear in the comments section of other posts. Blogs are collaborative, linked conversations. The example below shows a trackback. I linked to another blog in my post, and that link appears as an excerpt in the comments section of the original post. The Kramer plugin is helpful for automating trackbacks, and you can use it to show inbound links in the sidebar of your blog. Links also boost your Google rankings, converting your blog into a powerful search engine optimization tool.
9. Make headlines descriptive.
Avoid vagueness and ambiguity in headlines. Readers scan down a list of titles in a feed, so the article title is telling of whether they’ll read the post. With millions of blogs and new content daily, readers have to skim, scan, and jump around just to keep up. Make it easy by clearly describing your post’s content in the headlines. Copyblogger has some excellent advice for crafting headlines. You can also entice readers with some copywriting techniques, such as asking interesting questions, making lists, stating paradoxes or contradictions, or just being exuberant.
10. Archive by topic.
Archive your posts by topic rather than date. (Date archives may be appropriate for blogs that are personal journals only, rather than topic-driven blogs. For topic-driven blogs, date archives mean little to readers.) About a dozen categories is a good number. You may not know all your categories until you’ve been blogging a while. Along with the archives, include a search feature.
11. Include a list of related posts beneath each post.
Many users find your site by searching for specific information. When readers find your post, why not point them to other posts on your site with similar information? Doing so can increase the page views per reader. In WordPress, you can automatically create a Related Posts section based on matching keywords with the Related Entries plugin. If you want more control (with more effort), use Darren’s Related Posts plugin. You type keywords in the Custom Fields section of a post, and posts that match the keywords are connected as related.
12. Allow users to contact you offline.
Readers may want to contact you offline with a question or comment — perhaps to propose a book deal or to extend an invitation to speak at a conference. You will be perceived as an expert on your topic (the go-to-guy for that topic), and the user’s question may not be related to the comments section of your latest posts. If you make your contact info readily apparent, users can reach you. You can use a contact form plugin (Contact III) or simply make your email address available. In the image below, an editor from Wiley posts — with embarrassment — an invitation for a book deal within the comments.
13. Present your real viewpoint.
“Be yourself and speak your mind,” John Chow says. Readers enjoy the personal aspects of a blog. If you never voice your opinion, your blog loses appeal. You don’t have to reveal your personal life, but a glimpse here and there is appropriate and provides human appeal. In the following screen, the writer expresses her frustration with health insurance limitations. You can rant and still keep it professional (as she does).
14. Write for your future employer.
A blog can be a dangerous tool, and you should know that your future employer, and possibly your current employer, will read it. Avoid posting anything confidential, gossipy, overly-emotional, rude, company-related, or otherwise self-damaging and unprofessional. A blog can be both an asset and liability depending on the information you post. There are at least a dozen stories of employees fired for blogging. Respect your company’s information restrictions, and don’t jeopardize future employment opportunities.
15. Include a Top Posts section.
You can use the WP-PostViews plugin plugin to automate a Most Viewed posts section, or you can create your own list of classic posts. Once your classic posts leave the home page, they’re often buried in your site. Like displaying trophies on a mantle, showcasing your classic posts allows more readers to find and enjoy them.
16. Provide an index.
Much of your site’s traffic comes from search engines. And many readers are first-timers on your site. Providing an index readers can quickly scan (such as with this site map index plugin) is an excellent way to let users skim your entire post collection. An index may increase the page views per visitor. It also shows you just what you’ve written. It’s like a Table of Contents for your site.
17. Get your own URL and match it to your blog’s title.
If your blog title doesn’t match the URL, it will be harder for users to remember the location of your site. It pays to use your own URL. Even if you just purchase a domain and point your hosted Wordpress.com blog to it, it looks more professional. Readers don’t always use RSS to read your blog’s content.
18. Include a Recent Posts section in your sidebar.
A recent posts section in your sidebar provides an at-a-glance index for your latest posts. Especially if you write long posts, the recent posts section allows readers to see what you’ve been up to without scrolling down a lengthy page.
19. Reward commenters for commenting.
If you add the Show Top Commenters plugin, you can show the people who most frequently comment on your blog. This is a simple way to create your own community of readers with similar interests. You should read their blogs and comment on them as well. In this way your blog turns into more than just a one-person show: it becomes a virtual community.
20. Post often.
Posting regularly to your blog, such as daily, every few days, or every week, will change your experience of blogging. It will help you stay engaged with your topic. It will build a greater community of readers, who will post more comments. More comments will make blogging more rewarding and fun, not to mention more content rich for your site — leading to more page views from search engines.
However, if you have nothing to say, don’t blog fluff. That annoys readers even more than not posting and you will lose readers. But if you stay engaged with your topic — reading articles, books, other blogs; listening to podcasts and other recordings; attending events and seminars; and reflecting on the work you’re engaged in — you will have plenty to say each day. Whether you can carve out the time is another matter. The Technorati graph below shows that the most popular bloggers post about twice a day; the least popular post a dozen times a month.
Resources
- Weblog Usability: The Top 10 Design Mistakes, by Jacob Neilsen
- Five Principles to Design By, by Joshua Porter
- 9 Lessons for Would Be Bloggers, by Joshua Porter
- 10 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid, by John Chow
- How to Make a Great First Impression with Your Blog, by Mitchell Harper
- Blogging Tips and Mistakes to Avoid, by Joe Lewis.
- 10 Blogging Mistakes I’ve Made, by Webomatica
- Do You Make These Mistakes with Your Blog, by Brian Clark
- The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging, by Brian Clark
- 10 Effective Ways to Get More Subscribers, by Brian Clark
- 18 Lessons I’ve Learned About Blogging, by Darren Rowse
- Who the Hell Are You? by Lorelle VanFossen
- The Top 10 Clues That You Are An Amateur Blogger, by Lorelle VanFossen
- The Most Powerful Blogging Technique Ever, by Brian Clark
- Top 10 blog mistakes? – maybe, by Kay Smoljak
- Common Blog Mistakes and Users Can’t Distinguish Blogs, by Rok Hrastnik
- 10 Principles of Highly Effective Blogging, by Darren McLaughlin
- 10 Ways to Make Your Blog More Appealing, by Tom Johnson
- How to Start a Blog, by Phil Windley
- The 120 Day Wonder: How to Evangelize a Blog, by Guy Kawasaki
- Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore, by Eric Kintz
- The noisy tragegy of the blog commons, by Seth Godin
- The First 100 Days: Observations of Nouveau Blogger, by Guy Kawasaki
- 10 Simple Tips for Better Blogging, by Angsuman Chakraborty
- The first 7 days of blogging, by Neil Patel
- 10 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid, by Moey
- Why Do Blogs Fail? by Partha Battacharya
- Of Blogs and Novels, by Beth Long
- Top 10 Blog Writing Tips, by Denise Wakeman
I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with any points in particular? Did I miss something major?
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Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog…
Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog is a great list of blogging tips from http://www.idratherbewriting.com
If you have a blog, I would strongly suggest you review and comment on the list.
John Hocking
http://www.blogging-resources.com
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thx for the nice list ! greetz from germany
Great post! Thank you for sharing this valuable information.
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Nice instructions – a few tips I will use for my own blog! Keep on working – thanks!
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I think keeping the dialogue alive responding to comments is probably one of the most important points you hit on. You want your visitors to come back. If they know you’re watching they at least know you care about your blog and hopefully they’ll care to come back.
I agree that enabling dialogue is one of the biggest appeals of blogging. It’s an interactive medium. My readers’ comments make the writing experience more rewarding, not just for the feedback, but for the additional knowledge and insight they add to the topics I’m writing about.
Very nice article. I really liked it a lot and it gave me a few good pointers. Thanks!
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Preved dyatlam!
Thanks Sparky. You rock. I have set up a blog (as you recommended) and am working through a couple issues (cant get email functions to work yet, and which template to use) but your info has been very helpfull.
You are da man’. Hope all is well in Utah!
Andrew, I’m so glad to see you’ve joined the blogosphere. So where’s your blog? As for themes, I think Studio Press looks like a good theme.
Yes, all is well in Utah. I love it here, but of course I miss my family and would like to see baby Hannah.
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I saved your post when I was just getting started with my blog last November, and reading everything I could find. I just revisited it, and have to thank you. This post really reinforced to me that I’m focusing on the right things. My blog certainly has room for improvement, but the tips you offer are the guidelines I’m trying to live by.
One thing I have been struggling with for a couple of months is trying to find a way to add popular posts to my sidebar. The system I’m using (Point 2 real estate websites) simply doesn’t offer that feature. For some reason, when I read this post again a lightbulb just went off. I just created a new tag category and put a * in front of it so it would be the first Tag in the list (* Popular Posts). Then I went back and added this tag to every post that has more than 50 views excluding my monthly market reports. I’ll start including a link to the Popular posts with my related posts at the end of each article, and it should serve my goal of keeping these posts from getting lost in the archives. I can’t wait to change my minimum requirement to 100+ views instead of 50 views.
Thanks for the inspiration!
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Karen, I’m glad you found something useful on my blog. I checked out your site. It seems you’ve gotten off the ground and are moving forward quickly. Looks great. Re the popular posts, I use a plugin from Alex King called Popularity Contest that automatically generates a list of the top 10. With some of the posts, I honestly don’t understand why they’re so popular. But this top 10 is always a feature I look for on a blog. Your technique seems like it would work, but it creates more work for you. Thanks for the note.
Tom,
Thanks for the reinforcement. I wish I could use plugins, but my blog’s system (CMS?) doesn’t allow it. I can’t add anything that has java, and can’t do anything with changing the layout of the sidebar. There is another template I can use that allows some custimization, but there are other downfalls.
I konw that the blog isn’t as flexible as if I went with Wordpress or Typepad, but since my blog is an integrated part of my website (which I really need for my MLS home search and featured listings), every post is increasing the SEO on my website along with my blog. It’s the best solution I’ve come up with as an agent whose job is really to sell houses, and this website stuff is just a means to an end.
My target audience is also not sophisticated blog readers, so they aren’t likely to notice the differences between my blog and the ones that are really spiffy.
I’m focusing on content, and figure that is the most important thing to have it be an effective business tool.
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another usefull article thanks a bunch
This is an excellent post on blogging tips! It took me about 3 years of blogging to learn most of these tips. You described them all on one page!
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This is just a nice post. I am for the first time on this blog and find it really nice one!
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Great info, i appreciate your creative way of writing
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thanks for the info, really good, will make use of it!
Hi there,
Good article about usability and how to build a successful blog. I am blogging about usability as well, hope to see you there some time. Thanks for the article!
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This is a good list of ideas to improve a usability i ever seen!!!
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These are absolutely awesome tips. An indispensable resource. Thanks for this
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sewsarrons last blog post..06/30/08 – Victor Pitts – Buying / Selling Domains pt.2
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[...] Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences [...]
When refering to a another blog one must remember that in order for the trackback function to work you have to link to a particular post and not just the blog’s home page.
I think a lot of people also forget how much it appreciated it is to actually visit the commenters blog and reciprocate with a comment of your own.
When refering to a another blog one must remember that in order for the trackback function to work you have to link to a particular post and not just the blog’s home page.
I think a lot of people also forget how much it appreciated it is to actually visit the commenters blog and reciprocate with a comment of your own.
Sires last blog post..Joining The Crazy Blogging For Money Train
very very helpful article! thanks!
pinoy jobss last blog post..International Student Advisors 4U is it a scam? Maybe not.
WHEN U R READING THIS DONT STOP OR
SOMETHING BAD WILL HAPPEN! MY NAME IS
SUMMER I AM 15 YEARS OLD i have BLONDE
HAIR ,MANY SCARS no NOSE OR EARS.. I
AM DEAD. IF U DONT COPY THIS JUST LIKE
FROM THE RING, COPY N POST THIS ON 5
MORE SITES.. OR.. SUMMER WILL APPEAR ONE
DARK QUIET NIGHT WHEN UR NOT ExPECTING
IT BY YOUR BED WITH A KNIFE AND KILL
U. THIS IS NO JOKE SOMETHING GOOD WILL
HAPPEN TO U IF YOU POST THIS ON 5 MORE
PAGES. (THIS IS NOT FROM ME BUT I HAVE
TO SEND IT CAUSE I FEEL SCARED OFFr /> IT.. SO I DID WHAT IT SAID..YOU SHOULD
TOO) “PLEASE DON’T GO
xdghzdghfs last blog post..How Much Should You Document? Everything? Strategies for an Agile Environment
[...] article Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog from “I’d rather be writing” also has some great blog usability improvement [...]
[...] 20 Usability Tips for your Blog Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Why blogs are now coolUsability of Blogs Posted in Uncategorized | [...]
legitimate stay at home employment…
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[...] Google Talk, Twitter, and cell phone information. Allowing people to easily contact me is one of my 20 usability suggestions for blogs. (Gmail does a good job at filtering out [...]
[...] have in the past come across many useful blogging tips and not paid that much attention for reasons of disengagement and laziness rather than arrogance. [...]
[...] digg.com, rssmeme.com, reddit.com, Writer River site. Besides all this, users can also find interesting usability suggestions on blogging listed on Tom Johnson’s blog I’d Rather Be Writing. Share and [...]
This was great advice! Easy to read, and understandable this will definantly be a BIG help!
Great post, very useful tips.
These all good tips,but akismet is not good for me.My two sites are added in spam and all I do is commenting on blogs,but not spaming.
[...] 25, 2009 by digitalkent This step was worth it for the link to 20 Usability Tips for Your Blog alone. I would have left the Archives widget in because it came with the theme I chose as a [...]
[...] It might take some getting used to but blogging can be fun. Ten Tips for writing a blog post Twenty Usability Tips For your Blog Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Morning Brief — Monday, May 192000 visitors? I [...]
Wow, this information was actually usefull for me. Thanks a lot for this post.
“This was great advice! Easy to read, and understandable this will definantly be a BIG help!”
I agree 100%. you dont see good detailed advice like this very often! thanks a ton.
thanks for the info
[...] Read more > [...]
If you want to write blogs to boost your online business, you need to make it a habit to post your blogs regularly. If you are seriously considering this as part of your marketing methods then you have to start with the right habit. You cannot write today and be gone tomorrow. Your efforts will be put to waste and there will be no effect to your business. Regular and consistent blogs are the ones that generate good results for any business. Success in blogging cannot be felt instantly. It might take some time for your web log to become visible to many internet users.
Another thing that you can write on a blog is advice about your chosen subject. Depending on what you write about, people are going to want to know what they can do to help their life to be easier or better.
It’s genuinely useful to blog about what you recognise. As you’re putting up info to the people and most people depend upon this info for precise points, it’s critical that you blog about the matters you acknowledge the best. You need to be sure not only that the info you broadcast to the world is precise but also that the subject is simple for you to write on.
Thank you very much for your valuable advice….i love this!
Hey, these are some amazing tips. And judging by the feedback these great tips are getting they are resonating with your readers. I am going to try and put this to some use for my photography and digital camera blog. Thank you.
Great post, I really liked how you outlined the musts do’s and don’t for starting up a blog. Time to go make some changes to mine.
[...] Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog – Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences – I’d Rather Be Writing [...]
Very informative post! Thanks.
– 20 Usability Tips For Your Blog –
Good post with to the point advice. Good bloggers know most of them but forget to follow.
Great posts are hard to do consistently on a day-to-day basis. Probloggers really have to work at it. I thought about all the different ways and angles a blogger can approach choosing posting topics
Thanks a lot! I feel like first time reading like a tonne of useful info in this single post. I better practice them now. Thanks again.
Those were the best tips I’ve read so far. I do hope to read more tips from your blog to help blogging newbies like me. Thanks.
Twenty Tips for Bloggers…
These twenty tips are from IdRatherBeWriting, they are very inspired, so make a list of all the tips for myself. you can find the details of the post here.
Pick a topic for your blog.
Encourage comments.
Make it easy to subscribe.
Include an About pa…
Thanks for your inspiring tips!They are great!I am in process of creating a blog for myself,and i extracted dozens of useful stuff from your informative, and easy to follow article!Please keep on!Good stuff!
Hi
that’s awesome, pal. that’s awesome, love to read this post
[...] Twenty usability tips for your blog from ‘I’d rather be writing..from Tom Johnson’ [...]
This is what i am looking for. you put all the elements of blogging into one basket. great to-do-list and i am going to bookmark it.
[...] most popular post on my site is 20 Usability Tips for your Blog. The post combines images with clear list titles. If you don’t get the point from glancing at the [...]
Nice post…The tips for the blog is really nice and interesting..It enables to identify the good and bad things in the blog…The one tip which i like it most is the encouraging comments because we can have direct contact with the customers and get feedback directly…Thanks for sharing!!!!!
[...] 20个实用博客技巧 [...]
Each graphic/audio/video/Flash file should have a definite purpose and be well designed to deliver it… Optimize a contact form to generate leads… It also ensure that there is consistency in navigation, a well-structured site map and easy-to-access pages…
Thank you for information
Thank you for information