Proper blog posting

Lots of tips on writing effective blog posts from this post on the Whatsnextblog (their points are in italics with my comments in plain text):

• Short, declarative sentences are good.  I agree.
• Link like crazy.  This can sometimes be a total pain in the ass if you are writing about a lot of products; I tend not to link to the site of every product I mention, but always try to link to blog posts and articles that I reference.
• Write less.  Brevity is king.
• Aim at keeping your posts at about 250 words.  I certainly try to write brief posts, but sometimes more has to be said.
• Include complete thoughts in headlines.  As you may have noticed, I enjoy sometimes asking questions in headlines, but I always try to make them specific questions.
• Keep sentences and paragraphs short.  High emphasis on brevity -- got it.
• Don't take yourself too seriously.  Good advice.  Not everyone is going to agree with what I write and that's ok.
• Write like it counts.  Act as if.  Act as if every reader is paying for your content.

 

• White space is your friend.  But not necessarily in the middle of a bullet list.
• Use the simplest possible word and sentence structure.  Maybe.
• Read your post out loud.  I never do this -- posts go straight from my brain to the page and probably read that way in many cases.

There's a whole lot more on the post and some advice on commenting.  Listen:  You should have fun with your blog; if it starts feeling like a job and not fun, then all the rules/advice in the world will not make it anything more than a painful process.

Lots of people write blogs for themselves, but let other people read them -- that's ok!  Some of the posts that I put up are about information that I think I'll want later and so I post it to allow me to Google it by searching my site later on.

The funny thing is that many of the blogs that I read I enjoy reading because they do not adhere to any of the suggestions above.  You get out your blog what you want to get out of it, but if you are posting for people to read, remember the old saying: Garbage In, Garbage Out.