Thursday Thirteen -- Thirteen Useful Pieces Of Blogging Advice

Thirteen pieces of blogging advice

I've changed the date of my giveaway to January 15:
Mommy Has To Stay In Bed is available online at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble, but you don't have to let your fingers do the walking any further than the comment section of this post, because I have two copies of this delightful book to give away to two lucky winners.  Just leave me a comment about why you'd love this book, or who you'd give it to, and I'll draw two names on January 15, 2008.

Here, in no particular order, are some of the most valuable pieces of blogging advice and guidance I've heard or discovered since I began blogging to promote FeeFiFoto:

1. Use your inside voice.  Using all caps or lots of any exclamation points is distracting and disconcerting.  If you overemphasize what you're trying to say, you'll negate your message.  Manic works for Robin Williams to a point, but he'll wear you out before too long.
2. Quote others respectfully and appropriately.  If you're blogging in the hopes of building relationships or business, you must quote other writers or blogs you find notable for whatever reason, positive or negative, attribute your quotes to the appropriate sources, and link back to them.
3. Edit, Edit, Edit.  Write as much as you want.  Then, revisit your work and cut, then cut some more.  You'll lose readers by blathering on and on once you've made your point.  Franki at Life In A Venti Cup (hi Franki!) edits beautifully -- she says what she has to say and then stops saying it.
   

   

4. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread.  Learn the difference between its and it's; their, there and they're; your and you're; to, two and too, and all the other grammatical pitfalls that make people like me want to run screaming from the room.  If you can't learn proper grammar or proofread for yourself, have someone else proofread your work.  Uneducated writing will weaken even the most intelligent thoughts.  I can't tell you how many times I've visited a blog or web site and turned away in disgust at simple grammatical errors that make me feel as if their way of doing business might be as shoddy as their writing.  For the past year I've labored over rewriting every sentence on FeeFiFoto, from product descriptions to FAQs.  In fact, I'm still uncovering and fixing pre-me errors; if you find any, please let me know.  Look to Antique Mommy for some outstandingly clean writing.  In fact, if you can't handle the proofreading on your own, maybe she'll do it for you -- I'm sure she has lots of free time ;-)
5. Post regularly.  You don't have to post every day, but aim for an average of four posts a week.  To maintain reader loyalty, provide your readers with regular material.
6. Keep your politics to yourself.  Some people might be interested in your views on religion or politics, but confine such opinions to your personal blogging, unless your profession happens to be politics or religion.



7. Make your blog easy on the eyes.  Flashing graphics?  Garish colors?  Endless buttons and banners and links?  Music that plays spontaneously once the page loads?  Cool it.  Take a look at Scribbit and Where's Mommy's Prozac? for fine examples of serene design (wonder if it's the Prozac?).  I've made a concerted effort to coordinate this blog's color scheme with my personalized gift site; especially since my business consists of putting people's photos on things, my site's look had better be clean, aesthetic and appealing. 
8. Use pictures.  Breaking up chunks of text with photos gives the reader a relief from monotony.  Shop Friends uses lots of photos to keep things interesting.



9. Watch your mouth.  Save the racy or venomous language for your personal blog.
10. Keep your ducks in a row.  Categorize your posts, blogrolls and archives to make your blog easy to navigate.
11. Use your manners.  If someone does something for you, say thank you.  If you ask someone to do something for you, say please, and offer to reciprocate.



12. Keep it current.  Check your blogroll occasionally to add new blogs you've discovered and delete any that have become inactive.  If you use seasonal themes or references, retire them once the season has ended.  Check out Rocks In My Dryer for a good example.  The same applies to the look of your web site -- it's hard to convince customers you're serious if you still have your Christmas decorations up on Valentine's Day.
    
13. Allow readers to get in touch with you.  Provide an email address or web address, and don't require readers to register in order to leave comments.  Remember how it feels to press one-two-three-four as you spin in endless circles trying to reach a real customer service person?  That's how it feels when a blogger makes you sign in to leave a comment.

Many many sites are perfect examples of how your blog shouldn't look.  I was itching to highlight them here but I'm afraid of being sued too well trained too polite to mention names.

What's your best piece of blogging advice for 2008?

Visit FeeFiFoto to find personalized photo gifts for Christmas or Valentine's Day.

Comments

[Antique Mommy]

That's a great list - very comprehensive and well written.

[Deb]

Other advice would be to increase your readers by visiting others blogs.

Nice 13! Come on over and check out my delicious 13! If you are on a diet, I'm sorry, I am on the weight watchers died, but I couldn't resist this post!

[Michelle at Scribbit]

Thanks so much for mentioning me, and I'd definitely agree with this tips--all wise advice.

[Tiff @ Three Peas in a Pod]

Great advice!!!!!

[Praise and Coffee]

Great advice, thank you!

[Julie @ Corbett Capers]

Such a fun blog! Just found you today and enjoyed reading several posts. Your 13-list is brilliant! I'll be back to visit here often. :)

[Mommy Cracked]

Excellent! I learned a thing or two.