The document provides tips for effective blogging. It recommends blogging at least once a week and not twice in the same day or on weekends. Blog posts should be user-centered, generous with links, and range from 200-word standard posts to longer resource posts. Posts should use short paragraphs, a strong voice, and be a resource by filling a content niche. Blog titles, categories, tags, and RSS feeds should be consistently formatted. Effective blog promotion involves leveraging trackbacks, community involvement, social sharing, and niche networks while avoiding self-promotion on others' sites.
2. WARNING: The following slides are meant to be a starting point. They are not meant to be prescriptive. By all means, ignore them. Except for the last slide.
3. When to Blog 1. At least once a week 2. Never twice in the same day 3. Never on weekends (Lazy blog: for moderate impact off minimal effort.)
4. What to Blog 1. Blog out, not in (user centered content) 2. Be generous with links (people link back!) 3. Shorter standard posts (200 words is fine) 4. Longer resource posts (less frequently) 5. Weekly wrap up post (Because nobody is as interested in your actual business as you are.)
5. How to Blog 1. Shorter paragraphs (for web readability.) 2. Strong voice (companies don't blog, people do.) 3. Be a resource: - Fill a content niche 4. Be personal: - Be funny - If you can’t be funny, be opinionated - If you can’t be opinionated, be intimate (Some basic guidelines.)
6. In the Blog 1. Zingy post titles 2. Indicative category names 3. Consistent, sub-descriptive tags 4. RSS: Full posts (it's about readers not stats.) (Make sure you have these going on in every post.)
7. Anatomy 101 1. Zingy post title 2. Category names 3. Intro paragraph (the hook) 4. Image 5. Entry body 6. Close: quip or sting (or conclusion summary.) 7. Consistent, sub-descriptive tags (The basic elements of a well organised blog post.)
8. Blog Tools 1. RSS reader: Google Reader 2. Feedburner.com 3. Google Analytics 4. StatCounter.com / haveamint.com 5. Google Alerts 6. Dreamstime / iStock (What to have in your blogging back pack.)
9. Blog Promo 1. Leverage trackbacks 2. Find your community (and take part) 3. Comment on blogs in your niche 4. Push your best posts to Facebook, LinkedIn 5. Push your posts to Twitter (in the right ratio) 6. Join niche aggregators and networks 7. Offer social bookmarking tools (Never, ever shill for your blog or company in other people's spaces.)
10. Blog Do Not: 1. Sell on your blog 2. Paste articles in from other sources 3. Steal images 4. Attempt elaborate photo or image layouts 5. Futz with fonts, colours, or text size 6. Astroturf 7. Swap random links 8. Abuse the ellipses or exclamation mark...!!!
