Scott Hanselman wrote a great post on how to keep your blog from sucking. I saw it, liked it and blogged about it myself. At some point I created, with Scott's permission, this presentation based on those posts.

1. 32 Ways to keep your blog from sucking ala Hanselman http://www.hanselman.com/suckless http://www.joshholmes.com/suckless.aspx

2. Stay relevant

3. 1. Know your audience

5. 2. Keep overtly personal information out of your tech blog

6. 3. Don't apologize about not blogging enough

7. 4. Steer clear of politics

8. 5. Don't Blog Bile

9. 6. Think before you blog

10. 7. Don't post throwaways

11. 8. Avoid "excessive quoting"

12. Things to Do

13. 9. Use Spell Check

14. 10. Pay Attention to Formatting

15. 11. Turn on comments

16. 12. Solve comment spam

17. 13. Claim Your Feed

18. 14. Decide what your Blog's URL is, and use it consistently http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ http://www.hanselman.com/blog/default.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog http://hanselman.com/blog/ http://hanselman.com/blog/default.aspx http://hanselman.com/blog http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Default.aspx http://www.computerzen.com/blog/ http://www.computerzen.com http://computerzen.com/blog/ http://computerzen.com/

19. 15. Use Simple URLs for popular posts

20. 16. Have a Code Garage Sale

21. 17. License Your Blog Attribution . You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request. Example : Jane publishes her photograph with an Attribution license, because she wants the world to use her pictures provided they give her credit. Bob finds her photograph online and wants to display it on the front page of his website. Bob puts Jane’s picture on his site, and clearly indicates Jane’s authorship. Our core licensing suite will also let you mix and match conditions from the list of options below. There are a total of six Creative Commons licenses to choose from our core licensing suite. Noncommercial . You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only Examples : Gus publishes his photograph on his website with a Noncommercial license. Camille prints Gus’ photograph. Camille is not allowed to sell the print photograph without Gus’s permission. No Derivative Works . You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it. Example : Sara licenses a recording of her song with a No Derivative Works license. Joe would like to cut Sara’s track and mix it with his own to produce an entirely new song. Joe cannot do this without Sara’s permission (unless his song amounts to fair use). Share Alike . You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

22. 18. Make it easy to subscribe

23. 19. Have your Contact Info Somewhere

24. 20. Have an About Me page

25. 21. Use a Social Bookmarking Service

26. 22. Decide What's Above the Fold

27. 23. Integrate Google Search

28. 24. Consider Using FeedBurner

29. 25. Tune your Bandwidth

30. Things Not To Do

31. 26. "This blog has moved"

32. 27. Don't Break Links - Maintain Permalinks At All Costs

33. 28. Avoid Split Brain - Pick a Blog and Stay There

34. 29. Avoid Crossposting

35. 30. Avoid Category Specific Feeds

36. 31. Don't Blog to Get Rich

37. Conclusion

38. 32. Blog Interesting

39. Josh Holmes’ Recap and additions

40. 1. Know why you are blogging and blog to accomplish your goals .

41. Category 2: Make your blog easy to access, read and interact with

42. Content from Scott Hanselman http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ http://twitter.com/shanselman http://www.hanselman.com/suckless

43. Slides by Josh Holmes http://www.joshholmes.com http://twitter.com/joshholmes http://www.joshholmes.com/suckless.aspx