Guidelines for

Effective Blogging

Write With The Reader In Mind. • What’s In It For Me? That’s what you should be keeping in mind. Your

reader will read your post looking for what’s in it for them.

Make It Valuable And Worthwhile. • Don’t waste people’s time. If you don’t have anything to say, no

problem, plenty other people do. So share their articles, do an interview, review a book.

Proof-read For Typos And Glaring Grammatical Errors. • Respect your readers by polishing up your stuff.

Keep It Short And Simple• People reading online are out of time. Get to the point quickly.

Publishing short posts frequently is better than publishing lengthy articles every few weeks.

Keep It Lively, And Snappy.• Even if you aren’t a natural born writer, you can write for your blog.

Just write like you’re speaking to your friend or to yourself!

Link often. • This builds credibility and positions you as an expert in your field. People

don’t have time to know what others are doing, you should tell them. Linking to other blogs and websites also helps you build a network of associates who will in turn link to your blog.

Use keywords often. • This will help you stay on purpose, and the search engines will love your

blog. Your rankings will go up, The clearer you are about your purpose, the more consistently you will deliver messages that are on target.

Include bullet point lists• We all love lists, it structures the info in an easily digestible format.

Make your posts easy to scan• Every few paragraphs insert a sub heading. Make sentences and

headlines short and to the point.

Controversial / In-Your-Face Headlines. • Write a headline that’s opposite of what people would expect. Write a

headline that takes an obviously controversial or bizarre stance. Write a headline that’s “in your face” and to the point.

Take a Stand. • If you waffle in a post, or present too many sides to an argument, no one will

bother commenting. Take a stand, stick with it, argue as persuasively as you can

End Blog Posts With Questions. • Make the question as specific as possible. “What do you think?” might not be

inspiring enough to get someone to comment. Re-iterate the point or argument of the blog post in the question, to make it as direct and pointed as possible.

Never stop editing, until you hit “publish.”• (Even then, you can still edit.) Edit with broad strokes: “Am I saying what I really

wanted to say?” And edit with a fine-toothed comb: “Is that word really necessary?”

Connect the Dots.• If one day you’re talking about how to train a dog and the next day you’re

talking about politics, you’ll attract an audience but not a community. Note keywords in your blog post, and link them to something you wrote previously. Do this to link to other blogs as well. Use Google Blog to find information on your subject matter, read some of the posts, and find some worth linking to.

Check l i s t

• Is the topic clear to someone who only reads the headline?

• Does the lead paragraph tell who and what the story is about and why the reader should care about it?

• Is the angle you’ve used likely to seem newsworthy?

• Would someone who knows absolutely nothing about this topic understand this post?

• Is the post free of jargon?

Check l i s t

• Is it written in journalistic style and does it make an effort to be objective?

• Have you peppered the headline and the post with keywords and phrases that will be attractive to search engines?

• Did you remember to ask your readers a question at the end, or something to stimulate readers to comment?

• Did you remember to write with the reader in mind, always keeping in mind WIIFT? (What’s in It for Them?)