A Blog about Blogging

Reading habits:

• People scan web pages
• Reading quickly
• Write to people to sync with their reading habits

Be concise! But note that it takes time:

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time!” Blaise Pascal

Jacob Nielsen’s writing tips:

1. Picture your readers, their background, and interest in your topic
2. Write a clear, meaningful title that will help the user decide if the post is relevant (see world’s best headlines)
3. Include typical search terms into the title or first sentence
4. Begin with a short summary of your conclusions – what will users find in this post and how it is relevant to them?
5. Keep the post short – use links for detail
6. Be sure a sentence or bullet point with a link gives an accurate picture of what it leads to – don’t waste the reader’s time
7. Include an image, table, or list to make it visually interesting and focus on key information
8. Stay above the scroll if possible
9. Write the post early then let it cool off and read it aloud

Benefits of blogging:

1. Backlinks
• A powerful ingredient in Search engine optimization (SEO) 
2. Increased Web traffic to your site
• Traffic == sales leads
3. Publish content easily
4. Ping search engines quickly
5. Establish credibility as an expert

Some advice:

• Frequency is important
• Write often
• Be yourself, follow your style
• Be creative
• Gather content ideas, then build your own
• Follow hot topics
• Comparisons
• How to
• Top 10 lists (or top 5)
• Industry trends
• Do not over do
• No repeats of the same things
• No “release notes”
• No “link farms”
• Use links and cross reference
• Link others, other blogs
• No “click here”
• Use internal links to link your won stuff
• Use tools
• I used Windows Live Writer for this blog
• Blog!
• “Write something”