>> By
the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a
key
part of online culture. "Blog readership shoots up 58%
in
2004 6 million Americans get news and information fed to
them through RSS aggregators But 62% of online Americans
do
not know what a blog is." - Pew Internet & American Life
Project
Tip #1 - How and Where Should I Start?
You should begin your blog with a free blog hosting
service
such as Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), or other
similar
free services such as JournalHome.com, LiveJournal.com
or
Blog-City.com. The learning curve for using such free
services allow you to spend more on developing your
content
rather than worrying about the advanced areas of
scripting,
hosting, or programming.
Tip #2 - The Things You Should Decide to Write About
Although not a required prerequisite for you in order to
write a blog, it is highly recommended to try to find a
topic to write about based on your level of interest and
knowledge. The higher your level of interest, the easier
it
is for you to get your quality content posted on your
blog.
Always try to choose an area which you can
enthusiastically
write about on a daily basis.Try to pay attention to a
niche
which suites you well. A niche is basically a targeted
product, service, or topic.
Tip #3 - Always stay on topic.
Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the
items
in the blog should all relate to a general theme. The
majority of your readers will be interested in the
content
that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely
defined
area of interest. Define a topic and try not to run too
far
away from it. This will ensure that you create a loyal
following of interested readers.
Tip #4 - Information is king, be informative.
If you are attempting to create the impression that you
are
knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be
sure
that you stay current on news. Checking your facts
before
you're giving out an opinion or a product review is
always a
good idea, your reputation is at stake. If by any chance
you're utilizing other people's articles for you blog
content, ensure that you follow the terms of usage
defined
by the author.
Tip #5 - Old news is not news, but old information can
be
recycled and made new. While blogging everyday can be
strenuous and time consuming, it is important that the
information presented is current and accurate.
Information,
articles or any other archived resources can be recycled
/
modified to add more substance to your content. As long
as
they're relevant and informative, there's no reason why
it's
not a good approach.
Tip #6 - Be disciplined and stick to a fixed posting
schedule. Realizing that blogging requires time and
effort,
don't create unrealistic expectations and be unable to
deliver. If you have worked hard to develop an audience
and
a community you don't want to lose them due to lack of
communication. If time is not on your side, take
advantage
of tonnes of automatically updating contents which are
available for your blog. Looking at the constantly
updating
nature of RSS feeds, other RSS feeds from similar topic
can
be inserted within your blogging post.
Tip #7 - Posting Frequency
If your blog content is updated frequently, search
engines
will tend to spider the pages at regular intervals.
Updating
your blog daily not only keeps your blog more
interesting to
readers, but it also gives your blog fresh content on a
day
to day making it more appealing to search engines. To
keep
your blog traffic and retain your visitors interest it
is a
must to update your blog daily with multiple entries.
You
should try to update your blog everyday with at least 2
- 3
or more daily entries, depending on your daily schedule.
Tip #8 - Quantity matters.
In order to attract the attention of search engines, you
will need to produce a relevant amount of content and
information. A headline or simple sentence is not going
to
generate the interest of readers or help with search
engine
ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a
large portal of similarly-themed content.
Tip #9 - Clarity & simplicity / Short & Concise
Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to
understand. Simplicity always produce better results at
the
end of the day.
Aside from the lengthy article a week for syndication
and
publication your blog entries should be short & concise
(if
you can help it). Should you insist on partaking on the
lengthy road, try to maintain a clean paragraphing style,
proper spacing, use different size, color and bold for
your
titles as well as the subtitles. Use bullet points, go
straight to the point and never run out of topic. Insert
images to spice up things if you're an avid fan of long
posts.
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