» Some Tips for Writing Blog Posts

Some Tips for Writing Blog Posts

26. Aug, 2010

: Image via Wikipedia

We all know that having a blog is an important part of keeping our audience (perhaps our customers) up to date with recent news and anything we’ve found and want to share. Sometimes the problem becomes a lack of time, ambition, or inspiration while writing. There are a lot of tips we’ve collected for helping to write blog posts (and write better posts too) that we would like to share.

In this article we’re going to discuss some recent tips from 2010 to help with keeping on top of your blog but without sacrificing time taken from your normal life. It can be difficult to keep up with the changes when everything is changing so fast; Google is working on rolling out a new feature for Google Maps in some locations, by hiring out local freelancers to capture 3D panoramic photographs from the interior of businesses who agree. One of our clients from the Twin Cities in Minnesota opted-in, this link currently opens a street-view of the storefront, imagine being able to walk in the store from there! Knowing about tools and techniques like creating and managing Facebook pages, connecting with Twitter, installing and configuring the countless widgets and plugins available, creating applications, and the benefits of each depending on usage will all factor into your chances of success.

Image via Wikipedia

For example: We just installed a plug-in that helps us find related information about the subject we post, it comes from a service called Zemanta. They offer a great way to help you find related graphics/photos and articles, with the WordPress plugin you can start writing your post and additional content appears on the right which is related to what you have typed. The plugin also automatically determines which text could be linked up and will even apply the links for you!

So for those who haven’t watched the video, it is a talk given by Tim Ferriss called “How to Blog without Killing Yourself”, he posted the video on his own blog on a post called How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself which contains a list of the topics below the embed. I highly recommend that you read that post and the rest of his blog (and don’t forget to buy his book, The 4-Hour Workweek).

Do The Math

If you’re blogging away and wondering why it’s not working out, the honest truth is that you’re not doing something (perhaps many things) right. Let’s say you’re spending an hour each day writing posts even posting every day; I need only to quote Lincoln to explain why there is much more to having a successful blog than writing posts and getting back-links.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Paying attention to statistics is crucial, your understanding and usage of the information available about the reaction of your visitors will determine your chances at success. First you must determine key performance indicators (KPI) and increase your ability to monitor them. On August 30th 2010 Tim Ferriss wrote up an article called Blogging by Numbers explaining this much better than I could, he’s obviously spent a lot of time learning about the factors of success and how to get great results in efficient ways.

So the point here is that every little thing matters when you’re studying, but what you end up focusing on is what counts most.

: Image by smemon87 via Flickr

Word of mouth is one of those key factors you should be thinking about, this is what proper usage of social networking tools is all about, this socializing process is what moves knowledge about you to those who don’t know already and from a trusted source. You need to provide a way for people to pass along information about you easily; another great WordPress plugin that we use is called Disqus, which is a replacement for the built-in / standard commenting. With Disqus you can quickly get a wide range of great tools that your visitors can use, from a simple “like” to a fully automated trackback system. Check it out today if you haven’t already.