Wednesday, August 26, 2009

How to write a great blog

I've read a lot of blogs, and I know exactly how to write a great one*.

  1. Post regularly. Depending on your audience, between 5 and 50 times per week seems to be a good target.
  2. Pick a topic and stick with it. Examples include:
    • "Get control of your life / weight / money / desk / kids / work / dog / etc."
    • "I have a man-crush on Steve Jobs"
    • "Check out this messed-up sign / cake / pet / website / logo / product / etc."
    • "Isn't my kid / cat / craft / home / etc. cute?"
  3. Use witty, post-relevant pictures, ideally taken with your DSLR, whose model information should be easily accessible on your Flickr site.
  4. Create your own lay-out. Only losers use the default Blogger templates. I mean, really, all you've got to do is layer up some palette masks in Photoshop and drop those into your CSS with a couple lines of Java. Sheesh, my 2-year-old can do that.
  5. Publish a lot of bullet lists. Sometimes numbered lists are ok.
  6. Don't be afraid to plagiarize. After all, are you really going to come up with 5 to 50 original things to say in a week? In a year?
  7. Cross-post. Post a compilation of your tweets, tweet your posts. Don't forget Facebook, LinkedIn, and anywhere else you can tell people what you're telling them.
  8. End your posts with questions. This invites people in on the conversation and gives your readers a warm fuzzy feeling unrelated to the nachos they are eating.
  9. Always leave your audience wanting more.

I'm sure I've left some things out. What would you add to the list?
*Note that I said I know how to write a great blog, not that this is one.

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