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There is no sales tip in the world that will make your blog convert if it’s not a quality blog.
Next week I’ll write about How to get your Blog Traffic to Convert (part five in a 5 part series on Blog Strategy with a focus on clients). But before we can cover that, you must follow these basic principals if you want to your blog posts to convert:
The 10 Golden Rules of Blogging:
1. Start with an SEO friendly infrastructure. Word Press for example has so many useful plug ins such as Netconcepts SEO Title Tag 2.1 that make life (and Marketing) easier.
If you are going to be using social media then you consider having the buttons available below each post.
Consider this, you write a stellar piece of content that is very social media worthy, you submit it to Digg and it’s getting votes. If you don’t have a Digg button you are probably missing out on votes. People want to read the piece and Digg it. Are not as likely to Digg it if they have to go back to Digg to do so.
Socialize Me! Wordpress Plug in is helpful for helping to build friends and your community. blah, blah! technology reviews this plug in well here.
2. Make sure that the design of the blog looks like a blog. Your client will want to make sure that the blog maintains the site’s overall look and feel. This is very important but it’s easy to go overboard here.
Don’t keep too many aspects of the Site’s overall template so that the blog looks more like any other page on their site and not like a blog. A blog should be written in a more relaxed tone than your regular pages and it should look more relaxed too.
Save the Ads for the rest of your site.
3. Write a Killer Headline EVERY time – Headlines have a huge impact on whether your Blog is going to cut through the clutter. Whether your reader finds you through their RSS reader, a keyword search or through social media, a killer title can make the difference of whether it’s going to get clicked on or not.
4. Keep your posts scan-able. Only 16% of people actually read blogs word for word … the rest (84%) merely scan. Make your posts more scan-able by utilizing:
- Lists – easy to scan and read, and typically interesting. Paragraphs are often too difficult or time consuming to read, and are actually avoided.
- Formatting - Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, underlining, to emphasize points. Don’t go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font size, color and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.
- Headings and Sub Headings - Large, Bold words that act as visual cues of what is happening in the subsequent content are effective ways of drawing readers further into articles. Make these intriguing, yet descriptive
- White Space - lot’s of it. Give your copy room to breath.
5. Try to keep the length of blog posts between 400 – 700 words. An easy rule of thumb is limit your post to one major idea per post … if you’re trying to cover more than 1 idea, break it into a series of posts.
6. Get to the Point - be succinct in your writing.
7. Use Pictures/Images - Research shows that readers eyes are drawn down the page by relevant pictures. As Michael points out in don’t forget the images and video, it only takes less than minutes to locate, apply tags to, etc an image for your post.
(From www.ishkur.com)
Good quality images can make a site look incredibly professional. The converse is also true, for example, in most cases clip art is just not appropriate for a Business Blog.
8. Build Credibility by linking out. - the more you link out to other notable sites, the more educated you look as a blogger. Guilty by association can be a good thing.
Plus, when you link to another blog post, that bloggers platform will ping them with your link or trackback. Linking out is a great way to get the attention of other industry authorities.
9. Make sure you disclose relationships where necessary (don’t pretend). It’s a lot easier to Manage one’s Online Reputation by avoiding mistakes versus fixing them after the fact. Most social media issues arise from people pretending to be something that they are not.
Perception is everything. I have no idea if Max is who he says he is but Max’s travelog from the Guardian got of hundreds of negative responses to his explanation of who he is and why he’s blogging.
10. If this is a business blog then write for your reader. You can take a lot more leeway with a personal blog, but the average commercial blog reader doesn’t care what you had for breakfast.
Think about needs your readers looking to satisfy? It is possible to come up with really good content ideas for even the most challenging of industries. Remember that good content adds to the body of knowledge. The days of keeping all your knowledge close to your chest are gone.
As posted in SEO, Blogging.
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20 Responses to “10 Golden Rules of Blogging”
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Top Stumbles - Best of StumbleUpon Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 12:37 pm10 Golden Rules of Blogging…
There is no sales tip in the world that will make your blog convert if it’s not a quality blog. Next week I’ll write about How to get your Blog Traffic to Convert (part five in a 5 part series on Blog Strategy with a focus on clients)….
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HighFivez.com: Your Guide Through The Blogosphere. Find Blogs and Blog Posts. Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pm[…] 10 Golden Rules of Blogging […]
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How to get your Blog Traffic to Convert in 5 Easy Steps Says:
April 21st, 2008 at 9:46 am[…] How do you get your Blog traffic to convert? First and foremost, sales tips are worthless if you don’t follow the 10 Golden Rules of Blogging. […]
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SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources » Blog Archive » How to get your Blog Traffic to Convert in 5 Easy Steps Says:
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 am[…] How do you get your Blog traffic to convert? First and foremost, sales tips are worthless if you don’t follow the 10 Golden Rules of Blogging. […]
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Webmasters Update » Blog Archive » How to get your Blog Traffic to Convert in 5 Easy Steps Says:
April 26th, 2008 at 4:58 pm[…] How do you get your Blog traffic to convert? First and foremost, sales tips are worthless if you don’t follow the 10 Golden Rules of Blogging. […]
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weblog News » Blog Archive » How to get your Blog Traffic to Convert in 5 Easy Steps Says:
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm[…] How do you get your Blog traffic to convert? First and foremost, sales tips are worthless if you don’t follow the 10 Golden Rules of Blogging. […]
April 14th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
This is a great list Jennifer. I like the idea of linking out for building credibility.
April 14th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
All really good points Jenn. I’m really enjoying this series. Although I tend to find it takes a little longer than a minute to find a quality image. I usually spend 15-30 minutes searching for an image that really matches my post.
Perhaps I’m just a little too pedantic though…
April 15th, 2008 at 2:31 am
Great list indeed!
April 15th, 2008 at 7:42 am
These points are all valid blogging basics. For business blogging I added a post that covers the 10 commandments of proper blogging for business as the above are not enough, you mention ethics only at #9 for instance:
http://seo2.0.onreact.com/10-commandments-of-business-blogging
April 15th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Great post Tad! Funny we had the same idea at the same time - great minds must think alike!!!
It’s kind of a cool social media exercise. We both had the same idea but approached it very differently. It just goes to show the value of differing approaches and points of view.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:59 am
@ Michael & Matt - thank you!
@ James - I seem to be getting a little long winded, I know. I started this post as “how to get your blog to convert” (now next week’s post) But I wrote so much that I realized that I was breaking one of my own rules by having two separate ideas in one post.
So I had to split it off into another one. Thanks for the kind words - I’m really glad that you’re enjoying the series. It’s been fun to write!
April 15th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Great advice, Jenn. Number 6 in particular I should perhaps pay more heed to.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
STUMBLED!
Great post, I am just getting started with blogging.
VOTED for you at:
http://www.newsdots.com/blogging/10-golden-rules-of-blogging/
April 15th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Absolutely true! I agree with you Jenn..it is really important to remember these blogging rules..not only to help your blog but also to keep your credibility and authority..^^
April 16th, 2008 at 4:59 am
“Plus, when you link to another blog post, that bloggers platform will ping them with your link or trackback. Linking out is a great way to get the attention of other industry authorities.”
Jen, YES, this is an incredible tactic for building links over time. When you ping other writers they come read the anchor text you link out on. Use anchor text which lets the writer know you are inside his/her head.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Images and graphics really help to make the page more attractive instead of just endless text.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:22 am
That’s a great list and I have picked up so many tips that I just do not do. The killer headings one always gets me, I consider it but when it comes to writing it just goes out of my head.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:30 am
I like this list. It gave me a couple points to look at!
May 16th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I love it…man blogging is going mainstream though. good and bad…keep it real though..