Blogging. Some people love it. Some people hate it, but many writers consider it a necessary part of their jobs. No matter which side of the emotional fence you're on, here are five blogging tips to help, especially with the A to Z Blogging Challenge right around the corner.
Make sure your subscribe button is easy to find. The blogs people read regularly are the ones delivered directly to their inboxes. Test your subscription process by having someone who isn't tech-savvy (an older relative, perhaps?) try to subscribe to your blog. If it doesn't go well, you can always blog about the possibly humorous results.
Speaking of subscriptions: subscribe to your own blog. It's a great way to make sure the formatting is what you expected. If there's a glitch, you can quickly discover it on your own.
Create an interesting blog post title and make sure it shows up as the email subject line for your subscribers. I recently learned how to customize mine so that it doesn't say Yvonne Ventresca's Blog. Quite frankly, a name-only headline is boring and likely to be deleted on a busy day. It's often the post's title that entices someone to open it.
Most people include graphics or photos to complement the text. My favorite site for this is morgueFile. They offer a wide selection of photos for free. If you can't find the perfect photo, try editing one or adding your own text. I use the free version of PicMonkey for this. Here's an example of one of my creations:
And my favorite tip: keep a log of your blog posts. After a year of blogging, I had a hard time remembering what topics I'd covered and what links I might have already referred to. It took several hours, but I finally created a file that includes the date, URL, blog title, and a summary. Now I update it as I add new posts (which I wish I had done from the beginning!). It's useful to be able to search in a single file instead of scrolling through numerous old posts. Having the log has already saved me more time than I invested to create it. For A the Z Challenge last year, I also made a Pinterest board of posts to help keep them in one place when the month was over.
If you have any favorite blogging tips or resources, please let me know! I also appreciate links to articles about blogging and examples of favorite blogs.
I hope you'll visit on April 1st for the beginning of my productivity-themed month!
I hope you'll visit on April 1st for the beginning of my productivity-themed month!
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