Bloggin’ mistakes to avoid like fried food

Okay, as promised, here are some things I’ve learned in my five year bloggin journey.

1. People are busy.  And their eyes are already full of lots of things.  Keep posts short, punchy and conversational.  Watch the word counter at the bottom and when it hits 400 words, it’s time to start bringing it in for a landing.  500 word posts are much easier to read and digest.  Actually, on my first draft I usually write as much as I want and then I go back and delete to get to the right word count.  I’m always amazed at how hard it is to eliminate stuff, but how little I miss it when it’s gone.
2. Including a picture in your blog makes it 43% more likely to be clicked on.  Okay, I have no idea if that’s true, but I do know that pictures help people want to read what you wrote.
3. White space is lovely.  Use short paragraphs and choose a template that isn’t too busy.
4. Even if you love, love, love different colors of font and black backgrounds, really look at it before you push publish to make sure it’s readable to someone who doesn’t already know what it says.  If it’s hard work to read a post, people will pass it by.
5. You can read lots of advice about how to grow your audience and monetize your blog – I’m not a good source for that, but Michael Hyatt’s blog is a good place to start.  I don’t like to look at stats or views or whatever…it just makes me nervous and distracts me from writing so I mostly stay away from that stuff.
6. If you’re just in this for fun, you can do whatever you want (yay!)  If you want to grow a business, sell a book, start a community, etc, you should definitely get some design help. I did everything on my own until just about a year ago and then I moved my blog to my own site (and out of WordPress’ free platform) and had someone else handle the mechanics of it (I know nothing about html code and my brain is happier for it.)
7. Nothing makes me give up on reading a blog more quickly than typos, spelling and grammatical errors.  If you’re prone to making them often (stuff gets by us all – the occasional mistake is fine) get some help with proofing or editing.
8. FEEDBACK is very important.  That’s why I typed it in all-caps like that.   Get input from friends, readers, etc., about how your writing hits them.  It’s a great way to stretch and grow.  Also, don’t use all-caps like I did just now – it’s not professional.  Also, beware the magical allure of the…ellipses  (they’re like the Twinkie of punctuation).
9. {Hypocritical advice alert}  Respond to people who comment. This is a dialogue, not a diatribe.  {I’m shamefaced over this one.  Sometimes I have the time and sometimes I just absolutely do not.  But I should!  It’s polite and it facilitates conversation and creates a more civilized society all around.  I’m really going to try to improve on that when my schedule slows down.}
10. Have fun.  It’s just a blog.

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