More on Blogging (or Moron Blogging): Day Twenty-Three

Having jumped into the pool, we continue to paddle our way around, occasionally sinking, but ever availing ourselves of the life rafts that surround us in the forms of online resources and local experts who are willing to be interviewed for the price of food and booze.



Recent searches have turned up some useful articles and suggestions:

Are You a Digital Slowpoke? 10 Ways to Catch Up. (Don't you love the title?)

Found lots of other interesting stuff on MarketingProfs.com

General consensus is that serious bloggers use Wordpress. While I may aspire to such heights eventually, I will think long and hard about abandoning blogger, where I have achieved a modicum of competence. Research indicates that Wordpress is less user friendly. Our experience supports this. We attempted a brief foray into Wordpress round about Day 13 thinking we might transfer this whole kit and kaboodle but were flummoxed at the starting block, so we pressed on with blogger. There are pros and cons to each platform, detailed here. Thank you hubpages.com.

Loved this list of "Awful Blogging Practices". (Gosh, I hope we've avoided them!) Here's the full article. Thank you 2createawebsite.com.

The Seven Deadly Sins.....



1. Lack of Focus--Think boutique, not Wal-Mart.

2. Impatience--Technorati says most top ranked blogs are at least three years old.

3. Social Bookmarking Overload--Don't crowd your template with these icons--most readers don't know what they are ignore them.

4. Overabundance of Ads--To generate income from a blog you must: 1) build useful content; 2) attract targeted traffic 3) monetize the traffic with ads and affiliate programs. Don't reverse the steps by posting ads first; Content is King and that's what will make your blog a success.

5. Ignoring Stats--To maximize traffic, you've got to crunch the numbers.




6. Ineffective Post Titles--Each post is a hook--you'll notice that we've nixed the practice of starting our post titles with "Day Twenty-Three"--because that tells you nothing and attracts no one.

7. Overly Formal Tone--Online writing is conversational, so adjust your style accordingly. Unless you are writing for the United Nations blog or some equally esteemed institution, lighten up, include your readers, encourage comments.

So comment, NOW, dammit!

Posted by: Keri