Top blogging tips

In my talks I like to tell the audience how powerful a blog can be for themselves or their company, helping them to raise their reputation and build a longer lasting relationship with a whole new audience of potential friends and clients.

Some of them, e.g. Declan Metcalfe and Andrea Tobin, even follow up on my advice.  Andrea subsequently contacted me on LinkedIn to ask for my top blogging tips, so here goes:

How to write

1. Keep it personal; The best blogs are usually personal insights and opinions on a subject that matters to the blogger
2. Keep the posts short; You want people to read them, reference and link to the weightier material.  Great diary blogs, e.g. dooce.com, are perhaps an exception
3. Write about a subject (e.g. PR, football, law, or the trials and tribulations of being a PA) rather than overtly promoting your business.  Blogs are not direct sales channels; you want a long term relationship with your readers
4. Write frequently; It doesn’t have to be every day, but regular short posts will help you to keep an audience
5. Learn from others; Check out the leading bloggers and mimic the best bits.  In professional services look at corporate engagement; or, writing about something that tastes great to you try chocolate & zucchini
6. Use photos to illustrate your posts (where appropriate); They’ll draw an audience. Personal ones are best, but don’t use ‘clipart’ recklessly
7. Be bold, emotive, and give away ‘not too secret’ secrets; You want to embrace and engage your audience.  Enable comments and even crowdsource if you can

Driving traffic to your blog

1. Register your blog on Technorati
2. Put links in your posts to stories on other blogs, and leave comments on other relevant blogs and forums; These will often be reciprocated
3. Enable pings and trackbacks on your site
4. Make your posts search engine friendly; Check out the guide from blogger or your host
5. If you have the technical ‘know-how’ add social news buttons to your posts, e.g. Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon

And finally, an important tip from Tony Pierce’s wonderfully eclectic “how to blog” list:

“27. nobody likes poems. dont put your poems on your blog. not even if theyre incredible. especially if theyre incredible. odds are theyre not incredible. bad poems are funny sometimes though, so fine, put your dumb poems on there. whatever.”