Fairy Blog Mother
The Fairy Blog Mother is always open to questions about blogging, so when one client showed me a draft post she had compiled to go into her new blog (which I have been designing for her) to ask for my approval, I realised I could share them with you too. Here they are listed below:
1. Short and snappy: I know people do write long blog posts (I know, I’m guilty - there are plenty of examples in this blog) but a good rule is to keep your post to within 250 words (or if you can’t visualise that, about three good sized paragraphs will do) to maintain the reader’s attention. Since a blog is really a conversational medium, it’s not really suitable for long articles with deep intricate discussions, so these are better off posted in article directories.
2. Capture their attention: A good headline is vital on many fronts. It is usually the first point of call for your posts, so should be designed to draw the punters in, say exactly what’s on the tin, and can be enhanced by being stuffed full of keywords for Search Engine Optimisation purposes, especially as it also doubles as a link when used within a RSS feed.
3. Be up front: Explain exactly what the subject of your post is in the first paragraph, ideally within the first sentence. Research has shown that people usually only read the first 25% or spend an average of 96 seconds on a blog post before they decide whether it’s of interest or whether it’s worth reading – therefore don’t leave the most important or most interesting part until last, in case your readers never get there!
4. A quick read: Most people scan a blog post to get the gist and make a decision to read further. Sub-dividing your post into bullet points or subheadings to help towards maintaining short attention spans, facilitating skim reading habits, enabling subject recognition or just break up over-long text. Numbered posts like this one at good, as they aren’t difficult to write, and can very easily provide your reader the information they crave.
5. Command a response: Blogs thrive on reader interaction which in turn provides links, another vital element. Each comment’s link is a gateway for internet spiders, as well as new material (or spider food) for the search engines. Comments can be stimulated by controversial, confrontational or poignantly educational posts (like this one?), or you could pose a question or statement to invite a comment, just like the one below:
Can any of you think of more pointers to add to my list?
The first thing you need to do with a brand new blog
Fairy Blog Mother
In the beginning, with your new blog, the first best thing to do is to write as many posts as you can. This is because you need to encourage search engine spiders to visit your blog, and once they are there, give them something valuable to crawl over.
Believe it or not, a spider will be sent to a new blog within hours, maybe even minutes, to check it out, just because it is a blog. Blogs are designed to be regularly updated, therefore search engines are programmed to notice new blogs and keep an eye on them just in case they are the ‘next best thing’. Blogs are much more likely to be indexed at the top of the search pages than websites, basically because they are regularly updated, and websites are not.
Therefore, with a new blog, and while you still have the enthusiasm, try and post as much as you can. You need to build up an archive of good quality posts, not only for the spiders, but for the human readers who will be guided there by the search engines, or by those you have invited personally.
Don’t be ashamed of asking your friends and family to visit your new blog – they are ideal candidates, as you may well get truthful, honest and very practical comments. In fact, invite this kind of feedback – how else are you going to know how to improve? They will tell you whether your posts are interesting, the style is good or appropriate, even what niche you should concentrate on.
At this stage, your posts may be more important than what your blog looks like – that can be concentrated on later. Many new bloggers make the mistake (myself included) of concentrating on the appearance of their new blog, whereas actually it’s the content that is the most vital – spiders can’t read pictures and graphics, only words. They won’t give a tinker’s toot about how pretty your new blog is, all they care about are the new posts (sorry all you designers out there!).
Concentrate on getting traffic by making yourself noticeable within the blogosphere (great word!), and then take the time to tart up your blog’s appearance. By then you’ll know what to put into your sidebars, how many you need, and there will be enough content to populate the automated ones.
Next post: what to include within your posts to make them more attractive – to all kinds of ‘readers’.