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Blogging for Beginners: Tips for Better Blogging

Are you a beginning blogger?

Is blogging something you’ve heard about but never really tried?

I created this blog post on the fly today while doing a webinar – Blogging 101 – for Prosper, Inc.  I thought I’d share some of the ideas with readers so they get a better idea about why blogging is important.

How to Make a Better Blog Post

Step 1: Create a title – use keyword phrases that we want to be found for in Google

Step 2: Add content that relates to your industry.

Step 3: Use Bullets

  • Bullets help readers skim through information
  • Bullets are easy to follow

Step 4: Use Numbered Lists

Why Use Numbered Lists?

  1. Step by step guide
  2. Easy to follow
  3. Organize and simplify
  4. Draw attention
  5. Summarize key points

Step 5: Use Header Tags to Separate Main points

Why Blogs are Important

Step 6: Use Pictures in all Blog Posts

guy-kawasakiI can type information here.

This is me and Guy Kawasaki at Blog World 2008 in Las Vegas.

By aligning the picture correctly, you can have content wrap around the picture.  I recommend editing the picture, going to the Advanced Settings of the picture and giving it a 5 or 7 on the Horizontal Space box.  This will give the picture a bit of “space”.

Pictures are a big key to give your blog personality, increase readership, and not BORE readers.

What do you think of pictures?

Step 7: Add Video from time to time that’s related to your industry…

Step 8: Make keyword phrases as links back to your home page or a sub-page of my site or of a referring site (deep linking)

I love clogging shoes.  My shoes have taken me all over the world. – Nate M.

Step 9: Use Bold text to make things stand out

Step 10: You can link to images too:

clogon-logo-small

Step 11: Ask questions, encourage comments, get interaction!

Here are a few additional posts about blogging:

How have these tips helped you in your blogging strategy?

What tips did I leave off?

UPDATE! Step 12: BE PERSONABLE! Thanks to Mat’s comment below, this is KEY!  In an interview I did with Shoemoney at BlogWorld 2008, this is what he suggested too.  Even if you run a Fortune 500 blog, you need to be personable.  Who, in their heart of hearts, is going to want to come read a blog that is full of press releases, industry news (boring sometimes), and statistics?  Not me!

Thanks, Mat, for the additional tip!

22 replies on “Blogging for Beginners: Tips for Better Blogging”

Great class by the way..!!! I learned more precisely of what I should be doing and HOW..!!!

I think the most important thing that most people forget is that you need to be yourself. You think of getting all your “news” out there and get caught up in only posting boring stuff like Press … AVOID THAT like the plague I say!!!!

Who cares if you are not the best speller or a top journalist …. if you are providing something that is worth while and useful and adds value … you will have readers.

You have to make sure that you never worry about what people say (good or bad) Just be yourself …. some people will like you and some people will not … that’s the nature of it.

Good post and thinking here Nate!

Thanks for the tips. I think I do about 3/5 of this list. Blogging can be a tricky thing and involves focused input & creativity. You should post a list of things not to do. Those kind of things help as well.

Thanks for the comment Jacob.

I’ll get a list of things I recommend not doing and will also research what other bloggers are saying about the “No-No’s” of blogging!

Stay tune…

Nate,

This was great. I’ve got this article in one of my OneNote Notebooks. You’re mentoring me before our first meeting!

P.S. My numerous postings is not because I love commenting so much; I’m just doing the assignment you gave me!!

Great article Nate. Some tips I know and are common sense. Now want to get started on finding “informative” articles to connect back to my site and the ball will continue to be rolling forward. Continued thanks for your wealth of knowledge and ways to find and practice that knowledge.

The more I find out about blogging the more intriqued I am by the possibilities of it. I am interested in knowing more about the differences between probloggers and businesses like mine that have a blog. I guess obviously the probloggers just blog for income and businesses that have blogs run their business as well. so I would assume that the blogs for businesses aren’t as frequent but are there other things I need to keep in mind that separates the problogger from the business blogger.

Really great ideas! Finding my pictures, editing text and working on the design at the moment. But there is so much more! Thanks for providing a list of ideas in case I get off track.

Nate,

Thabnks ofr the formatting tips. What I really learnt is to ensure you individualise the blog and ensure it reflects you and your opinion. Media richness brings life to the blog experience. I want to add one more important element to complement the “be personable” . I’d like to add one more tip.Tip 13, “BE PASSIONATE”! Life’s too short not to be!

Cheers

Tino

Nate,

I love your tips and ideas. I only just started to blog on my dollhouse website and never thought about adding photos or even videos!

Will make sure I integrate them into one of the next blogs.

Cheers
Julia

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