Creating a blog post is really more than just writing good content. The following checklist can help you ensure that your post is readable, findable and shareable.
- Do you have a compelling headline? There’s some dos and don’ts.
- Does your post have good structure & provide useful information? Plenty of folks have written posts on how to write posts. Take a look around.
- Does your post invite feedback or ideas?
- Did you provide at least one in-text hyperlink? Don’t include links as text, hyperlink them using the “link” button.
- Did you include an image? (or other multimedia)
Some blog templates require an image, but even if it’s not required, an image helps to make your post more visually attractive.
Try istockphoto.com, sxc.hu, or flickr (creative commons licensed) for images. Or check out some of these sites for free or cheap images.
- Did you assign a category or categories? Categories help to organize your content. When your blog has a lot of posts, categories can help you visitor find what he or she is looking for.
- Did you include tags based on keywords in the post?
What did I forget? What’s on your checklist?
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Participating in the blogosphere and social media requires that you have an ear to the ground. But where do you start?
Active listening is the first step to establishing a blogging or social media strategy (or any communication strategy for that matter…). As you think about blogging for a class or for a client or for your company, start with the basics.
Some resources:
Ogilvy Blog Feeds: A collection of some of the most influential blog feeds out there, from one of the most influential agencies.
Constantin Basturea: Blogger & PR Guru with Converseon has a variety of PR-related social media projects. My favorites: PR Blogs (a massive 600+ feed list of the PR blogs being published), The New PR Wiki (a collective knowledge base and collaboration tool) and his Google Co-Op project (a Google search that searches PR-related blogs, sites and wikis).
When you find a great blog like Communication Overtones or Spare Change, spend some time checking out the blogs on the author’s blogroll.
Of course, if you’re looking for something industry specific, give Technorati a go, too.
What resources did you find useful as you began blogging?
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