The latest episode of The New Mediology is now available. Nathan and I talked about how to be a great blogger. You can listen to it online or via iTunes. Here's a synopsis of what we talked about on the show:
How To Be A Great Blogger
First, think less about how to do blogging and more about what it takes to actually be a blogger. To get started you want to get some key terms right. These terms include:
- Blog: A single web presence that includes multiple posts. Don't say you "just posted a blog." You just wrote a blog post but didn't "post a blog."
- Post: Individual entries on a blog.
- Hyperlink: Words or phrases linked to other sites, blogs, etc.
- Blogroll: List of blogs typically found on either the left or right-hand side of a blog. Only link to blogs. Don't link to non-blog websites on your blogroll.
- Embed: Code found typically for audio or video files that is added to your blog so people can watch and/or listen on your blog without going to the audio or video site to engage the media. Basically, if you've ever watched a YouTube video on a site or blog other than YouTube, you just saw the embed stuff at work.
The number one thing to remember for being a great blogger is that great bloggers create great content. Fair bloggers create fair content and bad bloggers create bad content. To start creating great content (content that has value to the people reading your blog) start with the Old McDonald method of creating good content:
- E- Entertain
- I - Inspire
- E - Educate
- I - Inform
- O - Outrage
You also need to determine your weekly post frequency. How many times a week can you consistently create good content? Every blogger needs to determine how many posts they can create each week and keep the blog up at that pace. Bloggers should also consider what their meal to snack ratio is in their weekly blog posts.
A few other things to think about:
- Default to shorter posts...something in 400 words or less.
- Create multiple points of entry. Create subheads, bullet points, numbered lists, etc. that can hook a person scanning the post to begin reading your post.
- Put more emphasis on the post titles. The best titles succinctly summarize your entire post.
- Respond to comments on your blog to show that you're engaged in the conversation.
- Start commenting on other people's blogs, particularly if you find someone talking about you, your organization, or something that directly ties back to your particular blog comment.
The bottom line: Focus on creating really, really, really good content.