Strategy

Adding Value in Your Conversation

Darren from Problogger.net brought up this issue on adding value in our conversation in the blogosphere. I think the video that he posted is really helpful. Check it out:

Since Darren has already mentioned things that add value in our conversation, I would share what “NOT” to do when you are blogging.

• Having a text-only post. Have you ever seen a blog post that’s like that? The only thing you see is this long text-only blog post. It’s kinda boring, isn’t it? yeah…I agree with you there. Include images or videos that are related to the post. Stock image sites like Flickr.com can be really useful here.
• Leaving out the meta descriptions empty. This small mistake could cost you a lot. You may have a great article, but if it is not optimized for search engine, you might miss those massive traffic that the search engine could bring to you. If you are using WordPress, simple plugin like All in One SEO Pack could help you to do this easily.
• Not categorizing your blog post under different categories. After you are blogging for a while, you might notice that your blog archive is getting bigger and bigger. This is a good thing, right? sure, it is. However, if you don’t categorize your blog posts into different categories, your readers won’t be able to find articles of their interest easily. You don’t want to have your readers scroll those 20 pages blog posts of yours, do you? Make it easier for them. This is especially true if you are having a thematic blog. For example, you have a blog about cooking recipe. You might want to categorize your blog into several categories and sub-categories, such as Asian, European, Middle-East, etc., so that your readers can find their favorite recipe faster.
• Writing in 3rd person. This is just my personal opinion, but I think you should write in 1st person, instead of 3rd person. If it’s written in 3rd person, your readers will feel like reading a thesis or research paper. There’s no personality into it. There might be several cases where this is an exception, such as scientific blog, etc., but generally speaking, making your blog post personal and in day-to-day tone is important to establish openness between your and the readers.
• Long gap period between blog posts. I’m the most guilty person here, I know. I am trying to do better though. Long gap period will give impression to your reader that you do not or, even worse, never update your blog. Because of this, they will never come back again. However, if every time when a reader come he sees new content, he will find it useful to come to your blog often.

Do you have anything to add? If I ask you, what are the single most important thing to do and NOT to do when writing a blog post, what would they be?

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