Blogging 201

After my last post on blogging etiquette (that is still relevant to the blogging world, surprisingly), here is a compilation of little good-to-knows to help any floundering newbie bloggers out there. God knows I could've used a post like this when I started out :P

1. Stop calling your blogpost, a blog. You have ONE blog in which you write several POSTS

2. I know, I know how pretty they are! But running, scripty fonts aren’t always the most readable fonts. So skip out on using them for your text content or use them in moderation

3. Have an About Me page, please. Because I want to know who I’m reading. Because it lends credibility to the voice of the blog. Yes, even when you are an anon blogger.
And when you are writing an introduction, 1) don’t refer to yourself in third person (unless it’s a business) because it is pretentious and creepy at the same time 2) don’t say “I suck at defining myself” or some version of this, list out your interests, add some random facts about your life, talk about why your blog is called what it is called (in short, you don't have to define yourself, talking about what you love itself gives us an insight on who you are)

4. Don’t have popups on your blog. Things jumping out at me when I’m reading your post will only make me think twice about staying awhile. Same goes for automatic music

5. When you leave a comment on someone else’s blog, make it easy for other people to find your blog as well. Use a bit of code to leave a direct link in the comment. But do not, I repeat, DO NOT misuse this

6. Doesn’t matter how perfect your blog looks, if it doesn’t have quirks that are unique to you, the way you write, your personality, it is still going to look like just another webpage in the vast world of webpages

7. Page load time – my sworn enemy. Keep it under 10 seconds. Even that is too much, actually. 3 to 4 seconds is considered ideal

Not something you want your visitors doing, is it?

8. Don’t disable right click on your blog to prevent content theft, instead use CSS to disable the copy-paste function on your text. WAY more effective

9. Don’t be afraid to tell someone who is leaving irrelevant or random comments off, really. You are better off with three people who actually read your posts than 30 readers who don’t read and say “very informative, thanks for sharing”

10. Reach out – when you have a technical query, when you like something someone has done with their blog, something they wrote, some award/tag/anything they created, reach out to them, tell them that you love the idea and ask if you may borrow it. And backlink (for that is the form of reward we thrive on, no?) It means a lot to most bloggers, after all, imitation IS the best form of flattery

P.S: Please feel free to add your own pointers :)

P.P.S: Linking to #TuesdayTen