Blogging tips to improve your blog. To create a good web blog just write out the thoughts that come into your mind and before you know it you'll be blogging away to beat the band.
1. Choose an updating tool that is easy to use. Try out several services. Some are free, some cost a little money, but don't commit to a tool until you have had a chance to try it out. Pick the one that works best for you.
2. Determining your purpose. Weblogs are used to filter all kinds of information, organize businesses, share family news, establish professional reputations, foment social change, and muse about the meaning of life. Knowing what you hope to accomplish with your weblog will allow you to begin in a more focused way.
3. Knowing your intended audience. You conduct yourself very differently with your friends than you do with professional associates, strangers, customers, or your grandmother. Knowing for whom you are writing will allow you to adopt an appropriate tone.
4. Be real. Even a professional weblog can be engaging. Avoid marketese. Speak in a real voice about real things.
5. Write about what you love. A weblog is the place for strong opinions, whether about politics, music, social issues, gardening, or your profession. The more engaged you are with your subject, the more interesting your writing will be.
6. Update frequently. Interested readers will return to your site if there is likely to be something new. You needn't update every day, but try to post several times a week.
7. Establish your credibility. To the best of your ability, be truthful. Be respectful to your audience and to your fellow bloggers. Understand that on the Internet, your words may live forever, whether they are self-published or archived on another site. In the Weblog Handbook, I propose a set of Weblog Ethics; think about your own standards, and then adhere to them.
8. Linking to your sources. The Web allows a transparency that no other medium can duplicate. When you link to a news story, an essay, a government document, a speech, or another blogger's entry, you allow your readers access to your primary material, empowering them to make informed judgements.
9. Link to other weblogs. Your readers may enjoy being introduced to the weblogs you most enjoy reading. The Web is a democratic medium and bloggers amplify each other's voices when they link to each other. Generously linking to other weblogs enlarges the grassroots network of information sharing and social alliances we create together on the Web.
10. Be patient. Most weblog audiences are small, but with time and regular updates your audience will grow. You may never have more than a few hundred readers, but the people who return to your site regularly will come because they are interested in what you have to say.
