Next week, Kyla and I are collaborating to create a guide for our design clients about "Effective Blogging" and I thought it would be interesting to poll Freckled Nest readers. Answer as many questions as you can...
1. What makes a great blog?
2. What's important to you in a blog and it's posts?
3. What irks you? What do you love to see?
4. What tips would you give a friend whose new to having a blog?
5. What's YOUR favorite part of blogging?
6. What's your biggest challenge in blogging?
7. What keeps you coming back to a blog?
If you'd like to share your opinions, respond in the comments (or by email)-- we'd love to hear what you think :) Please be kind though and don't name specific blog examples. Thanks for your help!!
Last week I shared these "Five Simple Tips for Improving your Blog" on MaggieWhitley.com. Maggie (owner of Gussy) and I have been friends for a little over a year and she has an fantastic blog that helps women grow, create and appreciate life. Her content is always awesome and fresh and I was so happy to be part of her blog world. Guest blogging is fun :)
Five Simple Tips for Improving Your Blog
1. Post photos at their maximum width. To give your blog visual flow and appeal, load your photos at your blogs full width so that they can be seen easily and look stunning. Depending on what blog platform you’re on, you can preset your maximum photo width so that they always load full size OR increase the size by double-clicking the photo and choosing a larger width.
2. Let music be optional. Arriving at a blog that automatically starts playing music or a video is kinda alarming. I often read blogs when I can’t sleep, and when I open a blog with instant music, I panic and leave immediately to avoid waking my boyfriend or pup (also bad for people blog reading in their cubicles).
3. Tweet your post. Set your blog up to automatically tweet new posts. A lot of casual clickers will visit when they see the new post title + link in twitter and some people even use this as a ‘no pressure reader’. If your blog doesn’t have an automatic tweet feature, shorten your blog post address with a service like tinyurl.com to save characters. Tweet in the day or evening and only tweet about a post once.
4. Choose a contrasting link color. Links should stand out a little bit and be obvious amongst a body of text. If your blogs font color is black, avoid choosing grey or dark blue for the links because they will probably go unnoticed. To improve navigation, select a more vivid color for your linked words and consider enabling the underline or bold feature on linked text (available in some blog platforms).
5. Be one person. Brand yourself clearly and consistently by using one name online, in all of your online involvement. It’s not uncommon to meet a person who juggles their married name and maiden name, a nickname, short-form name, and/or a character that they carry online. You can represent yourself online with almost any name, you’re not signing checks so choose your favorite name and use it always so that you build recognizable relationships and easy communication for your friends and potential business connections. Choose an email (and blog) address that reflects your name, your blog name or business name so that there’s an immediate connection to you and keep it clear and simple.
xoxo, Leigh-Ann
