Blogging can be something one does for personal reasons, and if that's you, feel free to disregard all that I'm about to share with you. If, however, you're hoping that your blog's message has an impact on the community that matters to you, here are some ideas for tuning up your blog.
Some of this information is technical in nature. Don't tune it out right away because of that. Take notes on the parts you want to pursue, and then, if you can't do it by yourself, put up a quick ad on Craigslist for someone to tweak your blog. It would probably cost no more than $100 to do this stuff.
With millions and millions of blogs to read, our aggregate attention is fractured by competing attractions. As a blogger, you want to capture your audience early, give them value, give them extras, and send them on their way with a means to refer back to you, should they wish. Here are some tips and ideas for that:
Write really good titles. Copyblogger always has good ideas on this.[135] A title that catches someone's attention, that is Google-friendly, or that describes things clearly will probably go a long way toward drawing people to your work. (By the way, this is technical, but set your titles in your blog posts to show the words of the post, not a page number or other weird random data. It helps Google, and that helps you.)
Chunk up your paragraphs. If someone sees a big field of text, he or she will be less likely to dig in and read it. Try breaking things up visually by using subheaders, images, and other visual cues.
Have a good "About" page. Make sure people know who writes the blog. Blogging is a medium that helps build relationships, and the relationship between a writer and his or her readers can be very personal.
Brevity is your friend. Cut unnecessary words and sentences from your piece. The more concise and useful your posts, the more return traffic you should expect.
Answer comments often. As often as you can, dig into your comments section and answer back. I got this advice from Bryan Person,[136] and when I heed it, my blog flourishes. When I don't get a chance to respond to comments, posts fade away faster.
Use FeedBurner for RSS. Actually, use lots of tools to extend the reach of your blog. But FeedBurner, in particular, adds all kinds of valuable things to a standard RSS feed. You can add a "subscribe by mail" box to your blog. You can republish your feed in other formats. You can extend it out in lots of good ways.
The following are my own personal gripes and opinions, and, of all of my advice on blogging, consider this to be mostly my own personal views—which you don't have to go along with it if you don't want.
I don't like too many widgets, buttons, or add-ons on the sidebar of a blog. It just messes up the design and confuses the "call to action" of the blog.
Here's a quick list of things to consider about the overall ecosystem of blogging. These are also personal opinions, but I'll say that I've seen lots of good return in my life from these efforts.
Read lots of good things (listen and watch lots of good podcasts and video blogs). Great stuff coming in makes for good thoughts going out.
Link to great blog posts elsewhere, but try to add something to the conversation. People respond better to your riffing on someone's original idea than they do when you just point out a pile of links.
Whenever you can, share resources that you discover, whether they are great people or great pieces of information. Consider using a social bookmarking tool such as Del.icio.us, Clipmarks, or a Tumble blog.
Comment frequently on other people's blogs. Be part of the conversation, not just someone throwing posts out into the world.
Consider building a blogroll of blogs you like. (I used to have a Rockstars page for this.) Or at least consider a widget for your shared items from Google Reader.
Don't feel as though you have to blog daily. Instead, blog when you have a good idea worth sharing.
How will you know what you want to fix if you don't know how your blog is being used and seen? The shiny graphic you see up top comes from a service called CrazyEgg.[137] (A tip of the hat to Cory at Strike 3 Designs for sharing it with me.) By adding just a simple snip of code to your blog, CrazyEgg can tell you who's clicking where on your site. It's a really interesting tool with lots of visualization methods built in. You can use a free version to start, then sign up for CrazyEgg's subscription model, which isn't that expensive, if you have more serious needs in mind.
If you want to go a little deeper in checking who's doing what with your site, I also recommend using Google Analytics,[138] which will give you granular details about who's coming from where, what people are doing, and tons more. Other good statistical information comes from FeedBurner and similar places, if you use them for your RSS subscriptions, and by using tools such as Website Grader,[139] which gave me tons of information on how to improve my blog technically.
Even if you're a professional blogger looking to make a living from your blog, consider blogging from the point of view of your passionate observations. Lots of people can report the facts, and plenty of people have covered lots of different areas of interest with factual blogs. But finding people who are truly creating interesting original content is rare.
For every 10 pundits, we should have an original thinker.
If you can, contribute new thoughts, different takes, and mash-up ideas to the mix. Take something you've read or heard or seen from two different perspectives and mash them into a new thought. Share something from your life. Share what matters most to you, mixed with how it might be helpful and of interest to others. Put out crazy ideas. Put out heartfelt ideas. Deliver from your heart and soul, and it will show through. A great example of this is Jon Swanson's Levite blog.[140]