Since starting this pilot blog project about 11 months ago (!), I've been keeping up with various "so you want to be a good blogger" advice sites. I have gained some invaluable insight into this crazy world of Web 2.0 and maintaining an active blog.
Some tips that I've learned include:
- Write only about what you know about.
- Be passionate about your topic. If you are NOT excited, your readers won't be either.
- Maintain some regularity to your posts so that readers know when to check back for new material. This may be daily, weekly, or monthly. That's why my site follows a Mon-Fri templated schedule.
- At the top of the page, briefly describe what your website is all about.
- Keep the layout uncluttered.
- Get your own website address. Don't be a subdomain. OK, I didn't follow this rule since I'm too lazy to pay money or figure out how to do this. For now, I'm content with using Blogspot. I may reassess later, if this blog grows any bigger.
I just learned that blogs should provide readers with a snapshot glimpse of the most recent posts without having to scroll too much.
In the past, I've listed the 5 most recent entries in full length on the home page. This makes the page rather long. There's lots of scrolling. One thing I learned from www.problogging.com is that I should only post the first few sentences of each day's entry on the front page. If readers want to explore more, they can click on a "Read More" link.
Building these "Jump Breaks" are easily done on Blogger by adding the HTML code
at the breakpoint that you want. Whereever you embed this code, Blogger knows to insert "Read More..." at that point. By clicking on the link, the entire entry will open up.
Thus starting yesterday, my site has incorporated this feature. Let me know what you think.
I might suggest the problogger conclusions for blogging may be targeted to a blogging-for-profit-via-pageviews audience. Read More..., as they say, certainly allows for more rapid scannability, but their happy side-effect of their implementation of Read More... enables a new page load and another set of ad impressions. Ideally, if the Read More... were actually intended to maximally benefit the reader, rather than the advertising host, it would expand to show the entire content in the space without a new page load.
ReplyDeletePersonally, Read More... annoys me and slows my scanning and reading of the content.
Hey Ryan: Excellent point that the problogger site is to help for-profit bloggers get ahead. The site has some valid and helpful pointers to improve generic stuff, like readability, "hooking" more new readers, and layout design.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I too don't like the fact that there's another "Read more" hyperlink to click. Will see if I get more comments, but I may go back to the original plan next week. Thanks for weighing in. I love getting feedback from people who visit my site.