Ahh, fall. The time of year where hot temperatures turn cool, leaves change colors, and baseball season becomes football season. As we enter this season of change, it’s important to remember that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Your blog is probably very different than when you first started it, and that’s probably a good thing. But while your blog may have changed, blogging best practices haven’t. Make sure you don’t fall back into these bad blogging habits.
Super Short Posts
Your readers are coming to your blog for well written, detailed content. Don’t betray that loyalty by writing posts that won’t completely cover their topic, or flesh out the story you want to tell. Post length can be a double-edged sword, though, because you also want avoid…
Super Long Posts
Just as readers don’t like to come to your blog and not be given enough content, no one wants to see too much either. This includes writing something that is plain too long for the format, as well as padding a post with “purple prose” to make it longer. While there isn’t a set “length” for a good post, such as a word count or page length, a good rule of thumb is to make something as long (or as short) as it needs to be to effectively tell a story.
Ignorance Is Not, In Fact, Bliss
Blogging ignorance can mean a great many things, but for our purposes, we are specifically referring to:
- Ignoring Comments
If you have an active community of people reading your blog, don’t ignore them! Be sure to block out time to respond to commentators. While it’s important to interact with your readers, make sure you’re not over-moderating the comments section by deleting comments that simply disagree with your point-of-view. Save that for people who really deserve it (you know who they are).
- Ignoring What Your Reader’s Want
While you shouldn’t ignore the comments section of your blog, don’t also turn a blind eye to what your readers want to read. For example, let’s say your blog is all about interesting cookie recipes and how to make them. The people who read, comment, and appreciate your blog, probably wouldn’t be too thrilled if you started to intermingle recaps of television shows your normal recipe posts. Quite simply, give the people what they want.
We’re sure that your blog is great already, and you’re always working to improve it. But sometimes, writers can get away from the fundamentals and fall back into bad habits. Remember these tips to carry your blog’s success through the fall and winter, and into the New Year!
