Blogging is your own, personal space and a reflection of who you are, a place for your thoughts, views, and creativity. It is an extension of your mind and you must try your best to make sure it is easily accessible, user-friendly and easy to connect.
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Here are 7 Blogging Basics you must follow for a great blog, one that people return to read again and again.
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1. ERROR-FREE, HONEST CONTENT– Nothing can beat good words. No matter how good a story is a few typos or grammatical errors can make it fall flat.
The first step must be to ensure that you double-check your content. Grammarly, Hemmingway and various other software can help. Also, preview before you publish! Always. And multiple times 🙂
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2. FONT & COLORS – How many times you have moved on from a page or a blog because the font was too tiny to read or just too big? The colors are dull or extremely bright, jarring in hot pink or Black?
Keep neutral colors, 14 or 16 pt font size, and clear concise font. No loops and cursive as they are difficult to read. Again check in the preview pane to be sure and remember to keep your screen setting at 100% and no zoom to get it right.
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3. CONTACT PAGE AND FOLLOW BUTTONS – You have the blog set up your blog and have posted good content but if you don’t have proper, visible sharing buttons then how will people know about it?
You must make sure the sharing buttons are linked to your profiles and have your twitter id. Many, many blogs, especially on #blogger, do not have the sharing buttons enables with their id’s and miss out on good community promotion.
Keep the social media handles updated, keep them prominently displayed. Small attention spans ensure no one is going to spend time searching for them.
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4. HIGHLIGHT YOUR POST WITH PICTURES – No one likes to read endless lengths of text even if it’s extremely good unless you are reading a book. Break your content into smaller paragraphs and add pictures. Use your own or from free sources and always give credit. Google Images is not a source 😉 I know I too thought it was.
Always give credit – If you use images from some website or person, the right thing is to take their permission and mention their name. Many have faced cases of plagiarism by not choosing free images or not attributing correctly.
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5. SHARING BUTTONS WITH YOUR ID AND HANDLE – Add the buttons to your posts and ensure they work and not share your content with the sharing site id, especially for Twitter. E.g. – @Sharethis but with your own id. Mine is @indywrites It is my Twitter id and I ensure it shows on all my tweets. This very easy to configure in WordPress but for Blogger, you need to install third-party buttons like Shareaholic or SumoMe.
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6. REPLY TO COMMENTS PROMPTLY – Replying to comments on your blog as soon as possible and definitely in a couple of days. It is not always possible but still one must try. I know even I fail this one but I still reply when I can. With a bit of time management, it is all possible.
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7. SHARE AND VISIT OTHER BLOGS – Blogging is a reciprocal work, you visit blogs, comment, and share and find blogging friends and support groups. The more you share the work of other bloggers and writers it leads to more exposure for you and your blog.
These are the 7 Blogging Basics or good etiquette you should try and follow for your blog and see the changes and growth unfold.
Writing is important but packaging your content and presenting it well is equally important.
Try out these 7 steps and let me know when you see an upswing in blog stats!
Happy blogging, keep writing.
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Post updated for typos and images on 09/01/2020.
