How to Improve Your Blog - Stephen Freeman

If you don't have a blog, and you're a writer, start one right away.  Word press and Google Blogger are both free and allow you to easily update your content, as well as connect with other bloggers and view your statistics in a very helpful manner.  The bottom line is that writers write.  So if you're not writing, you should be, and a blog is a great way to do that.

Even if your plans are to write a full length book this year, you have to start somewhere.  And that somewhere is called "small."  Even if it's a few hundred words, make it a few hundred words consistently.  After all, if you can make writing a habit, you can write for the rest of your life.  But if you sit around and wait for those rare moods when you've got the next best seller idea, you're going to be waiting a while.  Those kinds of ideas are rarely immaculately conceived - they are developed over a long time of consistent habit.

Unless you have a very strong reason, use your actual name in the title of your blog  This will help when people try to find your blog, and it also doesn't sell an idea that isn't you.

Set a goal for yourself - it could be once a month, once a week, once every other day - it doesn't matter.  What matters is that you set a goal and stick to it.  When you've done that, then you can make the goal higher or lower.

Use your own voice.  You have friends in real life because you are genuine with them, not because you take on an air of all-togetherness that they know you don't actually have.

Post relevant things.  It's a good rule of thumb to write with your reader in mind.  Write about things that they might actually want to read about.  Think about the blogs or authors that attract your attention - what is about them that keeps your interest?  Would YOU read a blog that talked about the minutia of someone's day?  Days are monotonous enough all by themselves.  No need to add to it.

Link your posts to other posts.  Like this!  Google looks at things that seem like they are connected to other things.  So the more you connect (though if you over do it, it will just seem tedious to your readers) the more Google will recognize your blog as one of repute.

Link your blog to your social media.  Your friends are on Twitter and Facebook just like you are.  So let them know that you are writing.  If the people who know you don't want to read what you're writing, who will?

Be concise - Don't write a manifesto about your breakfast.  In the struggle between quality and quantity, always side with quality.

Find other bloggers and be social with them.  Blogging is meant to be social, so find others who update their blogs and read them.  Remember how you always want people to post a comment on your blog saying how great it is?  Do that for other people and when you are blessed to receive a comment, always respond to it.

Use lists, make your headings in bold, and always, always, always, use a readable font.  It's enough that I'm finally interested in your blog - don't punish me by making me decipher a silly font.

Use images, though in moderation, and always align your text to the left.

Find people who are willing to guest post on your blog, and guest post on other people's blogs.  This enhances the community aspect of blogging and shows that you're not just there to get people to listen to you.