Tips to improve your blog, really!

As I learnt a few things about blogging, I made a list of tips to get better at blogging. Thought I would share.

1. Pour your heart out to answer a question. When someone asks a question, it means they followed your post hoping they would find an answer to their problem. If they are stuck, take responsibility. Do everything you can do to help them.
2. Don’t plagiarise. It is just not the right thing to do.
3. Don’t like your own posts. We know you like them, you don’t have to explicitly click like to show that.
4. Don’t start with Hi or Hello. You’re writing a blog, not a letter.
5. Don’t sweat it. Write what comes to you and how it comes to you.
6. Be natural. You’ll be at your best when you are yourself.
7. Use images. Images deliver the message quickly. If it’s a technical post, throw in lot of screen prints, else find a funny and relevant picture to use.
8. Name your images. One extra opportunity do drop keywords for SEO. Search engines read image names and rank your post better. Posts also show up in image search.
9. Use lists.
10. Check spellings. There is no excuse for spelling mistakes.
11. Check grammar. Difficult specially for people with foreign mother tongues (including me). It’s okay to be not perfect, but keep an eye on it.
12. Check font. Inconsistent font size looks ugly. Will make the readers go away.
13. Title is the key to a good post. Choose a title to attract people, not Google.
14. Make use of URLs. Google will read URL text to show your posts in search results. People don’t read this. Feel free to use as many keywords as you want.
15. Let the readers comment. Don’t post a comment saying you received so and so feedback from somebody.
16. Be careful with series of posts. They are both powerful and dangerous. In depth series like this by Devin Knight, for example, will make the readers come back, a series on keyboard shortcuts won’t.
17. Use your energy wisely. Blogging requires a lot of energy: time and thought. Use it and write to solve problems.
18. Blog because you want to, not because someone else is blogging.

As always, comments are most welcome.

@SamuelVanga

Start Documenting Your Day! Why Now?

I read a post about documenting your day by Steve Jones, here is where culture insists i write a few words about the person i refer to. But you don’t expect that for Steve. Do you?

In this short post, I’ll present my view on why you should document your day and why now is the right time.

For most of us the job we do is more than just a pay check. It’s fun. It’s a sense of achievement. And documenting your accomplishments will only help you get better at what you do.

We all make new resolutions every year. Personal experience tells me that most of them are never visited. Documenting your every day is very hard and can be one of those that will stay in the parking lot for ever.

There are only a couple of weeks left in this year. So if you start now, you can find out if you can enjoy doing this and if this can help improve your productivity. And once you figure this out there is no going back.

Happy documenting!

~Sam.