Even More Tips for New Bloggers
A blogger I met recently emailed me her site info (Self-Reliance for Rich Kids) and asked for some friendly advice. It’s not beauty-based, but the tips are pretty standard for any new blog:
Hi! Just took a look at your blog and I like where you’re going with it! If you’d like to take it to the next level, I do have a few pieces of advice that might help:
– A wall of text can be overwhelming. Use the “More” tag in your posts (it should be in your blogspot toolbar). It shows the first few lines of the post, and then directs readers a link saying “Read more after the jump.” As a result, it visually tightens up your page and makes it psychologically easier to read. Use the tag after 4 or 5 sentences. (Like this.)
– Aim for shorter posts, with more frequency. I immediately thought of a certain book you might enjoy and find some inspiration from: it’s by Christopher Tennant and is called The Official Filthy Rich Handbook. Check it out – it might give you some fun inspiration for a slew of posts.
– If you can include demonstrative photos, that would be great, again, just for some visual excitement. They could be of a blinged out celebrity, of you and your friends, of Harvard, of a certain movie, etc. Keep the photos standard-sized and always include them in the same place (for example, post the photo, and then have the 4 or 5 lines of text following it, with a “More” tag after leading into the rest of the entry.)
– Make sure your text is standard and all the same size and font. Occasionally, you might write in Word or in an email document and then copy/paste it into your blog. If you’re ever copy/pasting, do this into the “Code” or “HTML” section, not in the Rich Text or “Visual” section, which will automatically format it. If you write in Word and then copy/paste it directly into Visual, you will be pulling the Word fonts in, and then the post will appear different from previous entries that were written in your standard Blogspot font.
– Lists are always a good thing : The Top Ten Ways Rich Kids etc… Five Rich Kid Excuses for etc… Seven Things Rich Kids Can Never Pass Up etc…
– Decide if you want your blog to be a personal diary or an instructive social commentary. If you go the social commentary route, consider taking a tiny step back, to make the posts less “I”, “me” “we” and immediately personal, and more something that is about others, the group at large, and those you are writing about. For example, you write about laundry at boarding school – an entire series of boarding school posts, what to expect when you’re no longer coddled by moms and dads, a primer on things boarding school doesn’t teach you for the real world, etc, could be funny and interesting.
– Less is more; brevity is key; and show, don’t tell. (Oh my god, do I have a frustrated, cliched professor inside of me, or what?) Several bite-sized posts per day is the best way to grow your audience. It’s obviously not always possible, but in general, shorter posts tend to do well for new blogs.
Congratulations and I can’t wait to see how it evolves!
You might also like: More Tips for New Beauty Bloggers
Tags: growing blog traffic, how to start a blog, tips for new bloggers
November 17th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I have to confess I absolutely HATE when a post is separated “after the jump” style. The rare exception is when it’s novel-sized. First, it bugs me because if I’m taking a little break at work, I can’t always click through to the website and I either have to save the post and go back when I’m at home, or decide I’m really not that curious after all. Second, it always makes me feel like the blog author is milking me for website hits. It makes me feel dirty and used!