Growing Your Blog: Posting 101

The one thing that’s central to blogging is posting!  You can have all the elements of a great blog, but if you don’t post, nothing will happen.  Here are a few tips for Posting 101:
1. Use great photos.
Interesting, clear photos help to grab and hold your readers’ attention.  There are plenty of sites where you can get good tips for improving your photography skills.  Make sure you have good lighting and that you take photos of each step of a project if you’re doing a tutorial.  Also, post large photos so that readers can clearly see the details of whatever you’ve photographed.  If you have a particularly wordy post, try to find at least some kind of photo to break up the text and keep your readers’ interest.  Like this.
2. Post regularly.
Let’s face it.  We’re busy.  Some of us are moms of little kids, some work outside the home, some do both, and all of us have plenty of other things on our plates too.  We don’t have time to sit around and blog all day every day, no matter how much we’d like to.  There will be days when you can’t get a post done or when you just don’t have anything to post about…and that’s okay.  But if you only post once a month, your readers will lose interest and you won’t have the kind of traffic you’d have with more frequent posts.  Strive for at least 3 posts a week so that you maintain a presence in the blogosphere.  You may want to make some kind of schedule for yourself {some people are really specific about this like a craft on Monday, an outfit on Wednesday, a recipe Thursday, etc…others just have specific days for link parties or features}.  Another big help is auto-posting.  Write up your posts in advance whenever you have the time and inclination, then schedule them to post on the desired day/time.  I looooove this option, especially when I’m getting ready for something like next week’s HUGE GIVEAWAY SERIES!
3. Let your ‘voice’ shine through.
We all know that in conversation, we each have a unique voice.  If you were to join us for a girls’ day out and tell the same story to my friends Tall Jess, Short Jess, April, and to me, we’d all react a little differently.  Each of us has phrases we often say, some of us are more sarcastic than others, some of us are more likely to crack jokes; it’s all part of our personality.  The same thing should be true when we write.  When someone reads your posts, your voice should come through.  Recently, my husband told me he’d read a particular post of mine and that he could hear me saying the words in his head.  “It sounds just like you,” he said.  I took that as a huge compliment.   We should strive to be authentic, letting our readers “hear” us, who we really are.  It’s tempting to try to adopt the style of other bloggers we read, but if everyone sounds the same, what’s the fun in that?
4. Use good grammar.
I spent four years as an English teacher, so nothing makes me want to leave a blog faster  than consistently bad grammar.  Yes, sometimes a word will get misspelled or a comma will get misplaced, but try to make sure you’re double checking yourself before you publish your post.
5. Don’t try to be everyone else; make/do what you love.
Post about the things you love.  If you’re a crafter like me, by all means, post about your latest creations.  If you like cooking, post your recipes.  I love to eat, but I’m not all that interested in cooking.  We have tasty meals, but I’m no chef like my brothers-in-law are.  So, you’ll notice that I rarely post recipes.  I’m also not a thrift finder, so you won’t read about my latest goodwill finds or furniture upcycles…but I do love to read about yours!  Basically, just be YOU!  As Dr. Seuss would say, “There’s no one alive who is Youer than You!”
6.  If you’re doing a tutorial, be clear and thorough.If you post a really cool project, chances are, someone out here in the blogosphere is going to want to give it a go.  Which means that if you decide to give a tutorial, make sure we can follow it!  Take pictures of each step {or at least most of them} and try to explain as best you can unless the step is really super-obvious.  Tell your readers what materials they’ll need and walk them through step by step.
I’m sure there’s lots more I could say, but those are my top tips for great blog posting.  What do you think?  Are they helpful?  What things do you think about when you post?
Be sure to come back tomorrow for “Building Relationships!”

PS- If you have a question you’d like me to answer in Thursday’s Q&A session, be sure to send it my way, either by commenting here or on FB, or sending an email to dancers4life{at}gmail{dot}com!

Similar Posts

8 Comments

  1. Good pointers. I am working on the right balance of promoting my blog without compromise to my content. It’s not coming easy, nothing worth it is 🙂

  2. Excellent tips! I am definitely in love with the auto-post features, especially when you know that life is going to get busy shortly. The 3 post a week rule is a good idea. And I definitely know that it is tempting to start posting about things that you think are mainstream, rather than what you truly enjoy doing.

  3. One of the comments I’m seeing most frequently on my blog is that people enjoy my voice. When I started the blog, I was so focused on the way it looked that I didn’t even *think* about my writing. As much as I want to improve my photography I think I need to embrace the fact that my writing might be more of a draw than my pictures.

    Oh, and I too was an English teacher so I know what you mean about grammar. At the same time, I want the blog to feel like we’re having a conversation so I tend to write the way I talk (and think) which means I start a lot of sentences with conjunctions. No one has complained (yet) so I don’t think it has been a problem..

    Thanks again for this series!

  4. Great post. I especially like your points about great pictures and blogging regularly. I joined The Nesting Place and over 700 other bloggers on their 31 day challenge in October last year. The goal was to post for 31 days straight. I knew I’d do it though it did seem daunting. I urge bloggers to try it some time, because it really stretches you. You pick one narrowly defined topic and write on it each day. The posts can be short. My point is, that posting that often made it possible for me to post 4 days a week now, because I had to plan my posts ahead and get really organized. I wrote lots of posts in advance and scheduled them to post daily. Organization is key.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.