Blog usability tips
I recently came across a really useful article about blog usability tips. I still think the best tip for any blogger is to write about things he/she is passionate about, but these can give you a bit of a boost presenting your content.
Here’s my take on some of their tips:
- Pick a topic for your blog. Yes, if you write about one topic only. If, like me, you write about a wide variety of subjects then I don’t think it’s so relevant. What I would add is to categorize/tag your posts very well; That will make them easier to find and subscribe to only certain aspects of your writing.
- Encourage comments. Absolutely. Discussion will keep your readers engaged, so that’s something you definitely should allow and push for.
- Make it easy to subscribe. An RSS link in a visible location is definitely a plus to help people follow you. The subscribe by email thing, I’m not so sure. I don’t think that many people read blogs by email, but feel free to disagree
- Keep posts short and to the point. This is important. No one likes to read long chunks of text. If you really have a lot to say then…
- …Use subheadings for long posts.
- Link abundantly. Now, this is one I am tempted to disagree with. Depending on the appearance of your blog (CSS styles) this can make it unreadable (a lot of different text colors and styles, changing every other word). Also, too many links will just make for people to get tired of it and only following the first two or three, when the last one could be much more interesting. I would say: Link wisely.
- Make headlines descriptive. Important but – again – don’t exaggerate. If you do, your readers will be disappointed that you are not “advertising what you are selling”.
- Include a list of related posts beneath each post. It will suggest other things your users might find interesting. For the same reason, you should also…
- …Include a Top Posts section and…
- …Include a Recent Posts section in your sidebar.
- Present your real viewpoint. Share your opinions on the things you write about. That will make your blog more personal, hence more interesting than plain raw facts/theories.
- Reward commentators for commenting. Everyone has an ego. And every ego likes to be fed. Enough said
- Post often. But make sure you don’t trade quality for quantity. It’s better to write less stuff that is really good, than crappy things more often. Think about how many people read Paul Graham’s essays? And how often does he come out with a new one?
You can read the full article here. It includes links to popular wordpress plugins (if your blog, like mine, happens to use wordpress), more tips, and a lot more comments on each of them.
I have also found this post by Tim Ferriss to be very interesting. He talks not only about design aspects, but also blogging tools, post frequency, best practices, and a lot more.
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Categorised as: blogging, tips, writing
I think you are right, we need to link wisely in our blog post. One principle I have in mind in linking is that I should not re-invent the wheel. If other website, articles, or blog post can explain it better than me, or may be it's something that will be too long to discuss in my own blog post, than I will just link to whatever site it was originally on.
Yeah, in that case it makes perfect sense. But I hate it when people write posts that are almost half full of links. It makes it hell to read, and there is no way I am going to check all of them nowadays