The original title of this post was to have been: 'It's the attention economy, stupid', but I changed it after watching this great interview in full (see above) with Thomas Scrampton and Cory Doctorow on basic tips for being an amazing blogger. Lessons learned from Cory:
- Make your headline un-exciting.
Your post titles should be clear and plain make sense. Your regular readers know how cool and witty you are already, so just let them know what you're writing about.
People arriving on your site from search engines are just looking for answers. Funny titles do not give them the info they need, so chances are they'll just leave. It's all about respect - you will help your readers trust you more by letting them learn for themselves what content they can skip and what they should NOT skip. - Don't split your posts
Cory says that it is uber-lame to separate your posts and online articles. You know those online newspapers and sites that insist on separating their 'Top 10' lists into 10 different pages, forcing you to click through to a separate page each time. This is one of my personal pet peeves with sites like XXXX - if I want to link to a post or print it out and it's split up into a million pieces, I'll just leave it. Life is too short and there's plenty of other good Blog fodder out there.
Now personally, I think that it's okay to have post series - as long as each separate post is long and informative enough to be satisfying. When written correctly, instead of feeling deprived (or like the blogger is copping out because they are out of content), I just look forward to the next installment. - Don't put important links and details 'after the jump'
Some blogs, specifically blogs that are run off of online ad revenue, like to force readers to click through to another page(s) to catch the juicy bits of their posts. Cory says that it is crap for a site to try to generate more page views just to increase brand impressions for their advertisers.
He says: "Your readers are not 'sticky eyeballs' or 'angulatory wallets' they are your readers." This is such great advice - even in my community blogging experience - where blog real estate is shared with a handful of other writers - I always include the important details above the fold. All 'after the jump' content is additional quotes or information relevant to the post. You got to do what you got to do.
Some of my own (very basic) blogging tips
4. Use images or visuals as much as humanly possible
5. LINKLINKLINK to your sources and other sites as if your life depended on it
6. Respond to your comments (I'm particularly bad on this one)
What are some of your quick and easy essential blogging tips?
