Ten golden rules of blogging
Blogs are great when you have a real passion for writing something, whether it's for business or pleasure. And blogs are a great online marketing tool; the best will draw a large audience, and will boost your SEO activity.
Here are my 10 golden rules for blogging:
- Be very clear of your aims and objectives for the blog.
- Keep it simple and focused – try to avoid corporate speak or industry jargon – it's not just another website.
- Be passionate and authoritative but with an element of fun.
- Update your blog regularly. On average I recommend twice weekly.
- Create fresh, eye-catching content – originality is key – be passionate in what you want to say.
- Be honest if your blog relates to your products and services.
- Encourage conversation; invite and encourage fellow-bloggers to comment, and listen to what they have to say. Invite guests onto your blog.
- Bloggers hate being sold to, so avoid using hard sell tactics.
- Add inbound and outbound links to your site. The idea is to entice people to your website.
- Socialise with other bloggers and encourage them to communicate your key messages.
Citizen journalism: news that spreads like wildfire
Over the past couple of years the internet has increasingly dominated my life – so much so that I get a bit panicky when I’m ‘offline’. Working in digital media has sharpened my senses to the fundamental shift that’s taking place, but it’s staring each of us in the face really.
Nearly every day there’s yet another news story about Facebook or some other aspect of the internet. It makes me wonder how much more our lives are going to change in the next few years.
One change I’m acutely aware of is that if I want to read the news, and I mean the ‘breaking’ news, I certainly won’t find it on my television. Citizen journalism is a reality – stories are ‘broken’ by people at the scene, by texting, blogging, emailing and taking pictures, even videos, and posting them online.
For example, there was a major incident at Liverpool Street Station recently during the evening rush hour. A huge exclusion zone was set up sealing the whole area off. I learned this from a friend at the scene who called me. Concerned, I switched on my TV news channel… and nothing. The ‘breaking news’ on TV had been the same all afternoon. But had I been able to get online I’m sure I’d have found out what was happening.
Most ‘old’ media businesses worth their salt woke up to this reality years ago. Check out the BBC’s help us make the news feature or The Guardian’s news direct to you range of functionality; with g24 you can even print off your own PDF for a more old-fashioned read – updated every 15 minutes.
The Guardian has arguably been at the forefront of successfully translating traditional journalism online – with their website updated by the minute, winning awards, and offering amazing usability and choice. There’s an astonishing level of engagement with their huge range of blogs, where a new post can collect hundreds of comments in literally minutes.
As Howard Owens – a prolific journalist/blogger – recently stated:
“The user is in control. They decide what, when, why, where and how to consume media. Users aren’t interested in newspaper deadlines and their desire to have the full story before publishing. They want to know what we know when we know it. They want their news now.
People want to participate. They want to talk back. They want to add to our stories, correct us and just spout off as need be with their own opinions."
Absolutely. And I welcome the ongoing efforts on the part of publishers to embrace the web, but what I’m really looking forward to is someone inventing a way for me to find the time to read everything.
The opinions expressed herein are the personal opinion of the author and are not intended as statements of fact and do not represent the view of Coastdigital Limited in any way
