my main problem is keeping posts around 300 words. I have a sports blog and by the time you add the relevant stats and the actual result its a bit long in my opinion.

Why read my blog if its just a different version of main stream sports articles.

Is there an example of posting without paragraphs — per se? I need something to “put-me-in-a box” for awhile to break this habit.

Nitin Vyas

But I think #4 ought to be rephrased as “Settle down before you post”. When I get riled up, I tend to write stuff that ends up sounding stupid after I’ve calmed down.

I read somewhere the suggestion that as more and more people start to use feed readers and news aggregators and such they will over time end up subscribed to a lot of feeds. The more headlines there will be staring them in the face. Each competing for the readers limited time to be read. Not having time to read everything, they will pick what catches their eye or sounds interesting. Yet another plain keyword focused title will probably be less likely to get read as it blends in with all the other blah headlines.

What might others here think about this idea?

I think sharing a bit of your personal life is what makes a good blog. It is not a New York Times article…it is a blog.

He says that every blog post should be a conversation starter, something inspiring others to an action of some sort. Each post should scream everything that you’re about, should have your voice, and should invite readers to not only join in the discussion but to keep coming back again and again.

In short, your posts should always be more about what you and your vision can do for your readers than just all about you.

It’s kind of the catch-22 in successful blogging, that the more popular and successful you become, the less your blog becomes about you and the more it becomes about the community you’ve built up around yourself.

You can spend all your life following other peoples’ rules, or you can stand up and make the rules yourself.

And that’s one of the most interesting things about blogging right now.

When i talk about a specific product/featutre that was mentioned in older posts, i always link to it so i make sure people will know what i’m talking about…

=)
Heat

I didn’t link to another site in one of my other comments on this blog, because I don’t know what tags I can use and there doesn’t apppear to be a way to edit my comment if I get it wrong.

Some sites show comment tags or preview what your post is going to look like to make it easier for the user, which I find extremely helpful.

Others, also allow you to edit your post within a certain time frame (say 30 mins).

I am very knew to blogging, but not to web development, and sometimes I don’t know what to do.

Oh, and it is also very irritating to click on a click, only to find out that you have to register with the site before you can view the content.

Most people wouldn’t bother.

#3 – I think we’ve all smacked that around about lately.

#4 – Think Before you Post – a great tip. Once you publish that post it can stay around forever. Don’t write something that you don’t want coming back to bite you months/years later. That’s why I tend to go at blogging like a journalist – research and then more research, then edit and then publish (and still sometimes I screw up)

#6 Link – I’ll take you up on that Darren – you link to me and I’ll link to you. It’s really hard though. I try to link to as many as possible but I have to stick within my niche if I’m to have any relevance and so many times I have to say no to people.

#8 Comments – of course, I don’t get hundreds and hundreds of comments but I do reply to every comment made at my blog – I see it is as a courtesy thing: they’ve made the effort to comment and I’m welcoming a new reader or continuing a relationship with a current reader. Commenting is the ultimate accolade. It means you’re having an affect and people are reading and thinking about what you write about.

#10 Be controversial – I think there’s a time and place for this. It has to be managed well and thought out. It’s the usual thing: attack a big corporation and you can’t go wrong – don’t start a fight with someone your same size, it;s bound to fail. I think Duncan (Blog Herald) is the expert in controversy and can clue us in on this more on this ;-)

#12 – very good point – we sometimes get too self-involved in our own blogs and blog buddies to see that newbies don’t know squat about what we’re on about – it’s a bit like some of us Aussies making “in house” jokes – it’s funny to us but the vast majority have no idea and think we’re probably nuts.