WordCount Writers’ Blogathon and Blog Writing Tips

Yesterday I signed up for the 2nd annual WordCount Writers’ Blogathon put together by Michelle V. Rafter, a freelance writer who writes for online magazines such as IncTechnology.com, Portfolio.com, and MoneyWatch.com. Every freelance writer who joins the Blogathon makes a commitment to post to their blog each and every single day in May. Seeing how today is May 2 and yesterday I did not post here, I’ve already failed.

But never fear! With every failure a valuable lesson follows. So even though I missed the first day of the Blogathon, I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few relevant tips on blog writing.

Blog writing tip #1 – Frequency
Search engines like blogs and Web sites with fresh, new content. It’s smart SEO to update your blog often. I recommend posting to your blog at least twice a week.

Blog writing tip #2 – Consistency
Regular readers will come to depend on your posts. If they visit your site every Monday for five weeks and always read an awesome, well-written post, they’ll be disappointed on the sixth Monday if there is nothing to read. If on the seventh Monday there is still nothing to read, then maybe your regular readers will decide not to be so regular.

Blog writing tip #3 – Varied length
Most blog posts should be somewhere between 250 and 500 words. Some of your posts can be shorter and others can be longer, but do so sparingly. The reality is that search engines don’t like pages with little content and your readers’ attention spans just aren’t that long.

Blog writing tip#4 – Linking
Include links in your blog posts to other pages on your blog or to other Web sites that your readers might find interesting. This is a great way to give your readers additional information, and it’s a great way to reach out to other bloggers. Everyone likes a little link love. If you want bloggers to link to you, then you should link to them first.

So there you have it. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, I know that all of you readers are expecting me to write a blog post every day in May. Check back often or sign up for my RSS feed to read all 30 of them.

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