Power Blogging Tips (1)

I ran across this list in The Social Media Bible by Lon Safko & David K. Brake.  The list itself is from a blog post by David Risley.  It is titled "50 Rapid Fire Tips for Power Blogging".  I've included 15 in this post and will post the rest in other posts.  Read them and apply them!

1. Use WordPress. No other platform is as flexible with all the plug-ins, in my opinion.
    
2. Post often. I usually default to one post per day, when I’m asked. I try to do at least one per day on this blog, except for weekends.
    
3. Use catchy blog post titles. Put yourself in the shoes of a person who is casually surfing the Internet, seeing your post along with hundreds of others. Will your blog headline stand out? Copyblogger is an awesome source for information on writing.
    
4. Ask open ended questions. One of the best ways to invite commentary on your posts is to ask for it. Ask your readers questions and tell them to answer in the form of a comment.
    
5. Comment on other blogs – often. I actually maintain a separate folder in Google Reader for relevant blogs I want to follow more closely than others. And, on those blogs, I comment regularly whenever I have something to say.
    
6. Use Twitter. You’ve GOT to be out there, being social. Friendfeed, too.
    
7. Use Twitterfeed to pipe your latest posts into Twitter. But, don’t ONLY use Twitterfeed. You’ve got to be a real person on Twitter, first and foremost. Twitter should not replace RSS.
    
8. Make your RSS feed obvious, above the fold, and preferably use the orange RSS icon.
    
9. Provide an RSS-to-Email option so people can subscribe to your latest posts without being forced to use an RSS reader. Many people still don’t use RSS. Feedburner provides a free RSS-to-Email service.
    
10. Use images in your posts. Images communicate on aesthetic wavelengths words cannot.
     
11. Use header tags to separate sections in your blog posts, where applicable. H1, H2, and H3 tags. And use good search engine keywords wherever possible in those headers.
     
12. Structure your blog posts for easy scanning. Use header tags, lists, etc. Avoid long sentences and long paragraphs.
     
13. Avoid Myspace-style blog designs. What I mean by this is super BUSY designs with too much on screen, animated graphics, etc. These things make your blog truly suck and makes your content too hard to pay attention to.
     
14. If possible, use a custom WordPress theme. It is getting to the point where people can recognize cookie-cutter themes. It is OK to use one, but at least modify it so that you have a unique header design.
     
15. Start your blog’s mailing list as early as possible. The sooner you start, the longer you have to grow your list and, trust me, that list can be used to make money later. Jeremy Shoemoney made this mistake. John Reese used to hound him about building a list. When he finally got around to it, he realized how important it was.