How to create great content for your blog for beginner to intermediate bloggers. Presented by Annie from the PhD in Parenting blog (http://www.phdinparenting.com) at Blissdom Canada in October 2010.

1. If a Blog Falls in the Forest?
How to get your blog to make a sound
CONTENT I
Image: kcolwell on flickr

2. PANELISTS
Annie
PhD in Parenting
www.phdinparenting.com
@phdinparenting
Heather
Globe Trotting Mama
www.globetrottingmama.com
@greenwooddavis
Emma
Embrace the Chaos (MSN)
www.embracethechaos.ca
@emmawaverman
Amy
Hearts into Home
www.HeartsIntoHome.com
@Amy_Urquhart
Aidan
The Palinode
www.thepalinode.com
@palinode

3. Image: ekai on flickr
IT IS AS EASY AS THIS…
Image: CRASH:candy on flickr
THE SECRETS OF BLOGGING?

4. ANATOMYOFABLOGPOST
Image: aJ GAZMEN ツ GucciBeaR on flickr

5. TITLE: CLEVER OR LITERAL?
Long-
term SEO
Short-
term SEO
Grab
attention

6. TONE YOUR BODY
• Unless you are a gifted writer,
either:
- Keep it short (less than 500
words)
- Structure it and use subtitles
• Put keywords in the first
paragraph and bold them for SEO.
• A picture tells 1000 words…
• The Internet loves lists…
- Top 10 ____
- 50 Reasons Why ____
- 100 Things to ____

7. STYLES
Image credit: Storyteller = The U.S. Army
(flickr), Comedian = The Bloggess on
twitter, Advocate = thivierr (flickr), Informer
= jnthnhys (flickr), Artist = nmoira on flickr
Storyteller
Comedian
Advocate
Informer
Regardless of
style, a good
blog post….
Artist

8. Image credit: PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE on flickr
…makes you think.

9. TAGS/CATEGORIES
• Categories:
Predefined list of
topics that you write
about (use to create
menu).
• Tags: Keywords on
individual posts (tag
cloud to access posts).
• LinkWithin: Fun plug-
in that shows users
related posts that they
might be interested in.

10. WANT COMMENTS?
• Invite them!
– Ask your readers
for their opinions.
– Ask your readers to
share their
experience.
– Ask your readers to
give you advice on
what you should
do.
• Respond to them!
• Reciprocate!
• Please thread them!
Image credit: miss miah on flickr

11. DON’T FEED THE TROLLS!
Image credit: Roberto Rizzato on flickr

12. TRACKBACKS
• A trackback is a link from
someone else’s blog back to
your site.
• Sometimes your blog will
“catch” it and ask you to
approve it. Do you want to?
• But it doesn’t necessarily
catch all.
• Where to place trackbacks?
– Default is usually between
the post and the comments,
which gives them high
visibility.
– Some people (myself
included) put them after the
comments.
Image credit: jenny downing on flickr

13. PROMOTINGYOURCONTENT
Image credit: Anna Gay on flickr

14. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
• Write well and write often.
• Use words that people search for.
• Use those words in your title, first
paragraph, headings.
Image credit: drinksmachine on flickr

15. • RSS Feed
• Twitter
• Facebook pages
• Digg, Stumble, Reddit
• “Share” button
• Blog carnivals
Image credit: Matt Hamm on flickr
SHARING THE LOVE

16. FINAL TIPS
• Don’t spam
• Don’t steal other
people’s content
• Don’t be a jerk
• Be authentic and
transparent
• Have fun!

17. PANEL DISCUSSION
• What was your best post ever?
• Where do you get ideas for blog posts?
• How did you decide what to blog about?
• How much personal information do
you/should you share?
• What do you need to consider when you
are blogging professionally (i.e. paid by
your employer and/or freelance for
someone else) versus personally (100%
your own blog)?
• Video? Scary or a great idea?
• Are there posts you wrote that you wish
you had never written?

18. QUESTIONS?Image credit: Helga Weber on flickr