thesablog » Best Practices

The blogging world may be new to you. This is a collection of a few starter tips, just to warm you up.

1. Write about what you care about. Your genuine voice is what's going to start a conversation.

2. Shorter is better. Everyone is busy, try to keep posts to 300-400 words. If you have a big topic, break it up into a series. If you find yourself on a passionate rant and figure out a huge problem in 19 steps you can illustrate, well, then, let it all hang out. Just know that fewer people will slog than scan.

3. Research is great. Research plus your experience or plans is even better. Starting with facts is a great place to start, but stories are more memorable, so is application.

4. Fresh. Always. Blogs move especially fast. This is a great place for hot topics. If you are addressing cold topics, find a way to create some friction.

5. The conversation is the most important thing. Even more than posting, commenting on others blogs is a huge contribution to the community. As an author, comments on your blog will get e-mailed to you. It's polite, good practice, and wonderfully educational to respond to comments with comments of your own. Dialogue is the best.

6. Pictures are worth 1000's of words. Plus they make everything more fun. Pictures make a short post deep. (www.flickr.com is a great place to find pictures with a creative commons license, make sure to link or attribute when you use them. Also try www.sxc.hu)

7. Think of your audience. The audience of this blog is primarily Activities and Student Affairs Professionals. Know what you can assume and what you have to define. Know too, that they are probably just like you, with similar frustrations, hopes, and aspirations. If you open up and get real, readers will respond in kind.

8. Have a go. This is the most important thing: just try. Blogs aren't books, or even articles. They don't last long; if you are wrong you can fix it with the next post. This doesn't mean be sloppy, but if you are like me, your challenge will come from over-thinking out of exposure nervousness rather than under-thinking out of laziness. Think just enough, then err on the side of having a go.