Saturday, August 20, 2005

Blog Writing Style

Some nice tips that I liked....

by Molly Holzschlag and Darren Barefoot

· Content

o Blogs lend themselves to quick writing and shorter posts

o Understand the blogging environment by reading for a while before you write

o Companies don't blog - people blog. Passionate ones make the best bloggers.

o Blogging is about telling a story, and extending that story into a conversation

o Having a voice and a personality is critical. Boring or bored people aren't engaging.

o Blogging is an act of courage, because you are putting things out in the public that never were before

o Define the audience, offer public feedback mechanisms and listen to them

o Cite other blogs, you can't do this enough

· Editing

o Edit your materials before you post, but don't let your own editing censor your voice

o Resisting the temptation to push "Publish" too soon can be helpful

o Corrections are best handled with strikethrough text on the error. "Update:" at the end of the post works well too

o Editing too many times can irritate people because subscribers to your web feed see it as a new post each time you update

o Don't excerpt email discussions unless you have the person's approval

Bottom line: be transparent, be authentic, tell your story

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