What follows are 26 tips, from A-Z, related to the craft of blog writing and a number of critical factors that will help to ensure the production of high-quality posts.

#1: Attribution

“Links are the currency of the web,” writes Jonathan Bailey. “If you use someone else’s content, whether licensed directly or through fair use, it’s important to be sure to provide a clickable link to the original site if at all possible. This not only helps visitors to your site find the original work, but it also provides SEO benefits for the creator of the content and guards against your site being mistaken by the search engines as the original work.”

#2: Blog as Hub

Not long ago, the company website served as the communication hub for an organization. Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman write in their recent book, Content Rules, How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business, “A Blog can serve as your online home base or hub for content, including posts you write, curated content you pull together, press mentions, and content created about your organization elsewhere that you want to share.”

"A blog can become the central location through which you can share your thoughts, words, and ideas with the world."—Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman

#3: Comments

One of the distinguishing features of blogs from earlier websites is the ability to leave comments. As Stan Shroeder writes on Mashable, “At their core, [blogs] are about two-way communication; a blog is simply not a blog without comments.”

Lisa Barone suggests, “Having comments open on your blog is a bit like sitting on your front porch in the evening. It lets people know you’re home and invites them to stop over if they want to talk. People can interact when they have something to say and they become active members of what you’re building.” She offers insights too about how to deal with spam and moderate comments.

#4: Disclosure

Bloggers need to comply with the FTC’s December 2009 policy on disclosures, which mandates that bloggers state clearly when they have accepted free merchandise or services from companies they discuss. Learn more about creating disclosure statements.

#5: Editing

The Yahoo! Style Guide recommends a number of proofreading techniques and suggests that writers use at least one of them, or combine a few:

• Print your page. Reading a printout is a great tactic for spotting errors.
• Wait. You’ll start to see what it actually says, not what it’s supposed to say.
• Ask someone else to read your copy. Having a second reader is one of the best ways to clarify and correct your copy.
• Read backward. Great for proofreading numbers and useful when you need to make sure that a piece of text is perfect.
• Read out loud. Reading out loud, or using screen-reading software, will make you take in the words differently. This is also a good way to check the “voice” of your piece and whether the text flows smoothly.
• Read line-by-line, word-by-word. Use a spell-checker.
• Change the look; e.g., font size, background color or text color.

#6: Frequency

The one thing readers have come to expect from a reputable blog is a frequent and reliable posting schedule. The number of posts you plan to write per week depends on your resources, but whatever works for you, it’s best to commit to a regular and consistent schedule.

#7: Grabbing Attention

With an inordinate amount of blog posts being published daily, you want to strive to stand out with the topic, writing and appearance of your posts. Grab attention with great copy, memorable images and inspiring videos.

Make your blog post stand out from the crowd by grabbing attention.

#8: Headings

Speaking of grabbing attention, one sure way to do that is with the use of headings and subheadings. Not only does it help the reader to ascertain what the post is about, but it also increases the readability of the post, which is an important consideration for all web content. Heading tags (e.g., H1 and H2) will also help with optimizing posts for search engines.

#9: Infographics

Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These representations are being created and posted in increasing numbers these days. What’s great for bloggers too is that many infographic designers often encourage others to embed the infographics on their blogs as long as they credit and link to the original with appropriate attribution.

Here’s a link to a cool infographic, The Journey of a Successful Blog Post.

#10: Juxtaposition

Sometimes coming up with a steady stream of ideas for blog posts can feel challenging. At times like these, you can use a technique where you reference two different posts and then write about the similarities and differences in the thinking and offer your readers a third unique viewpoint.

#11: Keywords

Using keywords in blog posts helps the post to be picked up and ranked by search engines. While it’s important to use them strategically in title tags, headings, body content, URL and meta description, it’s also important to not go overboard and keyword-stuff a post. Whiztechy has a very helpful article, “How to Use Keywords Effectively in Your Blog Posts.”

#12: Links

As discussed previously in #1: Attribution, links are the currency of the web. In addition to linking to posts you’ve referenced, you can also refer to and link back to one of your own related posts, which will also help your blog’s SEO.

#13: Mobile-Friendly

More and more readers these days are coming to blog posts via their mobile phones, so if your blog isn’t already mobile-friendly, you’ll want to take the necessary steps to make it more easily accessible. Many popular blogging platforms have mobile plugins and templates. Darnell Clayton shares helpful information in his post, “How to Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly.”

#14: Numbers in Titles

Jeremy LaDuque writes in his post, “5 Tips for Effective Email and Blog Titles,” that research has shown that “when a title contains a number, it gets more attention.” 26 Tips, anyone?

#15: Optimizing Blog Posts

As discussed earlier, using keywords and tags helps with a blog’s overall SEO. Taken a step further, Darren Rowse has a post, “Optimize a Single Post on Your Blog for SEO,” about steps you can take to go back and further tweak posts after they’ve been published by analyzing the competition, and looking further at on- and off-page optimization opportunities.

#16: Pain Points

Rich Brooks writes in his post, “How to Develop a Social Media Content Strategy,” that knowing your audience’s pain points will help you tap into conversations that may otherwise pass you by. Begin by finding key phrases and narrowing them down further so you can determine what’s most important to your audience.

#17: Question

Because most bloggers want to encourage conversation on their blog posts, many have found it helpful to come right out and ask readers questions at the end of the post, which gives people something specific to respond to. For example, an appropriate question to end this post might be “What blogging tips would you add to this list?”

#18: Readability

Michael Martin suggests that people come to your blog to read articles, and the easier they are to read, the better. He offers a useful resource, “30 Things That You Can Do Now,” which includes formatting suggestions regarding links, line spacing, pull quotes, font and background colors, structured hierarchy, italics, bold, etc.

#19: Style Guide

Blogs require a consistent style guide so that anyone who writes and edits posts will be able to adhere to the same rules. Some blogs choose to adopt the AP Stylebook and others prefer the MLA or The Yahoo! Style Guide. As Jonathan Bailey suggests, you’ll also want to decide up front how you address specifics such as post length/frequency, post titles (length, capitalization), formatting (subheads, lists), images (sources, sizes), links (number, format), attribution (quotes, photos), and author information/bio.

#20: Templates

Kit Singleton provides “7 Tips for Choosing a Business Blog Template.” She suggests thinking about key factors such as knowing your blog’s purpose, paying attention to aesthetics, the arrangement of columns, recommended blog features, modifiable CSS code, checking your blog in several browsers, and when the time comes, not being afraid to change the look and feel of your blog.

#21: Updates

At times you may find that something you wrote about previously has undergone a significant change. Rather than starting a new post from scratch, you can go back to the original post and update it with the information you’d like to add. For example, the number of users on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are constantly increasing, so you might add the new information and indicate that you’ve updated the page since the original post date. That way your posts won’t get too outdated and it’ll reflect well that you’re working to keep the material up to date. It also gives the reader a good frame of reference on the quickly changing landscape.

#22: Voice

How does your blog sound to a reader? What does it say about you and your business?

Georgina Laidlaw suggests that “Voice is the tone in which you present content…” If a message is what we say, then voice is a critical element in the tone of your content. Pace, rhythm, turns of phrase, idioms—even the way you use punctuation—all contribute to the voice of your blog.

Heidi Cohen offers 7 points to help you create your writer’s voice: personality, tells a story, is contextually relevant, listens and interacts, sounds like a real person, has a point of view and avoids sanitized corporate-speak.

#23: Write for the World

If you’ve ever looked at your blog analytics and found that a particular post was read widely in another part of the world, you’ll be able to fully appreciate this next tip—Write for the World—identified by the Yahoo! Style Guide. As it suggests, “Do not assume that you know who’s reading your website. Your audience is not homogenous; its members almost certainly vary in age, race, gender, physical abilities, nationality, culture, sexual orientation, and so on.”

Writing for the world can further be translated as banishing bias from your language; e.g., determine whether a group-specific reference is relevant, be exact, beware of false generalizations, use “us” and “them” cautiously, don’t make the characteristic the person, watch out for bias inherent in slang and other figures of speech, and don’t overcompensate.

Write for the world and banish bias from your language.

#24: Expert Interviews

Conducting expert interviews is a good content source for blogs to consider. Name recognition of someone in your field in whom your audience is interested has a good chance of increasing the post’s readership. Furthermore, if the person you interviewed links back to your site or tweets about your interview, your name becomes connected with the expert’s, and you can bring a new awareness and credibility to your blog. In the post “Traffic: Will the Expert Interview Increase Traffic to Your Blog or Site?, you’ll find a good discussion for how to go about asking for an interview with an expert, suggestions for how to conduct the interview and a list of sample questions.

#25: YouTube

There are many good reasons why you’d want to embed a YouTube video into a blog post. As YouTube says, “Video is much more engaging than text. It draws more users and keeps them on your site for longer… When looking to increase engagement, try using video as a way to start discussion or make a commentary by creating more context for your users.” Marziah Karch has a great post about how to share, embed and link YouTube videos.

#26: Zigzags and Leaps

In an attempt to keep our blog posts fresh, writers may need to explore new techniques every now and then. Books on the craft of nonfiction and even fiction writing can offer different directions for bloggers to take to get the momentum moving again. In the book Now Write! Nonfiction, Barbara Hurd offers a chapter entitled “Zigzags and Leaps.” She writes, “So the question becomes: how to make the mind move, how to make our thinking zigzag and swerve, plunge and leap as we search for the right direction? I often suggest that students with listless drafts make a series of mental moves that might open up things a bit, allow a little more in, including, we hope, the discovery that’s been eluding them.”

Final thoughts about fine-tuning blog posts: To have your blog serve as your online home base, it will require an ongoing commitment to quality content and great attention to detail. But the personal and business rewards of maintaining a blog will be well worth the effort!

What new tips will you try out? What blogging tips would you add to this list? Leave your comments in the box below.

All photos from Shutterstock.

In an earlier post I talked about the need to fully optimize your website and blog posts for search engines.

However, content optimization will only take you so far. For a website to really take off in the search engine rankings, it needs to generate incoming links from relevant and reputable websites. And you have little control of incoming links.

To increase the likelihood of obtaining high-quality incoming links, here are seven things you can do:

#1: Create Content Others Will Want to Share

All search engine optimization (SEO) starts with content. The first step to generating incoming links is to create content that others will want to share. Blog posts that solve problems, provide a valuable resource, entertain, demonstrate innovation or even create controversy can all generate incoming links. Average content won’t cut it. It needs to be outstanding.

Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other social media sites are driven by the desire to share. One of the quickest ways to build social media credibility is to share outstanding blog posts, videos or other online content. When you create content that will give Twitter users or bloggers credibility just by sharing it, you’re going to generate valuable incoming links.

Don’t forget to make your content easy to share by including TweetMeme, Digg, Facebook or other buttons that are easy to find and use.

#2: Distribute Online Press Releases

Press releases are a great way to generate incoming links. A good press release can be directly published by any of a number of highly trafficked news organizations. Again, the key is to provide content that is of value to others.

When writing a press release, think like a reporter. What “news” is important to the reporter’s readers? Write it as if you were the reporter writing a story. Make the reporter’s or editor’s job easy and your press release has a much better chance of getting published.

One of the big advantages of online press releases is that you can control the back links to your site. Linking keywords in your press release to relevant pages on your website or blog can result in valuable incoming links.

Even the link coming from the press release site can be beneficial as most PR distribution sites have a high Google page rank. The key is to link from the body text of the press release to pages deep within your site such as a related blog post (deep linking). For example, a link to an article on your website providing tips for writing press releases wrapped around appropriate keywords (as opposed to a link to your home page) is a deep link.

Although there are a number of free press release sites available, paid distribution sites such as PRNewswire.com are often monitored by reporters and feed directly to Yahoo! News and other large websites. If you have the resources, a good press release on a premium distribution site can quickly pay for itself.

Distribution sites such as PR Newswire, Business Wire, PrimeZone or Market Wire distribute press releases to Yahoo! News and others.

#3: Write Guest Posts

Writing guest posts (like I’m doing here) on highly ranked, highly trafficked websites can also generate powerful incoming links.

Writers often will offer to write free posts in exchange for a link back to their own website. If the publisher will allow it, a link or two in the body of the post anchored to related keywords (deep links) can be even more valuable than the link in an author bio. Don’t believe me? How many of you clicked on the “tips for writing press releases” link above?

If you’re a good writer and have something to say, landing a guest spot isn’t all that difficult. The key thing is to pitch the website owner (or appropriate editor) an article that will be of value to his or her readers. Pitch the idea, not the entire article. Prior relationships don’t hurt either. If there’s a blog you’d like to write for, constructive comments and active participation can go a long way.

Remember, many blogs are run by individuals or small operations and creating daily content can be a lot of work. A good blog post by a guest writer can be beneficial to both the blog and the writer.

#4: Link to Others

Don’t be afraid to link to other blogs or publications. Linking to content of value not only provides a service for your readers but the incoming link will show up in the other blog’s analytics. Many blogs even display incoming links along with the comments. These links are one way to direct other bloggers back to your site. If they see something they like, they might return the favor.

Google also likes to see outgoing links to relevant and reputable websites.

#5: Share Content With Relevant Websites

Look for websites and blogs that offer content that’s complimentary to yours and let them know you’re there. For example, a lawyer who specializes in waterfront issues and riparian rights might share an article with a realtor who specializes in waterfront homes.

This can be as simple as an email letting the blogger know you enjoy his blog and a link to an article of interest to his readers. If you can directly tie it into something the blogger is currently writing about, even better.

In the old days, it used to be common to ask for a link exchange. Now, these link exchanges can come across as spammy—especially to the owner of a website with a high Google ranking. You’ll get much further with content that is highly relevant to the blogger.

#6: Create a Link Network

This is a tip that can do wonders for a group of topically related bloggers. About five years ago, I started blogging about my favorite college football team (and my alma mater). At some point, a number of bloggers in the Big Ten began to organize behind the scenes.

The most recent headlines from associated blogs can drive traffic for everyone in the group.

We all agreed to include links to each other’s blogs on our websites and someone created a feed reader that published the most recent headlines from the group in our sidebar. At the time it seemed like a good way to pick up a couple of readers from other college sports blogs. I had no idea the impact from the incoming links would be so huge.

Over the years, many of these blogs have grown into highly ranked websites while others have merged with larger content providers. Thanks to the network, we all have a number of incoming links from highly ranked websites loaded with relevant content.

The feed reader in the sidebar also notifies fellow bloggers and their readers of my most recent posts. I’ll often write headlines aimed at other blogs in the feed knowing that it may generate a response or at least drive traffic from other sites. This technique can often trigger a response from other blogs generating even more traffic for both of us.

Transfer this technique to a business blog and you could create a very powerful network. If you’re worried about competition, look for bloggers outside of your geographic region or closely related but not in direct competition with your business. Realize though that the benefits of the incoming link juice far outweigh the concerns of a few readers visiting another blog. Besides, if your content is good enough, they’ll find their way back to your site.

#7: Don’t Forget Internal Links

If you have a blog post that has achieved a good Google page rank on its own, use it to build in a couple of links to other pages within your site. The link will still hold search engine value even though it’s coming from within the same site.

Link-building takes time and should be an ongoing process. It’s also a world in which the rich get richer. As a website moves to the top of the search returns, lazy researcher syndrome kicks in. Reporters and bloggers will often click on the top returns just because they’re the first to pop up on the page. The upper positions on the search returns also bring perceived credibility just because of their position. As you work your way to the top positions, incoming links will start to develop on their own.

“Link-building is an ongoing process.”

Have you found success generating incoming links to your website or blog? What methods have you tried and what worked for you? Leave your comments and suggestions in the box below.

Do any of these sound familiar? “Who has time?” “You expect me to do all this on top of my normal duties?” “How do you fit everything in?” … and so on.

I am not going to lie to you. Social media does take time. In fact, time is going to be one of your major hidden costs of doing business on the Internet.  And for some of us, that time could be wasted if we are not careful.

You need to watch where your time goes to ensure you’re spending it efficiently and with the desired impact.  Here are five tips to help you.

#1: Spend Your Time Intentionally

It’s all too easy to just chit chat, browse and surf, get distracted or feel like we are making progress when really we are avoiding work and using social media “engagement and interaction” as an excuse to procrastinate. There are good conversations and wasteful conversations and you need to decide which is which.

Consider a face-to-face networking event. Do you spend all of your time speaking to one person at that event about the weather, or do you spread yourself around a bit and find new and interesting people to connect with? Are you just hanging out or do you direct your efforts toward a precise tactical aim or specific goal?

You need to know what you are doing and how you are going to measure your success.

How does this help you find time? Well, most businesses and individuals already allocate time for marketing, networking and research. If you know that your social media activities come in under one of those headings, and your efforts in social media are going to achieve equal or better results to other things you could do under those headings, then you are equipped to carve out time to try social media instead.

#2: Carve Out Time Where Social Media Is More Efficient

Because of my social media efforts, I no longer have to pitch, write proposals or go to sales meetings. I have never had to cold-call for my own business, and I do not write competitive bids.

How much time could you save if you didn’t have to do this kind of sales lead generation or closing?

In my previous job, I would have to spend more than six hours in a car just so I could go to one 30-minute sales presentation competing with several other companies with very little differentiation between us. Not only was it soul-destroying and a colossal waste of time, it was actually very ineffective.

I am not saying you will be able to 100% replace your old way of doing things with social media right away, and I would not suggest that is wise even if you could. But you should be able to take an hour or two out of a week to test social media and see how the results look. In fact, combining approaches usually works best, as each technique and medium compounds the results of the others. Reaching prospects through a multi-channel approach is normally much better than the sum of the parts.

The great thing about social media is you can pretty much get involved anywhere and any time.

#3: Use “Dead” Time

How much time do you spend just waiting? I was recently at a conference in Las Vegas and because of the long-haul nature of the travel and the fact that I would be alone much of the time, I did a lot of hanging around and waiting, which I filled with social media. Just think of your average business trip… What do you spend a lot of time doing?

• Flights
• Taxis
• Queues
• Departure lounges
• Restaurants
• Meetings
• Hotels
• …?

If, however, you have an Internet-connected laptop or smart phone, you can at least use some of this time to stay connected, engage with people, write some content or otherwise go from “hanging around” to being semi-productive. If nothing else, you will feel like you are not all alone in the world!

How long does it take to check your messages and send out a tweet, status update, check out a link, or answer a question? Seconds? Minutes at most?

How many times during the day do you get the odd 10 minutes where you are simply waiting?

Even at my desk I have to sit and wait, watching progress bars as something calculates, prints, renders or uploads. Those are prime “check what is happening in social media” times!

What if you find you have more than a few minutes to spare?

#4: Escape, Bulk-Produce, Store Up and Schedule

On those occasions when you have a good chunk of time, make the best possible use of that time and get a power hour of content produced.

• Outline and write a set of blog posts to go out later when you are too busy
• Brainstorm and create ideas, mind map your thoughts and generate headlines
• Plan for the future, write up an editorial calendar, “most like to meet” list or line up meetings with people with whom you have lost contact
• Get organized and make your week more efficient with tasks, to-dos, filing and an empty inbox
• Write out some interesting tweets to go out over the next week so you only have to check in and reply each day

One of my friends “escapes” to the coffee shop a couple of times a week and does all his content creation and planning for that week in those few concentrated hours. Being out of the office with zero interruptions (other than the constant stream of fresh latte) means he can bang out several quality items and his brain cooperates, rather than fights against his productivity with distractions and… Ooh, shiny!

#5: Just Relax

My last point is that this is not meant to be a chore. Nobody is testing you, tracking your use of time or holding you to any grading system. It should be useful and it should be fun!

Aim to build a reputation for being helpful and providing value, and most of all being a real human being. Then people will be much more forgiving and understanding. You do not need to be perfect.

If you do not post an article this week, so what? Your Twitter followers might be concerned if you do not appear for a few days, but they are not going to start saying bad things about you if you are too busy to tweet!

For me, social media is primarily social. It is my coffee break. Yes, I do find it a very effective set of tools for my business, but I also deeply appreciate the people who are at the other end of those avatars and tools. If you keep relationships foremost in your mind and do not treat social media as something you have to do or else, you will have much greater success at it!

What do you think? Have you struggled to find time? How do you find time for social media? Please share your comments below…

Photo by Leo Reynolds