As a continuation of James’ post from yesterday, he offers some tips to successful blogging. I always use James’ blog, Citizen Polity, as an example of building your reputation through blogging.

James’ blogging tips:

• You need to write weekly at minimum. This is hard, but you need to try to stay on top of it as much as you can.

• Break up long posts into several articles (e.g. my “bee series” was done in 3 parts) and post those on different days.

• You don’t need to write an essay/ treatise. My first post was over 1,200 words long (which was cut down from the original 1,600 words). You should aim for quick bursts, 500-750 words – but even 250 words are just fine. Admittedly, I’m not as good as I should be about following this advice.

• Be yourself. If you’re funny, let your humor come through. If your creative, let that come through (ex: do a visual post rather than writing all the time). If you want to be very professional, stick to that.

• While it’s ok to bring in personal observations / experiences (a must!), don’t write about personal things (e.g. You wouldn’t believe what the vet. said about my fat dog). No one cares. Stick to the professional topic.

• WordPress is amazing, I have no regrets about using it over Google’s blog software.

• Have an email subscription functionality – I use Feedburner (it’s free). I think WordPress has a free module for it now too, but honestly, I’m too lazy to switch.

• You don’t have to be a techie to do all of this – just being willing to Google the heck out of a tech issue or ask people.

• There’s going to be a lot of work getting the blog set up the way you want it. But once it’s done, it’s done. I haven’t had to do anything to my blog’s look and feel since October / November ’09. Now all I do is write.

Thanks James! I am honored to have you as a friend and always appreciate your generosity and willingness to share!