Here’s a checklist from DailyBlogTips to use before you hit the ‘Publish’ button and send that new post into the blogosphere:

1. Did I read the post after writing it?

2. Is the post as complete as it could be?

3. Did I research the related keywords?

4. Did I craft the title carefully?

5. Did I proofread it?

6. Did I link to one or more of my older posts?

7. Did I link to external resources when appropriate?

8. Did I make sure all links are working?

9. Did I credit any sources I might have used?

10. Did I include an enticing image?

11. Did I optimize the permalink?

12. Did I add one or more elements to engage readers?

13. Is this a good day for traffic?

Go to the article and read what the author- Daniel Scocco has to say about each one of the points on his checklist. It is a very helpful list.

Response: This is an important issue that can really affect your credibility. Careless mistakes and missing or broken links leave a bad impression with your readers. In fact poor editing can actually detract from the message itself.

One good idea is to have blogging friends or family members check out your posts and be honest. Many times another set of eyes will see stuff that you may have missed.

How many times have you discovered typos and missing or misused words in posts that you have already published? It still happens to me. However, it doesn’t happen nearly as often as it use to since I have developed my own pre-publication checklist.

For some reason I always seem to see the mistakes better after it is published. I have made considerable progress in this area by using the ‘previewing’ feature in my editor and seeing what the published post will actually look.

My current ‘pre-publication checklist’ is far more elementary than the one above. I suggest that you develop your own—here’s mine:

1. Spell Check the first draft

2. Proofread and rewrite

3. Come up with an interesting and relevant title

4. Provide links to sources

5. Find a relevant image

6. Links to previous articles on the subject

7. Add keywords and categories

8. Use ‘Preview’ feature and do a final proofing.

9. Publish and check it out.

10. Make panic changes (What I’m trying to eliminate)

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Here’s an article by Dean Rieck @ Copyblogger: “11 Smart Tips for Brilliant Writing”

The 11 tips:

1. Have something to say

2. Be specific

3. Choose simple words

4. Write short sentences

5. Use the active voice

6. Keep paragraphs short

7. Eliminate fluff words

8. Don’t ramble

9. Don’t be redundant or repeat yourself

10. Don’t over write

11. Edit ruthlessly

You will need to read the article to get the full explanation of each one. I found it well worth the time especially since I violate half of them.            *Top

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(Image via Wikipedia)

Holidays present a number of unique opportunities for ministry blogging but also can bring on quite a few scheduling problems with added church and family commitments. Sometimes it is a balancing act.

Nevertheless, I have found that around Christmas time folks are looking for posts telling the Biblical story of the birth of Jesus. Then around Easter, articles about the Resurrection are very popular.

A couple of weeks ago I put up an article on one of my blogs about the ministry of St. Patrick while green beer was flowing and folks were eating the traditional corned beef and cabbage. The traffic on that one was marvelous.

Usually these special articles bring new visitors to my blogs and a definite increase in traffic. This is particularly so during the Christmas and Easter season.

Today-Good Friday, I put up a relevant post from my Apologetica blog archives:

“It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming” 

It went viral and produced the best day ever for that site with over 15 times the usual traffic. Plus the day is not even over yet. I have also found in the past that good articles on the Resurrection of Jesus do exceptionally well on Easter Sunday.

These special times present us with unique opportunities to share the Christian message with folks that normally do not visit Christian sites. To make use of those opportunities and yet have plenty of time for family and church activities, I usually write the posts way ahead of time or link to good archived articles from the past, or at the very least provide links to the best relevant Christian posts and articles that I can find.            *Top

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Here’s a helpful guide to some common mistakes that I make every once in a while and you probably do to. Written by Brian Clark of Copyblogger: “Five Grammatical Errors that Make You Look Dumb”

He lists five mistakes to avoid when blogging and writing web copy:

1. Your vs. You’re

2. It’s vs. Its

3. There vs. Their

4. Affect vs. Effect

5. The Dangling Participle

Read what he has to say about these common errors. I have broken them all at one time or another. Very helpful!            *Top

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One of the major problems that Christians face on the Internet is actually speaking the language of the target audience while avoiding ‘Christianese’ –words and phrases that are primarily used in the Christian community.

I have written on this subject in the past: “The Problem of Speaking Christianese”

Here’s even a better and more complete article on this problem:  “Speaking your audience’s language: How to avoid ‘Christianese’” by Rusty Wright

Rusty Wright even provides a list of commonly used ‘Christianese jargon’ with suggested ‘regular’ words to be used instead.            *Top

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Caption–“No I’m fine, I can last till Halloween is over!” -by Tattooed JJ via Flickr

An article by John Saddington of  Church Crunch–“Honesty in Blogging is the Best Policy”– is short , sweet, and to the point. Here’s a quote:

“…  Although there’s always a line of being wise and discerning with what we blog and tweet about the point is that whatever we do decide to publish we should be honest about.

In other spheres it’s really more for your audience than for yourself, but as Christians I think it’s the other way around; being honest is part of what we do, let’s stay above reproach in all things.”

Response: Amen. Christian and ministry blogs should lead the way in this area. Anyone out there disagree?            *Top

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Started thinking on this subject after reading: “5 Blogging Etiquette Tips for Beginning Bloggers” by Melanie Nelson

When I started blogging I couldn’t even spell ‘etiquette’ much less practice it on my new blog but I did try to learn the best procedures by observing the best. Along the way I naturally picked up some important do’s and don’ts—a lot by just experiencing stuff that I didn’t like others doing to me.

A lot of Christian bloggers first started using the internet to find stories and issues that they want to share with friends and relatives via email. I still have several who are close to me that browse the net and send me stuff that they found. Sometimes they just copy an entire story and send it on—other times just a link, a video, or a cartoon.

Later, some friends have transitioned from email to social media or even blogging with little change in what they do. If it is maintained in social media just among friends a lot of what goes on is forgivable.

The problem comes when folks start blogging and their new sites are all of a sudden beamed to the entire world potentially. In reality only their close friends and relatives are reading the stuff but others do eventually come aboard once the blog is indexed by Google and it all takes on a more permanent ‘life of its own’. A case in point–I have one personal blog that has been visited by folks from over 182 different countries in the last 4 years–many I didn’t know even existed!

Here’s some basic ‘golden rules’ to consider:

1. Linking Sources

Always provide proper links to sources that you refer to or use in preparing your posts. That way your readers can check out the story and documentation for themselves. Also, the sources should receive credit and linking makes that possible.

Note: It is always best to use permalinks to the actual post or story rather than just referring or linking to the home page or blog.

2. Linking Rather than Just Copying

It is a violation of both blogging etiquette and copyright rules to copy an entire article and post it without permission, even if you do link to the original source. ‘Fair Use’ allows for quotes. If you think the whole article is important and you want folks to read it than provide an anchor text or quote from the article with a link to the rest.

If you post the whole article than your readers have no reason to visit the original site and that is completely unfair to the original author.

3. Commenting

This is the bread and butter of blogging but with all of the spam out there it is beginning to become a problem for every blogger. It is getting harder to differentiate between spam and actual comments sometimes. Some spammers used to leave trite comments like: “nice blog”, “great article”, “beautiful site” and etc. Now they seem to be leaving more extensive comments like: “I’m going to read your blog from now on”, “You have some great information here that I can use”, “ Your have really added to the conversation on this subject” and etc. 

As a blogger making comments on other blogs you should always be relevant to the discussion and add to the conversation. Some no-no’s:  Leaving trite comments that don’t really add to the conversation. Leaving insulting personal comments. Worse–posting an entire pre-written article of your own on the same subject in the comment section. Less worse– linking to one of your own without permission. A grey area– Linking to a relevant post of your own or on another blog. If you are a regular commenter on that blog it is probably less of a problem.

As a blogger moderating the comments on your own blog is it mandatory to post all comments the way they are? Generally yes, they are really the property of the writer and not the blog. However, in the past I have personally deleted some inappropriate words on a couple of occasions with an inserted note: (expletive deleted) and self-serving links that were not helpful to the discussion.

It is a good idea to have a commenting policy in place with your expectations clearly identified. 

4. Pictures and Images

Another area that new bloggers in particular have difficulty with is in using and borrowing pictures and images. Pictures and images are also protected by copyright laws and not always available for free use without permission. It really isn’t right just to grab a picture or a graphic off of another site and paste to your own. Care should be taken to insure that it is in public domain and available for general use.

Also care should be taken to down load any images to make sure you are not ‘hot-linking’. Every image and picture on the internet has its own link and if you just copy and paste and leave the link intact then you are actually stealing someone else’s hosted bandwidth.

Sources like Flickr, and apps like Zemanta, Apture, and PicApp can make life a whole lot easier for bloggers when it comes to images and picture. 

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(Image via Wikipedia)

From Mashable.com : “26 Places to Find Free Multimedia for Your Blog”

A real helpful article by Barb Dybwad with 26 different places to go for ‘free’ pictures, audio, and video for your website and blog.

Also remember three great sources or plugins that I’ve posted about in the past—these apps help make the process quick and easy for finding appropriate media to incorporate into any blog post:

1. Need Pics and Links?–There’s Always Zemanta!

2. New WordPress Plugin: PicApp for Pictures

3. Capture with Apture

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(Image by voteprime via Flickr)

Here’s an interesting article by Yahoo Tech: “No such thing as "deleted" on the Internet”

It Reminds folks that some of those horrible pictures and stuff you ‘deleted’ a month ago are probably somewhere out there still on the Internet—particularly if it was on Facebook.

This should be a lesson for all of us in ministry to be careful what we say and what type of info. we might publish. I know for example, some of the things that I have published about Islam on my Apologetic blog might be none too popular among some in the Middle East, though I get quite a few visits from there. However, I have been careful to be as accurate as I possibly can be.

On a couple of occasions my responses to some comments on a blog or two have not been all that charitable. I am learning to be far more loving than I used to be. In the mean time, there are a few comments still out there that I’d take back if I could. A lesson I am still in the process of learning.

This media is far more permanent than the ‘delete’ button promises.       

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(-Picture by Sybren A. Stüvel via Flickr)

Here’s a post I found on Problogger with some tips on writing by Shannon Paul- “Six very Official Ways to Improve Your Writing”:

1. Stop Trying to Sound Intelligent

2. Give yourself permission to write garbage

3. Be a Ruthless Editor

4. Use MIGHTY verbs

5. Read aloud before posting

6. Do what works for you

Go to the article and read what she has to say under each suggestion–very helpful indeed.

Now for my Tips: –when are you done with a post? Some contend that once it is posted that’s it! It is left to revolve around the blogosphere as it is forever.

A. Changing a Published Post:

Have you ever posted a brilliant blog at midnight only to find that the next morning it has turned into a pumpkin? That happens to me all the time. Guess what? I just change it!

Sometimes there may even be a couple of versions of my same blog circulating on different aggregators. Oh well! The current and best version can always be found on my blog for everyone to see.

On several occasions I have even noted that the post was ‘revised on —” since it was a substantial departure from the original.

B. Changing a Posted Title:

What about the title? There have even been a  number of occasions when I blew it on the title. I have misspelled a word, left out one I intended to include, or maybe the title just didn’t cut it. What can you do then? A permalink has already been produced for the post.

No problem if your permalink is numbered, but what if the title is actually part of the link? It takes a little more care, but if you have WordPress you can change the title and leave the original permalink in place so you don’t lose any possible links to the post.

Blogging is not nuclear science and the consequences of changing a post are not earth shattering or life changing. Guess what, there’s no blogging police!

One sure way to improve your writing–always correct your mistakes. Editing is one of the most important parts of the blogging experience. For me, editing never ends. If you want to change one of your posts you certainly have my permission.            *Top

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