Image by cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr

Searching the internet tonight I came across a very helpful article listing 3 basic rules all bloggers need to pay attention to:

“The 3 Things You Need to Learn About Blogging”

Here’s what BloggingPro writer James Dunaway has at the top of his list as far as blogging essentials:

1. Learn SEO

2. Respect Online Reputation

3. Write by heart

Read what he has to say about each.

‘Writing by heart’ or from the heart is the single best advice that I have ever come across in any article about blogging. If you don’t have some interest or passion about what you are writing about, you can’t expect any of your readers to find anything interesting about what you have to say.

Sometimes I get the impression that some bloggers put a post up on an event or issue merely because it happens to be going viral at the time, not necessarily because they care about it one way or another. If you don’t really care it will show and searchers will bounce out of your post before the end of the second paragraph if not before.            *Top

(Image by DavidErickson via Flickr)

I know that I have broken some of these basic rules in grammar dozens of times while writing on the Web in the last six years. It occurs to me that if I could use a quick refresher in this area then maybe some of you might benefit from it also.

Here’s an article by Robin Nobles listing 10 of the most common grammar errors made on the Web:

“Top Ten Grammar Errors that Haunt Web Pages”

1. it’s = it is
2. Web site (or page) vs. web site/page vs. Website/website (page)
3. Periods and commas: do they go inside or outside of quotation marks, or does it depend on the sentence?
4. E-mail vs. email, plus what is the plural of e-mail?
5. SEOs or SEO’s
6. Spelling spot check
7. Hyphens
8. Additional spot check
9. Singular vs. plural
10. Commas

Follow the link and take a look at the explanation for each of these common errors. Examples of ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ usage are included.            *Top

(Image by Dan Patterson via Flickr)

Proofreading is probably a writer’s least favorite task. It is also quite necessary, entirely expected, and all of the ‘rewards’ are negative at best. What makes it particularly daunting and haunting is the obvious fact that all of us fail at it occasionally no matter how many times we re-read and edit our masterpieces.

How many times have you bloggers glanced upon yesterday’s article that you’re so proud of only to find an obvious error that the spell check missed or worse yet you used the wrong ‘their’ there. It happens to me all of the time.

Then what do you do? I go back in and change it. I don’t care if it was written last year and it’s all over the Internet in cached form.The error is going down.

This brings up an entirely different subject. There are some who say that once an article is posted on the Internet it is sacrosanct and should never be altered. Horse pucky! Those folks are just crazy and maybe even a little lazy. All of the best publishers will change their miscues in the 2nd edition even if it is a NY Times best seller.

I actually found today’s topic while reading the newspaper of all things, proving that fish wrap can still be relevant if not amusing. Particularly when it’s consumed with coffee and Cheerios. Stephen Wilbers writes a great syndicated column that appears in The Orange County Register: “Writing For Business”

Here’s a link to his website where you can subscribe and receive his columns every week by email if it doesn’t appear in your hometown paper: Writing for Business and Pleasure

Take a look around the site. There’s lots of good stuff to help you improve your writing and proofreading (look under ‘Contents’). Particularly take a gander at this one and the followup which is on today’s topic:

“How to proofread and never miss a single errror”

My greatest fear is that Dr. Wilbers will actually read this post and point out all of the obvious ‘errrors’ that I somehow missed. There’s bound to be several at least. When you find some let me know.              *Top

(Image via Wikipedia)

Here’s a good article from Church Mag listing 10 different behaviors that Christians should avoid if they want to maintain a good reputation and continue to be positive ambassadors for Christ:

10 Easy Steps to Ruin Your Online Reputation

        (Image via Wikipedia)

One of the strangest facts for a new blogger to fully comprehend and accept is that when one writes a blog article it is actually copyrighted and its use is subject to the writer.

There is a great blending and sharing of stuff through social networking sites and through private emails that many times totally disregards copyright propriety. Folks send articles, pictures, and music across the Internet all the time to personal friends or friends of friends. It really doesn’t become a problem or an issue until whole articles are put up on Facebook or copied on blogs for the entire world to literally see without permission from the original author or even worse, without any links or attribution. It happens all of the time.

Images and pictures are even more of a problem. One really doesn’t have the right to put up a picture on a blog that is borrowed from another site without permission. Also, one can actually be sued for using pictures from regular news sources. Fact is, one really doesn’t have a right to put up a picture from the AP unless one is an actual paying subscriber to their news service.

When you are starting out and your blog has only a few readers you may get a pass but as you gain some credibility and significant international traffic how you handle other folks copyrighted material will become an issue. It is better to learn how to properly link and attribute sources right from the beginning.

Here’s an excellent article on copyright facts and issues from The Blog Herald: 

“5 Copyright Facts Every Blogger Should Know”

(Image by Mexicanwave via Flickr)

Here’s a link to an article by Andrew G. Rosen of Blogging Pro:

“5 Things to NEVER Do on Your Blog”

I found these 3 particularly helpful for Christian blogs:

1. NEVER publish a blog when you’re angry.

Particularly good advise for Christian sites where you are hoping to witness to others about the love and grace of God through his Son Jesus.

2. NEVER tell your employer you have a blog.

Particularly if you have a secular job and blogging is part of your private religious life and done on your own personal time. Exception: If you are in fulltime ministry than it should be known since it is an extension of your ministry.

3. NEVER forget to include a link back to your own blog within each post.

This helps keep your posts from being stolen by scrubbers and helps you find them if they are. Also internal links actually help to increase your blog rating at least slightly.

Here’s one that I would add:

Never publish a comment when you’re angry.

Particularly if your identified as a Christian blog. Been there and done that when someone came aboard and made some stupid insane comment and then I responded in kind only to have to change it the next day when I realized that it wasn’t very kind at all and set a bad tone and example.

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

(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

Related Posts?:

1. -Blogging Holidays
2. Movie and Book Reviews as an Outreach

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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