Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences
April 9th, 2007 | Posted in Blogging |
I’ve been doing research on what distinguishes good blogs from poor ones, especially by reading “lessons learned” posts by bloggers. I’ve come up with 20 principles I think are worthwhile. Let me know which ones you agree or disagree with.
1. Pick a topic for your blog.
Pick a general topic you are passionate about, and stick with that focus as you post. Near the title of your blog, identify your blog’s focus so new visitors can know immediately whether your blog aligns with their interests. In the following image, the blog identifies its theme in the tagline and provides an explanation of the topic on the home page. Paradoxically, having a specific focus actually gives you more to write about. Like a novel, your blog takes on direction and purpose.
2. Encourage comments.
Allow comments, and respond to comments. Blogs are dialogues, not monologues. If you turn commenting off, you lose out on the Web 2.0 aspects of your blog. Comments enrich your thoughts and take you to a higher level of analysis. You benefit from the additions, corrections, tips, and other feedback from readers. To encourage comments, don’t require sign in. Activate Akismet and this math plugin to avoid spam. Add the Subscribe to Comments plugin so users can be aware of follow-up comments. When people comment, respond to their comments, and keep the dialogue going because this is what Web 2.0 is all about: connecting users to each other and sharing information.
3. Make it easy to subscribe.
Make it easy to subscribe to your feed by placing an orange RSS button in a highly visible location. Route your feed through Feedburner so you can keep track of your subscribers. You can also offer an e-mail subscription using FeedBurner. In the example below, subscription information is prominently displayed in the upper-right corner.
4. Include an About page.
Include an about page to let people know more about you. Are you a technical writer based in Seoul, a developer working at Microsoft, a Russian open-source business mogul? Your blog reveals your personal views, so introduce yourself to your readers. Don’t blog anonymously. You can include a photo in your About page — some think it makes you more real to your readers. Include some basic facts, such as where you live, your job title, your interests, and other biographical information. You may want to omit the company you work for, if content on your blog inappropriately reveals company information.
5. Present your ideas visually.
In this culture of scanning and clicking, long blocks of text aren’t read. Break up your text with visuals—graphs, charts, photos, blockquotes, and videos. Annotate the images to reinforce your meaning. Creating Passionate Users always reinforces its message with visuals. If you get photos from other blogs or from Flickr, include a link back to the source. Most popular blogs are visually rich.
6. Keep posts short and to the point.
Keep the text in bite-sized chunks that readers can quickly consume — brevity forces you to get the point quickly. A good post can be 1-2 paragraphs long. Even if your posts are lengthy (like this one), remove all filler and communicate your message concisely. You can also chunk up long posts into several small posts, or use subheadings.
7. Use subheadings for long posts.
If you do post long, use subheadings to break up the text. Copyblogger is a great example to follow. Also use the “Read more” tag so users can scan down the front page without having to scroll eternally. In the example below, Copyblogger breaks up his lists with subheadings and keeps his paragraphs short.
8. Link abundantly.
Links increase readership and let others know you’re writing about them. Others can see incoming links in their blogs. Links also enable trackbacks and pingbacks, allowing your content to appear in the comments section of other posts. Blogs are collaborative, linked conversations. The example below shows a trackback. I linked to another blog in my post, and that link appears as an excerpt in the comments section of the original post. The Kramer plugin is helpful for automating trackbacks, and you can use it to show inbound links in the sidebar of your blog. Links also boost your Google rankings, converting your blog into a powerful search engine optimization tool.
9. Make headlines descriptive.
Avoid vagueness and ambiguity in headlines. Readers scan down a list of titles in a feed, so the article title is telling of whether they’ll read the post. With millions of blogs and new content daily, readers have to skim, scan, and jump around just to keep up. Make it easy by clearly describing your post’s content in the headlines. Copyblogger has some excellent advice for crafting headlines. You can also entice readers with some copywriting techniques, such as asking interesting questions, making lists, stating paradoxes or contradictions, or just being exuberant.
10. Archive by topic.
Archive your posts by topic rather than date. (Date archives may be appropriate for blogs that are personal journals only, rather than topic-driven blogs. For topic-driven blogs, date archives mean little to readers.) About a dozen categories is a good number. You may not know all your categories until you’ve been blogging a while. Along with the archives, include a search feature.
11. Include a list of related posts beneath each post.
Many users find your site by searching for specific information. When readers find your post, why not point them to other posts on your site with similar information? Doing so can increase the page views per reader. In WordPress, you can automatically create a Related Posts section based on matching keywords with the Related Entries plugin. If you want more control (with more effort), use Darren’s Related Posts plugin. You type keywords in the Custom Fields section of a post, and posts that match the keywords are connected as related.
12. Allow users to contact you offline.
Readers may want to contact you offline with a question or comment — perhaps to propose a book deal or to extend an invitation to speak at a conference. You will be perceived as an expert on your topic (the go-to-guy for that topic), and the user’s question may not be related to the comments section of your latest posts. If you make your contact info readily apparent, users can reach you. You can use a contact form plugin (Contact III) or simply make your email address available. In the image below, an editor from Wiley posts — with embarrassment — an invitation for a book deal within the comments.
13. Present your real viewpoint.
“Be yourself and speak your mind,” John Chow says. Readers enjoy the personal aspects of a blog. If you never voice your opinion, your blog loses appeal. You don’t have to reveal your personal life, but a glimpse here and there is appropriate and provides human appeal. In the following screen, the writer expresses her frustration with health insurance limitations. You can rant and still keep it professional (as she does).
14. Write for your future employer.
A blog can be a dangerous tool, and you should know that your future employer, and possibly your current employer, will read it. Avoid posting anything confidential, gossipy, overly-emotional, rude, company-related, or otherwise self-damaging and unprofessional. A blog can be both an asset and liability depending on the information you post. There are at least a dozen stories of employees fired for blogging. Respect your company’s information restrictions, and don’t jeopardize future employment opportunities.
15. Include a Top Posts section.
You can use the WP-PostViews plugin plugin to automate a Most Viewed posts section, or you can create your own list of classic posts. Once your classic posts leave the home page, they’re often buried in your site. Like displaying trophies on a mantle, showcasing your classic posts allows more readers to find and enjoy them.
16. Provide an index.
Much of your site’s traffic comes from search engines. And many readers are first-timers on your site. Providing an index readers can quickly scan (such as with this site map index plugin) is an excellent way to let users skim your entire post collection. An index may increase the page views per visitor. It also shows you just what you’ve written. It’s like a Table of Contents for your site.
17. Get your own URL and match it to your blog’s title.
If your blog title doesn’t match the URL, it will be harder for users to remember the location of your site. It pays to use your own URL. Even if you just purchase a domain and point your hosted Wordpress.com blog to it, it looks more professional. Readers don’t always use RSS to read your blog’s content.
18. Include a Recent Posts section in your sidebar.
A recent posts section in your sidebar provides an at-a-glance index for your latest posts. Especially if you write long posts, the recent posts section allows readers to see what you’ve been up to without scrolling down a lengthy page.
19. Reward commenters for commenting.
If you add the Show Top Commenters plugin, you can show the people who most frequently comment on your blog. This is a simple way to create your own community of readers with similar interests. You should read their blogs and comment on them as well. In this way your blog turns into more than just a one-person show: it becomes a virtual community.
20. Post often.
Posting regularly to your blog, such as daily, every few days, or every week, will change your experience of blogging. It will help you stay engaged with your topic. It will build a greater community of readers, who will post more comments. More comments will make blogging more rewarding and fun, not to mention more content rich for your site — leading to more page views from search engines.
However, if you have nothing to say, don’t blog fluff. That annoys readers even more than not posting and you will lose readers. But if you stay engaged with your topic — reading articles, books, other blogs; listening to podcasts and other recordings; attending events and seminars; and reflecting on the work you’re engaged in — you will have plenty to say each day. Whether you can carve out the time is another matter. The Technorati graph below shows that the most popular bloggers post about twice a day; the least popular post a dozen times a month.
Resources
- Weblog Usability: The Top 10 Design Mistakes, by Jacob Neilsen
- Five Principles to Design By, by Joshua Porter
- 9 Lessons for Would Be Bloggers, by Joshua Porter
- 10 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid, by John Chow
- How to Make a Great First Impression with Your Blog, by Mitchell Harper
- Blogging Tips and Mistakes to Avoid, by Joe Lewis.
- 10 Blogging Mistakes I’ve Made, by Webomatica
- Do You Make These Mistakes with Your Blog, by Brian Clark
- The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging, by Brian Clark
- 10 Effective Ways to Get More Subscribers, by Brian Clark
- 18 Lessons I’ve Learned About Blogging, by Darren Rowse
- Who the Hell Are You? by Lorelle VanFossen
- The Top 10 Clues That You Are An Amateur Blogger, by Lorelle VanFossen
- The Most Powerful Blogging Technique Ever, by Brian Clark
- Top 10 blog mistakes? - maybe, by Kay Smoljak
- Common Blog Mistakes and Users Can’t Distinguish Blogs, by Rok Hrastnik
- 10 Principles of Highly Effective Blogging, by Darren McLaughlin
- 10 Ways to Make Your Blog More Appealing, by Tom Johnson
- How to Start a Blog, by Phil Windley
- The 120 Day Wonder: How to Evangelize a Blog, by Guy Kawasaki
- Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore, by Eric Kintz
- The noisy tragegy of the blog commons, by Seth Godin
- The First 100 Days: Observations of Nouveau Blogger, by Guy Kawasaki
- 10 Simple Tips for Better Blogging, by Angsuman Chakraborty
- The first 7 days of blogging, by Neil Patel
- 10 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid, by Moey
- Why Do Blogs Fail? by Partha Battacharya
- Of Blogs and Novels, by Beth Long
- Top 10 Blog Writing Tips, by Denise Wakeman
I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with any points in particular? Did I miss something major?
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Related Posts
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April 9th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
[...] referral logs point me to Tom Johnson, author of a nice post called Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog. Tom read my recent post on 9 Lessons for would-be Bloggers and uses Bokardo as an example of a [...]
April 9th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
[...] can set one up but it’s easy to get wrong. Check out Tom Johnson’s 20 tips to find out how to get it right. flag all up to this [...]
April 9th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Excellent post! Really good suggestions, and you obviously practise what you preach. Btw, I got here from Bokardo - which proves that point no.8 works.
April 9th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
[...] can set one up but it’s easy to get wrong. Check out Tom Johnson’s 20 tips to find out how to get it right. function getCookie (name) { var prefix = name + ‘=’; var c [...]
April 10th, 2007 at 1:47 am
Another Bokardo referral here — HUGELY useful post and list of resources, especially for new bloggers.
I’ll be seein’ you in my feedreader from now on…
– Ian
April 10th, 2007 at 2:37 am
Hi Tom
Great list of suggestions and advice!
My only issue is with #4 “Don’t blog anonymously”. Many females blog anonynmously - especially for their personal blogs - as they are concerned about their safety and anonymity both online and offline.
You only have to read what’s happened to Kathy Sierra recently to realise that blogging anonymously is a *must* for many women. Many men don’t understand this, but then, those same men often don’t understand how a woman has to be totally aware of her surroundings at all times when she is out walking alone - even in daylight. For us, it’s a way of life; for many men (not all!), it’s not even a consideration.
Blogging anonymously may be the only option for some women.
April 10th, 2007 at 2:38 am
And another resource for your list: http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/2007/03/resource_for_ne.html (Pamela Slim, Escape from Cubicle Nation)
April 10th, 2007 at 5:35 am
Regarding item #5, our web server provides free online charting images created from your data.
http://www.chartAll.com
Charts can be basic, 2D xy, 3D xyz, geographic, gauges, etc and can be saved and linked from web pages or applications or displayed at Google homepage using a Google gadget.
regards
david
http://www.chartAll.com
April 10th, 2007 at 5:38 am
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April 10th, 2007 at 6:01 am
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April 10th, 2007 at 7:15 am
[...] (raccaldin36) wrote,@ 2007-04-10 03:48:00 20 Usability Tips for your Blog http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/04/09/twenty-usability-tips-for-your-blog-%E2%80%94-condensed-…Good stuff.(Post a new [...]
April 10th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Fantastic post! As I continue to get my blog shaped up, this is a great checklist for what I have yet to do.
April 10th, 2007 at 8:05 am
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April 10th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Tom — Absolutely the most comprehensive primer I’ve seen about the components you want your blog to have. REALLY well done! Congrats.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Great post!
Thanks for all those links to Wordpress plugins, I use self-hosted wordpress too, they will come in handy.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:04 am
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April 10th, 2007 at 11:34 am
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April 10th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Tom,
This is one of the best posts I have read on effective blogging. You have collected relevant information and presented in a very unique way.
I also like the layout of your blog. It proves that you mean what you write.
As you can see, I already have some of your recommended components in my blog. Will add the rest soon. Thanks.
-Rise
April 10th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
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April 10th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I have a usability tip for your blog: get rid of these snap popups! As I use a wheel-mouse to scroll this article I keep getting distracted by silly popups as my cursor passes over links. This ‘feature’ is very annoying to me, and makes me want to stop reading your blog.
April 10th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
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April 10th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
I agree with Rhonda that some people may feel the need to blog anonymously, but in that case, I would recommend simply using a pen name.
April 10th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
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April 10th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Thanks for putting this together. Well done. I agree with using visual items to accentuate your posts. It makes for more interesting materials. There are many royalties-free images that can be used and videos out there that you can find just about anything you want.
Thanks for some Word Press plug-ins.
I tried activating Akismet about 6 times throughout the past 3 months and have not received the confirming email from WordPress folks. Not sure what’s up with that. I use Spam Karma 2 - it is very nice.
Best,
Marek
April 10th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
ブログのユーザビリティを高めるための20の秘策…
良いブログとそうでないブログの違いは何だろうか?そう思ったTomさんがまとめた……
April 10th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
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April 10th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
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April 10th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
I agree with almost everything and say thanks for the advice.
However, I think having a related posts plug in on every post plus an archives by category is redundant. Blogger already lets you label each post anyway so having a plug in for related posts is particularly unnecessary there.
There is a lot to be said for keeping your blog uncluttered and with all the ads I see most blogs don’t have the extra space to also add a recent posts list, an archive by topic list, an index and a top posts list–it’s just too much. Perhaps picking one or two of those items would be a better use of space and have more impact. Otherwise it’s like driving down a highway cluttered with billboards, you stop reading them pretty quickly.
Also, I don’t think that having a matching URL is such a big deal. I hear a lot about it but have had a steadily growing readership with my plain old blogspot.com. Perhaps there should be some distinction made, my blog–Scribbit–is the only thing Google pulls up when queried with that word so plenty of readers who don’t bookmark me can easily Google me and get there. That can’t be done with more generic titles. That could be the reason I don’t see a matching URL as an issue, but I never hear that side of things brought up.
Thanks again, great list.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I agree with almost everything and say thanks for the advice.
However, I think having a related posts plug in on every post plus an archives by category is redundant. Blogger already lets you label each post anyway so having a plug in for related posts is particularly unnecessary there.
There is a lot to be said for keeping your blog uncluttered and with all the ads I see most blogs don’t have the extra space to also add a recent posts list, an archive by topic list, an index and a top posts list–it’s just too much. Perhaps picking one or two of those items would be a better use of space and have more impact. Otherwise it’s like driving down a highway cluttered with billboards, you stop reading them pretty quickly.
Also, I don’t think that having a matching URL is such a big deal. I hear a lot about it but have had a steadily growing readership with my plain old blogspot.com. Perhaps there should be some distinction made, my blog–Scribbit–is the only thing Google pulls up when queried with that word so plenty of readers who don’t bookmark me can easily Google me and get there. That can’t be done with more generic titles. That could be the reason I don’t see a matching URL as an issue, but I never hear that side of things brought up.
Thanks again, great list.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
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April 10th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Excellent post that demonstrates the good advice you’re advocating.
Did you consider including a 21st principle on whether/how to display social media bookmarking options, such as Digg buttons and Technorati tags, in a blog?
Also, for ongoing advice along the lines of your post, http://www.dailyblogtips.com is valuable.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
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April 11th, 2007 at 1:12 am
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April 11th, 2007 at 1:44 am
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April 11th, 2007 at 1:52 am
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April 11th, 2007 at 6:58 am
Thanks for all your visits and comments. This post actually doubled my feed subscribers overnight.
I want to respond to some of your comments:
Chad, I took your advice and removed the Snap Preview plugin. Instead, I added more descriptive title tags for the images. I needed a second opinion and saw that Darren Rowse surveyed his readers on Snap Preview and found the majority also disliked it. Thanks for the feedback.
David, thanks for the info on Chartall.com. That’s a quick, handy charting tool. Nice.
Marek, you said you tried activating Akismet but haven’t received an email from WordPress? Do you have an API key? You might read this support forum thread. I’ve heard good things about Spam Karma too, so if you’re not being deluged with Spam, consider the problem solved.
Rhonda, re blogging anonymously, I agree that Kathy Sierra’s situation gives one something to consider. Nathania has good advice: If you think you might run into problems, use a pen name. Still, I’m not sure how many bloggers run into this problem. Certainly take precautions if you think it might be an issue.
Michelle, your point about keeping a blog uncluttered raises an important point. I agree with you about simplicity, and having too many links can be distracting. I may have gone overboard with the related links, category archives, index, and recent posts. However, I don’t have Google ads on my site (anymore). I can see how all of these things — plus a dozen other widgets — can clutter the content. Thanks for pointing that out. Simplicity is definitely something to keep in mind.
You made another point about the URL. It’s not really a big deal if readers can easily remember it. However, even if you have a hosted domain in your URL, (like tomjohnson.blogspot.com), you can pay $10 to buy a domain and point it to that blogspot URL. Mainly, the URL field should somehow match the title of your blog, even if only part of it matches.
Mark, you mentioned adding social bookmarking plugins for Digg buttons and Technorati tags. That’s a good suggestion — I’ll have to implement that.
Thanks, everyone, for your comments and links.
April 11th, 2007 at 7:20 am
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April 11th, 2007 at 7:38 am
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April 11th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog…
“I’ve been doing research on what distinguishes good blogs from poor ones, especially by reading “lessons learned” posts by bloggers. I’ve come up with 20 principles I think are worthwhile. Let me know which ones you agree or disagree with.”…
April 11th, 2007 at 8:13 am
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April 11th, 2007 at 9:05 am
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April 11th, 2007 at 10:39 am
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April 11th, 2007 at 11:36 am
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April 11th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Every day I feel more and more like my concept of a blog is unique. I don’t agree with some of the points listed here as they seem too Technical Communications-oriented. I argue that blogging is far more freeform than most people assert, and though this list is full of very helpful tidbits they are not guaranteed to be a perfect fit for every blog. After all, according to one of your previous posts, (some) blogs should be considered perpetual beta.
That being said, your point about archiving by topic instead of by date is a revelation. It fits my blog format perfectly. I love it. I’m going to make this change to my blog ASAP. However, this wouldn’t be a perfect fit if one were blogging about a chronological series of events, for example.
I also found it very interesting to see you recommend abundant linking. I’ve always liked this practise because it gives readers the option to delve deeper into topics I mention in passing, yet they are sufficiently unobtrusive that they don’t slow down the reading of the sentence. I’ve read rebuttal to this, however, and get the idea that some people are turned off by mid-sentence hyperlinking.
All in all, this is an excellent, sensible list and I really enjoyed reading it. I still argue that these are items for consideration more than a line in the sand separating legitimate blogs from amateur ones. I blogged on this very topic yesterday as a matter of fact. Check it out if you’re interested:
http://blog.demodulated.com/2007/04/10/however-you%e2%80%99re-blogging-it%e2%80%99s-wrong/
April 11th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
About abundant linking. Some people tend to link each word in a sentence to a different website. I dislike it very much and never click on any of those links.
I guess this is because of “don’t let me think” principle - I don’t understand which link is more relevant to the topic, and prefer not to click any of them. It also helpful when blog post contains summary links (in the end of the post, for example), but I didn’t see many examples, maybe it’s my personal preference.
April 11th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
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April 11th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
great post!.. thanks for the list!
April 11th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
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April 11th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Hey, thats my puppy! Thanks for the link.
Excellent tips for anyone that’s involved in blogging and wants to write compelling content that actually reaches people - Thank you for compiling them.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
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April 11th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
[...] has published an excellent post on improving the user experience for readers of your blog. Entitled Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences, it’s a very thorough summary of things you can do to make using your blog easier for your [...]
April 11th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
With #11, on including a related posts section, I updated that section to recommend a different plugin: the Related Entries plugin. It creates related entries automatically, which makes it much easier. Sometimes you wonder how the posts are related, but the majority of the time they are. With the Darren’s Related Post plugin, you would have to manually go back and add keywords to all your posts — no small feat for bloggers who have 200+ posts.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Thanks for the Article, Tom. I’ve added some of the Plugins you mentioned, and created an account at Feedburner.
That’s the easy part.
Creating good content is a bit more tricky, but I’m working on it
April 11th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Valuable reading! Thanks for pulling this together. I’ve now made several changes to my blog based on your tips.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:35 am
[...] process of getting my blog into shape for this brave new world of blogging. Going over each of the Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog and trying to make sure that I have them covered in mine. I covered the sections that apply to my [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 1:43 am
[...] reading Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences it looks to me that I have ways to go to make this site more usable and interactive. The tips and [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 2:35 am
Excellent post! Thanks for the advice, i’m going to install the plugins you recommended. Now the only thing I have to do is keep my blog updated
April 12th, 2007 at 2:44 am
[...] great resource to check out is by Tom Johnson who maintains an excellent blog entitled; “I’d Rather be Writing“. This link takes you to an well presented discussion on 20 Usability Tips for your [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 3:28 am
[...] here [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 5:15 am
[...] and code, Suggested Reading | There is this must read post by Tom Johnson on his blog about usability tips for bloggers. Sure blogging has become a rage and there has been an upsurge of blog data in the market; stats [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 7:20 am
[...] Blogging tips Jump to Comments I’m new to this blogging game but in the non-virtual world I write, edit and generally try to improve the usability of website content, for a living. As a result, I read quite a lot of articles on web best practice. I just came across quite a good article on blogging on the I’d Rather Be Writing blog which may be of interest: Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 7:38 am
[...] Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Erfolgreich bloggen…
Hier (via dort) werden mal wieder Tipps gegeben, wie denn bitte ein erfolgreiches Weblog zu führen sei. Wir kommentieren das mal (mit Bezug auf die entsprechenden Erläuterungen im Originalbeitrag).
1. Pick a topic for your blog. Grundsätzlic…..
April 12th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
[...] Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers… (www.idratherbewriting.com) [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
[...] reading Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences, I subscribed to feedburner. Hopefully this hasn’t messed up the feeds for my current [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
[...] Queries (That dont suck) | 20bits[tips] 20 Tips Thatll Make Your Blog Work - lifehack.org[tips] Id Rather Be Writing » Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers[tips] Big Rocks First: Double Your Productivity This Week[tips] Geek to Live: Black belt scheduling [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
[...] I’d Rather Be Writing » Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers… (tags: statistiques howto trends blogs copy favori) [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
[...] No account? Create One! Username: [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 1:18 am
[...] should go and read his post in full because it is full of helpful descriptions and images to guide you along, but I will summarise the [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 3:32 am
[...] de son blog, à l’intention de tout blogger qui se respecte. Dans son article Twenty usability tips for your blog – condensed from dozens of bloggers’ experiences, il donne aussi les liens pour installer des plugins propres à chaque “commandement”. En [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
[...] I’d Rather Be Writing » Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers… Make your blog better (tags: blogs) Bookmark to: Filed under Links. | Tags: No Tags. var blogTool = “WordPress”; var blogURL = “http://www.silwenae.org/blog”; var blogTitle = “sil’s babbling”; var postURL = “http://www.silwenae.org/blog/?p=721″; var postTitle = “links for 2007-04-13″; var commentAuthorFieldName = “author”; var commentAuthorLoggedIn = false; var commentFormID = “commentform”; var commentTextFieldName = “comment”; var commentButtonName = “submit”; [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
[...] Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
[...] Wijewardene is right. Take a look at http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/04/09/twenty-usability-tips-for-your-blog-%E2%80%94-condensed-... the tip [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
[...] I’d Rather Be Writing » Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers… This is a good list of ideas to improve a blog. As you can tell from The Zone Read, I like “clean blogs” — the sidebars in most blogs are out of control and require users to think to much. I would add “clean up your sidebar” to the list. (tags: blog best practice) [...]
April 14th, 2007 at 10:45 am
[...] Just read 20 Tips That’ll Make Your Blog Work by Tom Johnson via Lifehack.org. Good advice for anyone who’s serious about [...]
April 14th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
[...] an excellent post from Tom Johnson of I’d Rather Be Writing. Tom provides 20 great tips with v