HOW TO CREATE A BLOG PEOPLE WANT TO READ

1. Know blogs are social ( “not a monologue but a dialogue”).
2. Concoct unbeatable lists- 101′s, how tos. People are always learning, help them.
3. Use keywords your titles. Search engines love keywords.
4. Don’t promote yourself, but your community.
5. Use image, audio and video. Variety is the spice of life.
6. Tag every posts with social bookmarking tools like del.ic.ious.
7. Link each post using twitter, facebook, friendfeed…
8. Digg it, Stumble it!
9. Make it attractive. For example, insert photos. But relevant ones.
10. Use polls.
11. Use descriptive titles.
12. Ping other sites.
13. If you us snippets, rss feeders…leave readers with cliff hangers in your opening line so they are compelled to open the link.
14. Have a unique logo.
15. Challenge people to respond, respond back!
16. Encourage people to link back to you on their blog, but remember to share the love.
17. Write about what people need to know about right now! But be timeless.
18. Consider a series of posts educating people that takes weeks or even months
19. Don’t be repetitive.
20. Have a contest.
21. Break news.
22. Do interviews with people that will land you reciprocal links.
23. Tag, tag and tag!
24. Post often, (but not at the expense of quality content) readers will eventually quit visiting if they see long gaps in between posts.
25. Give freebies.
26. Get a life! Be exposed to life outside your walls.
27. Tweak your design frequently.
28. Encourage sharing, don’t discourage others by giving the feeling of ‘your way’, ‘your thoughts’ are the only and best way.
29. Share mistakes, be human and transparent.
30. Put a disclaimer on your personal blog…that it does not represent that of your employer.
31. Don’t mimic others, be your own person.
32. Share questions that readers ask, advice that they give, mistakes that they find.
33. Blog what you are PASSIONATE about, it really show’s through if you are not passionate about that which you blog about.
34. Use phrases that can be repeated and relevant.
35. Announce launches.
36. Edit, edit and edit…long blogs don’t get read all the way through.
37. Give opportunities for guest bloggers.
38. Share great finds that your community will benefit from.
39. Be involved in your blog community.
40. Be yourself!
41. Who is your audience? Write for that audience.
42. Variety to your content.
43. Include an about page on your blog.
44. It’s not all about numbers, are people commenting?
45. Remember it’s there forever, you can’t take it back so think twice about calling out people, get your facts straight and consider the long run impact.
46. Keep your ego in check!

I know there has to be more…what am I missing?