Blog Essentials

I’ve been thinking lately about some of the things I consider ‘essential’ both when reading other people’s blogs, and writing in my own. Oh course, some people might disagree, and this isn’t by any means a definitive list, so if you think of anything that you wish blogs you read have, or a feature you wish your own blog had, add it in the comments!

1. Email Collection. I find this to be essential, and loath using any blogging platform that doesn’t have this. Collecting people’s emails is important so that you can reply to the comment they left you- people won’t always check back to your blog to see if you’ve replied when they asked you a question. I know that personally, if I write a comment on someone’s blog, and they reply to me I am much more inclined to comment again!

2. RSS. This is a pretty heated topic in our house. Luke HATES it with a passion (see his post here), and I wouldn’t manage my blog reading without it (read what RSS is here). Either way, you have to be aware that so many people do choose to read blogs via RSS, so it’s important that you 1. have an RSS feed and 2. that it looks good. I recommend using feedburner if you want to ‘pretty up’ your RSS feed.

3. About page. If I read your blog, I want to connect with you, talk with you, and know more about you! It’s pretty simple to make one, even if your blogging platform doesn’t allow it. I always recommend choosing a blogging platform that does though, if you’re interested in good SEO (serach engine optomisation) and things like that.

4. Links that work. I am bad at this- if you update your permalinks, or something moves, or you changed your URL,  or whatever it is, sometimes the links go dead. For good SEO and just as a general curtosey to your readers, it’s good to keep an eye on the links in your posts and update them.

5. A plan. This can be one of two things- it can be an actual ‘schedule’ or posts, or it can be a ‘mission statement’. Just something that you keeps you focused, and on track with your blogging. It’s also a good idea if you have a mission statement to include it in the ‘about page’, because that will give new-commers to your blog a really clear indication of what they’re getting themselves into!

I like to plan out my posts a month in advance. It’s a pretty flexible system, and changes every week, BUT I always have a stream of posts I’ve started, and can finish. This is particularly good if you sometimes have ‘blogger’s block’ (If you’re sufering from this ailment, then I suggest getting FatMumSlim’s eBook- so many great ideas!).

6. Search function. Sometimes I will remember that I saw something written on someone’s blog. The easiest way to find the post they wrote is to use the search function within the blog- that way you don’t have to worry about typing special queries into google- you just type in a key word you remember, and hopefully you’ll get the post you’re after in the results, within the blog! If you’re not sure what I mean, try searching for something in the search bar on my blog- top right corner in the sidebar!

So there’s my list of blog essentials. If you use a blogging platform that doesn’t have some of these functions as basics, I’d love to know why you chose it… perhaps there’s a way around it!

Thanks for visiting my site again! keep checking back for more updates!

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