If you want to develop your community and/or build a business relationship via your blog, you need to step up your game. There are too many options out there for us to read. People don’t have time. For a variety of reasons, here are some things to consider with regards to your own blog:

1. Hire an editor- I recommend YOU for the job. Before you post anything to the blog, ask whether what you’re doing adds value to your community, and whether it’s useful information. (Looking over my last seven posts, I can see a few questionable ones, myself).
2. Be the About- Make that ABOUT page rock. If you’re not shy, add a picture. Add a name. Tell people who makes this thing, what you’re into, and hint at how one might do business with you, should business be your goal.
3. Use FeedBurner - Take your RSS feed and run it through FeedBurner. There are TONS of things that service does to improve and extend your RSS. Take advantage of them.
4. Pay attention to the FORMAT of your writing- Break things up, so that eyeballs don’t feel buried in text. Use the occasional (or frequent) picture or graphic. Use bullet and number lists occasionally. Try visually laying out your posts, is what I’m saying.
5. Make it easy to comment- If you require people to login to comment, consider changing that. If you’re using horrible captcha (I’d argue that it’s all horrible), consider another scheme (if you can).
6. Tell us something new- Review your last 10 posts. If 5 or more are pointing out what other people are saying, you’re phoning it in. Get creative.
7. Start storing up posts for rainy days- You don’t have to blog daily, but everyone hits a wall. When it’s your turn, have something ready to post. I have about 7 things at all times.

You’ve got a goal of reaching out to a community. It might be a church. It might be a business community. It might be the users of your product or service. But that doesn’t mean we have to love your blog. That comes with you upping your game and striving to improve.

What other ways can we all improve? What would you recommend *I* do to improve this blog?

via problogger

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