There are two things I look for in a blog: structure and content. Let’s begin with this scenario or analogy. You have been invited to your friend’s house. You stand in the doorway, exchange greeting and then you get invited inside the house. As your eyes start to study this place which your friend called home, you register everything in a glance: the living room, kitchen, backyard, bedrooms, dining and family room. You spend a good few hours chatting, drinking coffee or tea. When you leave, you not only have gathered an experience but impressions about your visit .
Let’s now come to your website. I have been blogging for more than a year. I treat my website like my home: spring clean (making sure the links work), organize common areas (I love widgets – the best invention ever), write down thoughts (blog posts) and even bring home some goodies to share with others who may visit (links and social bookmarks). The most important part about any website for me is your content;
“Content Is King” is not cliché and it is also not fact, it is the way of blogging life. Without content, your blog is lifeless. With content, your blog comes to life.
That brings me to an aspect of blog posts, the layout. I am assuming that you already know some basic .html commands for the following. By that I mean formatting the posts. Here are my rules:
top to bottom;
left to right
If you have pictures, make sure you have space in between.
What about alignment?
Spacing and font size are important. Use the visual format if you do not know how to use .html.
The visual format is best because of this thing called WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get.)
To understand how it looks like with .html, view the source code. (learn it if you enjoy programming, if not stick to the basic visual setting, content is more important.)
How to drive traffic?
You should post as often as your mind encourages you to work. The good thing about teacher’s blog is that you do not have to depend on SEO (search engine optimization) to boost readership or traffic. Your target readers are educators and students, and offline you may already have plenty. If you are online full-time, then we are talking about a different ball game. You do have to apply SEO or Social Bookmarking Techniques to drive traffic to your website.
How long should a post be?
No less than 400 words with the beginning 50 words and last 20 or so to include the keywords in the title of your post. (Hint) 
There is simple way to check if you have configure your texts and phrases properly to meet optimum meta and search engine placement. Download Traffic Check Now.
I have had my share of joy and pain. In the end, content wins, always.
Tags: blog, blogpost, Home, house
Blogcatalog
Jul 27 2009
Keep A Log On Your Comments
So you have spent many hours online for the past years and you have probably left comments on a few posts. Over the years these comments will pile up and you would probably wonder if you would get any feedback from
all the one-liners you’ve have given.
You can do this by keeping a log on your comments. This site called Backtype allows you to keep track of your presence on the blogosphere. It is free to register.
Tags: backtype, blogpost, comments
Comments (3)