BLOGGING MASTER CLASS

02 December, 2008 – Cork, Ireland

Sabrina Dent
SabrinaDent.com
 WARNING:
The following slides are meant to be a
starting point. They are not meant to be
prescriptive. By all means, ignore them.

Except for the last slide.

When to Blog

(Lazy blog: for 1. At least once a week

moderate impact off
minimal effort.) 2. Never twice in the same day

3. Never on weekends
What to Blog

(Because nobody is 1. Blog out, not in (user centered content)

as interested in your
actual business as 2. Be generous with links (people link back!)
you are.)
3. Shorter standard posts (200 words is fine)

4. Longer resource posts (less frequently)

5. Weekly wrap up post

How to Blog

(Some basic 1. Shorter paragraphs (for web readability.)

guidelines.)
2. Strong voice (companies don't blog, people do.)

3. Be a resource:

- Fill a content niche

4. Be personal:

- Be funny
- If you can’t be funny, be opinionated
- If you can’t be opinionated, be intimate
In the Blog

(Make sure you 1. Zingy post titles

have these going on
in every post.) 2. Indicative category names

3. Consistent, sub-descriptive tags

4. RSS: Full posts (it's about readers not stats.)

Anatomy 101

(The basic elements 1. Zingy post title

of a well organised
blog post.) 2. Category names

3. Intro paragraph (the hook)

4. Image

5. Entry body

6. Close: quip or sting (or conclusion summary.)

7. Consistent, sub-descriptive tags

Blog Tools

(What to have in 1. RSS reader: Google Reader

your blogging back
pack.) 2. Feedburner.com

3. Google Analytics

4. StatCounter.com / haveamint.com

5. Google Alerts

6. Dreamstime / iStock
Blog Promo

(Never, ever shill for 1. Leverage trackbacks

your blog or
company in other 2. Find your community (and take part)
people's spaces.)
3. Comment on blogs in your niche

4. Push your best posts to Facebook, LinkedIn

5. Push your posts to Twitter (in the right ratio)

6. Join niche aggregators and networks

7. Offer social bookmarking tools

Blog Do Not:

1. Sell on your blog

2. Paste articles in from other sources

3. Steal images

4. Attempt elaborate photo or image layouts

5. Futz with fonts, colours, or text size

6. Astroturf

7. Swap random links

8. Abuse the ellipses or exclamation mark...!!!