Five lessons from a month of blogging

Craig Stolz, writer of the brilliant Web 2.Oh…really?, celebrates a year in blogging with five tips.

Essentially what I’ve done here is whack the 2.oh. . .really? birthday pinata and pick up a few edible morsels that have fallen onto the floor. Following are five to chew on. They certainly don’t apply to all blogs, which have many different purposes, audiences and authors. So for what it’s worth, here they are.

After one month on the game, here is my take on his five tips

A personal blog is as valuable to the writer as the reader. It is overwhelming, addictive, invigorating but no one tells you how much you are going to learn about your chosen subject and how many “contacts” you are going to make.

Entry titles are as important as content.Find out your headlines that attract traffic and then experiment. Google and iPhone might seem obvious but who would have thought ”WordPress v Blogger” was hot!

Don’t expect your best content to be rewarded. Surely the essence of blogging is that your best content is what readers head for not what you like.

Stand on a roof in a thunderstorm holding up a rake. Technorati, Zimbio, Postero, the list of aggregators is endless while my blog roll shows no sign of shrinking.

Write short and use pictures. If it can be said in 140 characters, Twitter rather than blog. If you can get your hands on a Mac, Apple>Control>3 or 4, and your pictures are made easy!

Next self-referential entry in 11 months!