Luna Tail’s Top Tail Tips
Since I’ve been looking around at blogs a LOT lately, I’ve come across some things that bother me. And I’ve read a number of pages that are like the ‘Top 100 things you should do for your blog.’
Well, this page is just some basic cosmetic tips. Tips that many people don’t seem to consider when they are putting together their blogs. This is not a list of tips on how to market your blog. Just on what the average reader (like me) likes to see. This list will grow and change over time.
Since the first five tips are about comments, I think I should say how important commenting is! 
- Allow Comments - Let your readers post comments on your blog posts. If you don’t allow this, readers may not come back. If they can’t interact, there is less of a point. If you get spam, get a spam filter!
- Follow Comment Links - Make sure your blog software follows all links from comments. In WordPress, it’s called the Do-Follow Mod. It helps everyone!
- Make Commenting Easy! - Don’t force users to log in to your site to comment, or figure out complicated math problems. If they have to, they probably won’t comment. If you have problems with spam, again, get a spam filter!
- Reply to your Commenters - When someone posts a comment, send them an email in reply. It lets them know you read their comment and are thankful for their visit!
- Have A Graffiti Wall - This is just a page where people can leave random comments not related to any particular post.
- Font Size - Make the font size something your readers can easily see. Don’t make it huge, but don’t make it teeny, either. When I have my glasses on I can’t read your teeny text!
- White Space - Allow your blog to have white space with nothing in it. This allows a reader’s eyes to easily pick out the things on the blog that are of value. Don’t clutter too much with tons of links, text, and images.
- Header Image - Don’t have a huge tall header image at the top that causes the reader to scroll down to start reading. The text should appear in the first window the reader sees.
- Menu - Have a clearly visible menu for the reader to follow. Either at the top or in the sidebar.
- Popups - For goodness sake, DON’t put popups in your blog!
- Music - If you want some readers to browse while they are at work, do not embed music in your pages. There’s nothing worse then opening a page of any kind, at work, and having some glaring music come forth. It’s a great reason to close down a page and never go back.
- Color - Color is nice but don’t overdo it. Too many sites are so flashy and colorful it’s just too hard to even look at them. A nice white page is professional. Color is fun. Be clever with it.
- !!!! - Don’t put a zillion exclamation points after every sentence!!!!!!!!
- Longhand - Unless you want to seem like a dork, write everything out. In other words, don’t say things like “U R the Beez Rokn, plz link 2 me!” *groan*
- Paragraphs - Don’t make huge big long thick unwieldy paragraphs. Paragraphs of only a few sentences make your blog much easier to read.
- Subjects in a Post - Don’t put too many subjects in one post. Make two posts, or three, if you have to. Your commenters might not know what to reply to.
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List Composed by Cynthia Heyman email
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Here are some good sites for more blogging tips:
http://www.doshdosh.com/
http://performancing.com/
http://www.timetobudget.com/
http://www.successful-blog.com/
http://www.robertoalamos.com/
Ten Commandments of Blogging
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Great post!
Thanks for the blogging tips. I’m new at this and appreciate the advice.
Laurie
The Glitter Fairy
Nicely done, I’ve noticed these things too and have talked about a few of them on my blog.
Thanks Cynthia for the mention. That’s a simple but very useful list.
Might I suggest adding your author name somewhere on the single post page? I was looking for your name and could only find it on the About page..
Also the Ajax Edit Comments plugin would be a very nice touch indeed.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the tips! I added the Ajax Edit Comments plugin, very nice one. And my name on the blog tips page.
Cynthia,
Cool.. thanks for setting up the plugin so quickly. I’m sure your readers will appreciate it a lot.
I appreciate the tips. I installed the original version of the plugin, and it didn’t work quite right. The plugin creator was very fast at replying to me and sent his new beta version, which works great.
I’ve been blogging for a long time — great list. Most I do, but a few I don’t, and realize now I should be:) There is always room for improvement. Sometimes I tend to get caught up more in the header and look more than I do the content. I think I finally found a theme I really like, and changing the banner, from the dashboard is awesome. Maybe I’ll be able to stick with “just one” for awhile now.
Thanks for sharing this great info with us.
Thanks Carolyn.
I like to find tips, too. I do figure some people will disagree with me, but that’s okay too!