19 Dos & Don’ts before you start

1. Do host your blog on your own domain
2. Don’t spend hundreds of dollars hosting your blog when you are first starting out.
3. Do make sure your blog can handle traffic from social media sites
4. Don’t go for too cheap/free hosting plans. You do not have to spend a fortune since you can get a decent host for less than $20 a month.
5. Do brainstorm 30-40 topics for your blog before you start
6. Do have 10 posts written and posted before you launch the blog
7. Don’t create filler posts to have 10 posts for launch
8. Do invest money to get a professional blog template
9. Don’t think that you have to spend a fortune creating a professional looking blog. A professionally designed template can cost as little as $400
10. Do comment on other blogs in your field before starting out
11. Don’t spam other blogs just to get your name out there
12. Do define success metric for your blog before you start blogging
13. Don’t set unreasonable success goals that are too difficult or too easy to achieve
14. Do understand why you are blogging
15. Don’t think that blogging will solve your business problems
16. Do understand the time commitment it takes to blog
17. Don’t think that blogging will take less than couple of hours a week
18. Do use an SEO friendly platform. By the way: Word press is the best for blogging!
19. Don’t use a CMS for a blog. We used Joomla for our blog, and it was too much headache

31 Dos & Don’ts After you start

20. Do commit to a regular posting schedule
21. Don’t kill yourself if you are not able to keep up with your schedule
22. Do understand that traffic and comments will take time to come
23. Don’t get too frustrated if takes months before you see any comments on your blog
24. Do spend a reasonable amount of time every day reading other blogs
25. Don’t spend hours every day reading other blogs
26. Do select the categories for your blog carefully
27. Don’t have more than 10 categories for your blog
28. Do optimize your blog for SEO or hire someone to help you do that
29. Don’t think that anyone who claims to be an SEO expert is actually one
30. Do get a feedburner account for your RSS management
31. Don’t get hung up on RSS membership fluctuation
32. Do Install Google analytics to track your daily visitors
33. Don’t get stuck on daily fluctuation in traffic or unusual traffic hikes
34. Do Analyze keywords people are searching on to get to your blog
35. Don’t stuff your posts with keywords to get search engine traffic
36. Do invest the time to add pictures to most of your blog posts. Use a site such as istockphoto.com to purchase images for your blog
37. Don’t steal images from other websites!
38. Do optimize images before you use them
39. Don’t spend too much money on image optimization software. XT has a free version and you can pay $ to purchase the software
40. Do keep your blog conversational
41. Do create a series of blogs about topics you are an expert in
42. Don’t pretend to be an expert on everything
43. Do create a meaningful about us page
44. Don’t make your about us page too corporate
45. Do get to know other bloggers personally
46. Don’t calculate every blogging relationship in dollars and cents
47. Do create a robot.txt file
48. Don’t copy a robot.txt file from anywhere without really understanding it
49. Do allow users to subscribe to your blog via RSS or via email
50. Do use a full RSS feed

27 Dos & Don’ts Topics:

51. Focus your blog on specific niche
52. Don’t think that 100% of your posts have to be on one topic
53. Do keep a running list of topics that you can write about
54. Do share case studies and client success stories on your blog
55. Don’t share client success stories without their written consent
56. Do be authentic
57. Don’t do something you are not comfortable with
58. Do be honest
59. Don’t share too much information
60. Do share your knowledge with your readers
61. Don’t think you cannot sell your services through a blog
62. Do write a post each day
63. Don’t post a blog each day. Writing a blog and posting it are two different things. 3 strong posts a week can do wonders
64. Do use Hittail to get suggestions for long tail keywords
65. Don’t follow Hittail suggestions blindly.
66. Do interview leaders in your industry
67. Don’t assume that just because you are just starting out, industry leaders will turn your interview requests down.
68. Write “how to” articles
69. Write a “secret to” post
70. Write a tutorial post
71. Do create a 101 post
72. Do write a post about the top 10 blogs in your niche
73. Don’t use random judgment to determine the top 10 blogs in your niche instead relying on Google PR, technorati rank and Alexa
74. Do write a post that reviews books in your niche
75. Don’t write a review about a book you never read.
76. Keep most of your posts to less than 700 words
77. Do write pillar posts that explain topics in great details

21 Dos & Don’ts of marketing and promoting your blog

78. Do plan on investing time and money to market your blog
79. Don’t think that marketing your blog means posting regularly!
80. Do use your blog as a way to increase your brand online
81. Don’t rely on your blog as the only way to increase your brand online
82. Do allocate sometime in your weekly schedule for blogging activities
83. Don’t stretch yourself thin to keep up with blogging activities
84. Do spend at least 50% of your blogging time off your blog (commenting, emailing, reading other blogs)
85. Don’t conduct networking blogging opportunities without a plan: planned comments and emails can help promote your blog if done correctly
86. Do use your blog to market your business tactfully
87. Don’t make your blog a sales brochure for your business
88. Do create content for social media sites
89. Don’t make all your content targeted for social media
90. Do use social media sites such as Digg, Stumble upon, Reddit to promote your blog
91. Don’t submit your content to these sites. Find a friend who can submit the content for you
92. Establish relations with other bloggers in your niche
93. Don’t spam other bloggers in your niche
94. Do invite guest bloggers to post on your blog
95. Don’t let your guest bloggers write without any guidelines
96. Do write guest blogs
97. Don’t write a guest blog in a topic that does not relate to your niche at all
98. Do use contests to promote your blog

4 Dos & Don’ts of bloggers:

99. Do Ask people in your company to blog
100. Don’t force people to blog if they don’t like to do so
101. Do review the posts of your colleagues before posting them
102. Don’t fix more than grammar or spelling mistakes in a colleague’s post

10 Dos & Don’ts comments:

103. Do create and enforce a comment policy for your blog
104. Don’t hide your comment policy. We are guilty of this one
105. Do encourage comments on your blog
106. Don’t allow abuse to the comment on your blog
107. Do respond to comments on your blog
108. Don’t think that you have to respond to every comment
109. Do reword your commentators by linking to them
110. Don’t link to commentators on your blog for the sake of linking. Remember, only link to good content
111. Do visit commentators blog and leave a comment
112. Do email commentators to thank them and start a relationship with them

11 Dos & Don’ts of links coming in and going out:

113. Do check your technorati ranking every day
114. Don’t think that technorati is the authority site on blogging!
115. Do monitor incoming links to your site
116. Do visit blogs that link to your site and leave a meaningful comment
117. Do create link worthy content and links will come in
118. Do email other bloggers telling them about good content posted on your site
119. Do not spam other bloggers with every topic you post
120. Don’t get frustrated if it takes a while for links to start coming in
121. Do select your links in your posts carefully. You are telling your readers that you vouche for the quality of each link
122. Do link to other blogs in each post: we usually try to link to at least 3 other blogs in each of our posts
123. Don’t link for the sake of linking

6 Dos of formatting and design

124. Do keep a blog log and journal any changes (design, plugins, etc) in the blog
125. Do use your picture next to each blog post
126. Do include a clear RSS button on the left/right nav
127. Do use a tag line next to the name of the blog to inform new users the topic/niche of your blog
128. Do display your most popular posts
129. Do display your pillar content in your left or right navigation

16 Don’ts of business blogging

130. Don’t require visitors to login to view your blog
131. Don’t require visitors to login to leave a comment
132. Don’t quit too fast
133. Don’t vent frustrations concerning clients/co-workers/bosses in your blog
134. Don’t dig deep into your personal life, try to keep the blog’s focus business related
135. Don’t post anything you don’t want Google to pick up
136. Don’t use adsense on your blog
137. Don’t quit blogging if you cannot keep up with your schedule.
138. Don’t over post. 3 posts per week are plenty.
139. Don’t start another meta blog: There are too many blogs about blogging
140. Don’t start another SEO blog
141. Don’t offer blog coaching services if you just started blogging or if your blog hardly has any comments on it!
142. Don’t think you will make a lot of money directly from blogging
143. Don’t think that content is enough to get people interested
144. Don’t badmouth your competition
145. Don’t allow others to high jack your blog

7 Random Dos of business blogging

146. Do think about hiring a virtual assistant to help you with auxiliary tasks for your blogs
147. Do consider hiring a ghost blogger!
148. Do read and subscribe to Chris Garrett on New Media daily
149. Do read and subscribe to Copy Blogger daily
150. Do read and subscribe to the invesp blog daily
151. Do be patient
152. Do have fun

Tags: Blogging, blogging success, business blogging
Posted in Blogging, Business