27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community

Heading home to D.C., I am thinking about the phenomenal conference I have just attended in the Czech Republic … 230 young adult professionals from 40 countries who gathered to hear speakers from America, Europe and the Middle East. The conference is called Changing Times, and, as I have written earlier, I believe Changing Times, now in its 8th year, is on a caliber to the Davos Economic Forum, except for young adult professionals.

Truly, there is nothing else like it in the world. Looking into the faces of the participants, I see hope for the future of our planet.

I spoke about gaining a voice of leadership and integrity in a world of message clutter, and also led a workshop on blogging. So, almost by fate, I read Chris Brogan’s stimulating and relevant blog essay today, 27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community. In today’s Internet Era, this is a meaningful read that I want to excerpt here, along with a link to the full post on Chris’ blog.

Starter Moves

1. An intriguing title goes a long way towards getting people to the blog. Failing that, posts with numbers seem to work. Especially weird or odd numbers. 27 is odd.
2. A picture per blog post has been my trick for a while. It draws your eye, whether or not you want it to. We’re wired for it. I use Flickr Creative Commons photos to do that. (Make sure you give them adequate credit. I show that in this post, too.)
3. Did you ever notice most of my posts open by asking a question? That’s a secret. When I do that, you stop and think about the question. But more importantly, it shifts your mind to the “what’s in it for me” sphere that you started reading from in the first place. Make sense?
4. Break things up visually. Notice that I have an H3 tag (html speak) title repeating the top title, and that I’m using a list to give your eye some natural “chunking.” Go back and read cafe-shaped conversations for an example.
5. Oh, maybe I should’ve started the post by saying that it helps if you write something useful for people. People want posts they can use to improve themselves or their business.
6. Brevity rules. I mention this a lot. People just don’t read long posts (usually). There are exceptions. I read every word Ann Handley writes, and often wish for more.

Click read to read the rest at ChrisBrogan.com … and Happy New Year!

Category: Blogging, Featured, Leadership