Baker’s Dozen, Continued
Short Posts are Best: Format your posts to be attractive to the reader. The reader is looking for a post that has the most content and the fewest words. Blog posts should not go beyond 600 words. A good post should run about 300 words. Most readers will click off a post if they see endless words. Break it up with images, highlighted quotes or text, bullet points, bolded statements or phrases, and/or numbered points.
Call to Action: What do you want your reader to do? Do you want your reader to follow you, subscribe, comment or visit your business site? At the end of your post put in a short and jazzy call to action. A feeble “please follow me” will not elicit much of a response. End your post with “Follow me for more tips on frugal living” or “Subscribe to me and never miss another tip on finger nail polish again” or “If you were encouraged by Splish Splash please follow to keep up to date on water safety.” You get the idea.
Email Subscriptions or RSS: Encourage your readers to sign up for email subscriptions. Email subscriptions will keep your blog fresh in the reader’s mind. Some readers are buried by emails and will prefer RSS feeds. Encourage both methods over Google Friend Connect. GFC is going out of vogue and makes you shudder if you want to change venues and cannot take your followers with you. You do not want ask every follower to now subscribe to you in a different method.
No Dates on Posts: Dates on your posts are not helpful. If anything it is harmful. Readers will see an old date and immediately move on or read it with prejudice. Dates belong on milk cartons not on posts unless you are covering time sensitive material. To keep your content from appearing stale get rid of the dates.