Shankar Ganesh

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Blogging: 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button

with 106 comments

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As a blogger, you write a lot of posts – many a time, you edit them again after publishing. Atleast, I do ;)

Sometimes, you forget the most important – and then go back and edit. So, here’s a checklist to help you out:

  1. Read twice. If you think you can write something better, do it. Seems you’ve messed up? Write later. Cut short the unwanted.
  2. Spell Check.
  3. Double check to see if the links on your post are working. It’s really bad if a reader sees a 404 page when he clicks on a link that’s necessary to understand your article better.
  4. If you have included images, ask yourself if the image is really needed for the post. If not, remove it. If you haven’t added any pictures, ask again to yourself if the post needs any.
  5. Make sure you have put the ALT and TITLE tags in images into good use.
  6. Check whether you’ve tagged/categorized the post. Ask yourself whether the selected category is the most suitable one for the post.
  7. If you have any plugins like the UTW, or other meta description plugins, fill them with relevant keywords. Also, is post title filled with good keywords?
  8. Don’t miss to use the teaser to display only the post excerpt and to increase page views. Edit: This may also help in reducing the ‘duplicate content’ penalty. Plus, this may also offer your readers a chance to select an article of their choice and read it peacefully, rather than waiting for long posts to load on your blog’s homepage.
  9. If you’re modifying the post slug, add some appropriate keywords. Don’t stuff the irrelevant.
  10. Writing your opinion on a news piece? Don’t forget to mention the source, if any.
  11. Another tip: Link to an old post of yours if it’s relevant to your current post. Many bloggers don’t do this, but deeplinking to your own posts is good for your blog.

That’s all from me. Any more? Add them in the comments.

Written by admin

June 25th, 2007 at 1:08 pm

Posted in blogging

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  • http://www.nirmaltv.com Nirmal

    Great post. I use the default spell check option in Firefox.

  • http://www.kuanhoong.com/ kuanhoong

    Nice Info. :-)

  • http://daily-tech-news.blogspot.com/ Ramkarthik

    Good article Shankar.

  • http://www.sizlopedia.com Dj Flush

    A nice good and informative post there Shankar

  • http://ashwinr.com/ Ashwin

    Good tips. But you left out the main mistakes many bloggers commit (myself included). We tend to post about the things which we aren’t sure of. Erroneous posts/information hits the credibility and trust.

    All I say is the Engadget report on iphone and Leopard delay. :D

  • http://www.benh.org/techblog Benedict Herold

    Well written dude. I’m sure you must have double checked this before clicking publish to this post :-) lol

    BTW, I’m too one who edits the post later!

  • http://www.thethinkingblog.com ilker -=- The Thinking Blog

    Good advice for bloggers.

    Btw, what are TITLE tags in images for?

  • http://tech4sure.blogspot.com/ Ashish Saini (Ashfame)

    Shankar, Nice Compilation!
    I am also the one who edits the post a few time after publishing it. :D lol

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Thanks, all :)
    @Ashwin: Absolutely. I always take care to see I’m right in such things.
    @Ilker: LOL, I missed that one while proof checking.. mistake :D Thanks for pointing out. Lesson for you all: so, double check.
    Seems many of you edit posts after publishing :D

  • http://www.benh.org/techblog Benedict Herold

    I think still you can use the TITLE attribute. TITLE is supplementary to ALT attribute.

    BTW, TITLE and ALT in IMG tag are attributes and not tag them self :-)

  • http://www.techlivez.com shashank

    Interesting read shankar..

  • http://www.teknobites.com ram

    Nice post shankar, i use firefox in-built spell checker.
    Image ALT tag is a necessary if you want to drive traffic from image searches

  • http://theitmanagersjournal.blogspot.com Jason

    Interesting stuff and some great advice. Keep it up.
    Jas.
    theitmanagersjournal.blogspot.com

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  • http://kooltech.info KoolGuy

    Thank you for your koooool tips on blogging shankar. My congrats for u. :)

  • http://www.pallab.net Pallab

    Good list.

    As far as images are concerned I always try to include atleast one, even if it isnt really needed. It’s just to draw attention. Also a whole lot of text without any image makes the page look bland.

  • http://technicaltricks.blogspot.com/ luv

    hey itz vry informativ post dude i lyk it and will wrk on dat and 4 da spell chck u can use firreeefox

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  • http://techyantra.net Beta3

    I like tip #4. Perfectly reversible! :)

  • http://teft.mimiandteft.com Teft

    Great tips! I’m a newby blogger, so these are great.

  • http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/ Brown Baron

    I see this post was picked up by Weblog Tools. Nice going there buddy.

  • http://www.siteguide.us Vijay

    An image I would say, adds some attraction to the post. So does using headers wherever necessary.

    Really informative post! Good Job!

  • http://blogs.mysites-advisor.com Ken Xu

    This will be my touch of light in the dark, Shankar! :D

  • http://blogs.mysites-advisor.com Ken Xu

    Stumbled! Dugg! :mrgreen:

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  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Thanks for your comments, and thanks for those stumbles! :) Glad you guys liked the post.
    @Benedict Herold: Didn’t know that. Thanks.
    @Ram: Right, gotta use ALT tags without fail.
    @Brown: Yep, that post is sending me a good amount of visitors :D
    @Pallab, Vijay: Yeah, images draw attention for sure.

  • http://blogosquare.com Hans

    I would also add : Fill the optional excerpt area with some descriptive text so that your archives have great appeal :)

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Hans: Yeah, I always make sure that something is catchy in the first few lines of the post.

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  • http://www.henkterheide.com Henk ter Heide

    Being Dutch and writing an English blog using a spellchecker is something of a second nature.
    Usually I write articles a few days before I post them which gives me a lot of time to re-think and edit them.
    Changing them after you’ve posted them feels a little like cheating.

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  • http://www.inspirationbit.com inspirationbit

    I do proofread before publishing my post, but sometimes still find things that need to be edited after I publishing the article.
    Hey, I see you’ve got quite an interaction going on your blog – congratulations! Keep up the good work, Shankar! And thanks for the link. I’m getting quite a traffic from your blog :-)

  • http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/ Kelson

    Regarding ALT and TITLE on IMG tags, the ALT attribute is critical for accessibility (blind users, users on text-only browsers) and for search engines. It’s a text ALTernative to the image content. The TITLE attribute is useful if you want to add supplementary info but don’t want to show it as a caption. Modern browsers will show the content of the TITLE attribute as a tooltip.

  • http://www.whoismadhur.com Madhur Kapoor

    Great posts buddy . i always forgot most of these and then got remimnded by the readers .

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  • http://www.talentterminal.com Menon

    Nice post man!!

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  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Henk ter Heide: I think you can always mention that you’ve edited the post to your readers, that’ll not hurt.
    @inspirationbit: Thanks, glad that it’s giving you some traffic.
    @Kelson: Yeah, I got your point. Thanks for the clarification.
    @Madhur: Thanks.
    @Menon: Thanks for dropping by, hope to see you around.

    Thanks to everyone who commented over here. :)

  • http://www.anotherblogger.com Aaron B. Hockley

    Teasers? “Read More”? “After the cut”? Sorry… if folks do this, I unsubscribe. If I can’t read your articles in my feed reader, I’m not going to read your articles.

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Aaron: These post excerpts will only affect my blog’s homepage and not the feed. I think you can enjoy reading my blog in your feed reader :D

  • http://www.search-this.com mark

    Nice list. I would recommend an editor.

    A good editor will find and fix punctuation, spelling and grammatical mistakes. They can tell you if something doesn’t make sense, if you need a better transition, if you should restructure a sentence or cut away an entire paragraph that’s deemed unnecessary or if you are being too braggadocious and need to tone it down. Simply put, they can clean up your post and improve upon them greatly.

    It doesn’t matter if the editor is your wife or a friend; they can help! Of course you, the author, should be the first editor, but you should not be the only editor. Editing your own work is most difficult. This is because the mind can trick you! When you read over your own work the mind fills in the gaps for you. This is because in your mind you know exactly what it’s supposed to say, regardless of what it really says. So when someone else reads it – anybody else – they don’t have that problem and can see the mistakes.

    An editor can mean all the difference in the world…

  • http://www.shankrila.com K-IntheHouse

    Nice tips Shankar!

    Found you through a link at Kyle’s Cove! Keep up the good work.

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  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Mark: Absolutely, I also find myself using some word processors when writing a blog post. They’ll come into great use.
    @K-IntheHouse: Thanks :)
    Thanks for sharing your views, Mark and K-IntheHouse.

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  • http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/ Jem

    #12. Check your terminology, because then you won’t look silly calling an attribute a tag. :p

    I think Mark has it spot on – get someone else to read it through before publishing. We’re often oblivious to our own mistakes, and a word processor/spell checker isn’t going to tell us if we’ve mixed up words like ‘there’ and ‘their’!

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  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Thanks for dropping by, Jem :)

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  • http://www.twentysteps.com Mike

    Re point 11 – Why not let WP do it for you and install the related posts plugin? Much easier :D

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Mike: It’s good to install that plugin but I think it’s better to link posts directly in the article as it will lead to more visibility :)

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  • http://problognews.com Ed Sutherland

    Shankar,

    Hats off to your including sourcing as one of the 11 tips to follow before publishing online. Next to spell-checks, crediting the original source is a sign of professionalism. I’ve added another tip: credit the source, then verify the source’s report.

    Ed
    Professional Blogging News

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Ed Sutherland: Thanks, Ed.
    “Verify the report” Nice, but how far can we do that?

  • http://problognews.com Ed Sutherland

    Shankar, let’s take the Endgadget “memo” episode as an example. Endgadget had said it received the memo from an insider and published what it said was emailed from Apple’s own internal mail system.

    Step 1: Call Apple – “We have this memo, what is Apple’s comment?” (Probably a no-comment, but you’re getting Apple on the record.)

    Step 2: Is this e-mail a fake? E-mails, no matter how juicy, can be easily faked. Inform your readers of that fact (‘this e-mail cannot be independently verified.’)

    Now is that something every blogger can do? Probably not. But the most-read blogs aren’t run from bedrooms but more frequently from a corporate office. Endgadget is part of the blog network owned by AOL. TechCrunch has media execs on its corporate board.

    Blogging is at a crossroads: it is getting corporate sponsorship but wanting to retain its pajamas roots. Time to choose where we belong.

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  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Ed Sutherland: Thanks for the explanation. It’ll prove useful. Thanks.

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  • http://www.listikal.com listikal

    Great post, this is one checklist I rarely do, but really should be.

  • http://www.leroux.ca/ WTL

    Nicely done. Great tips for those who are starting out and those who have been around for long enough to have forgotten. ;-)

  • http://mgopinath.blogspot.com Gopinath M

    If i read this post long ago i would have become rich by now with my blog. Anyway thanks.

    http://mgopinath.blogspot.com

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Listikal, WTL: Glad you liked it.
    @Gopinath: Thanks for dropping by.

  • http://myabbotsford.com Real Estate Abbotsford

    Nice post. Good tips for new bloggers.

  • http://www.karasheridan.com Kara Sheridan

    Good tips! It’d be awesome if you made a nifty cheat sheet that was small enough to print out and stick next to the screen-I never fail to forget ONE of these steps!
    ~Kara

  • http://iduvejeevana.blogspot.com suresh s

    Thanks a lot for sharing those tips. I too edit my posts a lot after I click the publish button. A very good post!!!

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Thanks guys.

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  • http://www.celebrity-babies.com Danielle, Celebrity Baby Blog

    Thank you for this list. I sent it to my staff and have also printed it out to hang on my office wall!

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Wow! That’s great, Danielle. Thanks for dropping by.

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  • http://www.problogdesign.com Michael from Pro Blog Design

    Great post. Another one is that if you’re using future posting, make sure you get the RIGHT date. It’s no fun to find that you accidently published the post into last week… :(

  • http://www.thedailyrock.com MrsB

    I agree with almost everything you said!
    One thing: I think pictures MAKE a post! Make it visually interesting!!

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Michael from Pro Blog Design: Haha! Nice point there :)
    @MrsB: Yes, of course, pictures are an interesting add to posts.

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  • http://www.whateverishere.com Whatever-ishere

    thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful…

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    The checklist you mentioned is very useful for bloggers to minimize errors, Thanks!

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  • http://www.skidzopedia.com Musab

    Thanks for the marvellous tips! I will consider it in my mind.

    Keep up the good work!

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