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

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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.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 1:08 pm and is filed under blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

106 Responses to “Blogging: 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button”

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

  2. Nice Info. :-)

  3. Good article Shankar.

  4. A nice good and informative post there Shankar

  5. 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

  6. 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!

  7. Good advice for bloggers.

    Btw, what are TITLE tags in images for?

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

  9. 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

  10. 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 :-)

  11. Interesting read shankar..

  12. 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

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

  14. [...] Shankar – Blogging: 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button [...]

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

  16. 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.

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

  18. [...] fixes and everything about blogging, especially with Wordpress. Go ahead, subscribe to our feed!11 things to do before you hit the Publish button: Shankar Ganesh lists 11 things that you should do as a blogger before you hit the publish button. I [...]

  19. [...] Shankar Ganesh lists 11 things that you should do as a blogger before you hit the publish button. I have a few more that I would like to add. [...]

  20. I like tip #4. Perfectly reversible! :)

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

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

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

    Really informative post! Good Job!

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

  25. Stumbled! Dugg! :mrgreen:

  26. [...] Weblog Tools Collection llego a Shankar Ganesh y sus 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button (11 cosas que debes hacer antes de darle al botón publicar), una relación de consejos para [...]

  27. [...] Eine weitere Hilfestellung hat uns jetzt Shankar Ganesh gegeben. Der Artikel lautet: 11 Dinge vor der Veröffentlichung. [...]

  28. 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.

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

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

  31. [...] Shankar Garnesh – Blogging: 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button Sometimes, you forget the most important – and then go back and edit. So, here’s a checklist to help you out: (tags: blogging web2.0 blog blogpost) [...]

  32. 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.

  33. [...] 11 saker du bör tänka på innan du klicka på “publish” i din blogg. [...]

  34. [...] Le blogueur Shankar Ganesh a écrit une liste de onze choses que l’on doit faire avant de publ…. On y trouve plusieurs bons conseils toutefois, je suis en total désaccord avec l’un de ses points. [...]

  35. [...] través de Weblog Tools Collection llegó a Shankar Ganesh y sus 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button (11 cosas que debes hacer antes de darle al botón publicar), una relación de consejos para [...]

  36. [...] hints are usually as numerous as they are either obvious or plain dumb. What made me write this was this blog post with all kinds of “useful” [...]

  37. 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 :-)

  38. 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.

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

  40. [...] Ganesh offers you tips on the 11 things you should do before you hit the publish button.   Over the past year I’ve become a better blogger in part because of my improved [...]

  41. [...] umas dicas muito interessantes na blogosfera internacional sobre o que fazer antes de publicar um post. [...]

  42. [...] Ganesh has made a guideline for posting on your blog (via Mark Ghosh). While it is very useful, I find myself a little uncomfortable with point 8, I [...]

  43. Nice post man!!

  44. [...] Blogging: 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button — Shankar Ganesh | Tech Blog (tags: blogging money author weblog) [...]

  45. @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. :)

  46. 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.

  47. @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

  48. 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…

  49. Nice tips Shankar!

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

  50. [...] Source [...]

  51. [...] asks you to do 11 things before you push the publish button As a blogger, you write a lot of posts – many a time, you edit them again after publishing. [...]

  52. [...] 11 Things to do before you hit the Publish Button  [...]

  53. @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.

  54. [...] with KODAK C340 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA at 2007-06-28 Vía Weblog Tools Collection llego a Shankar Ganesh y sus 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button (11 cosas que debes hacer antes de darle al botón publicar), una relación de consejos para [...]

  55. [...] just came across an article on Shankar Ganesh’s tech blog. It lists 11 things to do before you hit the publish button. That post really set me to thinking, because sometimes I’ll just write up a post, edit the [...]

  56. [...] How often have you published a new post, only to realise that you forgot an obvious problem – like forgetting to enter a title or a silly spelling mistake? I’ve only been blogging properly for a few months, and I’m already guilty of both of those (at least), which is why I found an article by Shankar Ganesh to be a useful reminder of the things to do before you hit the Publish button. [...]

  57. [...] me entero de un artículo de Weblog Tools Collection que habla sobre otra entrada de Shankar Ganesh: “11 things to do before you hit de Publish button”. También Mangas Verdes habla del tema y agrega algunos puntos [...]

  58. [...] Weblog Tools Collection llego a Shankar Ganesh y sus 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button (11 cosas que debes hacer antes de darle al botón publicar), una relación de consejos para [...]

  59. [...] Filed under: Web Tags: Blog, Tips, Translation, Writting Last modified: Friday, 29th June. 2007 Submit to: 0 user 0 user 0 user Visited: 2 times via Weblog Tools Collection » Blog Archive » 11 Things Before You Publish, Blogging: 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button — Shankar Ganesh | Tech Blog [...]

  60. #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’!

  61. [...] post in that amount, we sometimes just want to click the publish button…I found out about 11 things you need to do before publishing your post in Shankar Ganesh Blog….I don’t want to [...]

  62. [...] via：Shankar Ganesh document.body.oncopy=function(){ event.returnValue=false; var t=document.selection.createRange().text; var s=”请保留TopDig.net－文章地址：http://www.topdig.net/archives/713″; clipboardData.setData(’Text’,'rn’+t+’rn’+s+’rnrnrnrn’); } [...]

  63. Thanks for dropping by, Jem :)

  64. [...] 11 Things to do Before Hitting Publish: Useful checklist to run before publishing your posts, posted by Shankar Ganesh. [...]

  65. [...] [klik]. Takie oczywiste, a nigdy ich nie stosuję dlatego zdarzają mi się taakie gafy..:> [...]

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

  67. @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 :)

  68. [...] Shankar Ganesh shares 11 useful tips to consider before you hit the publish button. [...]

  69. 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

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

  71. 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.

  72. [...] 11 things to do before you hit the Publish buttonAs a blogger, you write a lot of posts – many a time, you edit them again after publishing. Atleast, I do [...]

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

  74. [...] 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button – Blogging Tip Here’s a checklist of 11 things that you shouldn’t forget when you publish a post. [...]

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

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

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

    http://mgopinath.blogspot.com

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

  79. Nice post. Good tips for new bloggers.

  80. 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

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

  82. Thanks guys.

  83. [...] June 26, 2007 Blogging: 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button — Shankar Ganesh | Tech Blog Tags: [...]

  84. [...] Shankar Ganesh a posté dernièrement une liste intitulée : 11 choses à faire avant de pousser sur le bouton de publication. [...]

  85. [...] 11 things to do before you hit the publish button by Shankar Ganesh [...]

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

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

  88. [...] 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button by Shankar Ganesh [...]

  89. 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… :(

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

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

  92. [...] Blog Tips from the Blogging Community The Problogger linkfest continues. I especially recommend: 11 things to do before you hit the publish button by Shankar [...]

  93. [...] Versione tradotta e riadattata del post originale. [...]

  94. Great post!
    Italian version: http://www.techflakes.com/2007/08/29/11-cose-da-fare-prima-di-pubblicare-un-articolo/

    Bye :-)

  95. [...] 11 things to do before you hit the publish button by Shankar Ganesh [...]

  96. [...] 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button – Shankar Ganesh [...]

  97. thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful…

  98. [...] do mistakes like not closing the bold tag and not closing the italicize tag. Though most bloggers proof read there post before posting and also preview it, few posts exist with these mist To avoid them, you [...]

  99. [...] Ganesh has list of 11 things to do before hitting the “Publish” button on your blog. I do almost all of those and I think all are necessary, but most important I [...]

  100. [...] Shankar Ganesh a posté dernièrement une liste intitulée : 11 choses à faire avant de pousser sur le bouton de publication. [...]

  101. [...] 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button: Shankar Ganesh lists 11 things that you should do as a blogger before you hit the publish button. I have a few more that I would like to add. [...]

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

  103. [...] You also checkout the 11 things and in combined both are importent for me. Just linked up Blogging: 11 things to do before you hit the Publish button. [...]

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

    Keep up the good work!

  105. [...] asks you to do 11 things before you push the publish button As a blogger, you write a lot of posts – many a time, you edit them again after publishing. [...]

  106. [...] Para estar seguro antes de publicar definitivamente un texto en el blog: Cosas que debes hacer antes de darle al botón Publicar (en castellano); y para incrementar los comentarios en tu diario: 10 formas de aumentar los [...]

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