Just finished reading an awesome article on the top 7 mistakes of blogging by David Airey. If this were to be made into the 10 Commandments to blogging I would probably add:
Never use the default theme for <insert name of blog engine here>. I cringe every time I see the a blog using the default WP or Drupal theme. Not that it looks bad but it shows some laziness on the blogger’s part which makes me wonder if the content is really worth reading. Of course not everyone has talent for design so that’s what themes are for. There are lots of free themes if you just look around. So unless you re already a famous person or the contents of your blog is that good, have some respect for your blog and use good design!
Give your site a strong identity. Whenever I see a blog probably the first question that comes to my mind is “Who is the author?” If you run a blog, make sure you establish who you are. A simple line like “I am Dennison Uy and I am CODESIGN Studios” should probably do (alright alright I’m lazy). This not only adds credibility to your blog but it also adds that human element bit. Having been exposed to the SEO world by my SEO champion friend Benj Arriola I would always suspect blogs that do not have any author information to have been created for SEO purposes.
Watch your grammar and spelling. Unless you are trying to be humorous, pay a little more attention to your writing. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but nobody will take you seriously if you write like a 5 year-old. If you are blogging in a language that is foreign to you, I would suggest you take up lessons to make yourself more fluent in that language. Otherwise, just stick to blogging in your native tongue.