For Those About to Blog

    Let’s review the 7 Mistakes for your First Week Blogging.

  1. Sure. A custom theme. Um, WordPress themes are easy enough to find and switch out. Yes, part of me cringes a little when I see the default WordPress theme, but honestly I still read the first post. If I like it, I shoot straight for the RSS feed anyway. Don’t let a lack of CSS and PHP knowledge keep you from posting. I’ll rarely see it anyway.
  2. Post when you have something to say. The more you post, the more you’ll post. If I’m subscribed to your RSS feed, I’ll get it automatically. Don’t let a missing day here and there stress you out. If the thought of supporting a blog by yourself sounds stressful, try the group approach. MNteractive was started by a group of people that wanted a blog, but knew they couldn’t support one individually. Heck, we can always use a couple new authors here.
  3. Yes, don’t obsess over your stats. From my experience, it takes 6 months for the world Google to notice.
  4. Yes, proofreading is good. So are the insert and delete tags. Posts aren’t frozen. They can be updated. Thats the cool part.
  5. Header image? See point #1.
  6. Yes, posting comments and trackbacks to other blogs is an excellent way to show the world you exist. Do it frequently on MNteractive.com and elsewhere
  7. Blogging isn’t a race or a contest. It’s sharing things important to you in a public place. Speak up, we want to hear you. more.

Blogging is writing and publishing. There’s no reason to put artifical obstacles, like header images and custom themes, ahead of writing and hitting the ‘save’ button.