If you’re anything like me, you probably have quite a few blog post drafts waiting to be finished and published. Some of them might be weeks or months old. Some of them might be over a year old. Having half-finished drafts, just waiting to see the light of day again, can be hard on your blog.

Now don’t get me wrong – I love a good draft. I often outline my thoughts while traveling, waiting at the hair salon, etc. and go back to flesh out the posts later. I even recommend that people who don’t consider themselves good writers start with an outline, and having those outlines waiting for you can increase productivity.

But not all drafts are good. And the bad ones need to go. EXTERMINATE! Sorry, had a random Doctor Who moment…

We’re scared of that delete button though.

• What if we later realize the post idea was perfect and we want to publish it, only to remember that we’ve deleted the entire thing?
• What about the time and hard work we’ve already spent on the draft?
• What if parts of the post could be salvaged to use for another post?

Only, our fears are irrational, as they often are in life. If the post idea really was perfect, we wouldn’t be contemplating deleting it. Yes, we may have put some time into it, but it’s better to cut losses than put even more time into a post that isn’t awesome. Parts of the post might be salvageable, but it would probably be easier just to rewrite those parts in order to make new posts flow and ensure the information is up to date.

In short, there is no go reason to not send that draft to trash right now.

Old posts hold us back. When they just sit around, they clutter our dashboard with thoughts of ideas that aren’t very good. And should they get published (often out of guilt), they often don’t help the reader; they’re just taking up space on your blog.

Stupid posts.

Get rid of those drafts today. Hit the delete button. EXTERMINATE! You’ll feel a weight lifting from your shoulders. Sometimes, you might look back to regret deleting something, but 99% of the time, it will only make your blog better. So don’t be afraid. Delete with gusto!

Related articles

• Why Periodically Deleting Email Subscribers Makes Sense [Subscriber Re-Engagement] (davidrisley.com)
• Content Strategy vs. Link Building (outspokenmedia.com)
• 26 Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts (socialmediaexaminer.com)
• Run Though This Checklist Every Six Months for a Rocking Blog (blogworld.com)

Photo sources: Forwhomthebelltolls

It’s easy to lose site of your blogging goals. It starts with a small deviation from  your original goal – you want to review a friend’s new iPhone cooking app even though your blog is about fashion or announce that you’re going to a cool auto show even though your blog is about books. Then you start listening to reader requests – which can be great but are often a bit off point. Then you hear some great blogging advice and you decide to take it even though it doesn’t mesh well with your blog.

Before you know it, things are a mess and you’re so lost that you have no idea how to get back on track. So you take some time off to think about it…but you never truly get organized again. Maybe you even give up completely.

Today, I have five tips that will hopefully get you back on track. These are tips I’ve personally used when I’ve felt that one of my blogs was going to the dogs:

1. Install a great editorial calendar plugin. I can’t tell you how much this has helped me. You can visually lay out your content so you see what is being posted on what day and where your weaknesses are. It helps you get an overall sense of the total product you’re putting out. I like this  editorial calendar plugin, but there are several options out there.

2. Read some blogs in your niche. When’s the last time you took a day off from doing any work and just read? And not books – other blogs in your niche. It’s important to understand what others are doing – both good and bad. Take some time to find out what others are doing, and dig deep. Don’t just read the major blogs in your niche; find brand new blogs in your niche as well and see what they’re doing.

3. Write down a mission statement. What is the overall goal of your blog? Stop thinking about how you feel the content is a mess right now. Take a deep breath, clear your mind, and think about the blog you set out to create. It’s okay if your goals are different from day one, but stop thinking about what you blog is or what you blog is becoming and start thinking about what you want it to be.

4. Reorganize your content. Take a hard look at your categories. Are they working for you? Are they contributing to the goal of your blog or are they confusing the message? Reorganize! Yes, it sometimes has negative repercussions to redo your categories, but sometimes that’s a band aid you need to rip off.

5. Brainstorm some new idea. Write your mission in the middle of a blank piece of paper. Then, start to mind map. The point is to brainstorm here without censoring yourself. New ideas are great for breathing new life into your blog (and can help you tighten your mission statement).

And don’t be afraid to give up. That sounds bad, and I don’t condone quitting when things get hard…but at the same time you don’t want to be miserable. Make those hard decisions when they need to be made rather than wallowing in limbo, running a half-assed blog. If you’re heart’s not in it anymore, no amount of reorganizing will help. Move onto things that make your soul sing!

Related articles

• Run Though This Checklist Every Six Months for a Rocking Blog (blogworld.com)
• 26 Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts (socialmediaexaminer.com)
• Ask the Bloggers: Are you REALLY in the Right Niche, as an Online Publisher? (virtualbusinesslifestyle.com)
• Why you Need an Editorial Calendar for your Blog (serchen.com)

Earlier this week, I was working on a post for BlogWorld about the recent Tumblr/Pinterest choice to ban self-harm content. I wanted the opinion of someone who’s outspoken, since this issue deals with censorship, and our community manager Deb recommended that I talk to Jason Falls. Now, I definitely know who Jason Falls is, and we’ve likely cross paths during BlogWorld a few times, but we’ve never officially met. The point is, we’re not bff by any means.

And that made me nervous about contacting him. When emailing popular bloggers in the social media space, my experience has been that one in ten email me back. Maybe. It’s probably even fewer than that, but I’ll estimate high for the sake of this post. I’m brief and clear. I try not to be super self-serving. I don’t pester. Yet, I still have a hard time getting replies.

On one hand, I get it. Seriously, I do. When you’re being pulled in every direction, it’s hard to reply to every email and it is inevitable that some emails will fall through the cracks. I know how it feels to be bogged down by emails, so I can just imagine how it must be for someone like Jason Falls.

And yet, Jason Falls emailed me back in under ten minutes.

It’s a lesson to all of us, a wake-up call for those moments when we want to blow off an email from someone we don’t know or that’s asking us for something we don’t want to do: if Jason Falls can do it, so can you.

This doesn’t mean that you say yes to every request. It doesn’t mean that you monitor your inbox 24/7 and reply instantly to any message you receive. It doesn’t even mean that you’re friendly.

But what it does mean is that you reply, even if the reply is “I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for your request. Good luck with your project!” That two-sentence email takes less than ten seconds to write.

If you legitimately get so many emails that you can’t possibly read them all, it’s time to hire a VA – someone to read and prioritize your emails so you can reply to the important ones and they can reply to everyone else. I just hired a VA for one of my other blogs…and to echo this title, if I can afford it, so can you.

The point is, people deserve respect. When you choose to simply not reply to someone – someone who legitimately sends you a thoughtful email, not just a spammer or other kind of mass emailer – you’re saying, “I don’t respect you.” Forget what that does for your community; it’s just rude. Emails will always fall through the cracks, but we can all try our best. After all, the “little people” you respect today could be the people you need tomorrow.

One of the blogs I’ve frequented for years now is Post Secret. People mail their secrets on postcards to the site’s owner, Frank Warren, who uploads the best ones once a week. They range from funny to sappy, but one this past week stuck with me.

The sender lamented that he or she had waited years to hear Frank speak, but unfortunately now that he would be coming to the area, the sender would spend the entire night in bed because of a crippling anxiety disorder. Later, the sender wrote into the site:

“As soon as I put the postcard in the mailbox, I made a promise to myself that I would be there. I cried a lot and I didn’t say a word to anyone, but it was nice to feel included just the same. A step in the right direction.”

Something I’ve not hidden is that I have mild social anxiety. Nothing that I would call “crippling,” but I often find myself making decisions to stay home when the better choice is go somewhere public. Networking events, parties, and even running errands like going to the grocery store make me uncomfortable.

But I still do those things. I push myself to be social, to meet people who are interesting even when I’d rather be at home, to make choices that will help my career even if it makes me nervous and wishing I was home in bed. Sometimes I freak out. Sometimes I cry. But as often as I can, I put a smile on my face and get out there. Most of the time, people have no idea that I’d rather be hiding in the closet.

What I’ve learned in the past few years, especially since beginning my work with BlogWorld, is that many people in the new media world have social anxiety or are at least introverted or shy. Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess, regularly hides in bathrooms, even when she’s the guest of honor at an event. Chris Garrett has talked about how shy he is an how inadequate he feels next to co-author Darren Rowse. Other awesome bloggers have told their own tales of being shy.

But some bloggers are using it as an excuse to not be the best blogger then can be.

Make a vow to yourself: it stops today.

You can blame the social anxiety, saying it is the reason you didn’t attend BlogWorld or South by Southwest or whatever event you missed, but best honest. What is the real reason? Were you afraid of failing? Were you afraid that you’d be alone and not meet anyone who’d be interested in talking to you? Were you afraid that you wouldn’t see a return on the money you have to invest to attend a large event?

The reason why some bloggers like Jenny and Chris are awesome bloggers despite being shy or dealing with anxiety is that they don’t use it as an excuse. They buck up and do what they have to do. Those of us who deal with these feelings…we aren’t always successful. Some days, my anxiety wins. But I try my best, always. I don’t write things off and tell myself, “I can’t do that because I’ll be too anxious.” I try.

Are you trying too?

Related articles

• TED2012: Post Secret – Frank Warren (boingboing.net)
• Of conferences and anxiety disorders (thebloggess.com)
• An Introvert Blogging in an Extrovert World (rebekahmadrid.wordpress.com)

If you’re a long-time fan of Girl Scout cookies, like I am, you’ll know that they used to sell these lemon sandwich cookies. Used to. They were my sister’s favorite. The Girl Scouts still sell lemon cookies, but they’re now called Savannah Smiles – and they aren’t sandwich-y anymore. They’re crisp-ish dough balls covered with lemon-flavored powdered sugar.

It’s a problem.

I mean, a bad cookie is still a cookie, but they aren’t nearly as good as the previous sandwich offerings. And what’s worst is that these cookies taste nothing like you expect. They look like they’d be soft of even creme filled, but they’re crunchy and they’re definitely a lack of creme. So not only are they not as good as the prior option available from the Girl Scouts, but there’s a disconnect between what you expect and what you actually taste.

I find some bloggers’ content is like that as well.

Sometimes, it makes sense to move in a new direction. If what you’re doing isn’t working or doesn’t make you happy, you should be open to change rather than beating a dead horse with contest choices that make no sense. But if you’re going to change the content to produce something different, keep two things in mind:

• You’re going to have some long-time readers who liked the old content, even if most people didn’t. So make sure your offerings are not just different, but also better. You don’t want to lose the people who liked the old lemon cookies.
• Surprising people with your content is okay…but if there’s a complete disconnect, you’re probably going to turn people off. If you promise creme-filled content, give them creme-filled content!

In general, this boils down to one thing: blogging is not all about you. Yes, you should do what makes you happy, but when you’re blogging (as a business or to make money, not just for personal satisfaction), you need to think about what makes sense for your readers. Make sure changes you make to your content will both keep your current readers interested and entice new readers to become subscribers.

Right now, Pinterest is under fire because the platform makes it easy for users to share pictures. Many photographers and artists are up in arms because this is done without permission, so they feel it’s copyright infringement. But the more I use the platform, the more I think Pinterest critics have it wrong.

Why do you have an online presence?

First, I want you to answer that question. As an artist, whether you’re a photographer, cartoonist, etc., why are you online? Forget social media and email and such – why do you upload your work online? Correct me if I’m wrong, but typically, artists upload their work for one of three reasons:

1. To share their work with others
2. To show potential clients what they can do when hired (i.e., they have an online portfolio)
3. To sell the work itself

People who upload their work ONLY to share it with others for the sheer joy of it seem to be embracing Pinterest. So let’s focus on the last two reasons – the pictures are part of an online portfolio or the pictures are showing artwork for sale.

In both cases, the more people who come to your website, the more likely you are to make money. More traffic means you’re either reaching potential clients or potential buyers. And Pinterest definitely leads to more traffic.

Yes, there are people who use Pinterest incorrectly, stealing your pictures and uploading them as their own. That happens with EVERY social media platform, though. People are jerks. Pinterest is not at fault for the assholes of the world. The vast majority of Pinterest users pin pictures correctly so they link back to the owner’s site.

“But they’re using my work without permission…”

Not really. I’m not talking from a legal standpoint here, but rather a practical one. Legally, I don’t know how all this crap with Pinterest will go down. But logically, no one is using your work.

When someone pins something, they aren’t adding it to their own website or making money from it (at least, if they’re using Pinterest correctly). They’re promoting your work. It’s like using a quote from a piece of written work. Pinterest users are curating, creating lists (“boards”) of things they like and – more importantly – recommend.

Would you be mad is people shared a link to your website? Of course not. That’s all Pinterest is – sharing links. It’s just done in a visual way instead of using text. People aren’t using your work. They’re promoting it. They’re telling people buy your stuff or hire you because you do good work. I don’t understand why critics are fighting against this.

It comes down to silly needs to control everything, even if letting go a little can help the cause. I get it. It’s your work. I’m a writer, so I understand the connection a person has to something they create. But if you want to have complete control over your work, get off the Internet. In fact, get out of galleries, get out of museums, get out of shops and stores. Keep your work in a dark, hidden room where you have complete control over who sees it.

Pinterest has Problems

Pinterest is not without its problems. Just like every platform, it has users who are uploading and pinning things incorrectly, and in my opinion, Pinterest can make a few changes to make things at least a little better. Here are the changes I’d like to see:

1. No pinning from Google Image search or other search engines. This does not allow the original artist to get credit or traffic from the pin.

2. When pinning an image, Pinterest should only show/use a thumbnail. This would require more users to click through to the original source. It’s how Google images work.

3. A “report” button where you can alert a user who has pinned something incorrectly. All the time, I see people mistakenly pin something from a homepage instead of a permalink, so when I click through, I go to the homepage which has since been changed. I’d like a button I could click to tell the pinner so they can fix the mistake. If pinners are getting a lot of reports on different pins, this would also alert Pinterest when a user is constantly using the platform incorrectly.

4. When you upload a pin (rather than pinning from another website or repinning), there should be a box you have to check that says you own the picture or have permission to post it. I know it’s in the TOS and it won’t stop everyone, but it will be one more safeguard, reminding people that they can’t claim credit for work they don’t own.

Pinterest already has given users a way to block Pinterest, and while I think this is a bad idea for most bloggers, it is an option – and that’s a start. But regardless, I don’t think artists should be blaming Pinterest – they should be embracing it. Yes,  you have to protest your work, but you also have to take a step back and really ask, “is this hurting or helping me?” Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.

Related articles

• It’s Not Just Pinterest RE: Copyright & Legal Issues (kikolani.com)
• Seven Cool Ways to Use Pinterest (blogworld.com)
• 26 Tips for Using Pinterest for Business (socialmediaexaminer.com)
• 5 Ways to Use Pinterest as a Community Building Tool (kommein.com)
• Pin It To Win It [Infographic] (mindjumpers.com)

As you build your blog, you’ll also start to build a community. Community, in the beginning, means that you have a group of cheerleaders, people who believe in what you’re doing and care about your message. Blog zombies tend to ignore their community, but if you cultivate it, you can actually use your fans to build you blog faster. So here are my top five tips for new bloggers regarding their community:

1. Get to know your fans.

When you’re a blogger like Chris Brogan, you can’t possible get to know every person who leaves a comment on your blog or retweets one of your links. There aren’t enough hours in the day. But when you’re just starting out, you’re only going to have a handful of dedicated readers. Get to know them. Say hello. Visit their blogs. You don’t have to become fans in return, but you can at least take the time to reply to them on Twitter.

2. Reply to comments.

I used to be of the mindset “only reply to comments if you have something to say.” I’ve amended that idea a bit. I still think that it only hurts your community if you leave useless comments like “Thanks for reading!” as responses, but I think you should work hard to try to have something to say in reply to everyone. It doesn’t always happen, of course, but replying to comments shows new readers (and potential community members) that you’re listening.

3. Highlight your community members in posts.

People love to feel special. When someone writes an especially good comment on your blog or a social network, use it as a jumping off point for a blog post of your own, linking back to the original inspiration of course. When you highlight community members, you’ll telling them that you’re happy they’re invested in the success of your site.

4. Ask for advice.

Your community will feel needed if you take a moment to ask for their advice or opinions. Shoot out a question on Twitter. Create a poll on Facebook. Ask for advice via blog comments. Give your community a way to get vocal.

5. Stay active.

When you’re building a new community, staying active by posting regularly, interacting every day via social media, and answering your emails promptly is important. Someone who has a huge fan base might be able to get away with posting only once every month or so, but for new bloggers, that typically doesn’t work well. You have to stay on the forefront of their minds so you become a fixture there, not something that’s easily forgotten.

Your turn – what are your best community tips for beginners? Or, if you’re a newbie yourself, what are your biggest community frustrations?

Related articles

• How to Get More Shares on Every Post (blogworld.com)
• 6 Ways to Show Appreciation to Your Community Manager on Community Manager Appreciation Day (kommein.com)
• How To Avoid Community Manager Burn Out (outspokenmedia.com)
• 4 Critical Mistakes that Cost me 1000′s of Subscribers, Fans and Followers (kikolani.com)

It’s unavoidable; sometimes, you have to work with blog zombies (uninspired, unoriginal bloggers without passion).

Whether you’re blogging together for a client, you’re working on a project together, or some other circumstance has brought you together, it’s a frustrating situation. And if you aren’t careful, they’ll bring you down too. When you surround yourself with mediocrity, it’s hard to rise above and be excellent.

So how do you work with a blog zombie?

1. Limit how you’re tied to the person.

It might not be in your best interest to quit whatever you’re doing that requires you to work with the blog zombie, but you don’t have to tie yourself to that person forever. It’s actually not a good idea to tie yourself to anyone super closely. You never know what the future holds, and they may go on to do things you don’t like or even be involved in a scandal. So, work together but keep your distance and be your own person. A good example of this is Chris Garrett and Darren Rowse (not that either of them are blog zombies). They wrote the Problogger book together, but they each have their own individual identity online.

2. Make suggestions.

It’s not up to you to cure someone who is a blog zombie, but that doesn’t mean you can’t push a teammate to be better. Make suggestions (tactfully) on how their content could be improved. And always be open to learning. A blogger might be acting like a zombie, but that doesn’t mean they’re complete void of good ideas and smart blogging practices. You can modify their techniques to work for you in many cases.
Don’t be so arrogant that you think you have nothing to learn from another person. That is one of the signs that you’re becoming a blog zombie yourself, after all.

3. Stay challenged by other bloggers.

Again, when you’re surrounded by mediocrity, it’s pretty damn easy to get complacent. I’m lucky to be surrounded by some amazing bloggers through my work with BlogWorld, but that hasn’t always been the case. If you’re working with people who remind you of the undead, stay motivated by finding bloggers who do challenge you. In fact, go out and find the best blogger in your niche, the blogger you think does the very best job…and challenge yourself to be better. Read the blogs of others and use their knowledge and creativity to inspire you. Just because you aren’t directly working together doesn’t mean you can’t surround yourself with bloggers who make you better.

Have you ever found yourself working with blog zombies? What are your best tips for staying motivated?

Related articles

• Blogging from the Heart… But, Smart! My Chit-Chat with ProBlogger, Darren Rowse (virtualbusinesslifestyle.com)
• Five Things You Can Do RIGHT NOW To Make Blogging Better (blogzombies.com)
• 15 Wasteful Habits of Unproductive (and Unsuccessful) Part-Time Bloggers (kikolani.com)

It always makes me roll my eyes, at least a little, when I hear someone say, “Nothing personal, but…” or “No offense, but…” You know what the “but” means, don’t you? It means that whatever the person is about to say (or write, as the case may be), is likely going to be extremely personal or extremely offensive.

And it doesn’t have to be.

Zombie bloggers seem to take things more personally than most, which leads to a overly emotional reactions. I was reading How to Get a Grip by Matthew Kimberly (@mjkimberly) recently, and he wrote about the need to be less sensitive. I’m paraphrasing here, but the basic concept he endorses is that before you get offended, ask yourself whether or not the person meant to offend you. Most of the time, they didn’t. Those who did are jerks who aren’t worth your time. Simple as that.

Yet online, taking things personally gets out of control and your blog content suffers for it. Here are a few facts:

1. The definition of personal is something directed to or related to a single person. People often use the word to mean “an attack on a specific person,” but that’s just part of the definition. You don’t have to be hurting someone for a comment to be personal. If you’re talking about a single person (or company, group, etc.), it’s personal.

2. If you direct a mean-spirited blog post, angry rant, or even negative comment toward someone, your readers are likely going to be smart enough to figure out who you’re talking about. So you might as well just name the person.

3. It is okay to be critical! If you don’t like something, you can say you don’t like it.

4. As pertaining to point #3 – you don’t have to be an ass about it.

5. As pertaining to point #4 – even if the other person is an ass first.

Zombie bloggers are the quickest to offend and the quickest to write mean posts or comments. Usually, at least in my experiences, this is a result of one of three situations:

1. They have low self esteem and use bitchiness as a defense mechanism. I guess you can’t blame them too much. If I had an ax in my face, bloodied clothing, and a missing limb or two, I’d be bitchy too. Well, okay, you can blame them, but you can also feel sorry for them a bit. Poor monsters.

2. They have a misguided sense that if they say something isn’t personal or don’t name names when attacking a single person, they aren’t really being mean. I’ve never met a zombie who knows he’s a zombie, though. Zombies typically don’t have much of a moral compass. Most zombies aren’t evil as much as they are…zombies.

3. They see drama as the quickest way to high traffic numbers and don’t give a shit about who they hurt in the process. Dude. Zombies suck.

So what can you so? Easy. Don’t let drama happen in your space.

Online drama is going to happen if you’re successful as a blogger. Someone online won’t like you or the people you work for, and they’ll feel the need to verbally vomit hatred to anyone who will listen. Pat yourself on the back – you have arrived and you’re probably writing really great content. If you’re so PC that you’re making everyone happy, your content is probably pretty watered down and boring, and that’s not a good thing. You want to write posts that make people think and react.

And when you do, thank people who offer constructive comments (positive or negative) and ignore the rest. I bold-faced that part because it is important. Don’t resort to virtually arm wrestling to determine whose virtual manhood is virtually bigger.

After all, what do you think happens to people who arm wrestle with zombies? They get bitten.

One of the reasons I like blogging so much is that it gives me a stage, a way to voice my opinions. Those opinions are going to be in direct opposition to what other people have to say, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. Just call a spade a spade. Opinions are personal. Let’s not try to pretend they aren’t. That way, instead of passive aggressive snipe and hurt feelings we can actually have intelligent, interesting, life-changing debates about important topics.

Related articles

• Five Things You Can Do RIGHT NOW To Make Blogging Better (blogzombies.com)
• Blogging, Business, and Life Tips from Peter Shankman (blogworld.com)
• How to Deal with Negative Blog Comments (aiminglow.com)

My very first professional blog post took me over ten hours to write. I was a fresh hire at a network called 451 Press (which today bears little resemblance to what it looked like back then), and blogging for money was a concept that seemed very odd to me. I had had a LiveJournal or Xanga account since the 90s, but that was like a personal diary. This was my opportunity to tell the world something important, to reach more people than just my close friends.

I scared me shitless.

I agonized over that first post, and truth be told, the blog I ran wasn’t very popular, so I’m not sure many people ever read it. But it served a more important purposed – writing that first post got me addicted to blogging.

Today, a lot has changed in the blogging world, but there are some core lessons that have remained the same since those early days of blogging…and that will likely remain relevant long into the future. Without further ado, here are the 50 most important lessons I’ve learned as a blogger:

1. Be nice to the other bloggers in your niche, even if you don’t like them and even if they are mean to you. Someday, you will probably need their help or find yourself working with them.

2. Be nice to the people who read your blog, even when they are jerks. They still took the time to read what you had to say.

3. Question every piece of advice you are given.

4. It’s okay to ignore the advice of others, even superstar bloggers, if you thing a different path is better.

5. If you don’t have anything to say, you might need a break from blogging.

6. It’s okay to walk away from a blog you don’t enjoy writing anymore. It doesn’t make you a quitter or a failure.

7. Checking your grammar and spelling is important, but checking your facts is even more important.

8. Good blogging advice today could be bad blogging advice tomorrow. This is an industry in constant flux.

9. If you try to write a post that pleases everyone, not only will you probably fail, but you’ll also probably produce a really watered-down post.

10. Readers like personality.

11. Readers can tell when your personality is “fake.”

12. All the online networking you do is awesome, but nothing meets a face-to-face cup of coffee with someone.

13. People are busy; write posts they can skim.

14. People are intelligent; write posts that make them think.

15. People need help; write posts that solve their problems.

16. Some niches are better for monitization than others, but any niche can be a money-maker.

17. “If you build it, they will come,” is not a true statement.

18. Having mailing list subscribers is way better than having RSS subscribers.

19. It’s okay to moderate comments that are nasty. This is your blog.

20. Give people what they want…and also show people what they need.

21. When someone asks you for a favor, say yes if you can. In the future, they’ll return that favor ten times over.

22. Video blogs and podcasts are cool, but if you aren’t good at them, don’t do them.

23. Sometimes people on social media have a bad day. Don’t judge them by their last tweet.

24. Remember that you’ll be judged by your last tweet, so make every one a reflection of you.

25. New, original ideas, even if they turn out to be bad ideas, make the best posts.

26. You don’t have to blog on a schedule to be a good blogger.

27. If you wouldn’t want your mother reading it, don’t say it online.

28. If you cringe to think of your children reading it someday, don’t say it online.

29. When in doubt…don’t say it online. It’s very hard to remove something after it’s been posted.

30. The ability to be anonymous in a comment or even when writing a blog post does not give you the right to be a jerk.

31. Never underestimate the power of making your readers giggle. We all need a stress relief sometimes.

32. Write posts about topics you love. You’ll be happier and that will be reflected in your blog.

33. Don’t “fake it ’till you make it.” Just be honest and continually improve yourself.

34. You don’t have to tell everyone everything about yourself to be an authentic blogger.

35. When you make a mistake admit it. And say you’re sorry.

36. Ignore the trolls.

37. Criticism might hurt, but just because someone disagrees doesn’t mean they are a troll.

38. Say thank you.

39. Don’t follow people you don’t like using social media.

40. New things (site redesigns, updates, etc.) are scary and may seem horrible at first, but that’s probably because you’re used to how things used to be. Give stuff a chance before ranting.

41. Read new blogs in your niche. Having good ideas and being smart have nothing to do with how long someone has been blogging.

42. It’s okay to delete old posts that are no longer relevant or helpful.

43. Tell stories.

44. Don’t confuse “I don’t have time” with “I don’t make time.”

45. Say hello to the established bloggers in your niche. They’re nice people.

46. Changing your mind is okay.

47. Repeat yourself for newcomers, but not so much that old readers get bored.

48. Make being a fan easy for people. If you hide your subscribe button, have a blank “about” page, make it hard to find your social networks, etc., people won’t put in the effort.

49. Inspiration can come from all around you. You just have to open your eyes to it.

50. Be hard to forget.

Your turn: what are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned as a blogger?