Comments on: 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog (Please) http://www.justinkownacki.com/2010/02/09/5-ways-to-improve-your-blog-please/ Armchair Sociologist & Perpetual Contrarian Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:23:54 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Jonnie Wright http://www.justinkownacki.com/2010/02/09/5-ways-to-improve-your-blog-please/comment-page-1/#comment-2239 Jonnie Wright Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:12:31 +0000 http://www.justinkownacki.com/?p=1526#comment-2239 I agree with four of your points, Justin, but number one is too simple to be completely true. "Pointless lead-ins" violate the fundamental rule of good writing, which is "get 'em at the beginning and you're much more likely to have them till the end." The middle may blow, the end may suck, but that's not about length, it's about poor writing, period. Frankly I encourage bad lead-ins - I stop reading faster, which gives me more time to read good posts. I agree with four of your points, Justin, but number one is too simple to be completely true. “Pointless lead-ins” violate the fundamental rule of good writing, which is “get ‘em at the beginning and you’re much more likely to have them till the end.” The middle may blow, the end may suck, but that’s not about length, it’s about poor writing, period. Frankly I encourage bad lead-ins – I stop reading faster, which gives me more time to read good posts.

]]> By: Justin Matthews http://www.justinkownacki.com/2010/02/09/5-ways-to-improve-your-blog-please/comment-page-1/#comment-2202 Justin Matthews Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:14:57 +0000 http://www.justinkownacki.com/?p=1526#comment-2202 Great ideas! I like checking my posts in other ways too. I was my first subscriber in feedburner! I also like to check out my site in IE when I have 20 minutes or so to spare while it loads. I also like to check different monitors, my laptop looks different than my LCD monitor on my desktop and the CRT on my kids computer. I have changed some things to adjust for that. I also like #5, I may want to sign up to your stuff but don't make me until I decide to. There have been several blogs I have dumped for wanting this. Thanks for the info Justin Great ideas! I like checking my posts in other ways too. I was my first subscriber in feedburner! I also like to check out my site in IE when I have 20 minutes or so to spare while it loads. I also like to check different monitors, my laptop looks different than my LCD monitor on my desktop and the CRT on my kids computer. I have changed some things to adjust for that. I also like #5, I may want to sign up to your stuff but don’t make me until I decide to. There have been several blogs I have dumped for wanting this.
Thanks for the info
Justin

]]> By: Tweets that mention Justin Kownacki - 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog (Please) -- Topsy.com http://www.justinkownacki.com/2010/02/09/5-ways-to-improve-your-blog-please/comment-page-1/#comment-2201 Tweets that mention Justin Kownacki - 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog (Please) -- Topsy.com Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:15:50 +0000 http://www.justinkownacki.com/?p=1526#comment-2201 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Justin Kownacki, Justin Kownacki, Melissa, Matt Stratton, Donna Feldman and others. Donna Feldman said: Liked: RT @snowkitten 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog (Please) by @JustinKownacki http://bit.ly/9jkT26 [...] [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Justin Kownacki, Justin Kownacki, Melissa, Matt Stratton, Donna Feldman and others. Donna Feldman said: Liked: RT @snowkitten 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog (Please) by @JustinKownacki http://bit.ly/9jkT26 [...]

]]> By: Matt Stratton http://www.justinkownacki.com/2010/02/09/5-ways-to-improve-your-blog-please/comment-page-1/#comment-2198 Matt Stratton Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:01:02 +0000 http://www.justinkownacki.com/?p=1526#comment-2198 Love this post. It seems so simple, which is why it's brilliant. #3 is one of my favorites, and something I'm trying really hard to be better about. Well, better about adding images, but making them "fun" images. I had a great success story with this recently - I had a post about "Pimp My Blog", and decided that a great image would be some kind of "pimp my ride" thing. Searching through Creative Commons eventually lead me to a tricked out VW Bug image, which I thought was hilarious, so I used it. When I shared the post on my Facebook wall (which included a thumbnail of the post image), one of my friends mentioned that they only reason he clicked through to the article was due to the picture. Of course, if he'd actually LIKED the article, that would have been a better success story. But the good thing about having hilarious and unique images on your posts is that even if people hate what you wrote, maybe they'll find the images amusing. But this only works if they are awesome images. Love this post. It seems so simple, which is why it’s brilliant.

#3 is one of my favorites, and something I’m trying really hard to be better about. Well, better about adding images, but making them “fun” images.

I had a great success story with this recently – I had a post about “Pimp My Blog”, and decided that a great image would be some kind of “pimp my ride” thing. Searching through Creative Commons eventually lead me to a tricked out VW Bug image, which I thought was hilarious, so I used it.

When I shared the post on my Facebook wall (which included a thumbnail of the post image), one of my friends mentioned that they only reason he clicked through to the article was due to the picture.

Of course, if he’d actually LIKED the article, that would have been a better success story. But the good thing about having hilarious and unique images on your posts is that even if people hate what you wrote, maybe they’ll find the images amusing. But this only works if they are awesome images.

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