Blog better every day: My daily blog tips from May 2011

Throughout 2011, I share a daily blog tip via my Twitter account, @WadeOnTweets, at 7 a.m. CDT.

You can …

• Ask follow-up questions in the comments.
• Tweet out your favorites.
• Follow #DailyBlogTip on Twitter.
• And follow me on Twitter at @WadeOnTweets.

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The tips for May …

1. Boundaries can help communities stay active and grow. Untended ones can spin out of control and fizzle.
2. How would you market your main product or service? Would that carry over to how you market your blog?
3. Revisit old posts for ideas on updates. New posts can pick up the story where it left off.
4. WordPress hosted blogs: Set up mobile version in seconds with free WordPress Mobile Edition plugin.
5. Video is but another marketing tool for your blog. YouTube and other sites can bring new fans.
6. Why I love WordPress: It’s free, open source, flexible, manages content well, always improving.
7. A top security measure is regular offsite backups of your blog. Don’t wait till catastrophe strikes.
8. Shorter headlines work better than longer ones. Five to seven words, tops.
9. Have you asked your community for help? A strong blogger and a strong community deserve each other.
10. No amount of marketing will sell an inactive blog. Some time must always go to content creation.
11. Shake things up with surprises. Don’t be predictable; be interesting. Keep readers on their toes.
12. Tell your site developer to create a mobile theme for your blog, focusing on content useful in the field.
13. Spell-check your headlines, too. Don’t make a misspelled word the first thing readers notice.
14. When my blog goes haywire, first thing I check is plugins. Turning them back on one at a time can help.
15. Make it easy for interested parties to contact you for permission to license or use your content.
16. Headlines readers hate: vague, misleading, clunky, erroneous and inept.
17. The right community turns an ordinary blog into a shared experience.
18. Register for blog directories. Even niche sites can benefit from being listed on free directories.
19. My biggest failure with series: Never writing the next part. Have all parts created before publishing.
20. Advanced: Allow readers to receive text message updates for new blog posts.
21. Edit and improve photos for free at Picnik.com and Photoshop.com.
22. Never let your platform be your excuse. Blogs succeed or fail because of you, not the platform.
23. Like locks and alarms, no site security system is perfect. It’s a deterrent, but a vital one.
24. SEO is always evolving. Today’s rules may not apply tomorrow, so always experiment and document.
25. If your fans are bursting with ideas and suggestions, the time is right for adding forums to your site.
26. Pick only 2 or 3 social media “share” buttons for your blog. Limit to the ones your audience uses most.
27. Exercise buddies keep each other honest, on track, moving forward. Who’s your blog buddy?
28. Monitor your traffic from handheld devices: smartphones, iPads and even netbooks. Plan and design.
29. Content is the only thing that separates you from 100 million other blogs. The rest is mechanics.
30. If a needed plugin doesn’t exist, ask or hire someone to create it.
31. Copyright goes both ways: To have your rights respected, don’t steal copyrighted works for your site.

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