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2009/12/11 04:14 PM 

This week I decided to start a blog paragraph collaboration project. What it is, is, I get a few of our readers to each write one paragraph on a particular theme. I then compile that into a post with a back link to their blog.

Thereby giving them some link love, as well as some exposure.

Our theme this week is “What one thing can you think of that will improve yours or someone else's blog”. Not an easy task, as some confess. It is easy to waffle paragraph after paragraph, but condense your thoughts into one paragraph is a tough ask.

Here are our first collaborators. Enjoy their excellent paragraphs, and please, please visit each ones blog. I would be grateful and they would appreciate the traffic.

Mk Akan

You can improve your blog by better organization of the content of your blog post. There are basically 4 types of blog post content- text, audio, images and video. To properly organize these contents, you need to add, format or arrange them in such a way that it saves your reader’s time and it gives out information clearly. This is because people have very short attention span on the internet so a blog that helps a visitor to save time by organizing its content better, is a winner and will be rewarded with return visits. Using videos, audios and explanatory images in your post helps to communicate quickly and saves the time of your readers (This may depend on what you blog about). Unfortunately, text based post is the most popular form of blog content.You can still organize your text based posts and make them more readable and time saving for your readers by:

1. Adding headlines and sub headlines to your post- this make your post scan-able
2. Avoiding ambiguity and making post length as short as possible
3. Adding bullet points and lists to your post and breaking the post into little visible chunks instead of a big massive chunk
4. Highlighting important points by making them bolder or by underlining them

Unique content is great, but a badly organized unique content is as bad as bad content.
Mk Akan http://www.FastClickng.com

Leighann Garber

I've done a lot of improving on my blog lately.   I started out writing it and importing junk just to get good keywords and SEO and make money.  But it has lately become more personal, and a place where I can be creative, talking about things that really matter to me.  It's great because it will end up doing the same thing: Google still loves me, and I’m building relationships that will lead to traffic and sales.  Just slower and in a better way. What I need to work on is getting people to interact in the site, and come up with some ways to monetize better now that I'm doing things the right way. Just got Google ads and clickbank on for now, but I'll be fixing that soon.   I'm leaning towards writing an ebook (or two) but not sure what topic yet.
Leighann Garber http://www.thenewsbase.com

Chris Hinton

The main thing I think could do with work in my blog is some serious thought on its "niche". Geek-Speak originally started as a way of exploring the things that interest me, which is fine but does lead to a bit of a scattered approach. I could say that the niche is "geek culture" and leave it at that (and it might end up that I DO go down that route) but I'm very aware that the diversity of content means it can be hard for people to get a handle on exactly what the site is about. My problem is that focusing on a very tight subject (say, iPhone apps or Wordpress plugins) leaves me feeling like I don't actually have much to write about (I also have a photography blog that's pretty much stalled)! So some serious introspection could have one of two outcomes: either I tighten Geek-Speak's focus, or I decide that "geek" is focused enough and blog with more confidence. I think either would be a beneficial outcome. In fact, I reckon it's time to add that to my task list and make it a priority once the Christmas mayhem is out of the way.
Chris http://www.geek-speak.co.uk.

ADAMA J. ADAMA

The one thing I can do to improve my blog is boosting the traffic. If I build a high traffic, it will make me to belt up. It will challenge me to write valuable content posts. It will help me to collect comments that will suggest improvement ideas for my blog. It will challenge me to settle down to write fresh posts at least 3 times a week. The high traffic will generate adsense revenue for me that will pay my internet access bills.The high traffic will lead to high patronage of my products/services thereby making me a successful Blogger at the long run. In fact, high traffic will give me fulfilment, fortune and fame. 
ADAMA J. ADAMA www.geniusplanetnigeria.com

Monty

For bloggers who like to write, keep the language simple and the sentences to the point. People taking the time to read your blog will likely return if your texts are neat, to the point and informative. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use fun, descriptive and colourful language - on the contrary! A good test to determine whether your writing is simple and to the point is to read through each sentence carefully as you imagine someone else would, and then to answer the following question: "Is there any ambiguity in what I've just read?". If you answer yes, then revise the sentence and remove the ambiguous statements. This will go a very long way to make your blog both more fun and easier to read, and it will also allow you to catch spelling errors you may have missed previously.
Monty (http://facepalm.co.za/)

Erica Mueller

In visiting blogs, the most common thing I see that bloggers have overlooked is proper branding and self-promotion. You might be thinking I'm crazy, but I feel that if you're not confident in, and proud of, your own brand and what YOU have to offer, then any other recommendations you make will hold little weight with your readers.

1. Get a logo/graphic of some sort that is YOURS. Brand yourself across all your networks and profiles. Be recognizable.
2. Get YOUR information out there, up top, and in plain sight. Social Links, RSS Feed, Newsletter Sign-Up. Ads, Sponsors, Blogroll, and any other links and banners can go under your stuff.

Your brand is the most important. Without it, no one else's matters.
Erica Mueller http://EricaSays.com

Patty Reiser

There's more to your blog than just providing readers with useful content.  You need Interaction.  There are a few ways to engage your blogging audience.  One, ask your readers for their comments and/or feedback to your blog posts.  Once they have left you comments be sure to read them and respond appropriately to their feedback.  Third, take a few moments to visit their blogs (if they have one) and leave a comment for them.  As they say, "Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated."  You will find blogging success by engaging your audience.
Patty Reiser http://pkphotography.us

Shana Kay

Blogging is my passion and sharing information even more. If there is one tip I can offer to help improve your blog, it would be,  "free your mind and your audience will follow".

What does this mean? It means that your readers will appreciate reading about the real you and situations you have personally gone through. I share everything (well almost :)) even the embarrassing moments, because guess what, I am not the only one to have ever done that and "seeing" someone else share their moments, helps connect me to my reader.

I also share useful tips and resources I find across the board since I know the value of receiving helpful tips from unexpected sources. So remember to write from your heart and experience and add some humour to it all. Life is too short to take yourself seriously and people will follow your posts because they find you interesting.

Go on, try it (",).
Shana Kay: http://www.shanakay.com
 

Conclusion

Aren’t these a wonderful exciting group of bloggers with some fantastic and knowledgeable insight? Lovely and exciting tips. Thanks guys and gals.

I would like this to be an ongoing project. Please DM me if you would like to participate. My Twitter id is @robertbravery. Next week Monday I will post a new topic.

So, what do you think of the idea? Please let me know via the comments below.

Remember you can win a weeks worth of free ad space just for commenting. The best comments during the week will get a weeks free advertising space. Check out: Win free advertising for your blog

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