Miscellany: How I Write a Blog Post {Part 10}

We made it! The last and final stop in our How *I* Write a Blog Post series! I hope you haven’t been bored out of your mind. I hope it has been helpful. I kinda liked writing it. I’m intrigued by blogging and social media so I love talking about it.

I want to end with just a few tiny little tips and practices I’ve adopted as I write my posts. They aren’t life-changing, but I think they’re good stuff!

1. Customized Links

I told you I like customizing my links for twitter. But I also like customizing links so I can remember them and have them on hand when I need them quickly. And why would I want to remember them? Because I want to link to myself regularly! And not just to make sticky posts.

Sometimes I run across a Tangled party post on another blog. When I am leaving a comment, instead of putting my blog’s URL in the required field, I put in the link to my Tangled Party. But I don’t want to go back to my blog and look up the URL, so I just remember my customized URL: bit.ly/TangledParty!

This also works well when someone asks me about my party on Twitter or Facebook. Or even if I just want to link to it in one of my own posts. I can quickly remember it and link it!

I have customized URLs for all my parties, series, About Me pages and even to a bio page (which includes a photo and bio for other blogs to use when I guest post, etc.).

Not to toot my own horn but I think this genius. It’s such a big time-saver!

2. Share This button

There are all kinds of social media buttons and plug-ins to insert into your posts so that others can easily share your posts on their social media networks. Share This is my favorite. And since I’ve installed it in this format (large buttons with number of shares above the buttons ), I’ve noticed I get MORE shares. People experience positive peer pressure and if it’s been shared 400 times, they are apt to do the same.

3. Series

A series is a perfect opportunity keep people coming back to your blog for more.

Here are a few ideas I’ve used to maximize my series…

• Make a linky of the series. You can set up a private linky (from LinkyTools) to add all your posts into one big visual post. Here’s my Super Hero series from Impress Your Kids…

You might wanna click over to see the whole post but it begins with my series graphic, a quick description, then the link with every post in order and I also include an Amazon widget with fun super hero books and CDs (monetization!!!) and a button to my Super Hero Pinterest board!

• Link to the next post in the series at the bottom of the previous post. I usually write a teaser like, “Stay tuned for Part 4!” then when Part 4 is posted, I go back and link it. That way when people are finding your series later, they can follow along quickly!

• In this blogging series, I also added a banner to the bottom that links back to the original post in the series. It also marks this post as a series, which I like.

• The first post in the series also contains a list of links to the entire series! So my readers have NO EXCUSE to not read every single one!

So. I think I’ve done it. I think I’ve told you every detail of my life on this computer. Now do you see why blogging is so time-consuming? Do you see why my dishes are never done and my laundry continues to be in a huge pile? It’s all this blogginess that must happen when I write a post! (Also, do you see where my priorities lie?!)

I hope you enjoyed this series! If you did, please consider sharing it on your social media networks! Click the banner below to get to the first page of the series OR use this customized URL to cut/paste into your tweets or Facebook updates: http://bit.ly/HowIWrite

(See? See how I did that?!)

Now. Any questions?