Experiment, week 9. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Birthday Wishes. It was my birthday earlier this week. I’ve now had 61 of them. Making a big thing of birthdays is not something that’s in our family tradition. So I’m not one for getting huge bundles of birthday cards. But I was touched by how many of my friends on Facebook remembered and wished me well. Thanks, everyone!



2. Daffodils. I’ll probably say this again several times over the coming weeks, but daffodils are one of my favourite flowers (as long as they don’t come in shades of pink!). And I noticed on Friday that our local supermarket had the first spring daffs in: small yellow and orange narcissi. Delightful. And a reminder that Spring can’t be too far away!
3. Frosty Mornings. The weather here in west London has been unseasonably mild all winter; more like March than January. But in the last few days it has definitely gotten colder. It was very nice to go out yesterday morning in bright, clear sunny weather following a hard frost.
4. London Taxis. The London black cab driver generally gets a bad press — but rarely from me. I’m a Londoner and although I have a reasonable knowledge, for a layman, of what’s where in central London I have to admire the London cabbie’s knowledge of everything. I know they have to work hard to learn it all, but I really don’t know how they ever manage it! An of course many never do manage to pass “the knowledge”. I appreciate their skill every time I get in a London taxi — and that was three times yesterday!
5. Freedom Pass. For those who don’t live in London, this is the London “bus pass scheme” for geriatrics. I finally got mine a few weeks before Christmas, but it was really only yesterday that I started to appreciate what an excellent scheme it is. Not only do you get free bus travel, and (mostly) free tube travel but also much of the rail network in Greater London is also free outside peak hours. And it also covers local buses across most of the rest of the country. Brilliant!

And, for once, there’s a list with no mention of food at all.

Kate’s Listography this week is for us bloggers: she asks us to write about our top five tips learned so far on our blogging journey. OK, so here are five top tips …

1. Write about whatever grabs you. It’s your blog, you can write about anything you like and in any way you like. But it will be most successful, and enjoyable, if you write about things that grab you, that interest you. Don’t write about something just because you think you should. Your passion, or lack of it, will come through in your writing and that’ll affect your readers interest. And writing about things that interest you will give the blog your personal stamp. It will also keep you interested and writing. If you find a niche market along the way, so well and good.

2. Write readably. Be careful with your style. What you write needs to be readable and intelligible. But the style it doesn’t have to be formal; probably better if it isn’t. Don’t write long meandering sentences that your readers can’t follow — nor long meandering posts! Don’t ramble: make sure your argument is coherent, concise and developed. Style variations and surprises are useful, but don’t overdo them. Like this! See!

3. Think about your audience. Who are you writing for? What message are you trying to get across? I find that as I write a blog post I’m always writing it “for” someone specific; not always the same person: a particular friend, my wife, even myself. That will help you develop and angle your story; and it gives the writing a more personal and readable edge. This, for instance, I am writing with Kate in mind: ‘cos she set the challenge and I know she’ll read it. At other times I will be writing for a specific friends. And there will be times when you are writing for yourself: as a way to help you develop your ideas — that’s fine as long as you don’t always do it and you know when you are doing it.

(Of course, if you’re writing a formal entry, say a scientific article, you may need to write more formally and in the third person. That’s fine if that’s your niche. But it isn’t for most of us.)

4. Try to think up snappy titles. There are two aspects here. The title of your blog itself and the titles of the individual posts. Your blog needs to be called something memorable and informative. “Fred’s Blog” doesn’t help anyone. “Blue Cats in Custard” at the very least is arresting and makes people curious. It’s all about marketing.

The second aspect is something I consider I’m not very good at: snappy titles for posts. The post’s title is the first thing someone will read, and if it doesn’t grab them they may read no further. So the title, and the first sentence, need to grab their attention as well as providing some clues about what follows. Titles also help the search engines index you, so people will be more likely to find you. If they’re amusing too then so much the better.

5. Design. Good design is paramount. If your page doesn’t appeal to people they won’t read it more than once. Keep it clean and uncluttered. But also try to make it some reflection of you. You don’t need a designer to do this for you — just a bit of time to fiddle around with the various style combinations your blog hosting service offers. Personally I don’t like loads of white space, fancy fonts or twee backgrounds. Develop a design (it may take time) and stick to it. Use one typeface you like and stick to it — except for occasional emphasis. Restrict variations in font size and weight. Avoid flashing things, pop-up boxes and adverts (especially ones you can’t control): they all distract and annoy the reader. Occasional pictures in your posts help break up chunks of text and provide some context and interest. But don’t overdo the pictures: more than two or three big images and they should be put somewhere like Flickr and linked (using thumbnails if necessary).

Bonus Item 1. Don’t expect instant success. If you track the number of hits you get to your blog you can get an idea of whether you’re going in the right direction. But don’t expect thousands of hits a day to happen instantly. Unless you have a lot of luck, a large advertising budget or a major sponsor people will take time to find you. Just keep writing. Encourage people who respond to comments. And, if you’re doing it right, slowly your audience will grow.

Bonus Item 2. Re-read what you’ve written before you post it. Check your spelling and ensure it all makes sense. Bad writing is one of the biggest turn-offs of all.

So there you are: seven top blogging tips. Hmmm … maybe I’d better take some of them to heart myself! 🙂