1. Embrace the idea of writing some posts, which people may disagree with

The weakest posts out there, are those where the blogger tries to be all things to all people and cover every possible objection to what he or she is writing. This not only makes for over-long posts, it makes it hard for people to find anything within the post to comment on.

If you have experienced problems getting people to comment on your blog, it could be that you are leaving nothing for them to say.

2. Embrace the idea of writing short blog posts, as well as longer ones

One of the so-called rules of blogging, is that your posts should all run to over 300 words. Yes, if you write exclusively for search engines rather than people, you may do better by X% if you pad out a short post with fluff and keywords. However, if you want to write content that works for your business by engaging people, your posts need to be as long as they need to be.

For example, some of my most popular posts run to little over 100 words. This type of blogging is embraced by Seth Godin, who often writes very short posts. In fact, many of his most shared posts, are also his shortest.

3. Embrace the idea that most ‘rules of blogging’ are totally bogus

Once you have some good quality hosting and a professional looking blog theme, the only rule you need to abide by is to write useful content, which people will read, share and link to – and make it easy for them to share your work. Beyond that, you will almost certainly do better by ignoring the rules that hundreds of thousands of other bloggers are sticking to. It’s hard to get noticed, when you are following the pack!

On Jimsmarketingblog.com, one of the world’s most popular marketing blogs, I break most of the so-called rules of blogging.

For instance:

• I rank on page 1 of Google all over the world, for the term ‘marketing blogs’, even though I do very little SEO and zero SEO on my posts.
• I don’t guest post.
• I don’t attend blogging conferences.
• I don’t make sure my posts are all 300 words or longer.
• I don’t write a newsletter.
• I don’t use SEO software.
• I don’t use pop-up software.
• I don’t use landing page software, either.
• I don’t use a fancy commenting system.
• I don’t write posts that tie into a news story, to news jack.

I just turn up regularly and write useful posts. It works, because those are the type of posts that naturally get links and shares. Those links and shares take care of the SEO to a large degree and have allowed me to reach thousands of people every day, via that site.

4. Embrace the idea that your posts need to be human, rather than perfect

If you want every post to be perfect, you will seldom write anything. Your work is your voice. It’s a reflection of the way YOU see things. Be human when you write and you will not only write more great content, more often, you will also make it easier for prospective clients to connect with you and your work.

5. Embrace the idea that if you can say it, you can write it

One of the questions I get asked the most is how I manage to publish posts and articles pretty much every day. The answer is simple. I discovered that if you can speak without people falling asleep, you can write and keep people engaged too. This is linked to the previous point about being human. I found it massively easier to write on a regular basis, when I understood that writing was very similar to speaking and that I never got ‘speakers block’.

So, what would you add to those 5 ideas?