Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After)
In honor of Daily Blog Tips’s “Blog Project: Three” Contest, here are the three things that all bloggers should before they hit the publish button on a new post.
1. Read over and spell check the content. I know that blogging is an informal medium, but spelling and grammar errors can make you appear less intelligent that you actually are, and a quick proofread only takes a few minutes. Besides, once you’ve invested the time in setting up your blog, writing posts, and participating in the blogging community, what’s a few more minutes to ensure that you put your best face forward? Spelling errors on a blog are the equivalent of going into a job interview in track pants and a t-shirt - in a perfect world, appearances wouldn’t matter, but in the real world, they definitely do.
2. Make sure that your post is tagged properly and assigned to the correct categories. You want to make it as simple as possible for others to find your blog and use your content, so careful tagging and categorizing are essential and easy things to do.
3. Link to any other blogs or outside sources you mention. It helps your readers find out more on a particular topic if they are so inclined, and giving some link love to fellow bloggers is generally a good thing. Besides, citing your sources lends your blog credibility (well, this may depend on what the sources are, but in general citing can’t hurt).
3.5. The one thing bloggers should do after they hit publish is to check how their post looks in the context of the rest of the site - is the layout okay? If there are images, are they are sized and placed properly? Are any of the links broken? Did you forget to mention anything really important? Go back and edit anything that’s not right - one of the many, many excellent aspects of blogging is how easy it is to edit and fix errors.ÂÂÂ
*An aside: blogging round-ups, contests, and carnivals are excellent way to get the word out about your blog to other bloggers and new readers, so keep an eye out for similar goings-on in your niche. The Daily Blog Tips Project 3 contest is very open-ended (as long as you post about something involving the number 3, you can participate).
Posted: July 3rd, 2007 under Link Building, Blogging Techniques, General.
Comments: 27
Comments
Comment from Sheila - GoVisitHawaii
Time: July 3, 2007, 7:29 pm
Oh my goodness! I need to read these suggestion every day until it is habit. What is it about hitting that publish button that makes me realize I’ve not done something to the post that I’d planned to do? I wish there was a stop publishing button.
P.S. I found your site from the Daily Blog Tips writing project.
Comment from 
Jacqueline Zenn
Time: July 3, 2007, 9:41 pm
At least with blogging you can edit your post and no one will be the wiser - I think I end up editing all my posts at least once, usually because I think of a better way to say something or I found something else that supports my point.
Comment from Arpit Jacob
Time: July 7, 2007, 11:46 am
always some how manage to put incorrect links in my blog 
even after a double check. someone needs to create a plugin which shows me all the links in a post with anchor text before I hit publish 
Comment from Liz Lair
Time: July 8, 2007, 4:50 pm
I just found your site and the contest. I’ve got til midnight so I will send something.
Pingback from Blog Project Three: Final List
Time: July 9, 2007, 11:33 am
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from Dailyblogtips contest entries » Hello Ashok!
Time: July 9, 2007, 12:37 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from Blog Project Three: The Results | Kyle’s Cove dot Com
Time: July 9, 2007, 12:54 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from Blog Project Three Final List! | My Brain Dumper!
Time: July 9, 2007, 12:55 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Comment from George
Time: July 9, 2007, 1:54 pm
Those are some really good tips. I especially like number 3. Linking out can also help, because many bloggers (like myself) check to see who is linking to them and sometimes reward you for it.
Pingback from Tips for making money online, and “3″ posts galore | I’ve Tried That
Time: July 9, 2007, 2:11 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from Johan; thinking out loud.
Time: July 9, 2007, 2:19 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from Blog Project Three: 114 Blogs Participated
Time: July 9, 2007, 4:22 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from DailyBlogTips Blog Writing Project Three Entries | Web Business Blog
Time: July 9, 2007, 8:59 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Comment from Bikram
Time: July 9, 2007, 11:10 pm
Well, this tips were really handy. One very important thing U missed out is ‘Broken Links’. Nothing irritates a visitor more than that. So, make sure all your links in the post are correctly coded and valid. We all know these but still we don’t care. That’s y some posts suck big time.
Some tip for your blog here. I guess U’ve used two different images for the mouse hover effect on each of the 4 buttons (home, about …). On 1st mouse hover, the alternate image takes a lot of time to load. Hence for quite a few seconds, the mouse hover area goes blank. Better to use image-rollover, a single image having both the states. Do a google-search and U’ll find the details.
And, I guess U should decrees the font size. Those huge fonts are really pain to the eye.
Comment from Jacqueline Zenn
Time: July 9, 2007, 11:22 pm
Thanks for linking, everyone!
And thanks for sharing your opinions on my blog, Bikram. I’m still finalizing my template here at mytypes (the whole site is still in beta, actually) so all input is welcome.
By the way, I do mention broken links in the post, and I agree that nothing is quite as annoying as wanting to click on a link and not being able to make it work and locate the content.
Pingback from Top Results from the 3 Blog Project
Time: July 11, 2007, 7:57 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from Madhur Kapoor’s Blog » DailyBlogTips Blog Project Three
Time: July 12, 2007, 4:40 am
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Comment from Madhur Kapoor
Time: July 12, 2007, 2:24 pm
I usually forget previewing the post before hitting the publish button and that gets me in trouble sometimes .
Pingback from Blog 3 Project » What Would Dad Say
Time: July 13, 2007, 12:17 am
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from Relay blogger » My votes for Blog Project Three.
Time: July 13, 2007, 3:50 am
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) […]
Pingback from blog project three
Time: July 13, 2007, 10:10 am
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from Your Blogging Coach » Blog Archive » Weekend on the Links #4: Daily Blog Tips Project 3 Edition
Time: July 13, 2007, 2:42 pm
[…] Contest, in which each blogger had to write a post that involved the number 3 somehow.  Mine was 3 Things to do Before You Hit Publish (and 1 Thing to Do After). 115 blogs entered, and since I couldn’t narrow it down to a top 3 - there were too many […]
Pingback from My top three : 60 IN 3
Time: July 13, 2007, 11:16 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from Wrap Up of Blog Writing Project | Go Visit Hawaii
Time: July 14, 2007, 11:30 am
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline. […]
Comment from Adam Pieniazek
Time: July 15, 2007, 1:03 pm
The last tip in particular is very useful. I use firefox almost exclusively at home but make sure to check my site layout in Safari and Internet Explorer every now and then as I’ve seen those two browser, IE especially, render content differently from Firefox. Good tips!
Pingback from ø Blog Project Three Has Some Winners ø
Time: July 17, 2007, 5:58 am
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Pingback from SeanPAune.com » Blog Archive » Blog Project:Three Final List Votes
Time: October 6, 2007, 1:31 pm
[…] Three Things to Do Before You Click Publish (and One Thing to Do After) by Jacqueline […]
Write a comment