Stay on topic

Choose a topic for each blog post and stay with it. Make sure the title reflects the content. If you want to describe how useful you find a new application you have just discovered for your personal digital assistant, it is not necessary to meander into explaining why you bought the particular PDA you did. Save that for another post.

The nice thing about the Internet is that you can always add another entry on a related subject, and you can even link it back to this one if you want to. The shorter and more to the point each post is, the better. Your readers will learn to trust that you are going to talk about what you said you would talk about, and then let them move on--and if you do that for them consistently, you will keep them coming back.

Keep the last word for yourself

Don't end a post with a quote from a famous person -- or any other person, in fact. It is fine to incorporate quotes you like into your post (provided you attribute them), but save the last word for yourself.

Ending a blog post with a quote from someone else is like letting Albert Einstein get up and finish your speech for you. If you do that, even if you are Arnold Schwarzenegger you are bound to be overshadowed by the greatness that has followed you.

You want your readers to leave with your words in their heads and on their tongues, not someone else's.