Add spaces between paragraphs

Online type can move around depending on the browser and the computer through which your readers view it. You may have taken great care to indent each paragraph before you posted, but even substantial indents may show up only as tiny zags of text when posted, or not show up at all.

Make it easy on your readers' eyes—and also help them to keep track of their location in your text (especially if they are reading you on a PDA or cellphone)—by adding the extra space.

Keep your paragraphs short

Keep your paragraphs to two or three sentences maximum in a blog. Reading text on the screen is not the same as reading it in a book or in a magazine or newspaper.

If your readers see chucks of information that they are going to be able to absorb one block at a time, they will be more inclined to keep reading. They will also get your meaning more rapidly.

Even paragraphs of only one sentence can be effective.

Or just one word.

Seriously.

(As long as you don't do it too often.)

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.