Written by Dick CarlsonI did a presentation yesterday and got lots of questions about blogging. How does it work? Do you have to post every day? How do you get noticed?
I didn’t get one single question about design. So I went back to the oracle of web usability Jakob Nielsen, and thought I’d rate my own blog based on his ten points.
No Author Biographies
Got it covered. I am a little flippant there, but I want potential clients to know what they’re getting into.
No Author Photo
Check. I’ve got a cute photo of me looking thoughtful. Actually wearing a sport coat!
Nondescript Posting Titles
I do good on this, but need to do better.
Links Don’t Say Where They Go
Occasionally guilty, but better than 50%.
Classic Hits are Buried
Guilty.
The Calendar is the Only Navigation
Guilty.
Irregular Publishing Frequency
Pretty good — several times a week.
Mixing Topics
Guilty. Sometimes I find myself tagging a single post with 7 tags.
Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
Somewhat guilty. In my real life, I’m way to blunt. Gets me in trouble.
Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service
Got it covered. I just paid a freelancer to move my blog to my own server. It’s a pain, difficult, and sometimes I wish I was back at WordPress. But JN is right — it just doesn’t look good to be a techie with a hosted blog.
6 out of 10. If I played baseball, I’d be in the hall of fame!
So — how did you score? Do you think these are the critical design factors? Would you add more.
I’ll have to revisit this in a few months and see if I’m doing any better.
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