http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
The function and topics of this blog, according to the author, is that "Seth Godin's riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread." When creating a blog, I feel it's important to nail down a few key topics, so that the writer is most likely more knowledgeable about the topic on which he or she is writing. If someone writes about everything, they're not going to be an expert on any of it. With this particular blog, there is a simplicity to the author's writing and posting style. One of the only functions are to scroll through recent posts and look over archived posts. This blog is lacking a separating system based on keywords describing the blog's content. It would be beneficial to readers to be able to sort the posts by topic, so that if readers only want to see his posts about marketing they can do so with ease. Basically the only other functions with this blog is to look at the books Seth Godin wrote, and also to connect with him on different social media sites. These two additions to the blog are great because Seth is using a blog to market himself, and he's doing so by being present in lots of different spaces online, and adapting to the rules of each type of media.
When creating a blog, here are some of my recommended "best practices":
1. Make the blog interface easy to navigate through, so people can see every bit of the site: Users will spend more time on your blog and engage more deeply if you make it easier for them to do so
2. Ensure grammatical correctness: How can you be taken seriously as a writer if you don't know the basics?
3. Stick to a few topics that you're an expert about, rather than guessing on things you don't know much about and trying to pass yourself off as an expert: It's better to be good at a few things and demonstrate true understanding than trying to do a little bit of everything and truly master nothing.
4. Tag all blogs with keywords so they are sortable on your blog and searchable off your blog: The idea of an online presence is to be found, and keywords are the easiest way to say what you want to be found for
5. Post often: people will forget about your blog if you neglect it.
I believe your list of best practices is a very good one. Nothing frustrates a reader more than not being able to find what he or she is looking for, so search functionality is very important. Grammar is also a sticking point for me - I have a tendency to stop reading when I come across an overwhelming amount of grammatical or spelling errors. Typos are one thing, but glaring errors can be very distracting and take the reader out of the experience of what they are reading. Posting often is also important. I know every day is not a realistic goal for most bloggers who have lives outside of blogging, but long periods of no posts with no explanation, especially with those who have developed a larger following, can really turn off the reader.
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