12 horrible pieces of blogging advice

Someone told you bloggers should only write short posts and stick to rigid schedule? Beware of these misleading suggestions.

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Here are 12 suggestions you’re likely to run into, and why you should run away from them as quickly as you can:

1. “Keep posts under 300 words.”

Beware of absolutes. This advice stems from the generalization that all blog readers are in a hurry. If your purpose is to provide information or analysis, and you do it well, people will be willing to read five times that word count.

2. “Stick to a rigid publishing schedule.”

Nobody gets to work and thinks, “It’s 7:25 a.m. I better hurry over to Sally’s blog to read her new post.” People are too busy to keep track of when a blogger publishes. If a blog is good, people will read it sooner or later.

3. “Blogs are an SEO shortcut.”

If your definition of a shortcut is doing a lot more work and waiting months or years for results, than yes, this advice is accurate. It’s true, blogs can strongly bolster SEO, but it takes careful planning, consistent execution, and a lot of time.

4. “Bloggers need to be edgy.”

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