As long-time readers know, I’m continually battling those alley-fed vermin, benignly labeled “gray squirrels.”

If you are too, this may be helpful:

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Writing

1. Keep paragraphs 5 lines or shorter. (If this post were a list of one, this would be it.)

2. Don’t get hung up on whether posts should be long or short. Just make each sentence motivate your audience to read the next one.

3. Interesting titles are good, but it’s more important that they’re informative.

4. Break up longer posts with helpful headings.

5. Put either your main point or a story in the first paragraph of posts.

6. Correct other people’s typos when quoting them (without noting that you corrected them).

7. Connect links to meaningful words so people know what they’ll find at the other end (unlike linking “this” or “here”).

Content Accessibility

8. Syndicate your whole feed. If you don’t, you’ll lose in readership more than you gain in page views.

9. Redirect your blogspot or wordpress URL to your own domain. (OK, that’s not as simple as some of these others, but it’s worth figuring out how to do.)

10. Feature your best posts somewhere noticeable, so people can get the gist of your blog without too much digging.

11. Compose a tagline that’s short and says as specifically as possible what your blog is about. Punchy is good, too.

12. Create an informative About page that sets you apart.

13. Categorize your posts accurately and somewhat specifically.

14. Limit the number of your categories so they can be listed scannably.

Community

15. Make it easy for people to contact you.

16. Interact with readers in your comment section.

17. Comment on other people’s blogs.

18. Offer to write posts for other blogs. Offer them your best stuff.

Design

19. Use a professional photo for your banner.

20. Don’t clutter your sidebar with stuff no one’s going to use, even if it is important info.

21. If you have ads, make sure they’re for things your audience will value and that they don’t clutter your site.

And Finally…

22. Write posts that are lists. People love lists.

What would you add to the list…or remove from it?

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If you ask questions but you reject answers, you’re not actually asking anything. You’re just festooning tired, old propositions with trendier punctuation.

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Thanks for participating in the subscriber giveaway!

We’ll do another one if I ever come up with another prize that’s similarly enticing.

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Like 22 Words on Facebook and you'll never run out of crazy, funny, and interesting links!

Generally, a person’s vote shows whether they’re more conservative or liberal, but not voting isn’t so clear.

What can a non-vote communicate?

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