All of us have a “checklist” of some sort before we hit the ‘publish’ button for a blog post.
Some people have a pretty explicit and well-documented process while others have a checklist that essentially asks one question: “Did I manage to write something, anything?” If “yes,” hit publish!
But I’ve learned that it sometimes takes practice and writing out an explicit checklist to get the hang and practice of blogging well, so here’s a great checklist to use (if you’re interested in that type of thing)…
This great list is originally from Daily Blog Tips. Download the PDF here.
Here is the list in textual format:
- Did I read the post after writing it?
- Is the post as complete as it could be?
- Did I research the related keywords?
- Did I craft the title carefully?
- Did I proofread it?
- Did I link to one or more of my older posts?
- Did I link to external resources when appropriate?
- Did I make sure all links are working?
- Did I credit any sources I might have used?
- Did I include an enticing image?
- Did I optimize the permalink?
- Did I add one or more elements to engage readers?
- Is this a good day for traffic?
Not all of these apply to every post but they are good things to definitely consider. What’s your “process”? Do you have a checklist?
Modern Reject says
Since I have officially published about 13 posts since my blog launch last week, I can admit that, no, I have no process. And I have for certain had a few typos and probably some misspellings. I’m not a process girl but I have quickly realized that I need to be and fast. Thanks for the list, now if I can only remember to use it…
Jim Gray says
someone’s gonna re-blog this…somewhere…
Matthew (distort.it) says
Haha I was thinking the exact same thing. I have bookmarked it to put into place!
Matthew Snider says
This list is dead on, but John, you should have a follow up and dive deeper into the meanings and functions behind the list.
How can we apply this list to each one of our articles?
Yohan Perera says
Hi John,
I was used to make this mistake a lot and regret later. Very often I found myself editing already published blog posts and by that time they were already delivered to email and RSS subscribers.
Now I check my posts again and again before publishing them. What you have published here is a great guideline to do it even more effectively… Thanks!
Yohan Perera says
One more thing… I make similar mistakes when I comment on some body else’s a blog post 🙂
(Spelling and grammar mistakes etc.)
Yohan Perera says
About the 6th point…. (Did I link to one or more of my older posts?)
Do you think using a “Related Posts” plugin helps to achieve the goal? I am using WP-Thumbie…
Mark Alves says
Manually linking to older posts from within your article makes it more likely that readers will notice the links than if they are automatically placed beneath the article through a plugin. Adding the links yourself also means you can choose the anchor text, which will help you with the search engines.
Adam Lehman says
…and printed and hanging above my desk…