Great blog usability tips

Corinne @ Kiwiology sent me and 500 other kiwi bloggers a fantastic debut newsletter, including many great types on how to do things better around here on the the interweb. And there were plenty that struck me as significant enough to write about.

In particular the things that I should be doing - or do. I’m actually trying to find the plugins they mentioned, I found them last time - but didn’t download them or book mark them.

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, October 17, 2005: Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes

Actually fill out the About page, and make sure there is a photo on it.
Links should say where they go, or if that’s too difficult, you can add a link title describing the link.
Post regularly (either daily or weekly) but not if you have nothing to say - Polluting cyberspace with excess information is a sin.
Specialized sites rule the Web, so aim tightly. This is especially important if you’re in the business-to-business (B2B) sector.
You are writing for your future boss. If you don’t want your future boss to read it, don’t post.
Get your own domain, as it will be a pain to move later.

lifehack.org: 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger

Optimal Title - This plugin allows you to optimize the title of your blog post.
WP-Cache - This plugin is an extremely efficient caching system that will make your site much faster.
Related Posts - This plugin will find other blog posts that are related to the current post. This encourages extra page views and keeps readers at your blog for a longer period of time.
*Participate in* and submit to social web 2.0 sites, including Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Netscape, and Stumble Upon.
Create a customized 404 page.
Edit yourself ruthlessly.
Have your blog reviewed by ReviewMe.
Write about something that you love. You will not succeed if you are working at something you don’t enjoy. As Dale
Carnegie once said, “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
Attend blogging conferences.
Invite your readers to submit articles. Ed: If anyone would like to submit an original article in the field of web 2.0 technologies, let me know.
Make your important points up front.
Give them a quick preview of what you’ll be posting the next day. They
are much more likely to come back if they are already excited about the next days post.
Feel free to make your posts fun and entertaining.
I just grabbed a snapshot - there are almost 90 more tips at 101 Steps to becoming a better blogger!