Learning Commons:Student Orientation/Working With Content/Creating a Post/Guidelines of Good Blogging

Ideal length. Generally 1-3 paragraphs and 200-300 words. Make use of columns to format content if appropriate.
1st person. People like people, so why not write as a person and not as a robot? A mistake many websites make is by just pushing information out and not really appearing like there are REAL people available to help. Remember, we’re a service, would you rather deal with a person or a machine?
Clear Topic Thread. Know the point you want to make and stick to it. Only include other information/facts/resources if they are relevant. It sounds obvious enough but it’s actually really easy to stray off topic and start rambling about anything and everything.
Personal experience. Blogs are much more relatable to students if they come from direct experience. Don’t suggest something you haven’t tried yourself or know actually works.
Produce quality content, especially when considering the length of posts. Create content that provides value. Dig more deeply, provide a new angle, make unusual comparisons, and offer your own voice, your own knowledge, and your own interpretation. Ask yourself: will students be able to learn something from this content? If so, will students be able to use what they've learned from my content?

Include relevant resources. If you’re going to espouse how fantastic something is, include the link! This is a great way to include campus partners and build a community of resources and services for students. It also helps make your blog post a little more interesting.
Peer Edit. We all make mistakes. As a general rule, always get at least one other team member to check over your post for clarity, message, spelling, grammar, etc.
Have a hook! Boring titles on blog posts won’t get read. Within reason of course, create a catchy headline for your post and include it in the excerpt. Hooks often come in the form of questions, like: “Pulling too many all nighters?”, “Can’t find a place to study on campus?” etc. Be creative, engage your audience. Also, asking a question invites people to comment or participate in a discussion, is always a good thing.
A fun high quality graphic and/or video. Blog posts that are just text aren’t much fun to read. Here are the image parameters to follow. Also, make sure to follow copyright guidelines, if you don’t have any originals, check stock photography websites and use approved, rights-managed images. One such site is Flickr’s Creative Commons where you can check out collections of images licensed under CC. Don't forget to attribute accordingly!