Stowe Boyd gives a follow up to Robert Scoble’s advice about how to raise more attention (and consequently send more important ‘snowball’ as in Stowe’s terminology). I.E. it’s a how to for improving one’s blog and one’s sphere of influence. For those who had not read, Robert’s ideas were: learn how to use technorati properly (claiming a blog, putting cathy phrases, a picture…), use graphics/screenshots (be visual), be different (more pleasing to the eyes), give personality, tag tag tag and connect with others (which means: have conversations).

Some excerpts of Stowe Boyd’s advice:

1. True Voice—authentic and empassioned writing, clearly expressing a consistent and value-based perspective
2. Throw Yourself Into Dialog— Most great posts are a response to the writing of others.
3. Draw The Line, Over And Over Again—At any given time, successful, engaged bloggers are pursuing a set of themes or topics. (…) State your position and defend it.
4. The Big Idea—Every once in a while, work on one of those big posts, that outlines an idea that may have big implications.
5. Sharpen Your Pencil, And Then Write. (…) You should write—at a minimum—every day.
6. Courage—(…) Accept the occasional (or even consistent) vitriol from detractors and nay-sayers. If you stand up and say something is great, or pointless, or the most likely trend for the future, you can be sure that there are others that will disagree, and they will be happy to say so. Fine. But you can’t hedge, and middle-of-the-road platitudes or cautious optimism
7. Technology—(…) Learn how search engines work, and do the obvious things. Expressive titles, especially with people’s and products’ names help greatly. Tagging with detailed terms helps search engines and people alike. By all means, make your blog visually pleasing, accessible, and easy to read. Use graphics when appropriate, such as screen shots or diagrams. Link to all the people and stories you reference, and include people discussed as tags. [My favorite but hard to follow on a regular basis -nicolas]
8. Timing Matters—I am not suggesting blowing hot and cold on themes, but rather try to build on stories when they are still new and in people’s thoughts.
9. Human Sized Pieces—People are busy, and so your posts should generally not be 20 page dissertations.
10. Respond to comments—(…) Engage them when they come. But never feed the trolls.

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