For writers looking to improve their blogs quickly, Darren Rowse’s “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” program might be just the thing. Rowse runs Problogger, one of the top blogs on the Internet and the place to go for information about making a living as a blogger. For the next month, starting April 6, he’ll send out an email every day to everyone in the “31 Days” program with a quick, 10–15 minute task they can do to make their blog a little bit better.

I know little beyond that — like you, I’ll have to wait until the 6th to see what kind of tips Darren is sending out. But, Darren is a) super-smart about blogging, b) very good at explaining things, and c) about the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, and therefore one ofthe givingest, so I’m sure the tips will be effective, well-written, and generous.

The program is free — you just need to give your name and email address to receive the daily emails. IF you need to get your blog in order — or maybe even get your blog started — this looks like a good, quick way to pick up a little steam.

The whole point of a blog is that the author, or blogger, wants to share something. What they’re sharing could be anything, from 401K investment advice to tips on bathing your cat without incurring major injury. There is a dizzying array of topics that people blog about, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that all bloggers have one thing in common: they want the information they’re providing to reach readers. Otherwise, what’s the point of having a blog to begin with?

There are many ways to go about building a blog, but generally your top priority is going to be making what you have to say easily accessible to your readership. If no one’s visiting your site to read your brilliant account of backpacking in Paraguay, then you’re essentially talking to yourself.

That’s why I’m here today — to discuss something that many bloggers seem to take for granted, the RSS feed. Dustin wrote a great post about the basics of RSS here, so I won’t go into the nuts and bolts of syndication. Instead, I’ll take it a step further and talk about the finer points of linking to your RSS feed.

I can tell you from personal experience that if I stumble upon a website with content that I find interesting or useful, you’ve got about thirty seconds for me to locate the link to your feed before I get annoyed and leave. I don’t like having to search the text of your page for the words “subscribe” or “syndication,” and if I’ve gone through all that and still can’t find your feed, you’ve lost me as a reader. The link to your RSS feed needs to be clearly marked for the world to see and subscribe to. If folks can’t find it, no one will subscribe, and you’ll be left staring woefully at your dwindling web stats.

With that scenario in mind, I’d like to introduce you to my friend the RSS icon:

This little guy is pretty much the standard for clearly marking the link to your blog’s feed. Most people know it, and they look for it. When it’s not there readers get confused, then annoyed, then they navigate away from your page. This standard is a good thing, because it creates a common navigation between your site and the rest of the internet — no longer are we left to scroll through blogs in vain looking for a subscribe here link, because we know what to look for. You even have a plethora of options when it comes to stylizing your icon to fit the look and feel of your blog.

Now, let’s talk about placement. You generally want your feed link at the top of your page, usually near the top of your sidebar. Look over to the right corner of this very page – see how easy it is to find the RSS feed for the Writer’s Technology Companion? Dustin has done a good job of placing his feed icon in a location where it’s hard to miss, and goes a step further by putting a second link at the bottom of every post. If someone wants to subscribe to his blog, they don’t need to hunt all over for the link.

Many prefab blogging services, such as Blogspot and Blogger, do not clearly mark your feed by default, instead creating a little, nondescript link way down at the bottom of your page that says “Subscribe to: Posts.” This is very difficult for potential subscribers to spot, and unless they’re searching your text for the word “subscribe,” they’re not going to see it.

There are many ways to add a more obvious feed link to your blog, but if you’re not comfortable getting elbow deep in html, I recommend using a feed service like FeedBurner. They’ll let you create a feed for your site with all sorts of nifty features, and then will provide instructions on how to add the code to whatever blog platform you happen to be using. Easy! Feed services also tell you how many people have subscribed to your site, so you’ll be able to see firsthand how the placement of your feed link is affecting your returning readership.

Please be kind and clearly mark your RSS link. You’ll save your blog’s visitors a lot of time in superfluous page scrolling!

Stephanie Stiavetti is a feature writer, copywriter, and all around technical savant. Having spent the last decade ensconced in both the editorial and computer industries, she’s comfortable in either world and often combines the two. Her areas of expertise are food, cooking, nutrition, health/wellness, technology, and the writing lifestyle, though if she had her druthers, she would spend 100% of her time writing about her culinary exploits. Read more about her and her work at Wasabimon.

Most of these sites use WordPress (dwax.org uses Drupal) and it’s easy enough to log into a WordPress site and write a post, but even with WordPress’ visual editor I find that I’m not very comfortable writing directly into WordPress. It works, but it’s pretty basic, and there’s certain “creature comforts” I enjoy when I write. What’s more, since each site is running a slightly different version of WordPress and slightly different extensions, it’s by no means a standardized experience.

So while I still log in and post directly once in a while, for the most part I write my posts off-line using Windows Live Writer which is, despite it’s Microsoft ancestry, one of the finest applications available (if not the finest) for posting to blogs.  The benefits are many, including:

• A standard interface for all of the sites I post to – I just select the site I want to post a piece to from a drop-down menu and click “Publish”.
• Saved drafts, so I can start posts and leave them to simmer while I work on other stuff.
• Plugins for things like reusing snippets of text or inserting links to books on Amazon.
• Use of each site’s stylesheet so I can see what my post is going to look like before I post it.
• Running word count (in WLW 3 Technical Preview, available at the Windows Live site; this is technically not finished software, but it’s run fine for me for the couple of months I’ve been using it)
• The ability to easily add categories (which WLW retrieves from the site, so you just check the appropriate boxes), tags, and a publishing date in the future.
• Spell-check – which can be set to trigger automatically before a post is published.
• A source editor, so I can muck around with the underlying HTML. I actually use this as an HTML editor for sites that I don’t post directly to; I write my post and cut-and-paste the generated code into a new text file and email it to my editors.
• Off-line use, so I can write even if I can’t get online for some reason.
• A stripped-down Word-like interface, with most functions available using keyboard shortcuts, so I can easily add formatting, links, tables, etc.

Best of all, WLW is free – you don’t even have to register it.

If you blog, whether you do it every day or only as the mood strikes, check out Windows Live Writer. It is easy to set up, auto-detecting the settings for most popular blogging platforms, and easy to use. It is perhaps the only piece of Microsoft software that I can whole-heartedly endorse – it does exactly what it needs to do and it does it well.

For a few tips and tricks about using WLW, check out my post from last year, 9 Ways to Get More Out of Windows Live Writer, at Lifehack.

1. Hone your craft.: The best way to improve your writing is to write, right? A blog gives you an outlet for writing regularly.
2. Instant feedback: One thing blog readers are not is timid; if you mess up, they’ll let you know! They’ll also let you know when you’re doing a good job. It might be years before you get any feedback on the novel you just finished; a blog post can start getting commented on within minutes.
3. Develop relationships with readers: A blog lets you reach out to your readers and build enduring relationships. The people who read your blog every day are going to be people you can count on to buy your books, spread word of mouth about your work, even review works-in-progress.
4. Give your most loyal readers a “free prize”: Blogging gives you a chance to offer your biggest fans a little something extra.
5. Build awareness of your work: Blogs have a potentially unlimited audience — more than one person has discovered their new favorite writer by doing a search on Google.
6. Show your ability to write often and consistently: If you do work for clients, blogging shows that you’re able to write regularly and to a schedule — which is good news for potential clients!
7. Network with other writers: Your blog offers a platform for connecting with other writers, by linking back and forth to each other, providing a place to comment on each other’s work, and giving each other positive word-of-mouth.
8. Sell copies of your books: If you have book out, by all means plug it on your blog. A lot. Join the Amazon Associates program so you get a referral fee every time someone buys your book by clicking the link on your site. The referral fees are often as much as or even more than your royalties!
9. Attract clients: New readers can find out about you when your site turns up on Google — so can new clients! Plus, you can sell them on your work before they ever even contact you.

Of course, there’s another reason writers should blog — it’s fun! And there’s nothing wrong with that!