Each of your blog posts should provide useful information while sticking to net etiquette (netiquette). Here are 7 tips to consider before you post anything to your blog.

1. Who is your target audience? If you’re writing because you want to attract new customers to your business, what types of people do you want to attract? Once you have an idea of who you want to write for, think about what they’d want to know or questions they ask.
2. Write what you know or are interested in. There are generally two approaches to blogging. (1) the expert who is helping newbies get started or (2) the fellow traveler who is interested in a topic but may not know much about it so her blog is dedicated to tidbits of information and insight as she learns more.
3. Make your posts useful - whether you decide to post a link or a lengthy article, ask yourself, “Why do I find this useful? Why would my audience find this useful?” If it’s unclear why your audience might find a link beneficial, preface it with a quick sentence or two that ties it into something you’ve already written or have been thinking about.
4. Write like you talk - there’s nothing more boring than reading a long blog post filled with $.50 words and corporate jargon. Your blog isn’t a scientific paper or legal brief. Instead, approach it as if you were writing a letter or email to your mom. Would she understand what you’re saying?
5. Keep it legal - Don’t slander or liable someone or post your company’s trade secrets or you may find yourself slapped with a lawsuit. Check out the EFF’s Legal Guide for Bloggers for what you can and can’t do.
6. Keep it civil - While you may wholeheartedly disagree with someone about something, attack the subject matter not the person. Very few people have the patience to read two people telling the other that “he/she sucks.” It’s easy to forget that there’s a person behind the typed text.
7. Respect people’s privacy - There are some things that shouldn’t be published on the internet. If you want to publish someone else’s comments or personal information, ask them first. Assume that once you publish something, it will stay on the internet in some form for a long time (via other people’s blogs, the internet archive, etc).

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