If you are a freelance editor and you have a website (which you should), your website should contain a blog.

Your potential clients will want to see how you write and how you edit your writing. Therefore, the grammar, spelling, and punctuation on your blog must be impeccable. I have had the pleasure of finding a glaring typo on my blog after I have published a post and having to go back into the web hosting site to fix it.

What should you write about? You should write about things that are professional, for the most part. For example, I am writing about blogs and blog maintenance right now. I’ve also written about my foray into writing, what an editor should do when they cannot concentrate, and the software I have learned, to name just a few topics. I believe it is also fine to occasionally write semi-cute posts about my workplace, such as descriptions of my bulletin board or the stuffed animals on the bookshelf to my right.

Some other blog housekeeping issues:

Make a new post at least every month or so. Nothing looks less professional than a blog with a timestamp that is, say, two years old.

Decide on how frequently you want to post and stick to that frequency. I post once a week, usually on Sundays. However, as I said before, you can post just once a month if you like. Just make sure you are consistent about it.

Once in a while, brainstorm blog topics so that you have a nice list of topics you can choose from when it is time to write. Keep them in a Word doc (or Excel spreadsheet, or whatever best meets your needs).

Decide on the approximate length of your posts. I usually keep mine from 300 to 400 words, but some bloggers prefer longer posts. Again, consistency is key.

If you have a blog on your website, what are some guidelines that you follow?