One of my favorite blogs (just added to the blogroll, as a matter of fact) had a great post today entitled 41 Blog Success Tips from 10 Years of Blogging You Can Learn Today. The author is Chris Garrett, who is a professional blogger and consultant in the UK. If you haven’t read chrisg.com, I highly recommend it. Back to the topic at hand, Chris lists 41 blog success tips that he has learned over the years. As I read through these (realizing how much better I should be doing with my own sad little blog), I came to the conclusion that these tips are not just good blogging advice, but good advice for any marketer/manager/worker to follow as well.If you are a blogger you should read the list as it stands – it’s fantastic. But if you are not, let’s hand-craft some of this list into something you office monkeys can relate to. I won’t do it all (not everything makes sense) but there are a few good nuggets to be gleaned…

1. Read – The more you read the better marketer you will be. Follow good blogs, read good books, and keep track of your thoughts and the things you learn.
2. Take one step – Don’t procrastinate yourself into inaction. Take that first step and do whatever unpleasant thing you don’t want to do, but know deep down you have to.
3. Be interesting – The people with whom you work and interact at work are likely going to determine your future employment. Networking is everything.
4. Get your point across – Don’t beat around the bush too much. Make sure that if you have something to say that people understand it when you say it.
5. Deliver the goods – Make sure you only promise what can be delivered.
6. Be consistent – You will always be remembered for the extremes – either the worst or the best. Make sure that what you produce you want to be remembered for. 
7. Prioritize quality over quantity – Quality work is far better than a lot of crap, or simple repetition. Head On!
8. Develop expertise - Whatever you are doing, or claiming to do, make sure that you are an expert at it. Take the time to build the trust and authority.
9. Hold on to passion – Be absolutely passionate about what you do. If the fire starts to go out, do what you have to to rekindle, or move on to something new.
10. Communicate fascination – Make sure that your passion is visible, real, and contagious. 
11. Write better – Take the time to hone your skills. Get help and training if it helps, but always be improving.
12. Grow your experience – Do new things, broaden your horizons, stretch yourself.
13. Share your experience – When you learn something new, tell your coworkers about it. Share you knowledge with others. Helping others succeed is half of becoming successful yourself.
14. Explore and experiment – Keep trying new things, and keep your mind open. Always give new ideas a fair shake.
15. Be unique – If you are the same as everyone else, why are you there? What sets you apart?
16. Look good - Don’t just be good, make sure it’s measurable and trackable. Get credit for your hard work. 
17. Make a great first impression – When you meet new people, do they know what you are about or what you are an expert in? If they have a question later, will they come to you?
18. Build momentum – Keep pushing every day, do not be content, it takes less effort to keep going than to stop and start over.
19. Optimize – Keep tweaking, continuously improve.
20. Write Work with focus - Don’t hop from one project to the next, never finishing what you start. Get things done, and focus on the task at hand. 
21. Build your reputation – Know what you stand for and deliver it consistently.
22. Go for keywords – Find out what your employer is looking for, and deliver it.
23. Write compelling headlines Get the proper attention for your work - Get attention for what you are working on. Provoke interest.
24. Offer full feeds Don’t withhold information - Lay your cards on the table.
25. Interview – Supplement your knowledge by interviewing experts. Learn from those more experienced than you.
26. Break news - Stay on top of your industry – know about the big events.
27. Run contests – Uuh.. have fun? Play games?
28. Research, survey and poll – Do your homework. Make sure you know what you are talking about before you talk.
29. Toot your horn – Celebrate successes, but not too much.
30. Monitor your stats - Keep track of how you are performing at work. Make sure you are always moving in the right direction.
31. Comment and answer comments - Keep the people that are engaged with you engaged. Don’t ignore anyone.
32. Link generously – Give others credit where it is due. Often.
33. Join forums - Break out of your bubble, meet people where they are. Get involved.
34. Give stuff away – Give away help, advice and information.
35. Make friends - Really make friends. Don’t fake it.
36. Guest blog – Hmm…
37. Ask questions – Curiosity is a virtue. Ask the right questions to the right people though.
38. Twitter - Probably not at work though.
39. Stumble – Train yourself to discover, recognize and share brilliant ideas and content.
40. Rebel – Change the way you look at things. Don’t maintain the status quo – break outside the shell.
41. Enjoy – Keep doing what you do until it stops being fun. When it is no longer fun, bring the fun back.

I love taking lists and stories and reading things into them that were not originally intended. What do you think? Does any of this make sense?