Choosing to run a blog is a big decision. Whether it’s a business blog or just a way to make some extra money, it will eventually consume your life. The work you put into it, the joy you feel when it takes off, the frustration when it doesn’t – all of these are part of the natural emotional cycle of the blogger.

With so much to do in order to make it a successful blog, from writing content to marketing, it can be overwhelming. More than one blogger has given up before ever really getting into it because they burnt out – which is extremely unfortunate, because every site has the potential to become popular over time, and with work.

Don’t be one of those who gives up before getting a chance to see the blog grow. Try to minimize your irritations and the effort where you can. These cheatsheets are invaluable to this end, providing the blogger with all the information at a glance, quick resources and more to get them through.

1. Free Formatting Checklist

The WordPress built-in editor makes it very easy to format and HTML-markup your articles. However, few of us use it to actually write a post. More often than not, you have to import from Word, Google Docs or Open Office. That’s where all the weird formatting comes from.

The above cheatsheet makes it easier to remember how to properly markup your article for it to be easy to read, scan and look nice in any browser.

2. WordPress Helpsheet

When WordPress was introduced, it was like the discovery of the Holy Grail for bloggers. Rarely do you come across a blog that is not based on a WordPress platform anymore, and it isn’t hard to see why. Easy to customize, full of fail safes and with so many add-ons makes it an invaluable blogger’s tool.

But it is still complex enough and new users (and some old ones) need a lot of help getting the most out of it.

This is a great help sheet by WPCandy and Liquidicity. It contains basic template files, PHP for headers and templates and extras (in case you want to tweak a theme a bit), among other things. They also have a version in Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, Swedish and Danish. (Non-PDF Version)

3. SEO for WordPress

This cheatsheet has sought to break the initial SEO process for your WordPress blog down in the most thorough way possible. It handles installation, robots.txt, user traffic and more. The website itself is in German, but the cheatsheet has been provided in English.

4. Theme Choice Cheatsheet

While this spreadsheet is meant primarily for web designers, it will help you choose a better theme: mind the initial HTML structure of your future theme, color contrast, font size, etc.

5. 25-Point Web Usability Checklist

Usability is a big issue that bloggers are rarely prepared for. I have lost count of the times I have gone to a blog that had amazing content, but it was difficult to navigate their blog to find more. From dead links to badly formatted layouts to boxes of eyesore tags all over the place, usability is not always a factor met.

This 25-point cheatsheet easily breaks it down into four categories for you: accessibility, identity, navigation and content. It has a one-page downloadable PDF that I think every blogger should download and print to keep at their desk.

6. Google+ Cheatsheet

Social media is ultimately what a blog is, in one of its earliest forms. Which is why it can benefit so readily from other forms of social media, such as networking sites. Google+ has quickly become a staple for this purpose. Bloggers can create a new line of communication with readers, alerting them when they have a new post or getting feedback, along with sharing other content that you wouldn’t usually post on your blog.

In many cases, people are more likely to follow social media profile than they are to subscribe to RSS feeds these days. So use this Google+ cheatsheet to benefit from the resource more efficiently and thoroughly.

7. Facebook Cheatsheet

Still the number one social networking site on the web, and the one with most members, Facebook has become huge in recent years. Much like Google+, people will often “Like” a page for numerous reasons, which will give you a great chance to network with them and turn them into loyal followers. This cheatsheet has a list of the sites shortcuts and emoticons.

8. Twitter Cheatsheet

The above cheatsheet contains useful shortcuts, must-know Twitter jargon and hashtags – everything you need to know to start your blog community on Twitter.

9. XHTML Cheatsheets

This is less of a cheatsheet and more of a quick line into a full resource. Providing valuable information at a glance, along with many links for more in-depth guides of various topics, this is the best HTML5 resource I have been able to find that still manages to remain succinct. It also has a link to the official cheatsheet that goes along with it, which is a must-have for anyone who plans on using even basic HTML5 in their blog.

10. Google Analytics Cheatsheet

I have seen a couple of cheatsheets for Google Analytics, and I have always felt that they fell short of their true potential. Maybe that is because analytics is one of the most confusing and difficult of all blogger concerns.

This cheatsheet, however, finally gets it right. Everything is in one place, in-depth and advanced. Plus, it is technically free… all you do is “pay with a tweet”.

Conclusion

Starting a blog can be overwhelming. It takes a huge amount of work, not to mention time to cultivate your little slice of the web. But it can be made significantly easier when you find cheatsheets that break down the content you usually have to search for into one easy to view document.

Do you have a cheatsheet you use on a regular basis? Comment with a link!