5 Essential Tips for Successful Blogging

[Blogetize]

So I wrote an article that I think would be very useful to a lot of people here. However, I'd like to expand on the post, but I'm also not quite sure what other aspects I should talk about. What do you guys think? What am I missing / what can I expand on?

Here's the post:

5 Essential Tips for Successful Blogging

Any and all feedback is appreciated!

Cheers.

[sub001]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing!

[Chrisg]

I enjoyed the read. It's good to see what others think

[Inspirational Blogger]

Thank you. Sounds advice in there.

[Captured Ink]

Thanks for posting, I will def get the notepad out and start making some notes.

[FinanciallyPoor]

Not really anything missing. That is pretty much all of the essential things a blog needs.

[ChickenFreak]

Some other possible things to talk about:

- Comments. Making good comments, responding promptly to comments, encouraging comment conversations, etc. Whether comment moderation discourages traffic to the point that it's not worth it. Whether that dofollow thing encourages spam to the point that it's not worth it, especially if it requires moderation which discourages traffic. The value of conversations between commenters, instead of just the commenter and the blogger. And so on.

- Choosing a niche. Choosing a niche that fascinates you. Figuring out a way to keep from being drowned by the competition - choosing a small enough niche that you can be a big player, or having a very different take on the niche, or some other way to make yourself stand out. The example of a "different take" that I keep using is Cranky Fitness; I'm sure that there are plenty of others. Come to think of it, Motley Fool was no doubt a different take on the financial niche back when it started.

- Goals. I realize that your blog is aimed at people whose goal is to make money from their blogs. I persist in thinking that this is an overserved niche, and that bloggers who are blogging for the love of it would be a more loyal and stable base of readers, and quite possibly a larger one, if someone could find a way to serve them.

But, anyway, I'm rambling about _your_ goals, and I meant to suggest that you could discuss your readers' goals. Money? Community? Making themselves a recognized authority? Selling their own expertise and products outside the blog?

- Style. In all of those blogs about blogging, there isn't a whole lot of discussion of style, as opposed to the purely visual aspects of themes. I think that style goes beyond themes and also affects content, writing style, everything.

For example, look at Cranky Fitness again. The lead poster is called Crabby McSlacker. There's a picture of a cupcake with devil horns. If I scroll down, there's a picture of a man in a big pink hat that looks like a... squid? The subtitle is "Your guide to Health, Fitness, Nutrition, Personal Development, and Whining."

There's a style decision here. And that style is a big part of makes this blog interesting, makes _me_, a pudgy programmer with zero interest in fitness, occasionally read the thing. It's not a style that looks like it was designed by some graphics professional and veneered on; it's a strong part of every element of the blog.

Style and mood of a blog is, IMO, an under-discussed subject.

Anyway. Suggestions.

[polyworld_]

Thanks for sharing, a great article.

The only thing I would add has already been covered by Chickenfreak and that is comments. Comments/Feedback are a great way to enhance the "community" feel for a blog and get your name out there.

[rchristi]

I agree with providing consistent postings and great contents.
How do you actually generate traffic and promoting your website though? You can create a lot of good contents but if no one knows about your web, then it becomes futile. Can anyone share their strategies? thanks.

[Blogetize]

Originally Posted by rchristi

I agree with providing consistent postings and great contents.
How do you actually generate traffic and promoting your website though? You can create a lot of good contents but if no one knows about your web, then it becomes futile. Can anyone share their strategies? thanks.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to generate traffic. A lot of people will tell you that link exchanges, link websites, etc... will get you a lot of traffic, but most of that is complete BS. If you want to generate good traffic, get ready to spend at least a few months commenting on other blogs in your niche on a daily basis, making friends on twitter, submitting content to and friending people in social sites... etc.

Once you get a decent amount of traffic coming in, (50+ visitors per day) try announcing a contest or a give-away. This should get you a lot of exposure through re-tweets, re-blogs, and just general word of mouth. I think I'm going to write a post on my blog about generating traffic that will be quite a bit more-detailed than this reply so if you want to know more strategies check there in a couple of days.