A-Z Blogging Tips I Have Learnt

Blogging is a journey- a very delightsome or frustrating one. Your experience is really up to you. Here are some blogging tips I Have learnt in an A-B-C format:

Ask and it shall be given unto you. This Bible verse is forever true. In my experience, the blogosphere has a lot of great people always willing to help and direct you…but only if you do your part. “Ask”

Backup your blog’s database. It is bad enough to lose your data but losing unexpectedly is hell. Use WP Database Backup to automate daily backup of your blog and live in peace.

Comment. Blog commenting is one of the greatest ways to build relationship in the blogosphere as well as a most effective way to drive traffic to your blog. Do it REGULARLY.

Don’t fake it  A smart thing to do is to write something you are fairly knowledgeable about or something you have experienced. It’s really easy to know if a blogger is faking it so there is no point in losing your credibility this way. Besides, the blogosphere is still small enough not to notice.

Entertain your blog readers. Statistics and Facts can be such a bore. Make your content educative and entertaining.  Not a problogg is an amazing blogger-comedian. Visit his blog and learn a lot of tips on doing this right

Focus. A major factor to becoming a successful blogger is in defining  your focus (include sitesketch101 niche video) and concentrate on your topic 80% of the time. While you can write off-topic articles every now and then, unless you are John Chow, no one is interested to know what you had for dessert..

Google tools. Use Webmaster Tools, Analytics and Feedburners, adds a world of difference to your blog. The right information at your disposal, means staying on top of the game.

Help bloggers when they need help. Be willing to sincerely help – even if the issue is a storm in the tea cup. What goes around comes around…BIGGER in future.

Interact with your blog audience. Do so in any form. Maintaining a lively, healthy community around your blog is key in making it thrive. Blogging is evolving from impersonal to personal now. Start a conversation using you blog and keep people coming back.

Join social networks. This goes a long way in exposing your blog to a larger audience. However, it’s best to choose which social sites you’ll join before it turns into “social networking overload”. I find Twitter, StumbleUpon and Facebook have all worked pretty well for me thus far.

Know thyself and thy competition and you will win every battle – Sun Tzu (the Art of War). Check on your competition to know their tactics and find out what makes them more successful than you.

Link building is the art of building credibility in the eyes of search engines. This ranks your site higher in search results. Inbound link building points to your own site can be achieved by reciprocal link exchanges, article marketing or commenting on dofollow sites. This creates more awareness, exposure and credibility of your site.

Marketing is the biggest pillar to your success on the internet. The best content in the world won’t benefit you if you do not market your blog to your target audience. The blogosphere is getting more populated and standing out is getting more difficult but the right marketing mix will ensure that you stay in the game for as long as you want.

Networking is an integral part of a blogger’s marketing strategy. Building relationships with other bloggers should always be very high in your priority list. It helps to improve your blogging and takes your readership to a higher level. Don’t be alone in the blogosphere.

Optimize your blog for search engines. SEO success is about “informing” search engines of a relevant blog in their search query – Yours. For you can look at 7 Link SEO Tips for Beginners and 8 Keyword SEO Tips for Beginners 

Passion is the energy of life. It is the one most important thing that keeps your motivation going strong. Without a passion for what you do, you will get to a point when blogging becomes a burden. Without passion the slightest setback pushes you to exit.

Quality Content. This is the Holy Grail of Blogging. Write from your soul, go through and commune with your audience via your writing.

Read a lot. Readers are Leaders. The more you read, the more your ideas will be. Subscribing and reading other people blogs is the best way to get on top of your game; it’s a great way to get better and give you a diverse point of view of what you already know.

Speed your blog up. After you have chosen the right hosting provider, ensure that your site can handle a sudden spike in traffic and WP Super Cache does it pretty well. Here are 5 make an Usain Bolt of your blog J.

Track blog statistics –This is a mandatory part of overseeing your presence online. Know the number of visitors you had, where they came from, what search terms brought them, the blog  pages that are more popular etc. Then use all these data in the best way to the most advantage of your blog.

Understand your readership. Your readership is the essence of your blog in the first place. Get their feedback and listen to it then provide what they have told you they to read and not what you feel like writing. Let go of the fear of asking your readers what they want more of.

Vote – Vote for other articles. This is a concept of “link farming”. Farmers sow now and reap later. What goes around comes around BIGGER in future. (This is my second time of saying this in this post). If you link out to other blogs, you are providing additional resources to your readers, exposing yourself to them in faith that they will visit your blog and link back to it.

Walk your talk. Practice what you preach. Be yourself. Be Honest. It is the biggest asset you can use to leverage and gain loyal subscribers in huge numbers. Choose the subject you are naturally passionate about.

Xchange links. Exchange links with bloggers within your niche. Be proactive.

Yes I can blog and so can you. The fear of uncertainty leads to inaction. The biggest advice you can get after all this information is for you to TAKE ACTION. Are you still wondering whether to start your own blog? All the reading and learning; No doing will result in a total waste of your time. Take the first step. Just do it. When in doubt, let’s hold each other’s hands and support ourselves in ourblogging quest.

Zoom to the top of commentator list. An open secret to get one-way quality backlink – comment on other blogs that rewards its most active commenters with a piece of a valuable real estate on their sidebar. If you ain’t sure where to find one, here’s the best places to get quality backlink.

Which other tips do you use or recommend?

Cheers,

Olusegun