10 blogging essentials
March 11, 2009 By: almostgotit Category: Uncategorized, blogging, building readership, how to blogPlease do not blog like Almostgotit, because she isn’t very good at following the rules — and that’s the only reason, of course, that she and her blog aren’t totally famous yet. Here are the main rules for a successful blog (for those of my friends who’ve been asking.)
Image: The Mumpsimus Forum
- The best way to build a readership is to regularly comment on other people’s blogs. A good place to find blogs related to yours are Technorati and Google Blog. Search for topics you yourself write about, and leave comments on related blogs. Then look at those blogs’ blogrolls to find OTHER related blogs, and leave comments on those blogs, too.
- Pick a niche or focus for your blog, and stick to it as well as you can. OCD is good for bloggers.
- Write lots of posts, one per day if you can, and keep them short.
- It’s good to be funny.
- Rambling self-analysis is boring unless it is also short and funny.
- Honor anyone who comments on YOUR blog by leaving comments on their blogs in return.
- Honor anyone who comments more than twice on your blog by adding them to your blogroll, which gives them more link juice.
- Thank all of your new commenters by sending them an email or at least by responding to their comments with comments of your own.
- Respond to your commentors, and keep it friendly. Commenters are your friends. If a comment is really out of line, you can always delete it. If people see that you regularly respond, they are more likely to come back to your blog to see your responses… and are more likely to comment again in the future.
- Participate in blog carnivals, memes, and the exchanging of blog awards with other blogs. Anytime you link to other bloggers, you are likely to receive links from them in return. Adding Twitter or Facebook links to your blog help draw readers, too.
You can break any and all of these rules and be a blogging maverick if you like, but you’ll be the most effective in your maverickness if you understand these rules, first.
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Helpful Links:
How to choose a niche topic for your blog
5 Tips to choosing a blog topic
What is a Blogroll? (includes an excellent primer on blogroll etiquette, too)
Memes in blogging (the best definition I’ve found)
10 Best Twitter Tools for Wordpress blogs
Add a Twitter widget to a Blogger blog
Create your own blog awards (award generator)
Related Posts:
How to add photos to your blog (Part 1)
Using photos on your blog (Part 2)
Copyright and Blogging: a tricky subject
Quick Lesson: Build a feed reader (essential to keeping up with your fellow bloggers)
How to get fabulously rich as a blogger
March 11th, 2009 at 9:10 am
hello almostgotit its dennis the vizsla dog hay this comment is off topic but to anser yore kwestchun abowt the foto software wot dada yoozes it is calld the gimp and yoo can reed abowt it heer now of korse all the pikchers on my blog ar oridjinal and undoktord but i hav herd that dada sumtimes yoozes the gimp to erase crows feet frum arownd his eyes in pikchers of himself and also to close the gap in his front teeth ha ha no i am just kidding the gap in his front teeth is way too big to be closed with the gimp ha ha ok bye
March 11th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Many thanks to both you and your dada, Dennis. You are, by the way, one of the best rule-following bloggers I know, in all of the GOOD ways of following the rules.
Plus also, you’re the only blogger I know who has a subcategory in his blogroll for “rats.”
March 11th, 2009 at 11:41 am
yeah, yeah. i’ve read all this before too. but who wants to write everyday. especially when there is nothing to say. and funny? i’m not in the mood.
niche? aren’t my children and husband riveting subjects? if there are rules, i’m so likely to want to break them just because they are rules.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
One thing I’ve noticed about a niche is that while you proceed in one direction a blogger only to be sidetracked. Most will find their voice is received better when they go off topic and they have picked up a new group of readers. I’ve been trying to merge the two.
I always remember a mentor I had from work. He encouraged me to be as passionate about my interest outside work as I was my work. He thought that the both can come together bring new opportunities. Today I can see his wisdom.
March 11th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Good to know what I’ve been doing wrong.
You, AGI, do it all right!
March 12th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
These rules all look sensible enough. If I were a faster reader and a quicker study, maybe I would have a longer blogroll and better stats; but I’m happy with the number of readers that do show up, and the dozen or so regular commenters are the ones on whose blogs I usually leave comments. Also, I almost always reply personally in my comment section to whoever drops in.
Not sure what my “niche” is, but on the other hand, my blogroll has a lovely variety of voices.
March 13th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
You have clued me in on these simple rules. It’s nice to know what I don’t know and what I should do. Get ‘em next time I blog . . . if I can remember. Be sure to check.
March 27th, 2009 at 2:00 am
The last one caught my eye – especially the “carnival”. I think the most attention Korrektiv ever got was for our summer reading club on Kierkegaard’s “Stages on Life’s Way”. A little while later, a librarian was putting together the “Kierkegaard Carnival” and included our posts about the Stages. I had dreams of glory then, let me tell you. I thought we’d be quoted by real scholars, invited to academic conferences, you name it. Ah well.
December 2nd, 2010 at 8:58 am
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