10 blogging essentials
Please 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.
———-
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
