10 Tips to a Successful Blog
Much has been said about what it takes to be a successful blogger. But most of these blogs just talk about making money. Not one to mince words I thought I would cut through all the hoopla and sum it up with the following tips. This is still a work in progress of course but if you follow these tips diligently your blog can’t help but be successful. Trust me 
1. Bloggers should write posts consistently and ideally every day. Nobody likes to visit a dead blog. Want to see your readership disappear? Just stop blogging for a few days and check your stats.
But the catchword here is you should be writing quality posts. So if you can’t write quality posts every day then write at a pace that is comfortable for you, but do be consistent.
2. Remembering what your grammar teacher taught you and checking your spelling is not enough. Please go Go Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially the Hooptedoodle.
3. A little personality and character will go a long way to make your blog interesting, stand out from the crowd and cultivate readership loyalty. Gather enough readers and soon you will have a community.
4. Make your blog look visually appealing but also functional. A plain, butt-ugly, hard to read, unmanageable or otherwise dysfunctional website design is an immediate turnoff. Readers will only give you a few seconds of their time before making a judgment and deciding whether to stay or move on to the next link.
5. Which brings me to templates. How do you expect anybody to remember you or take you seriously if your blog looks like everybody elses? So make your blog memorable.
Most everybody starts with a basic template that they begged, borrowed or stealed. But don’t stop there. Take the time to learn a little HTML/CSS and make it your own.
6. Bloggers should be passionate about their topics as well as credible. Bore your readers and you can be sure they won’t come back. Do your homework but don’t just regurgitate what you read elsewhere. They call that plagiarism.
7. Don’t just write for people. Write for spiders.
7.5 Don’t just write for spiders. Write for people too.
8. Find your niche. The more focused your content is the more influential you will be within your chosen topic. Specialized sites rule and that is how internet communities develop. If you feel the need to speak about the news or controversial topics, consider creating a separate blog for that. You can always interlink between them.
9. Promote your blog. (Does it ever end). When I say promotion I don’t just mean submitting your site address to the search engines, directories, etc. I also mean engaging in the “conversation”. That means visiting other blogs and leaving intelligent comments, trackbacks or emails (and I don’t mean spamming either).
The residual affect is that other commentors will click on your link you left behind. And don’t forget the importance of email or the common telephone either (Skype, Google Talk etc.). There’s nothing like direct communication or hearing another voice on the other end.
10. Buy your own domain name. Take control of your destiny so if you should decide to move your blog later, your domain name stays with you and you can point it to your new blog host address. Make sure that whatever service you purchase your domain name from also provides free URL forwarding.
Now go on to read 10 More Tips to a Successful Blog“.
Related Posts: blog, weblog, blogging, blog tools, writing, write, computers and internet, website design, blog marketing, blog promotion
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* This post was recently update since 2005
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Great advice Bloke.
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great post as always bloke
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Great tips, but I bet each topic could be a post unto itself. What do you think Bloke?
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I was contemplating the same thing Cindy. I will probably flesh this post out if there is enough interest. Thanks for the feedback.
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Thanks for being there. As a new, non-techy blogger, I spend a certain amount of time each day trying to learn something. I’ve bookmarked your site because I think I can learn a lot from you, in small increments and baby steps! Thanks, I’ll be back again.
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Thanks for the kind words Kat. Lord willing I will be around a long time yet. So here’s your first lesson. A bookmark is great but a link is better
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Thanks Bloke for all your info, I have joined the community and eager to learn more from you all. You’ll have a link on my site.
Happy Thanksgiving
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Thanks Sherry and welcome to the Blog Bloke community.
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Usually when I read about blogging tips I end up finding an article that says “post quality content” and its the end of the discussion. It’s nice to see somebody actually pointing out some very practical and useful steps that someone as slow as myself can follow.
Thanks again.
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Yeah, that’s what they call “link baiting” and it’s really dumb too because even though they might get traffic initially, readers like you won’t be coming back again. So you shoot yourself in the foot in the long run (or is it the long tail ;-).
Cheers!
…BB
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All very great tips Bloke. I like the advice about Butt ugly templates.
Curtis’s last blog post..First Hosta Flowers
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Heh
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Blog Bloke reply on June 18, 2008 2:13 pm:
8 & 10 go hand in hand with a lot of people on the WAH forums I frequent…
Step 1 - get free blog
Step 2 - fill it with as much as much as possible from 14 different niches and 27 different affiliate networks.
Step 3 - quite after 6 weeks and complain for the next 6 months about how blogging sucks because you only had 2 visitors who according to your stats, stayed for 0 seconds.
Excellent post BB.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..7 Turbo Writing Tips
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Or they fill it with enough widgets that it takes forever for the page to load. Who wants to sit and wait?
asithi’s last blog post..Shopping and Vanity Sizing
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Not me
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Blog Bloke reply on June 20, 2008 3:13 pm:
asithi reply on June 20, 2008 1:55 pm:
Dec 30th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
[…] Bloke’s Tips for a Successful Blog […]
Jun 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
[…] is a continuation of my first post entitled “10 Tips for a Successful Blog: Part 1″. It started out as only a few tips which very quickly evolved into much more. If you arrived here […]
Jun 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 am
[…] 10 Tips to a Successful Blog […]