Blogging has become a popular way to share information, opinions, and ideas with readers from all over the world. But creating blog posts on a regular basis can be exhausting and difficult. One newer approach to blogging is ‘guest blogging.’ The idea behind guest blogging is to allow others who do not regularly contribute to your blog, but may be considered experts in their chosen field, to write a post that will appear on your blog. You get great content for your blog, the expert gets some exposure by posting in a place they normally would not.
There are several advantages to guest blogging. The first is simply the exposure factor. For the most part, you’ll be asking experts to guest blog, and those experts will have recognizable names and possibly even a following of their own. Not only will you have your regular readers, but you’ll be able to attract readers who would perhaps not read your blog but are attracted by the expert name. In the case of monetized blogs, more readers usually equals more money.
A quality blog needs quality content, and guest bloggers can give you that. An expert in a given field can create something readable, friendly, and unique. And your blog will take on an air of authority if you involve more than one guest blogger. Search out experts in your field and have them contribute quality content. It will increase your traffic and your blog’s visibility.
The best way of attracting traffic is through quality backlinks, and having a guest blogger post something informative and fun is a great way to generate some backlinks. If the guest blogger has a reputation and is searched regularly, you’ll soon find that other sites, some with excellent page rank (PR) are linking back to the post, and so to your blog. This will help to increase your own PR, though this happens slowly.
Having quest bloggers with recognizable and respected names will help your blog get a reputation for quality. It will also brand blog as a destination, a place for the reader to find what they’re looking for when they’re looking for it. Never underestimate the power of branding. Take the time to select guest bloggers who will truly enhance the reputation of your blog.
Instead of having a guest blogger post on your blog, or perhaps in addition to it, you might choose to be a guest blogger yourself. This will allow you to gain exposure by getting your name out there. You can engage with readers you may not have otherwise reached, and you can simply have fun doing it. Of course, your motivation for guest blogging might be to sell a product. In this case, you’d usually place a link back to the product or service you’re promoting. Affiliate marketing through guest blogging has become popular in recent years and is an effective way to increase your own sales.
As a guest blogger, you’ll probably have to supply a post that is thoughtful and well written. This gives you the opportunity to stretch your wings as a writer, gaining a better understanding of blogging techniques, keywords, and search engine optimization (SEO). You will also develop your own ‘voice,’ if you haven’t already. This will attract additional readers, both to your guest posts and your own blog.
Guest blogging is a fun and effective way to get your name, promote your own products and services, and increase the PR of your own blog. When hiring a guest blogger, look for someone who has a thorough understanding of their area of expertise, understands your needs, and is excited about the idea. Everything else will follow in time.
First published at Helium: Advantages of Guest Blogging
There are many great things about blogging. It allows you to interact with the online community and you can share your thoughts and feelings about many issues. However, not everything about blogging is fun. In fact, most bloggers will tell you that there is one particular thing about blogging that they would rather not have to deal with – blog comment spam.
Blog comment spam is insidious and annoying. These are comments left on your blog that are only designed to lead your readers to an outside website. Usually these websites are commercial in nature, but sometimes they are dangerous, leading your readers to download viruses that could destroy a computer. Not only are these a problem for your readers, but they make you look unprofessional. And while something they are easy to spot, some of these comments will be more difficult to ferret out.
The first thing you should do to keep your blog free of spam is to enable comment moderation. Most blogging platforms allow you to keep comments from posting until you have had a chance to review and approve of them. This is definitely a feature you should be using. In addition, if your blogging platform has an automatic filter to help identify spam, you should use this as well.
It is sometimes tempting to turn off comment moderation if there’s a conversation going on between your readers and you have to leave the computer for an extended period of time. Don’t do it. Disabling comment moderation only allows spam to fill up your comment boxes. If you do have to go away and cannot moderate your comments at all, turn all comments off until you return. It will save you a great deal of hassle in the long run.
Some blog platforms offer a ‘blacklist’ option. You can ban certain words without ever having to moderate those comments. While this is a great option for some words, there are other words that you might want to add but shouldn’t. For example, adding the word ‘financial’ to your blacklist will mean that any comment, even a legitimate comment, will be completely removed. Instead, choose comment verification, which forces users to prove that they are a real person, not some robot posting automatic comments.
Now that you’ve started moderating the comments your blog receives, you’ll have to decide if the comments you are getting are legitimate. As a general rule, legitimate comments will be relevant to your original post. Spam comments are often unrelated and include a link to an external, usually unrelated, website. These should be deleted immediately. Legitimate comments can sometimes have a link embedded, but this link will always be relevant.
Check the handles of readers posting comments. The handle might have a link embedded, but a legitimate link will always lead to either the commenter’s blog or a home page. They will not lead to commercial websites or anything selling Viagra or offering to check your computer for viruses. These are spam. You should also be wary of allowing anonymous comment. Most spam will be posted by the dreaded anonymous user.
Some spam comments are more difficult to recognize. However, if you see a comment with horribly bad grammar or a post that is so generic that it could apply to almost any blog post on the Internet, then the comment is probably spam. For example, “Great post … visit my blog” doesn’t usually lend anything to your blog at all.
If it looks like spam, it’s probably spam, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry. If you think it’s spam, delete it anyway. At worst, the commenter will have to repost it later, and then you’ll be closer to knowing for certain that it isn’t spam. Err on the side of caution and your blog will have a clean look that is free of spam.
First published at Helium: Easy Ways to Identify Blog Comment Spam
Blogging has become something of a phenomenon in recent years. It seems that everyone is starting a blog, and for many different reasons. Some people are blogging to have fun and connect with other people of similar interests. Others decide to start a blog to promote a particular business. There are also those who wish to make money from blogging. All of these goals can be met thought starting your own blog, perhaps more than one.
However, starting a blog almost invites an invasion of your personal life. You are broadcasting yourself, or at least a part of yourself, to the entire online community. Anyone can find and read your blog, and this can lead to some problems when it comes to protecting your personal life and identity. You might even find yourself the victim of cyber-bullying or Internet stalkers.
Even bloggers who use their blogs as a personal journal expect some degree of anonymity. No one wants their telephone published so that scammers and telemarketers can find it. Nor does anyone want to have their address broadcast for all to see. And certainly no one out there wants to have their identity stolen, leading to possibly years of hassle.
But the Internet, and some of the people using it, has little respect for these personal boundaries. The Web gives people the ability to invade the personal lives of almost anyone connected to the Internet, and bloggers are especially vulnerable to this since bloggers tend to reveal more personal information than is wise. While the invasion of your personal life is not necessarily a problem that can be eliminated, it is something that can be guarded against to a certain degree.
The ways in which the Internet can help others invade your privacy are numerous. If your e-mail address is published, it is possible that you will receive hundreds of pieces of spam a day in your Inbox. This could eventually force you to secure a new e-mail, abandoning the old as unsecure. While this is annoying, it is more a nuisance than anything.
Other information is not nearly so harmless. With a name, address, phone number, and some other minor pieces of information, someone could steal your identity. You might find yourself on the hook for credit cards you did not obtain or use. You might be subjected to harassing telephone calls, threatening letters, or perhaps even an unwelcome visitor.
Avoiding these problems means forethought and planning. Before you hit ‘post’ on your blog, consider what you’re posting and remember that the Internet is interconnected. Check to see if you’ve linked your blog to your Facebook, Twitter, or other social networking sites. Then check to see if you have information on these social networking sites that you’d rather your readers not have access to. If there is too much information on your profiles (such as a cell phone number), unlink the social networking sites from your blog as a precaution. Your readers don’t need that much information.
A ‘Contact Me’ page is a wonderful addition to any blog. However, it is also a great way for people to start spamming you. Consider setting up a new, separate e-mail address to associate with your blogs. That way, your readers can contact you through e-mail but you are not exposing your own personal e-mail to anyone who might want to constantly spam you.
Examine your ‘Contact Me’ page thoroughly. There is no reason to post information here that could be used to track you down. Avoid any mention of your home address or phone number, and certainly remove your social security number. There have been hundreds of people who have mistakenly added their social security number only to have their identities stolen later. It might be a good idea to identify yourself only by your first name, and if you have to refer to your location, be generic. It’s okay to identify yourself as ‘Sarah from Ohio’ if it protects your privacy.
Be mindful of your content when blogging. Certain subjects are more controversial than others, and so attract people who might wish you invade your privacy. If you blog on politics, religion, stem cell research, gun control, or any other suitably controversial topic, make sure you have your privacy settings sufficiently high on whichever blog platform you choose. This should be done before you set up the blog itself to avoid have any information unintentionally exposed.
Be especially careful when using names. Many bloggers keep all their personal information hidden only to expose the names of their children, spouses, teachers, and coworkers. This is typically information hackers and stalkers look for. Information about your family and friends can be used to track you down (and your boss might be reading your blog). Create fake names for everyone in your life if you’re going to write about them in your blog.
If you are going to post information about other people (including photos), get their permission first. If they don’t want their names or pictures posted online, respect that. Protecting their privacy is just as important as protecting your own.
If you are really worried about who might read your blog, consider creating a blog that only those you invite may read. Most blogging platforms have optional privacy settings. These typically allow you to limit readership to those who are on your friend or contact list. You should also ensure that you protect the username and password of your account when you’re blogging. Your account has certain information that you wouldn’t want others to see, so make sure you have a secure password and change it often.
It is impossible to be completely protected as a blogger, but you can still be aware of what you post. Read everything before you hot ‘post’ and make sure there is no identifying information. There is very little room for error when it comes to protecting your privacy online. Once something exists in cyberspace, it is out there forever. So think long and hard before you put any piece of information online.
First published at Helium as Blogging Pitfalls: Keeping Your Private Life Private
Blogging is a truly unique medium for sharing the written word. In the past, once something was written, that was it. There was virtually no communication with the writer, and what communication there was could take months and weeks to reach the readers. Blogging has changed all that. Now, an internet writer or blogger can post an article or other piece on a blog, a reader can comment, and the writer can immediately respond, if they so choose. Blogging allows readers and writers to interact on a level never really seen before.
However, with this interaction sometimes come problems. Blog comment boxes are a prime target for spam, abuse, and just plain bad manners. But you can take some steps to help ensure the integrity of blog comment boxes with a few simple tips, whether you’re commenting on someone else’s blog or responding to a comment left on your own blog.
Leaving Comments on Another Blog
As a general rule, don’t comment unless you have something to say. Constantly posting “Nice!” after each post you enjoy can get annoying, and you’ll probably have your posts deleted by the blog owner or moderator. You also shouldn’t post “Boring!” after a post.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t post. Just make sure you have something constructive to add. It’s even acceptable to disagree with the post, but do it in a respectful manner. Present your case and the reasons for disagreeing with the post and move one. Don’t insult anyone or anything, simply express your point of view. “With all due respect, John is an idiot,” is generally not considered an acceptable comment. If you can’t think of anything to add, then add nothing.
Don’t troll. Trolling is searching out places to place provocative comments designed to illicit a desired response, usually anger. If you’re going to disagree, do it politely. Just because everyone else seems to be trolling for places to irritate people doesn’t me you should do the same.
You’ll also want to avoid excessive self-promotion. For the most part, don’t post links back to your own blogs. If you have a blog that is relevant to the content your reading, then it might be an interesting addition to the comments section, but otherwise you’re simply drawing traffic away from the current blog, and that’s just not polite.
Of course, you should comment on blog posts you enjoyed, or even those you disagreed with. That’s what the comments box is there for. You get to decide what to say and how to say, but don’t be drawn into long arguments with other posters. Make your point and move on. You probably don’t need to comment three times on the same blog post.
Comments on Your Blog
Before you even think about how to respond to comments, consider adding a comment policy section to your own blog. Detail exactly what is and is not acceptable by posters. You could ban things such as swearing, defamatory language, racism, or any comments that attack any group of people. You’ll also want to enable comment moderation so that you can approve each comment before it’s posted. This will help eliminate spam and comment abuse.
Don’t delete a comment simply because it expressed an alternate point of view. If someone disagrees with you and does it well, it can be the starting point for a great debate on the issue. Engage with those who disagree with you, ask their opinion, and don’t be afraid to correct your post if you got your facts wrong. As long as a comment isn’t abusive or disrespectful, and it contributes something to the conversation, you should probably approve it.
However, there are some comments that you should delete. Among these are: “Boring,” “What?” “Cool,” and anything that really doesn’t add to the comment section. Anything posted by someone just trying to get attention should also be ignored. If you get a great many comments, you may have to exercise some discretion when it comes to approving comments. It will generally be the one-word posts that you’ll decide to delete.
Anything off-topic or excessively self-promotional should be deleted immediately. Someone who posts a link to their political blog on your dog training blog is only looking for traffic to their own site. However, if one of your readers posts a link to a sled dog training blog after a post that concerns winter activities for training dogs is adding a relevant and interesting link. That you should let stand.
Remember to engage with your readers. If someone posts a question, you should take the time to answer it, either in your own comment or by modifying the original post. Readers enjoy being able to contact the writer, so add a “Contact Me” page as well. While you probably can’t be online twenty-four hours a day, check your comments at least every two days for comments to deserve a reply. Comment boxes are what make blogs unique. They should be used frequently and appropriately. Comment frequently, do so with respect, and always respond to engaging comments left on your own blog. If you do these things, you are truly participating in an online community.
First published at Helium: Blog Comments Do's and Don'ts
Blogs are a fun and creative way to interact with the online community. You can express your thoughts and feelings on an issue, receive feedback, and eventually attract followers. However, for these things to happen, people have to be able to find your blog. For the most part, this will happen through search engines such as Bing or Google. And the search engines will give more weight to blogs that can boast many quality inbound links.
Inbound links exist when someone else links to your blog. Not only is this flattering, but it lets search engines know that someone out there considers you an authority in your niche. Some of these links will be developed over time as you deliver unique and relevant content to your readers. Hopefully, some of your readers will find your content so valuable or entertaining that they’ll share your blog through a popular social networking site, such as Twitter or Facebook. But if you want to create a successful blog, you’ll have to spend some time generating these inbound links.
As a blogger, you can take advantage of social networking to generate some quality inbound links. Join as many social networking sites as you can. However, be prepared to participate in these sites. Some of them, such as Digg or Stumbleupon, will label you as a spammer and delete your account if all you do is post links to your blog. Take the time to make friends and follow their posts, and they will likely return the favor. Building a loyal following on Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon, or any other social networking site does take time, but if you’re willing to do the work, you’ll soon find your social networking friends are generating some of your inbound links for you.
Inbound links will carry more weight with search engines if the links are relevant to the content of your blog. A link from a site about global politics to your dog training blog might be ignored by the search engines simply because the two subjects have very little in common. If you want relevant links, you’ll need to spend some time reading other blogs first. Search out those with content that complements yours. When you find something suitable, leave an insightful and useful comment, including a link back to your own blog. Some blog owners might even be open to the idea of link exchange. This means that they place a link to your blog on their site, and you return the favor. It never hurts to ask. But remember to keep it relevant or you might be penalized by search engines.
Guest blogging is a powerful way to generate inbound links. Guest blogging is when you post on a blog that isn’t your own. You might do this because you have been asked to by the owner of the other blog, or you might have approached the owner about the idea. When you guest blog, make sure it’s on a blog that has similar content to yours and post a link to your own blog at the end of your guest post. This generates at least one more quality inbound link.
If you’re an avid writer, you might want to consider article marketing. The idea here is that you produce quality content that is related to your blog and post in online (but not on your own blog). Make sure to include a relevant link back to your own site. This can help not only with the page rank (PR) of your site, but it can help drive readers from your articles to your blogs. Just make sure that every article you choose to link to your blog is relevant is some way. Also remember to check the terms of service at each site you post your articles on. Some of them will have rules about linking to your own blog directly from an article. However, most of them will allow you to place a link in your profile, which still serves as a valuable backlink.
Consider adding a review page to your blog. On this page you can review other blogs of similar content and post this review on your site. When you’ve completed a positive review, send a note to the owner of the blog you’ve finished reviewing. Let them know how much you’ve enjoyed their site, and that you wanted to share their site with your readers. If your review is well written and flattering, the site owner will usually include it on their own site, complete with a backlink.
Search out those directories that allow you to list your site. These should be quality sites with a review process, not simply a post-and-run approach. Sites that have humans reviewing submissions tend to have a higher PR than automated directories, and so will actually help your blog. Once your link has been approved, search engines will consider the backlink to be one of quality. Don't get impatient and submit your site to an automated directory, as your PR will likely drop in the long run.
There are sites out there that promise to provide incoming links for a fee. Don’t even consider these websites as a viable option for generating quality inbound links. Building links takes time and effort, and your blog will attract links as your content grows. Remember that search engines often reward a blog for quality incoming links, but penalize these same blogs for irrelevant links. Purchasing inbound links is not only a waste of money, but it can damage the PR of your site in the eyes of the major search engines.
Take the time to interact with your readers. Answer questions left in your comments section, read their blogs, and consider creating a forum section on your blog for readers to interact with each other. These are all valuable ways to ensure your readers remember your site, and this increases the chance that they will generate backlinks for you. A good blog with strong content almost generates links on its own.
Remember, most search engines ranks websites and blogs to determine who shows up first in search results. The higher your PR, the higher your site will be on the long list of results, and the more visitors you will have to your blog. Taking the time to explore possible inbound link ideas is never a waste, and just might help you generate additional traffic to your blog.
First Published at Helium: Best Ways to Receive Quality Inbound Links
The art of blogging has become quite popular in recent years. It seems like everyone is starting a blog, and on every topic. But creating a successful blog that has at least the hope of longevity is not always easy. And though there are many factors to consider, such as blog platform, content, and design, the most important decision to make before starting a blog is the overall topic. There are several tips to consider when deciding on a blog topic.
Make Sure You’re Passionate About Your Topic
One of the keys to a successful blog is in frequent posts and updates. The frequency of these posts can range from once a week to several times a day. That’s a lot of writing about a single topic, especially if you want your blog to last for more than a few months. Think about all the topics you might blog about, and narrow it down to those topics you can truly see yourself writing about for months on end. If you know that you’ll get bored three months in, you might want to select another topic.
Choose a Topic You Enjoy Discussing
Think about the topics you discuss often with your friends and family. Do you find yourself often turning the conversation to politics? Then maybe a political blog might be for you. Can you discuss pets for hours on end? Consider starting a pet blog. Whatever you pick, make sure it’s something you actually enjoy talking about.
At the same time, you’ll want to ensure that you don’t mind if people disagree with you about your chosen topic. A blog is out there for everyone to read, and it’s impossible to please everyone all of the time. As your blog grows and expands, more and more people will read what you write. And some of them will disagree with you. If you can appreciate a healthy debate on your chosen topic, it might be the blog topic for you.
Is There Enough Content on the Topic to Sustain a Blog?
If you’re going to start a successful blog, you’re going to have to continue to produce fresh and unique content for a sustained period of time. If you run out of things to say, your blog will end up floating in the furthest corner of cyberspace where no one will ever see it.
When considering whether there is enough content to support your blog, evaluate your resources. Think about yourself as an author and decide if you can put up fresh content on a consistent basis for more than just a few weeks. Are there enough books, websites, and other resources to provide you with inspiration when you run out of ideas? If you’re passionate about your topic, you probably already have websites bookmarked or books on your shelf that relate to your blog. But it wouldn’t hurt to do a quick Google or Bing search to discover exactly what kind of resources there are in cyberspace.
This serves two purposes. First, it allows you to locate additional references. Second, you’ll get the opportunity to see what other people are writing about. And while you should not copy another writer’s ideas, searching for inspiration is something every writer does.
Don’t Have Too Narrow a Focus
While all blogs should have a clear focus, if your focus is too narrow you’ll find you quickly run out of things to say. For example, a blog on the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show will be fairly limited. It only happens once a year, and there’s only so much to talk about. If, on the other hand, you blog about dog shows in general, or about breed conformation, you will be able to blog all year long and still cover the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show every year. In this way, you’ll have a focused blog that will rarely, if ever, run out of fresh topics.
Is the Topic Popular?
Despite how much you may love your topic, the success of a blog is determined by the people willing to read your blog. If you’re the only person in the world who is interested in your topic (unlikely, but remotely possible), you might have a difficult time attracting followers. If you want to create a blog that is frequently read, you’ll need to select your topic carefully.
That being said, you don’t need to appeal to everyone. Your blog only has to be about a topic that some people are interested it. Search out a topic that has active readers, people who will want to revisit your blog frequently to read your latest posts. You may have to tweak your chosen topic a little before you come up with something that your readers will enjoy.
Blogs are a fun and creative way to spend your time. However, choosing a topic that suits both your own needs and the desires of your audience can take some time and consideration. Choose your topic carefully and you’ll find you can blog for many years without losing focus.
First published at Helium: 5 Tips to Choosing a Blog Topic
Blogging has become something of a phenomenon in recent years. It seems that everyone is starting a blog, and for a variety of reasons. However, most of these blogs never get much traffic. If you’re interested in creating a blog that is truly a destination, then you need to take some time to craft a blog that your audience will return to time and time again. These simple tips can help you do this.
Define Your Goals and Audience
Before you set up a blog or write your first post, you need to know where you’re going and how best to get there. Start by defining your goals for your blog. Do you want to make money? Perhaps you wish to establish yourself as an expert in a certain field. Are you going to be promoting a business or service that you offer? Do you intent to express many social or political ideas? Maybe you’re just in it for fun. Your purpose will define the shape and style of your blog.
You don’t want to have too many topics or ideas for a single blog. Stick to a particular niche. For example, if it’s a political blog, you’ll want to leave out the posts about what funny things your kids did over the weekend. A blog about cats will probably not include a recap about your recent hiking trip. Stay on topic if you want to attract and keep readers. Choose your niche, preferably one you have some knowledge about, and stick to that niche.
Readers are the single most important part of a blog. You need to keep their attention. To do this, figure out exactly who main audience will be and write for them and only them. If your audience is teenagers, you should have a blog that appeals to them. This means both the aesthetics of your blog and its content. On the other hand, a blog written for real estate professionals shouldn’t look like it was designed by a teenager. You audience will have certain expectations, and it is your job to meet or exceed these wherever possible.
Choose Your Blogging Platform
There are literally hundreds of different blogging platforms available on the internet today. Two of the most popular are Blogger and Wordpress, but there are many others. Which one you choose will be based upon your own particular needs. Some of them are easier to use than others, and some of them appeal to certain audiences. Go through all your options and choose the platform that you are most comfortable with.
Some platforms are free, others will cost you money. Before you decide to invest in a platform that isn’t free, consider your own needs. If your blog will primarily be a creative outlet, then a free platform should suit you just fine. However, if you want to make serious money from your blog, you might want to consider investing a little money yourself. Typically, free platforms are more difficult to monetize, but this isn’t always the case.
Select the Look of Your Blog
Now that you’ve figured out which platform you’ll be using, it’s time to design your blog. Again, you’ll want to consider your audience. For the most part, you’ll want to avoid busy backgrounds, as they can be hard on the eyes and detract from your content. Also choose a font that contrasts well with your background. Navy may seem like a good color for your font, but against a black background, it disappears. Preview everything before deciding on a final look.
Also make sure that your blog is accessible to readers. Your posts should stand out, not get lost in sidebars and advertising. There’s nothing wrong with advertising and the occasional sidebar, but make sure your posts are the focus of your blog. This will make information easier to find, and your readers will thank you for it.
Once you pick a theme and layout, stick with it. Changing your backgrounds every week may seem like fun, but it becomes hard to create an identity for your blog if you don’t have something consistent. Your readers will also have a hard time recognizing your blog. Try to change things only when absolutely necessary.
Focus on Content
Now it’s time to write something for your blog. Content is the driving force behind any blog, so you’ll need to select it carefully. You’ve already determined your audience and niche, so content should come naturally. To attract loyal readers, you’ll need good quality content that’s posted on a frequent basis. Try to post new content at least once a week. Establish a schedule that your readers can predict.
Give your readers relevant, useful content. Stay on topic, write your content well, and your audience will find you.
Don’t Be a Thief
There’s a lot of great content out there on the internet, and it can be tempting just to copy and paste whatever will work for your blog. Don’t. Write original content, and if you do use an idea or quote, attribute it correctly. Besides being unethical, copying material or images without permission and proper attribution can get you in trouble. Most hosts will shut down a blog if plagiarism is proven, and you could lose all your hard work. Duplicate content also isn’t very interesting, and your readers will eventually just go to the original source. You shouldn’t have to steal anyway, since you are presumably blogging on a topic about which you have some general knowledge.
Establish Yourself as an Authority
Why should anyone read your blog? This is an important question. If you’ve started a blog about training a dog, for example, you have to give your audience a reason to take your advice. This is where the “Contact Me” or “About Me” page comes in handy. You don’t have to detail every moment of your life. Keep it relevant to the blog. In the dog training example, you would want to include any personal information that would help your readers understand why you’re blogging about dog training. Maybe you’ve been training dogs for twenty years, or you might be a certified dog trainer. Make the page friendly and inviting, but relevant.
Use Ads Sparingly
Don’t have a page that’s essentially all ads. It turns readers off. Most readers understand that bloggers make money from ads, so they’ll accept some ads, but don’t go overboard. A few well-placed ads will have more effect than a page of flashing ads that just annoys your readers.
Be Unique
There are thousands upon thousands of blogs out there. You need to try to stand out, at least a little. Write interesting and unique articles, use an authorial voice, and focus on your audience. With a unique blog, you’ll soon find you have more followers and readers than you know what to do with.
Get Your Blog Out There
Once you have some useful information, you need to make sure your blog is found by people who want to read it. While many of your readers may find your blog through search engines such as Bing and Google, there are other ways to promote your blog. Join one or more of the many social networking sites designed for bloggers. Try creating a Facebook Fan Page for your blog to draw in friends and family, and encourage them to invite their friends. Twitter can be used as a way to gain additional fans as well. Also look for blogs on similar topics and follow them, inviting the author of the blog to follow you in turn.
Be Yourself
Your blog is almost an extension of you, so be true to yourself. Inject a little of your own personality into your blog. People read blogs for more than information. They read blogs to connect. Do don’t blog like some emotionless news report. Blog from the heart and you’ll soon find that you gain follows almost without any effort.
There are many other tips for beginning bloggers. You’ll want to master the use of plug-ins, be thoughtful, and encourage conversation, among other things. But the ten tips found here are the essentials for any blogger to consider while crafting their first blog.
First published at Helium: 10 Tips for Beginner Bloggers
.jpg)
